Cautiously Hopeful

I am happy to say that we have an accepted offer on the house!!! Yippee, Yippee, Yippee!!!!

The buyers have their house sold and their financing in place, so it looks like it is a very sound offer. The next step is the inspection. We don't think that will be a problem since we already had an inspection from a previous offer. That inspector found a few minor items which we have since taken care of. I don't think there is anything the inspector can find fault with. Of course, it depends on who the inspector is. The first inspection was ridiculous. I posted about him in a previous entry.

If all goes as planned, we will close on May 21st.

We have many tentative plans in the works, but most everything depends on the house sale going through. Once we have a more concrete idea of what we will be doing, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, we're praying that all will work out this time, and we can begin our fulltime RVing very soon.

We're Back

We were planning to go back to Mt. Rainier on our last day in Seattle, however that didn't work out. We found out the visitor center closest to the top of the mountain was only open on weekends during April and the weatherman said it was snowing in the mountains. Instead we went to the Seattle Center and visited the Sci-Fi and Music Museum. My guys are into both science fiction and music so we thought we would check it out. I'm not really that much of a fan. They enjoyed it. I thought it was OK. There was this amazing sculpture made out of musical instruments and it was wired so that some of them even played. That's Eric listening to the music it makes on headphones. They also had an area where you could try out instruments. A computer walked you through how to play. I tried the drums and guitar. My rhythm was not very good on the drums. Our son Korey played percussion all through middle and high school and showed me how it is done. After trying it, I have a new found respect for his talent. I also tried the guitar. I did a bit better and was able to play along to Louie Louie. How about that!

After the museum we drove to Alki Beach. It is on the northwest side of Seattle. It was a beautiful beach with a great view of the Seattle skyline and the Olympic Mountains. The mountains were pretty cloud covered, but here's a view of the skyline.

We got back on Wednesday night. Good thing since we had a layover in Denver and later that evening they had the security issue on a plane flying into Denver. You probably heard about the diplomat smoking in the bathroom. What a dope!!! Today I heard that a plane at Seattle's airport hit a tanker truck yesterday. Thank goodness we made it home safe and sound!

Today was showing #37 of the house and tomorrow are showings 38 and 39. Still keeping my fingers crossed and praying this will be over soon so we can get on with the dream.

I came across an interesting saying from the Lakota Indians:

Man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; the Lakota knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a lack of respect for humans, too.

More Seattle

On Saturday we went to Pioneer Square in Seattle. It is the original area where Seattle was built 150 years ago. The architecture of the buildings was beautiful. We went on the Underground Tour. Seattle was originally built at sea level and had many problems with drainage and sewage. In 1889 there was a great fire which destroyed 33 square blocks of the business district. The powers that be decided to build retaining walls around the original blocks where businesses were located and raise the street level about 10 feet. Business owners built on top of their original structures which created an underground. There are still many of the original structures beneath the current buildings. It was an interesting tour; however, our tour guide was a bit too kindergartenish for our liking. Seattle is named after Chief Seattle. Here are my boys next to a statue of the Chief.

Yesterday we drove to Mt. Rainier National Park. Mt. Rainier is 14,400 feet. It is about a 2 hour drive from Seattle. We were surprised to find the ground was still snowcovered. We visited the museum and went on a short hike where we saw this tree. The beavers have been quite busy.


Mt. Rainier is in the background of this picture. We could see it even though you can't see it in the picture. The winds picking up moisture as they come over the mountain cause it to be cloud covered most of the time. We were planning to drive further up the mountain to the Paradise Visitor Center where there were supposed to be better views. Just as we were getting back to the car to head up the road, they closed it. A tree had blown down closing the road. They told us it would be about an hour to clear the road so we decided to wait. An hour later they told us that more trees had been knocked down by the first tree and it was too unsafe to let anyone up the road so we had to turn back. We are thinking of going back tomorrow. We'll call ahead this time to see if the road is open :)

Today we went to the Space Needle and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks. The locks were opened in 1917 by the Army Corp of Engineers to connect Lake Washington with Puguet Sound. Originally, it was built to transfer lumber and coal from eastern Washington to the ocean for shipping. Today, it is one of the busiest locks in the country for commercial and pleasure boats. A fish ladder was also built to allow the salmon to move to the inland lake for spawning. I learned that salmon are born in fresh water, swim to salt water where they live until they swim back to the fresh water for spawning. That's a lot of swimming!

The Space Needle was built in 1962 for the World's Fair. It is just over 600 feet tall. No workers died during the construction. That's a a good thing. It's a pretty amazing fact when you see the pictures of how the steel workers were crawling around on small beams with gale force winds blowing. We rode to the observation tower and saw some beautiful views. The sun was actually shining while we were there. The weather here is very unpredictable. It goes from sun to rain to sun several times a day. Some days it is just clouds and rain. There haven't been long rain showers, just frequent ones.

Olympic National Park and Boeing

We're having a great time on our trip to Seattle. The weather here is certainly unusual. It changes by the minute. It can be sunny and raining at the same time. Today was very windy. Highs have been around 50 degrees.

Thursday we drove to Olympic National Park. We took the ferry across Puguet Sound.

The National Park road to view the mountains was closed due to snow. We did see the mountains from the main coastal road. We went from sun to clouds to rain to sun all day.
We stopped at the visitor center in Forks. This is the town where the Twilight books take place. They had a replica of the truck Bella drives in the movie. Every other business in town had a name relating to the Twilight movies. There was the Twilight Diner, Twilight Delights, and Bella's First Aid Pharmacy (which she will probably need if Edward bites her and turns her into a vampire).

We hiked down a few trails along the Pacific Ocean. The surf was amazing. The tumultuous waves were crashing to shore. The picture doesn't do justice to the power of the waves.

On the other side of the park was a temperate rain forest. It is part of the only rain forest in North America. It starts in Alaska, comes down through Canada and then into parts of Washington, Oregon and California. The average anual rainfall is 240 inches. The moss covered trees were beautiful. It felt like we were in another world.

Yesterday we took a tour of Boeing. Their main production building is in the Guiness Record Book as the largest building in the world by volume. To put it in perspective, you could fit over 2,000 average size homes in the building. It was impressive to see the facility and the airplanes being built. They have over 30,000 people working at their facility just north of Seattle. Their flight museum was interesting. Here we are next to the tailfin of a 747. It's over 3 stories high!

We spent the afternoon at the Pike Place Market, home of the Pike Place Fish Market. This is the place that has become famous for the "Fish Philosophy" books being used in corporate America. The employees have fun at their job bantering with the customers and throwing the fish to each other. Several years ago, the principal of a school I used to work at gave every employee a copy of the book. It was a very interesting concept. Too bad my current employer hasn't adopted the ideas. We ended the day having dinner at Ivar's Acres of Clams in downtown Seattle. It is a seafood restaurant which has been in business since 1938. The food was delicious.

Today we plan to head back to downtown Seattle. This vacation has been "just what the doctor ordered". I really needed to get away from my hateful job and the stress of selling the house. Hopefully, our next vacation will be in the RV!!!

Much Needed Vacation

Our family is leaving for a vacation to Seattle on Wednesday! We'll be gone for a week. I love vacationing with our adult children. We have had some great times. They are very appreciative and there is no more "he's on my side of the seat, he's looking out my window, he's picking on me" to listen to. :)

Every few years we have taken our adult boys on a trip. It started in 2004 when I told my husband that we should take them on a trip because it would probably be the last time we would go on a family vacation since they were adults and had girlfriends and would be too busy to go. We decided to go to San Francisco and had a great time. Then in 2005 Kevin turned 50 and our youngest son turned 21. Kevin enjoys Vegas so I just had to plan a family trip to Vegas to celebrate his birthday. This would surely be the last trip both boys could take with us. Two years ago Easter was very early. Spring training was still in session during Easter break. This is a rare occurrence. Our entire family are big Milwaukee Brewers fans. So, of course, we had to go to Arizona for spring training. Since we were pretty sure we would be fulltiming sometime in 2010, it made total sense to plan one last family vacation before we were on a more limited income. I asked the boys where they would like to go. I was expecting a cruise or Disney. Instead, they said we had never been to the Northwest; so Seattle here we come. I can't wait!!! I'm sure this will be the last family vacation we take them on (wink, wink).

We had showings 33, 34 and 35 of the house this weekend. Showing #36 is this afternoon. Still keeping our fingers crossed. I think they may stay permanently crossed after all this time. We appreciate all the support we've received. Thanks!

From what we get, we can make a living;
what we give, however, makes a life. Arthur Ashe

RV Accessory Shopping

Last Saturday we drove to Camping World in Madison to purchase some items for the RV. It's items we will need while camphosting this summer at Astigo County Park in Columbus, WI.

Our site has 50 amp electric, but no water or sewer hook-up. That meant we needed to buy a sewer tote. For those of you who aren't familiar with RV camping, let me explain. You know when you use that toilet and shower in your RV, the waste has to go somewhere. It goes into holding tanks attached to the underside of the RV. Some RV sites have a sewer pipe in the ground. When your tanks are full, you just hook up your sewer hose to the pipe and flush away. If you don't have a sewer site, but you only camped for a short period of time, you empty your tanks at the dump station.

The park we will be staying at has a dump station, but that would mean we would have to hook up the entire trailer every 5 to 7 days to dump the tanks. Somewhere along the line, someone invented a portable tote to take care of this nasty little chore. You empty your RV tank into the tote, hook it onto your hitch at the back of your vehicle and pull it to the dump station. Then you use your sewer hose to make the dump. This will definitely be Kevin's chore!

We also bought another fresh water hose to put water into our fresh water tank. There is a water outlet near where we will be parked and we should have enough hose now to fill from there. If not, we may need to buy a water bladder. I didn't even know there was such a thing. It hold 45 gallons of water. It folds up into a 12" x 12" x 4" square when not in use. You put it in the bed of your truck, fill it up, take it back to the camper and fill your tank.

I also bought a 200 watt inverter so I can use the laptop in the truck while we travel. We have internet through our cell phone so can be online while we travel as long as we get cell phone service. Cool, huh!!

We have never stayed at a place for any length of time without water and sewer hook-up so this will be a new and interesting experience for us. We really didn't want to turn down the opportunity for this camphosting gig because we will get some experience and it will be a resume builder. Plus we really like the park. Our site is right on a river. We'll be sitting under our awning looking right at the water.

Our main job will be to rent canoes and kayaks. We are required to work 15 hours a week (3 hours a day for 5 days). That's it. We don't get paid, but we get a free campsite, electricity and firewood. We will be co-hosting with someone who was there last year. We may also help out with some registrations and selling firewood.

We're excited to get started. Today are showings #31 and #32 of the house. Now all we need is an offer. Keep your fingers crossed for us :)

There are two primary choices in life;
to accept conditions as they exist,
or accept the responsibility for changing them. Denis Waitley

Decisions, Decisions and What Ifs

Last week we had temperatures in the 50s and 60s. If you have been raised in Wisconsin or anywhere in a northern climate, you know that this is considered a heat wave for March. Kevin and I decided to take advantage of the balmy temperatures by taking some walks after work. I absolutely love going on walks with my husband. We do some of our best talking on these walks.

Since our house still hasn't sold, we talked about the what ifs. Our real estate listing contract will expire at the end of May. The federal stimulus money for home buyers will expire at the end of April. What if we get an offer before the end of April? That would be the best news, but how will we coordinate the start of our volunteer camphosting position with cleaning out the house. Will Kevin have to stay at the campground, and I will stay at home to take care of details. That could work.

Worst case, what if the house hasn't sold by the end of May. What will we do? We discussed several options. Kevin is no longer employed. My job is becoming more unbearable by the minute. Could we make it work if neither one of us was working anymore? That's a huge what if. It seems like this is all we ever talk about.

We have had a nice couple interested in a lease to own option since last year. The husband is in graduate school and will be finished in about a year. He has a job lined up, but they can't get a mortgage until he is officially employed. It's a scary thing to contemplate. What if they didn't pay? What if they trashed the house? What if, what if, what if????

We are not irresponsible people. We have weighed every option from multiple angles. Financially, we could make it work until the house sells. But, do we take the risk? Is starting the dream now worth having less money for a rainy day? How safe should we play it? In this economy, it appears that thinking outside the box is required. Probably some risk-taking is also required.

We have now had 30 showings of the house. It is amazing what buyer's expect and want. Our home is older and priced to sell for its age. It is priced under assessed and recently appraised value. This still doesn't seem to be enough for buyers. They seem to want a new house at a used price.

What if the people who looked at it over the weekend make an offer? Wouldn't that just be great!!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed in "balmy" Wisconsin.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain