I don't wait well...

Ok, I'm getting anxious.  Our realtor met with their realtor- I don't think they had lunch, though.  He did a fabulous job with the presentation (or at least what we saw was great).  He took lots of pictures and presented a bound portfolio of color pics with the proposal detailing the problems we have with the house and why we are offering a reduced price.  I guess he tried to sell the other realtor that this was a good offer based on what he had seen of the house and that the chances of getting someone else willing and/or able to put the work into this house that it needs, are slim to none.  

We'll have to see how it goes.  Evidently the couple who own the property had another offer in a similar price range to ours and turned it down.  What I don't know is how long ago that was.  I guess this other person had no intention of fixing up the house.  They planned to bulldoze it and build new (although that may be easier and faster than rehabing it!)  The price the owners are asking is totally outrageous considering the amount of work that needs to be done on this house.  I don't know if they think they need to get a certain price to 'get back' what they put into it or what.  Both we and our realtor (who has 40 years of experience) feels that our offer is reasonable given the condition of the house.  Personally, I would think that a second offer at about the same price would send a pretty clear message of what it's worth- or what people are willing to pay.  I'm hoping that they're more motivated to sell, even at a lower price since the house has been on the market for so long.

The other realtor was to be meeting with the owners this afternoon. We gave them until 1 pm tomorrow afternoon to make the decision to accept or not. Sigh...

In other news, I spent this lovely day working hard to get this place into condition to sell.  I spent the afternoon stripping the wallpaper from the upstairs bathroom and scrubbing the walls in preparation for painting. J14 helped a bit with the stripping part.  The wallpaper had been there since we moved in and was awful.  We've been planning to remove it for a long time and I've just been waiting for it to get warm enough to open windows while I work.  The children are off on spring break next week so I'm giving J14 the task of priming and painting tomorrow and Tuesday since the weather is supposed to be lovely- at least for the first part of the week.  I forewarned her that she'd better get used to the work. If the house sale goes through we will be working on two houses simultaneously, while in the spring rush of garden planting.  Whoosh!

More gratuitous photos

Hills and valleys!

The tops of the rises are fairly clear of trees.  I'm envisioning berries and possibly a gazebo.

View from the south end, looking at the house. Children exploring near small pool.

Kids and creeks!  J and K work on a small waterfall.

I think this is the spring fed creek. 

The rise to the rear (southeast) is lovely and flat on top, with hickory and walnut trees around the edges.

Making the offer!!!

Is this the house of the future??? The view from the southeast

It isn't much to look at and it has it's issues but we're making an offer today.  We spent about 2 and a half hours out there, walking the perimeter of the property, going over all the buildings and talking offering price.  I'm really happy with the agent we have representing us.  He evidently went out to the property earlier in the week by himself and had already made notes of lots of things. He had called the company that services the well and septic and asked about records for all those things.  

From the dining room to the kitchen.

From the drive, looking west at the barn and pole building.

The riding arena.

Ok, looking at this, maybe I don't want my garden here.  It seems really wet, even with the gravel and sand base. With the weather sunny and 50 we had more time and motivation to wander the property so I was able to scope out several other places for a garden so maybe this is out.

The house needs LOTS of work- V will have his hands full (as will I) but here is the biggest selling point:

The view from the deck to the south. Heaven!!

The kids had so much fun playing in the creeks.  There are, I think, 4 creeks that converge on the property.  Where they join there is a tiny pool where K9 discovered a little fish, which tells me that there is likely water there year round.  To me, that means that at least one of these creeks is spring fed rather than just being intermittent drainage.  

I have tons more pictures, lots of the children exploring- I'll try to post some more later.  Now, lets just hope they like our offer.

Waiting....

Tomorrow is the day.  We go for another look see- kids in tow, and make our plan for an offer on the property.  We've been having fun making plans.  V and J14 are talking about turning part of the riding arena into a mediaeval fighting ground, or an open air theatre. Me, I just want my raised bed garden spot.  But as big as it is, we would have room for both.  V has been researching how to better insulate the pole barn.  It should be fun. We've begun to come to terms with the amount of work that will be involved with this house.

I'm a bit anxious though.  Today was a crazy-busy day at work and now we're unwinding.  We got a bottle of pre-mixed zombies and have been sampling.  Maybe that's why I'm having trouble typing correctly.  While we do indulge in alcoholic beverages (I know some of you are SHOCKED! by this) we really don't drink that much.  I haven't had a zombie since my college days- Wow!

V just refilled my glass- I'd better go while I can ;)

Wacky Wednesday!

Whew!  I made it.  What a day!  I didn't sleep well last night so I've been up essentially since about 230 this morning.  Oh, I dozed off and on after that but not very well.  I haven't slept well in years.  I tried the medicated sleep for a while but didn't like it.

Anyway,  after a full day of work, we picked up I11 from band, ran to the soup supper, served and ate quickly and they flew to J14's concert.  That was nice...although with as tired as I was classical music about put me to sleep.  So now, here I am, unwinding.  Hopefully I'm not too keyed up to sleep.

We have an appointment with our realtor on Saturday to go through the house with a fine tooth comb and make our offer.  While we were waiting for the concert to start V and I were talking about plans: kitchen remodel (minor), basement, outbuildings and garden space.  I hope we can come up with a reasonable offer,  I would love to know one way or another soon. Partly for purely selfish reasons.   I have the most recent Gurney's catalog.  They have a special deal that when you purchase $25 you get an additional $25 worth of merchandise free.  I was eyeing the raspberry, blueberry and strawberry deals that are already buy one get one free offers and was plotting how much I could get for about $30.  Unfortunately the offer expires on the 18th.  That's one week from today.  I don't want to get too hopeful and order, only to have something fall through and have no where to put things. But on the other hand, I can get some great deals and I'd love to get things in the ground sooner than later.  I guess at worst, I could plant things at my parent's or at Roger's place and then transplant at a later time but I hate to do that.  Well, hopefully I'll know something soon.  I think we're going to give them 2 days to respond to the offer when we make it.  I do hope they're motivated to sell.

A question about apples

I've got a question.  I'm not an expert on apples.  My parents have an orchard and I've grown up around apple trees but I really don't know that much about them.   Here's the scoop:

A few weeks ago I was cutting up an apple for K (now 9) as I was cutting out the core a seed fell out.  The curious thing was that it was starting to sprout.  Since they are doing their 'growing things' unit in science at school he wanted to plant it.  I've got no problem with that.  We get an old cup, fill it with seed starting mix, popped the seed in and set under the lights downstairs.  Given that the apple had been in the fridge I wasn't sure if it would continue to grow but it did.  Now we have a lovely little apple tree in a cup- it is a few inches tall and has 4 leaves on it.  I fully realize that it will be many years until this would bear fruit but my question is this:  Do apples grow true to the parent fruit?  This was from a Braeburn (Yeah, I bought some since we were out).  K is so excited to have an apple tree but will it be Braeburn apples if it lives long enough to produce?  I guess I'll have a few years to work on this one.  Now we just need to find a place to plant it where we will be around for a few years- I know it won't last forever in it's little solo cup.

First up!

Amish Paste wins!  Followed by Cherry Roma in a close race.  India Paint eggplant in third!

Wow! who knew seed starting could be so much fun.  Some of my little seedlings are starting to pop up. Too much fun and excitement for me.  I left for work this morning- nothing-  I come home and there is a little green buddy popped up and several others beginning to show.  Isn't it amazing how quickly they grow.  I was a bit surprised by the cherry roma tomato.  It's an heirloom variety but the seed is a couple of years old.  I didn't expect it to germinate as well.  We'll see how many of them come up, though.

In house news- we're trying to work out a time to go with our realtor back out to the acreage for an extended walk through to finalize our offer.  Probably Thursday afternoon or Saturday.  

I'd do it sooner but tomorrow is a crazy day.  I11 has band until 430.  By 5 J14 and I need to be at church to serve at a soup supper and by 630 J needs to be back at the high school for her orchestra concert.  The concert is usually held on the university campus but due to flooding last year, the arts/music buildings are still out of commission. Anyway, it's going to be a long day.

Friday V has an appointment in the psych clinic that I don't want him to miss.  He seems to be holding up well from a depression standpoint, I think the excitement of the house helps and having work from his brother and other freelance jobs is good. But after the trouble we had a few years ago with his depression, I'm not taking any chances.

Thursday looks promising for us it the realtor can make it. I can most likely sneak out of work early (although I have to meet with folks from the University of Calgary from 1-2) and the kids have an early release day from school (out at 2 and 215) since they really want to come see.  

I'm getting excited.  I really, really hope this works out. Since the house is vacant, if we can come to a quick agreement on price and get all the inspections done maybe there is still time to plant some garden out there this year.  A lot of things don't go in until about Mother's day so I've got some time but the early garden may still end up at Roger's house.

Roger is a bit sad that he may be gardening alone but he's also excited about the possibilities for us.  What a good friend.  I will miss gardening with him.  We can still share seedlings since we each planted different things.

Gotta run.  I need to bake brownies for this dinner tomorrow night.