In what context is it written? Like what's it say before that?

This is a guess...inverter unit...meaning inverter air conditioner?

Inverter Unit for a backup power supply?

We just looked at a house yesterday too Marilyn! I have never seen the IU designation used in a description. I have no idea but it sounds like you got an answer. In an rv or motorhome we have to have an inverter.

We found a great agent we really like which is helping us determine if a house we are interested in has ever flooded or is in a floor plain. I had just found a new listing last night and I sent it to her. She let me know it's a flip that flooded and is already on the market. Having her providing that kind of information will save me a lot of time. They should be required to disclose that information in the listing so I could rule it out immediately but they are not doing that.

Good luck with your search!

It is in the description of what is in the house itself:

COUNTRY LIVING AT IT'S BEST : 4-3-2,HUGE DEN WITH BEAMED CEILINGS, FP WITH BLOWERS, LARGE ISLAND KITCHEN, TILE COUNTERTOPS, JENNAIR STYLE STOVE, BREAKFAST AREA, FORMAL DINING, ALL THREE BATHS UPDATED, SUPER LARGE IU, TWO MASTER BEDROOMS, ONE WITH SITTING AREA WHICH COULD SERVE AS IN-LAW QUARTERS, DOOR OPEN TO DECK, MASTER HAS WALKIN SHOWER WITH SIDE JETS, TONS OF STORAGE, DOUBLE WALK IN CLOSET. FRUIT TREES,PECAN, AND LOTS OF OAKS. BARN, STALLS, CROSSED FENCED. GARAGE WITH FULL STORAGE OVERHEAD. HOUSE DID HAVE WATER FROM HARVEY IN FRONT BEDROOM BUT ONLY ENOUGH TO GET THE FRONT CARPET WET. SELLER WOULD DIVIDE THE LAND IN THREE SECTIONS IF NEEDED.

In another one of her listings, it says "large IU", so I figured "super large IU" must be a good thing. ;)

Good luck finding a house, Raven.

It is hard to find one nearby. I don't want to leave Brazoria County, and need something within easy driving to the Seabrook, where Jody keeps his shrimp boat. And, we need land for the horses. This place did flood a little...but that doesn't worry me because it was such a freak storm. It doesn't even worry me if I kept living on Chocolate Bayou. We had no water from the hurricane itself. It was just when it turned around and stalled out over head. Just about anywhere around here is going to flood when you get 52" of rain, that quickly. This house does have property on a small bayou. We have about as many bayous as Louisiana, so it is hard to get very far from one.

I would just send the realtor a message and ask.

I'm going to...as soon as I turn my horses out. I bet it is an inverter unit where the same unit that is a/c can be a heater too. I guess they can work that way. I have never had central air or heat.

marilyn, did you ever find out what it is?

I didn't, because I was waiting on my husband to come home because I wanted to go look at it. I googled it....once I had an idea what the I stood for, and it is for the air conditioner/heater. Anyway, he got home really late, so we didn't get to go today. I have a pretty good idea of what the house looks like. I want to see the barns. It is set up for cattle, so not expecting a fancy barn...we have driven by and looked at it...but would be fine for horses....my horses, anyway, which are outside most of the time. The house isn't really the type of house I would like but, it has possibilities and at this rate, living like I am camping out....I am not that picky about the style of the house. There is also a huge pond...and that interests me...a lot! It is so big that off in the distance you can see a bridge that goes across it, for the cattle to walk over it. It doesn't show the pond in these pictures....but it is off to the left of the driveway as you drive in the property.

The house

The house looks neat and clean and move in ready which is a plus. The barn looks like it might need work though.

Nice property.

There are four barns...and about all we need are run ins. I hardly ever stall my horses but having stalls is a plus, when you need them. This place was set up for cows. The barns need work but we need to build a new barn if we stay here or end up at the other place we were looking at.

A ha!! Thank you.

Now I will have to call her and find out for sure...if it is for inlaws or inverter.

Did you get over to see it yet?

Good luck! I like it, love the kitchen!

That is certainly a very nice looking house. It lacks the charm of your current home, but I doubt that charm could ever be duplicated, anyhow. And if you have been 'camping' in it all this time, and still have a long ways to go in getting back to normal living, I'm sure that 'charm' is quickly losing its appeal.

Good luck and good sense in making a decision! Whatever you decide, I sincerely hope and pray it is the very best decision for you, Jody, your horses and any/all of your other animals. too!

Rusty

Yes, we saw it today. I like it a lot. I found out that I U stands for inside utilities....like, where the washer and dryer goes. It was described as "super large" and it is....very nice with storage cabinets, and a tile floor, and a door to the outside, so it would be a perfect mud room. It is plenty big enough for a freezer.

The place is super nice. The kitchen....I have never seen as much storage in a kitchen. It is U shaped and has so many cabinet doors and drawers and has an island in the middle that has cabinet doors on one side and on the other side is all drawers. I didn't count them but there were at least three rows of them....maybe four. For a person like me who loves dishes and has so many...there is enough storage for even someone like me. The dining room has a big china cabinet. The description says built in, but I don't think it is, and to me, it is really ugly. Two of the bedrooms are huge....like maybe 20 by 18. And one has a sitting area that is large too. The other bedroom is fairly small, like maybe 12 x 12.

If you can believe this....I didn't walk out to look at the barns. Jody did. I did look at the barn that is closest to the house, which is more like storage for a tractor and other things you need around a farm. Jody said there were 3 or 4 large stalls and an enclosed room like a feed room. I wish I had walked out there but I was talking to the realtor.

I am not crazy about the style of the house....although the cabinets in the kitchen are very good quality, and I don't like the range...which is like a Jenn Aire and has a glass cooktop next to it. Believe me, I could cope with it...so that sure isn't a deal breaker for me. (So much work surface area in there! I would probably weigh 700 lb if I lived there, as much as I like to cook and as nice as that kitchen is!) I like more old and worn and shabby things...but right now, if I could, I would move there tonight.

It has only been on the market for 3 weeks. Realtor said the she showed it to one couple who complained about all the updating the house needed. (It was built in '79 and actually the kitchen has been updated and probably some other things. Another guy didn't want that much land and didn't like the house at all, and wanted a place to build a barndominium. I gave her a plot of our place and told her to tell him to call me. I am going to send her some pictures tonight.

Anyway, I like this place better than the first place we looked at. I hate to leave my old house...but it is time to go. Oh, one other thing. The last person to live there was an old lady, so the house was updated with her age in mind. It has grab bars in the bathrooms and a shower big enough that you could go in there in a wheelchair. That might be something to consider....due to our "advanced" ages.

I like everything about it. The pictures in the ad, doesn't do it justice. There are many, many huge old oaks, and the pasture is big and plenty of room that I could ride my horses and never have to leave the place. I thought it backed up to a catfish farm, but it is a very large lake that belongs to an adjoining farm.

Oh Marilyn....I LOVE the whole place. First of all, I love that the house is brick, and love all of the handicapped helpful items and that it is a one floor plan. Praying that it will be God's will that you and Jody can get that place.

Yay! I'm glad you liked it in person. How much property is it?

It is 73 acres.

Marilyn, it looks really nice. IU must be something new or regional - ? Never heard of ‘inside utilities’ being referred to in describing a house these days. Good luck if you make an offer!

Inside utilities. Couldn't she have just said laundry room. I don't see a picture of it, does it have a sink? I've never lived in a brick house but I like it. It looks pretty well maintained, did it feel clean to you? It sounds like only the second you have looked at, but I'm starting to get a little excited for you. What did Jody think?

Your ages aren't that advanced ;) But neither are ours and we bought a sprawled out single level 5 years ago. You've got to go back and look at the barns....

I know....I thought that was an odd way to phrase it. I don't recall a sink in the "indoor utility" room. When I was a kid we had the washing machine and freezer in a building out back....we called it the wash house. I thought now a days everyone, or almost everyone, had their "utilities" inside. Heck...what do I know? ;) There is a picture made in there...not a very good one. It shows very little of the space. Has a lot of cabinets in there....I tell you, you wouldn't want for storage in this house!

Yes. The house looks very clean. Doesn't look like anyone ever used the kitchen. I understand that the old lady lived there alone since 1998. That is when her husband died. She has moved to NC to live with her daughter. There is a young man who keeps cows on the place and he looked in on her every day.

This is the only place we have looked at. I hate to look at a place when I don't have the funds to buy it, but when we called about it, the realtor offered to show it, and we really did want to see it.

Jody likes this one best too. The other place is nice but just has an apartment over the barn...which isn't a livestock barn, and we were thinking about moving the house because that one was only 2 miles away. (This one is about 10 miles away). But it would require cutting the house and going through all that again, and still having more work to do on the house. I am tired of messing with it. Jody has been in the hospital 4 times since we started working on the house, and out of work about 6 mo each time, and has been out of work since the hurricane...so it is hard to spend the money needed to fix it up. We could sell a little of this place and fix it up, but I don't want neighbors that close to me. This place we looked at today, has quite a bit of land on each side and no near neighbors. It has a long driveway and is off the road. I like that. It borders a bayou, but it is at least a half a mile away, and not at all a "big" bayou like the one we live on, and there is another one that bisects the pasture and there is 7 acres on the other side of it....has a bridge for the cows to cross. It borders the road too, so if you wanted to get to it, you don't have to go across the bridge.

I wish I had looked at the barns, but it really doesn't matter that much to me about them. I mean, I am glad they are there....but I know they are old...but we can fix up some of the stalls, but mostly my horses don't stay in the barn. Emery and Snoop stay in when it is cold and raining, but having a shed type run in is all we really need.

I don't want to bug the realtor about seeing it again. If we sell this...then I will go see it again, but I would buy it right now if I could. To me, the house and land is worth it, and the barns....even old ones, are better than I have here.

It is really hard to find a place that I like, as far as having privacy, a place for the horses, etc. This place has everything I want. I am not crazy about some of the things in the house....like one of the bathrooms has a counter and a sink and across from it, another counter...but no sink. I don't mind that there is only one sink but it seems odd to have another counter in a bathroom and no sink. I mean....it's not something I can't live with. I can live in this house fine and not make any changes to it.

Someone told me that other counter in the bathroom is for putting on make up. I didn't know. I think the only make up I have is one tube of mascara and one of lipstick. 8-)

In the power electronics world, an inverter is a unit that converts DC power to AC power. The DC source might be a car battery, a bank of storage batteries, or a motor driven DC generator. The output may be variable or fixed frequency. Common fixed frequency inverters in the US are 60 and 400 Hz.

Thanks for the explanation, jemdandy. It went right over my head. I found out that the I U mentioned in the real estate ad, stood for "inside utilities"....meaning the washer and dryer were inside the house. Novel concept. Who would have imagined that? :)

Inside utilities: Unusual wording. I suppose maybe it should have read: Appliances and laundry equipment included.

I agree....."super nice laundry room" would have worked too.

I sure do hope this house works out for you, Marilyn!