So this weekend wil be the first time in awhile when we'll be able to get the heck out of the house. We will use this fabulous ability to ..... go to Wal-Mart ... for dog food, milk, and other such trinkets. Then it seems we will be snowed in for another god-forsaken week. We have been trying for weeks now to get someone out to fix the crack in the windshield on my car - but they can't do it in the snow (or on days below 20 degrees). It's currently re-re-re-re-scheduled for Monday ... but I guarantee it won't happen then either. And I am giving up all hope of getting out to do something that I absolutely had to get done by Feb. 5th (or else start over again later). Depressing!
I am trying to keep my tenuous grip on sanity, but I'm not sure how long I have on that. If I don't look out the window upon something other than WHITE one of these days I may have to resort to running a hairdryer on an extension cord until I can uncover a blade of grass!
Current massive time-sucks that are saving my life: Las Vegas real estate window shopping (currently on our 5th or 6th property of interest - the others all hit a wall ... we'll see about the current one), genealogy (with the ever-wonderful Tigger's kind assistance (and his ancestry.com account)), looking up landscaping plants for the desert, ordering a new white and pink orchid snap-on faceplate for my mobile, and watching: "Fuego en la Sangre".
Time-sucks to be added next week? Um, probably the ballet work-out DVD (since I'm obviously not getting over to the gym any time soon), WRITING (long overdue), catching up on e-mails/facebook and everyone's blogs, and spitting into a tube and then harassing FedEx to come out here to pick it up.
For an explanation of that last one - I have ordered a DNA testing kit thingy from www.23andMe.com - and in 8 to 10 weeks I'll know what kind of mutt I am ;)
We're also going to find out what kind of mutts our dogs are (we've ordered doggie DNA kits - from a COMPLETELY different establishment!).
We've gone DNA crazy around here ... though I'm not sure exactly how we're going to collect a sample from Cali - she's a bit grumpy .... maybe Cesar Milan has a chapter that covers this - must consult the books! :)
bleak midwinter
The view from my bedroom window this morning
(you can see the river - but the streets are missing!):
We ain't goin' nowhere until at least Thursday - according to the weather forecast :(
PS - this time of year / sort of weather always makes me think of
Sarah McLachlan's "Song for a Winter's Night":
Sarah McLachlan's "Song for a Winter's Night":
Vegas, baby?
It seems that it has been decided ...... we're going to move to Las Vegas.
I know, it's bizarre/shocking - very out of the blue. And I'm not completely thrilled with the idea of yet another cross-country move (though, this time we can hire movers to do it for us, and just drive ourselves and the pets) ... but it seems to be a pretty good idea all around.
Apparently Las Vegas has been hit hard enough by the housing slump that things are SUPER affordable. So much so that we can still do the investment property thing there (and Nevada has the same Business Trust set-up as WV, it's a simple matter of filling out a form and paying fees and it'll be transferred over)! And there is the promise of me being allowed to live in one of the investments (we'll see - I've heard a lot of promises so far), but either way I ought to be able to get out of the house.
It's enough like California (and close enough to it) that my mother is instantly thrilled by the prospect (something that NEVER happens). And it should have fantastic health care for her. I like those things about it too, and that it's a massive city complete with book clubs, writing groups, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation to try out (without having to drive an hour), and a billion other things (and fingers crossed, maybe even a job) to make/keep me sane. We even have some family in the area (a couple of my mother's aunts).
We're only at the online house shopping stage for now, but the decision has been made - and I feel pretty good about it (for a change), it seems like a real light at the end of the tunnel. And I mean no offense to WV - it's lovely here, and the people are the NICEST of anywhere I've ever been. Though I could do without the 4 or 5 inches of snow outside right now keeping us all stuck in the house! Yes, I'm blaming the state for snow in January, LOL ;) I'm just saying there will be some very nice things about moving back out West.
But, OMG, I really don't want to move again! Ugh ... when are we gonna get teleportation technology? Obama better get busy! I'm sure solar powered teleportation was one of his campaign promises, wasn't it? ;) I mean, really - he's been there a day already and he hasn't saved the world yet! LOL ;)
*PS - Shall I start the process of converting my entire wardrobe over to leopard print and gold lame ... or is there some kind of Clothing Bureau de Change at the Nevada border? Last time I was in Las Vegas I was 8 or 9 - leopard print and gold lame were optional for 8-year-olds back then, LOL ;)
*PPS - Yes, I know the leopard print/gold lame comment is untrue and 'culturally insensitive' - and I know that the title of this post is a serious 'no-no' to natives of 'The Valley' (the Las Vegas Valley, that is) ... like calling San Francisco "Frisco" .... but it's cute, funny, and part of my charm - so bite me ;)
*PPPS - I apologize for neglecting my e-mail/facebook/twitter duties of late. I will get back in the groove now :)
dashed hopes
Well, we had finally decided to let go of the moving to Missouri idea and get busy with investing here - beginning with this lovely property down the road from us:
A cute little place (in need of cosmetic updating) literally in our neighborhood, with all the extra gardening room we'd been hoping for (we've been looking for land around here as well as investment props), and a house that my parents agreed I could move into (I agreed to come up and make dinner for them every evening). The plan was to use the half acre for gardening, for my dad to be able to come down and fish in the river, and for me to live in the house. If ever I wanted to move somewhere further afield, the house could always be rented, with the garden being something my parents could either keep up with, or rent as well. It was a lovely way to kill multiple birds with one stone.
We finally got in to see it yesterday morning, decided in the afternoon that we'd make an offer, attempted to do so - and were then told this morning that it's already "under contract" and the most we could do would be to make a back-up offer in case the current deal fell through.
I am just miserable about it - it was perfect! :(
I was SOOO looking forward to the redecorating I was going to do to it ... it's not the same to decorate a place you have to share with people whose tastes aren't always yours. Don't get me wrong, I 'm happy/grateful to get to redecorate anyplace, any time - and in any palette that is desired (I just love the process of it so much) - but it would have been so fun to have a place I could have done whatever I wanted to without having to compromise, for a change. My parents just aren't the sort of people I can talk into a Robin's Egg Blue living room, or an Apple Green dinning room. Our dark and dreary living room's going to be painted "English Ivory" (hopefully the curtains will be a bit more expressive), and our overly bright dinning room will be done in deep red/burgundy tones. It'll look nice - but it's to their tastes not really mine, ya know?
Oh well, I'm going off to pout/sulk for awhile.
A cute little place (in need of cosmetic updating) literally in our neighborhood, with all the extra gardening room we'd been hoping for (we've been looking for land around here as well as investment props), and a house that my parents agreed I could move into (I agreed to come up and make dinner for them every evening). The plan was to use the half acre for gardening, for my dad to be able to come down and fish in the river, and for me to live in the house. If ever I wanted to move somewhere further afield, the house could always be rented, with the garden being something my parents could either keep up with, or rent as well. It was a lovely way to kill multiple birds with one stone.
We finally got in to see it yesterday morning, decided in the afternoon that we'd make an offer, attempted to do so - and were then told this morning that it's already "under contract" and the most we could do would be to make a back-up offer in case the current deal fell through.
I am just miserable about it - it was perfect! :(
I was SOOO looking forward to the redecorating I was going to do to it ... it's not the same to decorate a place you have to share with people whose tastes aren't always yours. Don't get me wrong, I 'm happy/grateful to get to redecorate anyplace, any time - and in any palette that is desired (I just love the process of it so much) - but it would have been so fun to have a place I could have done whatever I wanted to without having to compromise, for a change. My parents just aren't the sort of people I can talk into a Robin's Egg Blue living room, or an Apple Green dinning room. Our dark and dreary living room's going to be painted "English Ivory" (hopefully the curtains will be a bit more expressive), and our overly bright dinning room will be done in deep red/burgundy tones. It'll look nice - but it's to their tastes not really mine, ya know?
Oh well, I'm going off to pout/sulk for awhile.
How Cold Is It?
It's so cold outside that the furnace has been running all day and still can't keep the house up at the 68 degrees it's supposed to be (it's best effort is 62). When we went out at 11am this morning to view a property I shall blog about later it was -2! It's warmed up now to a heat-stroke inducing 8 degrees. But the dogs are so cold that Princess (who hasn't much of a coat of her own) was shivering a bit while napping on her dog bed. I felt bad, so I put a blanket on her (and one on Cali too - Scooter has tons of hair so he's fine .. he wasn't huddled up in a shivering little ball). Now, I've tried this before when they seemed cold, and they've both given me dirty looks and gotten up and left (trailing the blanket behind them for awhile before it fell off). Today however they were so cold (you'd think the house was 22 rather than 62), they did this:
And as I type this they are still downstairs, blanketed, and fast asleep :)
PRINCESS:
CALI:
And as I type this they are still downstairs, blanketed, and fast asleep :)
I think I've been in-sul-tated ;)
Your Girl Parts Are Named: Easy Bake Oven |
 Bet you never knew that! |
Well, it's better than Vajayjay!
borrowed from b.
Saw this on b.'s blog (I like her answer better than mine, but what're you gonna do?):
Your Word is "Fearless" |
 You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary. |
Insanity?
Over the weekend we went to look at a couple new properties. The first one (click on pics to be taken to listings):
seemed like an absolute no-go. It's got two completely vacant units that are a total shambles (one from abandoned reconstruction, and one from a supposed roof leak (though the unit smelled like it'd had a fire) - which made the ceiling cave in). On the outside the place needs to be completely re-sided, and it obviously needs a whole new +/- 1600 sq. ft. roof ... neither of which will be cheap, and there really isn't a nice looking / properly finished surface in the building (even in the units that are being lived in). Things like moldings and baseboards are missing, walls are halfway painted, etc. But as awful as it looks - that's all cosmetic .. it's the roof, the siding, and the total re-do of the collapsed ceiling unit that turned us off. We're talking over $20,000 in repairs and upgrades. But hey - what do you want for a $35,000 listing price?
In addition to that, we've dubbed one of the tenants (who didn't know we were coming because he doesn't have a phone) "Pot Boy". He looked about 20, and his apartment WREAKED of the good old Mary-Jane. And the piece de resistance ..... he followed us outside the building after the tour, discussing what the place needed to have done, and was our new best friend - until someone pulled up in a van (another tenant?). Anyway, as I got into our car I heard:
Pot Boy to Van Man: Can you get me some?
Van Man: unintelligible (pulling out his cell phone).
Pot Boy: $3
Van Man into his cell phone: Can I get $3 worth?
Woman on other end of phone (phone was on SPEAKER, believe it or not!): unintelligible yelling - I think about someone owing money ... but we were pulling away by then.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen ... I witnessed a drug deal right there in broad daylight (not 5 feet from my car) on speakerphone no less! Needless to say, it didn't add anything to the appeal of the property.
The second place seemed like a much better option:
It's basically turnkey - needs painting on the outside, and a small electrical upgrade - about $7000 in repairs/upgrades .. and we already know the folks to hire. We loved it instantly, and regretted not bringing the checkbook with us to make a deposit (but the policy is to always go home and think it all over). On the ride home from Mannington I started to do the math on the two properties:
The Mannington place (the second one above) grosses $1500/month ... but the utilities are NOT separate and all are paid by the owner. So, when you subtract the declared utility costs, property taxes, insurance, etc. the $1500 drops down to $800. So for an approx. $57,000 investment (we'd buy it for $50,000 and put about $7,000 into it) we'd net $800/month.
The Salem place (the first one above) grossed about $1600/month before the two vacant units became empty (currently it's making $900). The listing price is about $35,000, but there's no way we'd go over $25,000 for it. So, $25,000, plus another $25 - 30,000 in repairs/upgrades gets you to the same basic investment as the Mannington property. But, the gas is separate for each unit at the Salem property (paid by the tenants). When you do the numbers for the remaining utilities, the property taxes, the insurance, etc. you come up with a gross of about $1100-1200/month once the two vacant units are occupied again.
So we set about pondering the fact that the numbers dictate we buy the scary one - and whether or not we really want to tackle it. Then yesterday afternoon we got a call from the Realtor - someone from Morgantown went to see the Mannington property and is going to make an offer. Why is it we always find these great places (that have been on the market more than 6 months), and then right when we're about ready to make a move on them someone else snaps them up? Anyway, we're not going to make an offer on Mannington - we were trying to talk ourselves into Salem, but then my dad found something else completely online yesterday.
You see, my mother - though she refuses to admit it - HATES anyplace she's living. She finds the things that are wrong with it, and then ruminates about them. In the process she idealizes wherever she used to live. Example: when we lived in WA she hated everything about it (except the view), now she remembers it as being the best place she ever lived. When we were in California this last time she wanted to go back to WA! And she was all for coming back here (until she got here) - but now that we're here - she wants to move back to CA! There's just no winning with her. And I know whatever we do, and wherever we go in the future, this will always be the case. If we moved away from here, she'd hate where we went and miss WV. This is just how she is - she is never happy.
Anyway, my father did this nationwide search for something interesting that met our criteria and he found ..... drum roll please ...... this:
It's very tempting - huge lovely old house on a 1/2 acre lot (plenty of room to garden) only about a half hour's drive from Springfield, MO (where they supposedly have REAL health care for my mom). Seems to be in a cute little town.
And yet - 1) I don't really want to move again. 2) I don't know if I can stand to stay living with my parents much longer (even in a 6 bedroom house). 3) My mom will still hate everything about it. 4) I'm tired of change/ drama/ limbo. I just want to pick something and FINISH it for once.
seemed like an absolute no-go. It's got two completely vacant units that are a total shambles (one from abandoned reconstruction, and one from a supposed roof leak (though the unit smelled like it'd had a fire) - which made the ceiling cave in). On the outside the place needs to be completely re-sided, and it obviously needs a whole new +/- 1600 sq. ft. roof ... neither of which will be cheap, and there really isn't a nice looking / properly finished surface in the building (even in the units that are being lived in). Things like moldings and baseboards are missing, walls are halfway painted, etc. But as awful as it looks - that's all cosmetic .. it's the roof, the siding, and the total re-do of the collapsed ceiling unit that turned us off. We're talking over $20,000 in repairs and upgrades. But hey - what do you want for a $35,000 listing price?
In addition to that, we've dubbed one of the tenants (who didn't know we were coming because he doesn't have a phone) "Pot Boy". He looked about 20, and his apartment WREAKED of the good old Mary-Jane. And the piece de resistance ..... he followed us outside the building after the tour, discussing what the place needed to have done, and was our new best friend - until someone pulled up in a van (another tenant?). Anyway, as I got into our car I heard:
Pot Boy to Van Man: Can you get me some?
Van Man: unintelligible (pulling out his cell phone).
Pot Boy: $3
Van Man into his cell phone: Can I get $3 worth?
Woman on other end of phone (phone was on SPEAKER, believe it or not!): unintelligible yelling - I think about someone owing money ... but we were pulling away by then.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen ... I witnessed a drug deal right there in broad daylight (not 5 feet from my car) on speakerphone no less! Needless to say, it didn't add anything to the appeal of the property.
The second place seemed like a much better option:
It's basically turnkey - needs painting on the outside, and a small electrical upgrade - about $7000 in repairs/upgrades .. and we already know the folks to hire. We loved it instantly, and regretted not bringing the checkbook with us to make a deposit (but the policy is to always go home and think it all over). On the ride home from Mannington I started to do the math on the two properties:
The Mannington place (the second one above) grosses $1500/month ... but the utilities are NOT separate and all are paid by the owner. So, when you subtract the declared utility costs, property taxes, insurance, etc. the $1500 drops down to $800. So for an approx. $57,000 investment (we'd buy it for $50,000 and put about $7,000 into it) we'd net $800/month.
The Salem place (the first one above) grossed about $1600/month before the two vacant units became empty (currently it's making $900). The listing price is about $35,000, but there's no way we'd go over $25,000 for it. So, $25,000, plus another $25 - 30,000 in repairs/upgrades gets you to the same basic investment as the Mannington property. But, the gas is separate for each unit at the Salem property (paid by the tenants). When you do the numbers for the remaining utilities, the property taxes, the insurance, etc. you come up with a gross of about $1100-1200/month once the two vacant units are occupied again.
So we set about pondering the fact that the numbers dictate we buy the scary one - and whether or not we really want to tackle it. Then yesterday afternoon we got a call from the Realtor - someone from Morgantown went to see the Mannington property and is going to make an offer. Why is it we always find these great places (that have been on the market more than 6 months), and then right when we're about ready to make a move on them someone else snaps them up? Anyway, we're not going to make an offer on Mannington - we were trying to talk ourselves into Salem, but then my dad found something else completely online yesterday.
You see, my mother - though she refuses to admit it - HATES anyplace she's living. She finds the things that are wrong with it, and then ruminates about them. In the process she idealizes wherever she used to live. Example: when we lived in WA she hated everything about it (except the view), now she remembers it as being the best place she ever lived. When we were in California this last time she wanted to go back to WA! And she was all for coming back here (until she got here) - but now that we're here - she wants to move back to CA! There's just no winning with her. And I know whatever we do, and wherever we go in the future, this will always be the case. If we moved away from here, she'd hate where we went and miss WV. This is just how she is - she is never happy.
Anyway, my father did this nationwide search for something interesting that met our criteria and he found ..... drum roll please ...... this:
It's very tempting - huge lovely old house on a 1/2 acre lot (plenty of room to garden) only about a half hour's drive from Springfield, MO (where they supposedly have REAL health care for my mom). Seems to be in a cute little town.And yet - 1) I don't really want to move again. 2) I don't know if I can stand to stay living with my parents much longer (even in a 6 bedroom house). 3) My mom will still hate everything about it. 4) I'm tired of change/ drama/ limbo. I just want to pick something and FINISH it for once.
Update
Blogging from my mobile phone on the way home from picking up my mother! She's fine :)
Also went to see a total dump of a property - witnessed a drug deal! Tomorrow's property should be better.
'nough stress to go around
My mother is going up to the hospital with chest pain. I'm sure she'll be fine - she always is - but it always makes me nervous anyway!
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