2017 Trip – Blog #19 – Happy Birthday, Happy 4th and Another Offer!

Monday, July 3rd, 2017…..  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL! We called him to wish him a happy day and talked with them for 25-30 min.  Then we set out back up to Lebanon. We had a 10:00am meeting at Penny’s first house to tour.  But we first drove by Oak Creek Way. Walt has scheduled the sprinkler repair for today but we didn’t see any truck on the property. Maybe later.  We stopped at Mickey D’s for a quick meal and then hooked up with Aimee. 

After looking at the houses in Lebanon yesterday that were on her list, Penny found several that she wants to see today.  We had previously showed her some we had found earlier and she really liked the one on Moss St. The realtor websites showed it as available but unfortunately Aimee shows it on her MLS as pending sale. The houses we saw on Saturday all needed a little fixer upper help which could run up her up-front costs making it less of a bargain. But it did help Penny make a choice to up her dollar figure to maybe get more choices and maybe save on reno costs. So she made arrangements with Aimee to see those that were available today. In between visits to these places I called the water and power companies to check status and get the Oak Creek bills in our names.  It was easy with the gas company. It was semi easy with the electric company.  They gave me the option to provide prior payment history (prompt payments with SCE) in order to waive the $140. start-up deposit. So the problem arose when I contacted Edison to request that this letter be created and then faxed.  “We don’t fax. We can send you an email”. Fine. Nothing showed up. I called back. “It takes 24 hours to be received”.  Huuh? Ok fine. “We always send out the letter via us mail”.  Fine. I have 10 days to provide to them.  Bottom line, the power to the house is not going to be shut off – it’s all paperwork. Finally got that done. Wheew!  All this while we were seeing homes. But then after a few, we went to THE house! This one ticked off all the boxes and she found everything she was looking for.  We did see two more to add to the confusion but after talking a bit with Aimee about the seller’s motivation and what he would be willing to do to prep the house (it currently has renters) for sale, and after talking more later at dinner and thinking about it on the way home she called Aimee and said she will probably be making an offer tomorrow.   

As for us, tomorrow we have an appointment to do the final walk through.  Yaay! We get to see just what he’s left us and what we need to do.  He has told both agents he was on schedule to be out on Sunday. We did see him on Sunday but not yesterday so he may have all of his stuff out and has left.  Later, on the way home, we drove by and we did see the sprinkler repair vehicle there. We’re guessing he didn’t need to be there for the repair because we didn’t see his truck. The main thing is the repair gets done.  Looks like we’re on track!

Tuesday, July 4th, 2017…..  HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY!!!  I couldn’t sleep last night!  We are getting so close to getting our house! We got cleaned up, made breakfast, and left, and met Aimee at the house. The walk through went well. 

Turns out about the only thing he left behind was an old Jeep CJ sitting out next to the workshop.  Problem is he we won’t know until we get possession if it stays or not.  And if it does stay we need to know if he will leave me the pink slip.  If not I will have to probably sell it for scrap.

After that we went back to Penny’s #1 house choice (2.7 miles away) so she could check out a few things.  After walking it again and taking pictures she’s decided to make an offer! So they went back to Aimee’s office to write it up.  There are other folks set to see the house today so it’s up in the air what will happen. Meanwhile, we went to Lowe’s and Home Depot to look at their washers & dryers.  After comparing their 4^th of July sale prices and some online at other places, she chose a pair from Lowe’s. I dropped her off to get them ordered then went to get Penny as they were finishing up and then we picked up Lydia and headed back towards home.  We decided to stick around the campground tonight so we stopped at the store for potatoes to go with steaks we had prepped earlier. We added salad and the meal was delicious!  We rested and talked about the day’s events and what each of our next steps are going to be. Then we sat out to see if anyone was doing fireworks and then watched tv.