I got the call on a beautiful warm day to show a home in the mountains. When I read the listing it turned out the home had multiple offers on it and the bank was going to closing bidding tomorrow at noon. So I scheduled to meat my client up at 5:30 PM and drive to Clearcreek, Idaho…. It might not be on the map but it sort of near Idaho City.
The drive up is breathtakingly beautiful. I felt very fortunate to have an excuse to leave the city and go to the mountains. THe first problem is that the listing direction are just plain wrong and there are absolutely no signs…. That is just rude… If people are going to drive an hour each way where the cell phones don’t work you should at least put in accurate directions… My buyers are Search and Rescue Volunteers (which is important later)… We drive about 5 miles out of Clearcreek and we still don’t find the turn off… I backtrack back to the little cafe/bar I saw. I go inside the friendly smokey bar armed with my cowboy hat, a smile and my listing. The barmaid rolls her eyes and says “that house”. She then draws me a map to get the home… Sad thing is that I do not own a 4 wheel drive so we are driving in my rear wheel Lincoln Town Car. I know to take a 4 wheel drive to the mountains but I just don’t own one. I take it slow and we get to the home…Here are some pictures of the views and the brewing storm.
I take the pictures because it is beautiful…. Idaho at its best! Then things change quickly. I use the keys to enter the house and test the lights…. They work! Yeah! For 30 seconds until a big gust of wind comes up and the power goes away….We explore the house and the wind is starting to sound scary… It is really blowing hard and there are a lot of trees….After all we are at the top of a big hill in the mountains…. I suggest that we stay inside and explore the outbuildings after the wind has passed. Unfortunately for me my buyers are in a hurry… So I go armed with the keys and open the shed and the garage…. The garage roof is lifting up in the wind… And I hear an eerie crackling sound that I can’t identify….It sounds like thunder but somehow I know its not… I really want to get back into the 30 year old home where I feel we will be safe…. I try real hard not to show that I am scared… Then I hear the earie noise again and watch a 100 ft tall Ponderosa pine fall down… Now I know what a tree falling in the forest sounds like…. I hope not hear that sound again in this life…
When we get back to the house I suggest that we stay there until the storm ends. I do not want to drive in the wind with trees falling down… OK I admit it I am a wimp with a capital W. My female half of the buyers looks annoyed because she has a long drive starting at 4 AM. So I get in the car… The male half of my buyers clears the debris out of the road 3 times before we are stopped by the big tree in the middle of the road that is to big to move without a chain saw… By now I am thinking about the weird hazards of being a real estate agent… Here are some pictures…
They try to move the tree but it is too big.. I suggest we get in the car and talk to the neighbors… They want to stay near the trees. They assure me they know what they are doing but I am thinking that the trees were standing on the way in. I go to find help. At the second place a lady answers the door. She says they have a chain saw but they are not going out until the storms over. I agree with her. She tells me there is another way around and I might be able to leave. I ask if she has a phone and she does if the line is still working. She says she has never seen it like this in the 15 years she has lived in Clearcreek. I go pick up my buyers (who seemed to have decided maybe I was right because they were standing further up the road (away from the trees). I pick them up. The road past the house is not made for a Town Car… It is definitely a 4 wheel drive truck or suv territory. The guy tells me I have to take it fast. I tell him I cant but he is welcome to drive since I do not know how to drive my car in these road conditions. He does a great job. On the way we see a mobile home with its shingles ripped off and a very sad looking man staring at his mobile home. There are more trees down but they are not blocking the road. I tell them we need to stop by the cafe to let them know about the tree down in the road. I do not have to… I first see the barmaid and a collection of trucks go by…. One man is leaving the bar (which now is empty) with a chain saw in his hand. Those who live in the mountains need to fend for themselves I bet they had that tree cleared within the half hour.
The last scary bit happens.. shortly past the bar there are 2 power lines down. I look at my buyers and say we need to wait. They tell me I can get around it. He shows me how to safely maneuver my car under the power lines but my thoughts are not nice. I do not know if the power lines are live…. If the people weren’t rescuers I definitely would have stood my ground. I was quite pleased when I hit highway 21. On the way home we saw more downed trees (but not in the road) and an overturned porta potty.
This has been my scariest house showing ever.
Boise Homes Report 