Since a short sale can fall through at any time, or take six months, during which time we could find something even better, we keep looking. One popped up online this week, so we went to see it on Saturday morning.

 

From the front, it wasn’t bad at all; obviously a repo house, so the crispy lawn is par for the course. No big deal. Lawns can be rehabilitated, and at least half of the places we’ve looked at have been in the same boat.

We walked in the front door, and were immediately bombarded by the smell. Overwhelming old animal smell dropped this house’s points way down. Once our poor noses adjusted somewhat, it was possible to see that the layout of the place wasn’t that bad, even though the carpet and padding would have to come out, and the colors on the walls were hideous. 

The kitchen wasn’t horribly designed either. For once, most of the appliances were there, although if you started looking closely at them, you’d notice that they were the cheap end for their sizes. I found that odd; spend a ton of money building a nice house, and put in a gas stove with supports barely strong enough to hold a stock pot off the flame? Weird. 

It was when we started really looking that the flaws became so apparent. The dog shit in the kitchen was one thing, but the sheer amount of mouse shit spoke to a serious infestation. This wasn’t just a house mouse or two; this was an invasion on the scale of Normandy.

But still, all fixable, although the money involved to fix it all was already over our budget, considering the asking price of the house. Ugh, or the time! We do not want to spend that kind of time on a place.

Step out into the backyard with me, and see the last straw.

 No, not the ambitious and obviously interrupted outdoor kitchen project. That was kind of a neat idea, even if poorly executed.

Not the firepit either. I kind of liked that. 

 

No, take a close look at the pool. Is this a pool for children? It’s got a swim-up bar, with stools at what would normally be the shallow end. 

Except there is no shallow end. It’s all deep, except for those stools of doom lurking right under the surface waiting to break some kid’s neck. This is a party place for adults, trying too hard to be Vegas-like and pathetically failing. This is not a house where the kids could have fun, and since we have four, this house was out of the question for us. 

This isn’t the worst repossessed house that we’ve seen, although it is the worst that we’ve actually gone in. We’ve peeked through the windows of some and seen holes in the walls and electrical fixtures ripped off; we don’t even bother looking at those. A good deal could be had by someone willing and capable of putting in the tie to fix them, but we are not those people. Capable, yes, but not willing. So as a horror story, it’s not much, but it’s definitely not for us. It did make me appreciate all the more the one we have an offer pending on. I really like that one, and it won’t take much to make it liveable.