Sunday, April 27, 2008

Still struggling

We are still struggling with our house and realtors. The third realtor we talked with didn't help matters when she said she would market the house at $325K - now we have a $75K difference and none of the people seemed to be totally insane. We are still working that problem.

Our family visits were great. No one got crazy though we did certainly drink more than would be good for us. My stepson is 36 though when around your parents you always remain the child. He and his 'significant other' have been together for almost 12 years. They talk about marriage but we told them that it is a two edged sword. Lots of long-term couples have broken up after taking their vows. It it also true that legally we (and his father) are his next of kin; not his life partner. At least I hope he makes a will.

The 'significant other' is a nice person but she hates to travel. Therefore, the only time we've spent with her was when we were visiting San Diego; which isn't much! She works as a nurse and usually works the night shift making it even more difficult to spend time together. Stepson kept saying how she would like it here just relaxing so maybe someday we'll get to see them together outside San Diego.

It was really easy having him here. He is interesting to talk with and undemanding in the extreme. We talked quite a bit about cooking since he also likes to cook. He works in the IT department of a construction sub-contractor. They do a lot of work in hospitals, hotels, etc so haven't stopped work like the people who build houses. He and his sister went out together one day & finally made it home about 22:00 - sounds like they had a good time which isn't always the case. All in all, the perfect visit.

In our spare time we are still fixing things around the house. Funny how fixing something brings something else to mind that needs work. My last big thing is replacing a few posts in our fence. They are sagging and just can't look like that. The other thing is to get my room, this room, looking like a person lives here! Now it looks like a 15 year olds room except that I don't have any posters on the walls. The two computers is kind of a problem but they'll just have to get over it. I'm putting the laptop in the truck so no one will see it and I can check out wifi at Starbucks. The storage area is close to full but I'll keep jamming stuff in there until it screams.

Take it easy out there; it's dangerous!

Friday, April 11, 2008

I'm still here....

No, haven't died or even moved but we have been busy. I rented a storage unit and we have it about half full of books, exercise equipment, boating stuff; all kinds of stuff. I've also made trips to Goodwill and Hospice with donations. It's all part of getting the house ready to be on the market. I have some fence repairs to make and a small deck to replace. Yesterday and today we talked with realtors.

Now we have some interesting decisions to make. The housing market here in Florida stinks. Trying to price the house so we aren't giving it away yet are scaring potential buyers away is a trick. The two realtors we found weren't a lot of help. One suggested pricing it in the $250K range; the other said $300K. Hmmm, a 20% variation is not really what we were wanting. Of course, there are only about two houses that have sold in our neighborhood in the last few months. Both realtors said the banks are being very picky about having recent appraisals but there just aren't enough sales to be meaningful. It's a tough situation. We'll see what happens when we get another realtor or two in here.

On an completely different topic, you've probably heard about Mrs. Clinton claiming to have come under fire when she visited Bosnia. Then just when the reports leave the front page, Bill starts complaining that the reports are being unfair to her. Ha! If I didn't know better I'd be wondering if he isn't really working for Mr. Obama! What a hoot.

Finally, I may not post for another ten days or so. We have family coming to visit Sunday through Thursday. And our son, who lives in California, will be here through the following Tuesday (if American Airlines gets their planes back in the air). He's 36 but he's still my wife's little boy.

Good luck, it's getting weirder and weirder out there!