Wood and Stone

A site to track our progress as we build our FirstDay Cottage Canadian house kit. Come on in, get a cup of coffee, set a spell and follow along on our journey or join in if you like. Check back for the weekly update (usually by Wednesday when things are going right) to see what we are currently up to!

Monday, January 30, 2006

Exiting the temporal freeze chamber... now.

OK, so it has been a full 2 months since my last update, but the sad reality is that things are so unbearably the same that even the interesting bits have been uninspiring as far as a post goes.

We have continued down the path of getting the agreements from the neighbors for the title insurance company, and what it boils down to is this: 1 neighbor signed and returned, no problem. The others were less eager, which is completely understandable. I would probably be acting similarly in their situation: an unknown attorney from NYC sends official documents, requesting you to get them signed and notarized and returned to him, about giving up any claim on land bordering yours... yeah right. Who gave you my name?

The seller's attorney didn't pursue much about it during December, but I heard from my agent that the seller was trying to schedule a walk of the property line with the neighbors the week after Christmas and wanted to know if I could come and bring the survey. Being as we were visiting my parents' house for that week, I expected to either not make it or have to drive up for the day. It turned out that the walk had to be postponed for the following week, and the seller couldn't be there, so it would be run by the agents. I showed up with the survey, though we didn't actually walk to line given that the neighbors knew where it was and there was a half foot of snow on the ground.

I met 2 of the neighbors here, and they seemed like very nice people. Once we can get this title think cleared up I see very good neighbors. Alas, the neighbor behind the property has a map from a Metes and Bounds deed, showing the road side property line to be 984 feet, while the survey shows it at 992 and he was concerned that the line was incorrect. I explained that I only came to provide the survey I had paid for, and that I just want to make sure everything is right before I purchase the property.

He said that he didn't really want to spend the money to have an attorney look at it, and wasn't going to sign anything he would be sorry he signed later (potentially losing a wedge of land, 8 feet by 418 feet at the wide end). I guess that the seller and his attorney will have to figure that out before we purchase the land since the title company won't insure the land without all the signatures as I understand it.

The neighbors across the street moved up here from a location downstate to get away from the NYC folks who keep migrating out past the burbs (Citiots, as I have heard them referred to before). They mostly want their privacy, and didn't seem comfortable with signing, though they didn't say to me if they would or wouldn't. They brought out a copy of their survey, which helped not much in determining if my survey or the metes and bounds deed map were true, but which raised more questions since there were discrepancies between the two. We later determined it was probably due to different starting points used on the respective surveys.

The third neighbor was out of town for the proceedings, so after freezing our feet off, we all left, agreeing to disagree in some cases. Well, after the seller heard what happened, he decided (with some urging) to get a local lawyer who knows how to do what needs to be done and who also has some local rep. We will see if that helps. As of now it has been 2 weeks since he has officially been on the case. I am getting weekly updates, just to keep abreast of developments, though I suspect we have a couple of weeks to wait for this situation to work itself out.

Well, that is all I can write now, as it is way late. The best news is that the Income Taxes are complete and I am getting a pleasant return, which will be turned into a well post haste when the ground thaws. I should probably start calling them to schedule a time to drill a well. In any case, I will write more very soon and check what is already up for veracity.