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.