1 - Things Have A Way of Finding Their Way Back Home: Land Back in theFamily

Our property was once owned by my wife's aunt and uncle.  It was a place where they made memories with their children, grandchildren, and nieces.  It was also a place my wife loved too.  As children might do when they don't get their way, she would threaten to run away from home--well, she ran to her aunt's house (a short 100 yards away) across the street from her parents.  She loved the smell of the lilacs that once grew there and I assure her that we will plant new ones when we reach the landscaping part of this project.  

The house on the property before we bought it was built by my wife's uncle.  My wife's sister and her husband own a camp not far away also built by this uncle.  He used to barter his services for leftover material.  In the case of their camp, it was the property and the materials to build it.  Our brother-in-law has some great stories to share on the construction methods used on the camp. We don't doubt those same practices were applied to the house.  At any rate, by the time we took ownership of this property it was too far beyond repair for us to consider to renovating it.   

We've been told that prior to this home being built, that previous structure burned down and my wife's uncle built this house on the old foundation, a hand laid stone basement with large granite slab foundation walls.  After my wife's aunt and uncle passed away, this property was sold to an owner who lived in it for about a decade, but didn't take the best care of the home or the property.  The property was foreclosed on and he was evicted in 2011.

Once the previous owner was evicted in Fall 2011, the condition of the house got even worse.  After the bank took ownership, they didn't take any precautions to mitigate the effects of winter in Maine.  The pipes froze, later bursting, causing extensive damage and the peripheral winds of Hurricane Sandy at the end of October that year brought a tree down through the roof.  The bank actually put this house up for sale on a realtor site as needing, "a little TLC."  To us, the house was ruined, infested with rats, covered in mold and mildew, and rotted to the sill plate.  This house was falling apart at every angle.

We acquired this property through a foreclosure auction in 2012, one where my mother-in-law drove through a snow storm and was the only person who showed up.  The bank tried to haggle for their price, but she's a shrewd lady and has lived across the street from this house for close to 50 years now.  They couldn't pull the wool over her eyes on this one, and she got her price by calling out the bank on the specific conditions of the property.

It wasn't the house my wife and the family used to know.  Their memories of this old place are the best things to keep.  We plan to make more memories with our plans.

The house needed to be retired.  My mother-in-law coordinated with the local volunteer fire department in 2014 for a controlled training burn and on 28 June they put that old house to rest, but not before using it for a number of live training exercises for weeks leading up to the day of the fire.  The house was completely engulfed in 10 minutes, burned down in an hour or so, and the remains smoldered for at least a week.

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My mother-in-law signed the property over to us in September 2014 on my wife's birthday.  I know she would like to have her daughter closer and a vacation home across the street is pretty close.  With the property officially signed over to us, we began planning to build the first phase of our dream vacation home--a Barndominium.