Well here we are at the end of 2019, time for one final blog post for this year. Shall we all let out a collective sigh of relief that 2020 is upon us? Deep breath in....and let it all out.
Okay, let's begin. I'll start with the ugliness and get that out of the way so that we can end on a happy note.
Twas 5 days before Christmas and those SOB's at Curtis Instruments decided to let Ed go from his job. We have uprooted our family, left a paid in full mortgage in Colorado, left friends and family to move to California all for Curtis Instruments. When they hired Ed last year it was so that he could implement a software called Altium. About half way through the year the man that hired Ed retired and this new boss couldn't seem to pull it together enough to get that software implemented. Which left Ed twiddling his thumbs trying to look busy while having nothing to do. But just to prove what a bag of dicks this new boss was, he decided the perfect time to let him go would be the Friday before Christmas. Am I bitter? Oh hell ya! I'm not even going to try to hide it. I can only hope that a-hole was visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future on Christmas Eve. And as a firm believer in Karma I'm sure there is a special treat waiting for him in his future.
Luckily we didn't put Christmas on credit and already had all the shopping done, other than our Christmas dinner.
The first order of business was to tell the kids without freaking the kids out. We met Ed for lunch and let them know. For almost 2 hours they didn't believe us, I'm not sure when it finally clicked with them, but when it did they seemed to be okay. Much better than the 2 of us were doing. However I'm going to chalk that up to excellent parenting or acting (is there a difference?). We remained calm and cool and kept telling them that everything was going to be okay, so I guess that kept them calm and cool.
If you're creative enough you can make being thrifty a fun game for the kids. For instance we went grocery shopping for our Christmas dinner and challenged the twins to find the cheapest ham they could in the gigantic ham bin at Safeway. (Despite the government lifting a ton of regulations on pork to allow organ meat and other undesirable things into your pork recently, we took a chance because it was cheap, see article here if you really want to be horrified). We bought asparagus, baking potatoes for twice baked potatoes and came away with a very affordable dinner. And if I could just take a moment to break my arm patting myself on the back, I slow roasted that ham for 6 hours and it was hands down the best ham I'm ever had. Ed also found that he could get a 10 lb bag of potatoes for cheap and keeps buying them. So in the future look for my cookbook '482 ways to cook a potato' (jk).
I've always been so proud of how smart and clever my twins are. I should've known that sooner or later that would bite me in the ass. On Christmas Eve my daughter informs me that she has a plan to catch Santa. She has set up the video on her phone to record the tree all night. She has found a plug in so it won't run out of battery and the perfect viewing spot so that you can't get within 5 ft of the tree without being caught on camera. This was quite the conundrum for Santa! There was no way to get the gifts under the tree! So Santa figured he would just leave the gifts by the fireplace instead of the tree. But it was all for not, turns out she's got so much crap on her phone it only recorded for 20 minutes then ran out of space.
Despite the bad news, the fear of the unknown and pretty much just walking around in a daze our Christmas was wonderful. If I dare to say, maybe even one of our better ones, and here is why. Most Christmas's are spent in a wild flurry, at least for me. There is the preparing dinner or getting ready to go somewhere for the dinner. Tearing the kids away from their new toys so they can get ready for company or head out somewhere, that pressure wasn't there. We did a virtual Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Rick so we were still able to somewhat be with our family. After presents I put the ham in the oven and took a nice long nap, (since I was up really late, see above), I was tired! When I awoke I put the glaze on the ham, fixed the taters and we had a great dinner.
Now for the real reason I think this Christmas was one of our better ones. The job loss has forced me to take a hard look at the true meaning of being grateful. It puts things into perspective. The kids got some nice presents, Ed and I bought each other small stuff, but it was the realization that we really don't need anything. There is nothing that could be put under that tree that was more important than our little family being together and healthy. We have a roof over our head, food in our fridge and watching the kids on their new hover boards is all the entertainment one could hope for. Our kids are grateful for what they get, they are smart and loving and I'm just so darn proud of them.
And that is the best Christmas present I could ever hope for.
So Happy New Year to all and may 2020 bring you so much happiness that you smile all year long, so much love that your heart overflows and a bucketful of gratitude for everything you already have in your life.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
RV Showers, Australian Locks and Earthquake Valves
I know I know.... I haven't written anything in a while. As you can imagine we have stacks of boxes up to our eyeballs. The recycling truck comes every other week at our new home and I am constantly trying to push as much out to the curb as possible. Our neighbors probably think we are hoarders. None the less, we are in a functioning state and only missing a few key items, remotes, the legs that go onto the TV to make it stand, and the one that really bugs me, the glass shades that go onto one of our lamps.
If I ran the world of real estate, and I don't, I would put some new rules in place. Before you purchase a car you get to test drive it and a car isn't nearly the investment that a house is. I think you should be allowed to live in the house you are proposing to buy for a couple of days at least to find out all the quirks the house has. And yes, I understand there may be some logistical problems with this, I'm just stating my fantasy world of real estate.
For instance, we have found out that our master shower is about the size of one you would find in an RV. If you want to shave your legs in this shower you have to have your bum up against one wall, then get your foot up to the height of your waist where there is a small shelf to rest your foot on. The other option is to try to bend to the floor, however there is no where to point the water so it just rinses all your shaving cream off before you ever get the blade to your leg. I've told Ed that we either need to raise the shower head by 2 feet, or lower the floor by 2 feet. However, what they didn't skimp on was the bath tub. It's deep and huge and in just a few years I'm sure neither Ed or I will be able to lift our legs high enough to get in or out of it and we'll be calling Terry Bradshaw to replace it with a walk in tub.
The other thing that I'm having a hard time getting used to are the locks. They all turn to the left instead of the right, which is wrong. You know how the toilets in Australia swirl in the opposite direction than the US, I wonder if the locks came from Australia. Either that or the house was built by a left handed person. Or maybe it was a left handed Australian? Whoever it was, I think my lefty mom is going to feel right at home here.
Last week we had a gardener come out to the house to trim up our palm tree. I have never maintained a palm tree before and watched as the guy put a rope around his waist and around the tree, then scaled up to trim off the dead branches. So, um, yeah.... I'm not doing that. However, on his way out from our backyard he bumped our gas meter. Here's a California lesson for you. All of the gas meters have an earthquake emergency shut off valve on them. If you shake or bump your gas fixture it will shut your gas off to your house. Makes sense doesn't it? But then you have me and Ed out there trying to figure out how to switch the gas back on. For those of you that don't know, Ed and I are two of the least handy people you have ever met. So after a post to the nextdoor app, we found out the problem was the earthquake valve. Awesome! How do you fix that? Enter YouTube video. I found a 2 minute video on how to reset your earthquake valve which was super easy. Of course before we found that video Ed was out there flip levers and pushing buttons without knowing what they go to or what they will do... you know, as men do. I can't speak for other women, but this woman has a healthy respect for gas and all things combustible. So we got the gas back on, cooked dinner and figured all was well. That is until we sent the kiddo's off to take their showers.
I was getting ready to enjoy the 15 minutes of silence that I get when I send the children to take their showers, (these are golden times). The next thing I see is my naked son with his two hands covering his boy parts and telling me that the water won't heat up. They were off the hook for the night for showers and the next day Ed fiddled with the water heater to no avail. He ever downloaded the manual for our water heater, which really impressed me! We have a tankless water heater so there is no pilot light to relight. After a few failed attempts we resolved ourselves to calling a plumber and discovered that we are probably too stupid to own a house. After the best plumber in CA came out here we found the source of the problem was that Ed had flipped a lever that piped gas to our water heater. So we moved the lever back to the open position, got some hot water going and the plumber left without accepting any kind of payment from us. And yes, he has our business for good now.
We are not the only ones getting used to different things in the new house. The dogs are having their first experience with a sliding glass door. At the old house there was a back door that they couldn't see through. This sliding glass door thing is a constant source of entertainment for me. The first couple of days I watched as first the big dog came running at full speed only to crash into the glass. Then just because she's dumb as a brick, the little dog did the exact same thing. The next time I witnessed this I was outside with both dogs and Lucy our cat had found a sunny spot just inside the door and was lounging there. The dogs caught sight of her and again come running full speed and smacked their heads on the glass door. The dogs took a step back and shook their heads, the cat didn't budge but continued her glare at them. Last night I watched as Tucker saw his reflection in the glass window and started barking at that dog outside. Both of these dogs might have concussions now, I hope they don't turn into doggie serial killers due to head trama.
The last couple of things I'm having a hard time getting used to are the size of the hawks around here. I swear they are the size of Tucker!
I also sometimes forget I'm in California, since we are in a farm area, the landscape sort of looks the same. That is until you see a corn field surrounded by palm trees. My brain tells my eyes, "That can't be right, are you sure that's what we're seeing?"
Lastly I'll post a few pictures of the family football toss. Ed took the kids into the backyard to toss the football around last night, which just thrilled me to the bone that the entire family was doing something non-video related.
If I ran the world of real estate, and I don't, I would put some new rules in place. Before you purchase a car you get to test drive it and a car isn't nearly the investment that a house is. I think you should be allowed to live in the house you are proposing to buy for a couple of days at least to find out all the quirks the house has. And yes, I understand there may be some logistical problems with this, I'm just stating my fantasy world of real estate.
For instance, we have found out that our master shower is about the size of one you would find in an RV. If you want to shave your legs in this shower you have to have your bum up against one wall, then get your foot up to the height of your waist where there is a small shelf to rest your foot on. The other option is to try to bend to the floor, however there is no where to point the water so it just rinses all your shaving cream off before you ever get the blade to your leg. I've told Ed that we either need to raise the shower head by 2 feet, or lower the floor by 2 feet. However, what they didn't skimp on was the bath tub. It's deep and huge and in just a few years I'm sure neither Ed or I will be able to lift our legs high enough to get in or out of it and we'll be calling Terry Bradshaw to replace it with a walk in tub.
The other thing that I'm having a hard time getting used to are the locks. They all turn to the left instead of the right, which is wrong. You know how the toilets in Australia swirl in the opposite direction than the US, I wonder if the locks came from Australia. Either that or the house was built by a left handed person. Or maybe it was a left handed Australian? Whoever it was, I think my lefty mom is going to feel right at home here.
Last week we had a gardener come out to the house to trim up our palm tree. I have never maintained a palm tree before and watched as the guy put a rope around his waist and around the tree, then scaled up to trim off the dead branches. So, um, yeah.... I'm not doing that. However, on his way out from our backyard he bumped our gas meter. Here's a California lesson for you. All of the gas meters have an earthquake emergency shut off valve on them. If you shake or bump your gas fixture it will shut your gas off to your house. Makes sense doesn't it? But then you have me and Ed out there trying to figure out how to switch the gas back on. For those of you that don't know, Ed and I are two of the least handy people you have ever met. So after a post to the nextdoor app, we found out the problem was the earthquake valve. Awesome! How do you fix that? Enter YouTube video. I found a 2 minute video on how to reset your earthquake valve which was super easy. Of course before we found that video Ed was out there flip levers and pushing buttons without knowing what they go to or what they will do... you know, as men do. I can't speak for other women, but this woman has a healthy respect for gas and all things combustible. So we got the gas back on, cooked dinner and figured all was well. That is until we sent the kiddo's off to take their showers.
I was getting ready to enjoy the 15 minutes of silence that I get when I send the children to take their showers, (these are golden times). The next thing I see is my naked son with his two hands covering his boy parts and telling me that the water won't heat up. They were off the hook for the night for showers and the next day Ed fiddled with the water heater to no avail. He ever downloaded the manual for our water heater, which really impressed me! We have a tankless water heater so there is no pilot light to relight. After a few failed attempts we resolved ourselves to calling a plumber and discovered that we are probably too stupid to own a house. After the best plumber in CA came out here we found the source of the problem was that Ed had flipped a lever that piped gas to our water heater. So we moved the lever back to the open position, got some hot water going and the plumber left without accepting any kind of payment from us. And yes, he has our business for good now.
We are not the only ones getting used to different things in the new house. The dogs are having their first experience with a sliding glass door. At the old house there was a back door that they couldn't see through. This sliding glass door thing is a constant source of entertainment for me. The first couple of days I watched as first the big dog came running at full speed only to crash into the glass. Then just because she's dumb as a brick, the little dog did the exact same thing. The next time I witnessed this I was outside with both dogs and Lucy our cat had found a sunny spot just inside the door and was lounging there. The dogs caught sight of her and again come running full speed and smacked their heads on the glass door. The dogs took a step back and shook their heads, the cat didn't budge but continued her glare at them. Last night I watched as Tucker saw his reflection in the glass window and started barking at that dog outside. Both of these dogs might have concussions now, I hope they don't turn into doggie serial killers due to head trama.
The last couple of things I'm having a hard time getting used to are the size of the hawks around here. I swear they are the size of Tucker!
I also sometimes forget I'm in California, since we are in a farm area, the landscape sort of looks the same. That is until you see a corn field surrounded by palm trees. My brain tells my eyes, "That can't be right, are you sure that's what we're seeing?"
Lastly I'll post a few pictures of the family football toss. Ed took the kids into the backyard to toss the football around last night, which just thrilled me to the bone that the entire family was doing something non-video related.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Our big sparkling new house + first days of school
It has now been 2 weeks and we are finally settling into our new home.
We closed on a Friday and spent the night on the floor that night since the movers weren't able to get here until Saturday. Even though they were on the floor, I think the kids were in a blissful state because they actually had a bedroom door that they could shut and have some alone time.
Before we were able to move in we had our first day of school while we were still living in Dublin. This meant 3 hours in the car to take them to school and 3 hours in the car to pick them up from school. Luckily I only had to do that for a couple of weeks before we moved closer to the school.
Our school is a year round school. This means that the kids get a couple of weeks off every few months, every Weds. is an early release day and I think they get the entire month of June off. I love this! I'll take my insanity in small doses please.
They are in the same class this year, which I am SO grateful for. The girl has already made a couple of new friends, the boy takes a little bit longer I think. This past Monday as I dropped them off, the girl jumped out of the car because she saw her friend's Debbie and Maddie waiting for the gates to open. The boy finally got out of the car and went to join them. By the time I picked them up after school the boy was telling me that at recess 'our friends Debbie and Maddie' were all playing a game of store. So that's how you do it folks, if you have problems making your own friends, just hijack some from your sibling.
We closed on a Friday and spent the night on the floor that night since the movers weren't able to get here until Saturday. Even though they were on the floor, I think the kids were in a blissful state because they actually had a bedroom door that they could shut and have some alone time.
Before we were able to move in we had our first day of school while we were still living in Dublin. This meant 3 hours in the car to take them to school and 3 hours in the car to pick them up from school. Luckily I only had to do that for a couple of weeks before we moved closer to the school.
Our school is a year round school. This means that the kids get a couple of weeks off every few months, every Weds. is an early release day and I think they get the entire month of June off. I love this! I'll take my insanity in small doses please.
They are in the same class this year, which I am SO grateful for. The girl has already made a couple of new friends, the boy takes a little bit longer I think. This past Monday as I dropped them off, the girl jumped out of the car because she saw her friend's Debbie and Maddie waiting for the gates to open. The boy finally got out of the car and went to join them. By the time I picked them up after school the boy was telling me that at recess 'our friends Debbie and Maddie' were all playing a game of store. So that's how you do it folks, if you have problems making your own friends, just hijack some from your sibling.
Alright, back to moving in. The movers showed up with our mountains and mountains of boxes early Saturday morning. It turns out that they only had 1 truck to haul our belongs with, so this meant that they had to make a 2nd trip. With the first load they were just loading things up in the garage to empty the truck in order to go back and get the balance of our things.
As any woman worth her weight will do, you start with the kitchen. That is the heart and soul of your home right? It's where you all come together as a family, and as the kids get older I'm finding that this is about the only time you come together as a family. I unpacked box after box after box of kitchen wares and in the between time directed movers with boxes as to which room that box needed to go in. Somewhere in the midst of all of this I happened to notice something sparkling on the floor, but since I knew that there were probably loose beads floating around in quite a few of those boxes, I just chalked it up to that. As I started to see more and more sparkling I realized that wasn't beads after all and couldn't figure out what it was or where it came from. Then I opened a box of art supplies that had been in the basement. The box had 3 extra large containers of glitter in gold, copper and silver. Guess what? The silver one was open and leaking glitter everywhere the box went. I do believe that box is currently put away in a cabinet and I have mentally marked it as 'deal with it later'. On an up note though, if you want to come visit us in CA, just go to Windsor and follow the glittery trail.
Once I got the kitchen in a functioning state it was on to the bedrooms. It was a good thing that we were all living out of suitcases to begin with. All of our clothing was in boxes, that is other than what had traveled in our dresser drawers. My first find was a box of shoes and my wedding dress. So had it not been for that suitcase I would've been taking the trash out and picking up pizza's in my wedding dress or pajamas's.
By 4pm the movers were working on assembling beds, patio tables and anything else that had to be put back together. I could tell they wanted to get out of there and honestly we were all beat and just wanted some quiet time in our new house. When they left they were unable to get the desk part put together on the boy's bunk bed. Then the mover that was working on our sleep number bed told me that he put it all together correctly but the remotes were out of battery so he couldn't test it. Of course I have a ton of batteries, but which box they are in??? So I took him at his word and signed off on everything. After getting new batteries I found out that no, it isn't working.
After they left I went into the garage to find that the original boxes that they were unloading so they could send the truck back for the second trip, well those boxes never moved from the garage. Most of them are unbelievably heavy boxes of beads and shop hooks for those beads. We packed the beads into gallon zip bags with probably about 12-15 or more bags per box. I don't know if you can imagine just how heavy those boxes are, but we have to find a way to get them upstairs to the new office.
At this point the downstairs is almost done, other than a mountain of broken down boxes in the 2 front rooms. Since we are only allowed to fill up our recycling garbage can and not put anything extra out there, it will be months before we are able to clear all of those out. But since we don't have any furniture to go into those 2 rooms just yet anyway, those boxes are fine where they are.
I've started on the office and just reopened the Etsy shop with just Luna cabochons, (since those are what I found...lol). I even have a couple of sections in the shop sorted... boxes of beads, office supplies and my UFO pile (i.e. Un Finished Objects).
Slowly but surely it is coming together and I am so grateful that we are getting settled. I'm even more grateful that I'm not writing this in my wedding dress.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
We're Almost There
I think we did it, I think we are going to actually have a home this coming Friday.
Yesterday we signed all the paperwork, again. The money was wired this morning and I'm told that by Thursday we might be in our new house, Friday at the latest. Our movers can't get there until Saturday, but as long as we have a roof over our heads and a floor below our feet that we can call our own, we're golden.
I sincerely hope I'm not jinxing this, but I'm going to go ahead and give you all a virtual tour.
The front of the house, including our very own palm tree.
Next up is the kitchen, to the other side of the island there is a huge walk in pantry.
Yesterday we signed all the paperwork, again. The money was wired this morning and I'm told that by Thursday we might be in our new house, Friday at the latest. Our movers can't get there until Saturday, but as long as we have a roof over our heads and a floor below our feet that we can call our own, we're golden.
I sincerely hope I'm not jinxing this, but I'm going to go ahead and give you all a virtual tour.
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| The front doors. As you walk through there are small sitting rooms to either side |
Next up is the kitchen, to the other side of the island there is a huge walk in pantry.
Dinning area and into the living room
Master bed, bath and closet
Down the hall from the master is the downstairs bathroom, laundry and 3 car garage.
Now we go upstairs.
The boy's room, the girl's room and the guest room
Next is the loft, a.k.a. Ed's gaming area.
Mommy's office/playroom
And finally, the backyard. The trellis in the back is a huge grape vine with
luscious green grapes all over it. (God I hope I don't kill it)
The house in CO still hasn't closed and I didn't hear from Catherine today. I don't know whether to be elated or scared? Ed assures me that everything will be okay.
But that's it for now. The Edwards are official Californians!
Sunday, August 4, 2019
More House Drama
When I last wrote about our housing situation we were dealing with snowballs. I'm torn to give this one an analogy of either a tea kettle or a roller coaster. Maybe I should do a tea kettle on a roller coaster?
Currently we are tick tick ticking our way up to the top of the roller coaster, the tea kettle is cool enough that I can hold it in my lap.
We had scurried to get all the work done on the house for a closing of Friday the 2nd of August, this was supposed to be our move in date for our new house. Gabe finished the deck work on Monday and got the office window prepped for the replacement. He did however fail to get the trim on the house fixed. The appraisers came in and gave the okay on everything except of course that trim, Gabe said he thought we were going to take care of that part and wouldn't be able to get back there until after 5pm. Once again I was frantically trying to get this fixed up and Catherine was attempting to get the appraiser back out there to confirm that the trim had been fixed. I was able to sweet talk my dad and his neighbor David to go over there and fix that trim up. So mid afternoon on Monday we were completely done with our end of everything.
On Tuesday the appraiser came back out and gave the all clear. I scheduled the moving company for Saturday Aug. 3rd. (And as I am writing this from our same apartment in Dublin you can guess that this didn't work out so well).
We are at the top of the roller coaster now looking down at what appears to be the craziest set up ever with dips, turns and drops. My kettle is just a warming up, but it's still okay to hold it.
Catherine calls us to let us know that even though we are done with inspections and appraisals, the new buyers loan office still will not give us a closing date. It seems that these buyers are using one of those Quicken Loans or 1-800 loans that you see on TV. The customer service is atrocious and they will not commit to a closing date. According to Catherine, this is unprecedented.
Next I get a phone call from our CA realtor Jim who informs me that he also has been on the phone with Catherine and the Friday closing date will be impossible to attain. He also has been on the phone with this rinky dink lender and even though there is no privacy laws preventing them from giving us a closing date, this lender just will not commit to a date.
Our roller coaster is plummeting down the rails now, my cheeks are plastered back, hair is whipping behind me while I white knuckle the bar in front of me. The frustration in my body is heating that kettle up to an uncomfortable bath temperature.
In the meantime...... on a whim, another realtor did a showing of our house to a couple in Boulder. These people are first time home owners and were really interested in it. My feeling was this, I am so tired of dinking around with this house, why not! Catherine tells me that the Boulder people are a conventional loan, they don't have to sell anything in order to buy. The downfall, if we have to go through another inspection there maybe more things that they want fixed and after dropping over $10 grand into this property, we just are not spending another dime on it. I gave Catherine some terms to run past the Boulder people, the house will be sold as is and we need a firm closing date. They agreed, we're home free right? Nope!
Catherine then calls the first buyers, the Montana people to tell them that they are now moving into a back up position and the Boulder people are in first position. The Montana people come back with an offer of $5000 more. Well, money talks right? Ok, let's sell it to the Montana people if they can get a closing date. Catherine calls all the interested parties to deliver the news. Our Boulder people were devastated.
Now behind the scenes of all this drama we also have the potential of losing our house in CA because our sellers also have a back up buyer all set and ready to go.
On top of this, we are now up against a dead line of Aug. 8th that we have to be out of this apartment. I am not looking forward to trying to house the entire family and 4 pets in a hotel. Not to mention the fact that we would have to pack all of this up and probably store it in our cars, just to move it again once the house closes. These Montana people and their lender have put us into a horrible situation. Not to mention, our sellers are also waiting for that money, they are staying in a B&B with their family. So this domino effect is rippling it's way through at least 3 families, that I know of.
My roller coaster is on a rapid up and down track with my stomach dropping at every fall and anxiety building up every hill. My kettle is boiling and ready to start whistling.
To make sure we don't lose our house in CA Ed and I decide to just liquidate everything. We are flying without a safety net at the moment. The thought being that after all is said and done we can just put that money back into 401k's, college funds, etc.
Because of the liquidation, we now no longer have to worry about a time deadline. It's just a matter of how fast can they get the money to us, this goes to federal reserves being open on the East coast and brokerage firms getting the job done.
This is the straight part of the roller coaster track where you are up really high, but you're just sort of chugging along. It's a little bit surreal and euphoric, you can't believe that you just made it through those ups and downs, but there are still plenty of twists and turns ahead. The kettle is no longer screaming, but it's still too hot to hold.
Now back to the Colorado house. The Boulder people are so devastated about losing the house they come back with another offer. They match the extra $5000 and offer to get the closing done in 2 1/2 weeks, putting it at the 20th of Aug. The Montana people gave us a 'range' of between Aug, 19-23rd, still not committing to anything. The Boulder people also threw in an extra $3000 to go towards any repairs that need to be done after the inspection. So we said that's it... let's sell it to those nice people from Boulder.
On Friday we received word that the paperwork for our money will be available either late Friday or Monday at the latest. Once that is in we have to race to the title company to get notary work done and I'm not sure how much time will pass after that until we finally get the keys in our hot little hands.
And that is where we are right now. My roller coaster is safely coasting into the station, my tea kettle is lukewarm.
Wednesday will be our last night in this apartment whether we have a place to go or not. Keep fingers and toes crossed that we have the keys to our new place before then.
Side bar, I now completely understand the people pushing shopping carts around with all of their belongings in it mumbling to themselves. They were previously trying to buy a house from a disreputable lender. By next week, I might be joining them.
Currently we are tick tick ticking our way up to the top of the roller coaster, the tea kettle is cool enough that I can hold it in my lap.
We had scurried to get all the work done on the house for a closing of Friday the 2nd of August, this was supposed to be our move in date for our new house. Gabe finished the deck work on Monday and got the office window prepped for the replacement. He did however fail to get the trim on the house fixed. The appraisers came in and gave the okay on everything except of course that trim, Gabe said he thought we were going to take care of that part and wouldn't be able to get back there until after 5pm. Once again I was frantically trying to get this fixed up and Catherine was attempting to get the appraiser back out there to confirm that the trim had been fixed. I was able to sweet talk my dad and his neighbor David to go over there and fix that trim up. So mid afternoon on Monday we were completely done with our end of everything.
On Tuesday the appraiser came back out and gave the all clear. I scheduled the moving company for Saturday Aug. 3rd. (And as I am writing this from our same apartment in Dublin you can guess that this didn't work out so well).
We are at the top of the roller coaster now looking down at what appears to be the craziest set up ever with dips, turns and drops. My kettle is just a warming up, but it's still okay to hold it.
Catherine calls us to let us know that even though we are done with inspections and appraisals, the new buyers loan office still will not give us a closing date. It seems that these buyers are using one of those Quicken Loans or 1-800 loans that you see on TV. The customer service is atrocious and they will not commit to a closing date. According to Catherine, this is unprecedented.
Next I get a phone call from our CA realtor Jim who informs me that he also has been on the phone with Catherine and the Friday closing date will be impossible to attain. He also has been on the phone with this rinky dink lender and even though there is no privacy laws preventing them from giving us a closing date, this lender just will not commit to a date.
Our roller coaster is plummeting down the rails now, my cheeks are plastered back, hair is whipping behind me while I white knuckle the bar in front of me. The frustration in my body is heating that kettle up to an uncomfortable bath temperature.
In the meantime...... on a whim, another realtor did a showing of our house to a couple in Boulder. These people are first time home owners and were really interested in it. My feeling was this, I am so tired of dinking around with this house, why not! Catherine tells me that the Boulder people are a conventional loan, they don't have to sell anything in order to buy. The downfall, if we have to go through another inspection there maybe more things that they want fixed and after dropping over $10 grand into this property, we just are not spending another dime on it. I gave Catherine some terms to run past the Boulder people, the house will be sold as is and we need a firm closing date. They agreed, we're home free right? Nope!
Catherine then calls the first buyers, the Montana people to tell them that they are now moving into a back up position and the Boulder people are in first position. The Montana people come back with an offer of $5000 more. Well, money talks right? Ok, let's sell it to the Montana people if they can get a closing date. Catherine calls all the interested parties to deliver the news. Our Boulder people were devastated.
Now behind the scenes of all this drama we also have the potential of losing our house in CA because our sellers also have a back up buyer all set and ready to go.
On top of this, we are now up against a dead line of Aug. 8th that we have to be out of this apartment. I am not looking forward to trying to house the entire family and 4 pets in a hotel. Not to mention the fact that we would have to pack all of this up and probably store it in our cars, just to move it again once the house closes. These Montana people and their lender have put us into a horrible situation. Not to mention, our sellers are also waiting for that money, they are staying in a B&B with their family. So this domino effect is rippling it's way through at least 3 families, that I know of.
My roller coaster is on a rapid up and down track with my stomach dropping at every fall and anxiety building up every hill. My kettle is boiling and ready to start whistling.
To make sure we don't lose our house in CA Ed and I decide to just liquidate everything. We are flying without a safety net at the moment. The thought being that after all is said and done we can just put that money back into 401k's, college funds, etc.
Because of the liquidation, we now no longer have to worry about a time deadline. It's just a matter of how fast can they get the money to us, this goes to federal reserves being open on the East coast and brokerage firms getting the job done.
This is the straight part of the roller coaster track where you are up really high, but you're just sort of chugging along. It's a little bit surreal and euphoric, you can't believe that you just made it through those ups and downs, but there are still plenty of twists and turns ahead. The kettle is no longer screaming, but it's still too hot to hold.
Now back to the Colorado house. The Boulder people are so devastated about losing the house they come back with another offer. They match the extra $5000 and offer to get the closing done in 2 1/2 weeks, putting it at the 20th of Aug. The Montana people gave us a 'range' of between Aug, 19-23rd, still not committing to anything. The Boulder people also threw in an extra $3000 to go towards any repairs that need to be done after the inspection. So we said that's it... let's sell it to those nice people from Boulder.
On Friday we received word that the paperwork for our money will be available either late Friday or Monday at the latest. Once that is in we have to race to the title company to get notary work done and I'm not sure how much time will pass after that until we finally get the keys in our hot little hands.
And that is where we are right now. My roller coaster is safely coasting into the station, my tea kettle is lukewarm.
Wednesday will be our last night in this apartment whether we have a place to go or not. Keep fingers and toes crossed that we have the keys to our new place before then.
Side bar, I now completely understand the people pushing shopping carts around with all of their belongings in it mumbling to themselves. They were previously trying to buy a house from a disreputable lender. By next week, I might be joining them.
Friday, August 2, 2019
July Adventures
Here are a few things we did our first full month in California.
At the end of June we paid a visit to the Alameda County Fair, which was crazy expensive! But it did get us out of the apartment for a little while. All four of us took a ride on the swings. I thought these swings were the kiddy kind that just sort of twirl you around nice and relaxing like. Nope! These swings were the kind that lift you way up in the air and twirl you around fast enough to make your cheeks look like you just had face lift surgery. The kids had a great time on this, mommy a little dizzy and sickly after that one. That's why I was so glad that my son is not a thrill seeker like his sister. I was able to go on the Ferris wheel with him while Ed took the girl on a roller-coaster. I guess my aging brain is ready for the Ferris wheel to be my maximum excitement level.
The weekend after that we took a little drive to Brentwood and Discovery Bay where we had passed by some fruit picking stands while looking at houses. We found ourselves a nice Strawberry farm and set up to go pick some fresh strawberries. Now because of the competitive streak in both of my children it immediately turned into a race to see who could get more strawberries in their box than the other team. Calista teamed up with Daddy and Alex teamed up with me and in usual Alex fashion took over the operation and started barking out orders. The final tally, Mommy and Alex won that one. Then I made a strawberry syrup to go over our pancakes and we feasted on strawberries for the entire week.
Side bar here, let me just say that the person that came up with this idea is/was a genius. Grow the fruit, then let the customers come pick it. You cut out several middlemen with the grocery stores, harvesters, etc. The public gets the freshest fruit possible and all you have to do is water some trees or strawberry bushes. Brilliant!
Our last adventure was a day trip to San Francisco. We had to make a 20 minute stop once in San Fran to plug in the Tesla, we figured we'd just have lunch. Ed had scouted out a charging station and that was our first destination. Little did we know that this was the George Lucas Film Studio. Unfortunately it is only open Monday - Friday so we weren't able to go inside or find lunch. But they did have a Starbucks around back and a bunch of grass and landscaping for the dogs to stretch their legs. We are hoping to go back once the kids are on a break to tour the inside.
After charging up we were off to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a bit cloudy, but still wonderful. Before we got there the kids weren't very excited and I was second guessing my planning this adventure. But once we got on the bridge and they saw all the people and the bright red bridge you could feel the excitement exuding from the back seat.
After that it was a trip to Sausalito where we found a waterfront, open deck, seafood restaurant. It was just heaven! The smell of the sea air, the light bouncing off the water, the sounds of the seagulls, this is the stuff that feeds my soul.
Those were our adventures thus far. Next blog will be more on the house sale. Spoiler alert, "It's going to be a bumpy ride".
TTFN
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