Thank You Mother Nature

We had a hail storm in April. We had hail damage to our roof and siding. For the first time ever we filed an insurance claim on our house. Truth be told there was probably damage from the big hail storm we had the previous summer, we just never imagined it would be something worth an insurance claim. Long story short (and it's a long story if you are ever interested in hearing the drama) we got a new roof and new siding out of the deal. Our house looks so different and so good!

Here's our house before:

Here's our house after:



I love, love, love the new siding. It looks so good. My favorite part is the new address sign. It just makes is look so nice.

The next project is the landscaping. We cut down the bushes in front because they were dying and looked horrible. But we never dug up the roots and wouldn't you know it, they are starting to grow back, but regardless, I have things in the backyard that need to be transplanted so the bushes will go as soon as it cools down a little around here.

Of course while I was out snapping pictures, I couldn't resist taking a few of the kids. (Aaron was at a friends house so he missed out on the photo op)

Jenna had a friend and old neighbor Caitlin over. They play so well together. I caught them playing with Jenna's American Girl Dolls. I snapped some pictures, but had to hide behind trees to get the pictures because Jenna didn't want any evidence that she still likes to play with dolls. Well here's the evidence!

Getting rid of junk

We bought a "new" (aka used, but new to us) van last fall. During the cash for clunkers episode, Bill was convinced that we needed to trade in and take advantage of the "free" money. I was not so convinced. He looked into it and realized that the van we would want to trade it didn't qualify under the plan so we didn't do it. We did however need a new vehicle so we went ahead and bought a used van. It's great. Love it. But the '97 Dodge Caravan that was falling apart wasn't worth anything for a trade in. No worries, Bill and Aaron had big plans to take the Caravan under their wings and "pimp" it out. There was talks of flat screen TVs, Video Consoles, mini fridges you name it. So the now precious hobby got prime real estate in the garage. That was until winter came around. Then I politely reminded my husband that I was not going to be cleaning snow off my van all winter long and that the hobby needed to find another home. It did, in our driveway. Although at this point the van had sat for so long that the transmission no longer worked without big clouds of black smoke billowing out from under the hood. Still all winter long there was still daydreaming going on about what the van would look like. It sat in the driveway until spring came around. Once the snow was gone, Bill tried to move it. Bill had conceded that with all his work traveling and all the home projects to be done there simply isn't time to work on the van. There was a glimmer of hope to donate it to Gearheads, but when Bill tried to move it again, the brakes now were froze up and it was deemed undonatable. Then there were several weeks of Bill saying we need to just get it to a salvage yard, there is no value left in this piece of junk, but there it still sat. Enter this weekend, we have been working on the landscaping in our yard (another post to come later regarding that!) and Bill decided it was time to part ways with the Caravan. And what he said next warmed my heart to no end, but first some necessary info..........

Jon and Michelle Lloyd are employees at Prairie Lakes Church (where I also work). They moved here last November. Jon is one of our Worship leaders and Michelle is the receptionist for the Cedar Falls campus. I love them both. They are such amazing people. They are unable to have biological children and are in the process of trying to adopt a child. They have decided they will adopt a child without going into debt which I greatly admire both from a financial perspective and a patience perspective. I am not sure I would be that strong. You can follow their story here. They have been doing various fundraising activities to try to get to their goal sooner. So back to the Caravan, Bill said to me, let's call the salvage yard and take the money they give to us and give it to the Lloyds to put toward their adoption. Amazing!

Amazing in so many ways. Generally we are pretty strategic with our giving. We don't have a lot of extra to give these days and so we try to make sure the most of our giving. And by most I mean we only give to those things that will give back to us (ie. tax deduction!) We also could have so easily taken the money and put it toward a new lawnmower that we need, or toward our summer vacation fund, or toward the mommy needs to cover the gray hair fund, but we decided nope it belongs to baby Lloyd. We were so convicted that we asked the salvage yard to make the check directly to Michelle so that the money couldn't get sucked into the vortex of our family checking account. But the most amazing thing that happened was the conversation I had with my materialistic tween.

I picked up the kids after school and told them I needed to drop off a paper before we went home. We went to the salvage yard and I was explaining that we were finally getting rid of the Caravan. So we got there, I went inside did the business and came out with the check. As I continued to explain that no we didn't have to pay for them to take the van away and that in fact we got money for it, Aaron's ears perked up and he immediately said yea, you can buy me a new bike. I simply said nope, we are taking the money and giving it to the Lloyds. I told them about the adoption process and how much it cost and all the things the Lloyds are doing to try to get enough money together to adopt. I told them that Dad and I had decided there was no better way to spend the money than to give it to the Lloyds. It truly was an amazing conversation and I am truly hopeful that the kids will see and remember that sometimes there are more important things to do with some extra money than spend it on yourself.

cell phones

Aaron has been begging for a cell phone for several years now. A girl in his class in 3rd grade had a cell phone and he wanted one. I would gently remind him that I was not her parent, but that I was Aaron's parent and we make the rules that we think are appropriate for our family and in 3rd grade we didn't feel he needed a cell phone. That was my mantra for grades 4 and 5 too. I also would ask him who did he need to call and when would he ever not be with me or dad or an adult who has a phone to use. I figured until he had a legitimate answer to that question I was off the hook. But the begging kept coming. One Saturday about 2 months ago, we were shopping in Wal-mart and walking past the electronics. We stopped at the cell phone display because we looking at replacing my husband's cell phone. Again the begging started. Why can't I get a cell phone. I'll pay for it as he looked at all the signs that said free or $9.99. I have often explained (and did again that day) that you don't really get the phone for free because you have to make a 2 year commitment to pay the monthly bill and until he had a job, he couldn't get one. Then I flippantly said, if you can save up the money you can buy a prepaid phone. For my son whose pockets burn every time there is a dime in his pocket, I figured I was off the hook and the begging would stop. Au contraire, he was determined to save the money and Jenna even jumped on the band wagon! So we agreed, if they saved the money to buy a phone and the minutes they could buy phones.

Allowances came and went and I often wondered if the phones would be forgotten. They compared notes regarding how much money they had and how many more weeks of allowance it would take to have enough, but then something sparkly would attract their attention and money would be spent. Finally this last weekend, they each had enough to get a phone. So we headed back to Wal-Mart and contemplated over the $10 or $15 phones and how many minutes to buy. After an agonizingly long time, decisions were finally made and we headed home. They immediately added people to their contact lists, Jenna shot off text messages to several people and Aaron patiently waded through all the ring tones to get just the right one.

So I don't know if we are adding to the "it's all about me" attitude and I never thought I would have a 3rd grader with a cell phone, but I anticipate that after the newness of having a phone wears off I will someday find the phones in between couch cushions or tossed aside on a dresser or with no minutes left on them. But I said what I meant and I meant what I said, if they saved up the money and bought the phones themselves, they could have the phones.

Porch Night

We have landed in one of the most awesome neighborhoods! The house we purchased is in the downtown area. It was built in 1914. It's old, but also has a lot of character (which was a huge selling point for us) Little did we know at the time we bought the house that the neighborhood has Porch Night all summer long. It's a kick-back to the good ol' days when people knew their neighbors and everyone looked out for each other. Most of these older houses in the neighborhood have big front porches and someone several years ago got the idea to start the porch nights. What happens is starting with a potluck on Memorial day, we all get together and sign up for a week to host. Then one night a week for the whole summer, we get together at someone's house to catch up. The Host provides snacks, but that is not the focus of the evening. The focus is to catch up with the neighbors. We talk about whatever comes to mind, home improvements, golf, weather, camping......there seems to be an unwritten rule that religion and politics are not discussed. It has been an awesome opportunity to meet the neighborhood. I have met more of my neighbors in 4 months at this house than I did in 7 1/2 years at the old house. I have also met people that I would not normally hang out with. Since we are in all different ages and stages, our paths wouldn't naturally cross but this has given us an opportunity to do so. I love the neighborhood and feel so lucky to have stumbled upon this gem.

Reflection

We recently passed the 1 year mark of living in Iowa. It really hit me when we spent a week in Michigan in July. We no longer had a house to mess with (WOOHOO!) and we truly were going to visit friends and family and just relax. As we were driving home (to Iowa) I realized, we really live in Iowa now. It has been a year like none other. It is amazing to me how much can change in a year. We went from moving to an area that we knew nothing about to finding a new home town filled with friends and support that is out of this world. We went from owning a house that we thought we would never get rid of to owning a house in a great neighborhood. We found a church that has grown us in more ways than I can even articulate. (Prairie Lakes Church) I personally stepped out of my comfort zone and learned things about myself that I didn't know. I learned patience (ok still working on that one) and I learned to be creative in finding a solution and that I don't need everything I think I need. My faith has grown. And I hope I am a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, employee because of this last year.

A lot has happened

So it's been a while since I last updated the drama here. In hind sight, it seems not as dramatic, but during the moment, the drama seemed intolerable. Here's a quick recap of what has happened since I last wrote here. We did close on the house here in Iowa on the date we were suppose to close. It wasn't without a lot of work on our realtor's part (Karen Kayser) for which I am very thankful, but it also wasn't without still some unfinished stuff. The electrical work that the sellers agreed to fix was about 15% complete. They also just gave us a check to fix the toilet that needed new guts. So there we sat on the day we were suppose to leave for a week in Michigan to address issues with the other house trying to decide what to do. And oh did I mention the other realtor had left the day before for vacation and was in Florida and the sellers were an older couple who were in a nursing home? Anyway, it ended up a week later after we returned, we got the issue resolved. We spent the next 6 weeks working on the house ripping up carpeting, stripping wallpaper, repairing cracks in the plaster, painting, doing new flooring in the bedroom and dining room and finally moving in. I had some really great friends that I have met through this coffee group I have been attending that step up to the plate, no questions asked to help us move. That was the best gift I could ever have asked for and I will forever be truly grateful for them and their help during the very rainy last weekend in April.

Ok so now on to the Michigan house.........IT'S SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, I can say that excitedly now, but again it didn't happen without it's fair share of drama! We took the kid's spring break as an opportunity to go back to Michigan, do some painting in the bedrooms to neutralize the rooms and relist the house since Spring seems to be the best time to get the most traffic. We had made the hard decision to not relist with the same realtor. She was a friend of the family which I know everyone tells you don't list with a friend because it can get icky, but I really trusted her to get the job done. The problem was she treated me as a friend and when she complained to me about how bad the market was and she wasn't sure how long she was going to continue to sell because her husband had just recently gotten laid off from his job, it made me uncomfortable continuing the realtor/client relationship. I had talked to a potential new realtor on the phone prior to going to MI. She had been suggested by several friends, but in the end, I didn't think we would work well together. So first night back in town we went to my friend Maureen's St. Patrick's day party. It was a great opportunity to see some friends. While we were there, I talked to a few people telling them why we were in town and of course the subject of the house came up. Several people there suggested I talk to Michelle because she had sold houses for them and she did an awesome job for them. So having nothing to lose, on Monday I called her. She came over, we met and signed up to list with her. She is a big dog in the area and we decided we needed a big dog to get the job done. In December we left the market at 145,000. When we asked her what to list it for she said well 145k is a great place, but if you really want it sold quickly like you indicate you could list for 139k. We said let's do it and I think that shocked her a little. I don't think she thought we were that serious. So we listed for 139k which was 6,000 less than what we originally bought the house for 7 1/2 years ago, but we were tired of paying the mortgage every month. Oh yeah, we also were greeted to a couple of inches of water in our basement! We had never had water in our basement before and of course now we had to disclaim it on the listing. We spent the week pumping out water from our basement but left with the water contained to a small room under the porch. The hardest part was now in front of me. Now that we listed with another realtor, I had to make the call to the friend. It wasn't easy and I'll admit, I used Bill as a scape goat. She was obviously disappointed, but in retrospect, I don't think she would have had the experience and/or knowledge to get us through what was to come. So we came back to IA and immediately we were having traffic on the MI house. We were also continuing to have water in the basement every time it rained. They had had a very unusual winter in MI last winter with record amounts of snow then a little bit of a melt in December which made the frost line rise which gave the rain no place to go but into our basement. There were so many reports of people having water in their basement for the first time in years, some for like 20 and 30 years. It was absolutely crazy. It was even crazier to try to deal with it from 500 miles away. Thankfully I have the most AWESOME sister and brother-in-law who without question took care of the water for us until the house was sold. I will forever be greatful to them. It was a lot of work and we would not have been able to handle it without them. A week or two after the listing, we had a couple come thru the house and fell in love with it and were ready to write an offer until they went back into the basement and discovered the water in the small room under the porch. Michelle said they had dealt with water in the basement at a previous house and weren't willing to do it again. Even after offering to install another sump pump or something else to take care of the water, they still weren't interested. That was a major blow to the very fragile emotional state of both Bill and me. At this point mind you we are doing repairs to the new house to move in and dealing with the MI house that has water in the basement that we can't control. We started seriously talking about foreclosing. The subject had come up before over the course of the year, but this was the first time that we both were ready to consider it. It was a very down, ugly time. Michelle and I decided to get some quotes for fixing the water issue. She had heard of this dry basement system that was suppose to come with a guarantee to never have a wet basement again. I thought, ok if it's a couple of grand and someone wants the basement water addressed, it would be worth us paying to install it. So she got the quote and it came back as $8000 to install! Unbelievable! At the same time we had another couple come through the house, fall in love with it and make an offer contingent on us installing this system! We decided to counter offer the full price minus the cost of the dry basement system. The logic was that I really didn't want to deal with installing it and thought they could just do it. We all agreed and we were on our way for a early May closing. All was well on it's way until the appraiser came to inspect the property. Now it's important to note that a week earlier when he was originally suppose to appraise the house, the rain had stopped and the basement was dry. A week later when he actually showed up the rain had started again thus we had water in our basement again. Because of the water in the basement the appraiser indicated that the value of the house undeterminable because the water in the basement "significantly lowered" the value of the home. Are you kidding me?!?. The mortgage company would not finance their loan until the dry basement system was installed and would not agree to our agreement of just taking the 8k off the price of the house. That night the buyers went to the house to see the basement. They asked permission to plug in a dehumidifier because they were worried about mildew. I told the realtor sure, but it wouldn't help because the water was coming it at such a fast rate that we are continuing to wet-vac it up and it continues to come back at the same rate. My Brother-in-law had been at the house to wet-vac an hour or two prior to the buyer's arrival. Apparently they plugged in the dehumidifier and hooked it up to the sump pump which will come into play in a minute, and wet-vac'd for several hours. This was the first time they realized the water was coming in at such a significant amount although we had been up front and honest about it all along. They also made frames out of 2x4's and tarps and leaned them against the back of the house where there were no gutters. I think they were convinced that the problem was simply the lack of gutters and that they would be able to do it without installing the dry basement system and get the house for 8k less than the original offer. Well after 2 hours of dealing with the water and realizing that it was a bigger issue than they originally thought, they decided it was a bigger issue and weren't sure if they wanted to continue with the settled upon offer. They suggested keeping the price as we negoitated and then us also installing the 8k system. Are you kidding me! After a lot of drama and heated discussions between Bill and me. We decided to offer to pay 1/2. If they increase the sell price by 4k, we would foot the bill for the system. That is where it landed. Of course now we had to wait until the system was installed before we could close. The basement system people were of course out of this world busy so we couldn't get an appointment until the end of the month. Two days later, I got a call from my sister. I said hello and all I heard was my BIL screaming in the background. Apparently when the buyers were over there 2 nights before and decided the dehumidifier was worthless, they removed it and in process knocked something on the sump pump so that it ran into the basement instead of into the drain so for two days the basement was being pumped into the basement instead of down the drain. There was at least 6 inches of water in the basement! Additionally when he opened the basement window to put the hose out the window to drain the mess faster, he knocked over the tarp which apparently they had nailed to the siding and knocked a chunk of siding off! I called Michelle and asked her to tell the other realtor that they were not allowed on the property until after the closing that they were making a bigger mess for us and not being helpful at all. A few days later I got a call from Michelle telling me that the buyers realtor had called asking if the basement window could be put back in because the buyer had brought his mother over to show her the place and "just walked around the property" but noticed the window out and was concerned about vandals and wildlife getting in. I told Michelle at that point the only vandals I was worried about was the buyers and we were trying to air out the basement from the mess they made! Luckily there was no damage to the furnace or water heater which was our biggest concern. So long story short, the dry basement system got installed at the end of May, we closed in the beginning of June, not without more drama, but I have probably bored you enough at this point. We did have to pay $17,0000 to close and we have officially tapped all of our savings and are completely broke, but we still both have good jobs and we got rid of a huge headache and we didn't have to foreclose. Bill is still pretty angry about the whole thing and can't even really talk about it without his blood pressure rising. A very wise person I work with said to me that in 24 months all this drama will just be a blip on the radar. I can already see his wisdom just a few months down the road. We are starting to pay off some of the debt and we are already feeling better.

Are we really buying this house?

So here I sit on the eve of what is suppose to be the closing appointment for the house we are buying. On Tuesday, we did a last walk thru to make sure they fixed the items they agreed to fix. Now mind you, I had doubts when we were at the house a few weeks ago that they would have everything done. When we were there, it was obvious that someone was doing something to the electrical outlets, but I thought by then, it should have all been taken care of. So on Tuesday when we did our walk thru and my brilliant husband showed up with the electrical outlet tester, we quickly realized there was not electricity on the second floor. At one point there was some electricity, but some outlets needed to be fixed, which the seller agreed to fix. We were very perplexed as to why we went from a few outlets not working to the whole upstairs not working. Additionally there was no pressure to the water in any facuet. We couldn't find the shut off valve so we had no idea if the water was on or off, so we left last night thinking, wow, it is 1 1/2 days before we are suppose to close and there are major issues that need to be addressed. To complicate the matters worse, tomorrow is day 44 of a 45 day interest rate lock. So if we don't close by Friday, we will lose our interest rate which is lower than what the market is now. So our realtor assured us that everything would be fine and that she would make sure that these items were fixed and that we would close as planned. I left having faith in our realtor, but at the same time wondering how in the world such big issues could be fixed in one day. So I waited patiently all morning and into the early afternoon to hear back from her. She called and said that it was an easy fix, that the electric was disconnected to do some installation and never reconnected and the water had been turned on and we were good to go. She and Bill met there again this afternoon for a final look thru. I had a meeting at work that I had to be at so I missed the final walk thru. When I finally met up with Bill this afternoon, he told me that we would not be closing tomorrow not because of those issues we found yesterday but because the mortage company wasn't ready on our behalf and because they discovered today a lien against the title that needed to be cleared up. Apparently when the sellers paid off there mortgage, they didn't do it the "right" way and so the lien never got cleared. There is of course paperwork that needs to be done to clear it, but it won't happen until early next week. On our end of it, the mortgage company is so busy that they didn't get to our file until Monday and wasn't really ready for the closing. I thought it was interesting that I didn't know even this afternoon how much money we were suppose to bring to the closing. No one could give me a final number. That should have been a warning to me. So of course, my first question is what about my interest rate? Our realtor told me that we could extend for 2 days without any additional expense, and after that we could extend for 10 days for a fee of something like $160. She spoke to the mortgage guy and said, hey, this isn't the buyers fault, why should they have to pay to extend. The mortgage guy graciously agreed to pay the fee. So we will now be closing on Monday, 3/23. We could have closed next week, except we already have plans to go back to MI this next week to relist our MI house.

I honestly don't have faith that the sellers did what they were suppose to do per the agreement. We asked them to fix some electrical issues and 2 plumbing issues. It is obvious that they have not fixed the plumbing issues, so it makes me wonder if they really fixed the electrical issues. We have asked for a copy of the paid invoice for the work they were suppose to have done. If it hasn't been done, they now have a week to get it fixed. We are not going to back down and let this slide. We agreed, we did our part, and we are going to expect them to hold up their end of the bargain.

I am still hopeful that in the end it will just be a bunch of added drama and that when the dust settles, we will be happy home owners, so in the interim, I am going to focus on getting the MI house relisted and hope that someone wants to buy it.

Hey, I forgot to include the part about the husband seller almost dying a couple of weeks ago. The couple we are buying from are an older couple. They have owned the house since 1957. They are in a nursing home. My realtor told me that the mortgage guy was scrambling a couple of weeks ago because the seller wasn't "doing so well" so they got whatever signatures they needed from him in case he died before the closing. That was in an effort to avoid having to go thru probate. So now I of course have that added to my list of things to worry about.