UNDER THE MAINE SUN

SHORT SALE, AUCTION and OTHER REAL ESTATE EVENTS

My recent experience with short sales has been quite a trip. I made an offer on a sweet little house in North Carolina for the full asking price of the short sale. The owners accepted, but it had to be approved by their bank. Short sale means the bank is supposedly willing to accept less than the seller owes them. 

All seemed well and we were waiting for confirmation of our closing date. Waiting. Waiting. The bank kept asking the seller for more documentation on their end. Waiting. Then my realtor got a phone call from their realtor. The bank had "accidentally" let it slip into foreclosure. Real bummer for the sellers who now have a foreclosure on their credit record. Bummer for me, but not hopeless -- I could just keep looking.

I decided to wait until winter to look for the next little place to fix up and "flip." Meanwhile, my realtor, Bill Millwood, suggested that we follow up and try to buy the property at auction. He knew I was still interested -- after all I had already drawn up a budget and made the plan for the fix-up.  I went out and bought 3 books on buying at auction and am now wading through them. They pretty much say the same thing -- I could have saved a couple of bucks by only buying one.

PROBLEMS AND FRUSTRATIONS

I knew the well was "slow." I had hoped it was due to corroded pipes as that's a common problem with old houses. But my plumber, Ira, has broken the news that I will eventually need a new well. I can use the present one as long as I nurse it along carefully -- no watering the lawn, etc. It also probably means bathing in a teaspoon and being careful about washing clothes. OK, so now I know. The next thing to find out is, since this well does have some water, can the new well be drilled as a continuation of it? On my next trip down, I'll have to see if Ira knows a good well drilling company, and get their opinion. Unfortunately, a new well is one of the things that will have to wait until the Maine house sells.  Life has to wait until the Maine house sells.

Some people looked at the Maine house and I tried not to get my hopes up. They took almost a week to decide, but the husband loved it, thought it was perfectly done. His wife thought it was "too done," and not enough left to do to make it "hers." Of course, she won. So it's wait some more.

Meanwhile, I had been thinking that once I sell this place I'd be in a quandary as to how to make the move. It's clear, especially with the well situation, that I can't live in the house and keep the five cats safe during the building phase. Why not go ahead and see what's available for the next project. Something livable that I could be in with the cats while the first house is being done, then move into that house while I finish and sell the second house. Good plan.

I checked the internet and found a really cute little place with large rooms (not many but large) and a sunny kitchen. It was only a mile from the first house. I sent Bill to check it out. His report was disappointing. Although one traveled through a pleasant neighborhood to get there, once there one would be surrounded by trailers and not nice ones at that. They could all be seen from the windows of the house despite fencing all around the yard, and bushes. I sadly returned to the internet and found three more possibilities.

When Bill looked into it, he found that one was already under contract, but he would check on the other two shortly. Meanwhile, I decided to wait a bit longer so told him not to make the trip. Then the potential buyers appeared on the horizon. It was encouraging even if they didn't buy -- it was a sign that there were people out there who would realize the value of the property and possibly buy. I went back to the internet. Only one of the little houses was still on, but it was the best one. Not only that, the price had dropped by $10,000 in less than two weeks. I immediately contact Bill to go as quickly as possible to see it.

MY LEGACY -- AND LESSONS LEARNED

I recently saw a quote from Karen Kaiser Clark:  Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.

Although I'm sure I have grown, I haven't always chosen wisely.  Who has? But at least I believe I've learned from the unwise decisions.

When assigned to give thought to my legacy and what it might be, I asked my daughters what they thought. One declined to respond. Perhaps she thinks I'll leave nothing of value to be remembered. My other daughter gave me a wealth of characteristics and values that she feels she has gained.

OLDER WOMEN REINVENTING THEMSELVES -- THEIR LEGACIES

Aging is a difficult challenge for everyone. Some people do it gracefully (I'm not one of those), and some do it kicking and screaming with face lifts and tummy tucks (I'm not one of those either). I struggle to find my own path and it's sometimes a rocky one. Far be it from me to find the easy road. That's boring.

In my women's Wisdom Circle we have recently had the assignment to determine what our legacy is to our children and future generations. What will we be remembered for? I look back at my own ancestry and what has come down about the women in it. I know quite a lot about my great grandmothers, but little about the women who came before them. For instance, of Dorcas Woodbridge Bragdon, whose ancestry can be traced all the way back to the Plantagenet line and Eleanor of Aquitaine, I know only that she was born in Maine, went to Pittsburgh with her family as a child and settled on the farm next to my great great grandfather, married him when she came of age, and produced five surviving children. What she was like as a person, I have no idea. Nothing has passed down.

NAMING THE PROPERTY

It must be my British heritage, but I like places with names. The quaintness of this property certainly merits one. 

There is a small windmill in the front yard and I was trying to figure out what color to paint it. It's anchored in concrete so removing it isn't an option. The choice was between painting it something bright and making it stand out, or something like foliage green to blend into the landscape.

I had finally decided to paint it red. Then while thinking up names for the property, such as Red Mill Gardens, Red Mill Farm, etc., the aha moment came. Of course. The appropriate name is Le Moulin Rouge. 

Below is a photo of how it looks now. I'll post another after it's painted during my August trip. 

 

Jean, Somewhere in Maine

DIFFICULTIES OF WORKING FROM AFAR

Once home, one of the things on my To Do list was to plan the next trip. Nancy and my cousin Joanie are planning to visit in August but don't necessarily want the joy of camping out in the house. I decided to make it a short trip since I won't get an opportunity to do much work on the house during their visit. They will want to sightsee around the area, and with the Biltmore Estate, there's plenty to see. Also, it will be too hot to accomplish much. I'm not much of a hot weather person. That's what the porch and the lemonade are for.

But thinking about the water situation, I thought I'd better have that checked out to see what the status of the well was, and if something could be done to improve the present pressure situation. I had earmarked some of my loan money to put in a start of the heating system in the fall, but found that gas lines couldn't be run until the walls were open. That won't happen until the project is ready to officially begin. That frees up some money to address the water situation, although not enough to drill a new well.

HOME TO MAINE

Lola and I were up early on leaving day. From Hendersonville, North Carolina to my sister's on the Jersey shore, it would be at least eleven hours. I was trying a different route. 

I took a last look around the yard and noticed the sand tracks in the side yard where an old truck had been parked just before I bought the house. The truck had been removed as requested, but these tracks remained. When I was here in February after closing, I had thrown some grass seed over a dirt area on the other side of the house where the septic had been recently checked, and also over these tracks. The grass over the septic grew fine, but nothing had taken here. I had mentioned it to Dan, asking how I might get rid of them short of digging up the sand. He had suggested putting soil over the top of them. 

In various places around the yard were big pots filled with soil and dead plants. I grabbed a couple that were close by and emptied them over the tracks, spreading the dirt around with my foot. It was a quick fix on the run, but when I go down in August, I'll see if the grass on either side has started taking over. I didn't have time to get the whole thing, but if that has worked, there's only a little more to do and I'll have time to do it more carefully.

TUESDAY - THE LAST DAY

There was no way I was going to get everything on my list for this trip done in this last day. I would just go through and do what I could. One thing that had to be done was go to Ingles and buy some Biltmore wine as gifts. I was having dinner with Bill and Tausha this evening and would take them a bottle. One for my sister for providing a rest stop for my trips to and from, and one for Andrew and Laura for feeding the other cats in my absence. I would also get some flowers to send over for Valentin's mother. Then back to the house with a stop to pick up my sandwich for later. Merri still wasn't open but I saw her outside her shop so had a chance to say good-bye until my next trip in August. 

Back at the house, I pulled molding off the walls of the future kitchen but couldn't quite get a loose section of paneling down. It made the room so dark that I wanted to get a feeling of what it might look like once it was finished in a much lighter color. But the paneling was trapped under the ceiling tile and I was afraid to pull too hard to free it. I didn't want any of the ceiling tile to come down yet, giving Lola any more openings to escape into the structure. So far we were doing well on that score.

MONDAY

When I got up Monday morning, I found that there was no water. The pressure had been low the evening before, but now there was nothing. There was nothing for it but to call Ira. He told me that the pump would have automatically shut off due to low pressure in the well, and that I should go out to the pump enclosure with a mop handle with a hole in the end, catch a small wire lever with it and pull up. I finally managed to do that and heard the pump restart. Back at the house there was water again. But now I knew that something would have to be done soon about the well. When I got back to Maine, I would call Ira again and see if he could assess the well to determine if it was actually the well or the piping that was the root of the problem. Anyway, it would wait for another day.

It was back to Lowe's for two white wooden rocking chairs and seat cushions for the front porch. I also bought a chore wagon for hauling brush and trimmings in the yard. Then to Sears to window shop appliances, and to a little shop in that same mall, called Tuesday Morning -- sort of a small T J Maxx. I found a red seat cushion for the wicker rocker that the family had left for me, as well as small white tables in that store. Then it was back to the house, stopping at the sub shop for my sandwich. Merri was closed at the bakery, baking up a storm for the Memorial Day open house she was planning.

In the after setting up the new chairs on the porch and enjoying my lunch there, I set to work with some more demolition and more pruning. I got the stairwell as open as I could, removing remnants of paneling and the closet that had been in the second floor hall. Only the ceiling piece of that remained dangling from the wall. Some of the paneling was trapped by two big storage cabinets that the father had built above the stairs and which were in too solidly for me to remove. That would have to wait until I could afford Robin's muscle to get them out. Dan had told me that they were seldom used because they were difficult to access.

SUNDAY

Up early again the next morning, I fed Lola and threw on some clothes. The day before, she had gone back into the opening between floor and ceiling right after breakfast. Once she came out in mid-afternoon, I was ready with my ladder and a piece of wood to slide across the opening to block it. As soon as I saw her come out, I quickly mounted the ladder and inserted the wood. Perfect. That solved that problem. My fear was that when it came time to leave a few days later, she would get in there and I wouldn't be able to get her out. 

I made some coffee and found that the cream was frozen but useable. I turned down the cold in the refrigerator as other items were looking frozen as well. I had gotten some bread and my favorite spread so made some toast in my old toaster oven that I had brought down from Maine. So far my little make-shift kitchen was doing OK.