Will they or won't they build a house?

We gave the builder one more chance to be reasonable. We asked to have the price increase on the model reduced to the price that it was last fall when we wanted to build. They said "no" and we walked. We put a bid in on the house that we went down to see and the first bid was accepted. The seller would not do a contingency sale so we had to prove that we could get a blanket loan. That is now secured and our next steps are to get that house inspected and to get this house on the market. The former will happen Friday, April 11 the latter on or around April 9. I have a lot to do before then, but I am now seeing results. I am trying very hard to be thoughtful with reguards to what I keep. This is a lot of sorting and getting rid of stuff. We keep listing things on Craig's list and I may start listing things on ebay.

Here is the house that we are buying:

Well, its official, the Andersons will not be building a house. We put an offer in on the house, it was accepted and we have gotten all of the financing details worked out and got our lot hold check back. It got to where I just could not trust the builder about anything. When we wanted the floor in a finished basement room put in linoleum instead of carpeting, which is included in the price of finishing, and we were told that it would be $1,800.00 EXTRA. We had thought that there would be a credit, not a charge like that.

I took down my post on Drees Homes facebook page because we were told that it would go a long way toward them giving us some price concession. Well it didn't, maybe I should put the post back up.

We will not have the back yard that I had hoped for, but for what we are saving we can plant a lot of trees. I have looked at the satilite view of the house and it looks as if the neighbors are attempting the same thing that I wwant to do. We will expand the patio then plant trees and other things to create a screen. I am also going to look into planting more evergreens on the property line.

Here is the house that we are buying: http://www.cbws.com/property/details/203670/MLS-1392490/6281-Thicketlake-Ln-Hamilton-Township-OH-45039.aspx

Come by for a visit at some point.

Waiting, waiting, waiting this waiting game is getting old. We have still not heard back from the builder. I guess that they are not that interested in building for us. The sales lady was off March 6 - 10, she worked Tuesday and Wednesday and is off on Thursday and Friday. The earliest that we would hear is tomorrow.

We have been getting other home listings and I am starting to seriously look at them. I have to decide which is more important to live in a 55+ community or to have a home that backs to woods. There is one house that has a community pool and club house, but it is pretty far out. I also has a very small lot.

In the mean time I will just keep cleaning and getting rid of stuff. Right now I am watching a show called "The Unsellables." It reminds me of what to keep in mind when selling. The April 11 date is coming up fast. I guess that I am going to have to stop my work and just clean/sort/clear out.

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." Plans are a great thing to make and even better if they actually happen. It is beginning to look as if our plan for a custom built house backing to woods/ravine and river beyond is just not going to happen.

Yesterday Rob and I got in the minivan and drove down to Cincinnati to look at a house with Denise, our ever patient real estate agent and Douglas. The house has a lot of great features. The basement is about twice the size of our basement and half of it is finished. I would have a great room for sewing with room for a nice sewing machine table, my cutting table and fabric storage, oh yeah and a futon. There is a full bath in the basment. The main room has a sliding glass door and window with enough room for my floor looms and most of the yarn storage. There is another finished room that does not have a window. The guys decided that this would make a great media room. OK, fine, but one floor loom might migrate into there and there might be a little yarn storage. There is a train room, yes, you read that correctly, a train room. There is a huge plywood platform with a train track on it with scenery painted on one wall. Douglas suggested that this would be a good holiday/food storage room. There is another unfinished room that the owner used for what looks like wood working. Then ther is another large unfinished room with a laundry tub. This would be for the dyeing/silk screen area. There are built in sturdy shelves and room for my table and a washer/dryer. We would have to have the washer/dryer hook up installed. OK, so why am I not jumping up and down. I had set in my mind that walkout to the woods. There are a could of trees in the back, but there are also neighbors not woods. I am wondering what landscaping could be done to make some sort of zen garden retreat.

Upstairs is pretty good. The front door is ho hum, but Rob assures me that he has budgeted to replace with a nice door. You walk in the front door and it opens to different areas. To the right is the laundry/mud room. Washer/dryer included and a few built ins. I have other ideas for those built ins. Just have to see what is possible. Then you can go into the dining room, which is not directly connected to the kitchen, but is an extension of the living room. We would be able to extend the dining room table into the living room. The living room windows go out to the covered deck. The owner has huge shades installed on the west side of the deck to block the sun. I suppose that those might come in handy. It looks as if there was one on the northside that blew down, there are a bunch of little broken slats ont he grass. There is a family room, which is something that we were going to eliminate. It isn't a large family room and Douglas was trying to figure out if he could mount the TV over the fireplace. The kitchen and family room are in one large area so instead of an eat in kitchen we would extend the family room into that area. The family room is carpeted and the kitchen has hardwood, which unfortunately is narrrow. I do love our wide plank. The kitchen cabinets are nothing that I would choose, I like simple clean lines. There is a huge island with a granite top and the overhang is large enough that you cna sit at it comfortably. The owner has two tables in the eating area. Not sure why. The eating area has a little bay window, which I think would make a great spot for a window seat. We will have to see on that one.

The rest of the countertops in the kitchen are white Corrian with an integrated sink. At one point that was the bomb, now I just want to bomb it. Oh yeah, and the sink is one of those with the little sink on one side. Not sure how long I can listen to "someone" bitch about that. The question is do we go with a quartz countertop that coordinates with the granite or get the whole thing replaced? The cabinets are very tall. I will need a stepstool to reach the top two shelves. There is an appliance garage, but pretty sure that I cannot get the Kitchenaide mixer in there. I found where I can have one of the lift shelves installed. I forgot to check to see if there is an outlet on the island. The pantry is disapoointing. It isn't a walk in, but maybe we can cut back on the amount of food that we keep on hand. The pantry would be a good spot to keep a skinny stepstool like I have for shows. There is an electric stove. Anyone have any idea how much it costs to have a gas line run? At least now I would not be limited to Whirlpool.

The office is right off of the kitchen. There are glass French doors leading to the office which has built in shelves and is painted RED! The guys measured and figured that they could put the desk into a U formation and it would fit. Not sure right now where the bookcase would go. The guest bath is OK, gold trim - ugh, dated, but is nice. The guest room is painted a sage green. Will have to see how the current comforter goes with that. I suppose that since we bought that in 1999 we could maybe get a new one. There is plenty of room for the queen bed, dresser and two side tables. Nice spot for company.

The master suite is very nice. Two walk-in closets which have wire shelves in and we would change that. The bedroom itself has enough room for our furniture, but two wall mounted lights would have to go. The bath has a corner tub and it fits my requirements of I can get my knees and shoulders under water at the same time. The shower has the dreaded gold trim and Rob would have to duck to get into it. There isn't a build in stool, but there is a little stool in there. We will have to look into how much it would cost to install a glass shower. I don't remember if there are two sinks in there. Not a huge deal, but would be nice.

There is a screened porch off of the family room with a deck beyond. Neither are large. I am not sure if we could get our current table and chairs would fit there. On the patio below there is a natural gas grill. We would rather have the grill upstairs. Douglas doesn't think that it would be a major issue to bring the gas line up to the deck. We can't really extend the deck because there is a great tree right there. The patio is just standard. I looked at a neighbor's house. they have the same configuration and have added the stairs down and have extended the patio. Something to consider.

So basically what is holding me back is the location of the house. The deck does face west and doesn't face trees.

We are going to wait to see what Drees Homes will do for us, hoping that this can be used as leverage. If they don't come down we will buy this house. Rob wants them to go back to the previous price on the base model and to come down on a couple of the DCR's (customer design review) in order for us to go with building. Um, maybe we should ask for a unicorn in the backyard. This is just not going to happen. I need to come to grips with the fact that I will not have my dream house, but I can make any house a home. I have to admit that I am tired of Drees jerking us around. Denise explained that ususally when people build they don't question prices. I guess that we are just cheap.

Stay tuned.

"Ask me no questions and I will tell you no lies."

We sent back more questions and the request for some clarification on the pricing. We knew that the sales lady would be gone March 6 - 9, which worked out fine because I would be tied up judging a synchro meet for that time frame. We got no answers before Mary left and will get answers Monday at the earliest.

Last Wednesday we go one of our auto emails for listings in the area that we are looking. Whoa! One on Thicket Lake Lane, not the one that we saw last spring. There was only one picture on the site, not impressive. The lot backs to another lot and we couldn't tell if there was a deck or a patio.

Denise went to the house for us and took little videos of each area. The kitchen cabinets are darker than I would like and have a raised trim. Somehow I don't think that I would find the deep drawers that I wanted in the house that we were building. The screened porch and the deck are smaller than we would like. The basement has a lot of area that is finished. There is a laundry tub down there, but it is in an unfinished area and there are no windows. I could make it work, I have worse here.

The part that I will be the most unhappy about is the location. When we looked at the other house on Thicket Lake they had a swing under the deck. I sat in that swing, looked at the woods and felt such peace. This is what I wanted in our new house. The lot that we selected backs to woods and the woods lead down to the Little Miami River. Now I have to decide how much this is worth. Is it worth almost $60,000.00?

We had decided to look at this house March 22. This way we could look at the house and hopefully sit down with someone from Drees Homes about our choices. Well now Robert wants to act on this house as quickly as possible. We are driving down on Tuesday to look at the house and then see what we have decided. We could use this as leverage against Drees and this does give us another choice for a new house.

To be continued....

"You can keep what you have or choose what is behind door #2." Well, its not quite that bad, we kind of know what is behind door #2, we just don't always know the price.

When we started this we were told that the kitchen came with an electric stove in either white or black. If you wanted gas there was an upgrade and they did offer a "gourmet" package of a gas stove top with a double oven. I currently have a double oven and I love it. I figured that if they had these packages you would think that they have set models and set prices. When it came down to the preliminary pricing we asked about the gas stove. Mary turned to me and said that she needed a model number. Ummmm, uh huh. Where are the packages? If I had known that we had to come up with a model number I would have been researching this. Denise, the ever patient, every prepared real estate agent had her IPad with her and she quickly got me to the Whirlpool site and I chose one. We were told at that time that there would be a $400.00 upcharge for this. OK. After I got home I reasearched a little more and chose one that was another $400.00, but our upcharge went up $800.00. The current explanation is that they come with a one year warrantee and Drees has to build that into the price. Ummmmm, an appliance comes with a warrantee. Our plan to have them put in the gas line and we get our own stove won't work. They said that the county inspector and the appraiser would not pass a house that doesn't have a stove. Damn, it sounded like a good plan.

The tub is another issue. If this is a big time builder why don't they offer a 6' jetted tub? They told us to go to the website for their plumbing supplier. Don't go to the showroom for the plumbing supplier, that causes problem. I tried and tried to find what tubs this place carried. Robert tried and finally broke the code. I sent the link to Douglas and asked him to see if he could find what tubs they carry. It took him 5 minutes to find this, how does the average person do this. Or do "they" hope that if they make it tough we will give up and go with their standard tub. I got five manufacturers of whirpool tubs to look at, none of which have prices. Is this how most builders do this? And like the stove we cannot have them rough it in and we get the tub installed.

I may ask my contractor what has to be done to concrete so that vinyl can be laid. I want to see how much this prep actually costs.

Denise is trying to get some answers for us and we are really hoping that she comes up with something. She is going to be so glad to see us move in. I am trying to not be a pain, but I have so many questions. She is being very patient with us.

Cincinnati had another storm, another couple of days delay on the lots being finished. The asphalt plant doesn't open until mid March so there is time.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. We are the great and powerful Drees Homes, you will obey and bend to our will. You will accept our prices without question."

We sent a list of questions off to the sales lady and her reply was less than enlightening. We are asking why some things are costing what they are costing. Her reply is either "you don't understand," oh I don't know why don't you try to help me understand, or she says that she has nothing to do with the pricing.

Seriously do we look like we just fell off of the turnip truck?

The 12' X 16' room comes with grade 1 carpeting. We want vinyl in there, this is the room in which I will do my dyeing and silk screen. Carpeting would be ruined in two months. Putting vinyl in there costs $1,800.00 or slightly over $80.00/ square yard. According to Mary vinyl costs more than carpeting and they have to prep the concrete. Uh huh. Not that I am believing this, but by the way where is the credit for the carpeting?

Mary also cannot tell us why the stove costs what it costs. Come on, make it up.

We are still getting nowhere on the whirlpool tub. If I get a 5' one I cannot get my entire body in at once. A 5' one might work for someone who is 5'. The more that I think about it the more I want a 6' and I want the water jet with heater. I know that it is more to maintain, but why go half way.

I am truly wondering if the pricing people at Drees are using a dart board to come up with prices.

So much happening and yet nothing happening. We are getting down to the nitty gritty on things. We are going with the Oak Park front door. I finally realized why I wanted that door so much, I mean besides loving the Frank Lloyd Wright style. In this deveopement you have to use one of their approved doors. Most people choose the standard door, no glass, fan glass on the top or have panes. Your choices are navy, forest green, red, maybe brown and/or black or white. When you drive through the developement everyone has one of these doors. You have to have the approved grarage door, everyone has the same. You get a choice of one of four types of brick or one choice of stone and one of four shades of taupe. Your house looks like everyone's. "Little Houses on the Hillside" keeps going through my mind. I wanted something that seperates our house from the rest. Since we are going for the door we will be passing on the storm door. That is something that we can put in at a later date probably for less than $700.00 that they are charging. The funny thing is that when we said that we wanted the storm door that they had in the model they wanted a number, we told them to go downstairs. Now this is a really nice storm door, very heavy and has a screen that we can put in, but I am sure that we can find one just as nice.

We are trying to finalize pricing, which is harder than I thought that it would be. We had asked for a washer/dryer hook up in the basement - $870.00. OK, how much would it be if we we got just a washer hook up - $900.00, ummmmm, huh? We found a lower end whirlpool tub, it was $1,200.00 delivered from Lowes, and they keep telling us that they can get good prices on anything because they buy so much. To put that tub in would cost $3,500.00. Why does it cost that much? We were told that we chose an expensive one. They send us to a website to make our choices and this website just sends us to the different companies' websites. There are no prices on these websites. I thought that maybe I could go with a 5' tub. Today we went to a showroom and I climbed into one and it was the right length, I can get my knees and my shoulders into it. Well, it was a 72" X 42". Back to the fight on this. If we have to we will tell them to put in the rough in for the tub, give us a credit for the tub and don't put in the closet. We will install the tub, well hire someone to install a tub and put shelves in. We also asked about a bench in the shower. $800.00, ouch. We asked why it costs so much. I have the feeling that despite being told that anything can be custom, custom costs. Anytime that you vary from the plan you pay.

We finally got the price of the microwave price to the correct point. They were telling us that it was $400.00 to upgrade to a stainless microwave. We showed that a microwave is included with the house and what the MSRP was on that microwave what the price of the microwave that we want. Oh, suddenly the credit appeared. We have not asked where the credit for the vent hood went.

We have chosen two different gas stoves, just have to see what their price is on them. They got one model number wrong so we didn't get a quote on that. They gave us a quote on the other one, but charged us the full cost plus the cost of the gas line. There was no credit for the base model. Sigh, another one. If we have to we will tell them to give us a credit and not put a stove in, we will get our own.

We wanted a door moved in the basment and that cost $700.00. I think that we will probably go with the original plan.

We are screening in the porch and adding the optional outdoor living space. I asked and was told that there was a screen door included leading out to the outdoor living space. We got the CDR and the door was $200.00, um, how do you get out there if there is no door.

We asked to get a quote for the outdoor living space and the steps leading to the ground and have it built out of composite. $10,000.00. Ouch. We are now asking how much of that is the steps out of composite and how much is the deck. I suppose that the steps could be something like the storm door, we could add that later.

Now the best was $1,800.00 to put linoleum instead of carpet in a 12' X 16' room. Unless this stuff costs $84.00 a square yard I think that there is a mistake. Also if there is supposed to be carpeting in there and carpeting costs more than linoleum shouldn't we be getting a credit?

At this point Robert is talking about walking away if they don't come down on a few things and/or explain the high cost. I hate to give up that lot, but we can't be jerked around. I keep saying that you can change anything about a house but where it is located. Well unless you are in a planned community.

If we can come to an agreement they could start to dig in mid April. That would have it doen mid to late August. If only it was that easy.

"Once more into the breach dear friends, once more." So we are going with the Hialeah model with steps to the ground from the deck, if they don't cost too much out of composite. We do want the Merrilat cabinets instead of the Aristokraft. We will see if they give. We also have to see what the final cost will be. I am now considering going with a double oven and stove top. Also, have to see what it costs.

After a couple of discussions with our real estate agent here we are planning to move late July and go into a short term rental. We have to figure out what to do with the show stuff so that it is accesible and what to bring so that I can still create. ARG!!! Late July means that I will finish with the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair then start packing up everything to go into storage for who knows how long.

Right after we would move into the short term rental there we will be taking off for Milwaukee for a couple of days to watch Victoria compete in a Trathlon Age Group championship and to visit family. Baron will be real thrilled to be left in the new place by himself.

I am going into overdrive cleaning out stuff. People now cringe when they see me coming not knowing what box or bag I will hand to them.

OK, back to work.

Well, they didn't blink. The manager told the sales person "no way" on giving us some sort of price break. So basically Drees has told us to love it or shove it. I am angry. We have our lot hold on, but we don't have a deadline on it. I want to make them sweat. I also don't want to rush into anything. Robert on the other hand can't sit still. He has to be in action at all times.

Now we are considering a lesser model. It was one that we considered going with earlier but I realized that we would be using the family room as a hallway. It is right in the middle of the house. The screened porch is not on a corner but between the master bedroom and the dining room. I like to have the dining room in an L with the living room which we wouldn't have. The pantry is smaller, but the kitchen has more counter space. The master bath is easier to reconfigure. You don't look down the basement stairs as soon as you walk in the door, but you do have to turn to go downstairs.

Robert is seeing what he can take off of the list. He has decided that if we can't agree on something then it should go. I thought that we would make use of a stairs from the deck to the ground he doesn't so no stairs. Now he is trying to talk me out of the sink in the basement.

I just don't know, I am tired and have a headache. Don't you hate when you think that you have something all figured out and then poof, it isn't going to happen?

Here is your lesson for the day; don't tick off a person who uses social media. Last night I posted on the Drees Homes facebook page outlining my frustration about them stalling, raising prices and not telling the truth about what the price increases will be. This morning Denise, our very patient real estate agent called. She has spoken to Mary the sales lady. Densise told Mary that if they don't rescind the last price increase on the base model. Mary is going to her boss about this and keeps telling him that we have been very patient and are not happy. Mary said that it would go a long way to resolving this if I would take down my facebook post. Wow, someone noticed it? Denise laughed, a lot of people noticed it. I took the post down, but if we cannot come to an agreement and we go elsewhere, that post is going back up. Denise explained that they were pulling a bait and switch, which Robert had claimed before. We are going to sit on our lot hold and let them sweat. In the mean time Denise is sending us listings of ranch homes with walkout basements. We are looking them over, but will not jump into anything right now. Yeah, don't tick off a person who uses social media.

I realize that life has ups and downs, but come on, please let me off of this roller coaster. We got the plat map on Wednesday and found out that the lot premiums were not $25,000.00 as we had previously been told but were $35,000 - $45,000.00. Ouch, we looked at the map and decided which one we wanted. On Friday we went to the Drees Design Center. We had an appointment, but understood that we would not have someone working with us. We understood that. We got there at 10:00 and no one greeted us, but there were workmen going in and out. After about 10 minutes someone came out and we explained why we were there. Again sitting there for another 10 minutes. They called Mary, again. We were told that they were changing over the kitchen area and we would not be making our choices from the Merilat cabinets, but from Aristocraft instead. Now, did anyone think to mention this when we called? Nooo, too hard. We spent some time there looking at carpet and tile, but we had no idea what level different things were. After lunch we went off to look at the lots. There were stakes in different places but we had a hard time telling for sure which one was which. We decid:ed that we wanted 229 instead of 230. We looked at design choices in the model and could find some of what we wanted but made other choices just in case. The woman working there that day had a couple who were scheduled to be there, but she was able to spend a little time with us. We chose which bathroom fixtures we wanted and they were $830.00 extra, wow, for some faucets etc? She kept saying "but you do get 50% off." Yes up to $20,000.00 since they are offering $40,000.00 in improvements for $20,000.00. We looked at the map with her then went back out to the lots. I had the compass ap on my phone and we realized that 230 was the lot that we wanted. We did stop at the model home and asked her to ask Mary to bring boots for Sunday. We know which lot we want, just are not sure of the number. We came back on Sunday with Douglas and Denise. Off we went through the lots with Mary, a map and a compass. Yeah, she still wasn't sure. Denise asked her if she could go with Mary and someone from corporate through the lots. She would facetime me on her IPad and decide. Now came the fun part, we went over prices. Some were not too bad and some were quite shocking. The stairs from the deck down $1,050.00 when we had been told that it would be $3,000.00. We knew that we would be paying more for stainless appliances, but they were charging $350.00 EXTRA for a stainless steel microwave. We got the "you don't understand the over the stove microwaves cost a lot." Yeah, we know, we put one in a couple of years ago. $400.00 extra for the stove. I went on line and found that it was $50.00 more to go from standard to stainless. Uh huh. Douglas looked at the costs and said that he would show the plans and the list of prices for finishing the basement to his father-in-law who works in construction and would see what he thought about the prices. We would have to figure out the financing, but maybe that would work. When we got to the bottom line we discovered that the cost of the base home had not gone up 2%, but had gone up 9%. The website listed the lower price there must be a mistake in the program. Mary said that she would check into it. Denise then broached the subject of negotiations. She pointed out that we have been more than patient we wanted to start building last fall, the base had gone up 2% and the lot had gone up $15,000.00. Mary said that her boss said no negotiations on a custom built house. I went away feeling great dispair. We went over the price list again and changed a few things and sent the list off to Mary. We got an email later from Mary. She said that she would submit out list for review and would be getting back to us. She added the ominous line "I spoke with Denise today about a few things, she said she was going to be talking to you soon." Well that just warmed my heart. Denise called later and I mentioned this to her. She kind of laughed and said "oh good she made me the bad guy." Uh oh. Yeah the higher price was correct the website said that prices are not guaranteed. Mary asked her boss about coming down in price for us he said absolutly no way. Or at least that is what she says he said. At this point I just don't know if I can trust her or anyone connected to Drees. This house is now going to be $32,000.00 more than we had planned before we change or upgrade anything. Robert kind of lost it at this point and said that the Melbourne was now off of the table. Mary suggested that we look at lesser models. We have asked for base pricing on all of them. At this point I just kind of lost it. We don't know what we are going to do. I looked at Del Webb homes, but the closest to Cincinnati is in Indianapolis. I will take some time to look at Older Active Adult communities in Northern Kentucky, which is not ideal. We are considering selling here then renting down there until something breaks. Maybe a house in HMB will come available or maybe someone will build a new community. We are also going to ask Denise if homes have gone up that much in the area. We got the base price for one house and it is higher than what is listed online. Have they really raised the prices that much or are they ripping us off. We appeared too eager. Can I climb back under my blanket?

I guess that I should have had more faith. We finally got the plat map for the new lots. The lot premium is more than we had originally been told that it would be but we are getting somewhere. The stakes are in the ground so we will be able to see the lot on Friday. I will post pictures of the lot when I take them. Wow, we might actually be able to move in this year.

So much for the elation from last week. We were supposed to get the plat map by mid week. Today is Wednesday, officially mid week and still nothing. Why am I afraid that this is going to be just like last August; get our hopes up then nothing happens. We will spend Friday with Denise, first at the Design Center then look at the lots then at the model home. After we are done we will notify her family as to which asylum she has been committed. By the end of the day we should know which upgrades we want and to what level we want to go. On Sunday we will go back and start the negotiations and presnet our changes and upgrades. Well this is if they have a lot for us. I keep thinking that I will check my email and there will be one from Mary with the map and I will feel better. I have been through this too many times. Sigh. Maybe there will be a new post from me soon announcing the lot. Maybe

Halleighluia! Something has finally broken loose. I have to back up a little in this story, wow, I really do wish that this blog let me put in paragraph breaks. Last weekend I took a training for a new scoring system that we have to use for judging synchronized swimming routines. I will have to use this when I judge at the north zone meet in five weeks. I was not feeling real secure about this so I contacted the Ohio Association about when they had their senior association meet. This way I could judge their routines and become more familiar with the whole thing. Rob decided that we could go down early for the meet, stop by at Heritage at Miami Bluffs to see where they have cleared trees for the new lots then spend time at the design center to start to make our choices. We would come home on Sunday after the meet was done. is would accomplish a few things, I could practice with the new scoring system, we would be able to get an idea of where we wanted to upgrade and we could see Douglas and Michelle. So we figured that we should let Mary the sales lady know that we were coming down. We didn't hear back and didn't hear back. Rob kept saying that maybe something was happening, yeah right. Well it turns out that there was news. Today we got an email from Mary, she will have the lot information sometime next week and can meet with us on the 9th or 10th about pricing. We need to get clarification on whether or not we can make any choices at the design center or if they all have to be made at the model home. So nice to finally have something going our way.

Well we decided to take the bull by the horns and go on the attack. Robert wrote an email to the sales lady asking her if she can talk to someone to let us start the entire process before the roads are in. I understand that they might not be able to promise the exact lot until it is staked out, but let us start. This way if we can get part of the 60 day process that they go through before they can start digging done before they can even start digging then let us get going. I hope that sentence makes sense. If we can get most of the design options and changes done then we will shorten the time before the house is done. If they could start to dig in April that would mean that we could move in August to October. Otherwise we are going to be moving in November or December. Ugh. We also have the issue of selling our house. Basically he told her that we have deadlines and don't want to move in bad weather so it is time to fish or cut bait. We have not yet heard back.

But wait, there's more..... I knew that I hadn't written about everything. We can go to the Drees design center and look around, but we cannot make an appointment, work with a design consultant or as far as I know ask any questions. We actually might do this, but it would be on a weekend when we are down there to sign everything. I don't see making a special trip just for that. I am trying hard to keep positive, but set backs like this are hard. As Denise said "somedays you are the windshield and some days you are the bug." I am tired of being the bug, isn't it time for me to be able to smash something?

"You can't always get what you want," I was downstairs weaving and things were just not going well. I kept making mistakes and wondered if this was a good idea. Then the phone rang, this is when you hear the "dum, dum, dum" that you get in movies. It was Denise, our very patient and understanding real estate agent. Oh dear, I could tell by the tone of her "hello" that this was not a happy call. So we talked about how cold it was instead. It isn't quite as cold there as here, but their houses and infrastructure are not built for the cold that they have right now. Both places are having the snowiest and coldest Januaries on record. This is not good news for the road building. so finally we got the nerve to discuss what she had called about. She spoke to Mary the sales lady yesterday. Yeah, not good news. She cannot write any contracts until the roads are in and they won't start to put the roads in until sometime in March. Sigh, this pushes our dates back to moving in sometime from mid September to mid November. Well, after I finish with the Common Ground Art Fair I would be ready to up and go. Mary is going to ask the highers up in Drees if there is any way that she can sell the lots before the roads are in so that we can start the design process. This way then once the roads are in and the lots ready they can start building. Here's hoping that those in positions of power will see reason. We have three weekends in February that we can go down there then two weekends that we can't. We really wanted to have this all done in February. Then because this wasn't enough Mary told Denise that they are not going to be doing much in the way of negotiations. She did mention $60,000.00 in upgrades for $30,000.00, but it might be $50,000.00 for $25,000.00. Either way, that isn't bad, we had hoped to get basically $80,000.00 for $40,000.00, but we can make this work. We have decided to go with UPack for the move and hire Labor Ready for loading and unloading. They can take up to two days to get the truck to us so we are figuring out what to do for those two days. We will pack a bin with essentials and wait for the truck. We had thought about staying with Douglas and Michelle, but Baron could be an issue with two dogs. At first we were going to borrow their airbed, but now I have decided that if Douglas and Michelle can get the futon to us we can sleep on that. So we have the move figured out, now we just need a place to move to.

Right now it is 5 degrees here and 16 in Cincinnati. Somehow I don't think that there is anything happening on the lots today or for the next couple of days. Now if we had started this last winter when it was so mild we would be fine. But last winter they didn't have the new lots, which they still don't have or the new designs. Oh well, maybe this cold snowy winter will ease up early. We have for some reason set February 15 as the date that we will sign the contract. If we take 6 - 8 months from then we will be moving in August 15 - October 15. For some reason this makes me feel better. I have something at which to aim. I am a person who needs a deadline. I have an almost full van load to take to Goodwill and I still have a lot to sort through. I have two boxes of yarn to give away and lot of fabric scraps. We have discussed different options for moving, renting a truck and hiring people to load and unload and driving the trucks ourself. If we would hire a moving company since we are crossing state lines you pay per pound and mile. If we drive it ourselves we don't. We have found a couple of work arounds. UHaul has a list of companies that will drive your rental for you. I know that PODS is expensive and a friend told me that she had the name for a place like PODS, but they were cheaper. I did a little research online and found one called UPack. I filled out the online quote request. They can provide loaders and unloaders. I kept putting in Mainville, OH and it kept putting in Mainville, PA. I changed it to Mason, OH figuring that it was close enough to Mainville. I got a quote back by email and it was very resonable. Rob still wants to look at different places, but this could solve our issue of driving trucks down twice. Things are looking up.

"Monday, Monday, so good to me." Yeah, Monday is actually good today, I mean if I discount the non functioning garage door and the dropping temps, things are going pretty well. We had a one hour+ phone call with Denise, our real estate agent about our negotiations, setting price, scheduling, etc. We both feel better now. We still don't have a lot, but when they get lots Denise will go take videos and we will have a plat map and we get first choice. Then at our next opportunity we will head down to start making our choices then negotiate and hopefully the ball will be rolling. Right now the target move in date is mid August. That would mean that I skip Levis Commons, not a huge deal, I will go back next year. I talked to Michelle yesterday and she said that Douglas might be part time on campus next fall, that could be a big help with our move. He will still have work part time, but maybe things aren't so bleak. I brought up 2 large boxes and 3 bags of things to donate to Goodwill, well one of the boxes I got as far as the landing on the basement stairs and Rob had to take it the rest of the way. He is out trying to open the garage door so I think that we will load all of this into the van to be taken in today or tomorrow. One step and a time.

Sigh, sigh, double sigh. OK so it isn't so bad, I just keep feeling as if we are taking one step forward and two steps back, then two steps forward and one back. This hokey pokey is getting old. I thought that I understood this who process of negotiating, then Rob had a lot of questions. How can we negotiate when we don't know which upgrades we want? How can we negotiate when we don't know how much our architechtural changes will cost? It would be like negotiating on a car but not knowing how much your extras will cost. We know the base price of the house and how much the lot premium will be but we don't know how much our changes will be. We can't make our deign choices until we sign but we don't know whih upgrades we want or what level on the upgrades. That odd sound that you hear is my stomach churning. On the good side I started to go through my closet. I got one rod done and have two garbage bags of clothes to go to Goodwill. Embarassing a few of them still have tags on them. Keep calm and sort more junk.

Another day another list of questions, some with answers, some without answers, I just keep lining up those dominoes. Last night Robert came home with another list for me to look over and to discuss. Do we want to move twice? Shoot me now. There are advantages to moving twice; we will be there to monitor the building, we will have the money from the sale of this house to use as the downpayment on the new house, we know that we will be there for sure for the birth of a grandchild, we will be able to sell our house and not worry. The downsides; moving twice, that should be enough, but lets continue, we would move twice, oh yeah, already covered that, would we find a place big enough to get our stuff in that we would need, the entra cost of moving twice, we would move twice, oh yeah, covered that, extra cost for storage, moving twice, extra cost of moving twice, I still have a lot to go through and get rid of and don't think that I could be ready to put the house on the market by March 1, and moving twice. No, we cannot keep the big loom in a non climate controlled storage unit. No, moving in May doesn't work for me. I have a show the 2nd weekend, I have synchro meet the 3rd weekend which would be my last as a Michigan judge then I have a show May 30 - June 1. Moving in June is possible but then I would be looking for a hotel for Ann Arbor art fair. I know that next year I will, but I can wait a year. I talked to Denise our very patient and understanding real estate agent. We discussed the downpayment issue, the moving twice issue and how the price negotiations will go. I feel much better. She also told us that she will be checking on the house as the building process goes on. That really made me feel better. She had called the sales lady this past Monday and didn't get a call back then she got my email about if things were ready. She is going to call again and try to get some answers. Unfortunatley we are in another deep freeze so while it is not as cold there it might be too cold for outside work and there is another cold snap coming. Why couldn't we have done this last year with the mild winter. I am feeling better about the whole thing and hope that soon things break loose. If we sign on February 1 and the can build it in the 6 month time frame, they say 6 - 8 months we would be moving in the house in mid August. That would be nice. Not that I really want to move in August that sucks, but Douglas would be available. Keep calm and get rid of junk.

I got the nerve up to email the sales lady to see if there was any reason for us to come down this weekend. Nope, nothing yet. So we will stay home and I will chair the meeting on Saturday. Mary however did say that they have been working on the lots. This made me feel better. The next two weekends are booked so the 2nd weekend of February is the next chance that we have to go down. The more that I think about it I am wondering if we can go down on a Wednesday morning. Mary the sales lady is off on Thursday and Friday and the design center where we make our choices is closed on Sunday and Monday. If we left here at 8:00 am we could be down there shortly after noon when the sales office opens. We could sign everything then have three days to make all of our choices. Now I just have to convince someone that this is a good idea. I did ask about the styles changing when their fiscal year ends. I don't think that Mary understood what I was asking. Oh well, no sense worrying about it now.

In today's mail there was a little brochure from Drees Homes - Heritage at Miami Bluffs and Mary Mollman. Now intelectually I knew that this was just a normal ad, they have our address so they send us something. The emotional part of me thought maybe this was something about new lots being opened or the new designs. Yeah, you know which it was. It was just quotes from three owners and how much they love living at Heritage. I can dream can't I? Getting harder to keep positive with each day that nothing happens.

Right now it is 52 in Cincinnati, yeah, maybe things will thaw. But wait, we know that this can't be things don't work out that easily. Yup, back down to 31 on Wednesday followed by one day in the 40's thne back to the 30's. Yeah, nothing is going to happen. We had planned to be down there next weekend, but Drees is still not able to finish the lots so there is nothing to look at. Sigh, I should have known that if I had everything set for us to be gone it would fall through. The two weekends after that we cannot go so hopefully everything will be done by the 2nd weekend of February. If we go 6 - 8 months from there plus add on the time that it takes to finish the roads and lots, yeah, we are looking at October. I need to pin Douglas down on what week he can be up here so that I know weather or not to apply to Levis Commons in August. The line of dominoes is getting longer.

I have been asked several times why we are waiting for a lot from Drees builders and not just going somewhere else to build a house or just buy a house. Here is why; Heritage at Miami Bluffs is the only 55+ community in the Ohio part of the Cincinnati area. We want a 55+ communityso that we have a group with whom we can socialize. There are several planned activities each month, there is a clubhouse with an exercise room, they have an outdoor pool so I am set for maybe 5 months a year and they are people our age. The house designs are what we are looking for. We don't need as much living area, but we still want the great kitchen, a large master bedroom and great master bath. Most houses when you get smaller those things get smaller. We will have a great room with our dining table and living room with the TV. No eat in kitchen, we will have a breakfast bar, not sure where I will file stuff if I don't have the end of the kitchen table. We also will not have a family room. I think that I will miss the family a bit, but it is time. If we moved to a regular neighborhood we would not have the clubhouse and we could have noisy teenagers around us. We are looking for peace and quiet. By moving here we have a social group ready for us to join them. They have monthly gatherings, movie nights, trips, different groups and exercise classes. Since we are moving to where our son and daughter-in-law live it could be very easy to depend on them for everything. As it is Douglas is going to be installing a lot for us. I don't want to have them be the only people who we do things with. They have their own lives and they have Michelle's family. While I hope that we can become a part of the extended family they still need their own time. We have also been told by different people that we should look in Kentucky. I don't want to live in Kentucky. There are a few 55+ communities there and they are very pricey. Most of them are part of country clubs which is not something that we want. It also puts us in a part of town that we don't want to live in. Douglas and Michelle right now live in Western Hills near Michelle's parents and about 24 miles from Heritage. After Douglas finishes his masters degree they are planning to move to Blue Ash which will put them half way between the two sets of parents. Smart move on their part, it also puts them in the best school district around. Douglas will be much closer to work and gets them out of their neighborhood. If we move to Kentucky it will put us much further from them. We don't want to be across the street, but we don't want to be that far from them. Things are warming up in Cincinnati, hopefully they will be able to stake the lots next week. Please keep your fingers crossed for something to happen.

It is cold here. I keep thinking that if they had a lot that we liked last April we could be in our new house now and while it is cold in Cincinnati it isn't -13. Another day in the house. I am trying to keep positive on this whole thing, but it is getting hard. Basically I think that for every super cold day that they have it puts the whole process back one week. The ground is too cold to do anything to it and it takes a long time for it to thaw. While they are not staking and finishing the lots I wonder if they have found other things for them to do. The entire thing is like a long line of dominoes. We don't know when our house will be done, so we don't know when we will be moving, which means that we don't know when to put our house on the market. Douglas has agreed to help us move if it is before August 25 when he starts classes full time. He will come up and help us get things ready for the move, get large things out of the basement and into the garage, down out of the garage attic, etc. However if we have not sold the house by August we really can't have things taken apart and packed into the garage. The urge to throw up my hands and quit is getting tempting. To keep positive I have set up several Pinterest boards for the new house. I am posting decorating and storage ideas. It is really fun to do. But I wonder when I will actually be able to do anything for real. There is an issue about the paint for the interior. I am all about color. I don't use bright bold colors, but I feel that the right color sets the tone for a room. I have a lovely relaxing blue in the living room and my studio. We have a bright cheery yellow in two of the bathrooms. Then we found out that they only have four color choices for us. Huh? Come on work with me here. They also use Porter Paints, that is a paint that contractors use and isn't really the best out there. I would love to have it painted in Baer paint. There are a few options here. One choice is to have everything repainted after we have moved in, not ideal. We could hire someone to repaint after we have closed, but that means that we are paying for maybe a week of mortgage when we are not living there. I would love to get my own paint and have the builder paint with that, but since that makes sense I am sure that I can't do that. In the mean time I will "Stay Calm and Keep Getting Rid of Junk."

Sigh, that's how I feel right now, one big "sigh." We are still in limbo and I am getting very tired of people telling me that if they haven't gotten the map to us that we will not be in the house for more than a year. Seriously, do I look like I need more negative news? I want positive feedback. Now I am told that we need to have someone to check on the progress every day during the build. Um, yeah, not happening. As it is Rob is trying to figure out how few trips we can take there. We cannot make our selections until we have signed the contract, but we can't sign the contract until they have the lots staked out. ARG!!!! We were told that we can go through the design center at any point, but the choices could change when their fiscal year ends March 31. The person with whom we will sign the contract doesn't work Thursday and Friday and the design center is not open on Mondays. So we could sign on Saturday then make design choices on Sunday, but I don't think that we can make all of our choices in one day. We could go to the design center on Friday, informally make our choices then come back after signing the contract. Sigh. Now we come down to the money/moving part. We will close on the new house before we close on the old house because we will be doing the move in two stages. We need the money for the down payment. Rob came up with the idea of moving twice. Just shoot me, seriously, just shoot me. He started to look for a place. He was looking for a 2 bedroom apartment. Then he realized that we both will be working from home so we needed more space. I did point out that if we got an apartment it would need to be on the ground floor because I can't use the loom above anyone. Then we discussed putting more work in a storage unit and would we need a climate controlled unit. Um, my big loom does not go in a non climate controlled space or the dining room set for that matter. I mentioned a bridge loan and that may be a possibility, sure beats moving twice. We still do not have a move date, or even a move month. I will keep getting the house ready and go from there. Douglas is planning to come up for a week in August to help us stage the move, hopefully the house will have sold by then. He will help us take stuff out of the basement and take a few things apart. I will have to have him show us how to get the TV off of the mounting bracket. I think that we can take the bed apart, but that could be tricky. As it stands now the double move is off of the table, lets hope that it stays that way.