The Scoop

Our first Saturday at Summerbreeze proved to be quite valuable. We accomplished quite a bit of planning/budgeting, and we learned about the history of this house. While we were doing a walk-through with our contractor (aka Dad), a neighbor from across the street strolled over to introduce himself. He was able to give us more information on what actually happened to cause the damage. Here's the Reader's Digest version:
The original owner moved to Florida and rented the house. The renter moved out in December 2009, meaning it was vacant pretty much as long as we've been married...it was just sitting there waiting for us...awww. She was told by the landlord/owner to turn off the electricty and gas (meaning no more heat and no more sump pump). As to water, he said, "I don't care, I'm filing for bankrupcy anyway."
So, at some point in the winter, either the toilet broke or a pipe burst or a combination of the two occured, and the water literally ran free through the house for two months. The neighbor heard the smoke alarm going off, snooped in the windows and could see what was happening. He contacted parties who should've been interested in handling this problem (i.e. the bank and the township) and nothing happened. Finally, he contacted the Sheriff's Department and they broke in through a window to turn off the alarm. At it's worst, there were visible rivers of water running out of the doors and into the street. Ironically, the water was shut off by the township after the property was flagged for "excessive usage". Duh.
All that to say that it seems we'll need to up our drywall budget!

Speaking of budget, we have our working budget in place. We're been to a couple of big box stores and done some online browsing to bracket prices. Dad is on board with the projects we'd like him to help with and we're ready to sub out some of the yucky and unfun stuff. Pete and I are excited to learn some new skills such as laying tile and wood flooring. We have seen a lot of materials we like and have a vision for what this house can and will be! We knew that this house was the model home for the development and the neighbor, said that this house was a beautiful home once and was actually on the Parade of Homes back in it's day. We are hoping to restore it to it's former glory.