This year we decided we needed to return to Alabama. Craig's job is based primarily in the states of AL and MS, and living in GA was just too far to travel for him to be able to do his job effectively. Craig's boss had been hinting that we needed to get back into the heart of his area for quite a while, so when we finally got our North GA house 99% done we decided to rent it out again and look for a house back in our former community in central AL. We found a lady in our neighborhood who was looking for a better house to rent so she could stay where she was already located. Craig invited her to check out our house and it fit the bill perfectly. We wanted to sell it but house values dropped $67,000 total in 2010 and 2011 making it impossible as we then sunk underwater with the mortgage.
Our GA Cape Cod style home became a labor of love when we returned to in in July of 2007. Our renters could no longer pay the rent as they had become jobless and we were planning to move back to GA anyway so Craig could pursue purchasing his company which is headquarted nearby. We sold our AL home in May 2010 and moved into our class C motor home full time. It was soon apparent that this was not going to cut it. While we adored our RV for travel for Craig's job, it was unfit for full-time living. Even though this was the case we still looked high and low for 6 more weeks to find the perfect new RV. We ended up purchasing a 2010 Jayco Eagle 40' 5th wheel. This was a palace in comparison. I made sure that we bought one that had a ton of storage.
When we returned to our former GA home we were devastated. Upon entering all one could concentrate on was the most foul smell I have ever encountered as we took in the havoc the renters had wreaked on my and Craig's first home together as a couple. In the 3 1/2 years that they lived there, it was obvious that they lived by the mantra, "It ain't mine, so why should I care?!" I was standing in the living room in shock as the boys ran upstairs only to return a minute later declaring that there was poop on the floor. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, poop? what? Chase, who as a baby was brought to this home to spend his first 2 years of life, almost started crying as he told me that he didn't want to live there. This broke my heart. I followed him upstairs only to discover the truth to his statement. There was literally dog feces on the bathroom floor and on the landing . We then discovered that both upstairs bedrooms had obvious poop stains everywhere on the carpet as well as some suspect brown stuff smeared on one of the walls. Peyton discovered this and was so grossed-out by it. I was over-whelmed with utter depression.
Every wall in the kids' bedrooms had been covered with Kilz from the floor to almost the ceiling. I do not know why they did this, were there holes everywhere, were they hiding something? The walls that they did not Kilz over had crayon pictures and scribbles as well as some of the doors. Most every door knob was dented in. The bathroom door had a hole smashed in it, nail polish was spilled and had hardened on the left master sink basin and the kids vanity top. At one time we believe there was a flood from the upstairs tub as there were water stains out on the landing that had soaked the moulding on the stair rails and raised the wood. Most of the door stops were missing, the three $20 a pop toilet paper holders were torn out of the walls. The half-bath was missing a door knob and was apparently used to replace the door knob on the side-entry door leading into the garage, which was weather-ruined as it was not an outside-rated knob. The blinds in the kids bedrooms wouldn't function properly and were missing slats.
The walls in the living room looked to have been colored on with crayons as well as the hearth which had been drawn on by a marker that I could not remove no matter what. Someone had drawn 'Beware' on the stairs leading to the basement, there was graffiti on our outside retaining wall. Our very thick one-piece oak flooring in the kitchen and dining room were urinated on in every corner so much that they turned black and had to be removed. Their dogs also urinated down all of the vents as it had crusted up on the vent covers as well as inside the vents themselves. The master linen closet shelf had been broken out of the wall at one time, before being crudely fixed and one of the drawers in the master bath was sheared off and clumsily replaced with some sort of glue. The shower head in the master bath was so encrusted with filth. The fan in the living room has so much dust on the blades that they were literally sliding off in layers and hanging down like a vine in some spots.
The french doors leading to the deck were so scratched on by their dogs, they didn't function well enough to keep out the weather and had to be replaced. Paint was peeling off of the front door. The deck was never cared for as many of the 2 x 4s were warped beyond functionality. The white glass light fixtures were so dusty they were nearly black. The lawn was so long and the renter had attempted to drive his lawn mover thru the jungle in one short swath and gave up quickly. The weeds in the flower beds were phenomenal, some of them were taller than me. (I am 5'6") They had attempted to build 2 koi ponds which were so nasty I can't even tell you. (I found 3 black widows under a rock nearby which were dispatched in short order.)
The expensive microwave that I had picked out when the home was new was ruined beyond repair. To this day I can't figure out how they were able to burn off the epoxy coating on the bottom of the inside of the micro. What were they doing? Only heaven knows. The glass that rotates was broken and lucky for us they had ordered us a new one. The kitchen was repainted a tacky green by a non-non-professional, as well as the stairwell to the basement. Whoever painted the two areas just painted around things instead of removing them. The wife had installed sticky drawer and shelf liner that looked as if it came straight out of the 1960s. It was so ugly that when I pulled it off, the outside shelf-coatings were ripped off. Also the counters had a burn mark from a candle I guess. Their dogs had gnawed on the moulding corners in the master bath and the kitchen.
We had been told that the renters had finished the basement and had spent $5000 to do so. They wanted to consider this even trade for any damage done to the home. At the time we had no idea of any damage being done to our home and quickly told them that no, it was in the contract that any work done by them became our property if they did not purchase the house. The basement was a nightmare. If those people spent $5000 they were ripped off in an unbelievable way.
Apparently their oldest daughter was living down there like a dog. There were walls and they were painted but that was the least of what could be said that was "finished" in the family room and guest room. The bathroom had a cheap tub with a pipe coming out of the wall that only cold water came thru. There was no toilet, no sink, no drywall. There was no carpet, no true heat or a/c source. There were small holes everywhere in the drywall. There was not a right angle or plum wall to be found in the entire basement. The mud on the drywall looked as if a child had done the work, or else they just did not sand any of it down before painting the walls. They had added a closet to the family room that was so large, it dwarfed the room and made it impossible to put any kind of furniture configuration in the room. The drywall stopped short of the ceiling by a foot in the family room even though the ceiling was a perfect candidate for normal drywall ceiling. None of the light switch boxes could receive a cover as they were all either too far recessed in the wall or else sticking out too far. The few light switch covers there were, were broken in half.
We found junk and garbage all over the lawn: such things as kid underwear underneath the front porch as well as toys, broken shovels, dog chains, etc. Our neighbor came over and found his long ago loaned to them lawn seed spreader that they had thrown in a junk pile.
After our initial shock we started to rip out the carpet, the main source of the terrible terrible smell. There was no carpet in the entire house that wasn't disgusting. These people raised a baby on these carpets folks, they let her crawl and walk all over them in their filthy state. Since one of the kids' bedrooms was now missing its screen, we were able to throw the carpet out the window. Then we went to 4th of July celebrations to "cool off." Thus began a more than 2 year journey to restore our awesome cape cod.
Below you will find the Afters. By the time we finished with the house in Sep. 2012, it was as if it were a brand-new home. I was determined to erase every sign that those people had ever lived in my home. My heart literally hurt as we went thru the process of erasing any trace of their carelessness and utter purposeful destruction to our home. Bit by bit my heart lightened up as we went thru dire financial straits just to pay for the transformation and were literally single-handedly responsible for keeping Home Depot and Lowe's in the fiscal black for over 2 years.
Living Room: laid espresso hand-scraped distressed bamboo flooring, painted the walls, doors, mouldings, risers and treads, replaced door knob, hinges and vent coverings
Kitchen/Dining Room: extended bamboo flooring, painted walls, mouldings, ceiling, and cabinets, replaced dining room light fixture, vent coverings, sink faucet, dishwasher, french doors, door knobs, hinges, and microwave, added window covering
Master Bath: painted walls and mouldings, replaced vanity, mirror, light fixture, faucets, shower head/knob, window coverings, toilet paper holder, toilet lid/seat, flush handle, vent coverings, door knobs, door stops/hinges, removed shower doors, added towel rack/holders/hooks, and tiled the floors
Master Bedroom: laid shag carpet, painted doors and mouldings, replaced door knobs, door stops, and hinges
Kids' Bathroom: painted doors and moulding, replaced vanity, faucet, mirror, light fixture, toilet lid/seat, flush handle, door knobs, hinges, door stops, door, shower head/knob/drain, window covering, toilet paper holder, added towel hooks and holders,shower curtain, and tiled the floors
Kids' Bedrooms: painted walls and mouldings, laid shag carpet, replaced door knobs, hinges, door kicks, and window covering
Family Room: reduced closet size, extended walls to ceiling, added pot lights, door knobs, laid shag carpet, corrected mudding issues, plumbed walls, boxed in a/c tube, put bamboo at entrance to garage, painted walls, mouldings, hand rail in stairwell, carpeted stairs
Guest Bedroom: painted walls, added mouldings, door knobs, laid shag carpet, put in drop ceiling and pot lights
Guest Bathroom: replaced cheap tub, tiled tub surround, installed bamboo flooring, drywalled, painted, added vanity, toilet, mirror, light fixture, towel hooks/rack/holder, shower rod, faucet, and shower head/knob
Half-bath: painted walls and mouldings, switched out vanity,mirror, toilet seat/lid, faucet, light fixture, added toilet paper holder, towel holder, tiled floor, replaced window covering, flush handle, door knob and hinges
Rear Deck: power washed and replaced warped 2 x 4s
All that hard work and then we moved. Craig and I did most of the demo and remodeling ourselves. We had anticipated staying in our home for years to come, so we upgraded it to our hearts' content. We still had a lot of plans for the house, like adding wainscoting, shutters, granite counter tops, changing out and upgrading the cabinets, reconfiguring the kitchen layout, and new wrought iron spindles and rail. But life has a new plan for us, and since Craig did not end up going thru with purchasing the business, and he enjoys having a good job, it made the most sense to return to AL. My next blog entry will be about our new house.
