IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

 

First pics, 2012

So.

The story up to this point.

In 2012, I’d been living in Little Rock Arkansas since 1986, give or take a few years on the road.

I was established, dug in, and in every way, a local.

Thoroughly enjoying my job, a beautiful new girlfriend, and everything except the impending conservative politics and heat of the summer, I had a vision while dozing through a springtime golf match on teevee.

“Go to southeastern Connecticut. Get out while you’re still young enough!”

So I made a plan. But I had to do some recon; such a move required research, whether I heard a voice in my head or not.

I found The Standish Farm the first day I arrived here and within a year, I made a deal for the house. I spent three months packing, scrambling to get every dime I could gather to pay for the down payment, the move, and other dangers such an adventure might throw at me. Things fell together almost magically, usually at the last minute. I’d fret and worry, and then I’d make it happen.

The truck was crippled with the first two hundred miles after leaving Little Rock, but I fixed it and continued. I arrived in the middle of the night, house locked, no water, electricity off, and three very restless and confused dogs in tow. I broke in and slept on the floor, even though the house didn’t technically belong to me yet.

I fixed the electrics (and the lock), built the dog fence in three days, cleaned out the garbage-filled shed to store my shop equipment, and began to work for Early New England Restorations. I battled the dog/fence situation until spring (constant escapes), then fixed THAT.

I had five years to get the house refinanced, and knew very well that I needed to do a LOT of work to get a decent appraisal or even to get someone to loan to me. My credit was good, but I worried all the same. My tax assessor became my champion, giving me GREAT advice on what to do and not do.

Adversity followed my every step; every victory was followed by two disasters. Yet I kept moving forward.

I cleared a lot of the briars and bittersweet that had taken over the property, cleaned out all the outbuildings (well, most of them), installed wood stoves, redid the living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, shored the floors and roof, installed new heaters, and and and and.

Got laid off. Got another job. Quit that nightmare, got another job. Worried and worried and worried.

Built a scaffold to help support my old ass, figuring I needed to redo my roof and I’d never have the money to hire anyone. It’s been like that since I got here. Skin of my teeth every time. Tore apart the barns. Rebuilt some of the barns. Rewired the house.

After living room and kitchen restoration, 2016

 

I knew this year was the crux, the last chance, the end of all things.

Five years ago, the only way anyone would buy this house was if the owners carried the note; no local bank would have loaned on it. Built between 1701 and 1735, it had no heat, was barely livable, and the outbuildings were filled with garbage.

The Izbicki family agreed to carry the note for five years, and I really learned the meaning of Sweat Equity.

And I worried. And worried.

It wouldn’t appraise, no one would loan on it, some little glitch would kill any possibility of refinancing.

On Labor Day weekend 2018, I had two months to get the farm refinanced. I was terrified. November Eighth was my D-Day.

While doing some research on the computer, I saw an ad for Quicken Loans. My tax assessor had recommended them. So maybe this internet loan thing might be good. I called, and within a week, they took the reins and walked me through everything.

It wasn’t like I was out of the deal. Oh, no precious, not this toad. I trust NO ONE. I figured I’d have to keep my eye on them every step of the way. And I did.

But it turned out I didn’t really have to.

I was given a personal mortgage banker named Grant Niemiec with Quicken, and this guy was GOOD. Still is. I am quite the worrier and am not all that well-versed in the refinance of property, but he made it easy. If I had a question, he was there. Texted me back within an hour of any concern, guided me through the process, and understood my over-arching fears. Then he eliminated them. Even when I had problems with other departments at Quicken (very small, and usually due to me), he smoothed it all out.

Then came the day of the appraisal. I worked into the wee hours making the house ready for inspection. The appraiser understood that my home does not have a lot of local comps (comparable properties for pricing an appraisal), but he figured it out, and in a few days, I nearly fainted. My appraisal was more than twice what I owed.

Apparently this sweat equity thing  WORKS.

So did Quicken Loans.

I am not getting a discount of any sort of kickback from this company for a plug. Don’t believe me? READ the other posts on this blog. I'm no patsy. I REALLY like what they did for me.

Keep in mind that I had FOUR mortgagors. And one was dead. FOUR siblings, all over seventy, needed to agree and sign on the dotted like. And NONE used a computer.

Yet it worked out.

And on Halloween Night, eight days before I would LOSE The Standish Farm, I closed. And I did it at my favorite local watering hole.

It took me a few days to realize that I no longer had the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. I’m still, five months later, trying to learn to relax. But I’m beginning to. Not that I completely stopped working on the property. Never will.

The barns needed attention during the early winter, so I began a big push in November. November and December are autumn months here, and I usually get more work done in those two months than the rest of the year. The temps are usually ion the thirties, forties, and fifties, the snow is minimal, and I like to be busy then.

In addition to my freedom from The Sword, Quicken increased my loan amount to replace the roof on the house, on the shop, and part of the Big Barn.

I nearly cried; I wouldn’t have to do it myself. Well, not the house. THAT was a big job. And I AM getting old.

 

So thanks, Grant Niemiec and Quicken Loans/Rocket Mortgage. You guys rock. You REALLY rock.

I think I can sleep in tomorrow.

But not the next day….

It's mid-March 2019. Time to get back to work on THIS. 1735 to the left, 186o to the right. I'll post the big changes since this was taken very soon. But first, a word from my roof...