After a year from hell...

... I now own my own home. Let me explain.

10 years ago I purchased a home with a friend. Being friends there was no need for a agreement between us other than verbal. BIG mistake, especially with someone who is bi-polar. For the first five years things moved along - if a bit weirdly.

I would drag her up out of the basement where she'd go and curl up in a fetal position on the cement floor for days on end. Her hygiene was poor and I really felt sorry for her cat who had to use anything other than a overflowing litter box to relieve himself.

She quit well paying jobs 3 times - the first time only 1 month after we bought the house so that she could go be with the man of her dreams that she met on the internet. That ended in disaster and she returned to the cities with her tail tucked between her legs.

The second time she quit a job was to refurbish her upstairs flat. That project was never truly completed. The difference was she'd now curl up on her couch upstairs for days on end.

The third time was to go to school and train in a totally new occupation. She graduated with straight A's - then never took the test for her certification.

Yup, I saw the pattern way back when.

But I regress...

She indicated that she wanted to move back to Colorado. Well after burning all of her bridges here in Minnesota it's no wonder that running home would be a viable option. Her husband was fed up, her daughter dropped her like a hot potato after she deserted her at the tender age of 13. Friends complained about her overbearing ways and the behavior which would have had other people sent away for stalking.

Anyhow, in the February winter of 2006 I attempted to secure financing to buy out her half of the house. Mind you at this point she had this nebulous number going around inside of her head that no one but she knew about. I didn't even know what she wanted as a buyout figure. It turned out to be a moot point though as the loan was turned down because the front porch of the house was too badly rotted (they said the cost to cure was too high). I was devastated and began exploring other options to buy her out.

She, in response, got her own appraiser and they said the porch was just fine. I got a contractor in who said the porch was rotten and pretty much needed to be pulled off the house and redone. Hmmm, 2 bad and 1 good - see the problem here?

So, make note of the porch now, it'll play into my tale later.

Then came the cottonwood tree. I noticed some dead branches in it. Now the tree is 80 years old after all. I called a tree guy (Matt's Tree Service) and they came out. Pretty much said the tree has to come down. She called them 2 months later and they told her that just a couple of branches would have to come down.

So, make note of the tree, it'll play into my tale a bit later.

Here was where things got twisty. Remember when I stated she was bi-polar? Well she went from "We'll work it out hon, don't worry" to the nasty old woman who lived upstairs with her rabid lawyer. I've never encountered someone who treated another human being as I was treated by her and her attorney. I'm keeping the letters, just to do some working on at a later date. i.e. Don't fuck with a witch!

And so the summer began. Nasty letters from her attorney, nasty looks from her. She'd sneak out of the house in the dead of night and do strange things like reset the combinations to her garage door so that the keypad inside wouldn't work. She took it upon herself to move items of mine in the garage - damaging them - so that she could build an imaginary wall between the two stalls. Oh it gets better. In the attic she built a room of plastic in which sat a folding chair and a lamp. Goddess only knows what she did up there. She even got rid of her cat because she wanted nothing to remind her of her life in the cities. If it weren't so funny, it would be tragic.

All I can say is good riddance and I'm glad she's the problem of her parents now. If she does choose to come back to Minnesota at some later point in her life I'll bundle up my evidence against her, take her to court for monetary compensation over items she stole and damaged of mine, then file a restraining order against her. She became a most excellent stalker as her journey into unbalanced world of delusions overtook her.