After learning that there were several offers on our dream home, we put in the highest amount we could do and still survive! We knew we had to offset cost given we were using a VA loan, but we also knew the property would appraise! While impatiently waiting the weekend to find out which offer the owners would accept, we did learn that the property was being sold because the owners were no longer together. Our realtor was concerned that this might pose an issue with closing and making decisions, but my husband and I had both gone through a divorce previously and it didn’t deter us from wanting to go through with the deal.
We got a call late one evening, one day prior to our preapproval expiring that our offer was accepted! My husband was moved to tears, the kids were cheering, and I was just overwhelmed with joy. I couldn’t believe it, our dream of owning farm was going to come true.
Over the next several weeks we went through the process of closing which is always a pain in the butt. Obtaining inspections, lots of phone calls, several headaches. We went through so many hurdles, I wont cover all of them, but I will highlight a few.
Our lender set a closing date and was hellbent to close before then, he was very confident in himself. I have a background in planning, matter of fact my undergraduate studies are in Urban Planning and Community Development. I have always been a planner. Time management is a natural skill, most people say that, but ask anyone who knows me, I live and breath time management. I have to constrain myself to not get irritated with those who have lack of time management. A high school theater teacher taught me early in life that if you are on time, you’re late. If you’re late do not bother showing up, but to be on time you must be 5 minutes early. I live and breath this principal even today. I say all this to make it a point, that the lender set a date, I made every effort on my end to keep that date. I followed up every other day almost. Once I was told everything was in place, I made arrangements to move. I also made plans for family to come down and help finish getting the old house ready to be listed and put on the market. At this point, I was managing and trying to operate a machine that I was under the assumption was well oiled. Oh boy, was I wrong.
One week before closing, lender calls me, ask for my husbands, ex-wife’s, bank statement. I told him he was crazy. After two hours of conversation between him, myself, and my husband we get some things straighten out. It took two business days to figure out what they really needed and why it was relevant to use buying a home. Then, day before closing lender calls, claims he didn’t realize that a farm was on well water. Let’s let that sink in for a moment. Now, I understand that I have more of an advantage over logic when it comes to infrastructure and jurisdiction for zoning and stuff like that, but come on man. This guy actually didn’t read the original purchase agreement where it was stated and his logic didn’t put it together that a farm in the county, outside of city limits, located on several acres, that has septic, would also have a well. Lucky for them, I have over fifteen years of customer service experience, so I reverse handled the situation. My husband on the other hand, lost it. The lender told us we had to have the well tested at the state level before we could close. So, I rebuttal that with, can we take early possession while we wait for the test to come back, to which they were ok with so as long as the realtors worked out an agreement. The seller came back with a stipulation that if there were any issues with the well, we were responsible. Now, this would alarm most, but the well was listed as replaced just a few years prior and I work with Environmental Health, so if issues arise, I have resources.
We took early possession on a Friday, as to not effect our moving plans and timeline. This is where the story gets interesting!
Sunday night was our first night there, we realized really quick that being in the country has its pros and cons. Con number one, no cell service. I have the electric put in my name, but couldn’t get internet hooked up for several more days, so even using wifi calling was out of the question. Sunday evening, I was doing dished, I loaded the dishes into the dishwasher and started the dishwasher. Now, backstory on the dishwasher. Its not fastened to the counter, therefore the inspector would not test it. We asked the home owners if it was working and they said yes. We forwent having that repair addressed on the inspections because if it just needed to be screwed into the counter, we could handle that. The important thing is that it worked, which they stated it did! A couple hours later I went to put the dishes away, there was fowl water backed up in the dishwasher, the detergent never got released, and my dishes were dirty. We tried to repair the dishwasher, but clearly it did not work. We had someone look at it, and we were told it would be a few hundred to replace. So Sunday night we marched into Lowe’s and bought the nicest most reasonable scratch and dent dishwasher and David installed it. It was a nightmare. Who ever cut the cabinet originally for the dishwasher, cut it for a 1980’s small dishwasher. The water that spewed out of the hose of the old dishwasher all over the kitchen was so nasty, David was dry heaving. It was clear that dishwasher hadn’t worked in several years weather the owners knew it or not.
Monday morning, I got a call that the water test came back with bacteria. I immediately panicked. All weekend my entire family had been using that water. It was at this moment that I was told the house has been vacant for a really long time. Something that would have been nice to know prior to taking possession or testing the water from the well. So, before I completely lost my mind, I went and got new test material and was on a mission to go home and flush the system for several hours to remove stagnant water before retesting. When I got home my husband was staked out in the kitchen with the German Shepard and a gun. I asked him what was going on, and he said it had been one heck of morning. At this time only he and twins were home with the two dogs.
The following is recreated based on what he told me and keep in mind he had no cell service and no internet;
David was in the kitchen when he noticed several boys, roughly between the ages of 15-19 walking up the driveway holding what appeared to be bottles of alcohol in their hands. He walked out and approached them asking them if he could help them in any way. They said no, that they were headed to the horse barn where they like to hang out and drink occasionally. He said that he is the new owner and that was no longer acceptable because we have small children and will not be accountable for their actions. The boys then got irritated and asked if he could just be cool about it and allow it on occasion. My husband firmly said no, and asked them to leave. They kept pushing the issue, poking that my husband needed not act like that and let them be young. My husband getting irritated told then to get off his property. They turned to walk away and David retreated inside to continue with getting the twins out of bed for breakfast. Over the next hour David kept hearing things hit the side of our home and occasionally hit our windows. The dogs were going nuts. David ignored it for well over an hour. After he put the twins down for their nap, he gabbed his gun and Sheeba and stood on the front porch. He waited there for a while and when something hit the side of the house again, he yelled, Go away, you need to stop. The boys were back. One of them yelled back, “what are you gonna do about it”, to which he replied, “really dude, I’m gonna protect my home and kids”. They taunted him, “Oh yeah, what are you gonna do”, David yelled back, “seriously just leave, I have my German Shepard and a gun, and I really don’t want to use either”. The kid then yelled back, I have a gun too”. At this point David felt that the situation was about to escalate if the kid actually had a gun and that he and the twin were in danger. He fired a couple rounds into the woods overhead. After that the boys ran.
Tuesday the water test came back negative and the water was perfectly fine. However, I mentioned to my husband that I was having issues with the facet. The facet head looked like it was a pull-down sprayer, but it would not budge from the facet. When David came in after dinner, I mentioned it to him and he immediate started to address the problem. He dismantled the sink facet and found that who ever installed it, lost a critical piece so instead used electrical tape which is why I was unable to remove the facet head from the facet mount. In the process of him trying to figure it out, the kitchen was flooded again. This time, David lost it. He was so angry at what ever idiot was lazy enough to not replace the part but to use electrical tape on a water facet. The facet was trash. We marched ourselves back to Lowe’s and bought a kitchen facet. He was up very late that night installing the new facet.
Wednesday went smooth, we though the bad streak was over. We finally caught a break. However a tropical storm hit. The gutters on the house had clearly not been cleaned out in years. My husband spend the day cleaning the cutters in the rain. We found pieces of the metal roof lodged in the gutters. My poor husband was out there in the rain for hours. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the worst of our day. After I went to bed my husband startled me awake and told me the basement was flooding. Now, the last time my husband startled me awake like that, our daughter had started her period for the first time and I thought the world was coming to an end. My husband is originally from California, flooding is not something he is accustomed to, whereas, I’m from southern Indiana, flooding is normal. So I take off my socks and start trucking through water to go and fix the sub-pump. As I look for the sub pump I realize quickly this house doesn’t have one. Then I start to stress. My husband and I quickly divulge a plan to get as many of our belongings off the floor as we can. In the mean time we are trying to see where it’s coming from. It was dark and raining outside, logic would say it was storm water. At the time we couldn’t find a source of where the water was coming from. So all we could do is save our stuff. I sent messages to our realtor, I took videos, pictures, and I started making lists. As my husband and I stood there in ankle deep water, we wondered if we were about to make the biggest mistake of our lives. It was all becoming very clear that this basement had flood before and this had been an unresolved issue the previous owner didn’t address and didn’t disclose. Now, regardless if we buy or walk away, we had a mess on our hands.
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Rye Family Farm 