An infamous house in Petaluma is being transformed into a luxury home that will be on the market around the time that its former owner faces her trial for housing more than 200 cats.
Gone are the felines -- some sick or pregnant -- that swamped the city's shelter in May 2001. Blessedly gone, too, is the rank odor of urine that had seeped into the carpets, walls and stairs of the main house and granny unit.
Instead, the bathrooms are lined with Italian tile, the kitchen graced with granite counters and rich wood cabinets, and everything has been painted anew in the three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom house. The granny unit is an airy, sun-drenched room above the garage.
The house fell into disrepair when Marilyn Barletta, 64, experimented with having her own feline adoption center. Her handful of cats grew to several score before the Petaluma police cracked down on her illegal scheme that they said had caused suffering to some of her felines.
In January, an Oakland-based foreclosure firm, JWI Investment Corp., paid off the lien and the two prior mortgages for about $450,000. Work crews have gutted the house, replaced and sealed the floors, Sheetrock, walls, stairs, bathrooms, kitchens -- basically anything that was needed to obliterate the pervasive odor.
The house also has been repainted, from a sage green to a mustard yellow. The firm has spent a considerable sum fixing up the house and plans to put it on the market in late April for more than $600,000.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/05/BAGSB60LSF1.DTL
Gone are the felines -- some sick or pregnant -- that swamped the city's shelter in May 2001. Blessedly gone, too, is the rank odor of urine that had seeped into the carpets, walls and stairs of the main house and granny unit.
Instead, the bathrooms are lined with Italian tile, the kitchen graced with granite counters and rich wood cabinets, and everything has been painted anew in the three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom house. The granny unit is an airy, sun-drenched room above the garage.
The house fell into disrepair when Marilyn Barletta, 64, experimented with having her own feline adoption center. Her handful of cats grew to several score before the Petaluma police cracked down on her illegal scheme that they said had caused suffering to some of her felines.
In January, an Oakland-based foreclosure firm, JWI Investment Corp., paid off the lien and the two prior mortgages for about $450,000. Work crews have gutted the house, replaced and sealed the floors, Sheetrock, walls, stairs, bathrooms, kitchens -- basically anything that was needed to obliterate the pervasive odor.
The house also has been repainted, from a sage green to a mustard yellow. The firm has spent a considerable sum fixing up the house and plans to put it on the market in late April for more than $600,000.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/04/05/BAGSB60LSF1.DTL