It was good while it lasted

Edited: The back-up offer was rescinded today.

I am so tired of the rollercoaster. 

*comments off

In just 48 hours! Shortly after I hit the publish button on my last post, I had a text from the realtor. I initially assumed that it would relate to the viewing we had scheduled for the afternoon. But, it wasn't....we had a back-up offer!

The realtor sent over the paperwork for me to review. It was a low'ish offer, which I knew I would counter since the orginal offer was higher. I'm certain the potential buyers were testing the water to determine what the other offer might have been. The sticky part was the possession date; Oct. 5th! That's a mere 3 1/2 weeks away!!

We met the realtor shortly thereafter at the house (more on that later), and he and I agreed, I'd counter at an amount slightly higher than the original offer with a possession date of Oct. 24th. 

There was some back and forth later in the afternoon, as the buyers were willing to pay slightly less than the counter, but the Oct. 5 date was a must so they can take advantage of a locked in mortgage rate. After some discussion, it was agreed they will take possession on the 5th and I will lease the property until the 24th. The nominal rent I will pay is worth the peace of mind of knowing, I'm going to have the time needed to pack up for the move.

Should the first buyers manage to come up with the funding, we could be moving by the 16th. Either way, it's time to get some boxes, and start the packing process.

Onto the property we viewed. I'll refer to it as the Stinky house. And when I say stinky, I truly mean odoriferous. Entering the front door, one is almost overwhelmed by the sickly odor of sweaty, dirty socks. It is worst in the living room, but prevalent through the bedrooms, bathroom, and kitchen/dining room area too. We headed down to the basement first, as we wanted to ensure it is a solid basement. While we could only see one portion of the concrete wall, it looked good. There were no doors that swung out/in when opened. All good signs. There is a couple of areas, one with a couch, one with a dining table (poker table perhaps), a room that likely was used as a bedroom at some point, and a renovated small bathroom ensuite. There is work to be done down there; removing the panelling on the walls, insulating and adding drywall could be done over time. 

Upstairs, the u-shaped kitchen is dated but functional, the dining area opens out through sliding patio doors to a small deck, two of the three bedrooms are a reasonable size, and the third would make a good office space for C. The biggest issue is the odor, which can be resolved by removing all the furniture, carpets and flooring, window treatments, and repainting the entire main floor. 

Out back are two decks, the smaller deck and a lower deck currently holding a metal gazebo form. The lower deck truly needs to be removed, it's in rough shape but the smaller deck simply needs to be sanded and either stained or painted. There is a large garage (20 x 33 ft) that will easily hold both vehicles with lots of room for storage too. The yard needs some work, especially back beside the garage but for now, a lawn mower would keep the weeds down. 

It's a project house for certain, and I wasn't sure what my son would think as he's been more prone to lean towards houses that are more finished. BUT, he loved it! We went home and talked about it, and he decided to put in an offer. After some discussion we decided on a price with a possession date of Oct. 10. That would give us either a week or two before we'd have to be out of this house, depending on the successful buyer. The offer was open until 6 p.m. on Sunday.

About 2 p.m. Sunday, he got a text from the agent, that another offer had been received. The seller's agent had asked if we wanted to change the offer at all. Again, after a brief discussion, C revised his offer to a few thousand dollars below asking. Then we sat and waited...and waited...and waited until the 6 p.m. deadline, when the realtor called to say that he didn't get it. We have to assume the other buyer gave them the full asking price or above. It was disheartening to say the least, but we'll regroup and start looking at other properties. In fact, we've got another viewing set up for this evening. Time is of the essence.

Wish us luck!

Freak it out, breathe it out

 I'm a day later than normal posting because I spent Friday and Saturday with D and Eli.  It was a wonderful visit, with lots of hugs, laughter, and cuddles.  Nothing fills my emotional tank more than when that little boy climbs onto my lap and snuggles in.  More on the visit later in the post.

My son was back to work this week after a week of vacation.  That meant, of course, I was busy with housekeeping that was ignored the week prior. If he has a week off, I have one too, right?  I shopped for groceries and ran errands for D to pick up her meds to deliver to her this weekend.  The weather was cool most of the week, but no rain so I needed to water my containers a couple of times.  We did get a light frost on Friday morning, but there was no damage done to any of my plants.  It will have to drop to -4C (25F) before things will start dying off.  The ivies and impatiens as always the first to go, but the petunias will take the first few frosts without much harm done.  Still, I'll pull everything by the end of the month and get the yard cleaned up for the winter months.

I did get out walking this week too, on a lovely seasonal morning.  No photos as I did not take my camera with me.  There were fewer ducks and more geese on the pond. I suspect they're starting to gather for their migration south but some actually stay here over winter on the man-made lake by the power station.  The water stays open there, but I have no idea what they feed on.

I left the city about mid-morning on Friday for my visit to D and Eli.  She is having her upstairs bathroom renovated, so we'd plans to get out of the house, driving to the nearest large community to do some shopping and allow Eli to play at a local park.  CT has been working at the house since Tuesday and run into a few issues that have taken a little more time - it is a 110 year old house - but I suspect he'll finish by the end of this upcoming week.  Eli is quite interested in what is going on, but has been good about staying out of the way when he's at home.  He does like to visit sometimes though, so I'm sure the contractor, CT appreciated our being out of the house for several hours.

A friend had recommended the park to D, and we were really happy with the choice.  It had a large piece of playground equipment with slides and climbing apparatus on it.  Eli ran, climbed, and jumped while D and I ate lunch at a nearby picnic table.  Only after he'd checked everything out did he come and eat.

This little car was a hit; he climbed in and on it.  It was on springs so bounced when he did so.  I think you can tell he enjoyed it very much.

In this photo, he is awaiting his turn to go on the big slide. At first he was a bit tentative as it's quite a bit higher than the one at his local park, but soon he was happily zipping down the slide.  There was a large hill in the park, where I suspect the children sled in the winter.  He had to climb the hill too, and roll down it.  It's an Eli thing. :)

After our visit at the park, we wandered the local Value Village, where we found a few books for D and Eli, a toy microphone for Eli, and a bag of crochet cotton for me.  D was soon wishing he hadn't gotten the microphone as it echoes but she's the one that pointed it out to him.  We also wandered through Winners, then headed to Canadian Tire so Eli could show me the Lego pirate ship he wants for Christmas. I promised him I'd check out my local CT when I got home. Little does he know, but the present is already in the closet here as I ordered it last week.  Good thing, as D checked and it's currently out of stock on-line.  It's meant for an older child, but D has assured me she'll put it together.  I used a couple of gift cards I'd earned from completing on-line surveys to reduce the cost, and she and I shared the reduced cost.

After a quick stop at Walmart for a couple of items, we headed back to their home.  CT had finished for the day, so of course, we headed upstairs to check out his progress.  He's got the tub in and has put in new concrete backer board around the tub, replaced, mudded and taped drywall that was damaged and replaced subflooring where the vanity was previously.  I had been worried about the flooring under the linoleum, as it was very uneven and I thought it might be due to water damage.  However, it turns out during the previous renovation, someone had used some filler to try to level the floor but had done such a poor job of it, it was even more uneven.  He'll be doing something similar but has assured us, the floor will be even and level.  He'll be back this week and I expect the bathroom will be complete (fingers crossed) by Friday.  She'll have a brand new tub, toilet, and vanity with subway tile around the tub.  I had a mirror that he'll hang for her rather than purchasing something new.

CT ran new lines to the basement because the old lines were in rough shape.  He installed shut off valves for both the cold and hot water so she can shut the water off in that bathroom without losing water service to the rest of the house, if need be.  While in the basement he realized that one of the runs from the furnace to the second floor (installed less than two years ago), had not been hooked up so he did that too.  There was some additional taping he felt needed to be done as well.  As a result it's taking longer than he originally estimated, but on the other hand, he's noticed things neither she nor I had or would have so even if this costs a bit more it will be worth it.  He mentioned that her basement was probably pretty warm last winter...this year the work he's done should ensure the upstairs gets the heat instead.

On Saturday, we did a bit of housework before heading to the local park.  Eli had fun on his own for a bit before another child he knows arrived.  The two had a blast together, chasing one another, using the big slide, and even wrestling in the sand.  Later on, at home he played in his sand box, in which he'd dumped a bucket of water.  He went directly into the bathtub (she has a second full bath on the main floor) before dinner! This photo was pre-tumbling in the sand.

On Saturday evening, Eli and I were hanging out on the couch and we noticed a fly buzzing around.  I started singing, "There was an old lady, who swallowed a fly...".  While I struggled to remember the words, Eli found the story on his tablet and brought it to me to read.  Now, D has never read this story to him, and how he knew where the story was located in his app is beyond both of us.  He snuggled in and I read/sang the story to him.  

At one point D was struggling to get the television connected to her I-Pad so we could watch football and was expressing her frustration. Eli went to her and said, "freak it out and breath it out, mama."  She started to laugh and things went much better after that.  She said to Eli, "where did you learn that?" He again grabbed his tablet and pulled up a cartoon where the phrase was used.  We tried using it with him the next day...it didn't work nearly as well. But he clearly understands and is learning lessons from the shows he watches and retains that information.

All in all, it was a wonderful two days. It was an unremarkable week until then; spending time with this little boy and observing how he is growing and developing into a (mostly) sweet and helpful child is truly a joy and a blessing.  I'm so fortunate they live within a reasonable distance and are in a place where they are safe and content.

Even so, I'm grateful to be home where it is quiet.  The cats are happily napping in the sun room, though it is cloudy today.  I'm going out to check my containers as it heated up yesterday to 32C (90F) so I expect they'll be wanting water.  Then I'll relax on the couch with my crocheting to watch the rest of the baseball game.  I just checked and there is curling to be viewed as well.  I'm in my happy place!

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Mystery solved

This isn't mine, but a photo from the internet.  The plant is a white (or sometimes called snowy) Jacob's ladder.  I had posted it on Facebook and two of my gardening friends identified it. 

Jacob's ladder (Polemonium) was given its common name because the arrangement of its leaves is somewhat ladder-like. However, it's Jacob's ladders' flowers that are the real attraction. Polemonium caeruleum and its cultivars send up clusters of flowers atop long stems in late spring to early summer. The bright blue varieties are among the most popular, blooming in clear tones of blue and bluish-purple, offset by yellow centers.

Jacob's ladder is a hardy perennial plant. It is upright and clump-forming, but it will spread by seed. Most Jacob's ladder plants have bell-shaped flowers in shades of purple and lavender, but there are also white, pink, and yellow varieties available. The compound leaves are composed of rows of narrow, pinnate leaflets. The branches grow from a basal rosette and arch and sway as they grow tall.

I read further that the plant is native to Eastern North American and hardy to Zone 3.  It also prefers a shady area, so it will do well in my flower bed.  It's height ranges from 24-36 inches and I think it's reached the minimum height already.  I went out and took a photo of the flowers this morning.

Aren't they pretty?  They make me smile. 

Have a great day everyone!

Sunshine...makes me happy!

A happier post for a change!  No the house hasn't sold but I've put that aside for now because I think I can safely say that spring is finally here to stay.  We've had temps in range of 17-20C (60's F) for the last few days and the forecast suggests this trend will continue.  While overnight temps are down, it's still staying above freezing and no frost in the forecast.  Hooray for warmer weather!

I picked up my plants a week or ten days ago (I can't keep track of time without some reference point) and I've been dragging them in and out of the garage at night ever since.  Last night I left them out and everything looked great this morning so I spent

Out in front I planted petunias in the taller containers; these were in containers at Walmart for less than $10 so I grabbed two.  Initially I thought I might be able to split them but they were so root bound in the original containers that I just plunked them into these. 

They give an instant hit of color and fill most of the container.  I like to have something that appears like it's been there for awhile.  

The front container has the leftovers. :)  There is an osteospermum (purple), a pansy, a lobelia, and a coleus.  I know the latter prefer part sun, and this area tends to get sun morning and late afternoon/evening because of the evergreen so hopefully it will do well there.

The front flower bed is primarily perennials.  I added the hanging plant a couple of weeks ago.  It's a fuschia that I got at Costco for $15 and one of my favorite plants.  

In the silver container back by the thermometer are pansies.  I normally put impatiens in this spot but no one seems to have them this year.  It doesn't get a lot of sun (which pansies prefer) but I'll try them here and if I need to move the container I will.  

In the garden the columbine is beginning to grow, the hostas and ferns are just starting to poke through the ground, the dianthus and bell flower are up and have lots of new growth.  And then there is the perennial I bought last year, the name of which I can't recall.  It's doing fabulously and if I ever figure out what it is I'll show you.  The heartleaf bergenia is pushing stalks of flowers.  This is another favorite as it blooms early in the spring.

This the front patio and flower bed from the perspective of the neighbour's path to the rear of the house.

In the containers are osteospermum, along with coleous and lobelia.  I've stayed with just a few varieties and few containers this year because I won't be able to take everything with me (assuming the house sells).  

Out on the back deck, I've got just three containers! Normally there would be a dozen or more.  These have white and pink geraniums, a lobelia and a trailing ivy.

I'm so happy to finally be able to get my hands in the dirt (though my esthetician may not be so happy when she sees my nails next week).  Getting a bit of color in my world is uplifting too!

******
Thanks for the comments on my previous post.  I got rid of the old cat litter boxes, bought new tubs and got a new brand of cat litter, "Fresh for Life" that seems to be working really well.  It's dark in color, clumps well, and is truly dust free.  Keeping these clean, with a diffuser in the room, seems to be keeping any odor down...though I haven't had the opportunity to test it out with any new viewers or company.  

Have a great week everyone!

All done!