The walls were artfully painted a myriad of oranges, yellows, greens overlapping one another. This caused me to exhale the breath I had been holding. I wish I'd held it. "Finally.." I thought. Until I got upstairs. Behind a peeling piece of the hideous wallpaper starting at the stairwell and making it's way throughout the entirety of the upstairs hallway... I saw tiny black speckles. At my persistence, Andy peeled it back a bit more to reveal even more speckles. That pit in my stomach started coming back.. but it was just a little mold upstairs right? Old wall paper? Something? Not so my dear friends.
The children enjoy running throughout each house we visit and "claiming" bedrooms and in this case, clearing out any cobwebs. (yessssss....) Moments after Andy and I began to descend the stairs, Cole came running towards us telling us to come to the basement. Augie spit up all over my shirt, Andy pulled out his flashlight and away we went.
There was a small wet spot and minor mold build up near the water heater which I assume has a small leak.. but nothing major. After a few moments of the children talking very loudly we forcefully suggested they to go back upstairs and "explore" the back yard. The house is on almost an acre up on a cliff with a pretty decent view of the mountains while also overlooking Jonestown and Elkin. The back yard was over grown but we figured they didn't mind. As we analyzed the mold situation, we heard shouts from outside which, if you're a parent you know is never a good thing. In this case it was. The kids had found an entrance at the back of the house to a small one bedroom basement apartment. Complete with bathroom, kitchen and a hideous pile of white nasty mold in the center of the living room carpet. I immediately screeched, "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!" and mentally began my plans to dunk each child in a vat of antibacterial hand sanitizer. Andy began ushering the kids out of the basement and we both began calculating the cost of such repairs.
His parents are getting older and Andy and I are assuming that soon we'll have need for extra space for them to stay with us. The idea of an apartment on the bottom floor with a concrete porch and space for a ramp to easily be build was appealing. I soon learned how unappealing the reality actually was. I spoke to the next door neighbor, a polite gentleman with salt and pepper hair and a local from his accent. He told me that his best friend had rented the downstairs apartment from the previous owner and it had severe issues with water leakage (no kidding!) and possibly some electrical issues. I did some research on our way to see another house (not even worth posting about) and asked a few questions on Facebook and it was decided. This house wasn't going to work for us. Even at 39k.... the cost of repairs would be significantly beyond our budget. NEXT!
Stone Mountain State Park... Approximately 15-20 minutes from Jonestown, NC.
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