Wow. This post has been a long time coming. So often I just regurgitate content…

This is the first of more as I “log” these events. This post *should* have been put up here about 7 mos ago, but I just didn’t quite get’erdone.

As many of you know, Michelle and I made a significant decision in our lives last spring. For some time prior, we had been looking for some land. Something close to Salem, but outside the city. Something that either had the perfect house, or close-to-perfect which we could mold/modify, or on which we could build. Something in the 0.75 to 2.5 acre area.

We spent 6-8 mos looking (we were picky…the plan, after all, is that this is the house we’ll stay in until we officially move into Old Foggie status). Over that time, we seriously looked at over 60 places–some just land, some with old houses, manufactured houses, brand spankin’ new houses… You name it–nothing seemed to fit.

On the way to drive by a potential house, we stumbled across a posted property for sale. Somewhat thick forested land, small creek, ancient run-down house. Seemed like a lot of land…

Jot the number down, call the commercial (not residential) realty, find out the info.

Long story shorter…we now own 20 acres. Yup, 20 acres of forested land with a crappy 1901, uncared-for (make that utter neglect) house. The house is an obstacle; we’ll be building elsewhere on the site. We’re working on that, but that’s for future posts.

Back to the sale…Turns out it was for sale by someone in Eugene (about 50 mi S of Salem). The realtor was a friend of the seller–hence Commercial realty. To our advantage, this wasn’t listed in MLS–so most residential realtors didn’t know about the land. This helped because “small” acreage around here is not only hard to come by, but very expensive. In relative terms, I believe we got a deal for this much land.

The people living there were basically squatting. They had become tenants ~15 years prior, but stopped paying rent. As a result, the owners stopped upkeep on the place…or something like that. I get the impression one didn’t talk to the other–the squatters had a place to live; the owners had someone “watching” their property while they weren’t there.

We close on the place, the squatters are given 30 days (by seller) to get themselves, and all their crap, out. We communicate briefly a few times (the guy is cool, the gal is a psychopath–again, different story)… get our mail, see how things are progressing, etc… About 35 days later, they’re not out. Well, apparently he is, she’s not. They’ve split (he realized she’s nuts)… Couple of “conversations” (*cough*) with her on the property, and somewhere around 40-45 days after original close, she’s gone too.

Upon our arrival we find (among many other things)

• one 1970’s-something dump truck (knew it was there, expected it gone)
• one 1970’s-something RV camper (ditto–expected it gone)
• an attic full of boxes, magazines, insulation, some furniture, bills from the 70’s, a few dead mice and birds, etc. Basically tons o crappage.
• 60+ tires
• a garage full of wood, metal, freezers, grills
• I’m sure you get the idea…garbage galore

Knew some would be there, not this much. To wrap things up a bit…we’ve since

• had the dump truck towed (former tennant’s problem now)
• the RV was hauled away (presumably by its owner, but don’t know / don’t care)
• made a few trips to the dump
• two trips to the metal recycling place (worth about $30…thanks)
• two full days of rural burning

Still have the cursed tires tho…not sure what to do there. There will be more burning and trips to recycling / dump, but we’re getting there.

Enough for now; more to come. BTW, we’re still living in our “old” house–won’t move to the property until things progress there. Hopefully, though, things will move along this year. Stay tuned.