How to Tackle an Overgrown Property

It was no secret when we put in an offer on The Nut House that nobody was living there?or mowing the property, or tending to the vegetation. We told ourselves we understood the ramifications of this. But, we grossly underestimated the power of what regular mowing {or lack thereof} can do to your property, and sanity. It was time to head over to the Patient Gardener website and finally take a good look at those recommended industrial mowers! Only the best would do when it came to tackling this particular property! We expected to have to invest in a number of other heavy duty tools too.

How to Tackle an Overgrown Property

How to Tackle an Overgrown Property || www.thehollowroad.com

The very first time we visited Hollow Road, it was close to the end of March. The vegetation was still brown and leaves weren?t filling in the gaps between the trees. It is probably a good thing we saw the property in this state, even if everything was still dead from winter and looking a little dreary. Had we seen The Nut House only as it is now, I?m not sure we could have mustered up the extra courage needed to take on this property given the fact we were already having to ?see the potential? in so many other aspects.

Luckily the realtor that was selling the property was SUPER helpful when we requested that the property be mowed {with a path around the buildings, at the very least} before closing. We also made sure we spoke to Jim’s Conveyancing as we are aware of how useful they can be when buying or selling a property. The reason I emphasize his helpfulness is that he actually did some of the grunt work himself. The first ?professional? mower they hired brought a big bush hog and was only willing to do a couple of areas {not helpful ones, mind you} because he couldn?t get the tractor anywhere else {like around the buildings, like we had asked}.

Whilst it’s in my mind, we were ready to have a termite control Los Angeles firm or one similar come and examine the house to ensure it was entact and the timber parts were in good condition. With the property being so overgrown, it would have been far more susceptible to termite or pest damage. I would defintiely recommend having a pest control firm ready to examine if you feel necessary.

Anyway, back to the mowing… Around the house is where I REALLY preferred the mowing be done, if it was only going to be done in one place. When the second ?professional? mower that was hired to do the area around the house didn?t show up the day before closing, the realtor went and rented some equipment then spent the day mowing things down himself. He even took care trying not to mow down random raspberry bushes and grape vines!

But, even after seeing the work the realtor put in during our final walk through, we knew we were in trouble. At one point, we thought it would be a fine idea to just leave the tall weeds, grass, and bushes and let the winter snow handle the brush cover. Then, come spring, we would decide where to ?manage? the lawn. This idea lasted roughly 1.2 seconds once I came across a snake in the tall grass.

{the patio area when we saw it for the first time in March}

{here is that same patio area in May while we were there for an inspection?.notice the picnic table, or lack thereof}

{other half of patio in March?.you can see the top of the little chicken coop story through the bushes still}

{and here is how it looked in May?no chicken coop in sight}

This property has been a prime location for nasty slithering serpentines. Thick, tall grass. Check. A creek with a small pond. Check. No humans for almost two years. Check. Plenty of rodents running about for food. {I hesitantly say} Check. We haven?t seen any rodents, but you just have to assume they are there or else the snakes wouldn?t be.

Enter our friend Hammer. By some stroke of luck to us, he just happens to live nearby, was willing to come on short {unexpected} notice, and has equipment that will cut through anything. Trees included. He came through and took care of some of the biggest hurdles for us. Along with around the house, he also tackled the area by the cabin. Until he came through with his power equipment, there was literally no hope of getting inside the cabin until next spring.

{the cabin in March?.look, there?s Graham {to give you a frame of reference for scale} walking right up to it?the door to get inside the cabin is where the screen porch starts on that little deck}

{and here is the cabin on closing day?.this was literally the closest I could get to it, I couldn?t even get to the same location in the last picture?notice where one would normally try to get to the door off the deck on the right hand side}

I just keep reminding myself that we WILL get things under control?.eventually. That the snakes will retreat to a better location for the both of us and that we will not end up in the hospital with blistering pain after trying to clear out all the wild parsnip that has taken over a good chunk of things.

I keep reminding myself that if we need him to, Hammer will continue to clear us areas mowing down the tall, stalky weeds and overgrown {unwanted} trees. That we will probably be purchasing an industrial sized mower for ourselves soon anyways.