Warp Speed Ahead

Everything is moving forward...at warp speed!

The inspection went well.  Nothing major.  Just about ten piddley things...most we were already aware of.  The most minor was to replace the bottom elbow part of the downspout that got beat up by the weedeater.  We are getting an estimate. But we may say, instead of fixing these things, would ya like a John Deere riding lawn mower?  That would be my preference.  But we shall see what the estimate is.

The builder is going to start dirt/site prep work next week on the new place.  He got the lot for a good price and is willing to make our minor modifications for an incredibly reasonable amount.  It goes to show, that it can't hurt to at least ask.  You might be surprised at the answer.

Speaking of surprised by the answer...he thinks he will be done around the end of May!  Weather permitting that is.  It has been surprisingly rainy...so I'm figuring maybe by mid-June? Wow! Not even long enough to rent an apartment (requires 3 month lease).  So, it looks like we may be on a month long "vacation".

So, I need someone to administer oxygen...deep breaths! My nerves have had the better of me all week.  I just feel completely overwhelmed.  But I need to just sit down and breathe.  Then make a list and say: this is do-able....but just not all at this minute...so breathe!

When I started blogging again in January...I was thinking that I would have anything to talk about.  Silly me!

Whirlwind

Ah, the rest from this weekend has evaporated in two days...

Yesterday, I went on a cheer visit to a friend/former co-worker who is battling cancer.  She is such a sweet spirit.  So grateful.  It struck me that most people don't listen with the intent to understand and empathize.  They listen with the intent to judge and convey their opinion.  Most people just want to be heard.  I don't know what God's plan is with my friend.  One path seems evident, but we all know that what seems evident to us...may not be God's plan.  Either way, thankfully, she is at peace.

It is hard for me though.  Just brings up all of the memories of my Mom and how much I miss her. :,(

Then after navigating a tremendous thunderstorm, we signed the paperwork to set the sale of the house in motion.  The closing date will be late April.  Then we talked to new construction.  We picked a lot, a builder, a plan, and let them know the modifications/specifications we wanted.  Really only two changes.  I don't want a garden tub.  I want a bigger shower and a closet.  Thankfully, no extra charge. And hubby wants a few more feet in the garage.  Found out that is only going to be $3k, which is within budget.  That is great!  A detached would be $20k and definitely not in the budget!

So, today we put down earnest money.   The builder will secure the lot from the developer (not anticipating any problems with that).  And then get started.  We don't know the time frame yet.  But I have heard that he has a crew ready, and if the weather cooperates...it may not be as long as I originally thought!  We should know more tomorrow.

Tomorrow.  Ugh!  The inspector is coming over tomorrow.  I'm dreading a list of picky items.  I made sure we had bulbs in all of the fixtures. (shaking my head).  Praying we don't have any deal breakers. (finger crossed).

Now the mad scramble to figure out what we will need temporarily...pack the rest...take little stuff to storage...get quotes on moving the big stuff...figure out time tables on shutting off utilities, cable, phone...

Oh yeah, do all of the usual stuff.  Finish the taxes.  Do the FASFA for Tdawg's school stuff.  I am at the bottom of the avalanche again.  It is a little scary.  But exciting. Right now, my fear is diminishing my faith.  Maybe a good nights' sleep would help?

Done and done!

So, the Engi-nerd made a solid offer on the house on Thursday night!  As I had guessed, it was low and had a list of fixes.  No big fixes (kind of silly things like: leaving the bathroom mirrors and replacing a light bulb)! We countered on Thursday night.  And before I left on Friday morning, we had a verbal contract!

Wow!  I must say, I'm still in shock.  I didn't know if the house would sell in six/nine months. I was concerned about the economy, the housing market, etc.  But ya know, if God wants you to move...Bam!  It is done and done in days.

We sign the written contract and put up the sold sign today (only because I was gone over the weekend). We went yesterday up to Fowler Creek Subdivision and walked around again.  We picked a builder and a house. We are going with the one pictured in the blog earlier.  We like it and only making a minor change to the bathroom.  We should hear about the lot, builder and time frame today.

So, the end of April...we will officially be homeless.  Sounds scary, but I'm ok with it.  The plan is rolling along.  We will be in temporary housing for a couple months.  Not sure where.  We had a few options come available yesterday.  So I'm sure we will know soon how it is all going to unfold.

I got the thinking last night that I'll have to pack for the temporary housing.  Seems like a good time to try the 30/30 idea.  Only 30 items (not including accessories, pjs, workout wear, undieroos) to combine and recombine into 30 outfits.  I'll keep ya posted on how this experiment works.

Holy Guacamole Batman!

Sunday, we were notified of our first house showing. It was scheduled for 6p.  Yay for the showing! And double yay for being at dinnertime!  A great excuse not to cook. So, we took off and ate at our fav cheap mexican restaurant in Fayetteville.  And enjoyed the extended evening daylight hours with a leisurely drive back home.

Monday was rainy and yucky.  The ReMax team all came to familiarized themselves with my home. So, I took off and ran errands.  Ok, actually I played in Jones' Valley at Target, Hobby Lobby, and had lunch with V.

Tuesday was awful.  I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.  I spent most of the day asleep.  I guess I needed it.  I was thankful no one wanted to see the house.  I didn't feel good enough to back the car out of the driveway!

Today (Wednesday), I got a text telling me that the Sunday lookie loos wanted another look.  Oh! A second look sounds serious!  After which came questions about the house.  Some of which I had not even noticed.  It got really real!  They went into the crawl space (ick!). (Although, I must say that the pest guy said ours was the cleanest crawl space that he had ever seen!!)  They even asked every question under the sun!  He even asked what was planted in the front flower bed. (Cletus wanted me to tell them that Aunt Ethel was buried there). LOL!  Goodness...we have a little of everything in there.

Turns out that lookie loo is an engi-nerd who works out at the arsenal.  Oh my!  Next thing he'll ask is are the walls plumb.  Egads!  All day long, I am getting text after text of "one more question".  He wants the invoices and warranty work of all home improvements.  Say what?  Most are not transferable to a new owner. But I complied and made copies. I am thinking that he must have trust issues.  He is an inquisitive little bugger.

Jennifer said to expect an offer from him soon.  I would suppose she is correct.  My friend, Q, thinks that they will use the invoices to lowball the offer.  But then again, Q is a known pessimist.

I am still in shock!  I feel like I'm on the Wildcat at Elitch's.  A slow climb (tick, tick, tick) as the chain pulled the cars up the hill. The moment of suspended animation at the top of the hill.  You could see they whole park and the front range of the Rockies. And then the terrifying sixty-eight foot drop into a banked curve left you screaming and breathless at the same time with your stomach doing backflips.

I couldn't wait to be tall enough to ride.  I still remember the day when I was tall enough.  And I talked Dad into riding with me.  He thought that I'd be terrified and done with it for good.  Oh no.  I loved it!!  And I had a ride band, so I didn't even have to get off and back into line.  I rode a couple of times with my sister.  And then a couple more times with my brother.  I would have stayed on until the park closed, if I could have!

I'm older now.  And it is a bit more terrifying.  Could we really have an offer on the house just seven days after it hit the market?  That's crazy!!  Where are we going to live?  We don't have a lot, a builder, or a plan...Holy Guacamole Batman!!

Update

We just listed the house on Thursday.  Moved a ton of boxes on Friday. And had a showing on Sunday!  I am taking that as a good sign.  I really don't want to mop and wipe down bathrooms every day!

Jennifer, our realtor, called afterwards and said the showing went well.  Actually, it was so clean that they thought we had already moved.  I guess my cleaning frenzy worked!

With the possibility of a quick sale, we went up to the new subdivision on Saturday.  Jennifer, realtor, lives there.  So she introduced us to her neighbors.  We looked at lots and floorplans.  The one we liked was locked up.  So Jennifer broke in!  I never knew the mad skilss you needed to be a realtor. Lol!

I think we found a builder we prefer. And now we need to look at the floorplans that he does.  We have seen one of them. This is one of the floorplans.  Really like the brick, rock work, side entry garage. It has three bedrooms, but on one of the modification plans the dining room is walled in.  That way it coule be a study, craft room, game room or extra bedroom.

And then we have to see if the builder can get the loan to start building before we sell. But if it turns out that we have to live in-between. Well, that's ok too.  That is one of the main reasons that we got a storage unit.  We are just trusting that this is the right move and all will fall in place.

Bowling Tourney

Onc perk to not working, it that I have time to go to Buddy's sporting events.  The city Special Olympics individual bowling tournament was yesterday.  Buddy did very well, bowling a 128, 150, 157. Not his best score, but it earned him a first place ribbon.  He didn't have as many strikes, but left very few open frames (pins still standing).  He possibly has a spot for the State tournament in Montgomery.  That would be nice; he had such a good time last year!

It's Official

It is official: our house is up for sale.  Jennifer came over yesterday and we signed the paperwork.  She took quite a few photos and put up the sign.  We should be on the web: valleymls.com soon.  We both feel it is a good thing.  But still a little scary.  We hope it goes by quickly; never fun to keep your house like you don't live in it.  Thankfully, some of the recent neighborhood sales have been about 50-60 days.  Not bad!

Tomorrow, we are going to see about picking out a lot, a builder and a plan. (deep breath).  I said that I would never build.  There I go with that *never* word.  I really should know better by now.  Just praying that everything goes smoothly.  In this economy, banks are skittish about loaning money.  Especially with our house unsold.  It wouldn't be much fun to wait until ours sells to be able to break ground!  But whatever will be, will be. I'm not all that concerned.  Thanks to the lovely Dave Ramsey, our credit score looks amazing.  So the bank should love us!!

It seems inevitable that we will be temporarily homeless.  Maybe an extended stay at a place with a pool this summer wouldn't be all bad.  I rather like being a lounge lizard.  Right now I'm oh so pasty white and vitamin D deficient!  Come on Spring!!

So, we are also well on our way to being hoarders. Ha ha! We have a storage unit now.  Once again, I said that I would *never* have one. Silly me!  We made three trips over there this morning.  Whew!

Then we took advantage of this gorgeous day and did some yard work.  Then I worked on the barstools.  Mom gave them to me about 26 years ago.  They are all wood and still in good shape.  I restained them and they are looking fab.  I'll try to take a pic tomorrow.

I think I am about done for the day.  Didn't get much sleep last night.  My neighbor required medical attention right about the time I was going to turn in.  Scared me! He is eighty and has already had heart issues.  They kept him overnight.  Thankfully he was released this morning and seems to be ok.  He was complaining up a storm...I take that as a good sign :)

Progress?

Well, it is all a matter of perspective...right? It seems like we have accomplished quite a bit.  A lot of the house is boxed up, waiting to go to storage.  The house is painted.  The windows are fixed.  We are finally "ready" to take pictures for the internet and put up the sign.

But sometimes, it seems like I'm in that crazy dream/movie.  You know the one: the faster you run to a destination, the further away that destination seems to be (until you quit because you are exhausted and the bad guy catches up to you).

Nobody said that this would be easy.  I know after a good nights sleep, which now consists of more that five uninterrupted hours.  All will look much better.  I am so looking forward to next weekends getaway.  A little distance should help immensely.  However, I'm not sure I have any creative juice left in me.  I may just sit on the deck and vegetate.  (Highly unlikely.  I'm still completion oriented.)

Really?

The other day, I was cleaning and washing drapes in preparation to list the house.  When I see (pics below).  Something has eaten (like acid) through the aluminum frame of our windows. It looked like it was from the underneath, some places were just starting to bubble.  Others were eated all the way through.

I called the company that installed the windows.  Their first reaction was that there must be pressure (chemically) treated wood underneath.  They, of course, acted like it was our fault.  We were ready for a fight.  But it turns out the only thing underneath is their fiberboard/mdf.  No one has ever heard of pressure treated mdf.  So the why, will remain a complete mystery.

But the result, all of the window frames taken off.  The mdf chiseled away. New wood put up. And reframe.  Times about 20.  So yesterday was loud, like a mammoth dentist drill, and cold.  It was chaos.

Chaotic because in the midst of this crisis, my dryer died.  So at one point yesterday, there was 3 people and the loud drilling on the windows, two more people with installation of the dryer, my cell phone ringing and the house phone ringing all at one time.  Calgon...take me away!!

I'm hoping that today it will be finished up. The painter is coming tomorrow to paint the stairwell. Hopefully we can take pics and list next week. I am cautiously optimistic...

For now, I am enjoying the calm before the workers arrive.  It is peaceful and warm.  And I'm thankful this it getting resolved.