Home Stretch

The movers are scheduled for next Monday to transport all the heavy furniture to the new house. We are scrambling to move everything else before then. After this house is empty we need to have new vinyl flooring put in the kitchen and downstairs entry/laundry room. We'll get a handyman to patch the walls that Bart ate when he was a puppy and fix a few other items. I would love to get the kitchen repainted or, better yet, have a tile backsplash installed. We'll have someone come in and do a thorough cleaning and shampoo the carpet and then this place will be ready to rent. Too bad we missed the prime season before school started but perhaps there are a few desperate families out there looking for a four bedroom. One can only hope.

I Like To Move It, Move It

Not really. Moving is hard work. It's an hour each way from our current home to the new house and I'm starting to suffer white line fever. Yesterday in a desperate attempt to cut down on the number of trips we rented a 26 foot U-Haul. It took most of the day to load/unload and doesn't seem to have made a discernible dent in the amount of stuff yet to be relocated. I've set an optimistic goal of having everything moved by the 13th. We'll see...

My House is Delicious

There's going to be nothing left if these #*!@ dogs don't stop chewing on it. I know I posted pictures of Bart's earlier destruction and now Winston is working on the stair railing. He's got his permanent teeth so has no excuse for this behavior.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we close on the new house next week. Of course we'll have no money left for the actual move but I guess we'll deal with that somehow. All my plans for new furniture are indefinitely on hold. I hate being strapped for cash (and where the heck did that expression come from, anyway?)

House Update

Still haven't closed on the new house. The assessor low-balled the value of our current home so we can't borrow as much against it as we'd anticipated. Our realtor talked to her about looking at some different comps., which she has agreed to, so now we're waiting to see if she will adjust accordingly. Won't hear anything until tomorrow at the earliest since today is a holiday. We have an extension until Sept. 14.

We can still afford the other house but just wouldn't have as much money left over for the new roof, fence, moving expenses, etc.

Re: the roof. The house was built in 1983 and our inspector found several places on the roof that needed repair. The additions that were built in 2003 looked fine so the whole roof did not need replacing. However, the materials wouldn't match and the roof would look odd so the current owners got an estimate for an entire new roof and knocked over half the cost of it off our purchase price. They agreed to fix anything else found by the inspection. The water quality test came back excellent (well water) and they had the septic tank pumped so it should be good for quite a while.

All this waiting has me frazzled. I can't seem to get motivated until we actually sign on the dotted line. Thank goodness for time spent at the barn. The horses demand my full attention and I can focus on them for the duration of the time I spend there and forget about the stress of waiting to move.

Are The Olympics Over Yet?

I wanted to see the equestrian events but never managed to get up in the middle of the night to watch them. Fortunately, all the horsey blogs I read have kept me updated. I only managed to catch bits and pieces of marathon running (boring) and women's individual vaulting. Yahoo news did a pictorial of all the sour looks on silver medalists faces. Don't authority figures teach good sportsmanship any more? Now I know these athletes are "in it to win it" but doesn't the fact that they made it to the Olympics count for something? Take pride in that and accept your loss with grace. And please, please, please let this be Bob Costas' last gig at the Olympics. I got tired of changing the channel every time I saw his face.

So, it looks like we're moving. We saw the house I mentioned in my last entry on the following Saturday, came back to Anchorage and made an offer and it was accepted the next day. We had the home inspection done yesterday and I like the house even better on the second viewing.

I've started packing up boxes (hate) and can't wait to sign the final paperwork. There are excellent Internet sites with tips on moving and one advises to try to downsize by a third. I chucked a bunch of magazines into the recycling this week and even threw in my old yearbooks. I never looked at the darn things and they weighed a ton. Sure hope we can get settled into the new place before the snow flies.

It's A Beautiful Morning

...and now I have the Young Rascals echoing through my head. Hope they go away soon. I can't believe that the sun is shining after so many gloomy days. We had sun last Thursday also. I headed off to a horse show after my grooming stint and although I had remembered to put sunscreen on my face, forgot to apply any to my neck and got a slight sunburn on one side.

This was the first time I actually got to witness any drama at a horse show. One of the participants won a couple of blue ribbons but exited the ring in tears. Now I happen to know that she is leaving for college soon so I'm thinking she's crying because this may be the last time she shows the horse for awhile or maybe she's going to sell it or something. Oh heck no - turns out she got yelled at by her trainer for wasting time canoodling with her boyfriend when she was supposed to be getting the horse ready. So much for my theory.

Found a house I liked last night online so have contacted our real estate agent about setting up a viewing. It seems perfect in every way so I'm sure there must be something wrong with it. I vacillate between resigning that we'll never move and should just fix up the house we're in and then getting excited over an MLS listing. Earlier in the day I had been researching landscaping companies because we need a new retaining wall and I am curious how much it would cost to replace our graveled area with paving stones.

Time to head for the barn. Hope my real estate agent sends an email for me to read by the time I get home.

I Like It