How it all began...part 2

We first saw our "soon-to-be" house when it was for sale in the Spring of 2008.  Garry (my fix-it guy) had recently been transferred to a new location for his job, and was driving almost 2 hours one way to work everyday!  It was just too much driving, stressful for the rest of the family (me!), and we needed to make a move soon.  Garry first saw the house and said he felt chills as he walked through the it...a premonition of sorts that this was the house for us.  Since it was a foreclosure, the price was right for our budget.  It was only 6 miles from Garry's work.  She was a whopping 3300 sq. ft...perfect for a family with 4 teenagers!  And bonus - it included 3.5 acres.  We were sold!

Unfortunately, so was the house!  There was already an accepted offer on the house.  We were crushed.  We left our name and number with the Realtor, and told her to get in touch with us if anything changed.  Our fingers were crossed.

Fast forward about 3 months.  We got a phone call from the Realtor telling us the house was going back on the market.  Were we still interested?  YES, we were!  We started the paperwork for the purchase of the house.  Easy, peasy...right?  NOPE.  Since it was a foreclosure, there were issues of course.  The biggest problem was that the roof was leaking, which caused the upstairs floor to be wet after a heavy rain.  With some major pleading negotiating and several roofing company estimates later, the bank finally agreed to replace the roof.  The roofers came and worked hard to finish before our closing date.

THIS is what happened 3 days before our closing:

Yes...that's right!  You are truly seeing that the house had a FIRE!  The roof was gone!  Burned.  Charred.  The inside of the house was soaked with tons of water.  Luckily, there was no fire damage on the inside of the house, other than the front window was broken and burned.  There was never any proof found of what caused the fire, but my boys saw the roofers smoking up on the roof while they were working.  Somehow the roof caught on fire in the middle of the night on October 30, 2008.  We were devastated.  Shocked.  Crushed.  What were we going to do now?

A very long month later....the bank informed us that they were going to keep the insurance money, and had gotten estimates on having the house demolished.  They wanted to know if we were still interested in making an offer on the house "as is".  Would you have made an offer?

I want you to know that at this point in time...I loved this house.  I had already completely renovated the house in my mind.  I had made all sorts of plans.  I could NOT imagine this house being demolished.  It made me sick to even think about it.  This house still had all the original detailed trim, a formal staircase at the front of the house, and a less formal back staircase down by the kitchen.  The rooms were spacious.  There was a pantry hall and a huge mudroom/laundry room.  And did I mention 3.5 bathrooms?  Anyone with teenagers would understand what a blessing that really is!

I. could. not. let. her. go.