A House

Sorry for the blog neglect. I’ve been getting my hands dirty for the past few days.

A couple of years ago, a family friend passed away. It is a complicated story. I’ve told part of Aunt Theresa’s story on the blog. (I can’t find the link, because I have to head back to Westchester in 30 minutes.) Let me briefly tell the rest of the story.

Aunt Theresa, a single former teacher, got sick about ten years ago. Multiple myeloma and Parkinson’s. A bad combination that usually knocks people off in a year. But with a lifetime of good Italian food, she lingered on for years and years. All of her other friends pretty much abandoned her, leaving just my mom. My mom and dad took her to her doctor’s appointments, managed the house, and paid the bills. Towards the end, when the doctors told my mom to arrange for hospice, Aunt Theresa ran out of money. In order to keep Aunt Theresa in her house and out of a horrible nursing home, my parents took out a loan on their own home to cover what was supposed to be two months of nursing care. Her final asset, the house, was worth a lot of money, so they would recoup their money as soon as they sold the house, after her death.

Well, Aunt Theresa lived for another two years. And then after her death, her will became tied up in the courts. In her will, she left a hundred bucks to half a dozen old Paesan living in the hills around Naples. The lawyers had to coax the old paesan out of the hills and into the city to sign paperwork. Since she left her assets to my mom and two other non-related people (who have been totally useless), the courts demanded family trees and signed paperwork from very distant relatives to show that they wouldn’t contest the will. Aunt Theresa was a late in life child to two illiterate Italian laborers. There isn’t much paperwork or evidence that they ever existed.

Meanwhile, this house has been rotting up in Westchester. Pipes burst. Water came in through the attic. The ceiling in the dining room fell in. The place that was extremely dirty to begin with, became even dirtier. And my parents were still owed a great deal of money.

On Thursday, my mom got a call from a lawyer. The court finally approved the will, so she could put the house on the market. My mom wants this burden sold quickly. I ran over there on Friday and cleaned and cleaned. We removed light fixtures that were caked with twenty years of dust, washed them out, and put in new light bulbs. I went to IKEA for new bedspreads and picture frames to cover the old wallpaper. We removed nasty carpets from two bedrooms. It’s actually an adorable tutor in a fancy area of Westchester. With some basic staging, the house will sell quickly. Hopefully. It needs two new bathrooms, but the location is awesome.

I took a few pictures of the half finished house…