So I'm officially a homeowner, yup.
These last few weeeks have been so fckn stressful as I got about 150 grand dumped into my lap. Normally, that's not big deal but I made the decision when I found out I was getting my money to buy a house and after a series of dealings with an ass of a real estate dealer, I have a house on the lake. This all comes from my grandpa's inheritance. He was a real terrible piece of shit of an old man who I've only met a few times in my life and who tortured my dad beyond my wildest beliefs. He croaked last year and when they decided to sell their church and their house, they decided to split my dad's take of the inheritance between me and my little brother who got a special needs trust set up for him. This was the work of my grandma not the old man, I try to be nice to her because really she was just as tortured as my Dad, partly because of what he did to my Dad and how she was powerless (in her mind) to stop it.
So I finally signed the court papers at the beginning of January (which was hard as we lost an awesome uncle from the side of the family we're actually close to), and I got the money. I immediately decided I wanted a house to be mine, one in Lakeport, CA which is a great little town encompassed by an otherwise shitty area. Thus, real estate prices we're really cheap, really cheap. I had originally not been stuck on something right by the lake but when I found this house I had to, it's right in the town of Lakeport (other bigger houses were cheaper but in meth-riddled areas and I don't want to board my windows when I'm not there) and it's just perfect for what I want, a block from the lake with my own boat access.
So I really liked this house, an REO so it was way cheap, it needs some work on the exterior but the inside is cherry, and when I hired a contractor to inspect it, it came out fine. Since I'm paying with a cashier check, I didn't have to go through all the bank bullshit of fixing every little minute detail before I bought it. The original asking price was 80 thousand, my real estate guy is a friend of the family (we call him Mr. President because he's black and always gives these rousing Obama-esque speeches), and he suggested we offer 71K cash and hope they take it. The bank counter offers 78K and we play the game, I tell Ed the realtor that I just want to get this over with. I have school to deal with, a job and a grieving family that's shaken by the loss of a brother.
This fucken lady, she says we should counter-offer the bank 74K and see what happens. Nope, another counter-offer from them. I tell Ed that I just want the house and I don't mind shelling out the extra 5K, he communicates this to her and then she goes AWOL for 5 days, I thought I had lost out so we began formulating a plan B and setting up trips to go see other houses in the area. Unfortunately this lady is like the fcken kingpin real estate person of Lake County and she controls almost ALL the listings. She finally emails back saying the counter-offer was denied again and that they want the original asking price now. A month later is where I'm out now, a MILLION trips to OfficeMax to fax signature after signature later (it's a lake house, I understand that it might be in a fcken flood zone, gah!) and I got the house. I just got the call that it went through ESCROW, tomorrow I go down and I sign all the closing paperwork and I get the keys.
Honestly I don't know how I feel, I feel bad for my Dad who has never owned property in his life and is working all alone in North Carolina on some veteran hospitals. Same for my mom although she's close to procuring a house for herself around the same area but she is dealing with the same BS real estate lady. I have 3 Cashiers check, the final cost was 78,500, more then the original counter-offer from the bank but it was worth it to get it over with.
I'm so happy, I can't describe the joy but at the same time it's really really wierd. I'm just a kid, I still have roughly 60K in the bank and I had never had more then a couple thousand in my possession at one time, and that was for my apartment deposit. I'm still living here btw, I don't want to commit to this area for to long. My family has rented our whole lives, I went to 13 different schools in my 13 years of K-12 education, now I have a place that is mine and no bank or anyone can touch it, it's mine. Up until only a few years ago, the only person in my family to own a house was my grandpa and his 4 kids who inherited a house in the heart of San Francisco when my grandma died. Now that that's sold, my aunt owns 3 houses (because her husband recieved an inheritence), both of my older brothers (who come from a different dad so they weren't included in the will of my dad's parents) are on their way to paying off houses of their own, both married and settled down.
Yet outside of that, nothing seems better. My family life is fractured. One brother is married living in Kansas City, the other is married with a family in Kentucky. My dad is in North Carolina and even though he's made his fair share of huge mistakes, I feel bad for him. My mom doesn't love him anymore, it's not her fault, he was terrible to her when the times were bad.
But now times are good yet nothing seems like it's coming together. My grandma is dead, this has been 8 years already but she was the glue of our family. My Uncle Mark is dead, his son is my age and still alive with a fucking heroin addiction and is to stubborn to let any of us help him. Uncle Mark, or Brotha Wood as we called him, was the most funloving guy you could possibly imagine and even when he was riddled with mental illness, he never created any drama. If my aunt and uncle were talking bad about my grandpa over something petty, he wouldn't entertain it, he just would not denigrate anybody unless it was right to their face and I doubt he had to do that much. He was a straight up dude.
I don't know what happened on New Years Eve, but the end result was he got hit by a car in a 4 lane highway. He was in a crosswalk. Why a crosswalk was on a 4 lane highway I don't know, but he had brought a buddy of his from the city out before to lobby for a light. It's a fucken school crossing zone, he was looking out for his son and his friends and now the same crosswalk he tried to get rid of killed him. Of course internet commenters don't help, I swear if I saw some of them I would kill them, that's the type of fire those fucks stirred up in me. That's not healthy but everyday I am in a good mood and I remember some fuck trying to relate darwinism and survival of the fittest to the death of my Uncle and it makes me want to rip them limb for limb and I would do it. I even found out where the guy who made that comment lived, he posted a Google maps link to his house. There were others too. Suddenly I don't feel stable all the time anymore, in fact all, and it's not just that I don't think. The other day I was walking in a crosswalk on a 4 lane street, I was in the 3rd lane crossing when the guy from the fourth lane just blew right by, didn't stop. He pulled into the parking lot of foodmaxx right around the corner, I tried sooooo hard to catch him, I didn't get a glimpse of him as he passed me, just the big silver truck. I was literally sprinting with my backpack full of books to go get a piece of this guy when I saw him pull into the tanning salon parking lot, it was a girl. A young girl probably my age who probably just did not see me. Now I was ready to do so much bad and I kind of just stopped in my tracks and walked home. Walking home I just had a bit of a meltdown, all that anger kind of turned to just sadness for my uncle. An old man hit him, and then he had a heart attack. My Uncle was a hit and run victim before in August I believe, and he never held any angst against that person, it was an accident and then they just tried to get away to save themseles, I think he realized that.
But now I have a house, I'm not sure how much is going to change. I think it'll be good for me though, I need to go somewhere to put my life, and everything else, in perspective. I've been so fucking angry these past few months, I know it comes with the youth but I always saw myself as beyond that already. This is kind of gay but this place is really my only reprieve. Not really, I have friends and I have family, but this place is the only place removed from the real world where we can nitpick at all the shit that doesn't really matter in the real world, like steroid tests and epic beard man. I have a house, I'm 19 with a house, and I haven't called anyone yet, not even my grandma who is doing her best to try to make up for a whole lot of lost time. God Bless her, my Dad doesn't want to hear it, but she's trying to make everyone happy while she's still here even if it means a lot of sacrifices on her end and in that way I can connect with the old bible thumping white haired lady in a way that makes me kind of proud that I come from her.
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