I envy people like my friend MJ (I'll call her MJ in case she doesn't want publicity or her true identity revealed in association with this blog) who just up and moved to a new house, in Florida no less and by all accounts seems to be doing well in her new abode. I, on the other hand, am still at the starting line. I opened my email the other day and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an email from our seller in Rochester. You remember him, the one who never answered a phone message or email. Well, it seems that his estranged wife still can't decide whether or not to move, even after she said she was ready, so he said he was really sorry that we couldn't make a deal and wished us luck finding a home. We had pretty much written off that house anyway so I guess this was pretty much the final nail in the door jamb.
We are scheduling a trip up north in the near future and have a number of houses to look at, but who knows what the weather may be. Will we be able to go, or not? Will they have snow up there, or not? Will we have more snow here? Don't they need this snow someplace else, like in Sweden or Russia or someplace?
So, we have our list of houses. Our buyers have lowered the price on their house by $20,000, so we are hoping for more activity on that front. In the meantime we are still getting rid of stuff that has accumulated through the years. That process takes longer than you might think because we are now down to stuff that requires a little more careful examination before it is relegated to the trash pile. That is where things stand and I will now go and find more things that require careful examination.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Oh Boy, Oh Boy
Someday, hopefully, I will no longer be writing about moving or buying a house, but not yet. We had the idea last week to go look at active adult communities nearby. I had the idea that moving to Rochester would put us too far from our children and grandchildren. I asked Anne not to tell our children about this for fear that they would arrange to have people come here and take us away for evaluation and/or confinement, but she told anyway. So far, people haven't come to get us, but, you never know.
We went to look at K. Hovnanian's Four Seasons at Metedeconk Lakes and Four Seasons at South Knolls, mostly South Knolls. I didn't go there because I used to work for them, but because they were relatively close by. They either put something in the coffee that they gave us or something sprays on you when you walk into a model home. The models are seductive. Every detail has been thought out by a team of decorators to make you want to go back to the office and buy one right away. I haven't been in many adult communities so I don't know what others are like, but these homes are very, very nice. Buying a home gets you a clubhouse too where there is an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a fitness center, billiard room, library, craft room, rooms to play cards and on and on. They mow your lawn, shovel your snow and guard the gated entrance. All of this is not without a price and pricey the models are. We liked a two bedroom, two bath model that has a den, living/dining room, family room, kitchen, of course, breakfast nook and two car garage. The master bedroom is huge. The base price is $300,000., about in the middle range of the model prices. You can upgrade. Oh, you want doorknobs? A faucet? Everything costs, so that the average buyer spends another $50,000 or $60,000 on upgrades. Then there are restrictions. You can't have holiday lights outside your house, or plant anything, or do anything without the approval of a committee. Not exactly the way we're used to living. Daughter, Christine thought we wouldn't be happy there. Son, Peter, called yesterday and started out by saying the we must be out of our minds. I thought he had found out about our excursion, but he thought we are out of our minds for thinking about moving to Rochester. He just got back to Florida from D.C. to be with his family for the Super Bowl and gave a litany of reasons why it would be better to live there; how you wear more comfortable clothes there; how you eat better there because you don't eat such heavy foods; how the evenings are nice, even in the heat of the summer; how it rarely gets to 100 degrees there. So, oh boy, oh boy, what to do.
We had much discussion about all of this and decided that the Rochester option was still probably the best course for us to follow. What we save by not buying in an adult community can be put toward travel to Florida, Mexico, Arizona, Tijuana, or anyplace and to stay in those places for a while each winter.
I did more packing of cellar stuff today. I don't want to pack too much yet because if our current deal falls apart, I will have all of these boxes lying around and I don't want to lug them all up to the attic, otherwise I'll be in need of a mortician before I'm in need of a realtor.
The Super Bowl will soon be over (I can't bear to watch too much with a son a Green Bay fan and another one a Steelers fan) and that will start the Spring real estate season, according to our realtor. Things will be popping soon, or not.
We went to look at K. Hovnanian's Four Seasons at Metedeconk Lakes and Four Seasons at South Knolls, mostly South Knolls. I didn't go there because I used to work for them, but because they were relatively close by. They either put something in the coffee that they gave us or something sprays on you when you walk into a model home. The models are seductive. Every detail has been thought out by a team of decorators to make you want to go back to the office and buy one right away. I haven't been in many adult communities so I don't know what others are like, but these homes are very, very nice. Buying a home gets you a clubhouse too where there is an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, a fitness center, billiard room, library, craft room, rooms to play cards and on and on. They mow your lawn, shovel your snow and guard the gated entrance. All of this is not without a price and pricey the models are. We liked a two bedroom, two bath model that has a den, living/dining room, family room, kitchen, of course, breakfast nook and two car garage. The master bedroom is huge. The base price is $300,000., about in the middle range of the model prices. You can upgrade. Oh, you want doorknobs? A faucet? Everything costs, so that the average buyer spends another $50,000 or $60,000 on upgrades. Then there are restrictions. You can't have holiday lights outside your house, or plant anything, or do anything without the approval of a committee. Not exactly the way we're used to living. Daughter, Christine thought we wouldn't be happy there. Son, Peter, called yesterday and started out by saying the we must be out of our minds. I thought he had found out about our excursion, but he thought we are out of our minds for thinking about moving to Rochester. He just got back to Florida from D.C. to be with his family for the Super Bowl and gave a litany of reasons why it would be better to live there; how you wear more comfortable clothes there; how you eat better there because you don't eat such heavy foods; how the evenings are nice, even in the heat of the summer; how it rarely gets to 100 degrees there. So, oh boy, oh boy, what to do.
We had much discussion about all of this and decided that the Rochester option was still probably the best course for us to follow. What we save by not buying in an adult community can be put toward travel to Florida, Mexico, Arizona, Tijuana, or anyplace and to stay in those places for a while each winter.
I did more packing of cellar stuff today. I don't want to pack too much yet because if our current deal falls apart, I will have all of these boxes lying around and I don't want to lug them all up to the attic, otherwise I'll be in need of a mortician before I'm in need of a realtor.
The Super Bowl will soon be over (I can't bear to watch too much with a son a Green Bay fan and another one a Steelers fan) and that will start the Spring real estate season, according to our realtor. Things will be popping soon, or not.
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