9/14/10 HOME AT LAST
On August 4th I flew back to Spokane County, Washington to work on the house we used to live in and to try very hard to sell it. Last year it drew only four tours in the four months we had it on the market when prices were dropping and the banks were scared. Then we took it off the market and leased it with option to buy. The monthly payments were usually late and the leaser won't communicate so we never knew what to expect. Even though we had paid the electric for the first four months with our State solar incentives credit that we earned with the photo voltaic system I installed there, still I had only received one electric payment since. After it became clear that the renter would not be able to buy the house at the August 16 end of the lease, we put the house back on the market in mid July and had one prospective buyer. When I arrived it was obvious the renter had made no move to pack and she evaded talking to me. The garage door was broken and what had been a new rug had a big hole dug in it by the inside dogs that were not allowed. In fact she had three outside dogs and two inside dogs and four kids. When I finally cornered her she said that she didn't have time to move till maybe the end of the month. I did manage to collect the 5 months back electric but even at the end of the month she had not started to pack. In the meantime I was trying to work on the neglected yard and make some repairs but she said I was making too much noise. I talked to a lawyer and hired him to start the very slow
legal process for eviction as a back up just in case she wasn't out by the end of the month so she ordered me off my own property that she had no legal right to be on. The lawyer said she could do that until we got through the process. In the meantime the earlier prospective house buyer had signed a contract to close by 9/17. I didn't finally get home again until Tuesday evening, one week after finally getting the squatter (former renter) out out of our old residence in Chattaroy. Before I left I signed the sale papers and today, 9/17, the new owners should be taking possession.
For us to regain possession of our own house required hiring a lawyer (Thomas McGarry, in case any of you in Spokane are in need), waiting through 3 stages of warning my former lessee and finally paying the Sheriff to have a deputy go in and order her out “in five minutes or you’re going to jail.” Then some of my very best friends and I had to box and remove most of the belongings of 5 people (they had removed one load the day before). Her friends arrived and started hauling things away from the stacks we’d made in a couple hours. I spent the next few days cleaning repairing and painting. It was a terribly stressful situation to be in but I needed to have the house ready for the closing date and the squatter had lied to me all along and could not be trusted.
So now I am home just in time to vote in our state primary. Today I’ll take the late afternoon for the last pre-election action then Saturday we vote. Meanwhile the sun has now dried off the grass enough that I’ll go work on the gardens that I’m much behind on. The string beans seem to have gone through most of their production cycle while I was gone. Most of our purple sweet potatoes need digging. The old broccoli plants are about done and I need to start new ones. I had some kohlrabi when I left but I don’t even see them now. Our avocados that had barely started when I left are all done (but other kinds are just beginning elsewhere). Our pamelos are nearly as big as my head and still not yellow! The tilapia that were 1” when I left are about 3” now. The old lawn mower that broke a drive belt when I wasn’t here to fix it has been replaced by a new one. The guy who owns the agricultural land across the street has started cutting down all the invasive trees in the gully. The two breadfruit trees in back of the guesthouse that looked they wouldn’t have a worthwhile crop this year are suddenly loaded with fruit. We are at one of those unusual times when there are no ripe bananas in the yard so I’ll need to hunt some.
The Weather cast for the next week is lows of 68 and highs of 81 to 85 degrees.
Aloha!
Rico
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