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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Our 5 Month Odyssey Comes To An End


The new stove was put in place yesterday. It looks beautiful with the lighting from the exhaust fan above. We are at the end of this five month odyssey of putting this old house back into shape. Our house is one of the millions in the US that is "underwater."
We could have done a strategic default and just walked away. This house that  has been here since 1941 would have become another of the millions of homes abandoned all over the USA. It would have gone into the "shadow inventory" of Bank of America. It would have sat empty for a long times. Perhaps homeless people and criminals would have occupied it and started to sell drugs. The whole neighborhood would have gone down hill. Perhaps the house would have been sold for a small amount of money or perhaps it would have been bulldozed and 71 years of history and life destroyed. Elena was adamant and would not let it happen. She decided to stand and fight. We saved our money and spent a lot of money fixing this old house. We gave employment to a lot of people. We saved a grand old house. We gave other people around us a sense of new confidence. My friends this project has been an ordeal. I was not sure that we would pull it off but we are now at the end. Elena you are a brave lady not afraid to take giant risks! In Brasil when a woman is brave and takes big risks, it is said to her: "Woman you have balls!"

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