The Hunt

After the last detective left, so did the baby and I.  We went out of state to my mother and father's house.  BJ stayed behind against my wishes.  But I could not stay away long.  I had a newborn who needed her own little place in the world.  And she also needed her Daddy. 

Neither BJ or I felt safe.  I was still on maternity leave so when I eventually returned to the house, I was there with the baby all day long.  It was winter so taking long walks or hauling her out into the cold was not a good idea.  I was a prisoner with a crying baby all day long.  We stayed upstairs in Amelia's room at the back of the house just in case the bad people came back to wipe away witnesses. 

After one week of sequestering, I'd had enough.  I wanted to enjoy my maternity leave, not constantly duck as I walked by windows with my baby.  So I started to look at the emails that I received on a daily basis already with homes within my price range in the zip codes that I wanted to live in.  I always kept my eye on real estate just for curiosity sake.  As I looked at the search results I saw at the top of the list, sorted from highest to lowest price, was my house.  Our house.  Amelia's house.  The family had just lowered their asking price for the 4th time in over year. The latest one put us at the top of our budget, but it was doable.  I loaded up the baby and we drove over to the new house.  The outside was as beautiful as the pictures.  While sitting in front of the house I called the agent to schedule a showing.  We were set for that weekend.

Our showing turned into our first "date" away from the baby.  Before we went into the house the agent showed his exhaustion with showing the house to people who "just fell in love with it from the pictures online."  He told me that was what everyone says.  He then told me that the pictures made it look a lot larger then it really is, and to be prepared for the amount of work that needs to be done.  BJ and I share a look before we stepped through the door as if to say "How bad could it really be?"

So for some background.  This house and its property dates back to 1663.  There have been 15 owners, including us.  It was once called Clearview Farm and Plantation. We have a straight view down hill across the one acre lot and over the large river that forms the border between us and the neighboring state.  Its an amazing view.  Previous owners were Swedes who came over as ship builders.  More recently, a former owner included a prominent local men's clothing store owner.  In fact, our street is actually named for him. 

Back inside the house, we very quickly realize what the agent meant.  The house had been vacated 2 years by an elderly woman who went to living in a nursing facility.  In her place every fly, any, spider, and wasp this side of the Mississippi came to live in the house.  And this was in winter, too.  The living room had an odd smell, but an even stranger configuration.  It has one large main fireplace that really is the main focus of the room.  On the other side of the room is a corner fireplace.  Thea beauty in the shape of the room, however, is house when the front and back doors are open, you look right through the house to the river.  Off of the living room to one side is a large sun porch that spans the depth of the original part of the house.  To the other side you head deeper into the house and into the"newer" section.

The new section of the house was built in 1916.  We have the original architectural plans for the addition.  On the first floor this includes the dining room and the kitchen.  In between the dining room and the kitchen is the butler's pantry, complete with original cabinetry.  Gorgeous, unpainted, what appears to be handmade cabinetry.  LOVE.  What I don't love of this new section is the kitchen.  There really isn't one.  Its bad.  There is a washer, dryer, stove, farmhouse sink, fuse box, and mouse poop.  That's it.  Or is it?  When we looked in the area that appeared to be the pantry, SURPRISE!, a toilet.  What?  Well that will have to be removed.

There is a back staircase in the kitchen that takes you up to what was the servant's room and bathroom.  Next to that is a bedroom, and then finally in the back corner of the house is another bedroom.  Making a right down the hall you walk past the main staircase and the main bathroom before arriving at the nursery and the master bedroom.  The nurser has a fireplace in it and will be converted to the large walk-in closet for the master bedroom.

There is a 3rd floor.  And this is where it got a little scary.  The agent gave us a warning here, too.  There was a roof leak, and it was active.  It had been for some time.  No one has done anything about it.  The third floor walls were covered in water stains.  There are two rooms and a large closet up there that were in desperate need of repair.

You would think that we should have run for the hills screaming.  Instead, we lined up our projects and called our mortgage guy.