Monday, July 31, 2006
Back To The Gym
Work has now settled into less madness and I now have somewhat predictable working hours. Over the last few weeks, I have noticed the size 10 pants have been feeling a little tight. My waist gets pinched when I sit down. Last week I decided to wear my jeans and was very embarrassed when I couldn't zip them up or close the button -- even sucking in my stomach and holding my breath!! I guess it is time to get off my big butt and go back to the gym. I pay monthly for the darn membership, but haven't seen the inside of the building since probably last February. Really, really pathetic and a waste (waist) of money.
Anyway, I walked two miles today at 3 MPH -- about 40 minutes. At one point I decided to run a little. Since my legs are short, 4 MPH is practically running. You know you have to lose weight when you can feel your butt cheeks jiggle with each running step. Ha!Ha! Also, I have to remember to recharge my ipod because the thing had been dormant for so long that it was dead and I didn't have any tunes to listen to. I hate listening to people who are so much more fit than me running on the treadmill making thundering step noises. THANKS you really make me feel much better!
The only thing that seems to motivate me to continue with my excercise torture is having some toothpick thin chick on the cardioglide, gliding at breakneck speed (and you can see the timer on her display which is counting up the minutes stating they have been on the glider for 43 minutes), listening to her ipod, reading Vogue magazine within my line of sight in front of me. Ugh! P-U-L-E-E-Z!
However, Scott tells me not to be critical. He reminds me that this person could have been overweight a year ago and their fit body is the result of hard work and determination. Thanks honey for putting it in perspective. I get your point.
Anyway, I walked two miles today at 3 MPH -- about 40 minutes. At one point I decided to run a little. Since my legs are short, 4 MPH is practically running. You know you have to lose weight when you can feel your butt cheeks jiggle with each running step. Ha!Ha! Also, I have to remember to recharge my ipod because the thing had been dormant for so long that it was dead and I didn't have any tunes to listen to. I hate listening to people who are so much more fit than me running on the treadmill making thundering step noises. THANKS you really make me feel much better!
The only thing that seems to motivate me to continue with my excercise torture is having some toothpick thin chick on the cardioglide, gliding at breakneck speed (and you can see the timer on her display which is counting up the minutes stating they have been on the glider for 43 minutes), listening to her ipod, reading Vogue magazine within my line of sight in front of me. Ugh! P-U-L-E-E-Z!
However, Scott tells me not to be critical. He reminds me that this person could have been overweight a year ago and their fit body is the result of hard work and determination. Thanks honey for putting it in perspective. I get your point.
Friday, July 28, 2006
The Bay House
The seller has accepted our offer! Next week we are getting the house inspected. If the house doesn't have any huge defects then we will buy the house. We've never bought a preowned house, only new construction homes. But we've learned never to buy a house without getting an an inspection. Since this house has a septic tank we are also hiring a septic system inspector. Hopefully the house inspector won't find signs of termites because then we will have the added cost of hiring a termite inspector.
By the way, doesn't it seem that when you are saving up for a big purchase incidents happen which cut into your savings?
The house is small which makes it easily manageable. Who wants to clean a weekend house when it supposed to be a relaxing place? It is 1000 square feet, two bedrooms, with one bathroom.
The dock is our neighbor's. Our dock would be built on the right.
By the way, doesn't it seem that when you are saving up for a big purchase incidents happen which cut into your savings?
- Heidi has an infection on her paw and had to go to the vet.
- Scott cracked his tooth and has to go to the dentist on Monday.
- My "check engine light" came on in my car. The O2 sensor needs to be replaced.
The house is small which makes it easily manageable. Who wants to clean a weekend house when it supposed to be a relaxing place? It is 1000 square feet, two bedrooms, with one bathroom.
Why We Made an Offer on the House
Scott and I were not planning on selecting a house when we visited Port Lavaca. Sometimes though along comes an opportunity which is too good to pass up. We happened to come across a seller who was eager to sell so he could finance a new construction home which will be built a few lots down. (The seller apparently owns a few homes and lots next to each other. He has been slowly selling off the houses and the lots. I think with the sale of the blue house, he would own one house and one lot which will have new construction.) We expected to pay a certain amount for a vacation home, but this house was on the market way under what we were expecting to shell out. Not many come on the market that low. And if they do, they need a lot of interior or exterior work. The owner put in new carpet, painted the walls, new tile, and repainted the cabinets. It is move in ready.
We thought about buying a lot and building a house, but it just too much to take on when you are not there every day to oversee the construction. I don't know about you, but I am too cheap to go stay in a hotel every weekend for a year while the house is being built. I'm also too anal to just let a house be built without visiting every day. I want the contractors to know I am watching over them.
Yes, there will be the hassle of hiring a contractor for the dock and the deck, but at least those won't take months to complete. Well, the dock may take a month to build, but the deck could be finished in a week. Although Scott is getting cheap on me and telling me he will do the deck himself. Ahh honey! Then it will never get done because you'll be fishing all the time.
The dock is our neighbor's. Our dock would be built on the right.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Location for Vacation House
Buy a house in the mountains? Buy a house by a lake? Buy a house on a ranch? Buy a house by the coast? The winner is ... by the coast.
What sparked us to think about a house on the coast? Well, Scott mentioned his friend saw this advertisement on television for a new subdivision in Port Lavaca, TX. Scott asked me to call to ask for more details. The real estate developer was seeking qualified investors to view the property through an exclusive appointment. That appointment was a grand opening to view the lots before they went on the market to general public. It couldn't hurt to drive down there and see. Personally, I thought it was a scam because we were not given a heck of a whole lot of information about this property. We were basically given marketing material.
I am the type of person who does a lot of research even though our decision to do something may be split second decision. Scott says I have a talent of learning the fine details. Because of this, he trust my advice. I went to realtor.com and looked at houses and lots in our price range. I called several loan companies to get an idea of the type of loans available. I called our insurance company asking for the prices of windstorm and flood insurance. I calculated what it would cost us a month in gas to drive to the coast on a monthly basis.
After compiling this research, buying an existing house became the winning choice over buying a lot. The cost in gas did hurt, but we could manage it if we took the car rather than the truck. Also, compared to Galveston and Port Aransas real estate prices, the waterfront homes in Port Lavaca are cheaper . The drive from Port Lavaca to Port Aransas is about an hour and Galveston about an hour and a half. On long weekends or our week long stays we can visit these areas.
Well, we were stuck with the appointment for the new subdivision because we had a family friend and his wife who wanted to see the property, too. Why make two separate appointments? We did tell them if we saw a lot we liked we got first dibs. Hah!
We decided to drive to Port Lavaca a day before our appointment to drive around and see what types of houses were in our price range. I had made an appointment with a local real estate company. A real estate agent drove us around showing the houses in our price range on the waterfront -- which only added up to five selections. As we were driving back to the real estate office, she slowed down and pointed out a house which she admitted she didn't want to show us because it didn't meet our criteria of having a dock, a deck, and was small. She also admitted it was way below our price range of what we wanted to spend. Huh?! I don't have a problem with paying less than our maximum spending limit. We looked inside and saw that the whole house had been completely refurbished. New paint, carpet, and tile. It had a strange addition which could easily be fixed with a remodel. She said the house had been on the market for a while because it was right next to the highway. There was a lot of road noise (not much from the back of the house) and the house didn't have a fence around it to keep the children and pets from wandering. The view of the tiny bay wasn't great, but it still was nice. Most of all, I liked the price. That evening as we reviewed the digital pictures we were intrigued by this little house.
The next day was the land grab. What a circus! The company had potential buyers meet at a local community center close to the development. The company had all their representative's cars lined up to take the customers out to the property in one swoop. There must have been about fifty cars ready for the land grab. We waited nearly an hour in a large air conditioned tent along with our friends to get our name called. There was a huge selection of snack stations -- which our friend's kids spent most of their time. Finally our name was called. When we introduced our friends, the rep went to get another rep to take them out in a separate car. We then were corraled to the car until all potential buyers were safely situated in vehicles. As we waited for the flag to be dropped, the rep showed us the plat. This was the first time we had seen the plat with prices. Scott and I picked a few within our price range. Over the walkie talkie, the manager told the reps that the "caravan is starting". The cars proceeded in an orderly fashion to the subdivision. Once we were in the subdivision it was a mad dash drive to the lots we selected. The representatives wasted no time getting us to the lots nearly hitting other cars and customers. There were so many people! There were probably 5 perspective buyers looking at each lot. Immediately the sold stickers went on the lot signs and the walkie talkies blared "lot blah blah in section blah blah has been sold!" There were even people fighting over waterfront lots because their rep didn't get the sold sign put up fast enough. There were representatives who had no customers. Apparently they were given the go ahead by remote buyers to purchase sight unseen. I tell you it was crazy!
But Scott and I remained cool and collected. I am so glad we had looked at other properties in the area the day before because the lots and the bay views were not as good as some of the properties we previously saw. For the price of the lots, we could buy a waterfront house with a dock.
The views from the "land grab" property had two minor imperfections. The bay had two huge, rusting, ships which were sunk by hurricane Claudette in 2003. The bay isn't very deep, so the top part of the ships were still above water. The acreage next to the property had a huge steel fabrication factory spewing gray smoke. Lovely. The waterfront lots also had a lot of marsh grass which would require a very long dock which could easily push us over budget.
After we returned to the circus tent with a very dissappointed sales representative to wait for our friends, it took us five minutes to decide what we wanted to do. We called the real estate agent and said we wanted to make an offer on the little house.
NOTE: Austin isn't a stones throw from the coast. It is about a 3 hour drive to Port Lavaca. Not close, but still not a hardship drive. Wait until we get our little one. We will wonder what the heck we were thinking about while on the long drive in a confined space with a screaming inconsolable toddler! Ha!Ha!
What sparked us to think about a house on the coast? Well, Scott mentioned his friend saw this advertisement on television for a new subdivision in Port Lavaca, TX. Scott asked me to call to ask for more details. The real estate developer was seeking qualified investors to view the property through an exclusive appointment. That appointment was a grand opening to view the lots before they went on the market to general public. It couldn't hurt to drive down there and see. Personally, I thought it was a scam because we were not given a heck of a whole lot of information about this property. We were basically given marketing material.
I am the type of person who does a lot of research even though our decision to do something may be split second decision. Scott says I have a talent of learning the fine details. Because of this, he trust my advice. I went to realtor.com and looked at houses and lots in our price range. I called several loan companies to get an idea of the type of loans available. I called our insurance company asking for the prices of windstorm and flood insurance. I calculated what it would cost us a month in gas to drive to the coast on a monthly basis.
After compiling this research, buying an existing house became the winning choice over buying a lot. The cost in gas did hurt, but we could manage it if we took the car rather than the truck. Also, compared to Galveston and Port Aransas real estate prices, the waterfront homes in Port Lavaca are cheaper . The drive from Port Lavaca to Port Aransas is about an hour and Galveston about an hour and a half. On long weekends or our week long stays we can visit these areas.
Well, we were stuck with the appointment for the new subdivision because we had a family friend and his wife who wanted to see the property, too. Why make two separate appointments? We did tell them if we saw a lot we liked we got first dibs. Hah!
We decided to drive to Port Lavaca a day before our appointment to drive around and see what types of houses were in our price range. I had made an appointment with a local real estate company. A real estate agent drove us around showing the houses in our price range on the waterfront -- which only added up to five selections. As we were driving back to the real estate office, she slowed down and pointed out a house which she admitted she didn't want to show us because it didn't meet our criteria of having a dock, a deck, and was small. She also admitted it was way below our price range of what we wanted to spend. Huh?! I don't have a problem with paying less than our maximum spending limit. We looked inside and saw that the whole house had been completely refurbished. New paint, carpet, and tile. It had a strange addition which could easily be fixed with a remodel. She said the house had been on the market for a while because it was right next to the highway. There was a lot of road noise (not much from the back of the house) and the house didn't have a fence around it to keep the children and pets from wandering. The view of the tiny bay wasn't great, but it still was nice. Most of all, I liked the price. That evening as we reviewed the digital pictures we were intrigued by this little house.
The next day was the land grab. What a circus! The company had potential buyers meet at a local community center close to the development. The company had all their representative's cars lined up to take the customers out to the property in one swoop. There must have been about fifty cars ready for the land grab. We waited nearly an hour in a large air conditioned tent along with our friends to get our name called. There was a huge selection of snack stations -- which our friend's kids spent most of their time. Finally our name was called. When we introduced our friends, the rep went to get another rep to take them out in a separate car. We then were corraled to the car until all potential buyers were safely situated in vehicles. As we waited for the flag to be dropped, the rep showed us the plat. This was the first time we had seen the plat with prices. Scott and I picked a few within our price range. Over the walkie talkie, the manager told the reps that the "caravan is starting". The cars proceeded in an orderly fashion to the subdivision. Once we were in the subdivision it was a mad dash drive to the lots we selected. The representatives wasted no time getting us to the lots nearly hitting other cars and customers. There were so many people! There were probably 5 perspective buyers looking at each lot. Immediately the sold stickers went on the lot signs and the walkie talkies blared "lot blah blah in section blah blah has been sold!" There were even people fighting over waterfront lots because their rep didn't get the sold sign put up fast enough. There were representatives who had no customers. Apparently they were given the go ahead by remote buyers to purchase sight unseen. I tell you it was crazy!
But Scott and I remained cool and collected. I am so glad we had looked at other properties in the area the day before because the lots and the bay views were not as good as some of the properties we previously saw. For the price of the lots, we could buy a waterfront house with a dock.
The views from the "land grab" property had two minor imperfections. The bay had two huge, rusting, ships which were sunk by hurricane Claudette in 2003. The bay isn't very deep, so the top part of the ships were still above water. The acreage next to the property had a huge steel fabrication factory spewing gray smoke. Lovely. The waterfront lots also had a lot of marsh grass which would require a very long dock which could easily push us over budget.
After we returned to the circus tent with a very dissappointed sales representative to wait for our friends, it took us five minutes to decide what we wanted to do. We called the real estate agent and said we wanted to make an offer on the little house.
NOTE: Austin isn't a stones throw from the coast. It is about a 3 hour drive to Port Lavaca. Not close, but still not a hardship drive. Wait until we get our little one. We will wonder what the heck we were thinking about while on the long drive in a confined space with a screaming inconsolable toddler! Ha!Ha!
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
The Wait
From today's news about referrals, LIDs through July 13th, 2005, Scott and I may be in for long wait. Whether it is rumor or not. We have mentally prepared ourselves for 18 months to 24 months before we get our ray of sunshine. While some people may balk at the time frame, Scott and I are perfectly fine with the wait time. Sick, I know.
I've been missing in action the last few weeks because we have been pondering what we are going to do. Well, we finally made a decision a few weeks ago quite suddenly. We are NOT backing out of the adoption. We are NOT decorating a baby room. We are NOT remodeling the house. We ARE buying a vacation/weekend home.
We've been thinking about it for many years, but we were discouraged a few years ago when our real estate agent (who sold us our current home) told us a typical mortgage for a vacation home was 20% down and 15 year note. A few weeks ago, on a whim, I called our mortgage company to get specifics. I was told they offer 30 year mortgage with 5% down on vacation homes. I was completely floored. You mean we could have done this years ago?
I just kept thinking of all the money we wasted buying crap that I don't even remember buying. Most of the money probably went to dining out at lunch and dinner. Scott and I have quit cold turkey. It has been trying at times because we come home tired, but we get through the cooking and clean up because we have a common goal.
Needless to say, we are very excited. Scott can't wait to start building lifelong memories together in our vacation house with our ray of sunshine. He was telling me last night he can picture taking him/her out on the boat fishing. I chuckled because he will be sadly dissapointed if this child hates fishing. Maybe that is why he made sure some of our life pictures included him boating and fishing?
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Been on Vacation
Bet no one missed me :-) It was good to get away. We didn't go far. Okay, so it was a 7 hour drive, but Texas is so big that going over a state line by about 15 miles just doesn't seem like it was far. We went camping at an Arkansas state park called Millwood Lake. It was the only thing we could find that had a week long space available. Can you believe that that all the popular state parks we like to go to in Texas were full?
By the way, Scott and I rented a pop-up travel camper with air conditioning. So, it really wasn't roughing it. He really missed bringing his fishing boat. I don't think a day passed without him mentioning that he wished he could have brought his fishing boat. Sorry honey. I wouldn't have gone on the trip if I had to sleep in a tent during the middle of a scorching summer.
We were about 50 miles from the Caddo mountains near Lake Ouchita. We packed a picnic lunch and took a day trip out there. They are more like foothills to me, but they have beautiful trees. When I think of mountains, I think of the Rocky Mountains. Still very breath taking scenary. I've haven't seen a trout stream in a long time. Since it was midweek after a holiday, we had the place to ourselves.
Millwood Lake, Ashdown, Arkansas
Me and Heidi walking along the trout stream in Glenwood, AR. I can't believe Heidi kept the bandana on all day.
Wow! The stream is so clear. We had to keep Heidi from jumping in because we didn't want a wet dog in the truck. She nearly dragged me in a few times. The water was really cool. Wish I had brought a bathing suit.
Picnicking on Lake Ouchita. I dropped a chip and Heidi is sniffing it out.
View of Lake Ouchiata from the park bench
The most interesting thing that struck me was the gracious hospitality of the people in the area. I was in a grocery store (which are so small compared to the mega grocery stores we have in the city) and was suprised by all the "hello's" from the local folks. Older men tipped their hats. The people look at you square in the eye and say "good day". There were people in there who knew each other who would stop in the small aisles and talk. I had to turn the cart around to go around through another aisle. No biggie. I wasn't in a hurry. I must have looked a little lost (I think it was shock) because the manager came up to me and asked if I needed help. I told him what I needed and he walked me over to the area where the item was located. When I was finished paying for my groceries, I picked up my bags and took about ten steps when the carrier came running up to me and grabbed them from my arms. He was quite concerned that I was carrying them myself. He apologized for not getting to the counter sooner to help me out.
It is also a slower pace of living. It definately gave fast food a new meaning. We were at this drive-up barbeque place and it took 15 minutes for two brisket sandwiches -- and we were the only ones there. Also the rdrivers were driving slower than the speed limits and they would drive on the shoulder to allow us "fast" folks to pass them.
Scott and I talked about the adoption. We can't believe that sometime in the next year or two we will be sharing camping with our little ray of sunshine.
Next vacation is in October. We rented a house on the beach near Galveston. We rented this house last September to recover emotionally when we lost our son. It was so peaceful that we decided to go back. We invited friends along and their two young sons age 10 and 7. Since the kids are in school, they will only be able to visit on the weekend. Scott and his friend will take the boys out on a charter fishing trip. The women folk will stay behind and probably go shopping. Scott gets such a kick out of being around those boys. I know he is hoping we get referred a son. Personally, I am hoping for the tiny chance of getting fraternal twins of a boy and girl.
By the way, Scott and I rented a pop-up travel camper with air conditioning. So, it really wasn't roughing it. He really missed bringing his fishing boat. I don't think a day passed without him mentioning that he wished he could have brought his fishing boat. Sorry honey. I wouldn't have gone on the trip if I had to sleep in a tent during the middle of a scorching summer.
We were about 50 miles from the Caddo mountains near Lake Ouchita. We packed a picnic lunch and took a day trip out there. They are more like foothills to me, but they have beautiful trees. When I think of mountains, I think of the Rocky Mountains. Still very breath taking scenary. I've haven't seen a trout stream in a long time. Since it was midweek after a holiday, we had the place to ourselves.
Millwood Lake, Ashdown, Arkansas
Me and Heidi walking along the trout stream in Glenwood, AR. I can't believe Heidi kept the bandana on all day.
Wow! The stream is so clear. We had to keep Heidi from jumping in because we didn't want a wet dog in the truck. She nearly dragged me in a few times. The water was really cool. Wish I had brought a bathing suit.
Picnicking on Lake Ouchita. I dropped a chip and Heidi is sniffing it out.
View of Lake Ouchiata from the park bench
The most interesting thing that struck me was the gracious hospitality of the people in the area. I was in a grocery store (which are so small compared to the mega grocery stores we have in the city) and was suprised by all the "hello's" from the local folks. Older men tipped their hats. The people look at you square in the eye and say "good day". There were people in there who knew each other who would stop in the small aisles and talk. I had to turn the cart around to go around through another aisle. No biggie. I wasn't in a hurry. I must have looked a little lost (I think it was shock) because the manager came up to me and asked if I needed help. I told him what I needed and he walked me over to the area where the item was located. When I was finished paying for my groceries, I picked up my bags and took about ten steps when the carrier came running up to me and grabbed them from my arms. He was quite concerned that I was carrying them myself. He apologized for not getting to the counter sooner to help me out.
It is also a slower pace of living. It definately gave fast food a new meaning. We were at this drive-up barbeque place and it took 15 minutes for two brisket sandwiches -- and we were the only ones there. Also the rdrivers were driving slower than the speed limits and they would drive on the shoulder to allow us "fast" folks to pass them.
Scott and I talked about the adoption. We can't believe that sometime in the next year or two we will be sharing camping with our little ray of sunshine.
Next vacation is in October. We rented a house on the beach near Galveston. We rented this house last September to recover emotionally when we lost our son. It was so peaceful that we decided to go back. We invited friends along and their two young sons age 10 and 7. Since the kids are in school, they will only be able to visit on the weekend. Scott and his friend will take the boys out on a charter fishing trip. The women folk will stay behind and probably go shopping. Scott gets such a kick out of being around those boys. I know he is hoping we get referred a son. Personally, I am hoping for the tiny chance of getting fraternal twins of a boy and girl.
