Fear Factor

If you ask me what the worst room in a foreclosure is I would tell you it's pretty much any room that involves running water. Usually something has been leaking and being ignored long term, most of the people that get evicted are not big on cleaning anything. Ever. So in order of scariness I would have to say it's usually the bathroom, followed by the kitchen and then it's a toss up between laundry room, garage and the bedroom of the 30 year old adult that never moves out. This bathroom here was beyond disgusting - before I arrived Kim swamped it out repeatedly. The toilet is permanently stained and will be replaced at some point. It's really not the worst we've ever seen, that award would have gone to the house David did in Bridgeport where the water was turned off and I think it was the adult son that was squatting there. It had actually eaten through the porcelain and yes, we did toss it. Fast.  The floor in this shower is lovely but hand made and has been leaking under the house for an extended period of time so David bought floor joists to hold up the floor til he can get to it so we don't end up taking a free tour under the house. The other day the spigot came off the hot water so David was running around trying to remember where he left the pliers.....ugh.The other problem is the fixtures are all cobalt blue and bathroom fixtures in dark colors usually look good for about 10 minutes, then they're easily discolored or the color is worn off and then they just look tacky and dirty.

The kitchen here was the main source of the Catpee Cloud, the cats had been living in the cabinets and piddling in them too. David is removing the lower half of all the Sheetrock in the house, we've scrubbed it but it's too saturated to leave. You don't smell it all the time but if it's a little damp it comes right through.  He's removed all the doors on the cabinets and the shelves have been scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. He's replacing the doors and will paint all the shelves with an oil based paint and that should return them to their original state, if not he can tear them out. It's a problem because like I keep saying most of the things in this house were hand built, they are not factory made so the cabinets fit exactly and look perfect. 

The garage. Oh the garage. It is a thing nightmares are made of . The concrete floor was poured incorrectly and  over the years it's heaved, the windows are covered with plywood, the shingles are curling and covered with moss. There are holes in the walls and a hold leading up to the loft - I'm sure if there's a zombie on the property it lives up there. It smells of cat pee and despair.  There are no doors on it so our piles of boxes happily greet the neighbors that drive by, I'm sure the resident raccoon has been perusing my stuff. The deck and balcony come in last on the scary scale - some of it is bouncy, everything is covered in a layer of filth. David did bleach a bit of it yesterday and it's, well, it's not so bad.  The thing that bothers me the most about these foreclosures is you do not have to live this way - soap and bleach are cheap. I cannot imagine going into a bathroom covered in filth, cat shit and soap scum and being ok with it. But that is us and that's why  we are here.