The House Next Door

 

 Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a new post...... 

 

 Today, I will be sharing the story of a remarkable transformation of the house next door to us.....

 

In my last post, I shared how I planted my pots in the back yard and Patio with annuals and a few new things that I bought.....

 Click HERE if you missed that post.....

Since I really do not have any personal notes to report, I am skipping it for this post...

When we moved here to our townhouse development, we were blessed to have wonderful next door neighbors, Ron and Helen....

 

As years went by, they became like a second set of parents and best friends to us...

 

We knew their entire family as they knew ours and they were invited over for family parties and cook outs in our back yard, etc!!!

 

They retired and lived in Florida during the Winters.....

 

They had 3 children....2 sons and a daughter

 

When Helen told me that the house would go to the 3 children, which were our age and older, but the daughter was granted a Life Estate which meant she would live in the house as long as she could pay ALL the bills including utilities, taxes, repairs, etc, until she died then the house could be sold by the 2 remaining sons if they were still alive!! 

I knew we were in trouble....

The daughter had just gotten divorced , which her parent's had paid for even though she was in her 50's.

She only had worked part time in a low paying job which she was allowed to keep her pay and spend it on whatever she wanted.....

Now she had to work full time and had responsibility for a house which she never had before....

And she had a daughter who had untreated mental issues that never worked a day in her life.....

The daughter and grand daughter of the original owners lived there for the 10 years....

In that time, they managed to destroy this once beautiful home!!!

The daughter passed away 2 years ago, leaving her brothers, owners of the home, the responsibility of her daughter, who at 39 years old , never worked, was supposedly an agoraphobic who mostly prowled our neighborhood at night dressed all in black with her face covered and had untreated mental issues that had worsened over the years....

 

We found this by our car one morning after her escapades at night....

 

 

 

Not to mention the banging on the walls at night and the screaming and yelling at all hours!!

 

Well, the nightmare ended last Summer and they finally moved the grand daughter out and sold the house...

If you follow me on Face Book, you know I have posted many times about the situation and conditions that existed in the house directly next to me....

 

Over 10 years, both water and electricity were shut off because of lack of payment multiple times....

 

$10,000 in back taxes almost caused the house to be sold at Sheriff's Sale until our HOA notified the sons and they finally showed up and saw what was going on but they were not allowed past the front door of the house by their sister.....

 

The condition of the back yard warranted us calling the HOA and zoning officer....

 

 

It was a nightmare for 10 years until the new owner, Trish, bought the house....

 

She paid $43,000 for the house but she should never have paid that much because before she was ousted, the grand daughter embarked on a course of destruction.... 

 

The crazy grand daughter poured epoxy glue down the sinks and toilets, shoved CD's and DVD's down behind the electric radiators so when turned on then would melt and cause a fire, twisted the electrical outlets and thermastats in the walls along with making holes in the walls with probably a hammer,smashed the toilets and put a hole in the tub....

She was not happy that she was being removed from this house....

There was other damage that no one even knew about in addition to the glue poured down the sinks and tiolets....

When they removed the kitchen cabinets and carpeting from the bedrooms, they found that the wall behind the cabinets was wet and moldy from a leak in the sink....

And the floors and walls in the bedrooms bumping up against the bathroom were also wet because of unrepaired leaks in the toilet, sink and tub!!

The house stunk as a cat lived there also and peed all over the place.....

 

It took the original owner's sons close to a year to get their niece out of the house so they could sell it ...

If we knew the condition of the inside of this house was as bad as it was, we would have acted on it and called the zoning officer to have it condemned!!

 

But not even the sons knew what their sister had done to the house by leaving it go and not having numerous leaking pipes repaired but continued to use them!!!

 

They only walked away with $10,000 that had to be split between the 2 of them after all back payments were taken care of when the house was sold!!!

 

Such a shame!!!

 

I knew the original owners , Ron and Helen, were rolling in their graves because they kept that house in excellent shape!!

Trish had to rip out everything in the house including dry wall in some places.....

By Summer of last year, the front yard was a disaster from neglect.....

 

 She could not get anyone to come and take care of it so she hired Joe and I to re-landscape it....

This is what it looked like originally when we finished...

 

Click HERE if you would like to see that post.... 

We also did the flower bed under the Living Room window....

 

 Click HERE if you missed that post.....

Since then Joe cut down those remaining old yews and arborvitae in the front at Trish's request and this is what the front of the house now looks like.....

 

 

 

Trish was in no hurry to finish the house over the Winter as she was going to use it as a Rental property plus she had a hard time getting contractors to demo the house last Summer....

This Spring, after she sold another rental property, she got the influx of cash she needed and the construction market cleared up a bit so the remodeling began....

The house inside was gutted, all electrical and plumbing was replaced, new radiators, thermastats, outlets, light fixtures....

New toilets, sinks, and tub....

New closets and room doors, baseboard molding, Kitchen and Bathroom cabinets, flooring throughout....

You get the picture....

Pretty much everything brand new.....

$50,000 later in remodeling costs.....

The house was finally getting finished....

Trish estimates that the damage done on purpose cost her an extra $28,000....

 

I am going to share the Before pictures taken when the house was for sale and what it now looks like after being basically rebuilt.....

 

The Front Porch....

 

 Before.....

 

 

 Now with a new front door and storm door....

 

Joe painted the porch railing....

Trish bought a green door because she is of Irish descent....

There are all new windows in the house too!

 

 This is the Living Room before......

The original owners had put up a dividing wall between the Living Room and Dining Room and used the shelves to display collectibles.....

The carpeting was covered with area rugs as it was filthy and the cat had peed all over it.....

The original owner had ceiling fans installed in the Living Room, Dining Room and Bedrooms....

This is the Living Room now!!!!!

 

New ceiling fan, baseboards and she had the divider painted white....

 

Same flooring, which she bought on Clearance, is through out the house.....

 

She had carpeting installed on the stairs....

 

This whole closet and the trap door to the water heater under the steps had to be rebuilt because when we had threatened to sue them because they were still using the water heater even though it was leaking ( into my closet like this ), the dry wall and trap door were ripped out and nowhere in site, along with the closet doors which were also missing!!!!!

So this closet was completely rebuilt....

This was the Dining Room with the huge hole in the ceiling as they continued to use the toilet and tub even though they were leaking in the bathroom above!!!

 They tried to tape it back up with duck tape!!!!!!

This the the Dining Room now!!!

Trish bought most of the light fixtures and fans on Clearance in Lowes.....

 

 This was the Powder Room, with leaks in the sink before the grand daughter smashed the toilet to bits.....

 

 When Trish took over the house, the sink was black and the doors of the cabinet were warped so we thinking she may have let the water run and overflow....

Here it is now.....

 

The sink and cabinet was a close out at Lowe's....

Now this is the most amazing transformation in this house, I think!!!

This is the Kitchen Before.....

Original cabinets, which I painted white in my house, and countertops..

 

 None of the appliances worked!!

 

They had a stool up against the refrigerator so the door would stay closed!!!!

They were using an apartment size fridge!

 

 Trish removed the counter bar and gutted the entire Kitchen, having to replace the wall behind the sink because of yet another unrepaired water leak!!

 

 NOW!!!!!

 

 

Love the stock white laminate countertops from Lowe's that look like marble!!!!!

 

Wish they would have had these white ones when I remodeled my Kitchen 10+ years ago!

 

All new appliances and she also installed a microwave above the stove!!

Tile was on Clearance at Lowe's

 

 All I could say is WOW!

 

The ceiling in the Patio ( which would be the same room as my Den) was also hanging down from a leak in the roof

 

 

The carpet was filthy! 

Now with new flooring, new dry wall ceiling and painted....

 

Trish spent a day and a half cleaning these original sliding doors....

 

To add more insult to injury, this is the room that Trish found peanut shells and bird's nests in because of the neighbor next door who threw out bread and peanuts to feed the birds and squirrels!!!

Trish had to rent a power washer to initially clean this patio!!!!

Now the original owner kept the entire storage room in their house, where I took the wall down enlarging our den, leaving us with only half of the storage room.....

This would be where I have my chair in my Den where I watch TV.....

 

There is still a door in the patio to access this storage room in the house next door....

 

Trish installed a new electrical box which is going to be our next big project....

 

This part of the storage room is actually on the other side of the Kitchen wall and is what I have left of the storage room in my house.....

Now let's go upstairs.....

This was the Master Bedroom Before

The crazy grand daughter kept cardboard over all the windows in the house, not letting any light in!!

The Bedroom Now

 

The wall to the left of the closet had to have dry wall replaced as it was soaked from a leak in the shower!

All new closet doors.....

This is one of the back bedrooms, which would be my Craft Room, Before

The dry wall to the left also had to be replaced because of the shower leaking but still being used.....

Now

 

And the other bedroom which would be my upstairs Sitting Room......

Now this is another amazing transformation!!

This is the upstairs Bathroom Before with the original tile before the grand daughter smashed the toilet and put a hole in the tub!

Do you see what that sink looks like!!!!

Trish gutted this even taking it right down to the studs!!!

Look at it Now!!!!

 

Again, she bought the sink and cabinet on Clearance at Lowe's....

 

Love the tub and surround!!

Well, what do you think?????

Amazing what $50,000 can do in a remodel.....

 

But can you imagine what she would have spent if she did not buy so many things on Clearance and had to pay someone to do the demo which she and her partner, Desiree, did much of themselves!!!

Poor Trish NEVER intended to spend this much on this house but has created a beautiful home out of what was a disaster of epic proportions.....

And now on to our final project for Trish.....

The back yard now looks pretty nice....

 But Before......

 

I told Trish that I would clean up what used to be a vegetable garden in the back of her back yard....

After 10 years of neglect by the daughter and grand daughter of the original owners, this is what it looked like....

I worked on it myself the first day as Joe was at work....

I managed to do this.....

It turned out there was a layer of weed block fabric that all those weeds had grown on top of....

I hauled out 3 bags of garbage that day....

The second day, Joe was available to help and he trimmed all the trees and bushes that were growing on the slope behind the fence which is the property of the houses behind us

After he bagged and hauled out all the cut trees and the weeds I pulled out of the flower bed.....

 

This is what it looked like at the end of Day 2....

What a difference already!!!

Day 3

Joe went behind the fence and cleaned up about a bag of peanut shells left by the squirrels from the neighbor who kept feeding them....

 

He also trimmed more of the tree that was hanging over the fence....

We then graded the garden bed....

Then it was time to lay the weed block.....

I pushed it under the fence since a foot past the fence belongs to Trish.....

I advised Trish to put up privacy lattice to block the slope behind her like I did as the renters in back of us do not take care of it even though their landlords own it....

First panel up and tied to the chain link fence with zip ties like we did ours.....

Second one going up......

Third piece cut and up.......

I held them in place while Joe attached them to the fence......

I have no idea what Joe is doing here!!  LOL!!

 We both laughed because we thought he looked like a horseshoe!!!

 

I started to put the mulch down.....

Then I lifted all the cinder blocks up and out, put mulch over the weed block that was placed under them and put them back and leveled them out....

Cinder block border done!!

 

Joe also put mulch behind the fence on Trish's property on the weed block that I threaded under the fence...

Day 4

We were still not finished as we had a piece of lattice left over from the back of the fence so Trish decided she wanted it on the other side as our lattice was on the opposite side....

 

After Joe first trying to cut it at the wrong angle, I made a template and cut it right!!!

Trish said she may eventually plant 3 arborvitae's in this bed.....

But she needs to recoup from all that this house took out of her......

The house is now rented out and the tenants are moving in which creates another chapter for us as this is the very first time since we moved here 44 years ago that someone from the same family is not living next door....

A Physician in training will be doing his Residency for 3 years locally at the Wright Center based in Scranton which is a physician led non profit group that provides Primary Care for the Community and has several locations all over NEPA....

 

He will be starting his Residency at the VA Hospital right by us!

Muhammad, or Mo as he goes by, is married and his wife Nas, is pregnant with their second child and is due in August....

They already have a 16 month old little boy!!

 

They are from Long Island and this will be their first time away from home and family....

 

They are very nice and Joe has already been helping Mo with moving some things in, directions, places to eat, etc....

 

We will miss Trish and her partner , Desiree, as we got along so well and had many good times over the past year.....

 

Like Trish getting locked out and having to crawl through the window and Joe pushing her in....

 

Or when they could not fit the original fridge into the space so she sold it and people came at 10 pm to pick it up and Joe served as a flag man showing them where our Court was and how to park ..... 

That was a night of comedy that I will never forget as the door had to be taken off, a guy crawled up on top of the fridge like a monkey and Joe had a head light on , trying to see the screws to get the doors back on!!!

But, things change and it looks like we will have nice new neighbors for a few years.....

And a nice house next door again!!

I know now that the original owners, Ron and Helen, have stopped rolling in their graves and are now happy that their home has been returned to a beautiful home again!!!

And I know that they NEVER expected what happened to happen....

BUT...

A lesson learned from the nightmare that happened next to me is when leaving someone a house in your will, please be sure that that person can financially maintain that house before doing so....

That was Ron and Helen's biggest mistake!!!!

It also cost their sons a lot of money that they could have gotten from the sale of the house....

I hope you enjoyed seeing this wonderful restoration....

And I hope you will stop by to visit again on Wednesday for my next post!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

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