Saying goodby to the garbage man and other stories.

I know, I know. Jeez. You sound just like Mr. B.

There is still a lot that has to happen. Everything could completely fall apart. No doubt about it. They have accepted our offer but the negotiating isn't done yet. Many, many things still have to fall into place. The fat lady is just starting to practice her scales.

There are no chickens here.

























That said, I can't help but be a little excited.

We're going over there in just another hour or so!!

Can't wait to get your in-person report!

And I hope that Mo loves it. (Or at least, I hope that Mo loves it AND you definitely definitely get it.)

Will keep that altar going...

The interior of the house is a little.... er.... goofy. Decades of "improvements" have made for some odd spaces and some strange quirks. Head scratching little things that fall into the "Huh?" category. But it does have tons of potential. We'll have to see the home inspection before we could begin to calculate the bank busting amount of potential though.

The street it is on is amazing though. I think I could live in a box if it could be on that street. It's a half block from the elementary school. Mo could walk to school on his own down the little path running down the fat center medium. (Medium - is that what their called - those island parks that go down the middle of a street?)

Today just happened to be the big July 4 children's parade on the very street where the house is. Everyone was outside enjoying the day. The neighborhood mom and pop grocery was on hand giving out free hot dogs and sodas. A fire truck led the parade with probably 1,000 kids of all ages following behind. Mo joined in the parade and had a blast.

People saw us looking at the yard and surrounding area and stopped to talk. Raving about what a great place it was to live. I believe them.

Oooh!

(Median, I think.)

Half a block, wow!

And the parade sounds great for getting Mo interested in the new location.

Sounds pretty idyllic, Boomer!

Hope the potential-realizing pricetag isn't too scary...

(Is it now livable-but-weird or would it need work before you could even really live in it?)

Median! That's it! Thank you.

It is pretty idyllic. It's like someone tucked Mayberry into the middle of the metropolitian area down to the "Mom and Pops will run you an account and bill you at the end of the month." (Me: "Please don't tell Mo that I'll go broke on ice cream!")

The house is most definately livable as it is now. There are probably a few things we would want to do before moving in though just because it would be so much harder to do once everything is inside.

I'm excited!

This is great news! I look forward to more pics.

Pictures, for sure! It looks and sounds great.

<taptaptap>

We're still waiting for the results of the home inspection. We do want to make sure the thing will not collapse on our heads.

In the meantime we've been taking a fresh look at our house with the idea that some of our quirks and some of the things we've learned to live with might not seem so charming to prospective buyers. It is amazing how much you learn to overlook in the course of 13 years.

Being in house limbo is wearing a little thin but I've been contenting myself with investigating what in the world one is supposed to do with such heavily textured plaster walls. In the past I have always had to find ways to make smooth walls more interesting and now I might have to find a way to make rough walls less interesting. Wall karma, I guess.

Wow, that sounds like a dream neighborhood. I'm so jealous.

On the house quirks, we had that in our last house in PA. A closet with a huge, fully functional window in it. Strange half windows that are too high on the wall to make any sense. Walled off rooms that look like maybe they needed to make an extra bedroom and thought the dining room would do just fine. How exciting, though! Best of luck to you, boomer. Can't wait to hear more.

The house is ours!!!!!















But we're thinking of walking away.

It's becoming a bit of a clusterf***.

For tax reasons they don't want to close until August 31 - four days before school starts. Mr. B, who has experience in such matters, says that is a happy guess on their part.

And the house really needs some repairs (the roof) before we move in. Pushing our move in date to sometime late September at the earliest.

That timing would not only screw with Mo's schooling and emotional well being but could screw up selling our house because everybody wants to move before school starts.

This, added to the nonsense of Mr. B's warehouse woes is making moving this summer less and less attractive.

But it's ours if we want it.

errr couldn't Mo commute to school for a little bit?

Don't know about the rest of it, but the school timing's really not that bad.

We were hoping to have Mo start the year at the new school and commuting could be a possiblity, it's true. I could take him to school and hang at the new house until he got out of school -- getting some of the work that needed to be done, done. But I think it would really be hard for him to get settled with so much unsettled.

Also, we were wanting to get moved and have some time to get some things done to this house before putting it on the market. The timing could very well effect how quickly our house sells, and at what price. We don't want two house payments for more than a couple of months, maximum.

Next Thursday is really kind of a deadline for us. In the meantime we're getting estimates on roofing and window replacements for the other house. The other house has many beautiful doors and windows but according to the inspector they're "sh***y" from neglect.

Neglect. The house suffers from serious neglect.

Mr. B still thinks it is a good investment. It was offered for $x. We offered $x + 27,000. It needs probably $50,000 worth of materials and $50,000 worth of labor (mostly ours though, for free, over say.... five years (but we are both good laborers)) to be worth $x + 250,000.

In the next week and a half I'll know whether I either need to start packing or just crash.

Whichever is good for me.

What does Mo currently think about the house, and the new school, and moving?

Mo seems cool with it. He keeps telling people we're moving and we add maybe.

It has been tricky though, talking to him about it without knowing what is going to happen. We don't want to get him to set on either staying or going.

When it comes down to brass tacks it is Mr. B and me that need to make the decisions about what is the best idea for our family. Mo's input is important but it really can't be the deciding factor.

Right.

I was asking in terms of the stability question. If he is dead set on going -- if he thinks the move is going to happen and he's looking forward to it -- it might be less disruptive overall to do the staggered move (commuting to school, etc.) rather than just not doing it.

But it sounds like it's more ambiguous than that.

What happens next Thursday?

And what warehouse woes?

Next Thursday we will need to put down some ernest money on the house. They're wanting a pretty big deposit. Since we don't have piles of cash laying around once we put down the deposit we're in for the pound instead of the penny.

There are so many offers on the house that the price has been sneaking up. Our accepted (haha) offer started at $x + 10,000, went to +16,000 and now stands at +27,000. We can't afford for them to continue to delay things and play with the price.

I think I mentioned that the house was a steal -- really underpriced. I think they've figured that out.

The warehouse that Mr. B was set to buy was yanked away by someone with a cash offer. The warehouse was the one 10 minutes from the house. So now they have to find a new warehouse but it is certain that it will still need to be on that side of the river.

Buying property here is a dog eat dog business.

Hmmm.

What a lot of variables.

Can't you just move to Columbus? That house, in that condition, in a good school district, would be about half the price they were asking. OK maybe as much as 75% of the price if it were one of the top districts, but still.

Does Mr. B work out of the warehouse or does he have another office in addition to the warehouse? Having work nearby would seem to be a huge element of all this (and how it all started, right?)

Hmm... From what you describe it does sound like a very worthwhile investment, even if it takes a few months of craziness. I guess it depends on how long do you figure you'd live there (forever? for 20 years? 10?) and, of course, on how much in love you are with the new place. But I tend to be overly spontanneous in these matters... once committed, things are easier, because then you don't have to decide anymore, just figure out how to make it work. I am secretly hoping you'll go for it, it sounds so very exciting.... But of course, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the best possible outcome for your family - whatever that is. Is there any talking them out of the closing date and moving it to earlier, at least by a couple of weeks or so?

Once committed either way things will be much less stressful, that's for sure.

When we first moved here I had serious sticker shock over housing prices. Portland has the dubious distinction of having the lowest housing prices in any major city on the west coast -- the most expensive housing prices in America. It is also considered one of the most overpriced housing markets in America (in compairson with what people earn). A lot of it has to do with our topography and our strict land use laws -- two of the very things that make it an attractive place to live.

The house is a good investment. There is no doubt about that.

I suggested to Mr. B that we rent one of those POD thingys and move out of our house except for the bare essentials so that we could go ahead and put our house on the market. Beds, toothbrushes, a few cooking implements -- an in house camp out! Plus, we'd be all packed. Then the POD people could load the thing on a truck, drive it over and everything would be there ready to unload.

Mr. B thinks living in our house while trying to sell it would be impossible because of all the kids running in and out all day long.

I still think it's a good idea. We'll see what happens.