Monday, March 08, 2010

Sometimes Serendipity Pinch Hits for Wisdom

When mom died we'd been living with her and taking care of her for years. This was our home and, after the will was probated, I was half owner of the house with my sister owning the other half. She wants to sell it; we don't. This is still our home. We offered to buy her out, making what we believed was a fair offer. She wanted $15,000 more than we offered. She found a lawyer to take her case and threatened Judicial Partition. Rather than negotiate with her lawyer (as the letter we received strongly suggested) we spoke with the young lawyer who handled the probation of mom's estate/will. Our thought was to have the place inspected and appraised enabling us to approach my sister with an offer based on confirmed reality. He suggested we have the house inspected but hold off on the appraisal. The inspection results show a very large collection of problems with the house, not all of which can be repaired. The inspector suggests we tear the place down and start over and, based on his results, the house is worth substantially less than our previous 'best guess'. My sister is stubborn, willful and not too bright. Bless her heart. I'm so glad she didn't accept out offer. That would have been the beginning of a never-ending nightmare for us. We were saved by serendipitous dumb luck.

I don't think my sister and I will ever get past the enmity this has created between us but I'm betting that one of us will eventually attend the other's funeral. Sometimes that's enough. Life is change; change is good.

1 comment:

Steph @ Steph Runs On said...

It seems as though families are constantly trying to tear themselves apart. I hope things work out, whatever you decide to do with your home. And perhaps your sister will see rift her actions have caused and attempt to mend that.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate the kind words.