An eerie day

Today reminded me of Tyler's birthday almost 8 years ago when we were living in Stansbury. The weather that day had gotten quite windy and I had stepped outside to rescue the garbage can as fences and trees came tumbling down.

I remember the feeling was just eerie and this afternoon's atmosphere had almost that exact feel.

I knew it was going to be windy today. I expected it and brought the garbage can into the garage. I sat inside watching it whip things around the yard and really wishing it would stop. I really don't like the wind. I haven't had a chance to survey the damage yet other than the fact that it rained mud.

You'd think looking out my windows that it was snowing. Erik is going to make bank this weekend cleaning windows. He's already got two jobs scheduled ahead of mine.

I also got a short email from my missionary parents, the first I've gotten in a little while. Apparently, they are experiencing their own Liberty Jail and are using an internet cafe because they've had no power for 4 days and no internet for 10. No power means no water, no toilets, no washing, no fans or air conditioning. It's also been quite muggy from all the rain. I'm sure they've had to get creative with all sorts of things and I'm looking forward to an email detailing this latest experience.

Fire break

Utah is literally burning down this summer. It has been so hot and dry . . . and windy!

This is the view behind our house that makes us a little nervous to leave for very long, especially over the 4th. Even though fireworks are banned you get some non-compliant people out there.

One year while living in Stansbury, we were gone on the 4th of July and came home to discover that our neighbor's fireworks had burnt several holes in our trampoline and lit a couple of bushes on fire.

So we put in our own fire break. Actually, it's been part of the plan all along, but our landscapers sure finished at an opportune time.

Sir Hiss

Welcome to our home.

Not really!

I about freaked out; no, actually I did freak out when I came around the corner and saw this not-so-little guy.

Just ask Ty and Kiersten.

I yelled and screamed for them to come.

They claimed they came immediately. At least that's what they said. If they did, it sure seemed like they took a gazillion minutes.

What freaked me out the most is not that he was on my driveway but that I probably scared him out when I took the weed eater to the mass of weeds on that side of the house. Ewww. Gives me the chills to even think that I could have stepped on him. Or even worse that Alex might have found him.

Our first instinct was to take the sledge hammer to him. Good thing we didn't because he's a Great Basin Gopher Snake and I really don't mind if he helps rid my yard of those pests.

Erik missed seeing him by nine minutes. Dang bus. He was pretty bummed. But we got pictures for him. Tyler guesstimates that he was about four feet long.

 Mice. Snakes. Wondering now if the spiders will be back.

On a completely different tangent: These two are going to have their own little critter sometime in October. I couldn't be happier for two people who waited so long to find each other and will be the most awesome parents because they are awesome people.

Major power surge

Wednesday evening the lights didn't just flicker, they went on and off and then boom!

Erik was upstairs on the computer and thought the TV up there had exploded, which it did, along with the computer he was working on and the one next to it and the DVD/VCR combo.

We also lost our range hood lights which were halogen and not cheap to replace.

I've noticed several light bulbs out and our outside eve lighting doesn't work.

Tyler's office survived, but the surge protector everything was plugged into did not.

The smoking electronics set off the fire alarm and poor Ashlyn was in the tub at the time.

The exasperating thing about this whole deal is Tyler fought with our electrician to put in a whole house surge protector, just hook it up to the box. Tyler even bought one at the Home Depot, but it was the wrong size and the electrician said to not worry about it, that he'd get it sorted out. Ya, that didn't happen. We shouldn't have paid him until it was done right. But with home building, we learned you just pick your battles sometimes.

Anyway, it looks like there's enough damage to warrant a claim, although I'm a little hesitant to file right away. There's likely to be something else to stop working due to the surge.

Some good news in all this is that my kids are going through computer withdrawals and they actually pulled out a board game to play together today.

When we get kid computers functioning again, we may just have to implement an electronic fast every now and then :)

Sunset in Lake Point

Does it get any prettier than this?

We have amazing sunsets from our front porch. Gosh, I sure do love where I live.

Happy Friday the 13th

I got a certified letter in the mail from an attorney representing Staker/Parsons, a concrete supply company. Apparently our concrete guys have not paid their bill from last November and we now have a lien on the house. NICE!

I really dislike how any company who is owed money can come after the homeowner even when we've paid the bill in full. This should be between Staker and the concrete guys. We should have zero involvement, but the law says they can include us and so they did.

After a phone call to the concrete people, it sounds like it will be getting paid. And the funny thing is Tyler was going to call them today anyway and get a bid on more concrete work. We'll be rethinking that idea.

On a happier note, Kiersten hosted a birthday party. She did the invitations, came up with ideas for food and entertainment, and basically took care of the whole thing. I helped fix the dinner and took them home. My kind of party. She is an amazing girl with amazing friends. How lucky she is to be surrounded with an army of strong, valiant young women.

At the request of Ty

I will no longer be ironing.

At least his shirts.

Well, maybe not all his shirts.

Why?

Because this has become our second closet. More often that not if he can't find what he's looking for in our main closet, he can look in the laundry room and always finds what he's looking for. (There are currently A LOT more shirts hanging in our laundry room than this photo shows.)

I just can't help not ironing even though it is the one housekeeping chore I detest the most.

I blame my mother for that. We always had a bajillion of Dad's shirts to iron every week, every one of them white.

Or maybe I should blame him for wearing so many shirts that needed ironing. But what's a seminary teacher to do.

Either way I can't stand to iron but I can't seem to give it up either. Baby steps, baby steps. So . . . Tyler's golf shirts are banished from the laundry room to find a permanent home in our master closet. I'm a little tense just thinking about it, EVEN THOUGH I KNOW no one will even be able to tell if they had been ironed or not.

This is going to be hard. But like I sometimes tell my kids, "Learys do hard things."

And a glimpse into laundry day at our house. No room for a nap that day.

Changes

Finally, the blinds and shutters made it on the slow boat from China. Is there anything that ISN'T made in China? Just as we are happy to block the world out, I'm sure our neighbors are just as happy that we enclosed our little world and won't be sharing so much.

Our Ruebush cousins have broken ground next door and are starting to build their home. It is going to be one long year and I don't envy them one bit. I'm so happy to be on the other side of that project!

We have an accepted offer on our Stansbury house. The buyers didn't have a realtor* and even went above list to get all the concessions they wanted. We're hoping to close in a couple of weeks if all goes smoothly. The first hurdle is the appraisal which comes in tomorrow. Lucky for us this appraiser was the one who got our Lake Point home to appraise where it needed to and he also appraised our Stansbury house when we were buying it. However, we are dealing with FHA rules and the comps might be a little tricky to find. Keeping my fingers crossed.

*Can I just say these people DO NOT know how to write up an offer. They NEEDED a realtor desperately. Tyler finally had to just close the deal over the phone and forego all the paperwork because it just wasn't happenin'.

Our Stansbury house is still for sale

We call it our house in Stansbury and our home in Lake Point. And, yes, I miss my house in Stansbury, even more so the more time I spend over there shipshaping it up for potential walk-throughs and buyers (yes, I know shipshaping is not a word, but I still liked it). I love that I still have a place to really beautify and have even started planting my garden over there. For some reason I just can't get excited about the piles of dirt at our home in Lake Point.

WE NEED TO SELL so I can give my heart and soul to my home in Lake Point.

This past week we had 4 families walk through and 3 offered. Yeah!! HOWEVER . . . 

One had to rescind when they discovered a foreclosure was still on their record. (I hope they didn't waste too much of their realtor's time. Some things should be found out before a realtor is even involved.)

One didn't accept our counteroffer and decided they should probably sell the home they are in now before buying. (That might be smart.)

And the third offer is still there. But again, they have been unable to sell their current home, would like to rent it instead, and are still waiting for the bank to approve them for our Stansbury house and to rent theirs. They don't have an agent which we are loving, but they do not know how to fill out basic real estate forms and are a little (I'd love to say A LOT) clueless about the entire process even though they assured us they've done this before. Are ya sure?

I told the kids tonight that we should pray that the bank accepts the conditions for these potential buyers so we can get this home sold. I want someone to enjoy it as much as we do/did.

Let this post speak for itself

Cyprus CU took 3 months to deny us; Box Home Loans took 3 weeks to close.

So long. Adios. Sayonara.

We are out of here and taking our accounts with us.

Squatters

Dave, our mortgage officer at Cyprus, left a message on Ty's cell phone today.

D. E. N. I. E. D.

Yep, denied for our final financing. Apparently they didn't like the HELOC we had on our Stansbury home of $95,000.

 Nevermind that that home is up for sale and will sell eventually and the HELOC will be paid off (hopefully in the next couple of months).

 Nevermind that we have the cash to pay off that home if we wanted to right now. We would just be short on cash for the downpayment on our Lake Point home.

 Nevermind that we got approved for our construction loan through Cyprus and that was $36,000 more than the loan we're trying to qualify for now . . . WITH ALL THE SAME PARAMETERS!
 

 I haven't dared to hang pictures on the walls until I know we own this house.

Faith. We will sell our other home when the time is right and right buyer comes along. We will be able to finance this home, maybe just not the traditional way. It will all work out. It always does. And, looking at the bright side, we haven't had two mortgage payments to worry about yet.

We are indeed squatting in this home and loving every minute of it. But, if we end up moving back to Stansbury, at least I'll be moving into a VERY clean, fixed up house.

The appraisal is in

and is wasn't good.

I thought we had it in the bag since it was the same appraiser who did our construction loan and that rarely happens since banks no longer have the power to pick who they want. I thought there was no way he would come in that much lower than his original appraisal. But he did and now we're trying to figure out how to come up with $40,000 in extra cash.

It will all work out . . . somehow, but today was kind of a stinky day. It looks like we might be putting our house on the market sooner than we wanted to.

Now in the spirit of Thanksgiving,

not a day goes by where someone in our family isn't thankful for Alex.

We all love him for the smiles and the giggles and the stories he tells and his overall happy nature.

But I think most of all we love being able to dress him up! 

 

 

Blahg!

I just haven't been feeling it lately. Maybe because there is SO much that it seems a little overwhelming to even try. But try I will. Isn't that what Sundays are for.

We should be closing on our lot sometime in the next week. It's been somewhat of a nightmare trying to get all our money in one spot to write that final check, but it's finally coming together despite all the holds and waiting. The seller has also been a little difficult to work with. Our first offer he countered higher than his own list price wanting us to pay the impact fees that he had clearly already paid and had said so in his listing. We did nothing and let it sit a week and then offered again. The second time he accepted. But then midstream he wants us to change title companies and close 3 weeks earlier than planned. We agreed to change companies but told him there was no way to close any earlier; we had the money but getting it in the right spot was taking some time. Anyway, I'll just be glad to have this deal closed and not worry about what else he might have up his sleeve.

As far as building, well we're up in the air with all that too. Our original plan was to build with Symphony Homes. They have a community here in Stansbury and build only higher end homes (not entry-level). We fell in love with their floor plans going to a Showcase of Homes this last fall, but after spending countless hours with them we've come to the conclusion that we really need more of a custom builder, someone who is more willing to do everything we want. Symphony is okay about changing walls, adding this or that feature to the house, etc., but they have not wanted to deal with the deck design we want to put on the house, covering the entire culvert in our front yard, running electrical wire for a sport court and pouring the cement pad for that as well. So we got a second bid from a custom builder. His bid came in almost exactly the same but everything we've mentioned doing he doesn't bat an eye and has to agreed to it all. As of today I think we're going to go with the custom builder. But that means no design center to help pull all the design ideas together for us. We're on our own as far as that and that makes us both a little nervous.

Right now I've been contemplating wood floors or tile in the kitchen. I LOVE the look of wood floors. It's warm and inviting but don't think they'll hold up as well as tile to kids coming in from outside with dirt on their shoes. Plus I've never liked being able to see footprints which you see much easier on a wood floor. Also you want to be very careful in matching wood floor with cabinets so it doesn't look like a lot of wood (at this point I'd probably do cream colored cabinets). Tile is hard and cold and we've decided to do radiant heating if we do go with tile so that will help eliminate the cold. But it's still hard and dishes break more easily on tile. You also have that nasty grout to try and keep clean. So many things to think about.

Not to mention I simply think it's too big of a house. We took a basic model and added a loft with a bedroom and bathroom so Tyler can office up there away from the commotion. I know it's fairly inexpensive space to finish, but it just adds. I can't help but think of President Hinckley's admonition to buy (or build) a modest home and pay it off quickly. I'm not feeling very modest about it right now. I'm sure I'll feel better about it as our kids get older and bring their friends home (hopefully) and our family grows up and gets larger. I know my mom loves her big house when we all come home for the holidays. Part of me also would rather pay down our HELOC (what we used to buy the lot) and pay off our home here and then think about building. Part of me also realizes that this is a very good time to build. We've seen that as both builders have competed for our business. It's also a good time to build so we can actually use the home before our kids get too much older and move away. It's just a scary decision. I HATE DEBT! But I know sometimes you just have to jump in and do it. If it had been up to me we'd probably still be living in Magna with our house paid for. It was scary for me to jump into the house we're in now because it was almost double what we'd paid for our first home. But it worked and we've paid this home off substantially and we really are in a better home and better neighborhood. Circumstances change; I just hope not for the worse.

Our lot.

 Style of home we're thinking about.

Just some updates

Ashlyn can now ride a two-wheel bike. Her friend Evelyn came over one day riding hers and that quickly prompted Ash to ask me to take her training wheels off. She asks every day if we can go out and practice which we've done every day this past week. And just yesterday she learned to start the bike herself. No need for me anymore. It's such a hoot to watch little kids ride those little 12-inch bikes with their legs pumping as fast as they can go and really going nowhere. She's also learning to read very simple books.

Nate finally lost his first tooth and the other bottom is quite wiggly. If it doesn't come out this week I'm sure the dentist will pull it on Thursday.

No much with Erik. He and Nate have enjoyed playing tackle football in the yard every day after school.

Kiersten got brave and asked her orchestra teacher if she could move up to the intermediate class from the beginning. Her teacher agreed to let her try it. That means I no longer have to take her 3 mornings a week to the junior high. Intermediate is only 2 days a week and another mom and I are carpooling, so that means I only have to drive one morning a week. Very nice.

We still have an offer in on a short-sale house, but have completely done a 180 degrees. After walking through many homes and seeing things we liked and disliked, Tyler and I decided that maybe we should build. But where? Stansbury has a shortage of lots for sale and the ones that are for sale are priced too high or are small lots for what we want to build. There was a particular lot in the Ponderosa subdivision in Stansbury that was .81 acres but priced rather steep. We even went to the trouble of hiring an appraiser to appraise it just so we'd have something to back our offer. The seller came down a little but not much and so we were back to wondering where we could build that didn't need a septic system or a well dug. Lake Point to the north seemed like a good option with 1-acre lots. Our kids would still go to the same school, but they would be bussed and Ty has family out there. However, the developer was asking a lot for the land out there. It just was seeming like land in this area has not come down like other real estate properties or that sellers were willing to sit until the market turned around. We drove through Lake Point, liked what we saw (you can see the Great Salt Lake to one side and the mountains on the other), but were bummed about pricing. We gave our searching a rest for a day and then Tyler told me last Friday that a listing had come up on the MLS with 3 lots for sale in Lake Point that were significantly cheaper than what the developer was asking. This was a builder who had picked up these lots intending to build on them and is now in need of some cash and dumping some of his properties.

I was a little hesitant to move out of Stansbury. We've enjoyed living here and it is a nice community. Lake Point has a more rural feel to it and it will just take some getting used to, some adjustment like any move. I really feel that this is where we are to be, especially with the way these 3 lots showed up so suddenly. Tyler checks the MLS listings every day and we've never seen them before (even though there are for sale signs on the property that look like they've been there awhile). We are offering tomorrow. I hope all goes smoothly.

We ripped the strip. Does that mean it's time to move again?

While living in Magna, our project one spring was to rip the parking strip in front of the house and get rid of the grass. We didn't have a sprinkler system and I was tired of making sure it got watered. Plus the weeds were starting to encroach. Well, as soon as that was done, we put our house up for sale and moved.

Our spring project this summer was ripping 90 feet of parking strip, so we offered on a home several days ago. However, this doesn't mean a permanent move since we won't be selling our current home. We're looking at this as an investment opportunity.

Tyler's been surveying the short sale market for awhile and came across a house in Stansbury that was in desperate need of a yard. It's a 4000 square foot home on .68 acres (cul-de-sac) of weeds and a few bushes with a four-car garage for . . . you know . . . those people who only have one car :) We've deduced it was a young, first-time homebuyer who built the home, thus cutting corners (although they felt the need for a BIG garage). There are no vaulted ceilings, laminate counter tops, and the deck is okay but we would be taking a huge step back in terms of the deck and the yard. We're interested. It has potential. A lot of exhausting potential.

When Tyler first broached the idea I said no way. I didn't even want to entertain thoughts of starting over again. I've slowly warmed to the idea, but have not had any strong feelings either way. When we where living in a one-bedroom apartment, I knew it was time to move when we were expecting our second child. After walking through the Magna home, we sat in the car and I told Ty, "We found our home, didn't we." It just felt right. And it was. It was a good place for us. There was no urgency to move the second time around. I had just delivered our fourth child and didn't really want to think about moving, but we knew we were going to start feeling a little cramped. We went house hunting and I fell in love with our current floor plan walking through a different home. So when we got the flyer on this one and it was the same, those same feelings came back, "We found our home, didn't we." And Stansbury has been a good place for us.

Short sales are a funny business where the sellers are basically upside down in their loan but the bank doesn't really want to deal with a foreclosure. The bank, therefore, lets the seller try to sell it at a discounted price so they dont' have to. There is already an accepted offer on this house at the bank. But a myriad of different things can happen for it to fall through (buyers don't want to wait and back out, bank doesn't like the terms of the loan or the purchase price). The seller is also allowed to accept multiple offers. So technically we are in back-up status. The odds are not in our favor. We give ourselves about a 10% chance of getting this home, which won't break my heart. Short sales take a long time, anywhere from 3 months to a year. Time is certainly one commodity we have lots of. Patiently waiting it out just might make us the proud owners of a second home.

(Don't let the picture fool you; there is no good grass in the front. It's basically weeds.)

I'm grateful for . . .

Where I live!

Ty and I were living in downtown Salt Lake City eleven years ago. I was commuting 15 miles to work during the day and Tyler was working nights only several blocks from home at Fidelity Investments. He was driving a 1980 Honda and I a 1991 Geo Prism. We decided to consolidate and give the Honda (affectionately named Ralph) back to his Uncle Medardo who knew of a kid who could use it.

Nancy and Medardo live in Lake Point, Utah, a place west of Salt Lake. I mean west, west, west of Salt Lake. [As a side note, I did work with a girl in Logan who was from Tooele. But I didn't have a clue where that might be.] They invited us out for pizza and we delivered Ralph. As we left that night I told Ty I felt like I was coming home. I loved the country and the small town atmosphere was so different that where we were currently living. I told Nancy I was moving out there some day.

Fast forward a year and we were in the market for a home. Kiersten had joined our family and Erik was quickly on the way. I knew we couldn't stay in our one bedroom apartment any longer. In our searching we decided to take a drive out to Tooele County. As we drove through Stansbury Park, we decided there was no way for us to afford it. It looked to ritzy for us (I have to laugh now at that thought). Tooele was too far and Lake Point didn't have any homes.

As I perused the classifieds one day, an ad for a home in Magna jumped out at me. It said nice neighborhood, family friendly, quiet street. Magna became home for 5 1/2 years during which we met many wonderful people. There are good people everywhere. The back of our house was to an open field for quite awhile, but along came development and every morning I would wake up and look out my kitchen window to see if the neighbors were having Frosted Flakes or Wheaties. That was just a little too personal for us. Ty put our house up for sale several days after I gave birth to Ashlyn and 2 1/2 months later we were in our new home in Stansbury, seven years after my original prediction.

What brought on this lengthy treatise was I went running this morning. My route took me out through Erda which is sparsely populated and just to the south of Stansbury. It reminded me a lot of running at home in Ferron. The birds were singing, the crickets were chirping. There wasn't a lot of traffic. My heart was a little full as I took in all of the beautiful sights and smells. You just wouldn't find this in Magna. I love that a mile from my neighborhood home I can find the country. Yes, Heavenly Father does love me.

Whenever I hear the song of a bird or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face or the wind as it rushes by.
Whenever I touch a velvet rose or walk by our lilac tree,
I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world
Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart; I thank him reverently,
For all his creations, of which I’m a part.
Yes I know Heavenly Father loves me.

Tornadoes & Fences

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for a Saturday in late November. And with that, fixing our fence couldn't be put off any longer.

Background
On Tuesday, September 4, we were just finishing Ty's birthday dinner of crab legs when the wind quickly picked up. I was concerned for our garbage can (still full and on the curb thanks to a garbage man deciding to take the day off for Labor Day), and as I was pulling it into the garage, I noticed the atmosphere was not only extremely windy, but also very dark and full of flying debris. Meanwhile, Ty had been in the backyard refusing to relinquish his hold on his locust tree, hoping it wouldn't uproot while watching one of our 50-foot willow trees collapse toward him (didn't hit him or anything else). Several sections of fencing were also blown over. One section landed on our new Goldenrain tree we had planted several days earlier. When the fence was lifted off, it sprang right back . . . the young really are resilient. As for our weak, shallow-rooted, willow trees: after counting their tree rings, they are only 6 or 7 years old! Just proves you have to grow deep roots to survive the tornadoes of life. We call it a tornado, but the weather people claim it was only straight-line winds. When we see trampolines lifted over 6-foot fences and trees toppled, it's our tornado despite what any weatherman has to say.

Well that was several months ago. Neither of us knew anything about fences or how they were put together. Thank heavens for a brother in law who lives two blocks away. Jason helped Ty put the new posts in, and today was the day to put the fence back together (without Jason's help. We're always so pleased with ourselves when we can accomplish anything remotely home improvement related without Jason's assistance). It's almost complete. Just need to finish the gate. Here's a pat on the back for Ty for figuring out the fence and living through our tornado.