Chasing the Dream
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Dining Room Floor -
Dining Room Floor Removal -
Dining Room Repair
Six Months In
It seems like a dream that we’ve been working on Little Mount Vernon for almost 6 months now! We’ve gone from a house full of trash engulfed in trees and vines… to the point where new floor joists are going in on half the first floor. It feels great to get to the point where we’re actually doing repairs… not just land clearing, trash cleanout, and demo. When anyone asks if the house was worse than I thought it would be, I tell them “I haven’t been surprised. It’s as bad as I expected it to be. I had HOPED I would be surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I expected… but I haven’t been surprised!”
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North Front view -
South Front first view -
South Front Sees the Light Again
The Pursuit
I’m trying to remember what compelled me to pursue this old house. We’ve been coming to our lake house near Eutawville since 2003, and I’ve passed LMV many times without thinking about it. But in February of 2016 the house just popped in my head. I did an internet search for “Little Mount Vernon Eutawville” and didn’t think I was looking at the same house, since all I ever saw of it was the flat South Front. I asked a friend if it was still standing back in the woods. He said it was, so I stopped one day and just walked back to look at it. The house was completely engulfed in trees and vines, and I had to actually push through the brush to get near the house. I made my way around to the North side and there it was! The imposing columned porch that I had seen on the internet! Most of the doors were wide open, so I peeked in. When I saw the curved split staircase,the special details in the main rooms, the arched ceilings in the side halls… I was captivated. Maybe the word is “obsessed”. Strangely I didn’t really notice the mounds of trash – papers, clothes, dishes – knee-deep in every first floor room. I could look past the basement with 5 feet of water in it… past the collapsed dining room floor… past the missing section of wall - yes, totally missing- in the kitchen and the rotten South Front entrance. All I could SEE was Little Mount Vernon - as in that internet photo - in all its original glory.
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Then -
Now
The Obsession
So the obsession began. I looked up the property records to find out who the owner was. In looking through those on-line documents, I saw where a local attorney had handled some of the paperwork. I called him to ask about the property, and he put me in touch with a friend who actually knew the owner. He asked her if she would be willing to sell and she was adamant that the property was – as she had told many people before me - NOT for sale.
For the next two years there was not a day that I didn’t think about the grand old house. I even dreamed about it! Every few months I would pester my friend to ask again. Always the answer was “Not interested”. It actually “hurt” to think of the old place - engulfed in vines and trees - deteriorating and me helpless to save her.
Then in March of 2018 I noticed a friend’s name on a realtor’s “for sale” sign on some property by our lakehouse. I called her and told her my story. Turns out her broker knew the owner very well! She visited the owner and showed her some recent exterior photos I had taken, and impressed upon her how the house would deteriorate beyond repair if left as it was. The owner said she’d think about it, but that she thought there was an outstanding lien on the property.
I already knew about the “blemishes” on the property deed. There were two. One was an unsatisfied mortgage for $160,000 to the previous owner. According to the title insurance company that wasn’t technically an issue since it was a non-dated mortgage that was beyond the 20 year point. We did contact the previous owner about it, only to find out there was still money owed… $360 from an unpaid late fee! Of course we took care of that to get the satisfaction duly recorded. The other more problematic blemish was a Federal Tax Lien for $123,000 from February 2008! I had been told that that had been resolved with the IRS years ago, but it turns out that the IRS does not actually remove them from the county tax office when they’re resolved. They simply leave them there until someone calls – in the case where it needs to be cleared up for the property to be sold - or the lien will “self-release” after 10 years and 30 days. My timing couldn’t have been better! Since we were so close to the self-release date I didn’t dare call the IRS and “poke the bear”! I had the realtor tell the owner that the lien was not an issue that she needed to fret about.
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Then -
Now
She said, "YES!"
Just 10 days after I engaged the realtor I got the call that the owner had accepted my offer!!! We closed two days after the lien “self-released”!
Anyone who really knows me knows I'm all about "the chase". So my obsession with chasing the great house just to get my hands on her is now an addiction, chasing the day when Little Mount Vernon is restored to grandeur!