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.........................