Cleaning Out

It’s almost time for our kitchen remodel to get underway. This Tuesday, the counters are being removed for measuring. We wouldn’t necessarily have to have the cupboards cleaned out by then. However, I realized last night that we are going to be busy next weekend. While I knew we had the RV show next weekend, I hadn’t completely put that together with the fact that they were starting the kitchen work the following Monday. Guess it’s time to start cleaning out those cupboards!!

SO, this morning I started moving items out of the kitchen. I moved some stuff back in the beginning of December – put it out into the garage where the boxes have been ever since, relatively untouched. We will be taking a good long look at what’s in those boxes before we bring them back into the kitchen when we are putting things back together.

Some pre-remodel pictures…

Today we are heading over to the condo for a few minutes. We had the electric turned off to the appliances and the hot water heater to save money. The inspection is tomorrow, so we have to turn all of that back on for the day. We have our fingers crossed for an uneventful inspection. Being a condo, the building etc. is maintained by the condo association, so basically the only things we have to be concerned about is the hot water heater and the furnace. Both are in excellent condition as far as we know. Keep those fingers crossed!

Another Weekend

Here we are, back into another weekend – the last weekend of January!! I’ve also started to notice over the past week that the days are starting to get a little longer. That is one of the best things about Spring. In a few weeks I may actually be coming home in daylight.

After I got home today, Harry and I went web-surfing in search of a cooker. After looking at many pictures and reading lots of descriptions, we settled on a 12 qt. Nesco roaster oven. We decided on this one because my mother has one of the larger versions, and it cooks a great meal. Another quality of this roaster that we like is that it has many different operating modes – it bakes, roasts, slow cooks etc. We think it will come in really handy when we are on the road, and it gives us another option if we want to bake something. It looks really awesome, so we feel like we made a good choice. We can’t wait to try it out!

Hurrah for Friday!

It’s a strange phenomenon – that even though I have to work every Saturday, Friday still feels like Friday, if that makes any sense. First thing in the morning, I wake up and after the first fog has cleared from my mind, I think, hey it’s Friday, and I feel that little thrill that we’re almost to the weekend. Oh well, even if it doesn’t make sense, I’m glad I still get the end of the week joy. LOL

We may have the contract issue almost ironed out. Merikay said it well in her comment on yesterday’s blog – it is most definitely a buyer’s market right now. However there was one thing that was really non-negotiable to us, so we did have to draw a line of sorts, and say, we’re really not going to back down on this one point. They came back with a counter-proposal for the contract that I think we are going to be able to live with, so after one clarification from our attorney this morning, we may give it a thumb’s up. One hurdle almost cleared (hopefully).

I don’t know if I’ve shown my advance planning side in my blog posts yet, but I am definitely a planner! We have our vacations planned for this year, and now we have booked our first vacation for 2012! Haha – yeah I know it’s only January of 2011. Harry and I have booked a cruise for April of 2012. It will most likely be our last cruise for quite a while, as we will buy the RV in early 2013, so we will be using that for vacation that year, and then the following year we hit the road! The 2012 vacation also has an RV-ing slant to it as well. As it stands right now, we intend to make Florida our home base, and the mail service we intend to use is in Jacksonville, FL. So before we leave on the cruise, we will make a stop there. It’s my understanding from reading the material online that they give tours of their facility, and will sit down with prospective customers to answer any questions. So we’re going to go for a tour and see how the whole process works. And now I have about a year and a half to look forward to it!!

Tonight we are heading out for dinner at a Chinese buffet with some of Harry’s co-workers. Good timing – it’s just about time for me to get my every other week’s fix of Chinese. Yum!!

Have a great Friday everyone!!

Almost Time

Can you believe that it is almost February, and time for our kitchen remodel to get underway? We had our first meeting with the representative back in October and the time since then has gone by so fast! The Hickory Hill guy called last night, and we have actual dates now. The granite people are coming on Tuesday (yes, this coming Tuesday!) to remove our current counter and measure to create a template for the granite countertop that will be replacing it. Then Hickory Hill (I don’t know anyone’s name other than Tom, the rep) will be coming on Monday, February 7th to start the project!! It should take about a week and a half. So for the next couple of weeks I will actually have something different to blog about.

There’s also been a little blip in the selling process…an issue with the contract. So we shall see…hopefully it can be ironed out, but we will make the best of it no matter which way it goes.

Not a Flake!

Today was the absolute best kind of snowstorm! The kind that goes somewhere else. I have enjoyed being able to get some stuff accomplished, and I even went out for an errand without having to drive in a sloppy mess!! I would so love to think that this is it for the winter!! Yes, I know it’s wishful thinking, but at least I can enjoy the thought for today!

I am started to get excited about next weekend. Harry and I are going to Boston for the Boston RV & Camping Expo. I was excited about this even before I knew that Howard and Linda from RV-Dreams would be there, and would be presenting seminars each day. That is just icing on the cake! So that looks to be a great time. I love Boston – it is one of my all-time favorite places so far. Of course, it hasn’t had a lot of competition yet, but I expect that it will always stay pretty high on my list of favorites.

Well, guess it is one of those slow news days, so I will keep it short. Everyone have a great day!!

Work and Stuff

Nothing much too exciting going on today. Had the usual work all day, went on a run to the store, and now we are relaxing after dinner. About the most exciting news that I’ve heard today is that the snowstorm may go east of us. Although the track is uncertain, because our snow forecast is for anywhere from 2 – 8 inches. I vote for 2!! Regardless of what it is doing outside, I plan to be staying home tomorrow, and taking advantage of some downtime to work around the house.

Have a great evening everyone!

Cold Monday!

According to my computer, it’s –12 here this morning. It may be a couple degrees colder on the thermostat on our back deck, but I can’t see it from the dining room, and I’m not opening the door to get a better look!! Since it’s the 24th of January, I guess we’re getting a freeze this year instead of a January thaw.

Most of yesterday was a great and fun day. Harry and I took our niece shopping, which was her Christmas present. We found all sorts of sweaters and tops, all of which had some variation of purple and pink. Hannah tried them on in the dressing room and modeled them for Uncle Harry. We had to make a couple size substitutions, but for the most part everything fit the first time.

Then it was off to lunch at Chili’s. I intended to take some pictures of the shopping trip but we got into the groove picking out clothes and I never thought of it until we were sitting down to lunch.

We took these with my phone so they’re a little blurry (the one I took is “blurrier” for some reason)…

That was the fun part. We took Hannah back home and then stopped at our house for a short break before the meeting with the realtor. That was a little overwhelming. In the course of going over the contract, she also explained all the possible things that could come up as roadblocks throughout this whole process. Phew! The evening was just a tad stressful. But since there’s not a thing we can do about it, I have resolved to be as hopeful and upbeat as possible, and wait until the problem actually happens before I worry about it!!

Well, only one hour before I have to go out into that frigid air. I am so ready for spring!! (You probably already knew that.)

Have a great day everyone!! Stay warm. (Unless you’re down in the southern regions, then you’re probably all set.)

P.S. I can see the thermometer now, and it’s actually –16 degrees here this morning.

That Silver Lining

After a good night’s sleep, I am feeling quite refreshed, and happy at last evening’s development. Yes, it’s going to be depressing to have to take probably 11 to 13 thousand out of the savings we have accumulated for our truck. But with the money we will be saving in condo expenses monthly, we should make that back up in about 10 months. And then we will be in the black!

I was thinking last night though of how lucky we were to have this “fall into our lap”, so to speak. There were so many factors that had to come together. Although it was an unpleasant experience, if our renter hadn’t moved out, we wouldn’t have been in a position to sell in the first place. Then, out of all the Realty USA realtors that work out of Schenectady, I happened to pick the one who was in touch with a potential buyer. We were anxious to get the show on the road, so we called her to get together as soon as the condo was empty. If we hadn’t met with her at that time, we wouldn’t have known she was showing the condos to this person on the 17th of January, and we wouldn’t have spent a week and a half doing that major makeover. Who knows if we would have had the same result if she had seen the place in its pre-makeover condition. Wow, that’s a lot of coincidences.

This isn’t the first time in my life I have been the recipient of what seems to be like a lot of lucky breaks that all matched up for a great outcome. Wherever it may come from, or whatever it might be caused by, I’m once again grateful for it this morning.

Good News and Bad News

Well, the good news is….we heard from the realtor…we had an offer…we countered, and the buyer accepted our counteroffer. So that is great good news – as of tomorrow, we will be signing a contract, and will be beginning the process.

Now, the bad news…the offer that we accepted was almost five thousand dollars less than our listing price. Our listing price was just enough to cover what we owe on the mortgage. So we will be paying the difference between the offer and the mortgage, plus the commission and whatever other closing costs there are, out of pocket. Ouch!

But I am trying to focus on the good news – soon the condo will not be our responsibility anymore (and we don’t have to worry about claiming a profit at tax time).

Not Snowing (For the Moment)

Wow! No snow today!! It’s only 7 degrees F out, but at least it’s not snowing. Not much planned for today…work this morning, as usual, and then doing odds and ends around the house. We also hope to hear from JoAnn (realtor) today.

Speaking of snow, which seems to be a very common occurrence this winter….our weather forecaster was practically frothing at the mouth last night with excitement over the prospect of a “very significant winter event” which looks to be coming our way late Tuesday and Wednesday. He says this could be our “biggest storm YET this winter”.   ummm, yeah….just what we need….

Couldn’t Resist

Ok, I’m addicted to the camera! I was just sitting here watching it snow since I don’t have to go to work until 10, and I thought, what the heck, might as well take some pictures…

Pretty soon we’re going to have to put up a flag to remind the mailman where our box is…

The road less traveled…

The snow in our yard is almost up to the top of the bushes…

No I’m not wishing we were camping in our old pop-up trailer (if we still owned it). This was the only comparison picture I could find that showed the area of our yard below the wall.

See that lump under the snow? That’s the wall…

Nothing Going On Here

Well, except it’s snowing again. Does that count? I would take some pictures of our current storm, but after awhile they all look alike. Have you noticed that yet? Harry and I just keep saying, three more winters…only three more winters… (This one doesn’t count now since hopefully we’re more than halfway through it.)

But other than that, it’s been an uneventful amount of time since my last post. I had work yesterday and then dinner and a quiet evening, yadda yadda, same ol’ stuff. Today should be the same.

The weekend promises to be more eventful. Hopefully tomorrow we should hear back from the realtor. From what she said, this person had decided and was sure she was going to make an offer, but it’s not going to seem real to me until we are actually under a contract. Even if we get to that point, we won’t be closing until May, because she has a lease that ends in June. We agreed to wait until May if she makes a commitment to buying our condo – we figured a sure thing in May is better than waiting for another person to come along. So if all goes well, we have four more months of condo expenses before we get rid of it.

Then Sunday is going to be a fun day. Harry and I gave our 6 year old niece a shopping trip for Christmas. So Sunday morning she is being dropped off at our house, and then we are heading out to try on lots of clothes and then go out for lunch. Thank goodness the weather looks good for the weekend!!

Happy Friday everyone! Hope it’s a good one!

A Little Ray of Light

Well, we may have a light at the end of the condo tunnel. I had a call from the realtor this afternoon, and the woman who walked through on Monday is interested. We may have an offer on Saturday afternoon. We have all of our toes and fingers crossed…any good vibes, prayers and finger-crossing that you want to send on our behalf would be very appreciated!!

Living in a Winter Wonderland

It may be picturesque, but I don’t wanna live in one anymore! I want to be somewhere warm and sunny!  

Ok, complaining time is over (for the moment anyway).

This morning we got up bright and early….well, it wasn’t bright yet, but it definitely was early. All of yesterday’s storm still needed to be cleared from the driveway. Now, we are even more grateful that we invested in the “monster” for our last four winters. Our previous snow blower was only 8 hp, and slushy snow and ice was too much for it. In fact, I think it was when we were shoveling several inches of heavy slushy snow last year that the thought of buying a new snow blower first came to mind. The monster is 16 hp, so we were hoping that it would be up to the job.

This is maybe 3 inches of packed down snow, with about an inch of ice on top.

Those serrated edge augers are doing their job. Chop that ice right up!!

Another triumph for the monster! It performed admirably!!

Still Stormy

It snowed for awhile this morning, and then turned to freezing rain. Despite the messy roads and weather, it was a very busy day at work! I was helping out at a branch we have on a college campus, and since most of our members and potential members live there, it was business as usual at that branch. It sure made the day speed by in no time!!

I was glad that Harry was driving us home. I took this picture with my camera while we were stopped at a light.

I may have more pictures to post tomorrow. I will see what our “winter wonderland” looks like in the morning.

Can’t Wait for Spring!!

Yes, I know it’s January, and Spring is still several months away. Have to go to work shortly so don’t have time to write much, but just thought I would share a few pictures from this morning…

snow…

snow…

and more snow….

Have a great day everyone!

A Quick Update

An update on the events of our day will be very quick! We went nowhere, and did nothing much. Watched some tv, relaxed on the couch, and made a wonderful and delicious breakfast mid-morning.

We got a call from our realtor this afternoon. She was very pleasantly surprised at the change in condition in our condo since we met her there on the 5th of January. She took the potential buyer through a number of the condos for sale in the complex. Bottom line – we are very good contenders, and she thinks that our listing price is right on based on what she saw in the other units. One of the other condos for sale at the same price is right across from ours, also vacant, and ours is in better condition (according to the realtor). So that was all good news. It sounds like the buyer is interested in making an offer, but at the moment, she has a lease which ends in June. So this is a little early as far as obtaining a mortgage. So we shall see – so far things at least sound positive.

Tomorrow – something new – a winter storm. This one looks to have a mix of precipitation types, which is even worse than just getting snow as far as I’m concerned. I have to go in to work in Albany to help at a different branch, but luckily Harry and I are able to commute together. Hopefully the storm will pass us by – we can always hope, right?

Planning on a Lazy Day

Today is going to be a sit-around, watch tv, read a book, catch up on blogs, do nuthin’ kind of day. Of course, Harry and I are up, because our bodies are just programmed to wake up early, whether we have to go to work or not (and on the rare occasion that our bodies do forget, our cats remind us). It is also a whopping –6 F degrees outside, so guess we won’t be going for a swim, like some people who are hanging out down in sunny California! Nope, we are enjoying an inside kind of day today, although we may motivate enough this afternoon to go check out the sales in Albany.

Our realtor will be taking the potential buyer through our condo this morning at 10 am, so keep your fingers crossed!