When is Enough Enough?

Our efforts to get our house "ready" for the market are in full swing.  "Ready" being the interesting concept.  When we met with our Realtors earlier this year, they provided a laundry list of items that should be upgraded to make the house more attractive to every potential buyer, neutral color schemes, freshened paint, new carpets, tile, counter tops, etc, etc, etc.  When they were done with their "Wish List", a quick total in my head would have cost us over $30 thousand dollars, and our home is only 23 years old and has been well cared for.

So we have taken their list and prioritized tasks, looked for good bargains (love Lowe's 10% discount for military members) and have carefully accomplished things in a pay-as-you-go manner.  Using our sharp pencil, we've done much of the work ourselves, when the job is beyond us, we've carefully selected good contractors to do the work.  We are now pushing $9 thousand dollars spent so far.  We estimate another $5-6 thousand dollars and we'll be where we want to be.  We've realized there is a tipping point where money spent will not equal return on investment.  Of course the Realtors want more done to get a higher selling price so they can get a bigger commission.

Enough has to be enough, but little things creep in, I can do this, touch up that, rearrange the other thing...and it will be better.  As hard as it is, we're going to have to draw a line and stop or we'll have to hock the Journey to pay for these additional things.

Before you think our house is falling down, it's not.  We've carefully taken care of it and did many upgrades, all appliances have been replaced, all systems, heat, air conditioner, hot water heater upgraded with better and more efficient units.  New roof, new siding, repaved driveway, etc, etc, etc.

The preparations are becoming almost an addiction, and to let it get out of control means we'll never get done.  So we're drawing a line, it'll have to be good enough.  After all, chances are the buyer will repaint the rooms, change the tile and so forth.  I'll let them spend the time and effort.  I can quit anytime, really...

In the mean time, there is one "Enough" that we have, or I should say Marti, has completed.  She's given her boot the boot.  Her ankle is doing very well, the bone has healed and she is having rehab therapy twice a week.  She now wears a brace on her ankle and in a week or two will be free of that, too.

 In no time she'll be back training for that marathon she's been dreaming about. ;c)

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Marti's Musings: Semper Gumby

You've heard it before in our blog.  Semper Gumby, meaning always ready to be flexible (as a former latin student, I am sure we are taking great liberty with that phrase!)

Paul explained, briefly, how many balls we are juggling...  yesterday, the workers came to start some projects recommended by our realtor.  Silly us, thinking it would take a week or so.  No, they will complete 3 bathroom tile jobs, and refinishing our family room's wooden floor in 3 days!!!  Yikes.  I mean that is great, and it is no wonder that this guy came highly recommended.  Of course, we thought it was one guy, only he came with several workers to do all 3 bathrooms simultaneously and a sub contractor who specializes in wood floors.  Thus the 3 days, vs a week.  (hey, what do we know?!? - obviously not.much.)

Today, Paul went to meet the guy to (what we thought) would be to finish the floors, only he is doing a 2nd coat, and it needs to dry at least 24 hours.  Two of our bathrooms are unusable as the toilets were removed, and sitting in tubs or on the nearby floor.  The third one has tiles replaced with new adhesive and grout.  Hmmm....

Soooooo - Paul went to renew our site for the night, with a late check out - to allow the floor to dry without our wonder dog Zoe's permanent paw prints in the newly polyurethane floor.  We quickly rearranged our schedules for tomorrow, and voila!  Here we are for another night at Bull Run CG. Thus, Semper Gumby.

Once again, we are mightily thankful for our Journey - our home away from home, soon to be our only home - (yikes!  that still takes my breath away!).  But wow, the thoughts of seeing our grandtreasures more often, for REAL visits, and seeing all of our kids and extended family and the beautiful USA along the way? 

THAT will be breathtaking.  So - with Gumby as our mascot - forward ho!    ~Marti

PS My friend, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, made it home on Friday. Pathology is still pending, but the outlook looks good.  Another breathtaking moment, seeing her smiling face again!

Maintenance, Repairs and Upgrades

We have a juggling act going on.  We've become serious Multi-Taskers.  We're handling many different issues at the same time, keeping our house maintained for normal living, taking care of the Journey and ensuring all the required maintenance is completed and getting upgrades and repairs done to the house to get it up for sale.  Then throw in our two fulltime jobs with their stresses and issues and we've got a full plate.

The Journey was due for the 48 month transmission service on its Allison 3000 transmission.  While I'm lucky enough to have the knowledge to do this job, I don't have the facility to do it.  Ergo, I had to take it to the Allison Dealer to get the job done.  It's important, I don't want to have any problems with this big (BIG) bucks component in the Journey, getting required maintenance done keeps my warranty in effect.

I took the Journey to Western Branch Diesel, a certified Allison service center.  A mere $419 later, the job was done.  Allison transmissions use Transynd synthetic fluid, which costs $40 a gallon and the Journey takes 5 gallons.  Two expensive filters and a $123/hour labor rate sucked that money right out of my wallet.  It's better than being stuck on the side of the road with a burned out transmission, though.

Marti and I picked up the Journey and took it back to our storage lot for the week.  Next weekend we leave for the RV-Dreams Rally in Tennessee.

Today we also had some contractors coming in to the house to start on re-tiling two of our three bathrooms and repair the tile in the master bath.  Also, the hardwood floor in the family room was to be sanded and refinished.  We packed in the Element, including Zoe the Wonder Dog and headed out to get some breakfast and do some birthday shopping for our granddaughter Kierra, who will be four next week.

While we were out the contractor called and said they were done for the day and would be back again tomorrow and then finish everything on Monday.  That sounded good so we headed home and found this:

All our family room furniture was stacked up in the kitchen and a large plastic sheet hung from the ceiling to the floor, separating the kitchen from the family room.  The hardwood floor had been sanded and polyurethane had been brushed on.

The major problem was the floor was wet, the polyurethane had not dried.  There was no possible way we'd be able to keep Zoe out of the room and we didn't want her paw prints all over it.

So we went back to the storage lot, fired up the Journey, went over to the campground and signed in.  An unexpected camping night, but we're sure glad we have our Journey.

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