A Home for the Cats

By Majorpetlover at English Wikipedia Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Last spring my landlord came to the house to tell me his mother had died. The house was in a trust for her, I assumed the rent was supporting her,perhaps in an assisted living or nursing home. Previously at Christmas, my aunt died. I have spent almost a year and a half trying to get my share of her estate. I have mentioned often in this blog about the condition of the house. Now we can figure the family was waiting for mom to go so they could unload the troublesome rental that needed a lot of maintenance. There was no way the house could go on the market in the normal way. The condition was such no bank or loan company would approve a mortgage. So I was offered the opportunity to buy the house. While he did not lose out in any way, still getting my rent while he waited, my landlord decided he path of least resistance was to wait until I got my inheritance and offer the house enough below market that I could pay cash. Then he could leave the repairs to me.

So many things have gone wrong and delayed settlement of the estate I never wanted even to talk about the possibilities. But finally the money came through and the check cleared my bank account, so yesterday I went to the landlord’s office to tell him I was ready to write a check, He had come down five thousand dollars which helped offset the rent I had to pay while I waited on pins and needles for a year. Now I can fix the house the way I want. Finally I have my dream, a real permanent home for the cats.  I will not have to have anyone keep them in a strange place while I house hunt or traumatize them with a move. They can stay in he place they have been for the past five and a half years and know as home.

Those readers who might be interested will be able to follow our adventures as we transform a beat up rental into the cat friendly refuge we want. I can finally build cat walks around the house and a catio out the back door. There will be a lot of work but here will also be a lot of satisfaction. Watch us transform the potholed, weedy back yard into a Japanese garden retreat. We should be able to close in just a couple of weeks because all that’s needed is a fresh title search and the recordings to change the titles. Then freedom. No mortgage, no rent, no obligation but fairly reasonable property taxes equal to about two months rent.

I really miss my aunt, I talked to her every week and she did so much for me over the years. I hope that she knows how happy she has made me and how she has freed us from financial bondage and given us the forever home we have dreamed of. It’s an older neighborhood of smaller houses. There is no annoying, meddlesome homeowner’s association and the lots are too small for people to try to cram in those oversize houses people ruin the look of neighborhoods with.  I can walk to a grocery, a wonderful local hardware store, a wine specialty shop, a branch of one of my banks, a gaming and video store, a new CVS pharmacy and several restaurants, including an old-fashioned ice cream shop. I alway hated the development model of American suburban sprawl where miles of driving were required just to get basic items. Had my aunt left me the hundreds of thousands needed to buy one of those McMansions in acres of sprawl run by anal retentive, money obsessed HOA dictators I would still be looking at houses this size in walkable locations.

I made some short video clips with the Go Pro and I have to clean them up and upload them to Vimeo so I can share them here and you can see our challenges. Thank heaven I was always a fan of This Old House. Now I have a real DIY challenge, but knowing the cats will be secure in their territory is all the motivation I need.