Saturday Adventures

Saturday was interesting.

We started out on time (I thought) for our meeting with Jon, Missy, and Violet, but as usual, I was not privy to all the details. We made a stop at Bob and Laura's house to pick up Sara. Then, as usual, we started out about 10 minutes late for our appointment.

Breakfast was good. Violet ate Cheerios and grapes, was her usual charming self, and the rest of us did our best to occlude several major blood vessels. Why is it that when you eat a really good breakfast, you can hear your arteries hardening?

After breakfast we made the short hop to Wintersett Place, where the house Jon and Missy are trying to buy is located. It's a 70's vintage split level with a huge passive solar water heater deal on the roof. After a tour of the house, I decided that you could fill a 14 inch legal pad with a list of the projects that need to be done. None of them are really big, but it's going to take a platoon of volunteers with yard maintenance equipment to get the yard in shape, and a Delta Force raid on the New Yankee Workshop to get the house in shape.

The most glaring problem is a hole in one wall. Someone had started to convert a carport or outdoor patio into another room. To get A/C to the room, they cut a large hole through a cinder block wall. This is the first project, seal the hole. Like I said, not a big deal, but something that needs doing. The room is ultimately going to be an office, but initially, its primary use will be as a home improvement project.

There are 3 large bedrooms on the upper level and nicely sized living room, dining area and kitchen. The kitchen is in need of some renovation. Or maybe not. I've been spoiled by our new one.

The yard is 3+ acres with a lot of pine and hardwood trees. There are maples, pecans, oaks, and cherry trees. The area next to the house looks like an abandoned park. Jon and I talked of riding lawn mowers cruising around the yard like combines in a South Dakota wheat field. A little mowing would make the place look like it was lived in and add $10,000 to the value of the house.

Hidden behind the house is a nice 20 x 20 shop/storage building on a slab. I say hidden because there is a grove of the biggest Leland Cypress trees I've ever seen blocking the view from the house. Like most of the landscaping, they're in need of some serious pruning. The view of the house from the street is totally obscured by a seriously over grown boxwood hedge. I think it needs to be pruned at ground level. Maybe with a 4 wheel drive truck and a chain.

A bonus part of the landscape is about 50' of blueberry bushes along the property line. We picked for about an hour and came home with over 5 pounds of fruit. We didn't make a dent in the berries on the bushes.

The place has a lot of potential, but since it is a foreclosure, owned by the bank, it was neglected before the bank took it, and really needs some TLC. There is a fenced area behind the house that according to the Google Earth picture of the place, once contained an above ground swimming pool. The fence shows signs of having been climbed by the local kids. A couple of hundred feet of top bar, and an afternoon will have it in shape, and presto, a play yard for Violet and the dogs.

Still, Jon and Missy are excited and young, so I think it's probably a good deal for them. It's a lot bigger than where they are now, has about the same size yard, but it's (sort of) cleared, and once it's been mowed, quite usable. Their current home has 2 acres of jungle behind it. They won't need the unfinished room right away, so it should work well for them.

They're in our prayers.