New Projects

As usual, I am always traveling for work, this year is no different, except maybe traveling more than usual. 

But we have found time to do a few things around the Homestead.

First - a project my beloved did.  New headboard for the master bedroom

She cut down the plywood, drilled the holes for the buttons, covered it, and then tied the buttons in.  All I did was hang it on the wall.  Looks nice though.  (She also painted the wall)

Why yes the dogs were on the bed right before this picture was taken, how did you know that?

:)


We have also started some planting.

Took a corner of our "pasture" and started planting some trees.  There are (17) trees in this picture.  (5) Pecan.  (6) Chestnut and (6) Oak.   All planted to try and get them to grow some before we re-plant them elsewhere.
  All of these trees came from Mossy Oak Native Nurseries.  (I am a Mossy Oak Fan)

  We have some berry vines headed our way now that will get planted soon also.

Other than that we are still unpacking boxes and making donation piles and trash piles and keep piles and 12 other kinds of piles.  But again, at least we are all on one piece of property now.  I am so happy that I dont spend every waking hour driving across the metro mess hauling crap back and forth


DD

17 years

17 years...

Wow, has it been that long?

17 years ago, October of 2002, is when we bought my Tahoe....  (M was 1 year old)

Its sitting around 250,000 miles right now.  Has a few problems, but overall not doing bad for a 17 year old truck.

But fact is, it was time to get something else.

So welcome to the family my new truck.

I know, its the wrong color.
It should be a dark gray or black like my Tahoe. 

Why?

1st - 1968 Camaro - White
2nd - 1989 S10 pickup - White
3rd - 1991 S10 Blazer - Blue
4th - 1999 Tahoe - Blue
5th - 2003 Tahoe - Dark Gray

See the pattern?

(BTW, I'd like to point out all of these have been Chevy's)

Fact is, M's new truck looked really good (and its white), and, we live on a dirt road now.  So not only do I think the white looks sharp, maybe it wont look as bad covered in dirt. 

and yes, we had it less than 12 hours before there was dog hair on the seats... so it has been blessed.

now I just need to find some steps so my beloved can get in it.....

DD

2019 - The Year of Change Part B

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Part Deuce

  To catch anyone up from last time, here are the Cliffs notes

            D got a new Job

            D’s new job was a long way from the mound

            We were planning to move anyway once M graduated.

            We bought a new house close to D’s job (Homestead)

            M and I were still living in the mound

            We sold the Hanger

            Moved everything from the hanger to the homestead.

Now as I left off the last one, you would think we were good now.  Hanger was empty and sold.  D was glamping at the homestead.  We can kick back and have some beers and be good!

Nope

Now we had to get our house ready to sell, no time to rest. 

First – de clutter.  Did I mention I have a lot of crap?  

you see, my beloved is an angel and minimalist, keeps nothing that isnt needed,  has a place for everything, etc.

me on the other hand……..I am a different story  (I don’t know why she puts up with me J )

  Now we were moving stuff from the Mound to the Homestead.  Because you know, loading up vehicles with stuff and driving across the Metro area was something we hadn’t been doing a lot of.  (please read the last line with a sarcastic tone, because otherwise it makes no sense)

D was coming to the mound on the weekends to spend time with us little folk, and every time she headed back her truck was piled with stuff.  We did many trips on the weekends,  I would do trips during the week.  Needless to say at this point I could drive from one to the other with my eyes closed with no problem  (and with the time some of those trips were made, I am pretty sure my eyes were closed because that was the only sleep I was getting)

The nice thing was we had time to move and didnt have to do it all at once

the bad thing was we had time to move and didnt have to do it all at once.

(see what I did there.....)

We also had a few things we had to deal with on the house before we put it on the market.

Every day was either working on the house, making arrangements to work on the house, or moving stuff to the homestead.  (and somewhere in there we have jobs, which I travel a lot for mine, and M is a Senior in High School and trying to decide on a college)   To say we were busy, stressed, not getting any sleep, and always behind on something, well that would be very accurate....

We also had some things to deal with at the Homestead.  Everything from being able to mow and take care of the property  (nice green zero turn mower joined the family) to getting the cats shifted over and setup with their needs (cats are very needy,  anyone want a cat?  its a buy one get two free kind of thing from us.....)    to the puppies.  Yes, the puppies.  Did I mention we have 2 labs?  

Both big dogs with lots of energy.  They were crate trained but with people being gone more it was difficult for them to be locked up more than they should be.  They needed their space at the homestead. One of the first projects we took on at the homestead was to shift some fencing, add some fencing, and turn the single car garage into the Puppy Zone.  Now when we are not there, they can be in the single car garage, they have food, water, shelter, etc.  They have a doggy door to go outside and have a section of the yard they can run around in.  We also have some kiddie pools outside under a magnolia tree they can play in during the day since they cant get to the pond when we arent there.  (yes, we have a pond)  

This was a huge deal and made the puppies much happier.  They do love the homestead, the space to run around, The cows, the bunny rabbits, the birds, they are very happy.  They love getting a ride in the mule with mama to get the mail each day.  They also love their early morning walks with mama through the countryside. 

Along the way we arranged for a pool company to start taking care of the pool every week in the mound (because we had no time) and we arranged for a lawn company to do the lawn in the mound since we had no time.  (because you know, we had the lawn at the homestead to take care of)

Along the way M did decide on a college and signed with them, getting scholarship money (very proud of him) and then M graduated High School.  People were there, he graduated, it was thrilling.  (about as thrilling as any other graduation)  

Of course through all of this I am amazed that M didnt cut my head off in the middle of the night.  We had turned his world so far upside down, but let me tell you he was so cool about this.  We were always running after something, and sold the only home he knew.  I am sure one day he will tell us stories about what he thought of us during this time, but for now he has been nice. 

Finally we had things ready at the house to get it on the market and we list it.  This is one of those things where you realize how wrong you were.   A – we thought the hanger would sit on the market for months finding the right buyer and it sold so fast it spun my head.   B – we thought the house would sell quickly………

In the beginning we had quite a few people looking, no one would make an offer.  We heard some feedback but nothing we thought was serious.  We of course talked about it daily.  But us talking about it didn’t make someone want to buy the house.  Then we started getting the comments from our realtors about things that we should change in the house.  Not faulting them, they were doing their job, but we had already put a decent amount of money into the house to get it ready to sell and we just weren’t comfortable putting more money into it when there just wasn’t any interest.

So we waited.  And we waited.   M moved into his dorm room at college, so I moved out of flo mo and down to the homestead.  Left the house to be shown at anytime without affecting anyone.   After a period of time we dropped the price to see if that would help.  Still a lot of showings, no real interest.  And we waited.   Finally we were getting pretty close to the end of summer, and with M playing college football and us wanting to go to the games, we weren’t going to have a lot of time left to move, so we finally picked a date and decided we would empty the house out no matter what.

We had continued to move stuff every weekend basically, and then we scheduled movers to move the last of the furniture we wanted.  

Everything left we would find a way to get rid of.  (BTW, facebook marketplace was awesome at finding new homes for furniture we did not want)

At this same time we had told our realtors to drop the price again, and they suggested we offer the buyer help with closing costs, which we agreed to.  Right as we were getting up to the move date, we got an offer.  We accepted, but still went ahead with the move. 

  During the week we got the movers to show up and get it all done, and of course while I was there dealing with that, I realized one of the HVAC units wasn’t working.  There go two more days of time and a lot more money to replace the motor in the air handler for the downstairs unit.  We did manage to get the repair completed before the inspection, we thought we were good.  

The inspection found some of the usual things, but also found things like “you need a new roof”

Needless to say that was a gut punch that was confirmed by our insurance company.  We now had a few small things to deal with and had to arrange to have a roof to put on in a couple week time period.  

Through a number of small miracles the LOML managed to make sure all of these things got taken care of, handed off all the paperwork and were ready to go with time to spare before the closing date. 

  Since I travel for work I of course had a crazy schedule to work around, including a 8 day trip out of the country.  We worked out that we would close the same day I came back into the country because D was leaving town the next day for a work trip for her.  

That day came and nope, we weren’t closing that day, issues on the buyer end.  It was pushed to the end of the week.  

We got to that date, nope still issues on the buyer end, cant close that day.  

To say that the LOML was livid would be an understatement.  Another week went by before we finally closed, but yes, we finally did sell the flo mo house.  To say we were relieved is a huge understatement.

The great part is, we are now in the homestead, we are both very happy, we have a lot of plans and dreams that we can now get started on

 Expect to see stories of the homestead and the goings on.  Maybe I can start writing them about the time we are unpacked which should be around 2026.....

DD

2019 - The Year of Change Part I

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Fair warning, this is going to be a long one, so grab a cup of coffee, a Dr Pepper, shot of whisky, whatever, if you want to read all this. 

I am sure both people who read this blog know this story, but I wanted to write it all out for posterity sakes anyway.

The year of change (2019) somewhat started last year (2018).  A number of things led up to my beloved leaving her job of many many years.  So for awhile she was not employed.  I am not going to say she didnt work because since M was a senior in high school, and a football player, and still trying to find a college he liked, she was always running around doing something for the school, the football team, the coaches, him, etc.   But late in the year she found out about a job opportunity and after a few conversations back and forth they came to an agreement and poof she had a job (and she now carries a badge, but thats another story)

  Now I know you are saying, so what, new job, roll with it.  Well the hitch in this new job was it was about an hour and a half away from our humble abode in the mound.  3 hours (or more) in the car every day was not going to work.  We decided that in the beginning we would look for a vacation rental and start there, make sure the job was going to work out, etc.  We did end up finding a great place, not too far from the new office and very nice owners.  We called it the casita because it was a separate building at the end of the driveway and was completely self sufficient 

  Time passed of course and the decision was made that yes, this job was a good job and she wanted to stay there.  Well the AirBnB place was not a long term solution.  With M being a senior we had talked about selling our house and moving away from the city anyway, so this just gave us reason, a location, and a timeframe.  Off D goes and we start looking at houses.  

  Now to back up for a minute, we have purchased (3) pieces of property over the years, all of those properties we knew they were the one when we walked in.  There was never a question, we both knew, that place was the one the moment we saw it.  

With the help of our realtor friends we started looking.  We looked at a number of places over a few weeks, but hadnt gotten that feeling yet.  One day D is out driving after work doing what we called drive bys on property.  You see we would do searches on MLS, find a series of properties and do drive bys.  We would decide on those drive bys if the property was worth seeing the inside of.  Makes the time with the realtor much more productive. 

  

  So back to that evening, D calls me, its still winter so its dark, she is headed towards a drive by of a house she had really liked the listing of.  This is country living so most of the roads are not paved, or not paved well.  It has also been raining a lot lately.  She tells me the road she is driving down is bad but she is ok.  Then, she isnt.  She is stuck.  Cant go forward, cant go backwards.  Its dark, she cant see any lights and she is stuck.  Did I mention she is about 2 hours from me at this time?

 Well luckily with her new job she knows people in this county and she makes a phone call and soon there are 2 very nice men pulling up to her in a tractor, they chain up to her and pull her out.  (as she is talking to people on the phone, she is telling them what road she is on, and they are saying "oh that road is bad, there is a sign that says impassible when wet" 

  ANYWAY, she is rescued, the people that help her tell her they cut hay for someone in the county with our same last name (hmmm).  I knew of course at this point, this was the house.  Because if we bought this house this would be the story we would tell for forever and not to tip the pitch or anything but…..

  So to backup a bit, since we knew we were moving south of town, one problem we had was the Hanger Property.  It was north of our current house by about 45 minutes, so moving 2 hours south and having that property be 3 hours away wasn’t going to work out, so we started planning on getting that piece of property on the market.  We spent time out there cleaning and straightening the property up to make sure it was presentable to go on the market. 

  This story is going to be kind of like a Tarentino film where we jump around a lot.  Back to the new house in the country.   My beloved ends up going to see the house that she got stuck trying to see.  This time in the daylight, down a better road, and with the realtor this time.  and yes, she loves it.  We make an offer, the seller accepts and we schedule a inspection.   Day of the inspection is the first time I saw it, and of course, I also loved it.  We went through all the usual BS and ended up signing our life away for the 4^th time in our life and bought the place.  Enter the Bonner Homestead.

  Now right about that same time, we put the Hanger property on the market.  Listed it with barely any info, had a sign out front, hadn’t even taken pics yet.  

We thought there would be interested because of people moving that way and more land being turned into housing and such, but we still expected the hanger to sit on the market for a few months before we found the right buyer.  We ended up getting 4 offers the first weekend. All of them good offers, yes we made a deal with one and then came the big problem. 

  What is the problem you say? 

Well the hanger was my shop,  where I had tools and stuff,  and I have a lot of tools.  And when I say I have a lot of tools, what I mean is, I own a LOT of tools. 

I mean seriously, there are small countries than have less tools than I do....

On top of that, it was also storage of cool things we had found over the years, so moving out in a short amount of time was not going to be easy. 

  First though, D was going to move to the Homestead so she could be close to work and we wouldn’t be paying for the airBnB (because we had 3 mortgages now…)  First move was just a “what does D need to live”.  Let me tell you, this was glorified camping.  Yes she had a bed, yes she had a chair  (the no no bad chair)  a midget table, clothes, and a few odds and ends for the kitchen.  Previous owners had left the fridge so that helped.  So now she spent the week at the Homestead while M and I stayed in the mound. 

  Now back to the, I have a lot of crap.  We now had 4 weeks to empty out the hanger and storage containers.  Did I mention the hanger was 60x60 with a 20x60 second floor and (2) 40’ storage containers?  Luckily there was plenty of room to bring all this stuff to the new house. 

And by plenty of room I mean a 30x30 metal building…….

  So 15 runs back and forth with a Uhaul truck, (2) runs with car hauler trailer, (1) run for a tandem axle roll off truck to move heavy machinery, lots of bad weather, 2 vehicles stuck in the mud, many, many late nights, and countless runs with trucks and trailers (and I mean countless) we moved the last of the crap 2 days before we closed on selling the property.

  So now we only had 2 mortgages, I had proved how good I am at Tetris to make everything fit in a building less than 1/4^th of the size of the old one, and we were tired.  But of course we were done now right?

We could now sit down and drink some beer and watch some baseball and just chill out?

Umm, no.  Stayed tuned for Part 2 to learn, the rest of the story  

(why part 2?  because I'm tired again just writing all this out....)

DD