This, or That?

There's a new house being built in Hidden Springs on one of the few remaining lots.  I'm sure it's a build-job and not a spec home - after all, who else would want to live in a barn - besides us?  I love the outside.  We couldn't go in because the doors were locked, but I wasn't crazy about the floor plan after peeking through the windows.  The master was upstairs and the kitchen wasn't visible from the living room.  But, I love the outside.  But, I love "our" barn too. 

So this...

or that?

Which one do you like?

Some Realtors - Gotta Love 'Em...

Don't get me wrong.  I'm happy that we've been showing our house at least 3 times a week lately.  Traffic has definitely picked up since the weather has warmed and the sun has been shining.  There's just nothing about spring that doesn't make you want to go out and buy a new home.

Most realtors are really considerate.  I have one local Realtor and her husband who have showed the house several times that always try to give us ample warning.  Yet, I realize that's not always possible.  I am however, getting really tired of getting calls at work from my husband saying "Someone is showing the house this morning" so I have to leave work for a few minutes and run home and make the beds, tidy up, and put all the stuff on the kitchen counter into the oven.  Yes, my oven is usually packed tight with bread, cast iron pans, paper towels, and paperwork.  In fact, it stays in the oven now unless I'm baking something.  I don't like having anything on the counter - I want the kitchen to look bigger and that means - empty.

I think however, what is going to be the death of any "good" brains cells I may have had left after chemo is - the Realtors.  "We'll be there at 4" - and they show up at 2:15 - so I'm sneaking the cat litter box out the back way as they stand in my kitchen.  Or, I really like this one on a Saturday when everyone is home - "We'll be there sometime between 2 and 4:30."  WTH????  You can't narrow it down just a tad so we don't have to vacate the premises for 2 1/2 hours on a Saturday? 

Then, this one was my favorite.  I got a call at 7pm last Sunday night.  "I'm at the Merc with my clients and we wondered if we could come and see your house real quick."  You've got to be kidding me.  Ival was already laying in bed watching tv.  I hollered upstairs and told him to get his ass out of bed and help me pick up the house because I had talked the realtor into giving me 15 minutes to pick up.  He "hurried" up and managed to pick up his dirty clothes in the bedroom while I ran around the house like a madman putting shit in the oven, cupboards, and under couch cushions to hide everything.  I used to spend 3-4 hours on my hardwood floors before a showing - I don't do that anymore.

Unfortunately, we do actually live in this house.  AND, I have a teenager.  So, I just can't keep the house perfectly spotless unless I want to spend every waking second following everyone around to pick up after them.  Yet, I want my house to look as close to perfect as possible when someone comes to see it. 

I have learned one thing. If I'm ever in the market for a house again (and I won't be.  Elmer and I are firmly planting our butts on the property), I'm going to open the oven, look under couch cushions, under beds, behind pillows, and open all the cupboards in every house I look at, just to see what's there.  I think that would be fun.

Later today, I'm going to post some pictures of a new house that's being built up here in Hidden Springs.  It's freakin' awesome!

Plan C...

Well, well, well.  I emailed our realtor today and asked if he thought I should paint the bonus room.  He emailed back and it began, "I love you..."

I knew I was screwed.  Here's his email:

I love you and we are on the same team, so do not take any of this personally. There were two Realtors through on Sunday and I asked them the same questions. They said the same thing; the house is GORGEOUS, but it is very style specific and there is so much to see that the buyer has a hard time seeing there own personal things in the home. Based on those comments and the number of people that have been through the home so far without a single offer I would:


Take off of the walls most all personal photographs and decorative items
Move Ival’s TV chair into storage (guess I'm going to buy a new, expensive chair this weekend)
 Move the decorative wooden piece on the front porch into storage (it's an old corn shucker that weighs about 400 pounds)
 Move the bear into storage and repaint the bonus room white (how we're going to get that downstairs I have no idea)
 Move the round table upstairs with the flag into storage
 Get all of the yard art up and into storage
 Add two or three small pots with some colorful plants on the back patio
 The stool in the entry goes to storage
Paint the bonus room white

Sigh.  We're going to have to go to the storage unit and consolidate.  I refuse to pay more for another unit.  I told him we'd have it done by the end of the weekend.  Which means Saturday because Sunday is Easter. 

And, my lichen planus is back.  I got it when Claude Dallas was released and had it for about 2 years.  It's a lovely disease, I've missed it.

I also realized something about Plan B.  The 2 of us who more inclined to move in that direction have both survived cancer.  Isn't the mind an interesting thing?

Please.  Remember this blog is my journal.  No sympathy.  I write this because I know that someday I'll go back and read this and either laugh or at least realize how much more I appreciate our wonderful home and property because of it.  I have a wonderful life, wonderful family and friends.  Thank you for being my friends and family.  Life is good.

Now excuse me.  I'm going to go curl up in the fetal position...

Squirrel!

I have posted several times about my brother Steve, the original hillbilly.  He's very "special" and we love him dearly.  Steve wears a top hat at all times.  He has his everyday tophat which is black, and his good gray one for special occasions, such as performing a wedding.

Well, I think I've found the perfect gift for him.  I've never seen anything like it and I know for a fact that he doesn't have one.  It's a real taxidermy squirrel wearing a top hat and carrying a gun.

Can you freakin' believe it?  It's listed on ebay and closes on Sunday.  You can see the listing here.

They could be twins!

Oh, and Kate, you missed it by a few days or you could have had this one for Anna.  We all know how she loves horses...

I'd like to have this one for our new home.  I'd find a tiny toilet and put him on it.  Reminds me of Lucy and kind of brings a tear to my eye...

Rethinking The Donald...

Well, it didn't take as long as I thought it would but I'm disillusioned with The Donald.  He's done several interviews lately about his theory on gas prices and how to recoup the 7.2 trillion dollars we've spent in Iraq.   When you figure wages and all the costs associated with having our military there, I think it would take - FORFREAKINGEVER, Donald!  I find his ideas on "stealing" oil fields from Iraq and other oil rich countries just comical.  How many other countries will we have to take over because we've helped them out and need to recoup or losses to them?  Will this mean we need to go back to Cuba and take over the tobacco fields until we've satisfied the funds we spent there?  What about Haiti?  They have nothing for us to "steal."  Does he really think interviews like this will win him votes?   But, the polls show him leading all Republican candidates - will it last?

Oh Donald...

To the victor goes the spoils - Go USA!

Plan B...

We may move to Plan B.  We've been flying by the seat of our pants during this whole event of buying the property and selling our house.  Where would we live if we sold our house until the new one was built?  Who knows.  But, it's been fun.

But, we're now thinking of moving to Plan B.  I realize that the selling season is really just starting, but I'm getting really impatient.  We met with a guy who does "hobby farm" loans to see what we could do as far as starting on the new place if we decided to lease our current house for a few years.  With mortgages so hard to get right now, I thought "no way" would we be able to get a loan when we already have two homes that we have on our credit report right now.  But, our daughter and her husband rent the house in Meridian, and he said if we could get a lease agreement on our house in Hidden Springs that our credit is so good that there's no problem. 

So, what would you do?  Wait it out a few more months to see if we sell and risk not having our house built on the property until winter, or lease this for a few years until the market picks up and try then to sell it? 

I'm sooooooo ready to move on to this (and horses)...

Help, I need advice!  What would you do?

Warning, the Following Post May be Laced with Profanity...

I'm a proud American.  I don't think one word of the Star Spangled Banner or the Pledge of Allegiance should be changed to fit anyone who might be "offended."  I think people who move to the US should learn to speak English.  Not required to do so, but damn wouldn't it be a smart thing to do?  If I were moving to France or Peru, I would probably find it beneficial to learn the language.  It just seems the "right" thing to do.

I've always considered myself (until about the last 2 years) to be a good Democrat.  I believe in so much of what they find important when it comes to our environment and natural resources.  I don't think we should build dams that make it difficult for native fish to get to their spawning grounds in order to supply farmers with water.  Farmers did fine without dams until we found out how easy it makes it to have them - easy unless you're a fish.  I don't think we should rid our planet of our wonderful wildlife in order to make our lives easier.  To me, that's just wrong.

But what this rant is about is politics.  I'm sick to death of what's going on in our wonderful country.  We have always been a country that welcomed foreigners and people who were persecuted in their own countries.  Sure, we've had our share of problems with bigotry and equality, but we're coming around.  This doesn't however, mean we need to "accept" people coming into our country uninvited and unlawfully.  Come, we'll welcome you, but do it the right damn way as I would be expected to do in your country.

I suppose this all started with the threats of a government shutdown.  REALLY?  Oh, what the hell.  Shut it down.  Maybe it would be good for everyone.  But, don't mess with the paychecks of our military men and women who OUR GOVERNMENT has sent to some God forsaken places for reasons that most of us don't understand. 

I heard a Democrat on the radio a few minutes ago (I'm so damned sick of people like Shawn Hanity) say "they (meaning the Repubs) want to make sure that women can't get breast exams or that we can't be sure that the air we breathe is safe."  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME.  Does this Dem really think that the Repubs want to make sure that women can't get breast exams and that's why they want to shut down the government?  And the Repubs are no better.  "Well, if they can't fight fair then we'll just show them!"

It all reminds me of a bunch of damned second graders.  "He pulled my hair!"  "Yeah, but she hit me!"  "Well, if he hadn't called me a crybaby I wouldn't have hit him!"

So, much to my sister's horror, I am certainly going to be doing some investigating if Donald Trump decides to run for President.  To be real honest, I have no God Damned idea if he's a Democrat or a Republican.  But our country has been in the shit hole for so many years now that I'm thinking maybe a businessman might be a better President than a politician would make.  I'm hoping he won't even claim one of the two disgusting parties that we've been so blessed to have.  I hope he runs as a businessman and that's it.  Maybe he can pull us out of this hell hole that we're in right now and get our economy back in some kind of order.

I'm sick to death of the threats, the fighting, the name calling, the blame.  Something has got to change in order for our wonderful country to remain a wonderful country.  So far, neither Democrats nor Republicans have been able to see past their own noses to get us out of the mess we're in.

Now, if this doesn't get a blog posted on my sister Kate's blog, I have no clue what will.  She's been on "hiatus," but I have a feeling this will bring her back.

Girls' Weekend!

With spring taking so long to arrive, I think everyone is feeling antsy.  UGH!  I want warmth - and a full day of sunshine!

In order to survive this long, cold spring, we've started planning a girls' weekend in July.  It's for mom's birthday - she turns 80 this year.  You would never know it.  She neither acts nor looks 80.  I think all of us girls are hoping that her beauty genes are passed down, it sure would make old age more bearable.  So, we're going to hit Portland for 4 days in July.  Mom wants to drive up to Mt. St. Helens and we'll kind of play the rest of the time by ear. 

It's just nice to spend time with the girls and giggle and laugh - you can't help but giggle and laugh when you have Kate around - she's "special." 

Is it July yet?

What a Great Group of Folks...

Today about 100 people volunteered with Fish and Game to come and plant bitterbrush seedlings on our property. It was impressive! Mary Dudley, the volunteer coordinator, had originally told us that they would want to eat about 1pm (we cooked them all lunch). As it turned out, they had so many volunteers that they were completely done planting the 3,500 seedlings by 10:30.

We bought 5 large hackberry trees (the birds love them) and they got those planted as well.

So, Ival got on the pig cooker and fixed them all lunch.

There was even a guy teaching people how to use this wind parachute after all the work was done. Cool!


Joe and Rick used a surveyor thingey and all of Ival's buddies helped and they got all the fence posts set for the hot wire.  We'll only have the hot wire turned on the two weeks of the year when the cows come through.  After all, we want the deer and other critters to feel free to use our place.

Wow, what a productive and wonderful day. Thanks everyone, for your help.  You worked your butts off and you have no idea how much we appreciate it!

Finally, it WAS the Governor!

My sister Linda used to own a store in Meridian called Water and Wood.  She had some really fun things in that store.  She would often call me and ask "Guess who just came into the store?!" and for some reason, the first time she called, I said, "the Governor?"

So, every time she called after that, it was always my reply.  Usually, it was someone we hadn't seen for years.  So now, Linda lives in Portland and works at 7 D's Nursery.

A few minutes ago she called and said, "Guess who just came into the store!?"  My reply of course was the same as it's always been.  I could tell she was grinning just by the sound of her voice.  "YES!"  then she went on to say, "I've been waiting for 11 years to be able to say that!"

Of course I had to find a picture of him for this post, you know how visual I am. He looks like a mighty fine Governor...