Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Falling off the wagon....and rolling down the hill...

Slacktastic.

Not technically a word, but one I have invented to describe my blogging status of late. It's not that I haven't wanted to, dear friends, just that I get sidetracked by the day to day, and then the day to day gets exhausting, and, well, you all know how it goes. And I don't even have kids yet. So let me make up for my slacktivism with a nice, steaming hot cup of update.

I have lost my camera battery charger. I may not find it until we move. Picture posts will be few and far between for awhile, so bear with me. (I always have this debate in my head when I type that. Anyone else?)

We're buying a house.

Well, lemme rephrase that, we're trying to buy a house. After all the debate about selling/fixing up my house, about where down payments would come from and what we could afford vs. what mortgage lenders were willing to give us, after settling all that satisfactorily so that we could move on with our lives, we found a house. One we really love. And we offered them what we thought it was worth, and they said no. Then we offered them a bit more, and they said no again. People, this house has been VACANT since May, and we are begging them to take our money, and they keep saying no. I mean, isn't this supposedly a buyer's market? But these fine people, living in their other house and paying two mortgages for 4+ months, they are not interested in our measly offerings, they want more more more. I personally have decided that they owe the K-town mafia some significant money, cash they can only hope to make from the sale of this house, and THAT is clearly why they are being so stubborn. So, today, we make our final offer, and hope like hell they accept. Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board, back to our second choice (which, while it is certainly a lovely house and would make a fine home for us, it's...just...second...), back to making offers only to have them be refused while the clock ticks on and I start going bananas in our too-tiny house. So, send some good vibes our way today in the hopes that, by noon tomorrow, we will have a contract on 2631 Blue Meadow Lane.

So, beyond the back and forth negotiations, we've been busy with the remodel of my old house on Avondale, and packing, and our Yard Sale. Y'all, I love a yard sale. We had a great great day--the weather was perfect, the people watching spectacular, and the company delightful. John and Natalie joined in the selling with us, to start getting ready for their big move to NYC in the spring, and both households cleared out a ton of great, formerly loved items--many to folks who could really really use them. We all made some good quick cash, and anything that was left went to Goodwill. Once we do move, we plan on having another sale in the spring--I'm sure there are plenty of items we thought we would keep that will find their way to the garage at Blue Meadow :)

Linus has had a fantastic couple of weeks lately, thanks to fall and the bounty of acorns and oak trees at the Yorkshire house (formerly just Matt's house, this is where we live now. Linus has spent every previous fall at my house on Avondale, where there are no oak trees). Oak trees = squirrels, and Linus the Protector, Patroller of the Perimeter and Guardian of the Household, is having a blast defending us all from the rodent onslaught. Of course, he could never catch one, but it's entertaining nonetheless. Once he's treed one, he'll stand or sit under the tree and bark at it--not frenzied barking, just a calm and steady stream of barks, like he's negotiating with it, or reading it the house rules, which apparently include no unauthorized visits from squirrels. Linus knows all about the rules, because he is a Good Boy.

Fall is positively my favorite time of year. My heart just swells in October, I love everything about it. Cool crisp mornings and evenings, sweaters, fires, pumpkins, leaves, winesap apples, just everything. I told Matt that I firmly believe fall is the best season, because it appeals to every single one of our senses. Fall has a great look, sure, with the vibrant colors in the leaves and the pumpkins (and gourds and mums and pansies and cranberries...), but fall has a smell (bonfire smoke, cinnamon and spices), a sound (crunching leaves, crackly fires), a touch (squishy pumpkin guts, frosty mornings, wool sweaters), and my favorite, a taste, all it's own (turkey and cranberries, pumpkin and squashes, sweet potatoes, apple cider, brown sugar, oatmeal, soup!). Fall makes me swoon. I adore fall, I want to distill fall down into a thick, caramel liquid and keep it in a bottle with a cork stopper in my closet, and when summer heat beats me down or the boring winter rain makes me stir crazy, I want to take my bottle out and inhale the fall aroma, and pour it in my coffee mug and drink it down like honey and whiskey. Fall is it. Fall is where it's at. Fall wins.

I hope you all are enjoying your fall, wherever you are! Now that we know where we stand, house wise anyway, I promise to keep you all better apprised. This weekend we head to Matt's family reunion in Alabama (perfectly timed for the UT/Bama game), where I'm sure to find some post-worthy stories to tell. ;) So, lots more to come!

7 comments:

Shanna Mac said...

Thanks for returning!

And I so agree about the fall. It is most unfortunate that Chapel Hill seems to skip it altogether and go from drought summers to dead, mildly warm winters. I spend my summers in high expectation of what is to come, and am constantly left with a letdown of season. I think you have to have the mountains to truly have a fall. It's only 80 something today, so perhaps we're on our way...

good luck with the house. if they say no, you want me to call 'em up and give them a talkin' to? i have good negotiation skills and i've been working on my assertiveness training (they made me do that in grad school 'cause i was apparently little too nice and a wuss).

CortneyTree said...

These people are beyond a good stern talkin' to, I swear, they're about to tread into downright unreasonable. But we shall see, I'm very happy our offer has a deadline of noon tomorrow, otherwise I think they'd jerk us around for a week even if they planned on turning it down.

Wearing. Me. Out.

If this does indeed seal the deal, however, we are very lucky that the house is empty, we can do a quick closing and be nice and moved well before Thanksgiving. And then never move again....

The Colorado Carrs said...

I must say I am a bit envious that this beautiful home you are trying to purchase is o cheap!!!! Well the asking price (which may be out of range for K ville) is NOTHING compared to Colorado prices. I dont even want to tell you what we paid for our 1275 sq ft house.... BUT it is BEAUTIFUL and Almost makes me want to move back...almost! MY fingers are crossed for you!!!

The Colorado Carrs said...

Here that house would go for a cool 500 g's!

CortneyTree said...

Matt and I are SO very lucky the K-town market is where it is, otherwise we'd never be able to move. In Asheville the same house is about $300,000. We had the house's actual worth (in our market) pegged at about 191,000, and have offered them 190 and now 193 (which they're agent swore he could get them to agree to), and they're still jerking us around. We could do what they're asking and still be ok, but I'd rather be good and comfy in our lifestyle and not pay more than the house is really worth. *sigh* I hate being a grown up!

You're housing costs are much higher than yours, but it's tough to match you for scenery--I love the mountains here, but Knoxville can't quite compete with the Rockies!

The Colorado Carrs said...

they are nice. i guess we mist sacrifice some things to live where we want to!! Anytime yall wanna come visit!!!!

Sunday Grant Photography said...

i love the word swwon. what a perfect word for fall and if i could have some of that distilled fall that would be awesome. good luck with the house. yeah here in black mountain it would be a whole lot of money! you should see my house and what people are getting for it in our neighborhood. we will be pretty happy when selling time comes.