I have this song in my head today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03PnU27cWDs

Waiting to See what Pops up.

This first year we are trying to figure out what is all in the back yard. The previous owner was a gardener and the yard is filled with tons of plants. Every day we are discovering something new. We have also discovered that a raccoon lives in the big tree out back! He comes out of his hole between 7:30 -8 PM. He then comes down the tree very slowly and exits our property to go out on his nightly hunting adventure. As long as he keeps doing that, we have decided to leave him alone. We have also had a possum in the back yard. Thankfully, he hasn't been seen again. I did see one deer, but we have been told that many have been known to graze in the back yard. We have a lot of song birds too. Cardinals, Goldfinches, Blue Jays and Chickadees to name a few.

This cute little water feature was by the small deck at the front of the house. All we did was fill it up with water and plug it in.

The previous owners were big on planting Hosta. We must have a million different varieties.

I couldn't resist buying some annuals at the garden center. I spruced up the stump in the front yard.

The back yard. We have a fire pit!

This is a sand box next to the school yard swing set that was installed in the yard. They had some herbs planted in it. I decided to add some things to it and try some square foot gardening. I'm not sure if it will get enough sun. After this year I will know if I will have a too much shade or not. I may have to just container garden.

The kitties love to be out on the screened-in porch. The cats adapted well to the new house. Our dog had a little more trouble. She's doing fine now, but she was a little freaked out by the move for a couple of weeks.

The front of the house. More plants!

We are thinking of building a small pond out in the back yard. I have a garden hose down to outline a spot for it. I kind of like this area by the deck.

I may have given off some clues that I was gay?

An old friend of mine sent me this picture. I was taken sometime in 1983. I'm the one in the pink panties.

Packing a Praying

We are getting some packing done. I just haven't been in the mood lately. Most most of the excitement has been put on hold. Yesterday was a really bad day for a few hours. The Realtor on the other side decided to send us the initial property inspection form early, instead of waiting for the FHA inspection. What David (our Realtor) and Daryl and I thought was a pretty good report, some how was turned around into a problem. The inspector pointed out that the roof was showing some wear but thought it had at least three to five years left on it. He said that he wasn't an expert on roofing and he thought it may have more that one layer of shingles on it. I had said there was only one. This is what I was told when I purchased the house 7 years ago.

This somehow turned into that the roof was "shot" (exact word used) and had to be replaced! Of course, she wanted us to replace it. David found the paperwork from when I purchased the house. It stated that the roof had been replaced in 1995 and had only one layer on it. We told her we would correct the other minor problem she wanted fixed, but wouldn't replace the roof because it wasn't in need of being replaced yet. She excepted that reply and all was well again. Now we are back at square one waiting for the FHA inspector. I'm just betting that he will say there is some chipping paint and she will ask for us to paint the house again. Will this never end!

Daryl is a mess. He really can't handle stress very well. He went to Walmart and forgot two bags at the checkout. We did get one back a day later after he remembered he left it. It was really surprising that they still had it. At least the kitties will eat this week. Cat food was what he had gone to Walmart to get in the first place.

Next week the plumber will be coming to fix a pipe that she wanted replaced and we have a couple of electricians stopping by to give us estimates on the wire to the garage this week. I think I will start packing again after we have the reply from the FHA inspection.

All is not bad. I have been emptying out the wine cabinet this week. I have been trying some of the wine that we have been given as gifts over the past year. Why should I have to move that?

Looking Better

It looks as if everything is going to work out. Exactly two weeks from the day that we listed the house, it was sold. We had one of the inspections last week on our current house. They found a few things, but over all it's not to bad. The new owner has an FHA loan. That means that we will have another inspection soon. Hopefully it isn't anything more than what the first inspection found. During the first inspection the soon to be new owner stopped by to meet us. She is really in love with our house and wanted to make sure the inspection was going good. She wants our house as much as we want to move to the other house. After meeting her, I have a much better feeling that everything will go OK. I was really nervous. I thought our home was in pretty good shape, but with a 94 year old home, you just never know. If everything keeps going as planned, we will be moving the 16th of March. Wish us luck!


Our present house with the sold sign in front of it. It looks nice doesn't it!

The house we will be moving to. We will have lots of mowing to do when the grass gets growing again.

Jumping into a pile of stress

Well, things are moving quickly. We looked at the house last night again with a friend. After talking about it for a while, we decided we would like to try for it. The big problem is getting ours sold. I'm thinking now that we should have put ours on the market last July when we first thought about selling. So the next few weeks will be pretty hectic for us.

I talked to the banker last night, but still haven't heard back from the Realtor this morning. I'm sure he's checking things out behind the scenes with the banker and making game plans. That's what I would be doing if I was in his shoes.

Daryl is off today and he is already starting to get things ready. He rented a storage shed today so we can empty out all the unnecessary stuff to make the house look as big as possible. We have a lot to do to get it ready.

I think it's as good of time as any to sell and find what we what. If we don't get this house, we will have to keep looking for something else. We just need to get ours sold.

Thinking Of Moving

I could have went to work this morning and made double time pay. Instead this afternoon I looked at this house. It was everything that we would need. Of course it isn't perfect, but what house is? If you overlook the driveway from hell and the few updates that still need to be done, it's perfect enough! Lets not even talk about the price. The price is way too high and we would have to get it way down in my fantasy plan before I would consider buying it. I really need to get it out of my head. We don't need to move. And really, do we want to list our house and deal with that hell? The hassle of selling and moving really sucks! I'm really not sure I want to take on a bigger house payment. Is this the time to move or should we wait? Interest rates are low. And it sounds like the houses in the $100,000 range in Cedar Rapids are still selling. The "flood people" are moving out of the FEMA trailers and purchasing homes and keeping the demand up. It's such a hard decision to make.

Daryl and I have both said that we are happy in this house, but would eventually like to move to something a little bigger and have a back yard again and a real garage. You know, the kind that you can actually park a car in. The problem is the when. When is it the right time?

We both agree we would like a ranch or a raised ranch. It's always the sticker shock that gets me. I guess I need to get out and look at a few hundred house to get a feel of what is out on the market right now. We could actually afford a new house if we wanted to move into something without a finished basement. I'm not really thrilled with that idea. I condo would be an idea, but I still want a yard. I really need something more to do that going to work and planting myself in front of the TV. Shoveling snow and mowing keeps me moving, even if I like to bitch about doing it.

Buying a house and a car are the two things that I hate the most. I guess it's because I always feel I'm getting screwed on the deal. I never feel good about going into a large about of debt at one time. It's a number thing. I look at my check and see how much I make and it always feels that it will never be paid off. I get buyers remorse like two seconds after I purchase something. Maybe I should stay where I'm at and shop for a therapist instead?