Limbo and Bro

The buyer came back with $500 worth of roof repairs, bull$hit really, but we offered to split it just to be done. Well, it looks like the appraisal may be a sticking point. The appraiser from Old Pueblo Appraisals didn't really know that he was in Colonia Del Valle, so he took some comps from houses down south of 22nd street in Crackville (you know, the homes that have no dust on top of them because the police helicopter hovers over them regularly) and used those for the appraisal for this sale. He must have just stepped off of the bus from Iowa last week or something. It's funny the turnaround in appraisers - they were feeding the frenzy a few years ago, now they're adding to the ugly by spitting out low numbers. Anyway, the deal may require a review appraisal, and of course, we'll have to pay another $200 for that. I'm beginning to think that we may have to sell furniture just to get out of town at the rate this deal is going along. I figure that the buyer will ok the roof stuff, we'll get going along, the underwriters will balk, we'll have the review, they'll still balk, and then the deal will fall through. If it goes, I'll be shocked. If it doesn't, we're camping in Tucson until the market gets better in a couple of years. Just when we think we're done, something snags us.


We had a good weekend with J in town for a few days. We hit Sabino Canyon, El Charro, B-Line, Mt. Lemmon and spent some time just playing around with CP. Yesterday was a beautiful day and he got to call his workmates and rub it in a bit. When he left this morning the temp in KC was 19.

Home Stretch...

Today was buyer inspection/appraisal day. Even though CP and I have been sick for two days now, we were up and off to the mall while the house was being looked at. We'll know some time soon whether or not the buyer wants to play more $$ games or would just like to get the keys.

Sold?

We've accepted an offer that's just a gnat's ass above rediculous and now are in the 10 day inspection window. The LW got a little bent this morning when I told our realtor that if the buyer wants anything more than what he's getting that I've got two words for him and one of them is 'off'. The LW is a kinder more polite being, so there was some teeth gnashing over that at lunch.

We just had the first roof inspector up on the roof for about 4 minutes tell us what we already knew and say that it's $500 worth of repairs. Ya see, I was talking with the buyer on his 3rd trip to the house and mentioned that if we were going to be here another five years, we'd invest in a metal roof since the "built-up reflective" seems like crap to me. Well, he took that to mean that the roof was crap and is going to try to ding us on it at inspection time....at which time, he will be advised just where he can go and what he can do there.

It wouldn't be such a big deal if we didn't need the proceeds to move into something in KC without having to waste $$ on rent....but we do. The moron that sold the house to us didn't do us any favors and I don't want to lose any more of my shirt on the way out. If it comes down to staying here or losing another $50, I'm going to probably come down on the side of staying. I mean, the guy's already taking the two refridgerators we have and the butcherblock in the kitchen....wth else will he want? My pillow and socks?

We'll know soon enough, but if there's not something else posted here in a week or so, you'll know that the LW has tied me to the clothesline post with duct tape.

Priced Right...

...for the neighborhood? It's beginning to look like another hot and dry summer in Tucson is in store for us since this is on the market just down the way for $20k less than our asking price. It is on a busy street without a carport though, but damn, it's still $20k less.

Seven Days

...since the person that we thought might make an offer visited the house. We still haven't heard anything back. We're running on the assumption now that this person won't be making an offer, but instead will wait on us to either drop the price or wait on a foreclosure nearby somewhere. We're not dropping the price any more, so we'll either find someone else who is interested or wait until our listing expires and take it off of the listing. This puts us in T-town for a while, but that's ok. We'd rather not lose our butts on this house.

When in Utah....

...you're getting hammered if you use your camera to make money.

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/?p=2423

I wonder how long it'll take ol' Jan to figure that this'll work down south too..... It's pretty funny to watch a republican raise taxes. I think that she'll get better at it soon. (be sure to go to the comments section of that article and see #18. It's hilarious!)

Easy

Today's been easy for the most part. The LW and I had a bit of a rocky start, but all is well now that I'm keeping my mouth shut. The LW took CP to the Festival of Books down at the U today and they had a good time. CP got to see Clifford, Stellaluna, and Curious George.

We haven't had anyone look at the house today, but yesterday a young chap came by with his realtor, then came back to meet us and tell us how much he liked what we have done with the house. He said that what we've done is exactly what he'd do. It was encouraging and he said that he'd drive back by with his brother later. Well, we were out in the yard around sundown and saw someone at the foreclosure next door and checked it out - he had come back with his brother. We talked for a minute and he mentioned that his grandmother lives in the neighborhood. I recognized the name immediately as friends from the gardens and said, "Really?!, you're Joe's grandson?". His brother just stood there for a second with a stunned look on his face and then we all had a good laugh about serendipity. They all got to walk through the house and look around before heading over to grandma's for dinner. At any rate, we hope that he'll put an offer in on the house. We'd really like for it to go to someone nice as opposed to a flipper or slumlord.

We've changed tack a bit for the future in KC. Not about moving there, but about what we'll move into. We've had our eyes on a couple of foreclosures in an older part of Mission that are roughly the same size, above ground, as our house here, but on larger lots. I know that I'll catch crap from my folks about not having a 3000sf house with 3 bathrooms or some other silliness, but that's just them. The house that we're looking at on the web is a 2/1 on 1/3rd acre that is listed at $89k. The big thing is that it has a full basement. The LW and I can't really imagine having basically another open house space that's the same size as what we have here. I'll get a darkroom for sure! We're hoping that I'll be able to finance it so that we can get the 1st time buyer credit from 'teh gubment'. Our plan is to live in it and fix it for the required three years, then buy something else in the same area and rent the other house. I figure with a $600 house payment, we'll be ahead of the game if we play our cards right.

Busy

Worked around the house today - caulked nail holes, dug a fence post hole, tried not to be an arsehole to CP, did the dishes and laundry. I watched most of my time go down the hole though. It's just tough to get anything requiring more than 20 seconds finished and that's not good when you've got an open house coming up fast. There's a ton of stuff still to do if I'm to head off the Saturday morning scream fest that has become our weekly pre-realtor no-show event. Sometimes I just feel like giving the house away and just running as far as my feet and out of shape body will take me.

Read some of Sweet Juniper tonight and it was a glimpse of where Kansas City could be if it weren't for the surrounding metro areas propping up the tax base. Unaccredited schools and saggy pants shitheads have blown most of the old neighborhoods with large well-built houses into the crapper. Amazing houses like this one are going for $35k because the schools are shit and the school board has been comprised of morons for too long.

On a happier note, the nutbar down the street had his old truck towed out of his front yard today. Just in time for the open house! - Yayyyy! He walked by in front of the house yesterday and was giving me the evil eye when I waved to him and yelled, "howdy neighbor!". Now, if I could just get the drunks next door to quiet down for Sunday, we might just have a shot at getting a buyer.....

Farewell to Birds

Today a nice lady and her husband are picking up the girls. They're out in the large dog crates right now waiting to go to their new homes. CP cried when she saw them being put in the crates and we both petted Buffy and said goodbye. We'll all miss the noisy little bums...they've become part of our family and CP really loves having them around. Their new home already has six hens and they'll have an acre of ground to roam with their new friends. Hopefully after our move we can convince the city council to change their ways and allow us to have birds that actually lay eggs with orange yolks again.....

Selling Out

Our little Arizona house officially hits the sale market today. It won't feed out until later in the week, which is good because the place is a mess, but it's going on the market nonetheless. It's a bit of a mix of emotions doing this and leaving this place, but the move will put CP nearer to her extended family in the Kansas City area.

There are plenty of things that we've done here and proven that we can do, but for me there are still a few things that I didn't get accomplished. There aren't any fruit trees in the back yard, the garden project is still not a 501C3, and there are wonderful places in this state that I didn't get to share with my Lovely Wife and daughter. We did manage to fix up our little abode and make some real positive change in our living space. The walls have American Clay on them and it looks different at various times of day - sometimes grainy sand, sometimes leathery suede - always beautiful though. The garden out back is really green, the chickens are happy, and the desert landscape out front is thriving and bringing in all sorts of creatures.

We'll miss everyone here and miss out on some pretty big events that are coming up in our friends' lives, but we'll also share CP's life with extended family, which for me, is worth the hassle of selling out of here.

Nice Dirt

Mmmmm......
(make sure that the sound is way down)
Can't wait to play in some of this.

Joy

When I returned from half way around the world in the late summer of 1994, I was standing on the fantail of a huge flat-top warship looking down toward the USS Arizona, and at a large flag attached to my boat waving in the light wind, finally back on the land that it was sent from. I was proud of my country and thankful for those who went before.

Today, listening to a poet, a group of musicians, and a new leader for this country, I once again have that feeling. It's hard not to be happy for today and each day that we all enjoy without fear of being shot for what we think.

CP's First Carrot of the Season

She's doing the first-carrot-of-the-season dance with a mouthful of broccoli florets. I picked one that I thought might be done growing, since none of them are crowning yet, and told her to give it a pull. It started coming out of the ground and just didn't stop. It was roughly 8" long, but by the time CP got done with it, all that was left was the green top.

This carrot was sincerely the sweetest carrot I've ever tasted. It was amazing. Full of liquid and it had that really light sweet taste that reminded me of the confectioners' sugar sweetness from Minneola Tangelos.

Fruit Peddler

Just heard a song about the last fruit peddler in New Orleans by Chris Smither on Radio Bob McWilliams' show Trail Mix. We used to listen to Radio Bob when we lived in KC and Topeka. Sometime soon, our little superJetta will be filled with that sound again. Anyway, the song and the story are worth checking out.

Not that bad...

After watching Frontline tonight, I realized that no matter what comes our way, we'll probably never have it as bad as some. About half way into this show, I started wondering why there aren't some retired military SF or spook types sitting at home bored, who don't help people wade through the mess of getting their family members back.

As an added bonus, or just for old times' sake, they could just help some of these traffickers disappear.....as in assume room temperature. When you figure in the human misery that these traffickers and their enablers (corrupt police) spread across the world, an $0.18 bullet is a small price to pay to wipe them from the earth and commit them to a compost heap. I don't know, but I think that if I had the amount of training that folks in the ugly business that nobody ever sees have and didn't have a family life, it'd be a valuable use of that training and one hell of a contribution to society to pull just one person out of slavery.

Farewell Project Truck

A year or two ago, my lovely wife who is spoken of here often, allowed me to remove $750 from our savings account to get started with yet another old project vehicle. We purchased a VW van before that and made a little money off of it with only limited work, so this seemed like a promising enterprise. Well, it turned out that as of today, we are down a few hundred dollars from where we started because my project truck left on a flatbed truck in exchange for $300. I trust that it's going to a good home because a family friend bought it as a project vehicle for his biodiesel making hobby. As much as I am sad to see it go, the open space created by the removal of said truck will soon be filled with fruit trees. Minneola tangelo, Meyer lemon, Ruby or Rio Red grapefruit and possibly a fig or a white pomegranate. We shall see.

Fries With That?

Here's what came up on google this morning.
Things may be a'chaning around here pretty soon.

Mmmm Mmmmm Good

There's nothing like having a one-income household in these financial times that relies on contract work with a big computer and bigdrivesinthebasement type company. Well, evidently they had their super-efficient contract signer down in the basement with a red swingline stapler working on TPS reports. This ingrained silliness resulted in a dozen or so contractors being furlowed just like the year before last. To add insult to this year's missing paychecks, several of the projects aren't being funded and the shuffle is on. Luckily, the LW's contracting company put her into training mode and idled her with pay for a week. On the flip side of that luck though, was news today that she'll be taking an unexpected week off without pay soon and may be out of work at the end of the quarter.

Wild

I just read this post from over at Sweet Juniper and it made me think of the wild spaces near where my brother and I grew up. Here's a map to show what I'm talking about.

If you look closely at it in the satellite photo, you'll see a house just to the north of what's now River Birch Ln where it meets Willow Creek Dr. That was where all of the fun started for my brother, myself, five beagles....and two ATVs. You can zoom out and see where there are several ponds and it looks like a lot of clearing. Well, when we lived there, none of that existed. It was hard to get down into the valley and across the creek and it limited access to most. River Birch Ln and the houses to the west weren't there. It was old logging roads....and trees.

Following River Birch out to the west where it makes it's first turn and it's our old "duck pond". Someone dammed up the natural drainage there and it filled with water and wood ducks. There were always a few there hanging around and it was a great nesting spot. All of the surrounding trees in this area were, and what's left of them are, hardwoods. Beautiful trees that were just perfect for sitting at the base of on a cool winter afternoon...and falling asleep. The old logging roads snake around through the area and made a nice loop, whether whizzing by on the old ATC200 or walking with my old 20ga over my shoulder and a happy mutt at my feet. Many weekend days as a 12 year old, under the guise of hunting, I'd leave the house with my shotgun and dog and just go off into the woods for half a day. The sights and memories of it still come back to me when I kick over a wet pile of oak leaves somewhere and get a passing bit of the smell. A little further west, and just north of the weigh station that you see on the north side of I-20, is where I missed a shot at the biggest deer that I'd ever seen at the grand distance of 20 yards. Not to far from there was where we surmised that this deer, or one of his intelligent contemporaries, jumped I-20 when one of our dogs was chasing him, and waited in the space between the highway lanes until the dog was hit by a car.

It was a good place and I can only hope that the people who live there now have kids that go out into the woods and enjoy it like I did. I learned all kinds of things out there and was simply allowed to experience it as it was - woody, quiet, perfect.

Almost

..into a new year around here and we made it through the holiday madness relatively unscathed. CP had a good time with her grandparents and seemed to enjoy opening her presents from Santa and family. We did manage to get a tiny Canon Elph camera for her to use. She loves playing with mine, so we figured a small ten year old point and shoot from eBay would be good.....and we were right. She's already working on filling the little CF card with photos of her feet, her mother, and the cats.

The LW cooked enough green bean casserole to feed 100 on Christmas day...no, really....and we took that and a ham from Costco down to the place where the Giving Tree was having their Christmas week edition of Project Feed. It's a good thing and the people that run it work hard to help everyone that she can.

Yesterday was leaky diesel day. After the car almost not starting due to a pump distributor o-ring leak, I decided that 68 degrees was warm enough to work on the TDI. I almost got a sunburn out there in shorts and a t-shirt. I got the parts a while back from Jim at dieselgeek.com and the little kit that he sells is great. The first time through the procedure I pinched the o-ring and the pump wouldn't prime....plus it was leaking worse than it was originally. The second time through, which was faster than the first time, I sprayed some silicone lube on the seal and it worked fine. I hope that this will stand up to the switches that we make back and forth from B100 to ULS D2 in the tank. We ran all summer on B100 whenever we could and one tank after switching back to D2, it started leaking. There was so much diesel on the engine, the whole car was beginning to smell like an old tractor. It starts much easier now too - I think that there was just too much air being let into the lines.