The Devil Queen

How my wife and I sold our souls to the Queen Anne Victorian we tried to save.

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Location: Crow Mountain, Arkansas, United States

Synopsis: This is a cautionary tale. A seriously disturbed couple find the charming, old ruin of a Queen Anne Victorian in Russellville, Arkansas, and buy it for $1.00. They tore the roof off, cut it in half, and had it moved to some land they owned sixteen miles away because they didn't know any better. Since then, they have hired and fired contractors, had all of their tools stolen, re-wired, re-plumbed, insulated, and essentially rebuilt the entire house. Their only problem is that after four years it still isn't finished. Now they are tired, broke, and wonder what in the hell it is they've done to themselves. And, it's haunted.
(Last updated on April 3, 2008)

Press: Russellville Courier Article - December 2003, HGTV website article, AP story - October 2006, and Victorian Homes Magazine - February 2008 (link coming soon).
Art: From time to time, I receive requests for my art. If you would like to look at more of my art, go to The Failed Artist. If you would like to buy my art, email me. I am more than happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks!

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Why I'm A Misanthrope - Reason 127

This afternoon I'm reminded why I'm fixing up a house in the middle of nowhere. I hate people.

There are a lot of termites out and around the house site. Really, is there any place without termites? I really don't know. About a year ago, my wife and I had Terminix come out and give us a quote. We decided to sign up with them. As part of the whole deal, they need a down-payment. My wife used her credit card and we thought that every thing was taken care of. We've made our regular payments and had no problems until last month.

A month ago we get a call from Ms. Cametria at some collection agency. It took me forever to figure what in the hell she was talking about. To the best of my knowledge, we were not overdue on our payments for anything. Terminix? Didn't I just send y'all a check?

After nearly and hour of calling around, I figured out that she was trying to collect the down payment we'd already made. I went through all of our credit card accounts. No one anywhere had ever billed us for the down payment. I'm not sure what that Terminix guy did with my wife's credit card, but it didn't involve a financial transaction. What makes no sense to me is, why didn't Terminix call or write us about this missing payment? They have our address and phone number. Is contacting an collection agency that much easier than contacting us?

I called the Russellville Terminix office and explained everything to them. They said that if we'd pay the down-payment now, they'd call the collection agency and make sure that this didn't show on our credit report. Fine. I mailed the check on April 18th. At the end of April, I called Terminix to confirm that they'd received the check. They said yes and they'd taken care of it.

Then, Cametria called us again today. Same spiel as before, we want our money. So I call our bank to confirm that the check was cashed (which it was on the 5th of this month). Then I call Terminix again. They apologize and say that they'll call the collection agency right away, et cetera. I called the collection agency and spoke with lovely Cametria, ignoring the snide, "I didn't expect you to respond so soon."

"I paid Terminix directly on the 18th of April, they cashed it on the 5th of May, and they are going to call you all to confirm this. If they don't, I know you'll call me back and I'll take care of it," I said.

"Okay, well, I'll note that here," Cametria said. I'm curious if she really did. I suppose that if I get any more dumbass calls, I'll know for sure.

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