The Story of a House - Part 1

Every house has a story. Some happy and some not so. One house in my neighborhood has the not so happy story. Here it is.

Victor and his wife bought the house, but instead of renovating the original house, they tore it down and built a "new colonial." It has little character, but it was NEW.

Then the house across the lane from them and on the lake went up for sale. It was small and needed extensive work. They sold their new home and took the one on the lake. It has great lake views and lots of character. Nancy and Peter bought Victor's house.

They shared a celebratory glass of wine at the closing, which also happened to be a rainy day. The basement flooded badly. Nancy asked Victor if that had ever happened before. Victor swears it never had. Nancy tried to brush it off. Hoped it would never happen again.

Hoped it wasn't a bad sign. But it was four feet of water. That's alot.

Then it happened again. And again. Peter and Nancy spent thousands trying to divert the water from their basement. But there was a huge ridge of rocks behind the house and every time there was a torrential rain storm, the water cascaded off the rocks and into the basement.

Peter worked for a software company and after the internet boom went ka-boom, he lost his job. He tried various other jobs, but nothing paid as much. They took out home equity loans to get them through. Until they could get no more loans. Three kids. Private schools. College looming.

Peter began to drink. They had to sell the house. They split up.

Bill bought the house. He planned on flipping it. Fix it up. Jack up the price. Easy. Nancy warned him about the basement and he ignored her.

At the first bad rain, Bill called out the fire department. The water was rising so fast it was approaching his electrical panel. It took two industrial pumps to get the house dry.

No one bought the house. Bill moved on to his girlfriends house in Connecticut. He rented the house. Then the renter left.

Now, this home stands empty. 7 inches of rain fell yesterday. We assume the basement is full and no one has pumped it out.

It's just such a sad house story. Some places just don't seem to have good karma.

Peter and Nancy reconciled. Maybe it was just the house.