Beginnings

4 August 2011--Escrow closed after weeks of faxes, international texts, emails, offers and counter offers... a long and twisted story full of hurry-up-and-wait, frustration and angst.

507 Koru Ct, South Lake Tahoe, CA in its "original" condition

The property was bank-owned, which made it an interesting process to purchase. Along the way we met the neighbors, forest service employees, real estate agents, inspectors and loan officers; all of whom added bits and pieces to our understanding of story that this little house has to tell.

Built in 1961, the house was originally facing east. It was accessible only by dirt road during the summer and snow mobile during the winter. Eventually the road came, along with utilities. The rear of the house became the front, the front the rear.

In 1985 "Rick" purchased the house and made it his own... which means he installed close to 1,000 feet of cable TV wire, speaker wire, phone wire, DSL wire, two satellite dishes, and an aerial TV antenna. In the process he drilled numerous holes through the exterior walls, rearranged some plumbing and electrical, and sheet rocked over the existing fireplace to create a wall big enough to hold a very large plasma television. He also added a shed, a hot tub, a garage door opener, some decking and a lot of garbage. Despite all of Rick's "improvements" the home inspector, Bill, gave the building a clean bill of health with a long list of "to-do's."

Somewhere along the line Rick entered a drug induced downward spiral that ended in foreclosure. Along the way he wintered over in the house with a local girl, all the while throwing garbage out the windows into the yard... not just candy bar wrappers and beer cans... according to the neighbors it was everything that one would normally put in the trash. Snow covered most of it, but the spring thaw revealed enough garbage that the bank had to bring in a front end loader and a 20 yard dumpster to get rid of the trash when it took possession. In the meantime, Rick, in trouble with the law, went on the lamb. Finding the trash on the outside of the house appealing, the local bear decided that what was inside might even be better. He created a door out of the window and made himself at home--helping himself to the contents of the refrigerator but not remembering to use the toilet when the need arose.

Eventually, the bank got the bear out and the place cleaned up with new carpet and paint. That is about the time that Caren and I first saw it...

The front yard viewed from the street... garage on the right,

shed on the left. Sorry about the finger in the frame.

The rear... you can see where the original "front door" was sided

over just to the left of the kitchen window. Note the open access

to the crawl space. This is where the bear slept when he wasn't in

house. Also note the slightly sagging roof line above the

kitchen window. More on this later...

The south wall as viewed from the "hot tub" deck...

check out all of the cable and wiring.

Two car garage with garage door opener but

without electricity... oh, and minus a key to unlock it. I

busted out my burglar skills and broke into the rear

door by removing the trim to access the jam, from where

I could jimmy the lock.

The rear of the garage and the "hot tub" deck complete with the

foreclosure notice stapled to the wall. The conduit on the wall

originally housed the wiring for the garage, but Rick used it to

power his hot tub... the one that he removed before the bank

kicked him out.

816 square feet of potential? Together, Caren and I have come up with a vision... lotsa work!