Well, it’s been about a week or more and we’ve yet to hear anything about the foreclosure. We’re certainly not holding our breath, but the market isn’t presenting any homes that have even come close to rivaling the “foreclosure” as we have come to call it.
On Sunday, we stopped into an open house for a 2/2 that was in a perfect neighborhood. Surrounded by expensive homes, this small, quaint 2/2 sat there, reveling in it’s 1970’s glory. The house has the original canary yellow carpet throughout, the same windows that were installed in the late 1950’s, and various other remnants of days gone by, including the old couple that has occupied the house for decades. Dressed in a leapord print bathroom, we met the owners during out walk through. The poor old man had a pill tray that would rival that of 90% of the worlds pill popping junkies. It was exactly what you would expect.
There were many nice features of the home, but in the end, after much debate and discussion, we decided that while it was a good value, it wasn’t the home for us. There was just too much work to be done to convert the home into something that would be suitable in the long run, and that’s just not something that we wanted to get into.
So the search continues.
On Sunday, Melissa, her mother, Bill and I went over to the beach around 6:00pm to go fishing. We were hanging out, fishing in the surf, minding our own business. Melissa and her Mother joined us a few minutes after Bill and I had gotten to the beach, and brought along Dagny. Dagny, our now 1 year old dog, loves the beach and everything about it. While she’s not much of a water dog, she really enjoys the sand, the beach grass and mostly the people that walk along the beach. Knowing that some people feel threatened by even the smallest dog running up to them, while on the beach, Dagny is relegated to stay on her leash.
Aside from fishing, the other reason that we were down at the beach was to watch the Space Shuttle launch, but I’ll get to that part later.
After about an hour of fishing, with no success, I went up to lay down on the towel and take over holding Dagny’s leash so that Melissa could go fish. As I was laying there, I was approached by a middle aged man. The following conversation ensued:
“Because you are being inconsiderate, my autistic son and my family have to leave the beach because you brought your dog. My son is afraid of dogs and we can’t enjoy ourselves because he’s scared. Did you know dogs are not allowed at the beach?”
“It’s after 5:00….”
“NO DOGS ALLOWED MEANS NO DOGS ALLOWED! It doesn’t matter what time it is. I should call the police on you and then see how things work out.”
“Okie dokie”
“Okie dokie? You think this is a joke?”
“Sir, I’m not here to get in an argument with you. If you feel the need to call the police, by all means, make that call. I am sitting down here, 100 yards away from anyone. I’m sorry that you son is afraid of dogs, but she’s on a leash and not bothering anyone…”
As he was walking away, obviously irritated, he yells “do you know why there is a high bacteria content in this sand?! BECAUSE OF DOGS!”
Now, I feel for this man as a parent trying to protect his son, and I feel for his son who obviously has a hard time managing to live as normal a life as possible, but at the same time, I certainly am not going to stop bringing my dog to the beach because of it.
A few minutes later, after relaying this story to Melissa and company, we saw the man and his son up at the steps leading down to the beach. He was standing there with a police officer, pointing our way. As he was explaining things, either one of two things happened. A) The police officer told him that this was nothing he could do because we were in a “national park” or B) the officer had no interest in taking off his shoes and walking the 100 yards down the beach to tell us to go home.
On a daily basis I see dogs on the beach. According to the rules and regulations, there is no ball playing allowed either, alcoholic beverages, smoking or fishing! All four of which happen on a regular basis. It was just one of those situations where you have to ask yourself…was it really worth getting your blood pressure up to yell at a total stranger? I mean really.
So at 7:43pm, from the beaches in Boca Raton, we watched the Space Shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral. The cape is 200 miles north, but the shuttle and it’s burning trail of rocket fuel were easily visible in the darkening sky. It was actually quite beautiful.
And today? Not so much. It’s been pouring outside all night, and it looks like it’s going to continue throughout the day. Should make working from home a bit easier I suppose.
Oh, and here’s something strange to keep you occupied for a few minutes.
This past week has been pretty exciting in terms of finding out great news, and working to move forward in our plans. Melissa was able to secure herself a Director level position as a Marketing Director, so she’s extremely pleased about that. She’s going to be working in the BI field, which is what I am part of, so that’s amazing too, as we’ll be able to talk freely about what we do without confronting the glazed eyes that ususally creep into conversations regarding fact tables, multivariate analysis, etc.
Additionally, there was a house that she and I were particularly fond of, and the prior week, we had been told that it was already purchased. Well, as it turns out, that contract fell through, and we’re waiting to hear back from a broker/bank about what’s going on. We’re not 100% ready to put down an offer, but we’ll see what happens once we have a chance to really talk to someone that knows what they are talking about in regard to the house.
I actually don’t think that I have mentioned the house that we were looking at, so here is a brief rundown. It’s located in a quiet neighborhood about 2-3 miles from the beach. In typical South Florida style, it has lite colored tile running throughout the 3/2 home. Bathrooms need some updating, as does the kitchen, but they are functional. The kitchen currently has stainless appliances, but a laminant type counter top. It has a 1 car garage, and a massive yard. The yard is one of the most attractive features. The yard is as big, if not bigger than our yard was in Atlanta. In the back corned, there is a 30 ft. tall Mango tree that offers significant shade to a Coy Pond that’s been created in the back, adjacent to the tree. There is plenty of room for a pool if we were ever to want to go in that direction. The neighbors homes are all beautiful, none being of the tacky South Florida variety, and best of all, most are going for around .5M, so this home is a bargain. The only problem with the house is that it went under foreclosure at the end of August of last year. It was on the market for one day and purchased out of foreclosure. Well, the bank that foreclosed on it was unaware of an additional lien against the title, thus the contract falling through. We are currently waiting on the banks to clean the title and then re-list the house on the market. Hopefully we’ll be one of the first folks notified when that happens, but we’ll see.
While we’re hopeful that home works out, we’re not holding out breath, so the search continues.
It’s been a few days, but we’re finally down in South Florida. Things have settled down since the move, and we’re finally starting to get things organized to a point where Melissa and I are feeling comfortable. We had an uneventful move, successfully packing a 17′ U-Haul truck and driving it down to Florida. I have never, in all of my many many times moving, packed anything so tightly, and we still had to leave some stuff behind, mainly the vacuum cleaner that was constantly getting clogged, so that wasn’t really a major loss.
I have recently been put on an internal project, so I’ll be working out of the “South Florida” office for the next three weeks. While not ideal, at least I have a nice place set up to work, and I’ll be around to help out with whatever things are going on down here. Currently, we’re tentativly planning on moving into Melissa’s father’s spare apartment. It normally rents out for the winter months, but there’s an opening coming up this April, so we may hop into that. It’s a one bedroom, but it’s more convenient than renting something, as our schedule may be fickle.
Other than the move, things have been going fairly steady. I got my promotion at work, but due to financial constraints, it was more of a title raise than anything. Bonuses are supposedly coming out on the March 15th paycheck, but I’m not holding my breath on that one. I don’t expect to get anything, so if I do, it’ll be icing on the cake.
The cats have adjusted to live down here fairly well. Better than I expected actually. I have yet to make official plans on how I am going to go about bringing Seven up to my mother’s house, but that’ll work itself out when the time comes. I actually should probably start looking into that.
This weekend, Melissa and I don’t really have any true plans, but I am betting that we’re going to be house hunting, and probably a BBQ or two. Other than that, it’s just relaxing to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt with the window open.