Sunday, March 22, 2009

Busy weekend of preparations

We met with our Realtor again this week, and looked over the contract. We're just about ready to sign with him, but have a few things to take care of first. He says there is often a rush of showings when a house first goes on the market, so we want it to be show-ready when we make the move. This weekend was spent sanding the deck to get it ready to re-stain, and stripping the old stain off our front door so that it can be re-stained also. The weather is starting to turn more spring-like, so it's a good time to start working outside. I'm also straightening up inside the house - cleaning off shelves, dusting and putting away my "treasures". We hope to be ready for listing by April 15th.

Another thing on my agenda is to find a scanner so I can start scanning all our old photos. Luckily there aren't too many. I've had a digital camera since about 2005, and for a few years prior to that I was sending my film to an online company who would develop it and post the photos on their website. When I eventually stopped using them, I got an archive CD of all my pictures on the site. So, I probably only have about 10 years worth of prints to scan, plus some old prints that I have of my parents and myself as a child. A big task, no doubt, but I'll just do a little bit each night.

We thought we had a bite on our motorhome, but not yet. A woman from northern MI was going to come down this week, but now has to wait until May or June. Disappointing, but that's OK. We're confident that somebody will come along, or we may end up trading it in.

Well, Tom wants to get on this computer now to verify the toy hauler models that we want to tour when we go to Indiana next month. Our first camping trip is coming up quickly, and we're ready to go!

Monday, March 16, 2009

We Build the Trucks . . . that tow your 5er!

Tom was sent this video at work, and we liked it, so we thought we'd post it here for awhile. I was a little disappointed that it didn't touch on that use for Ford trucks, but I guess the artist was concentrating on the utility aspect . . .

As for us, things are still going well. WE've been cleaning and purging still. We emptied our closet this weekend, and have TONS of clothes to take to the Salvation Army! We have an appointment with our selected realtor on Wednesday, so that will really get the ball rolling!

I enjoyed reading all the blogs from Kerrville last week. It sounds like you all had a really good time - wish we could have been there! Soon . . .

OK, gotta go pack lunches for tomorrow. Check out the video, and let me know what you think!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Late winter busy-ness

Well, I obviously don't have this blogging thing down yet . . . I let way too much time go by without posting! We've been busy, of course! Besides work and school, we spent 2 weekends painting and cleaningup! I'm happy with the results, though . . .

We had 3 realtors over to the house to give their opinions. Two of them were OK, and pretty much carbon-copies of each other. They came up with the same proposed price range for our house, and both recommended that we replace our Armstrong Solarian kitchen floor with some type of inexpensive wood or tile. In their opinion, buyers are more interested in "flash" than quality. They reached those conclusions after about an hour in our home.

The 3rd (who was the 1st to come over, and the last to get back with a proposal (yes, an actual proposal)) came up with a slightly higher price (not a lot), and an overall better outlook on the marketing of or home. He also mentioned that the kitchen floor may be a distraction for some buyers, but did not recommend changing it unless it became an isse - wait for the proof. He spent 3 hours with us in an intial meeting, 2 hours when he returned with two other realtors from his office for a 2nd opinion, 2 weeks working on the research for the proposal, and another 3 hours when he returned last week to present his findings!

Can you guess who our first choice is??? He left us last week without requesting a decision, leaving it up to us to call him when we're ready. We're definintely going to call him back! We have a few more things to clean up/declutter, and then we'll be ready for pictures/showings. So, this home sale thing is getting real!!!

As for the replacement home, we're still planning multiple factory tours next month when we''re in Indiana, but Tom is leaning heavily toward the K-Z. We're finding that they have all the quality of the higher end toy haulers, but at a better value. Tom came across a used 2008 K-Z at an RV dealer in Bay City, MI (about 2 hours away for us), and we were planning on heading up there last Saturday, but the guy called on Friday night and said that somebody from Florida was buying that unit -we are so bummed!! He was letting it go for a really good price - we hope the deal falls through!

We also found out that we won 30 days of free camping at an RV park near our home! We must have filled out an entry at the RV show a few weeks past. It's a membership park (Passport America, too, so if it's nice we'll let you all know), so we have to go for a tour in order to claim our certificates for free camping. It's only about 45 minutes from home, so we're going for our tour this Saturday. If we like it, we may go therefor Labor Day Weekend and maybe Halloween camping if they have it.

The weather in Michigan is starting to improve. We're getting days in the 40s and 50s, and only into the 30s at night. Last Friday it was 68 degrees and sunny - georgeous!! I sat out on the deck with my laptop to work! We had a TON of rain over the weekend, but today was dry and up to about 50 degrees. I a SO ready for spring, especially now that the time has changed, and it's staying light later!

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to stay more up-to-date! "H!" to everyone in Kerrville - we wish we were there!!