Sunday Salon - October 21st - Tale of the Sale of the Haunted House

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My Tale of the Sale of the Haunted House

For the last (2) months I've been trying to sell my parents 100-year old (2) family house. Although my parents died 25 years ago the house has been occupied by various family members until recently. We had a quick offer who ended up backing out after the home inspection found some issues with the foundation as well as some other issues, but because it was "priced to sell" we quickly found another "cash" buyer who plans to rehab the house.  

We hired a company to do a clean out of the house, basement, shed and 2-car garages.  We followed the state regulations on smoke and carbon detectors to the tune of $260.00, but the fire dept still made us jump through a few more hoops before they would give us the required certificate for closing. But then after a  $50.00 check we got the certificate we needed.......good for JUST (60) days or we must jump some more. 

We were so happy to be closing by October 10th ----- but then they found some issues with the title that delayed the closing date. FORTUNATELY - the new buyers are investment buyers who agreed to delay the closing until the end of the month --whew ---The title issue has now been addressed and we should be good to close by the end of next week...yay. All the while I have been taking time off from work to make all these things happen, and have no vacation or personal time left. (I do have sick time though and this is making me sick:)

BUT NOT SO FAST we haven't closed yet!! Yesterday, my worst fear became reality. Since the house has been totally vacant for (3) weeks now, I've been going there about once a week to make sure everything was okay. Yesterday morning I arrived to find the back porch door wide open, and the (2) doors to the basement wide open.....any guesses why that might have happened?

Copper heating pipes (1/2) of them were cut out of the basement - they must have gotten spooked before finishing the job, and left 1/2 intact......Do you now see why we call this the "haunted house"? It feels like someone doesn't want this house to leave the family. It has been a (2) month nightmare with nothing....nothing.... going smoothly.

I do have a wonderful realtor who got her plumber friend there already for an estimate. They also secured the house in case they perpetrators come back to finish the job. When the police arrived to take a report, they said this is about the 100th case they have had in this city - all involving vacant houses with "for sale" signs in front of them or "new construction". 

We are hoping since the buyer will be rehabbing the house, that we can just give him a credit at the closing, and still close by the end of the week.....PLEASE wish me luck -- on a positive note I've lost 8 lbs since we listed the house in August -- yup when I'm stressed I eat less and clean more:)

Now for Stuff about Books

• I've been on a book purging frenzy - I've donated about 50 unread books that I no longer feel I will ever want to read, and since I've reached the point where I prefer eBooks to hardcovers (at least), there will be more on their way to the library book sale as well.
• I've become more of a minimalist the older I've gotten and seem to be annoying by clutter lately. I'm NOT a "neat freak", just don't like stuff everywhere.
• I have several reviews to catch up on: Winter of the World; Ken Follet (very good); Peaches for Father Francis; Joanne Harris (a fun read); Bartender's Tale; Ivan Doig (liked it a lot).
• Almost done with Stephen King and son Joe Hill's new book, In the Tall Grass (just 2-cds) and if i may just GUSH about Louise Erdrich's new and highly addictive book, The Round House (see my Tuesday - First Chapter ~ First Paragraph post) - it's awesome (about 1/3 through so far).
• Reading plans for this week - finish The Round House and In the Tall Grass; begin Beautiful Ruins (possibly on audio) and hope to begin The Panther; Nelson DeMille as well - 

Have a good week everyone and thanks for letting me rant:)