Thursday, April 2, 2009

Updates

I thought I'd bring you all up to date on the latest news from our house.  I didn't get the rest of my seedlings transplanted- I know, I'm a bad girl.  But V and I spent an hour at Lowe's dreaming over cabinets, drywall, insulation, roof vents and countertops.  All we left with was a single fluorescent bulb (I had one go out and was short a bulb for my grow lights).  V has promised to hang the lights for me tomorrow (since he got his latest manuscript proofread today) so I can finish up tomorrow.  After reading Kris (Quilted Simple's ) comments, maybe I'll transplant out a few more for me and not give so many to Roger.  We'll see.
In house news, V met out at the HOTF with our realtor and the guy from the health department.  The inspector confirmed that the septic tank needed replaced but gave an Ok for the leach field.  That's a big relief since there is an $8000 - $10000 difference between the two.  Our realtor is going to be our advocate with the owners.  But honestly, even if they won't either pay for it or share the cost, $2100 is a drop in the bucket for what we're going to be shelling out on this place.
ChristyACB had asked a few posts back about my nephew's new wife's research.  I'll tell you what I know.  She is a researcher in neuroscience, studying how memory is formed.  She is using bees as a neurochemical model since bees have great memories to find the flowers and hive again.  The University where she works keeps a fair number of hives that they use for research.  She doesn't tend the bees herself but does go visit them regularly and is rather attached to them (hence the honey at the wedding, the little silk bees inserted in the flowers on the wedding cake and the honey cream frosting- YUM!).  This does have some implications for the study of CCD since one theory is that the bees are getting a form of Alzheimer's (whether from illness or chemical exposure is unknown) that makes them lose their memory and can't find their way either to food or back to the hive.  Of course all of that is pure speculation at this point.  But I found it fascinating to talk to her when I had the chance over New Year's (she was a bit busy to talk research last weekend).
I11 had a field trip today to the state capital so he had to be at school at the 'butt-crack of dawn' and was gone all day until about 430 this afternoon.  He has the 6th grade lock in tomorrow night so he will be crabby all weekend.  V is planning the homestead about 10 steps ahead of reality and dreaming of what he will do down the road a few years.  
Me, I just can't wait to get through tomorrow at work so I can sleep in on Saturday.  Ooo, probably all the way until 645!!!  Maybe even 700 if I'm really decadent!!!  I just know I've got  1.5 weeks of laundry to do, cookies to bake for coffee hour at church on Sunday, general cleaning, shopping and meal planning as well as trying to get started on a few more of the home repairs around here that can be done quickly.  The weather isn't forecast to be great so it will most likely be an indoor weekend- again!  sigh!
Oh, in other good news.  We had another meeting with the loan folks at the credit union.  We're done with all our inspections (except for the septic everything went as expected) do once the appraisal is done (it was ordered last week) we only need a 3 day notice to arrange everything for closing.  I REALLY hope we can get this done sooner rather than later.  We are so psyched and ready to plunge ahead and get our hands dirty that we can't stand it.
Peace to all of you, my friends.

6 comments:

  1. Are you guys listing your house right away or were you going to play landlord for a while?

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  2. Good news on the house repair, 1 less on the list! And it sounds like the credit union is working out well - I had to give at least 10 days notice for my closing date (the house was being built, so it was hard to time the date).
    What is the 6th grade lock-in?

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  3. Kris- We're planning to list our house by mid-May. We're planning to take at least a month to rehab the new place and do some cosmetic work on our current house. We'll be moving bit by bit out there but will have to pick a weekend- probably in late May or Early June to to the 'big move' and really be out there.
    Localzone- I don't think the banks are really busy with home loans right now so things are moving quickly.
    The 6th grade lock in is a party, just for the 6th grade classes. They take over the school from 630 pm to midnight and play games, watch movies, hang out and eat junk food with their friends. It's a school tradition. Usually they have it in May toward the end of the school year but for some reason it's earlier this year. That's ok, though, come May we'll probably be so tired every evening that we couldn't stay up til midnight to pick him up!

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  4. That is a great post - I'm glad your leach bed is ok!! We are going to look at pigs this weekend and do Tyler's BD party on Sunday - talk about busy! I cannot wait to get started on my garden....have a good weekend!
    Kris

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  5. What a huge relief on the septic! A new tank, while expensive, will at least give you some peace of mind since you can take care of it properly from day one and not have to worry about the "other shoe" dropping after you do a bunch of work on the house.

    Thank you so much for answering my question on the bees! What fascinating work. It would be sad to think of bees getting like little old alzheimer's patients, wouldn't it?

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  6. Excellent news on the septic.

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Glad you stopped in. I would love to hear from you.