And Finally...

After that second day of driving around with the realtor (see previous post) Vicki had something to say to me. "Please drive tomorrow. I'm begging you, will you please drive tomorrow. I'll drive! Just don't let her drive again. Please!"

I had to agree. So the next day as we were getting ready to leave the realtor's office I casually said, "How about I drive this time?"

She looked a little surprised and commented, " What, is my driving so bad? Ha ha."

I ignored that and continued with my explanation. "Well, I figured since you are more familiar with the area it will be easier for you to navigate, and plus if you have to get on the phone you don't have to worry about getting a ticket!"

She didn't argue and we all piled into my car. I have to say, it was much better that way after all. I drove for the remainer of the time we were there.

I didn't take pictures of all the properties we went to, but here are two more of the better ones.

This one is in a town called Glide. At first I didn't really want to see it because it was just 10 acres, but my husband told me not to count any out just because of a smaller acreage. As it turns out, I'm glad we went to see it, though it didn't work out after all.

We had to go up a good hill and I know I'd have to get a 4 wheel drive in the winter. Once we got to the top we saw what appeared to be a nice little cottage. Boy was I surprised!

It was another of those enter on the second floor which was the main floor and it had another whole floor below. It had really great decks on three sides, on the upper and lower floors.

The views were awesome!

The inside was also quite nice. The kitchen had been recently remodeled. There was an office as well as a hobby room. Vicki and I both agreed this would have been a fabulous party house!

This property also had a couple of outbuildings, including a strange open barn thing. I don't even know how to describe it other than that. Then there was a large shop with a good sized apartment attached on the back side. That apartment was nicer than some of the mobile homes we saw!

If I didn't have plans to bring all my animals with me and maybe just do with a sheep or two I may have gone for this place. Unfortunately the only flat area was the half acre that the home and buildings were on. The rest was all at about a 45 degree angle straight down. This one was listed at $366.650.

This next property was the furthest away, in the town of Drain, which is in the northern part of Douglas County. This one was two mobile homes on 44 acres with a good sized stream (Sand Creek) bordering one side of the property.

The main house wasn't in too bad of shape, and actually looked better inside than out.

This view is showing a garage/shop next to the main house and the bottom frame of an old mobile home in the foreground.

From the house looking back towards the road.
The "back yard".
The opposite view looking back towards the house.
A really nice piece of forest.
Some pastures.

There was a young kid (19-ish?) waiting around and we took the opportunity to ask him some questions. It seems the creek does flood every year and the pasture just below the house floods.

At one time previous owners attempted to have a Christmas tree farm. This is at the furthest end from the house, near the main road.

So that one was also on my list of possibles, especially with the $285,000 price. It has since dropped to $282,800.

One of the things I learned is not to fully trust the pictures posted on the internet by the agents. There were a couple that looked half way decent in the pictures but after being there in person and seeing the surroundings the real life picture left a little to be desired.

One funny example of that was a glowing description of a 10 acre property. This is not a joke. We had to go up "JR Drive" and turn on "Sue Ellen Way". Shades of Dallas! The picture on the internet showed a nice, newer mobile home. What it didn't show was that two feet behind and two feet in front of the mobile home the land was at about 60 degrees! And the entire property was like that.

It's too bad I can't take the best house and put it on the best property. But I can't do anything until our house sells anyway.

I was also surprised at the number of places that weren't cleaned up. Like I mentioned yesterday I've got to wonder if these people really want to sell. It was just amazing to me at the junk all around the properties that were occupied. Don't their realtors tell them how to clean it up? Or do they just not care. Obviously they don't watch HGTV like I do! Fortunately I can pretty much overlook the clutter and imagine myself in there, but I know a lot of people can't do that.

We were supposed to have a showing tonight but the person cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday. And in anticipation of today's showing I washed all the windows, the floors, the sinks, the tub, the toilets, made the beds, picked up the laundry, dusted, vacuumed, polished the stainless steel appliances, raked all the leaves out of the flower beds and from under the olive tree, and swept out the garage. I'll sure be glad when this is all over.

And I hope it's sooner rather than later!