House Changes--Part 5

After a long time in planning and a short time in looking, Ward and I put an offer in on a house. And then we waited a couple of days to see what the seller thought of our offer. As expected, she countered with a higher price which we accepted. And we were off to the races.

There were document after document after document to be sent to the lender. Title companies to be contacted. Home inspections to be scheduled--first the house, then the radon, then the septic, then the termite,  Money for a survey. Money for this processing. Money for that paper. Money for this search, Money that inspection. Those of you who have bought a house know how it is. There is a lot involved. And a lot more after that. We have been meeting with our agent almost daily to sign another paper and follow up on contingencies.

The inspector found a badly leaking window here.

So among this flurry activity, the next big hurdle was the house inspection. The house looked pretty solid, but you never know what goes on behind the walls, so to speak. We met with the home inspector on Sunday at noon. (People buying and selling houses don't seem to keep any regular business hours.). He was a personable fellow that seemed to know his business. Luckily, Ward has some knowledge in the way houses work, so he was another set of eyes and ears that was examining things with the inspector. I tried to pay attention, but I have to admit, my mind was often in other places. I was trying to figure out how our furniture would fit in these new spaces and what I would want to change. At one point I took a trip to the closest grocery store to see how long it would take to get there--8 minutes. Pretty good.

The inspection that was supposed to take a couple of hours took almost five. I'm not sure why because there was no down time. I guess you could say that he did a very thorough job. The conclusion was that it was a solidly built house but it had some wear and tear on it. There were leaky windows, rotten wood, unsafe electrical panels, and high radon levels to list a few things on his report. Fourteen things in all that he recommended be fixed. But none of it was bad enough to scrap the deal. Things on houses wear out all the time. And safety codes change over time.

So we went back to the seller and asked for four things to be fixed. And she said she would give us a little money toward the fixes, but the house was good enough for her so it should be good enough for us. And once again we accepted it. It didn't sound like she was in a bargaining mood.

So the whole thing was becoming real and I started to aggressively get rid of stuff in our current house. There was a LOT to be done before this house was ready to go onto the market. The task seemed impossible to me. Especially in the middle of the night.

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday--August 14, 2016

Lucky was the first one I found this morning.

I am thankful my cats.

These days, things are pretty hectic around here. One day I was talking to Wally on the phone about everything that was going on and he gave me this advice, "Mama, stop what you're doing and go find a cat. A cat on your lap always makes you calm." He was right there's nothing like petting a purring cat to calm everything down. So for Wally's advice and my cats, I am thankful.

House Changes--Part 4

After house hunting for only a short time, Ward and I thought maybe we had found what we were looking for, so we decided to make an offer.

I spent another sleepless night before we met with Tom, our agent, to begin the paperwork. (In case you don't remember, spending big money makes me anxious.) I began the session with putting my feelings up front. I wanted to put in a very low offer because that's all the money I wanted to spend and was feeling anxious about the whole thing. However, I said that wasn't exactly what I was going to do, but I wanted to put it out on the table where my thoughts were coming from. We started filling out lots of papers even before we got to the offer part. At one point, I was getting cold, so I told Ward I was going to the car to get my sweater.

I wonder how long our 94 year old seller has had this oil?
Notice the pictures on it.

When I returned to the building, the door was locked. I knocked to no avail. Tom and Ward were in a conference room not close to the door and didn't seem to hear me. I knocked some more. I knocked on the glass, I knocked on the wood. I knocked continuously and I knocked in patterns. I went around the building to see if any other door was open. No luck. I figured sooner or later they would come looking for me, so I waited. I should also mention that my cell phone was in the conference room with them. I was only going to the car for a minute, so I didn't think to bring it. I waited some more and knocked every little bit until my knuckles were getting sore. Finally another agent showed up and let me in. I joined Tom and Ward and they exclaimed, "There you are." I told them the door was locked and I couldn't get back in.

They hadn't heard me, but they thought I was so stressed that I had left the room to gather myself. Ward said I was probably calling one of my sisters for emotional support. All the time I was trying to get back into the room, they were giving me time to collect myself. And all I wanted was in.

We all had a good chuckle over it and I was feeling better. A short 3 hours later, we were finally done with all of the paperwork. The offer was ready and Tom would present it tomorrow to the other agent. Now it was a waiting game. Interestingly, we learned that the person selling the house was a 94 year old woman, who just moved into a 55 and over community. If she is any indication, we could live a good long time in this house.

Well, we had done it. I don't know if you are keeping up with the timeline, but after only four days from our first meeting with Tom and seeing only two houses inside, we put in a offer. Yes, my head continued to spin and a good night's sleep was eluding me.

So what did our 94 year old think of our offer?

Stay tuned...

House Changes--Part 3

My husband and I are in the process of house hunting. 

The Hunt

Nice trees helped make this house attractive.

After discussing it for a a couple of years, Ward and I were finally sitting around the dining room table with our real estate agent, Tom. Ward had given him general parameters of what we were looking for in geographic area and style. We wanted one level living with a workshop for Ward or a good lot to build one on. We still wanted a little land around us, but something definitely easier to take care of than we have now.  We also wanted to be within 30 minutes of my work. Tom came prepared with maps and listings for us to look at.

At first glance, it was discouraging. They rarely build ramblers in this area any more. They were common 40-50 years ago, but not so much now. Two-story giant houses are the name of the game around here these days. Many of the ramblers built long ago were chopped up with small rooms and needed a lot of work. However, he advised us to drive around some of the communities within our chosen radius and see what they look like. He also sent us with four listings he had found that we might be interested in.

The entire weekend we drove around looking at houses for sale. We saw at least a couple of dozen. And among all of those, we found two that we wanted to actually go into. We scheduled appointments for the next day and just a few hours before we were to see them, both were taken off the market. That was very discouraging because we had fallen in love with the pictures we had seen on the internet of one of them.

However the next day, Tom found one that was actually on the market for us to see. It was a flip that had been beautifully done, but it was not for us because it had a swimming pool. It was hard to walk away from because we knew it was a rarity, but we did.

And then it happened. When widening the search parameters (meaning going up in price a little), we saw a house that just might work. It was a well-built house in a nice neighborhood with all living on one level--even the laundry. (Not a common thing because most laundry rooms are in the basement.) But more importantly, it had a HUGE detached workshop. I think Ward's eyes glazed over when he saw it and the house faded into the background.

After we saw that house, we spent a sleepless night thinking about if we wanted to put an offer in on this one. While there were drawbacks (needs some work), we knew this was it. It fit every important criteria we had for a house.

But could I overcome the fact that it was a above the price range we had hoped for?

Until next time...

A Second Look--August 10, 2016

Here are a few things a saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Zinnia

Marigolds. I have a lot of marigolds this year and they all came from last years seeds as volunteers.

More big mushrooms/fungus sprung up almost overnight. Notice the 12" ruler for scale.

I got several begonias at the end of the planting season for half price and they're doing very well. However, the geraniums I also got on clearance don't look so good. But I'm still holding out hope for them.

Hydrangea. You can see that it was sprinkling when I took this picture.

Most of the coneflowers are drying up and turning to seed. Here's one that is a little behind schedule.

This box is full of noisy baby wrens. However since it only opens in the front, I haven't looked in. Several years ago I did that and all of the babies fell out. I managed to put them all back with success, but I don't the open box any any more when there is nesting going on. Just before I snapped this picture, the mother bird was peeking out the hole. Timing everything and it wasn't good this time.

However, I did manage to get a picture of the mother when she flew out of the box. The babies were really loud until she called something to them and then all of the cheeping stopped at once. I guess I represented stranger-danger.

How many butterflies can you see in this picture?