In the beginning...

Ta-da! Here is our house the day we closed October 13th, 2008. Yep, pretty scary. Built in 1978, the home has just over 3,000 sq. ft. and is on an acre and a half (3/4 grass and house, 1/4 pasture). It has reddish-brown brick with cream siding and brown trim. 

There are two family rooms, 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a two car garage and a walk-out basement. We are on a dead end road with nice neighbors that have more property than we do on all sides so we are fairly spread out.

 

The home was originally built by a contractor named Whiting who lived there with his family until it was sold to the Anderson's in 1989.

 

Anderson's left the house as is, changing only a kitchen ceiling fan in 17 years.

 

In 2005 the Anderson's went on a mission and left the house to their son. His wife and 4 kids lived their for two years. They tried to renovate as much as they could while living there and moved out in late 2006. 

During the year and a half that it sat vacant, they tore the sheet rock out of the main upstairs bathroom,  all cabinets and appliances from the kitchen, stripped all the upstairs rooms of wallpaper (every room had at least one layer), painted, re-carpeted, removed a few door frames and installed wood/ laminate flooring through the 

entryway, family room,dining room and halls upstairs.

There were no appliances left in the home besides the boiler/ furnace on the side of the house, the cracked water heater and a pump for our well. 

The shower in the basement had a cracked seal and ruined 10 adjacent walls with water damage. 

The front and rear of the house is hugely lacking in rain gutters so the foundation windows had sever water damage and were found to have leaks. This caused us to rip out a lot of sheet rock in the basement. 

See here is the water damage of the basement and also the empty main floor bathroom.

Here is the land. 

We have three water shares, most of which access the Monastery water canals that run through the area. There is a small barn in the pasture that is housing years of accumulated antiques and junk furniture. The only fun thing I have found are 2 antique school desks I hope to refinish. 

The previous owners also used the pasture as a dump/ burn area so it will take quite a bit of clean-up itself. 

Due to the purchase clause "as-is" in the contract, we also became the proud new owners of all the vehicles you see in the pasture; a Ford Mustang, VW Beetle, Dump truck and tent trailer. Yippee us! 

Here I have a shot of the boiler/ furnace that was attached to outside of the home. This had large ductwork penetrating the foundation that allowed all sorts of varmints into the home. When we tore out the rotted basement walls we uncovered dozens of little mouse carcasses. It's pretty scary what lurks behind the walls of your home that you don't see from the surface :( At least we know now. ;)