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.

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.

We heard from the sales person at Herritage at Miami Bluffs. She sent an email asking if there was anything that she could do for us. Robert answered "Yes, you can get us a lot." In the meantime our real estate agent called to purchase two of my crinkle scarves. I mentioned this email to her. She said that she would call Mary and find out what is going on. Then we hear back from Mary. It turns out that she didn't really email us, that was an auto generated email with her name on it. There was nothing new, but she "hoped that we would be in our new house in 2014." OK, that statement didn't fill me with hope. It sounds as if she doesn't think that this is going to be happening. Douglas and Michelle were up for Christmas. The running gag all week was how many more years it would be before we moved. I got a new set of pots and pans and a cookboo holder. These will be unopened until we move into the new house. Again, how long until that happens. My sister Cindy called on Christmas after discussing all sorts of other things we talked aobut the house and when we will be moving. She told me that if they do not have a plat map at this point nothing has gone to the planning commission and it will be 3 years minimum before we will be moving in. She sent me a link to a few different 55+ communities in Northern Kentucky. I don't really want to move to Kentucky, Douglas and Michelle will be living north of the city and while I don't want to be across the street, I would like to be within 12 miles of where they live. However if Drees cannot get their act together maybe we should look into that. I will have to find out if Denise is licenced to practice real estate in Kentucky. We are currently planning to go down the 3rd weekend in January. If Drees hasn't come through I guess that we could start to look elsewhere.

Well, we got more news, and its not bad, but not good. They have started to clear trees for the lots and nothing else. It seems that they are awaiting county approval. Oh dear county approval means governament and obviously they didn't already have the approval in place. As of now we are planning to go down the weekend of January 17 to make choices and hopefully sign something. For now there is nothing that we can do except wait.