Halloween

Due to the circumstances surrounding the impending sale of our home, my only nod to Halloween this year were my Jack-O-Lantern earrings.

We will be handing candy out if we get any kids. Oh, I know we'll get at least one! ;-)

And also since tomorrow, November 1, is the beginning of the "Check Before You Burn" season we are burning in our fireplace tonight, even though it was a most beautiful day today and the current temperature is 69º! Yeah, we have all our windows open and I think the ceiling fans will be coming on shortly, but so what.

Take that SJVAPCD.

Canoeing

Here's a couple of photos of Grampa taking the baby out for a spin around the pond in the canoe.

She was having a grand old time!

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We got a pack of papers from the realtor yesterday. Among them were the termite inspection/report (all clear), a copy of the Home Inspection Report (not bad), and the roof inspection/report (minor repairs needed which we already knew about), and the request for repairs sheet from the buyers. The only thing on there is a request to fix the roof and fix a GFRI plug that wasn't working. Actually the plug is working but the GFRI part isn't, if that makes any sense. I'll probably go to Home Depot tomorrow and replace it, that's how simple that is to fix.

The only thing we determined that was missing from the pack was the list of disclosures. So the realtor will come on Saturday with those so we can get the latest signed and off.

The best bit of news is that the appraisal came in at $230,000 "with no work requirements". As far as that goes once we sign our latest stack of papers and get the work order in for the roof repairs we wait for the underwriter to approve the appraisal which should happen next week. Then we can look for a possible sooner closing date than November 30th!

I've also made contact with a mortgage lender in Oregon. We had a nice conversation the other day and I've mailed her a bunch of info so we can get preapproved for once we get up there. She said it looks like we should be okay to qualify for $400,000. That's kind of what I had figured out but I really don't want to go that high because if we did that it would take up all our cash. I'd rather get something for less so that we don't have to put everything down up front. But it's nice to know in case we find a move in ready house with everything I want! (Which means lots of land, great house, barn, and tractor. Which is not likely.)

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And one final thing...

GO GIANTS!!!

Giants Heading To World Series!

Tub Time

My husband and I are babysitting this weekend. I just can't resist a cute tub time photo.

Weird Harvest

We have a zucchini plant growing in a pot and it is still producing zucchinis!

I'm getting anywhere from 1 to 3 eggs every day. Today I got a weird egg.

It's a little hard to see in the pictures but the egg is kind of flat on one side.Here it is laying on the flat side.
This is from one end. You can kind of see the weird shape here.

And today we went in to the title company and signed escrow papers. Here's the stack we got.

I've decided not to bring the chickens with us. My friend Vicki's mother in law said she will take them. This way I don't have to worry about making sure there is some sort of an enclosure for them for when we get up to Oregon. When we find our final place I'll start over with the chickens and that should be pretty easy.

I've also decided to sell Ladysmith and this year's heifer calf; taking Dakota, the bull, and Waneata, last year's heifer calf, besides the two horses. We may already have a buyer for them too. (The cows, not the horses.)

The worst thing right now is that we apparently have to wait basically until the last minute to move. That's the way it sounds anyhow. We've asked several people and it seems like the laws are greatly in favor of the buyer. It sounds like we could go to the last day of escrow and they could back out at the last minute if they wanted to.

So I guess we are supposed to wait until the last minute to get everything out of the house and get moved. If we took a chance and did it sooner and they backed out we would be stuck with a rental and this place and then have to start over.

Somehow it just doesn't seem quite fair. You would think there would be a sooner-than-the-last-day-of-escrow-point-of-no-return. These are all just thoughts that are going through my husband's and my heads.

But I do think these buyers are very nice people and I think they will be very accommodating. I know they are eager to move in and they couldn't be more excited. For my part I know I am excited too.

One more off the wall comment. I didn't realize "weird" would be spelled e-before-i, since I thought the general rule was i-before-e-except-after-c. I found that out when I did the spell check.

How weird.

I Heart Craigslist!

I think I've mentioned this before, but I really like Craigslist. Not only is it easy to post items for sale but unlike the newspaper there is no charge to do so!

We decided to sell two items that we didn't really want to bring with us to Oregon.

The first was this home gym. (These are the actual photos I posted online.)

We paid Sears some $400 for it several years ago. I was asking $150 OBO.

We really didn't think we'd get any offers on it but some guys came by this afternoon and gave me full price for it! One down!

The other item we put up for sale was this little Yamaha 125cc dirt bike. We originally bought it for our son in 2005. About three months after we bought it he had a growth spurt and grew to about 6'2". Okay that's just a little bit of an exaggeration, but not by far. (He did grow to 6'2" but it took just a little longer.)

It's been sitting in the garage for the last three years and wouldn't start so I was asking $500 with the note that it "needs work".

Not so surprising was the fact that we got more calls on this one. It also went tonight, fortunately to some people that had neighbors who were mechanics and into dirt bikes. Now that's convenient! I'm sure they'll probably end up having gotten quite the bargain on this one. (Kelley Blue Book values it at $1200. Running, of course.) Two down!

The buyers had left to get the money when I got a call from another interested party. I told him that it had sold and the people were just running to the bank. He wanted to take a look anyway in case they didn't show up. I said fine.

After he looked at it he reiterated that if the other people failed to show then give him a call and he would buy it. He was just getting in his truck when the buyers pulled up.

The girl and her husband came up and I asked if she noticed the other truck. She said she had. I told her about him wanting the bike but that it was sold and I was just waiting for the money. She said, "Oh, that must be why he was giving me the evil eye!"

I just posted these on Craigslist yesterday and this evening they are both GONE! They do make it easy. The only thing is you have to watch out for the scammers, of which I have had some. But those aren't usually too hard to spot if you just use some common sense!

Tomorrow morning we have our official termite inspection. No word as of yet on any repairs that may be requested as a result of the home inspection last week. They may be waiting on all inspections to be completed, which would make sense.

Is it normal to not be able to sleep because all I can think about is moving?

Bracco Wine

I ordered some of this "Bracco" wine through our Bracco Italiano club. Obviously the main reason is because of the name and the picture of the Bracco on the bottle. It's a red wine and I don't usually like reds.

We tried it out last night. It's okaaaaay... Like I said, I'm not a fan of red wine usually, unless it's sweet, and this one isn't.

But this picture of Clyde and the wine is!

So now I know. The remaining five bottles will be used for display and/or given selectively as special gifts. The bottle we opened was given to our friend the dairyman, who claimed he liked it.

In truth it reminded me a little of the wine we get at the Basque restaurants. The first two glasses are a little hard to swallow, but then it gets easier and easier!

Gnats & Spiders & Inspectors

This year has been particularly bad for gnats and spiders. I find myself cleaning them up every day. Last night I had to let the dogs out back through the garage, because the gnats were so plastered on the sliding door. To open it would have allowed a flood of the annoying insects inside the house.

This is the front entry by the door mat.

This is also in the front entry way up at the ceiling. The spiders certainly aren't going hungry!
Check out the window from the outside...
...and the inside.

Here's the patio light which happens to be near the back sliding door where the dogs go in and out. See what I mean?

And every day I've been clearing the washer and dryer in the garage off.
This is from just one night!
I think we need a good freeze this year!

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Yesterday we had our home inspection for the buyers. The inspector came first. He was very thorough and checked everything out from top to bottom. The buyers came out to meet him after a few hours and they went over some of the findings. From where we were sitting it sounded like there weren't any serious problems.

We knew there were some cracked roof tiles and we were certainly aware that the cement driveway and patio had some cracks as well. The buyers were given a binder with the exam report full of notes about the findings. It's probably too soon to hear anything back yet but I can't imagine it's going to be any worse than what we already knew.

The inspector told us everything looked pretty good and there weren't any huge serious issues. I think he appreciated the fact that everything was spic-n-span. He said he could tell the house was well cared for. (If he only knew... Just kidding!)

The people that are going to be living here are a young couple with three kids. His stepfather is the actual buyer. I'm happy to say they all are very excited about the house. In fact the stepfather likes it pretty well too; he was threatening to move in with his wife and make the kids move into the house he's in now! He even mentioned he thought it was worth more. (I knew that!)

One of the biggest compliments we got was the couple said they enjoyed talking to us so much (from when they saw the house from the two showings) they wished we could be neighbors (but in the next door house, not this one!).

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Well I guess it's time to clean the gnats off the clothes washer and dryer and do a little laundry.

Bad/Good Teeth

We were just being silly the other day.

I love to gross everybody out when I make "ugly teeth" with chocolate. Here my daughter and granddaughter are following suit.

My daughter is a Registered Dental Assistant so she is usually quite meticulous about keeping her teeth and her daughter's teeth clean.

My granddaughter is helping me brush my teeth...

Thanks, Sweetie!!

Pending

We got our "Sale Pending" sign put up. We're one step closer!

On Wednesday the realtor called with a question and mentioned she had another request for a showing and she had to tell them no. She mentioned we got another full price offer too! We'll keep them as the first alternate on the off chance that the first one doesn't go through. (But I can't see that happening!)

It's nice to be able to relax a little and not be in such a frenzy about keeping the house spotless. We are scheduled for the home inspector to come by on Monday morning, so of course I will clean up for him.

Now we are discussing various ideas on how we are going to handle the actual move, what with the horses, cows, chickens, and dogs and cats. So far we are pretty sure we can farm them all out to various places and just take the dogs and cats with us. We think what we'll probably do is rent a place on a month-to-month basis so we can take our time looking at different places and thoroughly checking out all options like possibly building on "raw" land. I think each option has pluses and minuses.

Happy Friday!

Finally!

We finally got an offer yesterday afternoon. In fact we got two!

Our realtor called us today to come in and go over the offers. She said one was a very good offer and the other was not so good.

Our house is listed at $229,500 and the first offer was for $209,000. The second was for $229,000 and they wanted the fridge and the lawn tractor. Guess which offer we went with?

So I think now we wait for inspections.

Now if all goes according to the plan we should be out of here by the end of November, if not sooner!

I told our realtor I guess now I can stop bugging God. She said not yet! She should know, but I'm feeling pretty confident right now!

Another Dragonfly

Here are the pictures I was trying to upload the other day and for some reason it just wasn't working.

We were bbbq'ing and there was a very large dragonfly buzzing about.

I was trying to get a good closeup picture of him but right as I was focusing in on him he'd take off.

And now I think he's just showing off. (He's hanging on upside down here.)

And just so you could get a better idea of just how big he really was, this is my husband's hand holding him.

Beautiful colors, huh!

I'm hoping to have some good news tomorrow. It has to do with the house, so check back later!

Saturday In Cambria

Thursday Vicki and I went to Cambria after the showing of my house. Our husbands were there with us by early Friday evening. On Saturday we decided to go and explore the San Simeon area. A friend of Vicki's had told her that the Hearsts had an old dump site way out and at low tide you could see a lot of discarded things from way back in the day, including a tractor (!!).

Vicki and I had taken this route once before but hadn't gone as far the alleged dump site. This would be the first time my husband had been there.

We started out around 10:30, which was supposed to be the time of the low tide for the area. It was kind of foggy when we started out, but not as cold as it looked.

This picture doesn't show it too well, but a lot of the trees had hanging moss which made me think of Christmas trees adorned with green tinsel.

If you've been reading this blog for a couple of years you may remember these trees from this post.

They haven't changed much.
There's also this shot...

...and these trees.

The first one was taken with the flash, the second (below) was without.
The wild coast line.

And here's that path on the way back, with and without the flash.
The without shots make me think of "The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe" movie.

We found a dumpsite with mostly broken and burnt shards of pottery and crockery, but there was no tractor sightings. It was a good hike anyway, and don't tell anyone we were actually trespassing. Hey, we weren't the only ones out there!

On the way back the marine layer had pulled back just a tad.

Same shot, different angle.

Ditto. Notice the two hunky guys on the left.

Later that night another couple joined us and we had a great dinner of green salad, pasta alfredo, garlic bread, and chicken picatta.

Not to mention copious amounts of vino.

What did I say last time? "Life is good!"

Indeed!

October First

I'm trying to upload a few photos and Blogger is giving me some fits. I'll have to try that later.

First off, a late Happy Birthday to my son. He turned 20 yesterday. And lest you think I'm a really bad mother, I did wish him Happy Birthday yesterday, I just didn't blog yesterday.

So Wednesday I was feeling a little blue because we hadn't gotten any calls to see the house all week. I think I didn't even bother to do the basic pick up. I decided that a ride on my horse would do me good and I was right. I had a great ride.

That evening our realtor called and said she had heard that one couple would be writing an offer after they did some other paperwork. So that made me cautiously happy.

Thursday was my son's birthday, but we didn't really have any plans made for that. He's barely ever home anymore so I kind of figured he'd be with his girlfriend anyway. And my husband and I had made plans two weeks ago to go to Cambria with our friends. Vicki and I planned to leave on Thursday at about 4pm and our husbands were going to go the next afternoon.

Thursday at 2:30 our realtor called and said some people wanted to see the house around 3:30 but she wanted to check with me first since I usually tell her 4pm is better. I let her know that 3:30 was actually better that day. I immediately started cleaning up. Usually I have several hours notice and I like to finish with an hour to spare rather than starting with an hour to go til show time.

At least I had made our bed but now I had to race around making my son's bed and pick up his room (I know, I know...). Then I had to clean the sinks and tub in the bathrooms, empty the trash cans, vacuum and sweep, clean the stove top, wash the dog smudges off the windows, pull my car out of the garage (to show off the built-in cabinets better), open the shop building roll-up door, put the dogs out in the side yard, spray the Febreeze in all the rooms, and finally turn on all the lights (I had read on the internet that your house shows better when it's totally lit up and I think it's true).

At about 3:20 I was almost done when I saw a car pull up out front. By this time I was totally dripping sweat everywhere. My face was literally dripping and my shirt was soaked. I quickly ran back to change into a dry shirt. I checked everything to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything and was satisfied.

The realtor knocked on the door and I showed him around real quick when his clients pulled up. It was a husband, wife, and their couple of kids. After the usual house walk through and look around the back area they came back and the husband asked a few questions. He seemed very enthusiastic and in all it seemed a positive experience. But as always, time will tell...

By this time Vicki and already pulled up and after the people left I ran back through the house turning all the lights off. I let the dogs back into the house and we loaded up my bags into her car and took off.

So here I am in Cambria right now and we are just waiting for our husbands to show up (it's now 4:30 pm). We already went for a walk this morning and just got back from the Farmer's Market. I think we are having calamari for dinner tonight. I got strawberries, orange honey, and honey glazed almonds and I have an idea for dessert.

Life is good!