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.

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.

The last day of 2013 and we are still in limbo. We tried several times to call the sales lady as she was supposed to be in the sales office. The first 6 times she didn't answer so we were convinced that she had gotten caller ID and was ducking us. One last try at 5:40, the office closes at 6:00 and she answered. We asked our questions, most of which she couldn't answer. She did tell us that the lots were cleared and since they have spent the money on that they will want/need to get them sold. She keeps asking and keeps being told that she will be the first to find out. Then she tells us that when she is told we will be the first to find out. We did find out that between two of the lots there will be a bike path down to the Loveland bike trail. We were currently planning to head down January 17 - 20, but now we are not sure if this will be of any good. She said that we could go through the design center, but choices could be changed at any time. I asked if there was still a chance for us to be in our new house by the end of August. I could hear her counting the months and said that there is still a chance, but I wonder how likely that is. Douglas starts full time on campus August 24 so he would not be able to help us move. He said that he would come up for a long weekend to get somedifficult things moved out of the basement and to take some things apart, like our bed. We don't have to have the light bridge, but it is handy. We can keep somethings in the living room and some in the garage. We will hire movers to move everything into the truck, drive the truck down then come back up for the rest. Since there is the uncertainty of when this house will sell and when the other house will be ready we were trying to figure that out. One thought was moving twice, that was my blood pressure going up. We would need a 3 bedroom place so that each of us had a place to work, and we would have to put a lot into storage. But we can't put the big loom into storage in a place that isn't climate controlled. So maybe instead of two moves we will look into a bridge loan. Mary gave us the name of a person in their organization to contact. I like that much better than moving twice. The sales lady has decided that I can teach crafts classes there. I told her that I can teach basket weaving. Teaching weaving if people don't have looms is an issue. I suppose that I should feel better about this, but I still need a firm date. So much more stuff to go through. Happy New Year.

Ah, something is actually happening. Yesterday I decided that I needed a day of rest after having company, cooking, baking and picking up after everyone left. I was cruising around on the internet looking at different things. One thing that I was looking for was other 55+ communities in Northern Kentucky. So far nothing that I like and they don't have the prices listed. I also wonder if Denise is licenced to practice in Kentucky. I found the Drees Design Center. This is where we will go when we make our choices for the house. I thought that maybe they had cabinets, flooring, etc on line. Well no luck, but you could sign up for a newsletter. I figured no harm I could always cancel if we decided to build elsewhere. Shortly after that I got an email that was clearly auto generated since it was addressed to: Dear No Name Listed. Haha. I pretty much ignored it and went on, then I got another one. This one asking me where I was interested in building. I explained our whole situation with the STILL no lot after being promised that we would choose one in August. This morning I got a real email from Chris, the person who is the website contact. She was forwarding it to Mary at Heritage. I also heard from Mary. She told us that the area has been cleared but they have not done anything else due to weather. HUH? it hasn't been bad there, they have been warmer than us. We decided that it was time to call Mary, but we put a call into Denise first. Duh, its Saturday, she is busy so I left a message and then forwarded the emails and put in an explanation. We went out for lunch and picked up a shirt for Douglas. When we got home there was a message from Denise. She said to go ahead and call Mary. There we were with our list of questions on the timeline. We called and got Connie, Mary is off until next Tuesday. She did tell us that the area was cleared and as far as she knew the permits were in place. We will call next Tuesday and maybe get a timeline for the building and moving. In the meantime I am creating pinterest boards for different design ideas for the new house. Keep tuned, the story changes every day.