Thursday, July 26, 2012

Death and Destruction: First Time Home Buyers, Part 2

We had a fun holiday up at the ranch (Tyson's family property - very remote area on the Utah-Idaho border). Tyson's dad owns an old farmhouse up there that Tyson renovated out of absolute decrepit deterioration three years ago. We got to show it off to my side of the family, and also had some fun riding four-wheelers. Now back to my FIRST house hunt...
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If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I can be extremely long-winded. It's endearing, right? Right!?! Well, imma try to wrap this up quick. When we left off, we had just made an offer on an '80s house and then decided not to counter their counteroffer.

We liked another house a lot, this one right in town. But the day we were going to make an offer on it, a canal that ran behind the property broke a short distance from the house. The ensuing flood and mudslide killed a couple of neighbors two houses down. We got scared off and moved on.

That's the short version, but here are a few details about the house.

It was a sort of strange 1960's house whose garage had been converted into living space (most of it a tiny, questionably-legal 1-bedroom apartment). We loved the yard the best, and liked the mid-century house, too. It had tons of light in the living room. Instead of a backyard (it was right up against an extremely steep hill, and that's where the canal was), it had a HUGE, private rock patio to one side (the main entry side) and a big lawn with fruit trees on the other side (the kitchen/laundry entry side). It  had some very odd features, like a Mamie Eisenhower pink kitchen with handmade resin hardware. Each knob had something different encased in it. I totally expected to see fossilized mosquitos, but instead it was different varieties of dried legumes. Sooooooo glad I found a picture to represent. Just imagine vintage cabinets instead, and just a few specimens in each knob. Crazy. Crazy.

Photo from www.myfavoriteandmybest.com, by Jenny. Fun blog, but cover your ears if you don't like "language" :)
The canal break definitely put a damper on things, and seemed kind of "sign from God"-ish, so we moved on. Very sad situation for the family who lost loved ones. The canal has been closed since then, I believe, and is still being reinforced/re-routed. We also pass this house from time to time, and reminisce about how much we loved that yard, and how we could totally see ourselves having parties on that patio. Last time I drove past there was a Little Tikes playset in the grassy part of the yard. I hope the house is loved!


Very interesting garage situation, eh? The door you see entered the apartment. The door to the main house was up a set of stairs to the right.


In this aerial view you can see the grassy yard to the left of the house (fenced, with fruit trees). The amazing private patio was to the right of the house. You can also see part of the canal in the upper right.


I've marked the house with a red star. Now look down the street to the west and you see the mudslide area where the canal broke.

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In the next installment we put in yet another offer. Will it be our final one? I'm sure you'll be waiting with bated breath!

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