A VERY complicated house sale:)

Today, I'm going to share the story of our first house "sale".  What a crazy moment in our lives it was...

Chris found out that he received the accounting fellowship with the government when I was 37 weeks pregnant.  Yes, crazy enough, right?  Abby was born 1 1/2 weeks early, so about 1 1/2 week later.  With a newborn baby and two little boys, we were quickly trying to organize our house to get it in "showing" condition, no easy thing especially with 1400 square feet for a family of five.  Anything that we weren't using went into our attic, baby items were minimized, toys were packed up in boxes for the attic, and it was time to get this house listed.

In Abby's third week of life, the house was on the market.  This is also the week that Chris returned back to work.  So here I was in my first week of being home with all three kids and that Wednesday, the house was scheduled to be listed.  Not a problem, the open house wasn't until that Sunday and I had a maid scheduled to come on Saturday to do a BIG clean before it.  Little did I know that starting at 7 am on Wednesday morning, I would be fielding phone calls from realtors that wanted to see our house. On the first day on the market (Wed), there were 8 showings.  Now, what do you do with all three kids all day long while your house is unavailable, especially when one is nursing?  Target, library story times, restaurant meals, and one gracious neighbor!  Within the next three days, there were at least 20 more.  Before the open house even occurred, an offer was given, we accepted, and the house was sold.  

Now, you are probably thinking...that is amazing!  Yes, it is.  We were very excited that it looked like the house was sold and all we had to do was find a rental place.  That brings you to the house inspection.  About two weeks later, our house was inspected for more than four hours.  CRAZY, right?  It is almost 100 years old, so of course it has some things that could be updated, fixed, repaired.  We also had our own house inspection before we moved in less than three years ago.  So we weren't overly concerned.  

When we got the initial report, there were some BIG possible problems (that our inspector failed to notice), but the main one involved a possible metal object in the backyard.  Now, this is something that I have never heard of or was even aware of, but oil tanks were buried in backyards in New Jersey.  They were decommissioned when people changed to gas heat, but left underground.  It has become a BIG issue in New Jersey because if you have a "leaking" oil tank, then you have to pay remediation of the soil (without insurance's help) which can cost anywhere from $10,000 at the least to over $100,000.  

Well...after a possible metal object was found to be in our backyard, we were concerned that it could be an oil tank.  Several neighbors, realtors, and friends thought that there was no way that this "object of concern" was an oil tank based on placement.  Chris decided to uncover himself using a chisel to dig over six feet down (starting on the same day that he had his wisdom teeth taken out) to discover that yes, it was an oil tank.  This caused us to have to call a company to remove the oil tank.  Waiting a few very anxious weeks for the dig to happen, this is what happened...  

 And what do you know, we have an 1000 gallon oil tank (none come in this size, most are 250-500 gallon, but our lucky house has this crazy ridiculous size!)

Not only did we have an 1000 gallon oil tank, but our tank had holes, which meant automatically that it is LEAKING.  Not good news, not what any house owner wants to hear.  Automatically, we have to start the soil remediation process.  

 

They removed the tank from our backyard.  A worker from the company discussed the next process where again we had to wait a couple weeks before the next dig to occur which involved getting the soil tested and cleaned out until the soil came back clean.  

So again the wait would happen.  Now, we were very anxious for several reasons.  One:  Chris had to be closed on the house to be able to start his new job (in less than three weeks now).  Our buyers couldn't close until we had a No Further Action letter from the government which could take months.  Two:  We had no idea how much we were going to have to pay.  Again, it could be around $10,000 or up to $100,000 and remember insurance doesn't cover this.  What a mess.  This may be a reason that my blogging fell off the face of the earth.  On top of it all, we have a newborn at home, two little boys, and trying to get moved within the next couple weeks.  Let's just say that this was one major stress in our life...

So a couple weeks later, they fit us into the schedule (thankfully they pushed us ahead of others based on our very complicated situation) and the BIG digger came.  The environmental engineer came to do the testing.  And this SUPER anxious wife (with all three kids) left the house.  There's no way that I could be there.  (And did I mention that this happened on the day that the movers were at our house packing?  Three days before our official move was going to happen.  It couldn't get much crazier.)  While the kids and I were spending our day with Courtney and her kids (she somehow wants to still be friends after all the mess that she managed through with us!), Chris was back at home anxiously awaiting results of the dig and directing the movers.  On top of that, the oil tank happened to be halfway under the deck so we were hopeful (but not optimistic) that they wouldn't have to tear our entire back deck off.    

Now, are you ready for the results?????

 

The soil came back clean.  Not a trace of oil in it.  None.  Yes, we were shocked and elated to hear this news.  After all the mess that had happened over the past few months, we were thankful that the process will finally be ending.  The hole was filled back up.  The back deck was thankfully not torn down.  And the house was going to be sold.  

I don't even know what to say about this big giant mess of a house sale.  How did this happen to us in the first place?  I have no idea how our realtor when we bought the house failed to mention to us about this issue (us not knowing being first time home buyers from out of state), but I can't rehash and try to place blame.  Chris and I have put this awful, and very expensive, process behind us because there is no sense dwelling on it.  (And thanks to my parents for putting up with some very tearful phone calls!)  We are thankful that we were able to sell the house to the relocation company who now owns it until the NFA letter comes and they will close with the buyers.  The No Further Action letter has officially arrived and I am thankful to say that Chris and I made it through this entire mess only as a stronger couple and remembering that our kids are the most important thing to us, not our house/money/possessions.  I have to admit that there is a little piece of me that is loving this "rental" thing while we are doing this two year fellowship in DC, knowing that a problem is just a phone call to the landlord.  I also know that I may be the "pickiest" home buyer the next time around after the crazy house sale/inspection ever.  And last, but not least, at least these moments brought a little more entertainment to these construction loving boys' lives.