[betenoire]

Originally Posted by Medusa

I'd love to tell some stories about the houses that Jack and I viewed while looking for a house in California.

I'll start with a little blurb about a house that was completely FULL of trash, dirty diapers, broken glass, and rotting food and the yard has FOUR broken down cars, a chicken coop, and about 100 mounds of trash piled all over the place.

It was built in the 70s, was next to an abandoned lot full of garbage, at the end of an industrial complex, and 2 blocks from railroad tracks.

They wanted over $400,000.

God, how much does a NICE house cost in California??

My parents bought their house from the bank, the previous owners has been foreclosed on. I guess the previous owners had been renting it out or something - because there is NO way that people who actually owned the house would treat it like that.

They had a tonne of work to do. There were dirty needles and human feces on the floor, huge holes in the wall, graffiti, etc. Trash everywhere. They had to get these biohazard-ish suits to wear when they went in to clean it up. They got it for next to nothing, though - and since they did all the work themselves they didn't really have to put THAT much money into it. New flooring, drywall, and paint was really all that it needed. Well - that and removing of all the gross stuff.

My dad must really love my mom. My mother wanted that house for 10 years before they bought it - it was down the street from where me and my sister went to school and every time she went by she'd slow down and stare at it. When the house started to go to hell she'd rant for hours about "how could anybody treat that nice house so badly?" I guess when they found out it was for sale though the bank they went and looked at it and my dad was like "oh HELL to the no" but eventually gave it because it was mom's dream home.

It's actually a wicked cute house. Brick bungalow in an older neighborhood. Lots of trees. Too big for my tastes, though.