Break In

I would like to alert immediate neighbors that we had a break in on Tuesday, during the day; not the house (thanks, Sally) but our backyard. Our gates were forced open and a few tings were taken from the shed. We are missing a pressure washer, a weed wacker, a saws-all and a can of gasoline. We filed a police report Wednesday night, I'm sure we'll never see any of the stuff again (although I keep peering into pawn shop windows). Just a head's up....padlocks on everything!

Not Anytime Soon

Ok, we may be looking to sell.....but our to do list is huge! I don't know when we'll be ready......and since the market is so bad right now, things have to be in good shape. Not that we are falling down or anything, but sprucing up is definitely in order. So I guess we will be around for a little while anyway......but still...if you know anyone interested in a larger house in OSH.....point them in my direction....there might be a reward involved...like....a six pack or a case of cheetos.....(on a budget, you know).

Sad News

Well thankfully the AC is fixed for good....and the bills should be drastically lower! That's the good news. The bad news is that after our hard work (well, Mike's) and being totally in love with this house, we are deeply saddened to have made the decision to sell......not a decision we take lightly, and not one we had planned on doing this soon (the tax bill just went down for crying out loud!) but other commitments and circumstances beyond our control have facilitated this decision.
Do me a big favor-Pass The Word Around! It will be a special kind of person who will fall in love with the house as I did.....big old houses are not for everyone. It is a commitment of both time and money. I know there is someone out there who will love this house as much as I do.....I just hope I find him or her soon.....I want to sell soon.....I hate having a house on the market for extended periods of time, I'm not that neat! The house still needs a little bit of work, the previous owners did a lot, we did some, including the new roof last year......but nothing major.....we had an extremely thorough inspection done when we bought in '05, and nothing really bad was cited.....just the expected, replace some wood here and there.....most of the problems in the inspection were fixed by replacing the roof......the landscaping is not finished....we will continue to work on it. I think the biggest selling point will be the size of the house (3,036 sf). Not a lot of choices in this neighborhood if you want a big house, particularly on a double lot. Heck, my neighbor's house is for sale for $650K.....granted, it's beautiful and much more "done" than this house, he really did an extensive and quality job on it. Size is the key factor here.....4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, huge living room, dining room, den, office, front parlor, laundry room and kitchen with a walk in pantry. An interesting history doesn't hurt either......an elevated water tower in 1915 looked to have provided water for the newly platted neighborhood.....people were coming up to the spigot in front by the "Water 10 cents" sign up into the 70s. Boarding house, bordello, halfway house and back to an awesome single family house is quite an interesting life. Plus it is the homiest, most comfortable, welcoming house I've ever lived in except for maybe the cottage on Sebago Lake up in Maine that my papa built just shortly after this was built. Now I'm getting emotional (again). Forgive my rambling......it is an awesome house, please let someone know it is available; I am asking $500K....we'll see where that goes......I'm happy to talk to anyone about the house....but I will only show the house by appointment; I have dogs who need to be stuffed in the car and taken for a ride when I show it......bad vibes for potential buyers to be mauled while looking at their potential next house.
Thanks for reading my rambling........and please pass the word.....

Hot Enough For You??

Not much has gone on around here...its been sooo hot! We are trying to get more mulch delivered so we can continue the back yard, and we finished the side door installation except for the paint; we are thinking over a new color scheme so we will probably wait on painting that. We have also been busy watching our new sod die out....not sure whats going on there, but we think it may be chinch bugs; we did spray for them, but the rains may have washed the application away before it got to work. I am not laying one more piece of sod until we figure out what is killing everything, the other side (the driveway side) is completely grassless-weeds only, at least they are green.
Also occupying our minds has been our latest electric bill...and this will make all of you bungalow owners happy with your bills.....$702! We think (we are actually praying) that something is wrong, the bill or usage have never been that high, and it is substantially higher than last years bill. We have not added any energy munching appliance or a pool....and I actually bought some drapes just for this reason, to save some energy. The highest bill we have seen was just over $500 last September. We are trying to get an AC guy over to give us the once over...we have checked what we can check, the water heater, the thermostats......I really hope something is out of kilter.....who has $700 electric bills??