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SmartOvision Radio.

Thank you. My name is Scott Lee Dugan Radio. My name is Scott Lee Dugan.

Back in May of 2010, I drove from central Philadelphia all the way to Edenton, Louisiana,

a tiny rural town about 20 miles north of Lafayette, to claim an unexpected inheritance.

It was 51 degrees when I left the north, and 88 when I arrived at the property that the law firm of Bell, Bell, and Warman had informed me was now mine, left to me by an uncle I'd barely known. I'd never in my life

experienced that kind of sapping humidity, with bruised clouds lingering above me for the last two

full hours of the trip, constantly threatening a storm, but never quite bursting.

Having no interest in relocating south, I decided to have the property sold immediately,

and the law firm had even hooked me up with a realtor.

So my trip was really more of an oddball vacation I could afford,

mostly because the sale of the land would be bringing me some money eventually.

Otherwise, this kind of week-long jaunt would have pressed hard on a rehab assistance pay.

When I'd first been told there was a house that came with it all,

visions of gold danced in my head, but there was some not-so-great news there.

When it appeared on the smooth green plain in the distance, the house looked impressive,

very narrow but three stories high, a real old-school white farmhouse sitting on 14 acres.

Only upon going inside did I set eyes on what had already been hinted at,

which was that this house was completely unlivable. There'd been a big fire back in 2003

when my uncle was apparently trying to teach himself a magic trick, and every bit of the damaged

...