This is Not My Beautiful House Part 3

I came home from work one day after Joe disappeared. There were men in his yard, wandering around and checking stuff out. As there hadn't been anyone around for months and they didn't look like Joe's regular "friends", I went home & called the Sheriff.

Two minutes later, my mom calls "Did you know the sheriff has been called to your next door neighbor's house?" She has a police & fire scanner on 24/7. (makes me batsh*t crazy) I explained what happened and said I would call her later.

She calls about thirty minutes later and she's laughing. "You called the sheriff on the... one the.. one the landscapers!"

Thanks Mom.

Turns out the house had fallen into foreclosure. I called Kevin, who called his brother who called his wife who called the courthouse.

One month later, the brother & sister-in-law bought the house next door. Much like the song in the title of this post, Kevin and I both said "My God, what have I done!?!?!'

A few days later they came up to see the house...yes, they bought it without seeing the inside...and Kevin said it was creepy to walk in there. Our dog at the time, Aussie, didn't want to go in but finally did then quickly ran outside with her tail between her legs. Kevin brought her home and convinced me to come down to see.

I have to admit, it felt like walking into a murder scene. The house had such a dark vibe that it left you chilled and headachy.

I can go on for a full day about the condition of the house but I will make a bulleted list:
*over 200 nails in the kitchen ceiling...clearly, someone was playing with a nail gun
*Crooked, hand painted, hot pink, vertical stripes in the den
*a person-sized hole in the bedroom floor, leading outside.
*every door was broken with fist-sized holes in most.
*Dog p*ss stains in every room of the house
*there was a garbage filled camper outside and a truck over the embankment


I would have never bought it, just based on the dark vibe. But they wanted to live up here so badly that they were willing to do the work. It took over a month to get it livable and even then, I still didn't feel comfortable in it.

It is a nice house now. To their credit, it is a home. The vibe is gone and now it feels like they've never not lived there.

Oh wait, I have to tell you one more thing about this part:
Remember "have you seen my cat?'

Kevin tapped out painting and decided to work outside. He brought down his weed-whacker and began clearing the back yard. He came in about thirty minutes later, pale as a ghost. "Come outside. Don't attract attention, just come outside."

He had uncovered three little crosses in the backyard. There were the cats.

Kevin threw the crosses away and we never told anyone in the family what happened. Because I think after everything, they would lose their sh*t about that.

Two houses down...two houses to go...