Your dad is out in the front taking the fishing line strings out of the trees. 3 or 4 years ago he bought some little ghosts to hang from the trees… and last night somebody ripped them all down. Sad.
The good thing is they did not bother the front porch. He has the porch looking good. (Ignoring the bright door facings… we tried to match the house paint and missed badly. 🙂 but we will repaint soon…)
He does enjoy decorating for the seasons.
Christina took this picture a few days ago. We haven’t quite figured out what the best title for it is, so we turn to the family for some help.
Just what do you think she’s thinking?
(and Ramona, if she cares to accept)
We were at Central Market tonight to pick up a few “treats.” Specifically some apple juice that I like and some Mother’s Milk tea. Chris decided to pick up a 6 pack of Saint Arnold Christmas Ale and a bit of New Belgium 1554 (a dark ale). The 1554 is rather nice…dark, chocolately, nice mouth feel, kind of between Saint Arnold Winter Stout and Guinness. We got to looking on the box the 1554 came in and noticed their blurb on the bottom for their brewery tours.
Guess where they are???
Fort Collins!!!
500 Linden St. to be exact… tours are Monday – Saturday 10-6
Interested and going and reporting back to us on what it’s like??
Well.  We got an offer on the house.
It has been showing a lot – lots of interest in it.  And we got an offer (it’s been on the market since the 16th – all of one week now).
The offer is low – over 20K below asking price.  We (Kevin) did price at the high end of the middle, but still.  Wretched lowballing offerers.  We’ve countered to somewhat less than half way between their number and our number, and if they don’t take our second offer that’s it for them.  The house is showing lots and it’s really early.
But Kevin says that conventional wisdom says to take the first offer.   So that’s where we are.
If we do wind up with this lower offer, it may change the range of houses we are looking for.  Not that that’s too bad of a thing – may end up with 2 1/2 garages instead of 3 (awwww)
And if we buy up, we’ll avoid the capital gains taxes.  Not that that’s really a huge consideration, but still ……..
Well, I survived the first house hunting trip. We looked at a lot of places … 6 resale, 4 new, 2 driveby. No clear winners, but some clear trends.
What happened to all the doors?
For some reason, the prevalent style is to not have doors within the master suite. OK, so this sidesteps the entire post I could write on the existance of a master suite, but I’m just letting that go for now. But now they’re taking away the doors, and I don’t like it. The realtor says that it’s a trend that evolved after the toilet was placed in its own little room – that since that one thing was made private, the rest of it could be all opened up. For what reason, I do not know. There are a lot of things done in the bathroom that I don’t want to have witnessed or to see that have nothing to do with the water closet. And carpet. Carpet in the bathroom. Another incomprehensibility. But since “we” buy for resale, and this is the popular thing, I am willing to wager that I will end up in a carpeted bathroom without doors.
Officially upsold on the garage
Yup … it’s 3 car and up; another wager for you. There’s a house on the list – high on the list – with space for at least 5 cars, maybe more … we’ve termed it the ‘airplane hanger house.’ When we rank the houses, each one with a mere 2-car garage gets compared unfavoribly to this one .. if we can get one with 5 stalls, why consider one with only 2? Though of course, we only need 3 … Sigh
Different opinions on the basement
I am of the finished basement camp. It’s a whole other floor, and I think it’s a plus to have had someone else put in the walls and lights and bathroom and all that. Kevin is of the unfinished basement camp, that it is a storage space not a living space. I don’t think it will be a deciding factor, though.
Luke wants to have a Christmas List online that he can open easily and edit without using html. I have experimented and think I have found a way for him to do this.
If he writes his list as a message and i make a link to that message it opens the message only (and the form for comments). The only problem is that he cannot edit from that page. However, if i create a new category, “Luke” or “Luke’s Christmas List” or “Dad” or whatever, he can bookmark the category and if his list is the only thing in the category, it would be easy for him to find and edit.
So…. I think the category idea is the way to go… and then bookmark the category or the page so he can have a Christmas list link up there With Chris’s Christmas list link.
Chris, do you mind my messing with the message board this way? I do not think you will so i am going to go ahead with it before I hear from you if your dad wants to work on his list…
I was flipping thru the channels on the television today and ran across a show called bake, decorate, celebrate, #108. I did not have a chance. It caught me the first moment i saw it. They have a website…. check out show # 108. I have to try making those fondant flowers…… I just hope they taste terrible.
So, here I am in Fort Collins.  Been here maybe 3 full days now.  And the ground is blanketed in snow.
I must say, the place is lovlier with snow. Without, it is just drear and brown and flat.  But perhaps that is the predjudice of someone moving from a beloved place with water and trees and such.
The people here are very nice.  These last few days, we’ve been driving about and shopping a bit and generally being lost and clueless – and everyone, on the road and in the stores, has been very patient with us.  We both long for a “Visitor Driver” tag to put on the back of the car, though.
I am all set up to work from home.   Figuring out how that will work and how I will like it.
Cats are making the transition OK.  Annwynn did perfectly well with the sedative and flight, but then he stopped eating once we got here – today was the first day I’ve seen him eat anything. I was glad to see it, though; I was beginning to get worried.   Mileva took a double dose of the sedative and was still embarrasingly vocal on the airplane, but she settled into the new house in a matter of minutes. Both cats are fascinated by the basement and would probably stay down there all the time if it were an option.  The basement is unfinished, all concrete and cobwebs and interesting smells.
Temporary living is quite posh. It is going to be such a letdown to go back to our own furniture.  I think perhaps we might actually upgrade now.  The old stuff can go in the basement, now that we’ll have one, and Kevin is getting himself accustomed to the nice stuff.
Kevin is in the process of up-selling himself on the housing options.   A small number of houses in the price range have three car garages, and I think it’s becomming a requirement in his mind.  It is interesting the way they do it; they are called tandem 3-car garages – it’s a two car garage, but one side is extended so far that you could pull a third car all the way in.  It would make a great bike and workshop area, I will grant him that.
That’s about all I have.  Living out of suitcases, don’t know where anything is, still eating out all the time, and now the snow is sticking to the sidewalks.   Roofs are covered, grass is barely peeping out .. quite lovely, but now there’s some expectation that I drive in it.   We shall see –
Well I am officially back on my diet. This is only the second day, but there is a calmness and lack of struggle that bodes well for it lasting, at least for a while. Last time i was on it for 3 months or so and then it began to be a struggle. Perhaps this time, with the memory of last time, when i begin to have trouble, I will be more motivated to stay with it. It has taken me 9 months to get back on it. 3 months on and 9 months off; that is not a good ratio.
I am thinking of my Christmas list. One thing that i have been wanting lately is an air purifier. They just sound like a good idea. I thought i would look into them to see what brands are good and how they work and what they cost. Well, they cost too much, at least the ones that do a good job do, but i did run across something interesting at one site that discusses them. It said that they are a very good thing for people who have asthma, etc., but that for people who have no respiratory problems the best thing to do is just vacuum and dust daily and keep smokers and pets out of the bedroom. Hmmmm vacuum and dust daily….  hmmmm perhaps i should rethink my current dust and vacuum monthly schedule before i start looking into air purification systems.
Actually the site said that most allergens fall to surfaces. I was thinking in terms of pollen which is occasionally a problem, but I know i do not vacuum and dust as often as i should and i almost never vacuum the furniture… According to my research the allergens that are most likely to bother me are the things i would vacuum up.