Who Are These Masked Men?

It's Halloween and our daughter Heather sent us this picture:

I know our grandsons, Spidey Andrew and Green Owie are super, now I know they're our Super Heroes.

We got an email from our realtor, Mike, saying that the house inspection went well and the buyers have just two items they'd like us to take care of.  I'll wait to see the final report, but we're leaning towards taking care of one and declining the other. It will require some wall modifications to upgrade some switches and electrical sockets that the inspector recommended.  I don't feel like getting involved in another project at this time with so many other things to take care of.  Plus, I've retired my paintbrush for good. :c)

We are awaiting the appraisal report, too.  So once that comes through, Marti and I will be signing the closing papers in advance.  We are not going to the actual closing, we've booked a stay for Thanksgiving with Spiderman and the Green Lantern in South Carolina.

Now we're waiting to see pictures of our granddaughters out in Oregon, to see what costumes they're wearing.

They're on West Coast time so they're probably busy Trick-or-Treating.  I know I would be.  :c)

                                          HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Dodged a Bullet and a Long Awaited Sight

It must be a wonderful thing to be a weatherman on TV.  You can be wrong most of the time and still keep your job.  If I made that many mistakes in my career, well, there wouldn't have been much of a career.

However in this case, I'm not complaining at all.  The "Historic" snow fall that we were supposed to get in our area was mostly just a cold rain with an occasional snowflake.  The best part was that there was nothing to shovel.  Dodged a bullet. Phew!

Along the way yesterday something else we've been waiting to see slipped in and surprised us.

Sometime yesterday, our realtor swung by and changed the sign in front of our house from "For Sale" to "Sold".  We're counting down the days to November 28th when we close.  :c)

Another really nice thing happened last night.  Marti and I got a chance to meet a wonderful couple that have been reading our blog and weren't afraid to be seen in public with us.  :cO

Steve and Karen Fischer are fellow RVers on their way to the full time lifestyle in their Tiffin Phaeton motorhome.  They've been RV owners for years and traded up to the motorhome just last year.  They are planning on putting the house on the market next spring.  It was a wonderful time being able to talk "RV" with them, trade ideas, plans, adventures and tips.

You meet the nicest people in the RV world and we look forward to seeing them again, hopefully they get on the road soon.

Sorry the picture is a little blurry, I forgot my camera (Duh!) so we used Marti's cellphone.

Today dawned clear, sunny...and cold.  We had the appraiser and the house inspector coming today to do their portion of the necessary things required for the house sale.  The inspector nicely asked us to leave so he could work with no "interruptions", he didn't have to ask twice.  We beat feet and had a nice time enjoying a leisurely breakfast and doing some Christmas shopping for the grand kids.

After about four hours, we came home just as the home inspector drove away.  I guess he was thorough in doing his job.  We decided since it was such a nice sunny, cold day, we'd go for a ride on our scooters.

Marti on her blue one and my red one.

They are Honda 50CC scooters that we carry in the back of our Honda Element Toad.  We call them the "Tadpoles".   We don't often get a chance to ride them but hopefully we'll burn up the highway when we're gone full time.

So now that we've dodged that snow bullet,  I'm left with my favorite job to take care of this week.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Sure Didn't Take Long For Murphy To Show Up!

He could'a left us alone for a little bit, but Noooo.  He couldn't wait to jump into the middle of our plans.

We have scheduled the home inspection and the appraiser to come this weekend.  And what is it that Murphy scheduled for us?

Yep, a way early snow storm for our area.  The weather guru's are predicting 3 to 6 inches of the white stuff, maybe even more.  I get nervous when they use words like "Historic" to describe the storm.  Of course, my snow blower is packed away in the storage unit we've rented to temporarily hold our stuff that is going to our kids.  Fortunately I still have two snow shovels in the garage.

I spent the day double checking things in advance of the house inspection, went over all the smoke and CO detectors, changed some bulbs and wrestled with the ice maker in the kitchen refrigerator.  Murphy got ahold of that, too with his "magic" touch.  A new one has to be ordered, nobody has one locally.

I took a break and visited a nearby campground, not our favorite, but one nearby that doesn't have a 14 day maximum stay restriction.  It is no cheaper than our favorite campground at Bull Run Regional Park, so Bull Run will be where we'll stay starting around 15 November.  We're trying to get the estate sale completed before the Thanksgiving holiday.

So the fun begins.  Now, where are the snow tires?

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Our Heads Are Spinning Already

It's amazing how easy it is to get into things, yet it can be quite difficult to get out of them.  Back when we bought our house, we were shocked at how easy the whole process went.  Now that we're selling, it has become quite complicated.

Details, details, the Devil is in the details and I've just realized I've got a ton of them.  I've been laying awake in bed the last couple of nights trying to formulate a plan on how we'll get it all done.  Now that I've got a rough idea, it's time for lists, lists and more lists...and a big eraser.

Sunday we have the appraiser and the home inspector coming, I scheduled them at the same time to get them out of the way.  I wanted the home inspector to come as fast as possible in case he finds any details that need attention.  I don't think he will, or if he does, they should be minor.

The thing that bothers me the most is there are some things that I have to rely on other people for and I have a hard time with that.  Especially because the closing date is 28 November and there is the Thanksgiving holiday thrown in to reduce working time to get things accomplished.

Things are a solid as they can be, but you always have in the back of your mind when Murphy is going to show up.  In my Coast Guard days, we used to try and figure in some extra time for the "Murphy Factor" as we called it.  For example, replacing an engine, I'd tell the boss it would take three days when I was pretty sure I could get it done in two.  That way if Murphy showed up, I'd have time to handle his hi-jinks.  If he didn't show and I got the engine in place in two days, then I'd look like a hero to the boss.

This time I can't find where we can pad our time frame in case we get that visit, so everything has to go right the first time (Gulp!).

 I'll have to keep my pencil very sharp when I write my lists and leave my buddy Gumby (as in Semper Gumby - Always Flexible) in the Journey.

You look forward to your dreams turning into reality, then when reality comes...it's hard not to panic!

Hang with us, this is going to be quite a ride!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Thank You All, And An Appeal For Tech Help

We are overwhelmed and humbled for all the kind words and emails we've received from y'all on our news about our contract.  It means so much to us to know how many folks have been keeping us in their thoughts and prayers as well as keeping their fingers and toes crossed for us.  Hopefully you'll be able to straighten out those digits with no long term damage. ;c)

Your support helped us keep going when we got discouraged after over 33 showings of the house to find that one couple that loved our house as much as we do, and weren't put off by an unfinished basement. (lol).

We now are getting set up to go through the appraisals and inspections, as well as sending some furniture and special items to our kids in NJ and SC.  We have notified the estate sale company so we've got to get the sale of all our remaining furniture and things taken care of.  We close on the 28th of November and are planning on moving fulltime into our Journey mid month.

So many details that we'll have to have a spread sheet to take care of them all.  But none of the details require the use of a paintbrush (phew!).

Now, for all you technically inclined computer gurus, I have been having a problem posting pictures on our blog.  It started as a picture or two not showing after posting to the blog, instead I got the red X.  I also got the red X on a few pictures on other people's blogs.  Even more strange, on my little pictures of blog followers, most are there, but three of four are the red X, as well as our profile picture.

Now it's gotten progressively worse.  I can't get any of my pictures to post, either from my Picasa albums or downloaded from the Internet.  I can't do it in either of my browsers, IE9 or Google Chrome.

I've tried the old rebooting the computer trick, with no resolution.  I have plenty of picture storage space and my photos are sized right, so I'm really confused, more so than I normally am.

If any of you have an idea of how to solve this, I'd be forever grateful.  I don't want to start on our Journey and not have any pictures to share!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

I just tried to post our license plate and it worked.  Checking my blog shows no more red Xs, so maybe it was a Blogger issue.  I'm really stumped now, I'll have to watch to see if the problem solved itself with no help from me. That could be a good thing, I'd probably have melted my hard drive or something... ;c)

Houston, We Have A...

 Signed Contract!!! 

It's been an interesting ride.  We learned a few things through all this.  To start, when our realtor tracked down the realtor for couple B this morning, he found out that they already had a contract on another house but wanted to look at ours "just in case" their contract fell through.  Nice.

We learned that we chose a great realtor, Mike.  When we interviewed the four candidate realtors to pick one to list with, we were impressed with Mike.  He was aggressive, innovative and willing to use technology to drive potential buyers to view our house.  The biggest thing that we are very happy with is that Mike is very in tuned to our local real estate market, and the upcoming trends.  He has researched the market and showed us a list of 110 bank owned and short sale properties in our area that are going to come on the market starting in January 2012.  These homes will basically kill the real estate market and drive down the sale prices far below what they are now.

The other three realtors we interviewed all recommended we take our house off the market until next spring.  If we had listened to their advice, we would have ended up right in the middle of the bad market and would have had to lower the price significantly if we hoped to sell our house.

We had to eat a little more off our selling price to close the deal, but we got it done.  We have a closing date of 28 November, so we have some hustling to do.  We have some items to send up to our son Corey's house in NJ and our daughter Heather's house in SC.  We have to now get a date set to have our estate sale.

I have to make a list to ensure I've got everything accounted for and not miss any details.  Good thing I'm retired and have some time on my hands.  I think we'll be ready, but I might miss bringing Marti lunch every once in a while.

I hope this is the start of the trend for house sales for our RV buddies Bill and Nancy, and Gin and Syl that are also waiting on their houses to sell.  Things come in threes, so they're due for some good news, too! 

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Offer Update

Just a fast update, we did receive an offer last night, it is, as expected a low ball.  We met with our realtor this evening to review it and come up with a counter-offer.  The young couple that gave us the offer is pretty much maxed out on what they can afford.

To add to the fun, another couple viewed the house today and the husband let me know they would be in touch with us shortly about an offer.

So we're stalling on the first offer until tomorrow night to see if we do get an offer from today's couple.

We'll keep you posted as we find out "Who's" on first and "What's" on second.  Thanks for all your support and encouragement, it is very much appreciated!

Holding Our Breath

After over 35 showings of our house, yesterday we had a young couple return for a second look at the house.  That's never happened before.
  
Even more encouraging is that the lady of said couple brought her mother along to see the house.  Our realtor told us they wanted the second look so they could discuss with their realtor about making an offer.  Marti and I were there to show them the house again and "mom" liked the unfinished basement.  :cO

After a quick tour with them, Marti and I left them alone so they could spend whatever time they needed to review the house.

The bottom line is this could either be a very good thing, or I've just jinxed ourselves by even mentioning it.  We haven't heard anything yet but hope to hear either a yes or no next week.

If all else fails, we had another realtor show the house a few hours after the couple left and in about another hour, we need to beat feet because another potential buyer wants to see the house.

Holding our breath!

Blogger Testing My Patience

 I know, I know, you get what you pay for.  Blogger, for the most part works pretty good for me...most of the time.  However, every once and a while, it seems to go off with a mind of its own and does things for seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Recently, there seemed to be many of us that were having problems posting comments on other people's blogs.  Sometimes the comment would disappear when you hit the post button, other times you'd end up in a repetitious cycle that kept sending you to your account sign in page. 

Investigation revealed two issues, one was that blog owners had their security settings too restrictive, the other was that Internet Explorer 9 users (of which I am/was one) were having the problems with incompatible programs to work in Blogger.  The recommended fix was to switch to another Internet browser.  I switched to Google Chrome on my Toshiba laptop and it seemed to correct the issue of commenting posts.   Marti uses FireFox on her Hewlett Packard laptop with great success.

The funny thing is our desktop PC in our den still has the old IE8 browser and it posts comments just fine.  Another mystery of bytes, bits and the assorted electrons that move all the zeros and ones around.

Now, on to the next, newest mystery.  On my blog and on many other blogs that I read, I'm getting the dreaded red "X" where pictures should be.  With both IE9 and Goggle Chrome.  Yet, Marti doesn't get the problem with FireFox. 

I'm scratchin' my noggin here.  Is anyone else having this problem?  Or have you been able to find a fix to resolve the loss of pictures?  I hate to miss out on some of the great photos that bloggers put in their blogs for all of us to enjoy.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Numbers and Stats

Things sometimes amaze me.  Numbers usually are not one of them.  As a kid in grade school, I found that one of the three "Rs" tortured me...'rithmatic.  I spent many hours suffering through mental anguish trying to get those multiplication tables to stay in my brain.  Very frustrating when I had perfectly good fingers and toes to count on.

Even more maddening was that to use a calculator was considered almost sinful.  The common explanation was what would you do if you didn't have access to a calculator, or that the batteries were dead in it?  As long as I was careful around power equipment, knives and saws, the fingers and toes would work just fine.

High school algebra and geometry was even worse.  My freshman year I had to do Algebra I over in summer school to squeak by to get a passing grade.  As a senior, I was in Algebra II, required to pass to graduate.  I had grades so low I had to be careful not to trip over them when I walked.  A miracle occurred for me, if your overall grade point average of all your courses was at a certain level, you didn't have to take a final exam.

Since I aced all my other courses, history, auto shop, English, gym, study hall and lunch, I lucked out and passed Algebra II.  It was a great day to get that diploma (phew!).

Our life getting ready to travel fulltime in our Journey is getting bombarded with numbers.  Budgets, miles per gallon, CCC.  Even trying to sell our humble abode is stacked full of numbers, and stats.

Since we put out house up for sale last June, we've had over 30 showings to potential buyers, 9 of which have been with our new realtor, Mike.  He said statistically, he has a listing on the market and average of 28 days before he gets a sale, he averages 7 showings of that house to get a sale.  He has a good track record of 72 homes sold this year.  Statistically, we should have sold our house at least three times already.   With 9 showings already and our house listed with him 21 days this Saturday, we should be seeing an offer soon.  If you can believe statistics.

Aren't you impressed with how well I threw all those numbers and stats out there?  Let me pause here a minute to put my shoes and socks back on.

Even more numerically incredible to Marti and me is that this is our 401st blog post.  We have 94 followers and have had over 61,000 views and are nearing 3000 comments.  It is just amazing that so many of you tune in to our written ramblings to see what we're up to and what trouble we'll be getting ourselves into next on our path to get on the road fulltime.

We thank each and every one of your for your interest in our journey to start our journey in our Journey.  It's been a tremendous encouragement and keeps us focused on the prize.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Fall Color

We like color.  We've been able to, over the years, plant different types of flowering bushes, flowers and trees so we have something blooming around the house mostly all through three seasons.  Fall is no different, along our entrance walk we have these flowers that have just popped.

What are they?  I haven't a clue, Marti is the authority on flower names.  I do know what these are, though.  Knock Off Roses.

All the flowers give the front of the house an inviting look.

There are some colors that annoy me, though.  Remember yesterday's picture of the front lawn after I got up all the leaves?

This is the colorful view that greeted me this morning.

Of course, it was raining, too so I have to wait for the rain to stop and the leaves dry so I can pick them up with my tractor.  One step forward, two steps back.

Another funny thing happened yesterday, I had no sooner posted to our blog about the unplanned realtor visit when the doorbell rang again.  Yep, another realtor with more clients to show the house.

Our realtor has a company that calls us when there is a request by a realtor to show the house.  The call is also followed up by an email asking permission.  I never received any calls this time and the emails arrived forty minutes after the scheduled time for the realtor's showing.

So again I gave the nickle tour, the second couple seemed very interested.  Of course it's hard to read people's minds, but the fortune cookie that came with my lunch today said:

"Your dreams will come true when you least expect it".

I guess the trick will be to give up on expecting the house to sell.  ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

A New Foe

Limbo living just got a little harder.  Keeping the house in show ready condition has been a challenge and we're not slobs (not too much, anyway).  I've notched my OCD up a couple of levels to have everything pristine all the time.

Now, more fun.

Our home is surrounded by beautiful trees, including a large oak and a small maple in the backyard.

The front yard has a large maple and a cherry tree that provide nice shade in the afternoon.

All this nice shade provides me with the new problem:

Leaves.  And they are just starting to fall.  I hooked up my leaf catcher to my trusty John Deere tractor and cleared up all the leaves and cut the grass.  Within minutes of clearing the leaves, new ones started taking their place.

I used to wait until most all the leaves had dropped before picking them up, but now I'll have to do this a couple of days a week until they've all dropped.  My new foe.

I got all the leaves up and put the tractor away and sat down to have a bit of lunch when the doorbell rang. At the door was a realtor with a couple to view the house.  I never got the call that a showing was coming or I would have beat feet out of here.  So instead I got to show them all around the house in my old ripped and paint splattered clothes.  Oops.  

On the good side, I was able to show off the house much better than the realtor would have been able to.  The couple was also looking in the neighborhood at a short sale house just like ours, but it needed a lot of work.  We've dropped our listing price again for the fourth time to be more competitive with the short sales and the other house the couple was interested in was priced $50K under us.

So it looks like I won't be escaping leaf duties any time soon.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

Crazy???

Most people that know us already have made up their minds about us.  Yes, we're crazy.  Crazy enough to drive a round trip of 1000 miles for an hour.  But that hour was very important to us, we were able to watch Andrew, our seven year old grandson, play football in his Pop Warner League in South Carolina.

It was a hoot to watch the little football players on the large field, they looked like bobble head dolls with their helmets and pads on.

They take football very seriously in South Carolina.  Mom Heather and Dad Brian watched with eagle eyes while dressed in team jerseys with Andrew's number 88 on them.

Heather likes to put Andrew's number 88 on her cheek.  Owie got in on the act,

and "Mimi" Marti did too!

Andrew's team (The Titans) won the game and they have had an undefeated season so far.  After the game, Marti rushed down to the field to hug Andrew and escort him back to our seats.

Brian listened carefully to what Andrew said about the game.  They both are enjoying football together.

It was a great time and worth every mile we drove to see  Andrew and Owie.  They're growing up so fast and we don't want to miss a minute of it.  Another reason we're looking forward to fulltiming, we won't have to rush back and forth and we'll be able to spend more time with all our grandkids, wherever they are!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

What If -The Rest of The Story

On that hot August night in downtown Washington, DC, I found myself in a serious situation.  One that I hoped I'd never run in to, but had been trained for.

In my career as a Special Agent, training was a big part of my life.  Qualifications, requalifications, classes, updates, new instructions, hands on techniques practiced again and again.  It was all designed to keep you on your toes and at the top of your game.

But the biggest thing that I went over again and again was the "What Ifs".  Sometimes it would be just thinking about what I'd do in a certain situation, other times it was a good topic at lunch with my fellow agents, or even a great discussion during training sessions with instructors that had been around for a long time.

Like a basketball player who visualized hitting a basket, mentally I pictured myself involved in various scenarios and went over what I would do if that situation ever presented itself.

So, how does this all tie in to the RV lifestyle?  Stay with me on this and let me ask a question:

How would you handle an RV "What If" situation?

What if you had a blow out of a front tire while you're driving down the highway? How do you keep from running off the road?

What if you had a fire on the stove?  Where is the fire extinguisher located?

What if the refrigerator suddenly caught fire?  How would you get out of the RV?  Do you know where  the emergency escape windows are and how they open?

What if the RV became engulfed in flames, what would happen to your wallet, your purse, your car keys, your cell phone?   Have you ever thought about a "Bail Out Bag" kept by the door with important items, extra keys, cash, credit cards, ID that you could grab on the way out of the RV in an emergency exit?

What if the primary driver of your RV fell down and suffered a broken leg, would you know how to operate all the RV systems and be able to drive it?

There are many "What Ifs" that you suddenly could be faced when you least expect it, would you be prepared to be able to handle it?  By taking a few minutes once in a while and thinking over what you would do in an emergency could turn a bad situation into one that you'd be able to handle with less trouble, it could prevent a catastrophe or even save your life, or the life of a loved one. 

As I started to squeeze the trigger, Jeep Girl must have heard my shout, even though it took a second to penetrate her rage.  She stopped moving her arm, turned her head and looked at me.  Her eyes popped, she dropped the screwdriver and let go of the punched girl who staggered back and leaned against a nearby car.  I ordered Jeep Girl to the ground and took control of the screwdriver. 

While I was handling this situation, another police officer, off duty, pulled up to the gas pumps.  When she saw the situation and the other girls that were brawling, she put out an "Officer Needs Assistance call and in minutes there were about twenty DC Metro Police officers on scene.

The result?  All the girls were arrested by the DC Police for disorderly conduct.  Jeep Girl was charged with aggravated assault and went to jail.

And me? I went home and went to bed instead of having to deal with loads of paperwork from a shooting situation.  I had "What If-d" this type of situation many times and when it happened, I reacted instinctively instead of watching a tragedy occur in front of me.

One Coast Guard Commandant I had worked for had a motto:  "Preparation Equals Performance".  I had prepared and the one time in my thirty year career I had to draw my weapon, I was ready.

Now I'm doing the "What If" on how much fun it'll be on the road full time in the Journey with Marti by my side.

PS:  Even though I was a federal agent, in situations it's better to announce yourself as "Police" because it is much more recognizable to people.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

What If?

It was a hot, sticky August night.  I was serving as the security agent for the Coast Guard Commandant, whom we had dropped off at his quarters after a late night event.  Alvin, my driver and I headed back into Washington, DC to fuel up the limo, drop it off at Coast Guard Headquarters a few blocks away and call it a night, or actually a morning, it was well past midnight.

We stopped in at the usual gas station to fill the tank.  While Alvin pumped the gas, I stepped out to stretch my legs.  I started to sweat as I stood next to the car, checking my Blackberry for email and updates to the next day's schedule.  I felt the drops of sweat roll down the back of my shirt and down my legs, another one of my suits would have to go to the dry cleaners.

In front of the gas station building were about six or seven teen-something girls from the neighborhood who were arguing loudly with each other over something.  I gave them a casual glance and then looked at Alvin, who rolled his eyes and shook his head.

A Jeep pulled up on the other side of the gas pump and another teenaged girl jumped out and shouted over to the girls, "Hey!  You remember me from last night?" and walked over to join in the arguing.

The arguing got louder, then came some pushing, shoving and hair pulling.  Alvin and I watched with amazement as "Jeep Girl" started getting the worst of it, she threw a punch at one of the other girls, then turned and ran back to her Jeep, being chased by the recipient of the punch.

Before Jeep Girl could jump in her vehicle and close the door, the punched girl slammed her body into the door, catching Jeep Girl's leg in the door before she had pulled it in.

Jeep Girl shoved open the door and the punched girl was knocked backwards.  Jeep Girl bolted out of the Jeep holding a large screwdriver with an eight inch shaft and started chasing the punched girl.  The punched girl only ran about ten feet before Jeep Girl caught her by her shirt and spun her around.

While all this was happening, the other girls broke into an all out fist fight with each other.

Jeep Girl had hold of the punched girl's shirt with her left hand, in her right hand she started to raise the screwdriver to stab the punched girl while screaming, "I'm gonna' kill you, B****!"

Without a second thought, I reacted.  In one swift moment I was running towards the girls, my hand had automatically pushed open my suit jacket and drawn my pistol.  In a split second I had my gun aimed at Jeep Girl and I yelled, "Police!  Stop! Drop the Screwdriver!"  Jeep Girl's arm kept going up, getting ready to stab the punched girl. 

My finger tightened on the trigger.

Marti's Musings: "Now where is....?"

Ok, we have now been living in a "show ready" house for nearly 4 months.  Being the newbies to this whole selling-a-house and retirement bit, we never considered we would be hanging around this long.

So, having put most of our belongings in storage, and another large amount in the RV for our FT days ahead - well.... you can guess what the frustrations are (besides not having yet sold the house!).

For example,  I finished reading my book this weekend, and where are the rest of my books?  Yup, in the RV.  So, we make a trip over there, and  I pick out 3 books.  Get back home - oh brother - I have read all 3 of them.  So, now I wonder if I gave away the bag of books that I didn't read yet, and kept the ones I did read.  Sheesh.

You can apply the same thing to various other items - Paul has already blogged about the various kitchen utensils we need that are already in the RV, so we had to buy replacements for the house.  Again.   Various cosmetic items, that I figured I wouldn't need for a month or more (replacements etc) are now not where I need them, at home if I am in the RV and in the RV if I am home.  Not to mention: sweatshirts, athletic socks, various T-shirts... on and on and on.  I really don't want to bring stuff BACK from the RV, remember, we have bare minimum here, so it is always neat and uncluttered.

As a result, most of the time we do without, unless we can't.  Nothing like straddling 2 lifestyles, huh?  I sure hope this doesn't sound like complaining - it isn't meant that way.  We are blessed more than we deserve, it is just getting a little interesting trying to figure out this whole limbo thing.  Sure would be nice if we didn't get to be experts at it, though.  LOL! ;c)

Thanks for visiting, and feel free to leave a comment.  ~Marti

Mysterious Lines Appear On Our Lawn

I came home the other day from bringing Marti her lunch (yes I fill up my retirement days doing strange things) and there were these lines painted across our lawn.

I was curious, made even more so because they were only on our lawn, not any of our neighbor's.

The next day, there were more lines, in different colors.

Finally, it became clear what these lines were all about when this appeared.

Our realtor had called all the utility companies to mark where their underground lines were, electric, gas and cable before he had the "For Sale" sign installed, taking care to not damage the lines when the hole was dug.

This is just another example of why we're pleased with our new realtor, going the extra mile to take care of little details.  Our previous realtor came and hammered in his sign, right where the electric lines were now marked.  Good thing he didn't go too deep, he would have lit up like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation.

Our new realtor told us some horror stories of things that happen to them while trying to sell homes.  His company does not allow their realtors to drive the clients because there have been several frivolous lawsuits filed against the company by clients claiming they were injured by the realtor's poor driving.

He also told us about some unscrupulous realtors that put in high end appliances to show the house and while the closing is going on, workers remove the high end appliances and put in the old, junky ones that originally were in the house in the first place.  Sadly, he said it had happened to him personally, despite a final walk through before closing.

We're feeling very optimistic with our new guy, so far in a week now, we've had four showings and another one today, so we're going to see a movie.  Fingers crossed!

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