House 3

The subject that just doesn't want to die: what's going on next door?

It's still a fiasco.

I ran into the guys that were going to do the rework next door. They had to clean up the yard, redo all the interior, and finish connecting the main house with a "photography studio" by a breezeway. This is the infamous maneuver that will "add 2500 square feet to the main floor and increase the value of the house by $500,000" according the the genius behind the plan.

By the way, they are still saying that it's 4 acres, which it is not. It's 2½ acres.

The house reworkers told me that they were going to redo the house by July 24th. That was on July 9th or 10th. They had what looked like a tricycle to mow the yard with. 2½ acres of yard should not be mowed by a tricycle from 1956 with a 24" cut. Especially when the lawn is 24" tall. They took 3 days to mow the front yard and then took a week off. The net effect was to mostly kill the front yard, which was at least green before, and to make the pile on the driveway larger.

I did learn some interesting things from them, though. This guy Chris Powell that drove a red truck and used to work there was a real piece of work. This is the guy that used to rev up his big truck, squeal the tires every time he left, and go into the yard, making ruts. He used to bring a four-runner ATV with him and go around in circles in the back yard, making muddy ruts everywhere while his dog chased him. This is also the guy that supposedly brought the machine gun out and was shooting it wildly around the back yard. He is supposed to be the guy that was dumping debris from other jobs on the driveway including the dirty diapers. He is suspected to be the guy that stole the dishwasher, refrigerator, and hot water heater. We were told that he took a bunch of the money he was paid to work on this house and used it on other jobs, in effect ripping them off. That's most of what we heard about Chris.

What about the fate of the house as told by the new workers? We were told that the Chiefs bought the house for $1.2 million and that they were going to move the parents of someone they just signed into the house. They had until the 24th.

My old neighbor that used to live in the house heard about this and gave the realtor a call. Besides being asked if he wanted to sign a contract over & over again, he was told that it was going to be finished on July 24th (no mention that it was already sold - which turned out not to be the case) and that it had been appraised for $1.2 million. He asked her how they could appraise the property for what was going to be done to it in the future, but they assured him that it was all on the up & up. I don't think they said "those figures are right, all ready" like in Fargo. It was such preposterous BS that he finally asked them if this was some kind of scam. "Do you want to argue or do you want to hear more about the house?" was the answer.

The 24th has come and past. I can't tell if anything other than mowing the front yard and ripping up the flooring on the first floor was done. A few days ago, a truck with a front end loader appeared on the driveway and is still just sitting there. Not much was going on until yesterday, when someone knocked on the front door of our house. It was the guy they "hired" to do the drywall next door (hired is in quotes because if they don't pay him then technically, he volunteered). He needed some water in a 5 gallon bucket from our hose. My wife asked him, "don't you have the water on next door?" Apparently, not. I would think a simple thing like a $40 a month water bill would not be that hard to maintain when you have a $1.2 million dollar house. They are obviously out of money if turning off the water is part of the plan.

There are clouds of mosquitos coming out of the pool and huge bullfrogs live there now. The weeds are really starting to take over and wildlife is the most active element around the house. It somehow reminds me of hopes and dreams that have faded away. There's no telling what the next chapter will bring, but I wonder how much the house would bring in at auction now? Certainly not $1.2 million.