bad real estate round-up

Before we found the place we're buying we saw a lotta hum-dingers! I'd love to show you all the horrid things we saw but I only took pictures of a small percentage of them.


At the first place we saw, this lovely mascot greeted us at the top of the stairs. As you walk up the stairs he looks like he's about to pounce on your head. This was the same house that had shotgun shell casings scattered in the driveway and the woods. YEE-HAW.


One old farmhouse had the steepest of steep stairs that were so narrow that a third of my foot hung off of when my heel was jammed against the back of the stairs. (I wear a women's size 7.5.) At the bottom of these steep and tiny stairs? Well, a door. But not just any door. A door that leads outside, but is about three feet above the ground. Do you see the possibilities?


Gotta love these roomy old farmhouse closets. Couldn't even fit a body in this one, I'm pretty sure. Also, I see four different kinds of wallpaper. Niiiice.


To be fair, this tub o' doom was found in a place that was more hunting cabin than it was house. But still... I mean, ew...


A random pile of insulation. What's that splattered on the wall? Wait, no, don't tell me.

ANYWAY.

We had fun. We laughed and pointed a lot. We're glad the house hunt is (probably) over.

Eeeeeek!

The paperwork is signed, and assuming there are no problems with inspection/water testing/other boring stuff, we will own that awesome place on August 14th.

We have been telling Arlo and Oliver that we bought them a house, but they don't seem to care. Spoiled dogs.

Third time the charm?

Well, we've made yet another offer. This brings our total to four offers on three different properties.

I REALLY REALLY hope we get this house. It's beautiful, the land is beautiful, it's right across the road from the ocean, and is only five kilometres away from a cute little town, which makes it convenient for groceries and supplies but still private.


It's been on our list of places to view for a long time, but we were never near enough to that area of the province to actually go view it. I brought up the MLS listing to show my dad a few days ago, and saw that the asking price had suddenly dropped by a very significant amount. Owners want to sell! We got mobilized and went to see it right away and had made an offer before we got home again.

Today we're awaiting a counter-offer that I'm pretty certain we will accept.
In the meantime I feel paralyzed and unable to be productive. I'd like to say "there, I bought a house" but it's so far from certain at this point, and went so badly last time... please keep your fingers crossed for us!!

So Wrong!

What not to do to your bedroom when trying to sell your house:


... I just don't have anything else to say about that.

that was no fun

Well, our real estate deal officially went kablooey today. The seller wanted the moon and wanted us to lick his boots while we were giving it to him. NOT BLOODY LIKELY. After two weeks this painful, difficult deal is officially over, and the two real estate agents involved are no longer on speaking terms.

Happy birthday to me.

On the brighter side, we have lots of properties to look at and any one of them might be as good as or better than anything we've seen yet. We are both discouraged yet relieved about the recent events - I think seeing other properties will be a sort of a healing thing to do. (You all have NO IDEA how hard we've worked over the past two weeks to compromise with the seller and his mousy little vindictive listing agent.)

Wish us luck! It's not working out so well so far but it's just a matter of time...

fighting for a sale

Well, we made an offer for the sweet little house on the hill with 123 acres and beautiful river frontage. The bad news is, we made the offer a week ago and we're still struggling with negotiations. We agreed on price a mere three days in, but the shady chump that currently owns the place does not want ANY strings attached; even the normal kind like testing the water. Even better, the listing agent doesn't understand the concept of a deadline and avoids calls and emails from our agent. This has made is a veeery sloooow, very painful process. Our real estate agent told her off pretty badly at one point and Mark and I have learned never to expect prompt responses to any of our communications with them.


Meanwhile, we have been essentially homeless for almost four months, living either in our little travel trailer or in other peoples' spare bedrooms. It will feel very nice to unpack our duffel bags sometime in the foreseeable future... perhaps we'll have a signed contract by the deadline of 2pm today. (Or 2:30 if the listing agent stays true to character.)

*Sigh*.

We are quite taken with the charming little house and the beautiful forest and river behind it, but we simply cannot bend on the water testing and other issues, lest we find ourselves with a ten thousand dollar pipe problem after the fact.

This is all more than a little frustrating!

Amish Flashback

I've delayed this post for a long time. I'm a bit fascinated by the Amish and their culture, but I don't want to present them to you like some circus act because they are just people trying to live a good life in their own way and I respect that immensely.

We stayed at a campground in the small town of...well, near a town in the heart of Amish country in Pennsylvania. Okay fine - the town is named Intercourse. Let's get on with this.

We took a buggy ride through some farm land and our driver, an Amish teenager, told us about all things Amish. Our buggy meandered on small country roads past Amish farms - an idyllic way to spend an afternoon.


As we passed a small white building, a big gaggle of Amish children suddenly exploded from it and into the fields, going in all directions. School was out for the day! We progressed down the narrow road towards a farm near the schoolhouse, and behind us we noticed that a little girl, probably eight years old, was rapidly gaining on us on her push-bike.

Okay I have to interrupt myself. Amish people pick and choose different types of technology according to their interpretation of the bible. They deemed bicycles taboo because of the machinery involved with the gears, the chain, etcetera, and instead they get around on push-bikes that are very much like scooters.


So...our driver noticed the littler girl behind us and told us she lived at the farmhouse we were approaching. Ruthie, dressed in a dark dress of plain cut, shiny black shoes and a bonnet, was the youngest child in the family.

Kicking furiously on her push-bike, little Ruthie quickly caught up with us, realized she did not have enough room to pass the buggy on either side, and shot us a withering glare. She weaved back and forth behind the buggy until we passed her farm, and then she was past us like a shot, homeward bound up the driveway. I suspect little Ruthie was tough as nails and not one to tangle with.

The town itself was a disconcerting mixture of Amish folk, non-Amish locals, and pasty tourists. Horses and buggies mixed in with motorized traffic on the roads and highways, and the stores all had hitching posts in their parking lots.

We wandered around the community for a couple of days and I fell in love with an Amish furniture shop. I was very upset when Mark refused to allow me to buy huge pieces of Amish furniture and magically fit them into our already-full pickup truck. Stupid practicality, always trumping my fantasies with its uppity "reality checks".

Anyway we had a glorious time in Lancaster County, and if any of you are ever anywhere near Pennsylvania I would highly recommend you stop in and learn a bit about the Amish communities there.

Still Homeless

We've been criss-crossing the province looking at properties. Some have been total disasters, like the old farmhouse with fire damage, massive water damage, rats, and an outside door that was held closed with wire. Oh, and the property was just flat fields - no trees, no streams, no nice stuff at all. Except for the tiny falling-down outbuildings that wild foxes were living in. The kicker is, the listing described the place as "solid needing cosmetic repair" and called it "a must see". Trust me, no.

We did see a very nice little place yesterday that might fit the bill. The back of the property borders a beautiful river and the house, although small, suits us. The owner has done work on the house and he did it intelligently.


If we bought the place we'd put an addition on to the house, but that's alright with us. 123 acres. 3 outbuildings in good condition. Possibly one more outbuilding down near the edge of the property, but nobody - including the owner - knows whether that building is on the property in question or on the neighbouring property. I'm beginning to sense a very casual idea of boundaries and ownership around here.


The search goes on, though. We might put an offer in on that place, but we're going to see another one around the middle of this week so really anything could happen.

Ugh. This is fun but not fun at the same time. It's exhausting, actually.

We're also getting used to rural Nova Scotia life. Things move slower and total strangers expect you to have a minute just to shoot the breeze. The biggest grocery store in town has a teensy little soy milk section half filled with expired soy milk, they were out of zucchini, and the kids that live next door to my parents have never heard of falafel. Ah well. This is life in the country, I guess.