Nieces and Houses
My niece, Brenna, celebrated her 6th birthday this past Saturday. They had her party at a place called "Pump it Up" - an indoor warehouse filled with huge air-filled jumpy castles and obstacle courses. Kids AND adults were allowed to play on them, so of course Mark and Catri participated. Mark was one of the few adults to get in there and play, and frankly I was quite proud of him. A little girl named Maddie attached herself to him, following him around everywhere.
It was SO good to see my brother Marc too. I rarely get to see him. He only lives about 45 minutes away, but we only see each other about two or three times a year. I love him so much and he's been struggling so hard lately with his marriage. It appears that his wife has just given up on their relationship, and Marc, being loyal and still loving her and Brenna, refuses to give up himself. Things are getting worse all the time, though, and I imagine Tania is going to just call it quits officially someday soon. In a way they're already living in a divorced situation. All they need is a piece of paper to make it official to the world. It really breaks my heart, and I know Marc's heart is broken even worse. Your prayers for him would be appreciated.
Brenna on the birthday "throne"
Catri playing air hockey with my stepdad, Wayne
Mark, Catri, and an unknown child playing in a jumpy castle
Mom and Marc
Marc, posing for an "action" shot, since my crappy camera won't take fast-movement pictures
In house news ...
We've gotten a solid offer on our house, and hopefully, if all goes well, we'll have a contract on it by the end of the week. Negotiations are a little sticky. The buyers are not super-cooperative. Nevertheless, I think it will work out.
And, if it does work out, we will have to be out of our lovely home by the end of February. We've looked and looked and looked at houses and right now we're setting our focus on this house:
Don't you love the angled siding circa 1985?? Yeah, we do too.
BUT, the floorplan on the inside is exactly what we've been looking for: big and open, vaulted ceilings, nice size kitchen and bedrooms, a guest "suite" downstairs, a decent master bathroom, plus the yard is level and a nice size (good for croquet and badminton.)
Now, here's the kicker. This house is a FIXER-UPPER. And I ain't kidding.
Needed:
- New roof
- Repair soffitts
- Replace deck
- Repair a few cracked windows & fogged sliding glass doors
- Repair or replace skylights in master bath
- Replace garage doors & two exterior back doors.
- New flooring THROUGHOUT (We want to do hardwoods in the living and dining rooms, carpet everywhere else. The two secondary bathrooms are fine. The master bath floors need work.)
- ALL new appliances in kitchen
- New counters in kitchen
- Master bath entryway needs to be framed in and a door installed (see photo below)
There is a door to a small area where the shower and toilet are, but the vanity and bath area are open to the bedroom. We need to close it in so Mark doesn't wake me up at 5:30 AM when he turns on the light to brush his teeth in the morning!
You may be thinking, "You guys are CRAZY to take that on!" and yes, that thought has crossed our minds too. But we're hoping we can get a lot of the work done before we move in, if not at least before Gwennan arrives. If we can fix this house up, it will be beautiful AND will suit our needs really well. The price on it isn't too bad. If we invest about $30,000 in it, we can still get our money back when we go to re-sell it. (We think.)
Anyway, we haven't reached a firm decision to make an offer on it. And even if we do, the sellers would have to be willing to seriously cut their asking price. Which, if they are even half-aware of how bad the shape of this house is, they'll do. They'd be better off to just cut their losses and run. They've already moved out (to Florida), and I'm sure they'd like to stop paying the mortgage on it.
Okay, that's all for now.
It was SO good to see my brother Marc too. I rarely get to see him. He only lives about 45 minutes away, but we only see each other about two or three times a year. I love him so much and he's been struggling so hard lately with his marriage. It appears that his wife has just given up on their relationship, and Marc, being loyal and still loving her and Brenna, refuses to give up himself. Things are getting worse all the time, though, and I imagine Tania is going to just call it quits officially someday soon. In a way they're already living in a divorced situation. All they need is a piece of paper to make it official to the world. It really breaks my heart, and I know Marc's heart is broken even worse. Your prayers for him would be appreciated.
Brenna on the birthday "throne"
Catri playing air hockey with my stepdad, Wayne
Mark, Catri, and an unknown child playing in a jumpy castle
Mom and Marc
Marc, posing for an "action" shot, since my crappy camera won't take fast-movement pictures
In house news ...
We've gotten a solid offer on our house, and hopefully, if all goes well, we'll have a contract on it by the end of the week. Negotiations are a little sticky. The buyers are not super-cooperative. Nevertheless, I think it will work out.
And, if it does work out, we will have to be out of our lovely home by the end of February. We've looked and looked and looked at houses and right now we're setting our focus on this house:
Don't you love the angled siding circa 1985?? Yeah, we do too.
BUT, the floorplan on the inside is exactly what we've been looking for: big and open, vaulted ceilings, nice size kitchen and bedrooms, a guest "suite" downstairs, a decent master bathroom, plus the yard is level and a nice size (good for croquet and badminton.)
Now, here's the kicker. This house is a FIXER-UPPER. And I ain't kidding.
Needed:
- New roof
- Repair soffitts
- Replace deck
- Repair a few cracked windows & fogged sliding glass doors
- Repair or replace skylights in master bath
- Replace garage doors & two exterior back doors.
- New flooring THROUGHOUT (We want to do hardwoods in the living and dining rooms, carpet everywhere else. The two secondary bathrooms are fine. The master bath floors need work.)
- ALL new appliances in kitchen
- New counters in kitchen
- Master bath entryway needs to be framed in and a door installed (see photo below)
There is a door to a small area where the shower and toilet are, but the vanity and bath area are open to the bedroom. We need to close it in so Mark doesn't wake me up at 5:30 AM when he turns on the light to brush his teeth in the morning!
You may be thinking, "You guys are CRAZY to take that on!" and yes, that thought has crossed our minds too. But we're hoping we can get a lot of the work done before we move in, if not at least before Gwennan arrives. If we can fix this house up, it will be beautiful AND will suit our needs really well. The price on it isn't too bad. If we invest about $30,000 in it, we can still get our money back when we go to re-sell it. (We think.)
Anyway, we haven't reached a firm decision to make an offer on it. And even if we do, the sellers would have to be willing to seriously cut their asking price. Which, if they are even half-aware of how bad the shape of this house is, they'll do. They'd be better off to just cut their losses and run. They've already moved out (to Florida), and I'm sure they'd like to stop paying the mortgage on it.
Okay, that's all for now.
posted by Donna-Marie at 2/01/2006 08:58:00 AM
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