Top O’ the mornin’ to you
all!
God bless George Catlin, Woodrow Wilson,
Franklin D. Roosevelt & all those responsible for the National Park System that we have today! We all tend to dwell on the everyday
pork barrel politics and Congress’s propensity to buy tanks the army doesn’t
want and fight wars in regions they don’t understand, but every once in a while
Congress gets something right. I know it’s been a while, but it happens... (Did
anyone catch the republican debates on Thursday? It may be a while still before
it happens again!) Wednesday, Maureen, Liam and I drove out to Sliding Rock
in the Pisgah National Forest. On the drive out we passed numerous picnic areas, trail
heads, pull-offs for waterfalls, horse trails and other natural recreational
opportunities along the riverbank that the road followed. With minor
exceptions, all of this is open and free to the public. We did have to pay a
nominal fee to get into the Sliding Rock parking lot. Sliding Rock is so
popular that the park service monitors the parking lot and only lets in cars
when parking becomes available. It was all very orderly and with families
coming and going all the time there always seems to be parking opening
up. The park service warns that you
should wear older shorts or swim trunks. It is a natural rock formation and I
imagine too many trips down the slide could lead to some embarrassing wardrobe
malfunctions! It started raining while we were there but young and old, no one
seemed to notice. Actually the water was between 50 & 60 degrees so I think
the rain warmed things up a bit.
On the way back we stopped at Looking
Glass Falls. Looking Glass Falls is just a pull-off on the side of the road.
It was almost as popular as Sliding Rock. And all of this is on just one road
off the main highway. And then there is the Blue Ridge Parkway,
the Appalachian
Trail, the Biltmore Estate, and on
and on and on.... And you are all invited to come stay with us and experience
all of this once we are settled, just not all at once!
Sunday, kayaking on the French Broad
River weather permitting. We’re watering the lawn as I type.
I hate house painting! If it’s possible,
I hate house painting more than Keith hates helping people move. When we had a
30 day escrow (it has been extended at the request of the sellers thank
goodness) we would have had the house for just short of a month before our stuff
was scheduled to be delivered. Maureen’s grand plan was to buy a nice sprayer
and “we” (all of you husbands out there know what “we” means, don’t we?) would
paint the interior of the house ourselves. Saved by the escrow extension! Now
we will have barely 10 days and it will be a challenge to get everything
scheduled, coordinated and done even hiring professionals. Aside from buying
the house, hiring a painter might be the single most expensive thing we do, and
as far as I’m concerned, it’s cheap at twice the price.
Almost as bad as painting is trying to
pick the colors. I guess my biggest challenge is that I tend to look at the
problem or choices in front of me and make a decision, and then I move on. In
my 35 years in the work force, I figure about 25 years of that was as a
supervisor/manager or above. And that’s what managers do, they make decisions.
Maureen brought home what amounts to a small binder with color choice tabs from
Sherman Williams. Each tab has seven shades of a color and the binder assembly
holding the tabs is over 2” thick. I measured it! In addition to that she has
pamphlets and color samples from Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace Hardware for Pete’s
sake! How can you make a simple choice when you have a thousand different
samples to choose from? I know you are thinking that there can’t be a thousand
different colors out there, right? Maureen is holding up two color choice tabs,
one with a brown based shade of gray and one with a black based shade of gray,
and she wants me to help her choose one. They’re both GRAY!!! I’m having
trouble convincing her that if I have two choices and I can’t tell the
difference between them, either one is perfect. I believe she’d have more luck
getting me to help her pick out a color for the accent wall that would bring out
the hazel in my eyes, and my eyes aren’t hazel. And do you have any idea how
many shades of white there are? Oh my goodness, it’s WHITE!!! If that’s not
bad enough, Maureen tried to get Liam to come with us to meet the painter
Thursday and help pick out the paint colors for his room. Ok...we’re taking him
to college this coming Tuesday and he will be living on campus. It’s entirely
possible that one of you reading this email will be spending more time in his
room this year than he will. And if you think I could care less about paint
colors, try involving an 18 year old teenage boy. If it’s not digitally
interactive you’ll be lucky if he takes his eyes off his computer game long
enough to notice what you’re wasting your time talking to him about. And that’s
not the half of it.....
We’re also working on picking out
furniture. Once we settled on a house and got into escrow the search for just
the right paint and furniture began in earnest. We have done a great deal of
shopping locally. We also have a trip planned to meet friends in Hickory this
weekend to compare prices and quality for our selections before we make our
final purchases. Maureen keeps waffling between two beds with nice wood
headboards for the master bedroom. I’m happy with her initial choice, and maybe
it’s just me, but in a 24 hour day I might spend 8 hours in the bedroom with all
but about 15 minutes of that 8 hours with my eyes closed. As long as the
mattress is comfortable, I’m good! All of the guys are reading that last
sentence and nodding their heads because they know exactly what I’m talking
about. All of the women are shaking their heads because they know exactly how
frustrating trying to get me more involved must be for Maureen. She desperately
wants to include me in the process and I figure I’m bringing my wallet with the
credit cards, how much more involved do I need to be? And again, the guys are
nodding and the women shaking their heads! I’m surviving on the knowledge that
this too will be over before too long and Maureen and I will be snug in our new
abode with all of her paint colors and furniture around us and we can get on
with our “Happy Ever After.” I’m not sure what’s keeping her going? Maureen
might even be enjoying this part of the process although that seems just bizarre
to me. And again, the guys are nodding and the women shaking their
heads!
Today is the last day of our “Due
Diligence Period.” North Carolina is a “Buyer Beware” state when it comes to
real estate purchases. The seller is not required to disclose any defects,
omissions, discrepancies, etc.... There are disclosure forms that must be
signed however sellers are allowed to check a box titled “No Representation”
meaning either “I don’t know” or “I’m not going to say.” You would think that
real estate transactions are completely in favor of the sellers, right? Not so
much.... Once an offer is accepted, buyers have 21 days, the “Due Diligence
Period”, to investigate, inspect, research, and otherwise pick apart the home
looking for any potential problems. During this 21 days the sellers have to
allow whatever access is necessary for the buyers to satisfy themselves. And
here is the part that works in the buyer’s favor. During the “Due Diligence
Period” a buyer can back out of the contract for “ANY REASON” or no reason at
all and get back any substantial deposit made. If Maureen and I decided that we
found a house we liked better, we can get out of this contract until the end of
business today. Of course that’s not going to happen because we love this house
(see my rose colored glasses references in last week’s email). And the sellers
have been very open about the house and great about allowing us access. We’ve
had a couple of inspections but most of our visits have been to work with
contractors and painters. And we “split the baby” on the punch list that our
home inspector generated. So all in all I feel it’s been a good deal for both
of us. The seller is an insulation contractor who built the house to live in
himself so he’s very proud of the house and has been very happy to speak with us
about the house. The house has all of those nice little added features and
upgrades that contractors do for themselves but they make the rest of us pay
for. And the house is insulated so well that I could add a couple of condensers
and turn it into a meat packing plant if I wanted.
Oh, by the way, I got a
job! Do you have any idea how easy it is to get a job when you are willing to
work for free? I find myself stuck in the experience conundrum. You know, you
can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job!
Now you’re thinking “he’s 54 years old and has retired at least 3 times, why
doesn’t he have any experience?” Well the part time job I was shooting for was
coaching high school or middle school soccer. While I have a bit of youth
soccer coaching experience and a resume full of certifications, this is the big
leagues. And if you don’t know how seriously high schools take their sports
programs you haven’t had a child in high school for a while. Anyway, if I can
just get past one more background check I’ll be North Buncombe (yes I spelled
that correctly) High School’s newest (volunteer) Boys Assistant Soccer Coach.
The school has not named their girls team’s coaches yet (the women’s soccer
programs are in the spring out here). Who knows, by the spring I may have a
paid position? And as a bonus, North Buncombe High School is literally just
over the hill from the house we are purchasing. I can walk to work. Of course
I’ll be covered with poison ivy by the time I get through the woods to the
school.....every day.....but I could walk if I wanted too!
Well it’s time for me to get on with my
day and I hope this has helped to brighten yours! As always, you are all in our
thoughts and we are wishing that things are going as well for each of you as it
is for us.
Until next time...
Rick
PS That guy from the credit union that
called me last week came through with the statement I needed!
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