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Luckily this house had been winterized.  Still, when you see a pile of snow inside a house and know that it is blowing in through the door jamb it's a little disheartening.  We really didn't have to think about anything though, we asked Jacquie to start writing up paperwork.  She called that night and said it was all ready to go.  The house had been in foreclosure and abandoned (according to the neighbors) for four years... the price drop was attracting some attention so we knew we had to move quickly to secure it.  My (ex) husband had been an "entrepreneur" for many years and I will leave it at that.  My job at the time was what qualified us and got us in.  Inspections revealed a few things that needed to be done, and actually, with so much snow still on the roof and around the property there was no real exterior inspection done.  We had a Registered Geologist/Hydrogeologist come out as well.  There was a crack in the we...

There was a bay window in the dining room area and one at the front of the house.  One of the tired wooden single pane windows didn't even close all the way - so, cold air seeped in.  The deck of both bay windows had wood on it that had been stained and restained and varathaned - it was also warped and peeling from the sun and we could feel the cold coming in through the cracks of the trim.  The old and outdated theme of gold light fixtures continued in the master bedroom and the other two bedrooms upstairs as well.  The light fixtures in the bedrooms were especially horrible, with three glass lights that looked like they would be something Aunt Mae from The Andy Griffith Show would have chosen.  The master bedroom was large and my visions of what I could do with the room were already formulating.  It had an odd shaped walk in closet that was not big enough for two people to stand in at the same time.  There were 29" x 24" shelves up o...

We continued to walk around - everything was worn and dated.  The dining room light fixture was gold, the light above the sink was gold - the light above the garage door was gold.  I discovered these same gold beauties in the master bedroom walk in "closet", and the hallway as well.  At least they were consistent (by using the least expensive, most generic materials they could possibly find).  There was a two light spotlight on the dining room side of the beam and the kitchen was lit with a 48" shop light with a gridded acrylic panel - stuck in up between two of the beams, it made for a poor lighting choice there, too. The kitchen was late 80s/early 90s white washed maple & there were some missing cabinets - there was a 6' space from the end of the cabinets to the garage door wall where they may have intended to have a nice cabinet run.  They hung a corner cabinet up at the very end of the room, just for the heck of it, I suppo...

Never mind the honey pine tong and groove ceiling ... all I saw when we walked into the house - there in the middle of the front room - was this big, fat, black wood burning stove pipe - connected to this little teeny tiny wood burning stove.  The pipe went up 8' to the ceiling then through where we could not see, but knew was another 10' through the roof.  The stove was matte black with a gold framed glass door.  The glass on the door had a crack, and you could smell the charred wood that had been left inside... a lingering campfire smell.  They left their poker and worn out broom as well... and this was all sitting on a 4'x4' pad with cheap, old ceramic terra cotta colored tile. There were burns in the looped berber carpet in front of the stove.  The people must have been careless and opened the door when the wood was burning hot and crackling inside.  The carpet was matted down; and there was a soot colo...