I thought about changing the name of my blog since we're not technically living in a lake community anymore. But then I thought, hey, we're just about 1/4 mile from a lake - Spencer Lake. True, we can't see it from our home, but it doesn't take long to get there. So, I'm thinking' that's close enough to keep the name. So, we're still chillin' and enjoying our lives.
So, what would possess us to sell our beautiful log home in our wonderful community and buy a bank-owned fixer-upper in the small, non-HOA development not too far away, you might be asking. Or not! LOL!! Well, in a simple answer, Retirement. That elusive, future promise of free time, project-filled, snow-birding adventure that will be fast upon us before we know it. And snow! That's right, 2 winters ago it snowed so much one week, we couldn't get to work and if there, didn't stay there due to all the snow coming down. I was sitting in my recliner watching the snow fall and clicking thru the TV channels trying to find something worth watching thinking, if only we had a heated shop, we could be out there building things or working on projects. Only problem, there was no room on our lot to build a shop big enough to serve my needs and Tom's. So the plan took shape and the quest to sell our home began several months later when we hoped the home sales had leveled out.
After a year of no lookers or offers, we thought, well let's wait a year or so and try again. A few months later, around Christmas, Tom decided to try putting the house on Craigslist. Lo and behold, someone in another part of the state decided to peruse thru the Craigslist listings for her dream house. Coincidence? Devine Intervention, whatever you think, it worked out great and with the sale of our house we gained a good friend.
I still keep in touch with my neighbors from Lake Limerick. We loved living there and especially loved our neighbors. During the summer, I would either head over after dinner or stop by on my way home and walk with my buddies Kathy, Kerry, and sometimes, Judy, Linda and Donna. It's a great place to walk with little traffic. Something I plan on restarting once the evenings stay lighter longer.
Once we knew our log home was, in deed, selling, we knew we needed to find another place to live. What to do - rent and build on a lot Tom had in another development not far out of town or try to find a place already built that fit our needs. We decided for the latter and began the hunt. The pickings were slim - too big, strange layout, no room for a shop, too expensive, too far away from the highway. Then Tom saw this place come up on the MLS and it had just dropped $20k and was down about $50k from the original asking price. Obviously, the bank wanted to get it off it's books. We checked it out. Good floor plan, already built shop and room for another, quiet cul-de-sac, attached 2-car garage. There were some strange things going on in both the garage and the shop - lots of extra receptacles, walls built in strange places, little rooms in the shop - all led to the only conclusion - grow operation. I'm not talking about vegetables, here. Then, the final clue - some dried leaves in the shop! Yep, someone had been growing and processing weed, mary-jane, pot, demon tobacco!! Oh, well! I checked with an agency that keeps records of illegal activity addresses and found nothing reported here, so a little pot growing operation didn't bother us. In fact, Tom is still looking for a hidden stash - of either green stuff! LOL!!
We made an offer, found some problems, lowered our offer and bought the place! Then the fun began. But that's for another post.
I'll just say, it's been a very busy 6 months and there's still lots to do. But I'm feeling pretty comfortable in our cozy little home and I don't feel any seller's remorse when I visit my new friend in our old home.
Till next time!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
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