The "Not" Inspection

A price is agreed upon, which cannot be lowered. However the sale is contingent upon an inspection, meaning the buyers have the right to back out of the sale if they don't like the results. An inspection has a 24 hour notice.

OK, so on with the story....I was sorting through papers....stacks of papers. Highly organized as I am (not), I was looking for my most recent copy of my homeowner's insurance. I had papers spread over the entire bed. I had another pile on the floor in the equipment room. I gave up looking and we left to pay the bill. After paying the bill we stopped by Staples. I wanted to look at desks. Halfway into the store our agent calls, "They don't want an inspection, they want a contractor to give an estimate of the repairs. They are coming at 4 pm, is that OK?"
"Sure", I answer, looking at the time.
"Crap! They will be here in an hour!" I tell my hubby.
We abandon the store and rush home, stuff ALL the papers in a box *sigh* and clean up quick. I mean quick, as in, "now were do I put....oh....just stuff it into a drawer."

So they come, the other agent, two younger guys and an older man. One of the young guys has a tablet and a camera. He takes a few pictures and enters a lot of info on his tablet. They ask a few questions. I point out the access doors to the attic and the plumbing for the tub. They discuss the hallway and the third bedroom. They ask for the refrigerator, we agree. We show them the garage. After a few more questions and discussions they thank us and leave. We are still waiting for an answer.

Consultations

Talked to a trusted electrician. Talked to a Realtor. Have an appointment tomorrow at noon with another Realtor, and another on Monday. Why so many? Because we need advice, lots of advice.

Well, here's the deal. If, let's just say IF we loved this house and we loved the area, we could stay here and nickle-dime this place until it's done. But we don't want to stay here. I don't want to stay here. I have problems with too much heat. I have problems with too much sun. Chalk it up to 16 weeks of radiation I guess, but I am really uncomfortable in hot weather, in hot/humid weather, in middle-of-the-day sunny weather. I am always ducking into the shade, or into the air conditioning. Add industrial pollution to the mix and I'm having trouble breathing on top of it all. Then winter comes and I am dealing with the cold. I want out of the Midwest.

We found out that we can't just get a breaker box put it...no...the whole house needs to be rewired, at considerable expense. The garage needs to be torn down, at considerable expense. We need carpentry work done, lots of it, at considerable expense. We could take a loan, get it all done, and maybe get the money back. Or we can cut our losses and run. It's time to go.

Finally...a little progress

The bathroom is much closer to being done. Hubby installed bead board part way up the walls and installed new tile on the floor. We also needed a new toilet. We got a great deal at Home Depot, a European-style dual flush with the buttons on top. It works great, and flushes with power just like in Europe. Only $98. Later we need to install the trim and a new door.

We decided that the next  major step will be the electric. We need a breaker box and 220 installed. And we decided to go with an electric stove. See, years ago when my first hubby changed the kitchen around, he installed a gas hookup for the stove that is not code. In fact it's down-right dangerous....copper tubing strung from the meter through the wall to the stove, and there isn't even a shut-off valve! To make matters worse, the shut-off on the meter is stuck open. I called the power company, and they said no one is supposed to touch the meter, but they will come out and shut it off for $45. My daughter, who knows more about plumbing, electrical and HVAC than most men, said that she can run the gas pipe (yeah, she even has a pipe threader!) but to install it by code it needs to be buried 2 feet underground. For that we would need to jackhammer the concrete porch. Solution: have the electrician install an outlet for an electric stove. Then get rid of my broken gas stove (oven doesn't work) and buy an electric one. Problem solved. Since the meter is stuck, we don't want to risk breaking something trying to shut it off ourselves, so will cough up the $45 and have them do it. Then we can remove the copper code violation and close the hole with a fitting. No pipe hassles, no code violations, two steps closer to being done. After that we plan to hire a carpenter to do some framing. We can do the drywall and painting.

The work that needs to be completed to make this house sale-ready is enough to break your head. The obstacles have ganged up on my husband and sent me into bouts of the blues. I have to remind him, and myself, one step at a time.

Waiting to exhail

That pretty much what life feels like. It was a long, long winter. Hubby had no work with the flooring place. After all, he doesn't have his own truck and tools, so he can only work as a helper. But how the heck can you buy a truck and tools if you aren't working? Anyway, hubby is moving on in another direction.

In the meantime we have been trying to form our exit plan. Exit from this house, from this city. I have been packing everything I don't use often in bins which we put in the garage. After all, this house is so tiny there is no place to move things to make room to do any work. Fixing this house is utter frustration.

We thought about selling as is, but reconsidered when we found out our only buyers would be contractors who want to buy insanely low and gut the house to the studs and start over. I went over the house in my head:

• Roof - good
• Bedrooms - need paint
• Bathroom - mostly cosmetic
• Living room - needs a wall built, paint and sills around the windows, ceiling in hallway
• Kitchen - needs the other side returned to a laundry area so we can reclaim the 3rd (tiny) bedroom as a bedroom
• Electric - need 220 put in
• Gas - need new meter installed (free) so we can turn off the gas and hook up new pipe to the stove
• Floors - need tile in the kitchen and carpet in the living room
• Siding - some fixing here and there
• Garage - needs a new roof and new garage door. 

So we need some work done but then we can sell for full price,WAY more than what a contractor would pay. To ease the frustration, we found out a neighbor knows how to do all the work and he will work for a reasonable price, some of it on the barter plan.

My hubby made a valiant effort to finish all the projects first hubby started and abandoned over the years. But hubby never worked with frame homes. Our homes are really different than the re bar-reinforced solid concrete and brick fortresses they live in over in Europe. Our neighbor lives in the same type house we do, same lay-out and everything. It's easy for him.

In other news, my older daughter got married to a really great guy (second marriage for both). The wedding was wonderful and hubby got to walk her down the isle.

Spring 2014, even though it's snowing today

This is going to be a short post, because I have been sick with some kind of head/chest cold, maybe flu. I am thinking maybe flu, because they told me the shot protects against 3 and the nasal spray protects against 4 but had side effects. I picked the shot. Anyway, here are my crocus last week, taken on the 11th.

We had a warm Saturday. I think it hit 80. Hubby and some helpers got the garage cleaned out.

Updates

Work is going good for my hubby at his first job, the tile place. Apparently they have lots of work, which is good news after a 3 month lull. The other boss came home from the hospital, but he lost his big clients while he was absent and told my hubby he couldn't afford to pay him what he offered until he builds the company back up. I thought that was kind of strange.

We are getting better weather, ups and downs as usual,. It's 52 now but the nights have been cold with heavy frost. It will be cold again this weekend. Of course it doesn't help that the lake is one giant ice cube.

Here is "patriotic bunny" to make you smile

We have a bunny!

We offered to take him, because he was turned out in the snow by someone who didn't care or didn't want him. We think he is young, because he seems to have grown some in the time we've had him. Amazingly he is litter trained and doesn't chew the furniture, electrical cords or anything else that is not his, which was the main concern.

Food

I have never had anyone tell me they didn't like my tacos....ever. When hubby was still in Kosovo I told him if ever he didn't like something I cooked to please tell me. He told me he would just have some bread and marmalade. I told him I didn't want my husband going hungry, that I would cook something else.

The first time I made tacos hubby refused to put the salad on the taco, preferring to put it in a bowl and eat it as a side dish. Then he spread copious amounts of mustard on the meat, folded the shell and ate it that way. Sometime later, a month maybe, we had tacos again. That time he put the salad on the taco. I thought great, he's getting the hang of it. Fast forward to tonight. I made tacos. Hubby warmed a couple shells, got some jam out of the frig, slathered it on the shells, and sat down to eat them. He told me he was sorry, he just can't eat tacos. I know I TOLD him to tell me, but for some idiotic reason I felt hurt. I tried to hide it. I tried to tell myself...after all, just the other night I told him the Hallva he cooked tasted like burnt flour.

I went to my computer and sat down, tears welling up in my eyes. He knew it, darn it. He came into the room to (again) say he was sorry and to ask if I was crying. Well, what could I do? He put his arms around me, apologizing again and again. So I cried a little on his shoulder and then I was ok.

I'm used to a meat portion, a starch and a veggie, and maybe a salad on the side. Albanian food is different. Meat portions are often cut up into bite sized pieces. The veggies are likewise cut up, and everything is cooked together. The good thing is, I cook Albanian food pretty good and I like it too.

"Her" is a He

I had no idea what the bunny was, just assumed a "she" because of no smell (I thought males would have a urine odor). But I guess I was wrong. I had no idea how to tell what a rabbit is until I looked on the internet. So, he is a male. So far no problems. One person who keeps rabbits told me there is no need to get a rabbit fixed if you have only one.

Shopping for a new desktop. I have a good monitor, need a new tower. The one I have belonged to first hubby, who told me "I'll only use it for email, buy me the cheapest one." A few months later the computer I was using died, so I ended up inheriting a really slow single core AMD. It's been solid and stable, it's just slow, and some bigger programs are making it lag. We were looking at Windows 8 with the touch screens. I like the touch screen feature, but it's not going to work for me when I'm sitting down. I mean, I can hardly reach my monitor from a sitting position, and if I scoot my chair closer, I'll just end up with a tired arm. I have some time to think about it. There's been no work. The big jobs that were talked about back in November that were supposed to come after New Year's haven't materialized yet.

Hubby said his mom always made a yummy dessert, but I had my doubts when hubby described it to me. It's called Hallva, and it's made by heating oil and adding flour until it's kind of thickish. It is stirred without stopping until it gets brown. At this point it smells like burnt flour. In another pot, water and sugar is heated. When the oil and flour is cooked, the sweetened water is stirred in. Then the mix is transferred to a heavy bowl and cooled. It tastes like...burnt flour. Hubby loves it. I told him it must be something you need to grow up with. Odd thing is, hubby doesn't like the smell of Parmesan cheese. He doesn't like the taste of turkey (but he loves duck). He bought a duck and I cooked it. I thought it stank. He said it was so yummy and couldn't understand why I didn't like it. Thankfully we both love chicken. Life is an adventure.

Like everyone else, we are waiting for spring.

P.S. I looked up Hallva. Here is a different recipe. It uses butter (or margarine), which would taste better (to me---hubby doesn't like butter either) but would wreck equal havoc with my digestive system.

1 glass butter or margarine (or oil)
1 glass flour
1-1/4 glasses granulated sugar
5 glasses water

Heat the margarine in a saucepan very gently, and saute the flour until golden brown in the margarine for 40 minutes over low to moderate heat. When the flour turns light golden, put the sugar and water in a separate saucepan and make syrup by boiling gently. Add the syrup to the saucepan with flour and simmer for 20 minutes, and then take out small pieces of the Hallva with a wooden spool, form into balls and place on a serving plate. Serve warm.

Since hubby likes it so much (and asked me to cook it for him once in awhile) I will try following this recipe and maybe not make it so brown, thus eliminating the burnt flour taste.

Ok that's more normal

Hubby gets paid every 2 weeks. The first two checks were for 2013. We figured out why such a tax sticker shock on check # 2. The first check had no taxes taken out. The second check had double taxes to make up for it. This first check in 2014 was normal. Phew! Work has been slow. One thing about the construction trades....the ebb and flow with the weather, the seasons and the holidays. Hubby would rather have a steady, 40 hour work week, but at least this is something. Now we are just waiting for this north pole weather to go back where it belongs. We had piles of snow and now bitter cold. They call it the Siberian Express or a Polar Vortex. Wednesday is supposed to be better, and ABOVE freezing this weekend! Woot! We had 29 below zero here, once. First hubby worked for a heating & A/C company and he had service that night. The phone rang ALL night.

In other news, we have a pet, a bunny. Someone didn't want her. She doesn't bite, doesn't chew on things, and is litter trained. She has no smell whatsoever, not even her litter box, so I'm thinking she is fixed. When she sniffs my feet it feels like cotton ball kisses lolol. We bought rabbit food, timothy hay blocks, a water bottle and chew sticks for her. We were going to buy a cage but got sticker shock and decided to wait. I had her blocked off to the kitchen. We made her a box with old towels for a bed. Turns out she just lives in the kitchen, blockade or not. Sometimes she ventures into the living room or bedrooms and then back to the kitchen. She loves parsley. She will also eat some carrot. We bought mixed salad greens but we haven't opened the bag yet. I read they like to play with metal things that jingle, like measuring spoons. I can't give her mine but I gave her a jingle bell (not tiny). She rolls it around. They also like toilet paper rolls. She will pick it up by the end and toss it. I really had no idea rabbits would play, nor did I know they could be litter trained.

The new tree

The new tree is finally showing some good color. If the sun pops out before all the leaves are gone I'll try to get a better picture, as it is being lashed around by rain and wind in this one. We had 2.69 inches of rain last night.

Lovin' the mild weather!

October hardly seems like October. We have had a very mild start to the month, lots of opportunities to paint and fix the outside of the house before winter. My hubby is doing an amazing job, considering the house was neglected for the past 10 years. He has filled cracks and painted windows and the eves and soffets all around the house.

On a completely unrelated subject, I watched Diane Sawyer Interviews Malala Yousafzai This Friday: ABCNEWS.COM - "They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed," the 16 year old said.

It was really good. What a brave young woman to stand up against the taliban and stand for the right to an education for all girls. What she stands for is what Islam is supposed to be. The world is with you Malala! May God protect you always.

Projects

List of accomplishments in the (near) 5 months since hubby immigrated.

• Old paneling removed from walls and ceiling
• New wallboard put up & mudded
• Gigantic moldy hole in the ceiling cleaned and patched
• Old rotten picture window removed
• New picture window installed
• New ductwork in hallway (thanks to my daughter---the heating expert)
• Sidewalk and porch cracks cemented
• Hole in back yard filled
• Rotted fence removed
• Ants and earwigs banished from house
• Eave vent nailed on underside of eaves to prevent sparrows from nesting in them

To do list.

• Paint wood window and door sills (outside) done
• Scrape and paint eaves. done
• New fence & gate for side of house
• Build drop ceiling for hallway to hide ductwork
• Build wall and access door for furnace room
• Paint walls and ceiling
• Rent dumpster
• Clean out garage and remove old shingles
• Install new roof on garage
• Finish kitchen (yikes---another big job!)
• New carpet (last)
• Sell house

Bugs & spiders

We have most of the problem under control now. We have a spider I have never seen before. There was one in the bathroom. Then one outside on the side of the house near the ground. Then another in the bathroom. They are all dead. Ewww. Big, like the body was 1/2 inch long and short legs. They were reddish-brown and hairy. Not the brown recluse. I saw one of those and killed it. Not a wolf spider. I creeped myself out looking and looking at spider pictures and I can't find it. I guess if I see another I will need to take a picture before I kill it. Yeah....like that's going to happen. I have arachnophobia for sure.

Anyway, the big difference between houses in Europe and the USA, unless you have a brick house, then you  probably have a wood-frame one. Wood-frame houses have a bajillion places where bugs can enter and hide between the walls. In Europe you just seal up the cracks, inside and out, easy peasy....no entry.

Ants....they come in looking for water. We have everything sealed in containers or ziplock bags and put the garbage out immediately. It has helped.

Earwigs....we only saw a couple since the massive siding-banging spraying episode.

There is still sooooo much to do to this house and yard to get it ready to sell.

Cool & dry

We have are having a run of real cool weather, while the rest of the world is warmer than normal. We are taking advantage of the cool weather to get some yard work done. It's waaaay too dry, though. We are keeping the bird bath filled, so the birds have some water. Living room is coming along slowly.

It's been too hot! The living room is mudded. Needs to be sanded and mudded again. We had to spray for bugs. We kept getting earwigs and ants in the house. This spring I bought a pretty pot of pansies. But lately the blooms have been reduced to chewed stubs. I picked up the pot and HUNDREDS of earwigs went running everywhere. They don't seem to eat Impatiens but there were hundreds hiding under those pots as well. I tossed the pansies. Why feed those suckers.

So we bought some barrier spray. Then we cleared all vegetation that was next to the house. Then we started spraying. Hubby bumped the side of the house and omg THOUSANDS of ants and ant eggs poured out from behind the siding. So we changed tactics: bang on the house, spray like crazy. Every few feet or so dozens of earwigs would pour out, like scarab beetles in an Indiana Jones movie. It was so gross!!!

It looks like the heat spell will break this weekend.

More progress on living room

New window

Sheetrock

The new window is in, now to close the spaces on each side

So busy, so happy!

We are happy. Hubby tells me he is so happy. We are busy working on the house. Wallboard will be going up soon. Here is the ceiling with the boards down. Lots of patching to do. It's nearly done. Hubby has been working on it every day.

Living room Makeover

Years ago first hubby and I put up some really dark paneling. Then years later we had a bad roof leak and part of the ceiling caved in. First hubby's solution was to nail the wrecked ceiling back in place and cover the nightmare with ceiling tiles. Unfortunately the tiles in the corner began to sag some years ago, so to prevent them from caving in, I had to brace them in place. Since hubby #1 didn't seem to care to fix it, everything stayed. The ceiling ties were shabby and not even straight. The old, dark paneling was a mess. Fast forward to present.
BEFORE:

The east end

 The west end with a computer desk and falling tiles

THE DEMOLITION BEGINS:

The east end, or front of the house

The west end showing the ceiling and the damage. Removing the paneling also uncovered mold, which I am cleaning. I have always had allergy problems when sitting at that corner desk. Is it any wonder?

Close-up of the damaged ceiling

I am so thankful my new hubby is so pro-active and non-judgmental regarding my living situation. We are going to hang new wallboard (sheetrock) over the existing walls. We are thinking the damaged ceiling needs to be replaced. We aren't sure how to proceed because we can't decide....should we remove all the boards or put new tiles up? The boards are not going to support heavy sheetrock.

24 days

My hubby has been here 24 days. He has his green card. I have shown him someplace new (to him) nearly every day. We have taken walks, shopped together and cooked together. Today we went to the social security office because he still didn't have his card. The visa application has a check box with which you can choose to have your social security number generated and sent once entering the USA. It should have arrived in about 2 weeks. So I called, and was told he needs to come in to apply, that it is not issued automatically. The wait wasn't bad, maybe 20 minutes. Then documents were presented and hubby was interviewed...."where were you born....when were you born....what are your parents names....is this your current address". Then papers were printed and verified and we were told his card would arrive in 2 to 4 weeks.

I baked corn bread in my bread machine. It works perfectly! Cornbread in Kosovo in hard, heavy and not sweet. Sort of like a round brick. I was thinking he wouldn't like mine. He loves it! "It's so fluffy and soft and sweet! he said. His request...make more and add more sugar! LOL my hubby has a sweet tooth. Albanians eat a lot of bread. I love my bread machine! I bake bread every other day.