Home Sweet Home

It's Steak's fault I have song lyrics as my title for today! Thank you Motley Crue for this classic rock ballad!

First a little back story- (the short version)

We bought our first house almost three years ago in Olathe. After tons of searching homes within our price range of not over-doing it, we finally settled on a duplex in a fantastic area. It seemed perfect, other than it's a duplex of course. It had a huge yard, with lots of mature trees and the back of the property backed up to Frontier Park, and the Indian Creek trail system. How conveinent, it also was blocks from the 119th & Strangline shopping area as well as blocks from the Santa Fe and 135th shopping area. What could be more perfect? Well, the attached duplex was the downfall!

When we bought it we assumed that the tarps on the roof was to protect the new work going on replacing the badly decomposed shingles from the rain. This was not the case, that WAS their roof! Things only decayed from there... The people that owned our side prior, were deaf. They had no idea of the dysfunction going on next door. The walls were paper thin, you could hear every conversation from the bedrooms and bathrooms. Saying conversation is a light way of saying fighting. No one spoke civily to each other and the mother would frequently say things like "shut the F up" to her children. I saw the inside of the garage once before the door broke, it was the worst mess I could imagine, trash and stuff piled half way up to the ceiling. I assumed the rest of the house was the same way. The mother said she refused to work, because she didn't want a 17 year old at Walmart bossing her around. Uh, OK... At that time I had three jobs. I worked full time as a designer for a candy company where it was nothing like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I sold furniture and bedding at Eddie Bauer Home on the Plaza, and I sold Mary Kay. Needless to say I didn't want to hear her complaining. About a year and a half ago, the husband who was in the Army Reserves was called to duty. However, he only went to the base in Leavenworth, to cover what the soldiers did there that were shipped to Afganistan. He had to live on the base. He soon filed for divorce and left the mess next door. We couldn't blame him. I had to hear everything from this hypochondriac, lazy, chain-smoking, always with fresh acrylic nails woman.

Things started to change in our favor- or so we thought. Evidently the State of Kansas is very lienient on paying mortgages... She said that her husband hadn't made a house payment in three years, she acted proud of this. Once again, I was like UM - OK... Working my ass off to pay our house payment and living expenses, this didn't sit well with me either. So eviction day came and went, they were gone. Trash in the yard, trash in the house, a rotting roof and a funky smell was all that was left. Months went by and one day when I got home from work there was a suprise in the driveway... A huge construction dumpster! A few days later the guys that were hired to empty the house of all the stuff they left, asked us what these people were like considering what they were cleaning up, they already knew. They told us some of the things they had to clean up... Dog poo in the carpet, a 2' pile of tissues from the master bedroom, and the best- over 200 Diet Pepsi cans in the master bedroom some with the old logo on them. You know, the WHITE cans! No wonder there was a funky smell. After that nothing... About six months later, there was another suprise... A car in the driveway, and people looking inside. Nope, they weren't there to buy it. They were hired to disinfect it. After that nothing... Needless to say the lawn gets mowed more now than it did when it was occupied.

Meanwhile, we've been painting, landscaping, replacing doors, trim, and even light switches... As well as loving the fact that we don't have any neighbors to share a wall with. This weekend is repairing trim and siding on the outside so we can paint the exterior. But this brings us to another problem... Nothing is going on with next door, it's not even for sale. Because I'm smart I called the Olathe Water Dept. to see who was paying the utilities. Turns out it's being managed by a real estate agency. I called last week to see what's going on with the property, the lady said that it's not listed yet because the foreclosing bank hasn't released it yet. When they do, it will be sold AS-IS. Which means we're screwed.

We are fixing ours up so we can sell it. We want to be in a new house by next summer... With it being sold AS-IS, means- 1. It's going to take FOREVER to sell. 2. Possibly to some poor person who is going to live in it AS-IS, rotten carpet, roof and all. Which means there will be no updates, to the property. 3. A rehab contractor will buy it. Number 3 is the best option... Please pray that this will be what happens and in a speedy fashion! So, we're stuck waiting, wishing, and attempting to plan our future.

So, anyone want to buy a cheap duplex to fix up and turn a quick profit on? We'll help with the fixing!