Chalice Ranch is Moving

This story has really been a long time in coming. I've made no mention of the troubles we've been having with Chase, our mortgager, over the last two years. I really didn't want to have to talk about it over and over until we had a resolution. So there are very few people who are aware of our foreclosure woes.

Shortly after we'd moved in here, I had a fall off Hoss and suffered a brain injury. It was a pretty bad injury, but none of us realized I had been brain injured. We just went on with life as if nothing was wrong.

The problem was, I had effectively lost my sense of the passage of time and my math skills suffered greatly. I also developed what could almost be called a phobia of talking on the phone. I felt like I couldn't understand people over the phone.

I still have a poor sense of time. If you ask me when I did something, there's a good chance I won't be able to tell you. Anything that happened within the last week or so could've happened yesterday or two months ago. I have to keep very strict records of when I trimmed or shod which horse and have every appointment in my computer or I'll forget. I will also forget whether or not I took my medications or gave the dogs theirs. Just today, I forgot to start the gas pump before I went into the convenience store for a hot chocolate! I have to stick to a very strict regimen in order to make sure the things that need done, get done.

My math skills have not returned. I was never great at math. I remember the hours I spent sitting on the family room couch trying to memorize my multiplication tables – and failing. Even the simplest addition and subtraction problems are difficult for me. I have to carry a calculator to make sure I charge clients the right amount when I get paid on site. I do get pretty good when I'm doing the same numbers over and over again, but it takes me far longer to come to a solution than it ever did before.

The phone thing I think is the weirdest. I never really liked talking on the phone for the most part, but after the TBI, answering the phone stressed me out. The very idea of making a phone call was almost enough to cause a panic attack. I've mostly gotten over it. I still don't like to answer the phone, and I find myself avoiding making needed phone calls. I'm getting better. I still feel like it's hard to understand people on the phone, but at least I'll answer the dratted thing.

The difficulties occurred because I would just forget things. I'd forget to bill clients. I'd forget to put checks in the bank. I'd forget to pay bills. I can't tell you how many times SDGE and the propane people got paid because somebody showed up wanting paid or they'd turn off our services. Our cell phones got shut off more times than any of us can count.

Since then, it's improved and I'm able to keep up with the bills. I'm often late, but that's usually more a matter of time than forgetting to do it all.

The fallout from this was Chase started foreclosure procedures. I was able to call them and start the redemption process. They allowed us to start a loan modification.

My memory of what happened is rather fuzzy. Remember I was (and am) dealing with a brain injury and my memory ain't what it should be. I do know I filled out and mailed back the forms they sent me. I also know I faithfully made the six months of payments – which were higher than our regular payment had been. And then I continued to send in payments.

Then I got a notice or something, not sure how it happened, and we had to start the loan modification process again! Once again I filled out all the paperwork and sent it in. Once again I faithfully made my payments. At some point, I even received a letter stating we had been accepted for a loan modification. Awesome!

And then, there was a three day notice to get the hell out. Chase had filed an unlawful detainer against us. I can only say my reaction was pure shock. From my perspective, I'd done everything I'd been asked!

I called a lawyer, and we started proceedings to sue Chase. It was pretty clearly an illegal foreclosure. There was no notice; they'd done it silently. My attorney went to work, and the unlawful detainer was put on hold.

The first settlement conference was back in May of this year. We had been warned by our attorney that Chase appears to have policy that, if they foreclose on a property, even if you show up with cash to pay it off, they won't sell it to you. So we were fully prepared to be offered a sum of money and a period of time to get out. Well, you could've knocked me over with a feather when Chase said they'd consider a loan modification.

I went to work and got all the information Chase wanted together well within the period of time they gave us to do it. They assured our attorney they would have an answer in three weeks or less.

Three weeks passed and we heard nothing. Then a month, and still no word. Two months, nothing. Three months, utter silence. As we approached the final settlement conference date in October, our attorney started getting after Chase's attorney. All of a sudden, Chase was saying they'd never received the package in the first place! Our attorney found what he had and re-sent it. I was asked to bring current bank statements, Mike's paystubs, and a profit and loss statement for my business, plus our last two years' tax returns to the settlement conference. I sweated it out gathering all that information literally at the last moment, and went to the courthouse for the conference.

I had all the documents, had spent several hours gathering it all together, and it turned out to be for nothing. Chase wasted my time. Ultimately, their offer was 120 days to vacate and $10,000. I was pretty furious they'd put me through all that, but at that point it really didn't matter. Our attorney and I consulted, and spent quite a while looking like we were in deep negotiations, then he went back in to talk to the Chase attorney some more.

In the end, we came away with $15,000 and have until February 2^nd to move out.

Now came the hard part: Finding a place to move to, ideally in Jamul, where we could keep all the animals. It seemed to be an insurmountable task, and I dithered about it for several weeks before I finally started searching in earnest. I took the attitude the right place would come along, and didn't let the lack of appropriate locations discourage me.

It paid off. I found the right place. It's over in Lawson Valley, and on three acres. The three acres are pretty much useable, as opposed to the less than one acre useable here. Additionally, they don't mind what we do to rearrange things to build an arena, pasture, garden, whatever. I can have my animals and they'll pretty much leave us alone.

The house itself is a little odd. It looks a little bit as if someone took two different homes and mooshed them together. It clearly started out as a one bedroom log cabin style home. The living room is quite large, taking up quite possibly half of the original home, and has a lovely fireplace. The kitchen is rather small but useable with a short section that can be used to eat at with stools (why I can't think of what that's called right now I do not know). The front bathroom is quite small. Standing just inside the door, I cannot spread my arms completely from the wall to the cabinets. And it has a sunken Jacuzzi tub. In the dark, someone could just walk right into the tub! Next to the dining room is a small bedroom which we will use as my office.

The second part of the house is in a completely different style. The dining room opens into a large family room. The most interesting feature of the family room is a small counter with a sink and an open area obviously intended for a small refrigerator. There are two ceiling fans in the room as well. The second bedroom is significantly larger than the first, with a large closet taking up one wall. The master suite has a second bathroom with a shower and a walk-in closet. There is a sliding glass door in the master suite which opens on to a deck above the three car garage.

All in all, it's really a trade up. I get to have an arena, have all my animals at home, there's trail access pretty much right out the gate, I can build a significantly larger pasture…. The positives just go on. Oh, and it's cheaper.

So, we lost the house we bought to foreclosure and will have that hanging over our heads the next ten years. That's really the only negative. Other than we have to move. That kinda sucks. I hate to move!