the house, circa 1995

Our new neighbors across the street found a picture of our house in a cabinet.. take a look!

This is what our old neighbors had to look out at every day.. can you imagine?

I made my CSI attempt at beefing up the date at the bottom left (they make it look so easy!) The last digit is either a 5 or a 9, and since the digit before is definitely a 9 and it looks different, I'm going with 5.
So this picture was taken August 3, 1995

Aside from the layer of filth, there are a couple interesting things in this picture. The whole front stair is rotting out and the post which we just discovered is completely rotten isn't even there! That would mean it was put in when the stairs were rebuilt in 1996. We've just replaced the stairs, and we're going to need to replace that post this summer.

This reminds me.. we need to finish power-washing the house so it doesn't wind up looking like this again!

Oops, we did it again

It's official, we are the proud owners of a gorgeous, needs-a-little-work Victorian house in Alameda!
We've also, as Marisa pointed out, been robbed more in Alameda than we ever were in Oakland... more on that below

This was a probate sale, and the craziest deal anyone involved has ever seen. We closed escrow 12 days after we first saw it, 14 days after it went on the market. If it hadn't sold beforehand, the city was planning to auction it off later this month, and the greedy grandkids weren't going to lose out on all the extra $$ they'd make from selling it on the open market.

Every time the phone rang in the last week (and it was nonstop!) it was another thing that almost made the deal fall through: first was getting the offer in with no time for a proper inspection.. then the superfast loan, then showing proof we could get the money since all the flipper contractors bidding against us were paying all cash.. There were several liens against the house from the city coming in and doing work 2 and 8 years ago and the woman from the title company didn't think there was any way those could be cleared up in time..

The list goes on and on, but the stars aligned, and a LOT of people helped us out, and we have a house!

The gentleman that owned the house before us moved in with his wife in 1974, and we hear the home was a showpiece. When she died, he developed problems and stopped taking care of the house. He never threw anything away, left trash rotting on the floor. His grandkids weren't around when he was living in filth, or when he had a heart attack, but they sure came running once he died and the house was theirs.

The grandkids had, according to a contract addendum, until sunday to come get some personal belongings, but they were supposed to have turned their keys in to our realtor and told us when they wanted to get in. Instead came by yesterday afternoon and took most of the furniture. They even tried to sell the mantle to the next door neighbor!
So Dan went by with Gimpy and changed all the locks. We're going over today to start cleaning, and when they come back (and they told neighbors they'd be back today) it's going to be ugly.

A nice calm start to our new homestead. But, it wouldn't be us if it didn't have a little extra fun thrown in. We started a blog so we'd be better about keeping everyone up to date.. let's get started!