Done bought a house... OT

...and things had been going so well...

Does this ever suck. FEMA says it's a flood zone. The insurance agent says they're nuts. The lender says that they've seen FEMA's findings successfully disputed before, so I guess we're going to try that. The closing specialist said we'd reschedule the signing for Monday, but I said, "hold that thought." We can't close until we get the flood insurance issue straightened out. And at that, the agent says that flood insurance will effectively triple the yearly bill. Nope, can't afford that. Although, the agent claims that because there's a dispute about it they can get us a rate that is closer to double for the sake of closing, but that's still not good enough. Things were comfortable when we first got a monthly payment quote. But little things kept cropping up, and we'd adjust our budget to see how we'd do, and so forth and so on... Now, a day before we were supposed to close I want to put the brakes on and tell them to shove it. This last straw adds at least $100 to what they originally quoted us. Can't do it. Won't do it. The wife is pissed and so am I, but I have to put my foot down somewhere. If they want us to buy at this point they might as well start by knocking 10 grand off and finishing off that list of minor repairs. And throw in a case of beer. I need it.
[img]graemlins/wilted.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/cry_smile.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/broken_heart.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img]

So, I goes down there at lunch today to take another look at this alleged flood zone. Took the plumber cam along and snapped a few shots. Oh, the things we discovered...

This is the mighty tributary that roars down the valley behind the house:

http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture005.jpg
There was this manhole, too...I'm not sure yet where the property line is, but I think this sewer runs through my yard:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture006.jpg
Here, I stood next to the fence in the above pic, and took a shot toward the back of the house:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture008.jpg
Opposite view, from the front corner of the rental unit:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture010.jpg

Basically, for water to enter the basment of the main house from that little ditch, it has to jump its banks and go up another 10' at least, and at that has to have enough volume to span a width of some 3000'-4000'. That's a 40,000 sq ft cross-section of water moving through there...only Johnstown has ever seen that kind of flooding. So, yeah, we're going to challenge FEMA.

While we were there, though, we looked at a few other things. Here's the newly installed flashing, but the pic still turned out blurry...:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture016.jpg

And then, we poked around the rental unit a bit...

So...um, we....got inside the rental house, and there's clearly some water damage in there:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture018.jpg
...but no standing water, just some damp areas and mildew and evidence of less than a foot in the past. There were some other interesting things that we hadn't seen before, though. This part of the deal is coming "as is" and so we only toured it once and didn't bother having it inspected. It needs a lot of work, though, but we're only going to use it for storage or maybe convert it into a garage...I dunno, that's all up in the air. But before then, we have to decide what to do with this piano:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture026.jpg

And then, there's this:
http://www.thepicplace.com/images/Im...picture029.jpg
Now, nothing is conclusive, but it certainly seems as though we have a squatter. The perpetrator wasn't at rent-free home while we were there (either that or the rat was hiding really well), but there was enough evidence to add up to the notion that the former tenants weren't the ones smoking and shaving down there in the dark. The way the dust was disturbed in places, the water in the toilet was fresher than the rust around the pipes where the water meter had been removed by the authority, the various health and beauty products lying about, oh, and the fresh lotto ticket scratchings on the vanity...hmmm...

I think somebody might owe me some rent...

That sucks.....wasn't the property locked ?

I hate water.....during hurrican season most houses and buildings do not suffer that much, only glass windows, because we use a lot of bricks,cement and concrete. But the water that comes afterwars is the pain.

Lucky on the new apartment I have, the patio ends in a small cliff so water will always run down.....

Quote:

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Originally posted by MM4:
...wasn't the property locked ?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The main house was locked, the rental house was...not...

So, we close today...hopefully... [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

Also, we've concluded that our "guest" in the rental unit is either the most metro vagrant anyone has ever seen or is female. In another pic that I didn't post, most of the shampoo bottles and other "hygene" products are those favored by the fairer gender, and on closer inspection those really look like ladies' razors on the vanity. A friend stopped by this weekend and we laughed about it and showed him the pics, and he deduced some of the habits and nature of our intruder. He's really interested in meeting her... We cooked up a few pet names also, such as Vicki Vagrant, Sally Squatter, Betty the Bum, Homeless Holly, etc.

[img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Happy...closed...moved mostly in Tuesday, appliances and beds...cold, low oil, ordered delivery for Wed. but they just showed up this morning...spent Tues and last night at the house...cold...sore...more junk to move out of the apt. soon...haven't checked the back house for Vicki Vagrant, haven't had time...sore - did most of the moving by myself - spent yesterday re-building furniture by hand because I forgot to charge the drill...hurts to type...more to come...happy!

congrats!

Quote:

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Originally posted by MM4:
Can I release the woodpeckers now ? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Go for it. But be advised that the neighbors would enjoy making a meal of them. [img]eek.gif[/img]

Thanks, Jor.

Will have pics once we're settled in...probably March-ish...