What We DIDN'T Know Before Closing...and kinda wish we hadn't found out.

Is it time to sleep for 2 days yet?!

I am SO exhausted from all of this moving stuff! This past weekend was CRAAAAZY.

Let me tell you... home ownership has been a thorn in my side since the day we closed. Buying a foreclosure is not all puppies and lollipops. More like leaky everything and gross.

We closed on Saint Patty's day.. and spent the first weekend cleaning, priming cabinets, painting cabinets, spending money, attempting to fix the electrical nightmare that is the basement (aka MAN CAVE), spending money, and a little yard work.

One of Zac's brothers replaced a bunch of leaky/seized valves on everything water related. We spent $500 to have our HVAC unit cleaned and serviced- and boy was it nasty! The guy said it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in at least 5 years. The chemicals he used to clean it smelled like burning hair and poop. Later, the guy conned us into purchasing a programmable thermostat for $175 bucks, "wif diccoun," he said. Wanna know the funny part? We could have bought a BETTER one at Home Depot for no more than $50 and installed it ourselves. Oh well. Live and learn right?

During the week following closing, we cleaned more and moved a bunch of small stuff into the house. I angrily painted and painted and painted the kitchen cabinets until I finally gave up on the "layers makes it beautiful and smooth" idea and started globbing paint onto the roller and then on the cabinets. I still need to touch up the edges that show a bit... but I can do that when we are all settled in. I also slacked on the inside of the doors, and only painted one thin coat of paint. So don't look at the inside when you come over! :) Maybe I will finish that down the road later.

Zac and I installed the knobs and drawer pulls on the cabinets at the end of last week. We attempted to hang the new hinges, but we aren't talented enough to drill new holes without making giant ones, or hang things straight. I'll stick to hanging pictures and shelves.

Now, on to the reason for the title of this post...

When we first looked at the townhouse, we really liked the brand new carpet, fresh paint, new (although bottom of the line) appliances and decent space. But buyer beware! When it seems to be too good to be true, it usually is. With most foreclosures, the banks couldn't give two shits what the condition of the house is in.. they just want to sell it. This bank fixed our townhouse up all perty like. But why?!

Well, lemme tell ya. Rewind back to somewhere in the beginning of 2009, say- between February and April. The previous owners found out that they were being foreclosed on and were very angry campers. The husband, wife and their two younger children decided, against everyone else's better judgement, to just stop caring about the house, taking out trash, and cleaning.

The house piled up with trash and old food... maggots started growing in open trash bags, and giant flies staked their claim in the ole' townhouse.

Eventually the family packed up their stuff (what wasn't covered in filth) and left. The bank came in to take a look at the property so they could list it for sale and were taken aback by the utter stench and nastiness. Apparently one of our lucky next door neighbors with whom we share a curry soaked smelling wall with, was lucky enough to look at the house with one of the bankers. He had to step out, lest he vomit all over the place.

Then the bank decided that the house needed an overhaul. They ripped out the old carpeting, appliances and everything nasty and redid it all. I don't understand why they didn't just go in and fix all the shoddy electrical.. but that's ok. We like having a dark, creepy basement.

So there you go! Sometimes I wish the neighbor hadn't told us all of this, but now we know. *shudder*