Another Milestone for The House of Howard

 A month after my mother passed away in December 2021, our neighbor passed away in his truck in his driveway.  That there is a long story in and of itself, but we will save that for later.  Though...well...on with the story.

 After he passed we decided that we would attempt to purchase the property; not necessarily because we wanted it for ourselves per se, but because we didn't want anyone else to have it.  We wanted to be able to control who lives there. 

From hence forth I shall refer to the neighbor as "Tuna" because that is what he wanted everyone to call him, something about his having been in the Navy when he was younger.  (He was in his 70s when he passed.) Gary always referred to him as Fish.  Haha..

 Tuna did not have any children of his own.  And he was divorced.  He and his ex, Betty (not her real name) had moved to Missouri from Massachusetts in the mid 90s, I believe.  They bought this place together, mostly using her money, from what we gathered.  I think they originally lived in Springfield and then moved to this house in like 2001 or 2002.  I know it was a year or two before I met Gary in 2003.

They then moved to Springfield in 2010-ish, we are not exactly sure.  Then a couple-three years or so later they divorced and he moved back to the house here in about 2015 or so.  We are not sure on the exact dates.  In any case he lived in this little house here alone until he passed in Jan 2022.  In all that time of owning the place they did not do one thing as far as improvements or upkeep on the property.  They kept the majority of the lawn mowed, but in the time that they didn't live here, sprouts took over parts of the lawns and they would just mow around them, so that now there are patches of trees, and ornaments vines have just taken over the place. Tuna did nothing to the place when he moved back into it.

At some point after 2015 the well quit working and Tuna, who had a grudge against Gary, refused to have Gary come over to repair it.  So he lived there with no running water for several years until his death. He still used the bathroom and didn't flush! 

After his death Betty assumed the place was hers. She checked the courthouse and her name was still on the deed so she went about the process of cleaning up the house. It took her about a year to get the house cleaned up enough to even consider selling it.  And it's a quite small, old house.  However, they were collectors of crap, and the bathroom needed to be absolutely gutted; all the fixtures and flooring had to be torn out.  So it was a great deal of work. His nephew, who is in his 50s or 60s, came out and helped once or twice.  

After it was cleaned up she listed the place with a realtor and we put in our bid.  This was in the spring of 2023.   The title did not pass inspection, however.  Even though she was in his will as heir to the property; their divorce nullified it.  Tuna just hadn't bothered going to the courthouse after the divorce to have her name removed from the deed.  So she did not have a clear title to the property.  So the time between about April 2023 and now, August 2025 has been a tangle of court dates, attorneys (on her behalf, not ours) public notifications, letters to his heirs (his siblings and nieces and nephews-I think there were a total of 12 maybe, people), us signing extended purchasing contracts...etc, etc.  There were at least 2  court hearings she had to appear at, and I don't know how many packets of paperwork, and calls and trips she had to make between towns. 

But FINALLY yesterday we went to the title company, paid the money, signed the paperwork and it's done.

Well.  The paperwork is done.  Now the real work starts for us.  The place is a dump.  To put it mildly.  At least she cleaned everything out of the house and it's not like the Maxwell house was when we bought that.  

Here is a quick shot of the house from the driveway.  Haha!  Can you spy it in that tangle of brush they never bothered cleaning out in 20 years? 

                        

vvv

 Here is a shot from the driveway, looking down toward the front of the house.  Almost literally a jungle!

 

 So last night to "celebrate" our purchase, finally, we got chainsaw and loppers, rigged up with gloves and sheer determination and tackled the place. Gail came across the road to see what we were doing and got enlisted in helping us.

Gary took the chainsaw and worked on the overgrowth along the driveway whilst Gail and I tackled the front of the house.   

 

The front door: 

 We made quite a dent in the overgrowth.

Here's Gail and Gary working on the last vines at this corner of the house.  Gail would kill me for posting a picture of her like this, so keep mum if you know her.  Haha.. 

 

Here is what the front of the place looks like now. 

 

  At least you can access the door without being in fear for your life of what might jump out of the shrubbery.  Ha!  Thankfully we didn't see hide nor scale of any snakes, nor any wasps either.  Gary got one tick, but I didn't get any.  Of course I had really suited up with long sleeves tucked into my gloves, jeans tucked into my boots and lots of insect repellent.  I soon as I got home I tossed all my clothes immediately into the washing machine and then showered.  I don't think I even got a chigger.

Gary came home and got the tractor and the brush-hog and did a bit more cleaning up, but then the brush-hog fritzed out on him, so he has to get that fixed.  But we made a big dent in the place.