March 2017 Update #92

After all the deaths in the third quarter of 2016 and the upheavals of the fourth quarter, we have enjoyed a time of peace and quiet.

End of an era

I sold my parents’ house that they bought in August 1962. They both grew up in Chicago, married after WWII (high school sweet-hearts), lived briefly with my mother’s parents, and bought their first house in Hillside, IL. They raised seven children in that house. I only spent 18 months there. Despite frequent return trips to care for my grandparents, the Fee Fee house remains the only home I know. I lived there for nearly thirty years and moved about every other year since leaving in 1990.

Google appropriately caught our friend – Dan Peterka – in the driveway during one of his many visits to repair something in the house. My mother would never have made it without Dan.

After sending out the last update, it took five weeks to schedule three contractors to estimate repairs to the sunken foundation and driveway. I brought in the Roto-Rooter guys to examine the sewer line to the street. The county government agreed to repair it. A friend’s mother – who is a realtor – examined the house to help me establish a base price. It took several weeks before she could schedule us, but it was worth the wait. I would have never gotten anywhere without her help. Finally, I invited five investors to make their best offer for the house a week before Thanksgiving. Two of the companies got into a bidding war with each other. I asked for a “Best And Final Offer” (BAFO) and took the highest one on the night before Thanksgiving 2016.

I’ll never know whether all the work (sink, retaining wall, etc.) I put into the house made any difference in the speed or value of the sale. The foundation estimates certainly expedited the final sale. The investors just factored the cost of repairs into their bids. I feel good about my efforts and especially that it’s finished.

The sudden sale forced Sarah and I to get serious about the moving process. We found a rental house on Sunday after Thanksgiving, toured the place, and submitted a deposit on Tuesday. My siblings got serious, too. One or two of them came back to claim their share of the household goods every week until we moved out. The investors came by a couple times to review their purchase, too. We invited our church friends to come and collect memories or necessities from my parents’ belongings. We only had one day to ourselves in five weeks.

We managed to give away nearly all my parents’ extra possessions. The rest we left for the new owner. Still, we filled up two uHaul trailers and their biggest truck with our plunder. Others took out over a dozen pick-up cars, trucks, and trailers of dishes, furniture, appliances, electronics, books, tapes, DVDs, etc. Sarah did double duty packing boxes and I got an extra workout from loading vehicles.

I hired a team of movers to pack up the truck and another team to unload at our destination. Best money I ever spent! Even so, I still worked hard all day with both groups to get things done within the four-hour timeframe. I let the professionals carry all the heavy stuff and do the stairs. I kept so busy on organizing, breakdown, and assembly that I wore only a short-sleeved t-shirt despite the freezing temperatures. Sarah kept the kids from underfoot and packed the final boxes. We were all exhausted after loading, moving/closing, and unloading days.

I have bought and sold houses several times before, but this closing was the easiest by far. It took more time for them to confirm my ID than to go over the paperwork. I was out of the title company’s office in less than ten minutes.

New Year

We moved into our rental house just before Christmas 2016. We set up the tree a little late (Christmas Day) but decided to extend the holiday for the entire week. The kids opened one or two toys each day. In the meantime, Sarah and I had nearly every box unpacked by New Year’s Day. Amazing! The new house has plenty of room which made the work easier.

The rental house sits about ten miles out of Crocker, MO. It’s on a gravel road and 13 acres of land. The kids have more than an acre of flat, open area for play. The rest has trees. Cattle ranches dominate the rolling hills in the surrounding area. My office has a huge picture window with trees, fields, and cows – ideal for writing. We have satellite TV, cellphone Internet-access, well water, electric appliances, and a pond to collect the sewage. I made a few trips to the garbage dump (i.e. local transfer station) until I found a weekly pickup service. The cost of living is much cheaper than we have experienced in a while. We enjoy a 2,600-sq. ft. house with wood flooring, four bedrooms, and three baths. Sarah has a jacuzzi and I have a large office. A huge covered deck surrounds the house on three sides.

The house comes complete with everything you want for country living. One tree in the front yard has a tire swing; another has a regular swing. An old water-heater lies yonder, just past the tree line. Why have a rusted appliance in the back yard? Perhaps the bullet holes will explain its purpose. The empty shell casings around the deck might shed some light on the subject, too.

Quiet life

Sarah and the kids focus on homeschooling, games, and outside recess. We now have two online services which provide interactive learning activities, printed worksheets, evaluations for the kids, and curriculum helps for Sarah. We found three nice parks in the area. Our shopping trips usually include a stop at one of these playsets. Julie continues eating slowly, but discovers new tastes and textures to enjoy. We haven’t had any major illness for a while; just sniffles and scraped knees.

Our biggest problem – potty-training Adam – resolved after four weeks. Sarah handled the transition with Julie relatively easily and completely solo, but it took both of us to work on Adam. He became very stubborn and suffered from constipation for days at a time. Four long weeks! Fortunately, we have a medicine for the latter problem. Enough of it in the proper doses resolves the former issue eventually. Unfortunately, it took a lot of hollering. Did I mention four very, long weeks? Good thing we live in the country where only the cows can hear us.

We live about thirty minutes from Saint Robert (our mailbox) and about the same from Osage Beach (i.e. Lake of the Ozarks). The local towns – Crocker and Iberia – have most services within fifteen minutes but without the big-name stores. After the first month, we settled in to weekly trips for shopping and checking the mail. We found a nice medium-sized church in Crocker and there are smaller churches everywhere – some in town and others in the country. The kids love their activities and we enjoy the preacher.

Sarah grew up in a rough neighborhood in Albuquerque. She could hear gunshots frequently, sometimes right outside her bedroom window. Naturally, she grew up fearing and loathing guns. Shortly after we arrived, she heard gunshots in the distance and started to fret. I merely reminded her of our water-heater and she soon lost all her fears. It’s not the guns, but the people using them.

As I mentioned in the previous update, I finished book two last October. It still needed a lot of editing. After quick pass, I decided to start book three rather than work towards immediate publication. My executor duties and the transition to the new house kept me from writing for the entire months of November and December. I finished book three in February, took off a week to catch up on chores and celebrate my birthday, then I did another editing pass on both books. I finished income taxes, car licensing, and some more tasks around the house this past week while celebrating Julie’s sixth birthday. I plan to start book four of the seven book series very soon.