Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Closing day

Today is the day.  This morning the wife and I will go to a local bank and sign papers to close on the sale of our house!

In other news, we still don't have a house to move into in a couple of weeks.  We looked at two others last Friday night, and I looked at three Monday morning.  Potential? Yes.   Beautiful property? Yes.  But there are just things that make each one not the right one.

I think I mentioned that we'd made an offer and the people took the house off the market...  Well, after looking Monday morning, our realtor (bless him) went to that house and talked with the owners.  They're a little old couple that doesn't know squat about real estate (come to think of it, neither did their realtor).  They have what's called a reverse mortgage and didn't do their homework before they put it on the market.  They didn't know if they'd be able to sell the house and get any equity out of it.  Plus, they had and assessment from 2007 that said the house was worth 200K.  Ummm, no.  Our realtor sat and talked with them for two hours and tried to help them out and give them some direction.  He is calling some lenders to figure out the whole reverse mortgage thing and see if he can't help them.  We may not get that house, but at least we know what really happened.  Then again, we could end up getting it.  They're a Christian couple and wanted Christians to get it...

In the meantime, we'll be living with my wife's sister in her uber-big apartment over her art studio.  I'll have to find things for the kids to do... frequently.  We're going to get the U-Boxes from U-haul and have all of our stuff stored until we're ready to put it in a house.  THAT will be interesting not having our stuff for goodness-only-knows-how-long.
Aaah, I got the pictures to work.... Finally.  That picture has nothing to do with anything, but I thought my blog was a little foto-anemic. Enjoy.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Updates and such

Someone posted recently wanting to know how the pickled limes were that I wrote about some two years ago.  I'm too lazy right now to find that post and link to it, but it's there somewhere down amongst all the other blog posts.  Feel free to dig through the box for it, you'll find it.

Anyway, pickled limes:  The were salty.  My kids seemed to like them a lot though, which I guess is all that matters.  But after several months taking up room in the fridge, I got rid of what was left.  I suppose they just didn't like them enough.

We have a closing date on our house!  We'll be signing papers and collecting money on the 28th at 10:00 a.m.  Furthermore, we made an offer on a house yesterday.  Details:

The house is bigger than the one we're in, though there are still only three bedrooms.  Our boys will just have to learn to get along and share.  What a pain, huh?! (snark). It's a brick ranch built in the 1978 on 1.4 acres.  The flow of the house is good and it has a lot of potential to be really great (once the old folks living there get all collection of junk out).  It has three small sheds, two of which can be used for chickens or perhaps even goats.  I can't have a cow there, not enough room, but I could put some goats or sheep on it, for sure.  Might even get the kids in 4-H.  Garden space abounds and the kitchen is large. 

Our offer was pretty low, so we're expecting a counter-offer.  However, the other realtor is kinda ancient and doesn't even really use e-mail much, so I'm not sure how 'swift' he'll be about helping his clients get the best deal they can get.  I could be wrong.  We'll have to see.  Our realtor is someone that I really think God led us to.  He's a homeschooler, homesteader, Christian.  He's a PK, like me, and we surprising have a lot in common.  He's a nice guy and I think we could be friends after this.  Matter of fact, after he and I went and looked at a house, he asked me to go with him to get something to eat.  That was fun.

Meanwhile, I've been packing and packing and packing.  Our church's VBS started last night, which I'm helping with.  AND I've broken the 3 mile barrier in my running!  Twice now I've topped 3 miles.  I'm pretty excited.  Wife bought me four new pair of shorts, size 36 - down from size 40 this time last year!  Yeah, that feels good.  My blood pressure was 113/67 this morning, too. 

And now, just so this blog has some visuals to it, I offer the following:  er... nope.  Never mind.  Can't get the pic to post.  Sorry.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

WD-40

I was sitting outside today reading to my daughter and there was a fly that would not stop biting my legs.  It was really driving me nuts.  Then I thought about something I'd read in the past to keep flies away.  I got up, went to the garage and lightly sprayed my legs with WD-40.  I don't know if it's the smell, the taste, or the 'oiliness' that they don't like, but there was no fly bothering me after that.

I'm thinking that this could be put to good use on a cow or a horse to help relieve them of some of their summertime miseries.  AND I've read that there's nothing in WD-40 that is harmful if swallowed.  Pretty cool.  So spray it on a rag or your hands and wipe it on your animal's face... or your legs and arms or wherever to keep the pesky flies away!

Househunting angst

Well, this weekend we went to my in-laws and spent some time driving around looking at houses.  No, we didn't go inside. We just drove by them.  We had three in particular that we wanted to see, in order to tell if we wanted to see more.  Ummm, no.  For various reasons, all three failed the test.  We have seen no homes yet.

Last summer we looked at several (when we thought selling our house would be easier) that would have been great.  But this year it appears that there are just really not any out there for us... yet.

Of course, if it weren't for me and my crazy nonsense desired to have some land to homestead on, we'd have our pick of dozens of houses... seriously! Even ones that aren't in neighborhoods.  But I'm not willing to give up my dream of a homestead just yet.  So I'll just have to hang in there.

Our inspection went.  It just went.  There were a few things they want us to fix and we're going to get estimates before we agree to anything, but chances are good we'll end up doing it all.  I was really put out with all they wanted, especially since most of it is in the detached garage and not the house at all.  Wife takes a different spin and says, "If it'll sell the house then it's ok, right?!"  Yeah.  I guess.  I must be turning into a tightwad in my 'old age'.  I've found myself grumbling about bills here recently.