Frustration continues

I'm starting to think that the problem with the housing industry may not be lack of buyers it's they just give up. As I mentioned we had the inspection and signed the buyers release. This is a foreclosure so we are dealing with a bank through a local realtor. Last Thursday we got the name and phone number of the Title company the bank will be using. They wanted a larger deposit which was fine and should be a simple thing. First call to Title Company, left message. Second call of the day to Title Company with another message. Friday, two calls made with messages left and than call to our realtor. He called the banks Realtor along with leaving message at Title Company. Monday - 2 more calls & messages along with talking to our guy. Did I mention the bank is in Nebraska, the Title Company is in Detroit and their Realtor is in Lansing. Finally Tuesday morning I got a new person (thanks to Matt) at the title company and we were able to do a wire transfer.

Our realtor Matt found out what the problem was. Seems the Title Company wouldn't release the wire transfer information until they received the signed buyers release. The Real Estate Co. wouldn't release the buyers release until they got a confirmation from the Title Company that the deposit was there. Do you see my point, it's not the lack of people wanting to buy a home it's the hassle of having to deal with idiots like this that both think they shouldn't have to bow to anyone. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be if we had to finance this and bring another mortgage company in on this.

So I have given the Title Company three days to get the title insurance started so will give them a call tomorrow. Hopefully this new person will answer her phone. Oh and once this is done I will be sending a email to the CEO of this Title Company/Attorneys office.

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful. We went out to lunch with Nadene and Mike last Sunday to Brookshire Country Club. We not only had a very good meal but there was a wedding on the terrace and we were able to watch the services.

We needed to go into Lowe's for a couple of things and so I did a walk through the appliance dept. Talk about a sticker shock. The last time we purchased kitchen appliances was in 2002 when we built our last house. I've looked at them before but I never started adding a total price for everything. Ouch!!

So guess that's it for now. Till next time...........................

Grandson's 6th Bday and Flag Football

In between all the house things this last couple of weeks we've also been able to spend some time with the family. Our grandson Darrius had his 6th birthday on the 18th. The last few years it's been at Chuckie Cheese but this year they decided to go to the local bowling alley.

This is a serious bowler
I had to share this one with you

Than we had to attend Darrius's first flag football game last weekend. His mom and dad have been diligently reminding Darrius for the last two weeks that this is "flag" football and he was "not" to tackle anyone.

Here he is getting his first flag and we're happy to say the game went with no tackles.

Things are slow going on the house. This will be a blog all in itself so will fill you in next time.

That's it for now. Till next time........................................

Many changes

On one hand I'm thinking "where did this week go" and on the other it's been the longest week. Some of you already know that we made a major decision this week - - we are becoming stick and bricks homeowners again.

During the summer on our walks around town we would look at different places and we were getting very good at spotting what houses look like they would be showing up on the foreclosure listings. I would call on one and was always a day late - sold - but the Realtor would always assure us they would send us information on other homes and call as soon as something came up.
Ya Right!!! I probably talked with 5-6 different real estate offices and not one of them followed up with even a email let along a phone call. And the houses were listed on their websites. I was really getting discussed with these offices, not because we wanted to actually find a home but because of their lack of customer service. So those real estate offices will not be getting any kind of good recommending from us.

So as you know we had a departure date of the 18th to start working our way south. The week before that on one of our walks we spotted a house with the now all familiar paper taped on a window. I called the number listed on the paper and was told the house wouldn't be on the market for another week. I need to mention that we finally did find a realtor that has done everything he said he would and more. So for any of you looking for a home in our area be sure to give Matt Robertson at Century 21 Looking Glass in Lansing a call. Matt is an owner and trust me we will be giving his company the best word of mouth advertisement we can.

So lets fast forward to the 16th. I'm watching each of the websites that send me a daily update of new listings in our area. Now we need to make a decision on do we stay here longer or just forget it and look next year. We were able to see inside the house so we knew it was just what we were looking for, small but not too small, a yard that was big enough but not to big, and at least a one car garage. Decision made and we moved our departure date up by a week.

Friday morning a daily update came through with only the name of the street but since there is only two blocks with that street name I was pretty sure it was the one. I called Matt and he did a quick check and found that it wasn't "active" yet and it could take several days before it would be. Bummer another waiting game. We had made a appointment with Matt to check the house out that afternoon after getting 3 inches of rain the day before to check for water. While we were sitting in the driveway Matt called and said he was on his way and had just gotten the notice the house went active. So after he got there and we checked things out we finished up the paperwork and he took it directly to the other real estate office. Again the waiting starts.

Fast forward to today. The bank excepted our offer, we've had the house inspection and we are now waiting for a closing date. We are hoping for next week but not getting our hopes up. We have found out that there was a lot of interest in this place so we are just lucky we moved as fast as we did.

So a little about the house. It's just over a thousand square feet with one bedroom down and two small bedrooms upstairs, perfect for the grand kids. It has a good size living room and the kitchen and eating area are all in one. Full basement, not finished but thank goodness it's not a Michigan basement. The house does need some updating inside but nothing major and the only thing we need to get done this year is a portion of the roof over the kitchen area needs to be replaced, which our nephew Dave will be able to do.

So here is our future home

See that huge tree behind the house. Well that's in our back yard and it has a least a million leaves that will have to be raked up.

The plan is to decide this winter just what we want to accomplish next summer. As I said the inside doesn't have to have things done but we will want to do certain things, new carpet, re-sanding the wood floors and starting to look for all the appliances and furniture. Actually we do have our bedroom set that my dear sister Nadene has been storing for us all these years. It's is pretty special to me as it was my parents so we at least have that. Anyway we will be bringing the rig back at least one more year if not two, depends on what gets done next summer. Some time in the next couple of years we will start leaving the trailer in Texas and just driving the car.

So that's our big change. Lots of exciting things. We are both anxious to get this settled and get down to Retama. So far the weather has been good and we've been enjoying the color changes on our walks. But next week it's suppose to get more seasonal temps (60's high 40's low) so it's time to hit the road.

That's it for now. Till next time.........................

Nothing like a old Country Mill

Tuesday we had dinner at Carrabba's with siblings on my side of the family. Bob and Diane were down from Houghton Lake, Larry & Stint weren't in the fields and Nadene & Mike were able to get away from their business. We always have a good time when we get together.

OK, so we have changed the departure time by at least one week. Some things came up and we want to stay around here for a little longer. Will keep you posted on when we hit the road.

Wednesday we decided it would be a perfect fall day to drive to the

Country Mill
and get some cider

and of course those fresh donuts.

Here's a couple of pictures of the inside the store that I found on line

We've never been there at Christmas but it looks neat.

This is a wonderful old Country Mill that has been around as long as I can remember. It's just not fall in this area without a trip there for the cider and donuts. This year they started making wine so we had to bring a couple of bottles home. Last night Gail (sister-in-law) came over and we opened two bottles (no didn't finish them off) and had a sample tasting test. I needed to know if its worth going back for more before we leave. And the answer to that is a big yes.

Guess that's it for now. Till next time....................

Family Time

The last few weeks when we were out driving around we noticed that the corn fields looked like they were almost ready for harvesting but that couldn't be right as it's way to early. Well the other day my niece Amy put a picture of my brother out in the corn field on FB so guess at least in this area of Michigan the farmers are going to have their corn in really early this year.
This weekend was busy with family. Saturday was rainy and cold so a perfect day to stay inside and watch the MSU Game and since our Direct TV was the only one televising the game they hung out here. Dawn/Dave/Sydney were here right at starting time and Brandi/Anissa/Darrius showed up a little later. After-ward's we all went inside Dave's for dinner and David/Gail (brother/SIL) Kira (niece) and her two kids came over.
Don't no why but for some reason I didn't take any pictures so had to copy a couple from Brandi's phone

Here's Darrius and Sydney

And Anissa with Jackson

Sunday turned out to be very nice and we went for our morning walk across town. Larry worked on cleaning the truck while I did inside things. That afternoon Betty/Rod (niece/nephew) and their family came over for happy hour. Dave made a big pot of chili and invited us in. It was good but boy did we need the tums that night.

Today (Monday) we did our usual walk but was surprised when we got home and saw we did 4.7 miles. The weather was perfect so we just kept going. We did stop at the cemetery and cleaned the flowers out on the family's graves. This afternoon we got the lawn mowed for possible the last time of us doing it.

Oh a update on our cell phone situation. I don't understand why it would make any different but with the girl only changing the sim card I haven't had any problems with dropped calls and have had at least 3 bars up. So for now we're going to wait and see how it does down in TX and if we have to change do it there.

That's it for now. Till next time....................................

Fall has arrived & Schools bumpy start

Fall has arrived here in our area. Trees are starting to turn and the winds have picked up. Temperatures went from 80's to 60's with the lows in the 40's . So we have set the departure date for a week from Saturday on the 18th. which is subject to change if need be. Tuesday was the beginning of the new school year and our grandson made the big jump to 1st Grade and riding the bus.

Here he is saying goodbye to Mr Drippy the fish

He's excited and ready to start his new adventure of being a first grader.

By the time he got to the bus stop he was having seconds thoughts.

Click on the picture and look at the kids faces on the bus - it says it all - priceless

But the day went well and he decided he would continue going to school. For more pictures of our little guy heading to the bus check out our webshots.

Our great nieces also started Tuesday and here is a picture of them waiting for the bus.

Here's (left to right) Sydney, Mariah, Sierra

Of course I have to share a picture of our other great nieces on their first day back.
Here's Ava, Adrienne (front) & Olivia, Allena (back)

The girls day started out good but it didn't end that way. In fact the school district here had some major issues on getting kids home. Course they had all the ingredients for having one heck of a mess on the first day of school. Two in town schools were closed last spring which meant hundreds of kids were being bused to schools outside of town and many of them had walked to school. All kindergartners are now being bused to one school in town here. So now comes the end of the day. The kindergartners are loaded on buses and taken to another school that has grades 1-6 and turned loose to find their bus along with all the older kids. While this is going on at this grade school there's other grade school (4 miles outside of town) where all these use to be walkers are turned loose to find their bus. Oh and I need to mention that some intelligent person decided these kids would have a hard time remembering those huge bus numbers plastered all over the bus so they have "routes" on the doors of the buses. So now you have hundreds of kids all walking around trying to see what the route says on bus doors. Students are released at 3:30pm, the girls in the first picture arrived home at 5:15 and the other girls finally made it at 5:50. You'll never guess what the recording said at the bus barn when these mothers are calling to find out where their kids are.
The recording "We are receiving an abnormal amount of calls at this time, please leave your name and number and someone will get back with you within 24 hours". Needless to say there were probably a whole lot of mothers around here that were on the war path for some ones head. Some day the moms will laugh about this but probably not for awhile yet.

I see our friends Mike and Pat McFall made it back to their property in Custer with their new motor home, congrats's to them on their new travel home. Can't wait to see it this winter when they get to Retama.

Guess that's it for now. Time to make sure the storm windows are closed, day/night shades all down and space heaters on stand by for the 45 degrees tonight. Did I tell you I really like my remote space heater, sooo cool or should I say soooo hot. Till next time........................

Darrius Pet & AT&T's Best Deal

We actually had a bit of a busy week or at least for us it was busy. Tuesday we met Lon & Pat Garvey for one more luncheon. As I mentioned they have a trailer down in our park and this summer we've tried to get together once a month for lunch. They will be leaving next weekend heading straight south to see friends/family before going on to Retama.

Wednesday I had a hair cut appointment one last time. My lady does a good job but I like Victoria down in Texas too and she's a whole lot cheaper than it is here.

Thursday morning we picked Darrius up, again our last all day time with him since school starts on Tuesday. After clearing it with his mom we decided we would get him a fish for part of his birthday present. I have to give gr-pa credit, he is NOT one for staying more than a 1/2 hour in a store and Darrius was having a awful time trying to decide on which fish. On the way to the store Darrius was explaining to me just what kind of fish he couldn't get - like ones that are poison - ones that wrap around you- no alligators or crocodiles - no sharks and ones that don't grow to big. He was very serious about these requirements and wanted to make sure I understood them.

So we are in the store going back and forth looking at all the different ones. He just kept saying "I just can't decide". I thought maybe it would help if we got away from the fish and started looking for the right "fish house". Ok, one thing down, fish house is in the cart. Back to fish hunting. We finally convinced him to choose a Betta Fish as they have a better chance of surviving - but we didn't tell Darrius that. Why would a store have so many choices on one kind of fish- do they not no the stress this can cause on a young person (not to mention gr-parents). I finally got all the fish in their temporary homes down from the top shelf so they were at eye level hoping this would speed things up. Let the drums roll - he made the decision . Quickly the fishy was put in the cart next to his soon to be new home. Of course we're not done yet, we talked with the fish lady and she helped us on what we needed, water (check), fish food (check), pebbles for bottom of fish tank (another choice of color but check), grass so he has something to swim around (check) and finally a fish net to remove him on cleaning day (check). What ever happened to a simple little gold fish in a tiny little bowl. Did I mention by now we have spent two hours in the fish dept.

When we got home Sydney was waiting for us and she came in to help get the fish house ready for the new tenant.
Now the next step was figuring out a name for this guy. It took a lot of thought and concentration and I'm not exactly sure how he came up with it but let me now introduce you to the newest member of our family - Drum roll please

Please welcome DRIPPY
with a very happy Darrius

The rest of the day was pretty much spent explaining to Darrius why he could not feed Drippy every 10 minutes. We got a email from our daughter the next day telling us that Drippy made it through his first night and she was so glad not to see him floating that morning. Told her I never thought about asking if there was a 24-48 hr death clause warranty. It's now been three days and Drippy seems to be settling in.

Today we went into AT&T to see about getting new phones. We've had these for several years and the last few weeks they've really dropped calls or it sounds like we are talking to people on the moon. Our contract with them has been up for 3-4 years so I thought we'd be able to maybe reactivate the contract and get some new phones for a decent price. Nope - that wasn't going to happen. This was what we were told that was their very best deal - for activating a new two year contract they were "only" going to charge us $18.00 per phone for the free upgrade fee and the phone was "only" going to cost us $80 each - but- they would "give" us a new carrying case and a car battery charger. Lets see if I understand this correctly - we would pay them $160 for two phones that all you could do was use as a phone- no internet - no texting - no pictures - but the letters were large. Plus they would charge us $36 for upgrading to these wonder new phones and lock us in to a 2 year contract with them. About this time the sales person started getting the idea that we were not happy with their "best deal" and mentioned that if we wanted to change the sim-card in our phones (free of charge) that it might help with the problems. we've been having. So we had the new cards put in and we shall see, if this doesn't work we may be looking at one of their competitors.

That's it for today. Till next time..............................