Mother nature should be able to take care of residual odors once all the trash is gone. My son lives in Denver and his next door neighbor is an old cat lady. They are not even sure that anyone lives in the house except that trash is stacked at the back of the lot. It is so overgrown that it's hard to see anything. The city does come by and pick it up, but now and then it resembles nothing less that a dead body in the back yard!

Hopefully this will all end on a positive note.

Today there were 5 trucks there along with the electric/gas truck, a city truck from 'waste management' and lots of workers. They have removed the bars from the windows (windows are getting replaced) and now, we have NO PARKING signs all up and down the street where I suspect they are going to dig up the road to put in the sewer connection, which BTW is ALREADY THERE, but nobody can seem to locate the connection. I KNOW it's there, because when they were putting in the sidewalks, we watched the workers and the CITY guy told us he was putting in the sewer connection to the property line SO when they eventually decided to get off septic, they wouldn't have to chop up the sidewalk or road.

Stupid City can't seem to remember or find the connector. Maybe someday they will, but for this entire week, we will have really awful blockades on our street. I suspect that the normal cars that speed by, will figure this out and turn up the side streets and then back onto my street. Gotta be a big jam for a few days as they work away. My house isn't posted for no parking so I assume I will have tons of vehicles parking out front. They marked 3 houses on each side for no parking.

Gonna be exciting all week.

Finally! Promptly at 8 am, we have jackhammering and traffic cones, and signs and a guy directing traffic on one side of the street (alternating directions). There are 6 huge trucks, a backhoe, a porta-potty, 2 beach chairs? and a cooler. Looks like a party going on. People are stopping by as they are on their morning walks and shaking hands with the workers, having their pictures taken?, this is like a block party. EVERYONE is happy that finally something is happening and soon we will have a nice house, with proper plumbing, all utilities, clean yard and NO squatters.

Not happy about the noise, and later (rush hours) will be messy with a back up of cars in front of my house, but it's all good. I am thrilled with all the stuff happening. Took some pictures for posterity to add to my 'album' of the Squatter's House Saga.

Got a call from the ex-boyfriend of the 'original squatter', Bad Gal, and he's still driving by looking at the activity. He lived in there for a time with the old guy and thought someday, he might 'inherit' the house. Not in the plans. Too bad, as he was the closest 'relative' to poor old guy. I found out from the Niece, that old guy called this 'kid' his nephew. They were always together, until the big disaster and subsequent mess with the head injuries. There are still rumors that someone, perhaps the 'kid' bashed the old guy to steal from him. Gads! Amazing what people will conjure up.

Time to go out to my porch and spy on the activities.

At least it's GOOD spying now!

Well, you never know when you will get unexpected company. After MONTHS of no word from Bad Gal, I'm out in the back yard raking up cat poop and I hear a faint, 'hello', 'hello', and look up to see HER at my gate. She has her huge, expensive SUV parked out front. She says she was just driving by on her way to her daughter's house (daughter is pregnant again) and saw all the action at the House. So I'm chatting with her over the fence, and who should also drive by? Yup, the EX boyfriend (he drives by a lot, calls me, stops to talk). So now we have a PARTY going on in the midst of all the sewer work, with all the huge machines and they both park smack dab in the little bit of driving space that the workers have coned off for through traffic. So fun. Better yet, SHE has a new dog, a cute little chihuahua named Cashmere. Adorable doggie with a pink halter. Very friendly. So she decides Cashmere needs to potty and I point her to the edge of my property outside the fence. Well, little Cashmere didn't have to go and instead greeted every person walking by. Cute.

So we caught up on 'news'. Ex was getting FAT since his mom died a few weeks ago. I hadn't seen him in about 2 months. He's really plumped up. Wow. And Bad Gal said that Fat Gal is living with one of the other girls, in her brother's home on the other side of town. I knew of the first girl's place (she's the one Bad Gal beat up way in the beginning of the squatting 2 years ago). But I guess she took in Fat Gal now. How nice. At least I know where the major players are. We chatted about the 'old days' and the holes in the floor, and who is in jail, or not, etc. Bad Gal says she and her boyfriend are going to buy a cheap house and 'flip it'. I'll believe that when I see it, but HE has the skills and she's an OCD worker so maybe they could. She seemed a bit miffed when I mentioned that usually Flips are bought for all CASH. Can't get a mortgage usually for a fixer. I'll be surprised if and when...

WORK continues today. Started at 7 am sharp. Got all the players here. Got the porta potty, back hoe, 2 dirt trucks, the 'tool' truck with trailer, a flat bed with those heavy steel plates on it to cover the hole they dug. And loads of workers, most who are standing around laughing and doing not much. My friend commented that I should have taken a picture of the 2 or 3 sitting in the beach chairs, drinking something, and put it on the city's website as 'our city workers, working hard'.

Today I think they will be done. Saw PVC piping being dropped off and they are now digging on the other side of the sidewalk towards the house. I'm assuming once that goes in, the new owners will just have to connect to the city pipes. OH and I now know what those huge 'VACTOR' trucks do. Usually they just look down the sewer openings once a month, to be sure they are clear. Yesterday, after making the connection for the new pipe, they sucked out the sewage (spilled with the cutting) and then pumped it back into the sewer hole nearby. They didn't even have to move the truck. Front hose took in the glop, and back hose pumped it back into the sewer right behind it. Nothing like SEEING sewage pumping down a CLEAR output tube. UGH!

Watching for more excitement. News when it happens.

I think my 'series' for the Squatter's house is just about over. Nothing really drastic to report. Sewer pipe all done and inspected and hole filled in. Horrible bump in the road where they dug up the asphalt AND a nasty 3 foot wide asphalt 'patch' across the not so old sidewalk. Looks terrible. I hope they come back later and patch that.

Yesterday, finally we had tons of work over there. I think the 'permits and sewer' stuff held them up on their 6 week turn around. Now, they have 5-7 vehicles over there all day. Yesterday they poured gravel into the now pumped out old septic tank and leveled the ground back there. Looks good. Today, dunno, lots of vehicles and guys with buckets and a hose and maybe they are working inside.

It's been so boring since all the Squatter's were eliminated. My neighbors and I are almost wishing we had the turmoil back. I said ALMOST!

Next installment when they finally get this thing done and ready to sell. They bought it for 290,000 and with the 12,000 for just the sewer fix, they will have to sell it for a load more to make any profit. Can't wait till it's listed for sale to go see what they did.

I wish I could go with you! Pictures if you can get them!

AND I thought it was all over with the 'previous' tenants in the house. Well it's starting again as I warned the new 'owners/rehab crew'.

Yesterday, nobody worked over there. The don't work on Sundays so the place is deserted. About 1 pm, I see a guy walking by my house on his cell phone, and he's wearing the 'traditional' bright white, short sleeved, very long, t-shirt and black pants. Typical dress for one of the local gangs. I get a strange feeling. So I watch and soon enough he crosses the street right to the corner of the house. He walks up the side street (along the back yard fence) and before you can blink, he's over the fence and across the yard behind the house.

Of course this means trouble, so I watch, and less than 2 minutes later, there he is, coming back over the fence (a bit farther up under cover of a huge pepper tree) WITH something very heavy in his hand. Looks about the size of one of those home battery charger/jumper thingies. Dunno what it was but he was leaning to the other side to balance the weight. It was probably some tool that the rehab guys carelessly left in the bed of the one truck they leave there, which blocks the still open garage door area.

He goes up the street quickly but not running, crosses to the other side, goes up about 4 houses and ducks into the driveway, out of sight. THEN he reappears (still with his loot) and crosses over again, continuing up the street. THEN he crosses back and goes up the street. By that time my neighbor who has a clear view all the way up the street lost sight of him. We think he probably turned on the cross street.

So the thefts continue. I warned the rehab guys on day ONE that this would happen, but obviously they left something tempting out for the former guys to take. I predicted the thief would bring back reinforcements last night, but I didn't spend any time watching. Hey, the rehab guys have those nifty FAKE security cameras up. That should deter a thief, right?

Anybody knows that a security camera (no matter how good it looks) is fake if it has a blinking light. I did a little searching on the web to try to find a REAL one with a blinking light. Nada, none. I'm pretty sure that the 2 or 3 they put up are all fake. I'm half hoping one of them drops over to ask if I saw anyone around there. I will nicely tell them, sure, I saw a guy, and he should be clearly on their cameras.

Can't wait to see how many more times they lose 'stuff'. They probably also left tools inside the house thinking it's all locked up and no one would bother anything. I tried to tell them, they never listen.

Oh, that would be sort of delicious - sure the thief will clearly be on your security cameras!

Do those fake cameras generate fake suspect photos?

AHA! Progress on the rehab of the house. It's going to be gorgeous. Sewer done, gas, electric. Yesterday they removed a French door and side windows that opened onto the front porch (which is never used) and closed up the wall and put in a nice window. They even matched the 1935 narrow wood siding exactly. Wow! Can't wait for it to be done so I can go look at the finished job. AND they are making the garage back into parking/workshop plus an office in the back. Awesome. Later, all new windows, a new roof, painting and landscaping. BIG project. Someone will buy a really nice house there and maybe nothing else bad will happen. NOT holding my breath though. Never say never.

Painting and roofing for the past few days. They have removed 2 of the 4 original doors, leaving just a back and front door. Looks nice. They also took off the tiny porch leading to one of those unnecessary doors, then they made the bathroom window 1/3 its original size. Not sure why. I would think more light is better than less. Maybe they are repositioning the tub or something. Every day we have between 5-8 trucks/vans/cars over there working from about 7 am till 4pm. Very quiet actually not like I expected. They have over sprayed all the old windows (6 over 1) and I think that means they are going to rip those out and replace them. Then maybe they will replace the tired old nasty chain link fence too. The squatters made sure that got ruined. Time will tell.

Sounds like they are going all in on this one.

OK this is going to be good. Yesterday, the workers were working, and the nasty guy across the street who is STILL shunning me after 2 plus years was out early doing his 'thing'. He is a weird one. He paces constantly in his yard, and around the sidewalk and then is on his phone constantly. Strange guy, always. Creepy. Seems while the old house was being prepped and rehabbed and painted (primer coat) SO was this guy's house across from me by his Landlord. So it's me, then nasty guy directly across, and the old house directly across the street corner from him.

So the Landlord over at nasty guy's house (a very good guy, wonderful family) who lived there for 18 years and I knew them well, decided to move 'up' in the world (literally up the hill nearby) and they rented out the house to this family. All was well until the fateful day the cops showed up at nasty guy's house late at night and interrupted a small party. They had been setting off fireworks (M-80's) and someone (NOT ME) called the cops. Since that day, nasty guy has been shunning me. Started suddenly, when he just looked away as I walked by and said hi as usual. It became apparent after he kept putting his head down or turning away from me, and then he spent (and still does) enormous amounts of time sitting out front glaring at my house or me if I'm outside. Or, he drives up in front of my front door, hesitates before making a U-turn to his house and makes a point of starring at my front door.

I'd say I was paranoid, except my good friends and neighbors confirmed what I was seeing. Weird guy, my candidate for going ballistic one day and shooting up the neighborhood or his workplace. You never know what he will do. Bad bad temper, cops have been over there 3 times in the last 2 months and the last time they took him away in handcuffs, I think only to Detox facility (he was really drunk) and non-compliant. That's the weekend, 6 weeks ago now, that we think he got fired from his job after missing work and whatever else he did.

So I avoid him as much as possible, but to get back to the story: Because the Landlord was scraping and painting the house over there, he told the renters to move their cars to protect them from overspray. So this guy and his daughter and wife (3 cars) have been parking in front of my house and my neighbor's house for about 5 days now. Not a biggie since I know eventually they will all be back on their side, but it makes it hard to get out of my driveway on a very busy, fast moving street.

So yesterday...he comes across the street, and goes to the daughter's car. He looks it over with a flashlight and runs his hands over the entire thing. Then he comes to his car and does the same. Then a whole bunch of him driving each car around the block and parking it and taking the other one out. Strange. Then he has the daughter's boyfriend come over and look at both cars, then they go off and get an estimate to REPAINT the entire car! I only know the details because my good neighbor was driving into her driveway just as he and the daughter and dad were right in front with the papers from the paint place. He talks to her, of course, is overly friendly with everyone except me. So unnerving when I'm sometimes standing RIGHT WITH the person he's gushing over. Ugh. So she told me the entire story from his view.

So then, oh it gets better, as nasty guy goes across to the old house and brings one of the workers back over to look at the cars. His comment was "I don't see anything wrong". He went back to work. So I figured the nasty guy was going to try to get the old house rehabbers to pay for the paint (which I still don't see). Always go for the deep pockets. THEN the Landlord appears, he and the tenant have a heated discussion and lots of gesturing, which ends up with Landlord (who was also painting on the same days as the old house) about the overspray, with the nasty guy telling the Landlord, "I just wanted to give you a head's up".

All too weird, and then the picture taking of both cars AND then he and the wife sneaking over last night to look at the other Tenant's car which is parked in front of my house (been there for several days) and I guess they wanted to see if she had any damage. He told my neighbor that ALL the tenants (3 couples and kids) had paint damage. THIS cannot be since all of them are parked in different places up and down and across the street nowhere near the houses being painted. And I just talked to another neighbors right there, whose cars are parked in the 'line of fire' and she has NO damage to any of her cars or the next door ones which are CLOSER to the old guy's house and would have surely gotten oversprayed.

So now we wait to see if any insurance adjusters appear, or the 'head' guy of the rehab project comes to deal with the complaint. I can hardly wait to see how this ends up. As I'm looking at it, he's out for a fast buck since he's out of work. I personally, walked right up to both of the cars out front of my house and looked at them in the bright sunlight. NOTHING but dust on them, no white paint, nothing. AND my BLACK mailboxes are right there where this nasty guy said his car got oversprayed. Duh! He's a clever con man. Just his word that there is paint damage. I'd love for someone to come and ask me when the painting was done on which house and did I see any overspraying on any cars OR my mailboxes in the line of fire too.

I'm hoping it all turns out well. Maybe he will make a few bucks. It would be impossible to tell if it was the rehabbers or the Landlords paint unless you get CSI out here to do a DNA test.

Never dull!

AHA! Our errant neighbor (the one who is claiming paint damage) went BACK to WORK! Yep, 6 full weeks to the day he arrived home after the 'arrest' bit, he went in yesterday AM and then again today. I'm hoping they lifted the suspension and that he will not do anything stupid again. This should help with the constant pacing around the yard and sidewalk and might make him think before he drinks too much. Although, all afternoon, evening yesterday after his first day back, he made those constant trips to the liquor store and came home with one can/bottle, only to guzzle it and then make the trip again. I counted 5 trips by last night.

AND in the progress of the former squatter house, they are replacing the ratty chain link fence (ruined by the squatters/looters) and putting up a lovely 4 foot redwood fence all around. Nice. AND they moved the front gate (which no one ever used) way down the block. They will have to put some sort of 'walkway' from there to the actual front door so visitors can find it. Strange but makes sense since the address is on that side street, but the front door faces both streets at an angle. Maybe this will make the address easier to find. Things are looking GREAT. They also ripped off the rotted front porch and are building a brand new one. I just can't wait for it all to be finished so I can get a look inside. All I have in my mind now is clutter and then junk mattresses and misc. stuff left by the squatters, along with huge holes in the oak floors and horrible bathrooms. It's going to be awesome.

This sounds positive Sorta.

I can't believe my eyes! They are painting the house today. NOT what we all expected.

We live in an old community of houses that were mostly built in the 30's and 40's. Some are newer 50's but all are smallish and look pretty nice, with most of them being the major color of white, pale yellow, tans, etc., with white trim. So the squatter's house was built in 1935, has always been white narrow siding boards and a brown trim. I've seen it that way for 37 years now. So today, they are painting and the color is:

DARK NAVY BLUE...almost Black! Not kidding. The entire big 3 bedroom house is now an eyesore, sticking out on the corner like some hideous work of art. They had put a nice charcoal roof on and painted the trim white, so we figured that the house would be white or yellow or tan or something. Nope, DARK navy. I am speechless. It clashes with the charcoal roof color now. Doesn't match or coordinate at all.

My neighbor, all 87 years of her, got in her car to go to the store just now and shouted across the road (rare for her) to one of the workers, "Are you going to leave it painted black?!". I don't think she got the answer because the worker was speaking Spanish but you could tell by his body language that he wasn't really interested in what she was asking. Oh dear.

Horrible looking. Would be great in some upscale San Francisco neighborhood where all the houses are wild colors, but in this neighborhood where everything blends in with the scenery, and nothing is dark it's just horrible.

I will update if they somehow change it, but for now, I think we are stuck with the navy paint. The only good thing I can say is that the huge house, now looks so much smaller.

I would think with the warmth you have they would want light colors. Oh well, I guess it's the owners right to do whatever they want. I wouldn't want anyone telling me what to do.

Oh, what a horrible choice! I can't imagine doing something to make it stand out like that in the neighborhood! I would think it would scare prospective buyers away.

i dunno ,it sounds good to me ! maybe it's just the change ? i'd not care if it was purple as long as the neighbors were quiet !

This is a very bold choice. It will either start a bidding war or this house will sit on the market for a long time. I still get the feeling that the 'old' gray haired guy who comes over by himself long after everyone leaves might just be the 'new owner'. I'm thinking perhaps he already has his contract on it and they are doing it the way he wants it. HE showed up just a few minutes ago, went around, looked inside and never contacted the workers. Could be a 'custom' job just for him. In any case, I'm trying to reprogram my mind to accept that huge dark blue blob over there where there was bright white all these years. Change is good, right?

But that's a hideous change! Blech...