I frequently talk about the work we’re doing here, or describe some of the projects we’re undertaking, but I haven’t really talked much about how this house got to the point we found it.  From what we’ve pieced together from the county records and title report, the property was purchased by a couple in 1989 and they built the house two years later.  I’ve heard that the winters and elevation began getting to them as they got older, and they sold the house, along with the barn and twenty acres to a property investment company called Bottom Line Results.  The owner of that company sort of ‘sold’ fifty or sixty properties in varying states of distress, including this one, to individuals and families who paid him cash and moved in to start making repairs.  I’ll skip over a bunch of the details and just mention that it turned into a giant Ponzi scheme.  He went to jail for fraud, all of the properties ended up in bankruptcy court, and the families who put up the money for their dream homes lost everything they had invested as they were forced to leave.

When we first saw the house, the plywood over several of the windows made it clear that some damage had been done and that some repairs would be necessary.  Honestly, this was a big factor in our decision to pursue this project; the structure itself seemed solid, but it needed work and we’d always wanted to take on a challenge like that.  Most importantly, it meant that the price was right.

In 5. Some Good News and Some Bad News I briefly mentioned that I met Kevin, the guy who lost almost $90,000 in this place.  I was working on a section of the driveway when he just drove up.  He didn’t waste any time telling me how badly he had been treated and how horrible the experience had been for him and his wife.  Most of the conversation, though, was about how tough he is.  According to him, he was a Marine sniper who spent several tours in the Middle East killing people, and then went back as a civilian sniper with Blackwater to kill more people.  He liked this property because he could shoot “Bessie”, his sniper rifle every day; calling it his ‘therapy’.  He told me about finding trespassers on the property and holding them at gunpoint until the Sheriff’s Office arrived, and told me that thieves and tweekers were a constant threat.

I won’t bother sharing the entire encounter, but suffice to say my impression of the guy was that he was a liar who suffers from some pretty significant paranoia and an overly developed ego.  He mentioned that the house had hardwood floors, but ‘someone’ had broken in and stolen it all, along with the tankless hot water heater.  I certainly can’t prove who caused the damage we found or took the missing materials, but after 30+ years in law enforcement, I can say that vandals and thieves are typically too lazy to put much effort into their activities.  They spray paint graffiti, they break every window in the place, and they rip copper wire out of the walls that they can sell quickly.  They don’t carefully remove and haul away solid wood flooring.  Let’s face it, there’s just not much of a black market for pre-finished Maple, and I’ve never met a drug dealer willing to swap a baggie of dope for a few square feet of really nice lumber.  I’m hoping Kevin’s one visit will also be his last.

We didn’t have any graffiti issues, and the only missing wire was the main supply line that we’ve already had replaced.  The flooring will come later, but this past week has been spent addressing those door and window problems.

Since some of the windows needed to be replaced anyhow, we decided to make some design changes at the same time.  The living room had six (three pairs) windows that were six feet high, by three feet wide.  They provided spectacular views, but the lower portion was really sort of useless and there wasn’t any wall space in the entire living room along which furniture could be placed.  We swapped six vertical windows for three horizontal ones a little higher up.  We’re really excited about how they look.

KODAK Digital Still Camera

Likewise, the kitchen had three separate windows over the sink, but because they were so long, they extended nearly into the corner, which meant that there wasn’t enough space to run upper cabinets along the back wall.   We removed three windows, re-framed the wall, and installed a single sliding window.  I think the result will be pretty positive.

As of this afternoon, all of the broken windows have been replaced, the mudroom door is new, and the two french doors have been swapped out.  I’m grateful for a friend’s help on Tuesday to replace the big, upper window over the living room door (which was obviously broken from the inside!).  I’m just not fond of heights and Joe was a huge help; seemingly unaffected by spending the afternoon atop a twelve-foot scaffold in the wind.

We still have a lot of work to do, but it’s official as of yesterday……

No More Plywood!