solon_kitten | The story so far (Public Journal)

So, if you've found your way here, there's a good chance you don't know all of what's going on. I'll give a TLDR, then a full rundown, depending on what you want to read.

TD;LR:

My uncle D and I co-own a house. He's wanting to cash out his half to deal with a lot of things happening in his life, and was willing to use a partition lawsuit to get it. A lot of things happened, and we're trying to get as much of the $28,500 USD that he's asking in order to buy it from him, or get as close as we can in hope of convincing him to let us pay out the rest over time. We currently have $4500 that we can put toward the goal in total, and are looking for any methods we can use to earn the money needed as soon as possible.

If you feel generous enough to pitch in, I'm currently using my Ko-Fi account to gather the needed funds. If we still can't get the house, I'll be using them toward dealing with moving elsewhere.

Full Story:

Let me start from the top.

End of May of 2025, my uncle B leaves our family home for the last time. End of June, he passes away due to complications from breast cancer. There's a bit of a freak-out, but turns out the house is fine due to being a multi-tenant deed with survivorship rights built into it. The house becomes mine and my uncle D's in a 50-50 split. For all of July and August, my mate Sildrae and I were working on getting things cleaned up, finding family history and heirlooms, etc... I'm passing a lot of this to other parts of the family for safe keeping. We're also getting things ready for our mate Calyo to join us, who is trying to get a promotion before transferring to a store here.

Suddenly, mid-September, I'm woken up from a dead sleep by Sildrae, who checked the mail and found a letter from a legal firm. My uncle D was wanting to start a partition lawsuit to force the sale of the home, and we had 10 days from the date of the letter to get in touch with him and figure things out. That date was on the previous Thursday, and it was Saturday when we got the letter. We couldn't get hold of him that entire weekend, and it took me calling his lawyer to get him to call me and talk.

Turns out, he's in a bad way, and it's not just some sap story. His house is in bad shape, his vehicle is in bad shape, and as a bigger kick in the teeth, his wife (who already suffers from dementia) was diagnosed with liver cancer, just months after he lost his brother to cancer. He's needing an influx of money, and he needs it soon. He also recently suffered a mini-stroke, and needs surgery on his shoulder, so that added to the mix.

He ends up giving us until November 15th to try and figure things out. Sildrae and I are trying to continue working to see if there's things we can sell to get toward the goal of (at the time) $60,000 USD. We also opt to get an appraisal, as being the one who lives at the house, I can tell you it's not worth what Zillow and the like have it priced. I get sick and have to push the appraisal back, Calyo arrives, and then we get the thing done...

$57,000 USD. That's the market value of this house. We lost the AC unit a few years ago, we lost the water heater at the end of August, the central heating currently isn't working, there's a lot of general repairs needed, our garage is now a storage unit, our previously 2 bath house is downgraded to a 1.5 bath due to lacking a sink in the master bath (no room for it)... The list is quite long.

I talked with my uncle D, and he's willing to take his 50% of that, which is $28,500 USD. That was where we were yesterday, and we had plans to talk with the local bank about a loan to get the money.

Today, on the 17th, it turns out Calyo's job screwed them over. Rather than keeping their previous pay, they received a pay cut after transferring, thanks to the company's HR department.

A loan is currently a very low chance, unless Sildrae can also get a job that he'd be able to travel to. We only have one vehicle between us, as Sildrae had to sell his truck, and I had to sell my non-working van. I also can't get a normal job due to being physically disabled from scolliosis, but I've been trying to get things rolling as a writer, and now potentially in making beadwork. It's just been nearly impossible while taking time to deal with everything that's been getting thrown at us non-stop.

I'm hoping that, if we can can't get the loan, but at least get most of the way there (around $14,250), I might be able to convince him to let us pay out the rest over time. I'm willing to throw what's left of my inheritance and savings (which isn't much) toward this to pre-seed the goal, and my mate Calyo is throwing in as well, giving us $4,500 in total to at least start with. That leaves just under $9,750 toward the midpoint, and $24,000 toward the end goal.

Of course, you may be asking, if the house is in such poor shape, why not find another place? Because the options we have open to us at our pricepoint are pretty much nothing and expensive. Either we get an empty lot that's being auctioned, or pay over $1000 a month for an apartment in a mostly low-income area because "modernization". Staying is actually the most affordable choice we have right now, and we're not even in a big city or metropolitan area. The cost-of-living is relatively low, but the cost of housing just keeps skyrocketing.

So, if you're feeling generous, and would be kind enough to help us out, I'm using my Ko-Fi account to gather as much of the funds as possible. If we still can't keep the house, the funds will be used to help us move elsewhere somehow.

If you have any questions, send them my way. I'll do my best to answer them. I'm also on FurAffinity, Weasyl, and InkBunny as GallowsGryph, if you'd rather contact me in those places.