Sep

1

We Have Keys!!!

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What a fantastic day!

We completed the final steps of the process this morning and by 9:30 we had the keys to the house in hand. We spent a little bit of time sitting on the front porch of the new house reflecting on the fact that everything is possible when you put your faith in God. We never had any doubt that He would help guide us through this entire process. We prayed every day and night, we had friends praying (thanks!!), and our prayers were answered.

 

The photo above is a simple panorama of the backyard from the deck of the house. It’s not the best photo, but it shows you how gorgeous the backyard is.

After coming back to the old house, loading a few things in the truck, and dropping them off at the new house, we stopped by our church for the noon Mass, so we could say a special thanks to God for blessing us with this new home.

This afternoon I spent a few hours calling all the utility companies coordinating them to be turned on, and while I was on the phone the boys packed about a dozen more boxes, so we decided to load them up and take them over to the house.

We got there just before 5, and we spent the evening at the new house, unloading boxes, planning furniture placement (so I know where to put everything when we bring it into the house), and then attempting to order pizza. That’s when we hit our first glitch.

We live a few miles out of the delivery radius for Papa Johns, Dominos, and Pizza Hut. That’s right. NO PIZZA DELIVERY AT THE NEW HOUSE. That might have been a deal breaker, except I do have the Pizza Hut iPhone App, so I could order the pizza and then go pick it up. No biggie, since I needed a quick moving break anyway.

As we were relaxing tonight we were already discussing the house warming party. We plan on inviting some close friends and family and enjoying an afternoon and evening with some delicious food from Iron Horse BBQ. At least that’s the plan as of right now.

Now I’m off to collapse. I have a few more phone calls to make tomorrow, then I have to figure out how my “work day” is going to be handled during the move. Until tomorrow… Zzzzzzzz…

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Aug

31

A Slight Delay…

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We arrived at our meeting just before 11 this morning, to sign the papers, turn over a rather large check, and get the keys to our new home. It turns out, the seller hadn’t received some of the paperwork yet, so things were delayed 24 hours.

At first we were a little concerned, but then we realized it was an error on the part of the real estate agents, not the seller, so we were willing to wait another 24 hours. We came this far, the least we could do is wait it out overnight.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow morning, and then we can schedule all the utilities and start coordinating the actual move. Maybe then my writing on everything political will resume its normal course.

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Aug

30

One More Look…

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After the seller accepted our offer on Friday evening, we were elated. We spent the weekend planning our move, trying to decide if we should rent a U-Haul truck, a PODS unit, or just truck it (literally) for a few days…

We expected to hear from the real estate agent first thing this morning, but things were delayed and met her out at the house for a “final” inspection.

I crawled under the house to check for any noticeable problems with the foundation, including cracks and mold. Everything checked out. It was all brand new. I used my ladder to get access to the attic crawl space above the garage, as well as the space above the rest of the house, and it all checked out too. In fact, everything about this house (which has been completely renovated) was in better condition than our current house was when we bought it seven years ago (and it was brand new).

We are scheduled to meet in the morning to sign all the papers and get the keys. We are extremely excited (and relieved). Thanks again for all of the prayers, there is no doubt that God took more than a few minutes to answer them.

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Aug

29

Sunday Silence

Category: Economics, Life | Leave a Comment | 3 words | Print

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Aug

28

Extinct? No, Taking The Night Off

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We’re so excited about our soon-to-be new home, that I am taking the night off to just relax for a change.

While I am enjoying a movie on Netflix or just kicking back reading a good book, check out this article from The Smithsonian.

The ivory-billed woodpecker is one of the most extraordinary birds ever to live in America’s forests: the biggest woodpecker in the United States, it seems to keep coming back from the dead. Once resident in swampy bottomlands from North Carolina to East Texas, it was believed to have gone extinct as early as the 1920s, but sightings, confirmed and otherwise, have been reported as recently as this year.

The young ornithologist James T. Tanner’s sightings in the late 1930s came with substantial documentation: not only field notes, from which he literally wrote the book on the species, but also photographs. In fact, Tanner’s photographs remain the most recent uncontested pictures of the American ivory-bill. Now his widow, Nancy Tanner, has discovered more photographs that he took on a fateful day in 1938.

The photographs included with the article are some of the most amazing shots I have ever seen.

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Aug

27

23 Days Of Angst

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The past 23 days, since I discovered the “ploy” being used by the mortgage company to rip our home out from under us, have been some of the most stressful days in my entire life.

The first couple days were filled with calls to the mortgage company “trying to work it out”. The next week was spent contacting attorneys in our area to see if we could stop the fiasco before it reached the point of no return. The mortgage company responded almost immediately and proved there would be no “working it out” in our future.

Eleven days into the ordeal, we started a serious search for a new home. It took a while to find a few places that were (a) large enough, (b) affordable enough, and (c) self-sustainable (from a farming sense).

The first place we found was a beautiful old home on 16 acres of land. It was on the market as part of an estate sale. The deal fell through because we only had agreement from 5 of the 7 siblings. We were sad when we lost that one, because we really, really, wanted it. It had been a family home for almost 100 years, and we we wanted to continue that tradition. Instead, greed has set in and that family will sit back and argue with each other until that beautiful home falls to the ground.

Our second choice was just around the corner from the first one, and it had 13 acres. The house was smaller but some remodel work had already been done. It had new electrical and plumbing through the entire house, but there was something “not right” with that place. Call it a feeling, call it a hunch, whatever you call it, the deal was off after we made a few calls and did some more research.

The third place we found was spectacular. It was at the high end of our budget on almost 6 acres. The previous owner (who has since sold to his company as part of a relocation package) showed us the entire property. We were stunned. We were in love. Then the company that now owns the property would not work with us, at all. They obviously didn’t want to sell the property, not to us anyway.

It was now the 22nd, and by this point we were getting desperate. We were hoping to find a place before the first of the month and it didn’t look like we were going to make our self-imposed deadline.

We found our fourth choice “out in the country”. Seven acres of the most beautiful land you have ever seen, with a 100 year old farmhouse that was riddled with termites and God knows what else. The ceiling sagged, the floors creaked, and we were desperately trying to convince ourselves that we could “fix that”.

We had almost resigned ourselves to make an offer on the “fixer upper” when we found a simple little house, just down the road from our church. Literally. The house is a half a mile from our church. It only has 2 acres of land, but we quickly decided that we could grow a self-sustainable garden, with chickens, on 2 acres. We called the real estate agent so we could look at the house. It is so nice. Plenty of room for everyone, with plenty of room for my chickens and artichokes. WooHoo!

So, after 23 days of intense emotions and stress, and 23 uncomfortable nights, waking up wondering where we were going to end up, we found the place we wanted to live. We submitted an offer through our agent, and around 6pm tonight we received word that the seller has accepted our offer. How cool is that?

 

With the stress of finding a place behind us, the focus now shifts on the remaining 40 days we have to move. Something tells me the packing part of this plan isn’t going to be anywhere as stressful as the finding a place to live part.

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Aug

24

Sunday Silence On Tuesday

Category: Life, Opinions | Leave a Comment | 41 words | Print

Isn’t this where he stands on most controversial issues?

 

After a busy day, I’m taking the night off to relax and prepare for tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow, so I better get a good night’s sleep.

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Aug

23

Revealing The Plan

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A lot of people sent me a link to an article they found online.

Could a Legal Technicality Prevent Banks from Having the Right to Foreclose on 62 Million Homes?

Unfortunately, our mortgage was not one of those “risky” ones, nor one that was modified with government dollars in one of those now infamous bailout packages.

Mortgages bundled into securities were a favorite investment of speculators at the height of the financial bubble leading up to the crash of 2008. The securities changed hands frequently, and the companies profiting from mortgage payments were often not the same parties that negotiated the loans. At the heart of this disconnect was the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, a company that serves as the mortgagee of record for lenders, allowing properties to change hands without the necessity of recording each transfer.

How ironic would it be if our mortgage was tied into this mess as well? Like I said, our mortgage wasn’t one of those that were “bundled, sold, and re-sold”. We’ve always had the same mortgage company, and as far as I know, this doesn’t apply to us.

We’re still in a holding pattern, but we’re hoping things settle out by the end of the week. There is nothing more stressful than not knowing the plan. I’ve never been good with patience, but I sure am learning through this entire ordeal. We’re remaining strong in our faith, and once He reveals the plan to us, we gladly walk down that path.

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Aug

22

Our Refuge In The Storm?

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After double checking our list of properties yesterday morning, we put a call into the real estate agent. Four of the properties were very attractive, within our price range, and very suitable to our plans for a small sustainable family farm.

We waited several hours but the agent never called us back, so we drove out to look at a few of them by ourselves. When we arrived at our “favorite” choice, we called the listed agent (whose sign was in the front yard) and asked if they could show us the property.

We spent quite a bit of time with the agent, who filled us in on just about every piece of information we may have ever wanted to know about the house and the land.

Although the house needs quite a bit of TLC, the property could work out very well for us in the long term. We decided to sleep on it.

This morning, we spoke with our real estate agent. We asked her to show us another property, and then told her we would like to see that other one again.

We met her at the first property at 2:30 today. We were not ready for what awaited us. In fact, this is the first property that all of us have liked unanimously. We were given a guided tour of the property by the owner, and there is no doubt that this is the perfect property for us.

Every other property we have seen could have been “made perfect”, but this one would be perfect from day one.

We are meeting with the real estate agent in the morning, and we will be making a formal offer for the property.

Eighteen days after finding out our world was crashing down around us, it seems we may have found a refuge in the storm. Say those prayers, because this could really be the one.

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Aug

21

Following The Correct Path

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Last night was a rough night. As I mentioned before we had serious reservations about our “second choice” but this morning we knew, for sure, it was the right decision.

I did a couple online inquiries on the property owners, and let’s just say it’s probably a very good thing that we walked away from that one.

I made a few phone calls this afternoon about some additional properties, and I ended up speaking with a real estate agent who is local to our area. She had several ideas about properties that might be available with the type of offer we are in a position to make.

We drove from Roopville to Rome looking at properties this afternoon, and when we returned, I had three emails from the agent waiting for me with listings for us to consider.

We’ll be calling her in the morning to line up four of them, and we are quite optimistic about our chances now.

Thanks for the prayers, as we have no doubt that God had heard them and is guiding us down the correct path.

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