Whatnot

It is a lovely day. Cool and crisp outside, bright and sunny. School flew by this morning! Laundry is done, the children are happily occupied downstairs, baby is asleep. Sigh...lovely.

Now for some long overdue updates:

We found the house of our dreams and put in an offer. It's a short sale, so the homeowner gets to pick which offer is sent to the bank. She picked us!!! She said she really wanted the house to go to a family. Plus Nathan dropped his car in the fish pond, and Olivia flirted with her! I knew those long eyelashes would come in handy someday! Anyway, the house: it's 2200sf on 1 acre in Auburn. Has a pool. The homeowner did some incredible, top of the line upgrades about 6 years ago. We are now waiting for the bank to get around to responding to us - we figure sometime end of Dec, beginning of Jan.

Eureka - we've been spending lots of time in Eureka this year upgrading that house. It now has new windows, new roof, new sliding glass door, and updated electrical system. We will be making another long trip up there this month to refinish a hardwood floor, replace the bathroom lino, hang a ceiling fan, and a few other misc things. We really wanted to replace the kitchen countertops, but I think it's going to be too ambitious. I think the plan is to finish all the small projects up this trip, then put the house on the market. I think. Maybe. We'll see...Michael acknowledges that this would be best financially, but it is his childhood home. He's such a sentimental softie!! I love that guy!

In preparation for hopefully moving sometime in February, I am beginning deep cleaning projects on our rental. I have been quietly purging small stupid toys (think McDonalds Happy Meal junk), stuffed animals (I swear, they reproduce!!), and anything that looks broken or is unidentifiable. Closets have been purged of unnecessary clothing as well, and seasonal things are packed and out of the way. I need to get out to the garage this week and find 2 specific boxes in the half-a-garage-full-of-boxes-stacked-floor-to-ceiling. I hate that garage.

I have also picked through baby boy clothes and set aside the 0-3 months stuff for easy access. While I was at it, I packaged each size into it's own bag/box. I just hope I can find them when I need them. I have lots of stuff for size 18 months and up, but just a few things for each size below that. Will certainly need a baby shower this time!

Well, I need to wrap this up for now. I want to clean the bathrooms real quick, then hopefully vacuum. Have a great day, everyone!!

Our New House!!!

We have an offer on this house. It's a short sale, but the homeowners have accepted our offer and have agreed to submit ONLY our offer to the bank. Banks can be fickle of course, but our agent and their agent feel our bid is fair and the bank should have no reason to refuse or counter it. So, here's to hoping!!

It's 2281 sq. ft, 4 bedroom, 3 car garage on just shy of a half acre. I'm having trouble moving pictures around, so here they are in no particular order...

Master Bedroom

Family Room & Kitchen

Entry/Living Room/Dining

Front of House - Oak Trees!

Kitchen - granite is black and white with flecks of a beigey sort of color

Back yard - they made a huge, elaborate patio

Still searching...

Well, we didn't get the house. And we didn't get the next one either. The search continues.

I think we are learning as we go along. And the market still seems to be dropping a bit.

The house situation

We have an offer on this house, in Auburn. It's a short sale though, so we won't know for awhile (a couple weeks, a couple months?).

It's 2148 sq ft, on a third of an acre. Most everything is on the top floor, with a bonus room and laundry room and access to the garage downstairs.

The back yard is a mess. Lots of mature shade trees, but it's been allowed to grow wild. There are stickers everywhere. And it is an uphill slope, which is less than desirable, but it does have one largish flat area, and places on the hill where you could make some smaller flat areas. With some work and some vision, it could be lovely.

Same-old, same-old...

Well, we didn't get the house. Ah well.

I'm making a chicken and rice casserole in the crockpot today. The recipe appears to be short of liquid, even though the author assures us that all is well. Hope it works...

On a fun note, we're going to Fort Bragg this weekend! Never been there. Decided to splurge and get a motel with a view of the beach! Fort Bragg has a Botanical Garden. Oh, I so want to go, but I'm the only person in my family who is interested in such things. And since they are coming on the trip with me, it would be poor manners to insist on the Garden. But I do so want to go...

There is also MacKerricher State Park, which I'm told has a cool whale exhibit at the entrance. That will probably be more to everyone's liking.

Well, off to run a couple errands before it gets too hot. Only supposed to be 97 degrees today!

Interesting Development

Remember that house we didn't get? The people who did get it are trying to re-negotiate terms with the bank. The bank is less than enthused, so the listing agent told us to resubmit our bid.

We did, of course. Hoping to hear by Wednesday or so...

Bummer...

Found out on Friday that we didn't get the house. Left Brain and I spent the greater part of the weekend in a funk.

Sigh...

Something About Nothing

No new news, really. Went to Stuff Mart and Costco this morning. Hannah is really hard on socks and Nathan is outgrowing his underpants. And found a wreath hanger for only $1.77! How cool is that?!

Having company for dinner this evening. Found another house we're going to put a bid on. This one is in Rocklin. But it's a short sale, so could take a couple months before even hearing back from the bank.

Feeling well. Felt a couple little baby wiggles this week. I think. Have a Dr appt on Thurs.

Started reading A Pocketful Of Pinecones - it's all about Nature Journaling. I really want to do this, but never managed to make it a habit. I resolve to do better this season. I want to keep a journal myself. Seeing that tomorrow is September, I'm going to imagine that it is not so darn hot out there. It's only supposed to be low 90's this week.

Friday is Michael and I's 16th Anniversary. He got me a new sewing machine! So cool! He's asking for a new hat - I think I can manage that!

Better go thaw some chicken for dinner tonight. Oh! WalMart has asparagus on sale for $1.50 a bundle - got 2 and will have yummies this week!

No house...

You know all that hype I've been spewing about a new house? Yeah, well. Nix that. Changed our minds...

Pool needs to be resurfaced $5000
All concrete needs to be pulled out and redone $5000
Build Garage $25,000
Wierd wiring fixed $3000
an acre of yard that needs to be watered $$$

We can do all this stuff, but decided it's just going to be too expensive. We'll keep looking...

News...

We got the house!!!! I was so excited I did a yippy-ha-ha dance. IF IF iF all goes well, we would move in the end of September. But there are inspections, appraisals, etc to be done which possibly could be problematic.

Now Michael is feeling the burden of getting our house sold. We can make payments on both properties for 1 month, but after that we'd be using an equity line and that's always bad news. Pray for a quick sale and that I can pack quickly without disrupting the 'feel' of the house (so it shows well).

Update on the house...

We were thinking that perhaps we bidded too low, so we called our realtor (Hi Bob!!) and asked how we go about upping it. He called the realtor for the house who said "Tell them not to worry about it. Yours is the only bid I submitted to the bank - the others had FHA loans or were lower. Should get an answer from the bank tomorrow."

Woohoo! Not that I'm getting my hopes up or anything... Here are a few more pictures for you though.

A very loooong driveway, which leads to a dead end street. There are only 3 more houses off to the left before the street ends.

An older and very dirty pool. We'll have to rent a sump pump to drain it into the creek that runs behind the back fence, then get in there with large broom brushes and scrub it down. Anybody have teenagers that would be willing to tackle that one?

The house is a U shape, this is the back courtyard. I don't know what's with the multi-colored concrete sections. Any teenagers want to learn how to run a jackhammer? We're thinking that this will all be jackhammered out, put in a nice stamped patio, maybe a patio cover. If you turn around, you would see the pool.

Well, that's it for now. I'll keep you posted as soon as we hear from the bank! Pray hard!!!

Stuff:

As promised, here is the link about Jesus and long hair. Enjoy!

http://www.thercg.org/articles/djhlh.html

We are putting an offer on this house:

Yes, I know. It looks OLD. And it is, built in 1956. BUT it's been remodeled inside! Look at this kitchen!

Granite countertops, tons of cabinet space, pantry closet, tile floor (with decorative little tiles in it!), just look at that backsplash! All the way up! It has a dining bar there on the island, and another one off to the left that you can't see. It has a warming drawer in the island too!

And here is the living room:

Lots of this laminate floor thru the house. Only 1 bedroom has carpet, which is old and yucky and has to be replaced.

Anyhoo, it's on .946 of an acre!! Just think of the fruit trees and garden we could put in there! Not that I'm getting my hopes up or anything...