Sat. 2-13-2010

I had been working hard to get the house ready for dinner guest..but they canceled this morning. but Ben and Melinda are coming instead. We have painted every room now except my office. I am going to keep it the off white color...looks like it has been painted recently. We painted the Master bedroom the last few days, but I am not too happy with the color. It is OK, but looks a little like lime/yellow...very light and that is Ok because of the lack of light. I am not going to paint the Master bath the same color...I will look for another color...maybe a dark beige...I don't know. We really need solar tubes in the kitchen...it is so dark, that the night light stays on in the daytime. Don has been working the last couple of days, so maybe we will be able to get solar tube. We only need 1 I think. That's it for today....no words today...I don't know why...later

Is it Feb.???

I can't believe it is February already. And the 5th no less. I am not very good at this blog thing. I feel like I don't have a lot to do but for some reason, I don't seem to be able to blog everyday like you are suppose to. OH well.

Don is not working hardly at all....he went to a meeting last Monday for 2 hours and that is it for this week. He doesn't know when he will work again.

It has been good that he is home as far as the house is concerned. We only have the Master Bedroom and Bath to paint. We hope to have our new dishwasher installed next week. Then we should be pretty much done with the inside. At some point, money allowing, we want to put a Solar Tube in the kitchen. It is very dark because the windows are on the small side and we have many tall trees in the back of the house...actually...all around the house...we love it. But it does make it dark. We have 2 carports. We are planning on putting sides on the 1 carport that has a regular roof on it. It has electricity and concrete pad and will make a garage pretty easily. We will do that when the weather gets better/dry. After that...we will only have little things. there is a lot of landscaping already. More than we had at the other house. I think it will be really pretty in the spring. We will have to move our chickens, because they are eating our plants already and they will ruin all the new plants as they come up for spring. So, they need to be moved to the lower section of our property. They like it there already, but I am concerned that a predator will get them that far away from us....oh well...we will see.

That's it for today...I will try to write more regularly.

Another Monday

And it is raining still. We need the water but sure is a pain to put up with. With the dogs coming in and out with wet and muddy feet, I have throw rugs all over the place.

We have been working on the house. The only room that is left to paint is the Master Bedroom and bathroom. The paint I got for those rooms, looks like the same color I put in the guest bathroom...might be too dark....I don't know. I got it at Lowes...it is an "Ops" paint that was only $7....so I was really excited to get it cheap. But now I think it is too dark. Oh well...I will work it out....maybe I will add some white to it to cut the color.

Don needs a job. He just found out, that his employer is no longer going to pay for his insurance. Great....but he did only work 6 hours in the last 2 weeks. He interviewed for a job about 10 days ago, but has not heard anything yet. He will have to look somewhere else if he does not get that job. Got any ideas where a almost 68 year man could get a job?

Well...that is it for today...talk to you tomorrow.

Our House!

Our house on Mount Oak is finally ours after 3 MONTHS. We started the escrow process around Oct. 14.....after 2 lenders bailed on us....we found a lender that said they could do it...but boy were they slow. They are in Minnesota and that caused a problem with the time difference. They were not good at keeping updated on the progress. We would have to call about everyday to see what else they needed. But that is all behind us now.....we can do what we want with the house. Don removed a door that was between the kitchen and laundry room. Some people thought we would want the door to block the noise of the washer and dryer...but I would rather have more room to walk around. This house is only 1144 square feet....small but I think we will be fine when we can get the garage finished. I want to organize the shelves and have a place for everything. The property is beautiful and we love the large deck with the hot tub. We will fill it when it gets warmer. We love the tall trees. Speaking of trees....we are in the middle of this Storm Week and already lost our power on Monday night for about 4 hours. Our Satelite TV keeps losing the signal because the satelite dish is on a tall tree....with the wind...we lose the signal...especially the local news stations. It is cold..35 degrees but it is not snowing..yet. Scarlet is here with us while Carolyn is at her Art class. Don is home because there is no work for him at his job. He had a job interview last week and we are hoping he can get that job. He would really like the job because he feels he is well suited for it. Another waiting thing! We can do it and if he does not get this job, something else will work out. The company he works for is a good company when it is work....if their work load could pick up....he would work....we will see what God has for him!

Monday, Monday

Rain Rain Rain.....really hard rain! Carolyn and I went to Roseville today to take Matt his wallet that he had forgotten. It rained so hard, I could hardly see to drive. It is suppose to rain for the next 2 weeks. And we have not closed escrow on our house! We should have/could have....last week...but we missed the phone call, last Friday, from the mortgage company because they called Don's cell phone that does not work up here. Because it is a holiday today, nobody is working today, so we will try tomorrow. We heard that we need to sign a couple of papers. So I guess we will wait some more....We are going to appreciate the heck out of this house when it belongs to us. I hope so....Don and Matt installed a special cord for the generator so when we lose power, we can throw a switch and have power. Yay! More to come...

Saturday

We did not close escrow yesterday like we thought we would. They have everything they need, they have our money.....all we need is for the mortgage company to review it and fund it. IT all could have been done if everyone would have moved a little faster. But they didn't, so we will have to wait until at least Tuesday. With Monday being a holiday (MLK), the banks and county closed, maybe Tuesday but I think I will be happy with Wednesday. We have waited for 3 months, we can wait a few more days, but we are very disappointed.

We have been working on the house because Don has not been working. The company he works for has no work. He interviewed for a new job last Wednesday. It all went really good and we are praying that he gets that. He would love to work for this company. It is a sales job plus he would need to use his skills in engineering. So he is waiting to hear from them.

Seems that we have been waiting a lot recently. We are not very good at waiting. I guess it is a control thing. When someone else is in control of your life...such as this house thing, or getting a new job. Or even keeping the job you have. Don is not asked to work but others are. there is not enough work for everyone, so the ones that get to work, are the ones that the people that dole out the work think about first. Don does some specialty things and there as been no need for him. Oh well....we have been emptying boxes and made a lot of progress on the house.

Yesterday, I found a quilt that I had bought a couple of years ago. It WAS a oversized King that I decided to use on the twin bed in my sewing room. I have a captains bed (drawer and trundle) and so I cut it to fit the twin mattress and have enough to cover 2 King size pillows and make some curtains. Also, I covered a lamp shade with the quilted fabric...it looks so good...I am very happy with it. Today, I will finish the edges of the quilt and pillows and finish the lamp shade. I do need to find my thread...I have not found the box this is labeled sewing things. Off I go!

More to come...maybe someday...pictures!

Saturday

It is Saturday and Carolyn's girls are here....Wyatt stayed "over" at a friends house last night...her name is Hailey. Matt and Carolyn are running and will be back later.

I had breakfast with my friends this morning. We have been doing this breakfast thing for several years now....We try to meet every month and we also celebrate birthdays with crazy cards. This morning was a little too early for me..7:30am and I should have left at 6:30 but got a little late start, but made it only a few minutes late.

I have been thinking about all that we have been doing the last few months. When we decided that we should sell our house...it felt good to have a direction to go, instead of just drifting in a sea of high mortgage and debt. It has been really hard and painful, but next week....WHEN this house is ours...we will be free of the huge mortgage and on a road that we can handle. We still have debt that we need to get under control and we should be able to do that now. Don has a job interview next Wednesday and IF he can get that job....we will be sitting pretty good. BUT, if he does not get that job....I am choose to believe that God is in total control and we will be fine. Life is funny....the things that we worry about usually don't happen and we waste so much time worrying about. If we could just relax and remember that God has promised us that He is in control and ALL things work out for the good. When we thought we wanted to buy the house behind, God knew that that house was not good and He "sold" that house before we could buy it. He had the perfect house for us...here on Mount Oak...not Mount Cedar (the house behind Carolyn was on Mount Cedar...funny huh???) This house has a nice big deck with a big hot tub. The property is really nice....most everyone has said that they like it better than our other house with the great view. We have a lot of tall pine trees and they also landscaped with many plants that will be very pretty in the spring. The house is small but we are making it work. So, my thought for today is....relax and let God take the lead...He knows what is best for us and if we will let Him....all will be fine.

Thursday, Jan 7, 2010

It is my desire to put pictures of our house on here but I don't know how...yet. I know where they are but I need someone to help me get them here! Still waiting for the FHA to close our escrow. Don is excited...he has a job interview next Wednesday. Please pray he could get that job. It would mean he would get a car allowance which would be great. His car is 8 years old and has 187,000 miles on it. We have been putting money in it the last couple of years....It is a Ford Focus and has been really good until this last couple of years. We need a new car and it needs to be 4 wheel drive because of where we live. Thanks for following me. By the way..I just finished reading Sarah Palin's new book. So good..I highly recommend it. I do not like politics but I love her. She is very smart and I love her spirit.

Here's our story of why we moved and how tha worked for us!

Way back over the summer, we realized that with the economy and Don's age (soon to be 68), we would be in a heap of trouble with our mortgage payment. We called our local Real Estate agent and asked her about selling our house. She came and looked at our house and said, IF we could sell it, we PROBABLY would have trouble getting an appraisal high enough for someone to get a mortgage on the house. So we said OK but still felt like we wanted to try because we thought we wanted to buy the little house that is behind Matt and Carolyn. So we called her and told her we wanted to list our house but she told us that the "Little House" behind Carolyn(that had been on the market for over 2 years) had sold! that day! God is in the details. We decided to go ahead a list our house and we would look for something else because it would take a while to sell anyway. 7 weeks later, we did sell. We did get an appraisal for the amount of the selling price. We did lose about $100,000 on the house we sold BUT we no longer a strapped to a high mortgage payment. We also found a nice little house that is about half the size of the one we sold, with half the amount of property. If we would have bought the house behind Carolyn, that house is weird and the only thing it had going for it, was that it was behind Carolyn. We are so glad we got the house we did. As of today, we are still waiting to close escrow but we should close ANY day now.

But I will tell you what happened during our BIG move. The sellers of this house agreed to let us rent until our FHA mortgage came through. So we got possession of the house on Dec1. I came over to put shelf paper in the cupboards. Don and his friend were building a chicken coup. When I came in, I turned the heat on because it was 47 degrees inside. But nothing happened. We called the owners and they said the propane tank had been RED flagged and turned off until the leaks under the house could be fixed...they would come out on Friday, Dec. 4 and fix it. when they did come out, they broke a water line to the hot water heater. Saturday, Dec 5, we had our Church friends and our family come they all helped us move. What a mess. We were trying to move a house that is 2150 square feet into a 1144 square feet. We had a 2 car garage plus another 1 car garage...into no real garage...only 2 carports. It was a very cold day but everyone worked really hard. We have so much stuff and I was so humiliated that everyone had to deal with all this stuff. Because the new little house is small....we had already sold 2 couches, 2 TV's with cabinets. We had 2 garage sales and ended up taking 5 loads to the thrift stores. We also, paid a guy $350 to take a huge load to the dump. Needless to say, I was a mess. All I could do was cry. But the day ended and we were IN the new house. When Don was taking his first shower that night in the new house, he was making weird noises..I thought, boy, he is really enjoying his shower....but the reality was..we had no hot water. I said why would you stay in that cold shower...he said.."I was dirty"...not me, I would stay dirty..no cold water for me.

Don and Matt and Carolyn had been training for the California International Marathon for the last 6 months and the timing could not have been worse....but they ran the marathon the next day (Sunday) They all finished, but when we went to pick up Don's car...it was dead...not the battery...something else. We called a tow truck and got Mac Donald's and drove home. Matt and his Dad came over and they lite the pilot light on the hot water heater and fixed that problem. Don did not know how it worked but Matt's Dad did...thanks Paul. We went to bed and I thought, wow...it is really quiet here and dark...little did I know....we had no power and it had snowed about 2 feet. It was 15 degrees outside. We have never seen it that cold here. We found out later...it was the worse snow storm in 20 years here in the Sacramento area. We are about 50 miles east from Sac and about 50 miles west of Tahoe. Record low temps all around. So here we are,in our new house....no power, no food because they did not bring the food over out of the refrigerator. No heat because we need power to run the propane heater. We have a generator, but it was at the other house. So we called our friend and Real Estate agent Patti and asked if she knew someone that could help Don get our generator from our old house. She sent her friend over and they had to carry the generator up the hill to the truck because of the snow. The snow was too deep to drive down where it was. They brought it here and we hooked it up but we still did not have heat, because we need a special cord for the heater....(our new house is a manufactured home and needs different things than a regular "stick" built home). But we had a space heater and warmed up a little. Don and I had gone back on Tuesday to empty the house and I needed to clean. I vacuumed and when I tried to use the water, I noticed...there was no water....I told Don and he walked around the house and saw that the water main had broken,but We called Patti and she said she would get a plumber out ASAP. We did not own that house anymore, so it was not our responsibility. Patti had her brother come and plow the road at our old house, because the U-Haul truck we had rented way back on Saturday..was due to be returned. On Wednesday, our good friends Fred and Rick came back and helped Don get the remaining stuff out of the garage. Patti could not find a plumber because so many people had broken pipes. So Fred...jack of all trades...fixed the broken pipe at the old house and saved Patti or the new people some money. I forgot to mention that we had Satellite Tv problems too..but that got fixed also.

We are doing good now. We have put our stamp on this little house already. We have painted the kitchen and living room and Don is painting his office today. No work for him right now...hopefully, things will pick up or maybe he can get another job. We really like it here. We are up a little in elevation, about 3000 ft. Matt and Carolyn live about 4 miles up the road from us. All our animals have adjusted well to the new property.

This has been really hard.. It was our 13th move in 36 years. Our 12th house to buy. I don't remember having so many problems in the past....but we were a lot younger then. We have learned many lessons from all this. Get rid of stuff. No one needs 28 boxes of Jello or 20 boxes of cake mix. We have things that we have not seen in years. We have worked at getting rid of so much stuff and as I mentioned, took 5 loads to the thrift stores. Good stuff, but not stuff we need. We still have a lot more stuff to go through and get rid of. And we will. It was very hard to go through all the boxes and try the decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Many memories and things that belonged to my Mom. I kept, of course, the memories. I got rid of many boxes of fabric, but still need to work on more. Today, I am going to look for a razor...I need to shave my legs. I know I have at least 1 bag of them if not 2...so I am not going to buy anymore. The hair can grow until I can find them. I will update you when I do....have a great day.

Through all this, I have been reading a book; The Promise, Robert J. Morgan. It is based on Romans 8:28....All things work together for the good to those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. On one of those nights without power or heat, I sat with a flash light reading this book and pondering this scripture. I said to God..REALLY???? He does know best and we have learned from all this..I think...Yes we have. He is in the details of our lives and He did not want us to buy the house behind Carolyn and that is OK because this is a better house. We were not hurt from going through all this...we are healthy and happy with this little house and know that this was a good move for us after all.

Yes, we have moved again! 13th time in 36 years!

If you can see this, I have completed the test that even at my age age, I can make a BLOG page!.