Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

House Hunting Update

The house that Mama was so excited about turned out to be a dud. It was beautiful in 2006, but the next owners decided to be creative and really messed it up. Daddy said it would take about $40,000 to get it back in shape. We would have to do several things before we would even be able to get an occupancy permit. We are passing on that house.

They did look at another house that they are still interested in. It's out of our price range, but not dramatically. Mama says she doesn't like it enough to take a loan out for it, but if they willing to take what we have in cash, then she would buy it. It needs new flooring, paint and eventually a new kitchen. Daddy said he would move the laundry room upstairs and also do some other work to make it where we would all like it. It has a huge yard and it's already fenced. Daddy said it meets all of our requirements, but they don't love it. Daddy said he needs a structural engineer to come out because there has been problems with a basement wall and he's really concerned about that. They haven't made an offer yet because they are still thinking on it and Daddy is going to be out of state next week and will be hard to reach for any negotiations. I think if it's still available and nothing else comes along, they will make an offer when Daddy gets back.

The hotel was busy with guests who were in a hockey tournament last weekend. We had lots of boys running around here making noise. They were pretty nice though and petted Scout and I.

We had Chinese food delivered on Sunday night. We enjoyed that.

It's supposed to snow tomorrow night. We really do not like walking in the snow, so we are not happy about it.

I guess that is about all that is going on here. It's a gloomy day, so Scout and I are going to nap while Mama works.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Is Tired Today

Friday, January 14, 2011

Upstair Neighbors

(Scout relaxing at our old place in 2010)

We had some people move into the room above us yesterday. We are not happy. They are noisy. It sounds like they are stomping around. They are moving furniture and slamming doors. People should be allowed to live above you. It's just not right! It's making us very nervous. We hope they are short-term people and not extended stay people like us.

Mama and Daddy are going to the RV show today. It's a tradition for them. Daddy likes to look and Mama likes to pick up travel information that she never looks at again.

There is a house that just became available that Mama is excited about. The agent sent her photos of it went it was listed in 2006. It was beautiful. It should still be beautiful, right? Well, it's a foreclosure and they are learning that it doesn't take long for a home to go from beautiful to nasty. The pictures on the Internet look good, but there's not any photos of the kitchen which is making Mama wonder because in 2006, it looked nice and why wouldn't they post photos of the kitchen if is still looked nice? Mama and Daddy have been talking about it a lot on the phone and Daddy seems to think the air conditioning is missing. He saw something in a photo that makes him think that. That can't be good. The house has a huge yard and a parking spot for the RV. It's in a nice area and it's in our price range. It seems almost perfect. We are keeping our paws crossed that this is the one. They are probably going to drive by it today and then see it with the agent tomorrow.

Jack,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Like People Walking On His Ceiling

Thursday, January 13, 2011

CG Magazine

We were so busy with our big move that we forgot to mention that we were in the Winter Issue of the CG Magazine. This photo was taken in 2007, we think. Mama used it for our Christmas card that year.

Jack and Scout
The Greyhounds Who Pose For Treats

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snow Day!

It snowed last night. We don't know how much. Mama doesn't have a ruler. It's probably 2" to 3". Here is the view from our front window. We have our own fire hydrant. See it in the photo?

Here is the view from our patio door.

We went out around 5 a.m. We saw our first snow plow and it scared us.

Last night, the pizza man came. Yes, we are really starting to like this city living. We have leftovers for today. Yummy!

Mama was happy yesterday because we finally got mail. She had just called the post office to see if anything was waiting for us back home, but he said nothing was there. We had only received two things in two weeks. We used to get mail every day. Yesterday, we received several things including Mama's paycheck and our new coats. We like our new coats. They are not the heavy duty kind, but fleece ones. They fit really nice and we think they will suit us for our activities. Scout even got excited when she tried hers on and normally she doesn't like to wear anything.

Mama did something silly yesterday and now her glasses are scratched. She was closing the drapes in our room and the rod that you use to pull the drapes somehow fell behind Mama's glasses. I know, it's hard to imagine, but it happened. Mama didn't think anything of it until she sat down at the computer and she thought she had a long hair stuck to her glasses. She then discovered it's a long scratch right down the middle of the lens. She's really upset about it because she needs her glasses to read. She does not know if the scratch can be fixed, but said she will check into it.

Jack
The Greyhound Who Has Snow Today

Monday, January 10, 2011

Room Service - Sort Of

(Jack hanging out at the old house.)

After Mama and Daddy got home from house hunting, they debated what to order to eat. This city living is definitely different than our old home. Mama cooked about 97% of the time at home and here it's like 50/50. They debated between Chinese food or pizza. Mama decided to give the Chinese food a try. I was more excited over the Chinese food than the pizza we had last week. It smelled so good when it arrived. Mama ordered Cashew Chicken-fried and the sauce came separate, so Mama gave us each a piece of the chicken. Yummy! We tried the fortune cookies and Scout liked them, of course. Scout likes almost everything. I, however, do not prefer sweets and spit mine out. Mama was very happy with the food and said we are definitely ordering from them again. Yeah!

The house hunting did not go well. There was one that Mama said she had high hopes for and it had a huge yard. They discovered that it was a mobile home and modular home put together. Daddy does a lot of research on the homes before they look at them and he found one site that said it was a mobile home. They couldn't figure out how it could be because it looked like a regular house. Mama said it was really nice looking and it was huge. It was almost too big for us since we are downsizing. It needed some repairs, such as a new roof. Anyway, once Daddy and the agent figured out it must be two homes put together, red flags went up. (The big tip off was the heat registers went down the center of the floor in one section - which would be the mobile home part. Also, Daddy said the bathtub was definitely a mobile home bathtub.) The agent told them that they would need to find the tag number that is on all all mobile homes when they re-sell it. That could be a problem because it was completed sided. Since we are cash buyers, it's not an issue for us, but it could be a big problem later on. Daddy was also concerned about how everything was connected together and it just seemed like it could be a big problem. The resale value of it is questionable. It's been on the market for quite a while and maybe other people have figured out the problem, too. Mama was disappointed because she said it had almost everything we wanted, especially a huge yard, but she needs to think with her head and not her heart.

They looked at another house that Mama said was okay, but there wasn't a way to get us to the backyard without going down steps or having to go out the front and then around to the backyard. Mama wants to be able to open a door and let us out. She said she is not ready to just settle for a house yet.

We are still considering one of the homes that they looked at on Friday. Mama says that one is looking more and more promising, but there is something up with that one too. The agent is not responding to our agent with the questions we have. Mama had actually called that agent about a month ago about the same house and he was really rude to her. I guess selling homes is not a priority to him.

We are supposed to get snow later today. Daddy is headed out of town, so we are on our own for the week. Mama said we will order pizza and just hang out together.

(Scout in the snow in 2008.)

Jack
The Greyhound Who Likes Chinese Food

Home Again - Part 3

 Well, we just realized that we didn't finish telling you about the rest of our trip home.  I don't know if we even remember the res...