Moving Surprises!

We knew well that we were buying a huge list of projects.  From huge things in need of significant change (the lower level of the house, the studio) to obvious areas maintenance (gardens, fences, outbuildings) to things that just weren’t quite how we wanted them (like that shade of green that covered the inside of the whole main level of the house), this property was very far from being ready to just move in and ignore.  After all, that wasn’t the point — we wanted an opportunity to do all of this stuff, and to really build this place in our vision.

Nonetheless, the process of closing and moving in involved far more surprises and drama than we’d expected.  Between our final walk-through and closing a back-hoe was driven through the front garden, leaving tracks, big holes in the ground, and corresponding piles of dirt.

The studio building, which was supposed to be emptied out before closing, was far from empty:

And then there were the “little things” – a broken washing machine (a call had at least been scheduled by the sellers), the hot tub that isn’t getting hot (hopefully this will be an easy fix), the guest room that we suspect was used as an oversized kitty box in the last few days before we moved in, and at least three (!) dead animals in various swept but-not-removed trash piles in the shed.

Oh, well.  In the grand scheme of things none of these are big deals, and they’ve certainly guaranteed us an adventuresome move!