Taking a break from house & moving stuff

Now that the closing paperwork drama is over we are taking a little break to let our nerves recover before the mad dash next month. I was taking some pic of the curtains I made & happened to catch these 2 pics as I turned around. Rowdy can be intimidating when he needs to be but mostly he's just a big goof ball!

Where's the Bacon!? 

Tonight we are going to see Harry Potter in 3D! And we will be taking the mini drifter down the upper Kenai Sunday. We will of course be fishing but it is mostly a scenic trip so LOTS of cool Alaskan pics coming soon!   

Interesting Raymond area information

I was wondering how the Raymond weather was going to be in relation to Aberdeen. First I found out that Raymond is in the Pacific County not Grays Harbor! I don't know for a fact but I believe that Grays Harbor is probably the rainiest area in all of Washington so it is nice that we will be out of that zone. However, Raymond is close enough that the weather wont be that much different as you can see from these graphs. But that is OK, at least everything stays green! I like the snow, but living in a black & white world for 9 months can sometimes be challenging! 

Speaking of snow  =) This next photo is a topo of the area where the house is. Looks like the highest point on the ridge the house sits on is 400 ft above sea level. This will give us a little better shot at getting a Christmas snow! =) Not to mention NO chance of flooding! Also you can see that there is a small creek on both sides of the ridge that should be with in walking distance. The google map shows a path down to some small ponds or wide spots in the creek. Keep in mind though that the google maps are sometimes about as accurate as the weather maps! We were hoping that these creek/ponds would be accessible, but this topo map shows it to be pretty steep! It will be fun to explore the area!

Well I should get busy packing!  =) Moving day is just around the corner!   

Finally, Back on track!

Raymond House Up Date: Just got the news this afternoon, the inspector finally made it back out to the house. She turned on the water in all the sinks & flushed the toilets and everything worked!! She got her paperwork turned in today & we are back on track. That was the last hurtle, all that is left now is for the bank & HUD to do their thing and we should close sometime in the second week of August!! That should still give us time to make the travel arrangements for August 29/30th. 

Alaska House Up Date: We signed the contract for the rental of this house until it sells, made arrangements to get it cleaned after we are out. All the details are done on this house here so no more worries on that!

Moving Up Date: Really good news! Looks like we can apply for a credit kinda thing for the barge! Considering that is the bulk of our moving expenses it would be fantastic if we can make payments on it!!! I will be making the 2nd payment on the trailer this week. I will also take a bunch of photos & measurements so I can get the supplies ready for weatherizing it for the trip. Oh and I don't think I have mentioned that we will also be using a couple of U-Haul Tote Boxes for stuff we can't fit in the trailer. (even with that we are still saving money) Mark made arrangements today to have a kayak rack built for the truck to haul the boats. That will get installed a day or 2 after he comes home next rotation. 

Packing: I haven't done much in the way of packing the last week or so, I have been really stressed out over all the other stuff. But now that everything is a go again AND the hard part (the cabin) is done, the rest will go fast! Deciding on the tote boxes has helped as well. 

New Photos!! I got some new photos from the home inspection that was done. They are terrible, poor quality, grainy black & white, and hard to see, but they are views we don't have yet, so for us they are exciting!

This is probably the most exciting on we got! As you can see it shows the footage of all the buildings. Considering Mark just found out about the shop & the color pics we have doesn't really show much, he was REALLY excited to see how big it really is! For those of you who have been to our place here in AK. compare these out buildings with our cabin. The cabin is 450sqft. The shop is over twice the size of the cabin! The garage & barn are just a bit smaller! NOW Mark is more excited than I am! hahaha Oh BTW the buildings are not located on the property in this way, you can see the layout on one of the google maps in an earlier post. 

We have a color pic similar to this one but I wanted to post this on 'cause it shows the relation of the house & garage a little better. 

This is a better pic of the garage. I'm pretty sure the garage door will be to small for the truck so it will most likely be the first major remodeling job we do. 
(after we fix the well that is)

Here is a good side view of the shop. Mark is already making plans to put in a nice possessing station in the back part, complete with game hangers, running water and freezers!

You can't see this one very good but it is a view of the road. Looks like at the driveway. It looks like asphalt from this pic but I was told it is gravel. It's kinda funny, Travis told us about this road being gravel as "Bad News"! hahaha! It's in way better shape than our roads here!

Have you ever known you were getting a supper Christmas present, something that you have begged your parents & Santa for? But you couldn't open it till Christmas which is months away? For those of you who know me, do I need to say more!

I am going crazy with anticipation to "OPEN" this one!

This was a nice surprise. I knew there was some kind of entry but I couldn't quite figure it out. I love it!!  =)

 We have a color pic of the dining room but this shows the hallway to the other 2 bedrooms & main bathroom. The door on the right is the kitchen, the door on the left is the master bedroom. I absolutely LOVE that the main bathroom is away from the main part of the house & kitchen!!!! That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves yet most houses are designed that way. 

This is the view from the front windows. The house sits kinda close to the road but there should be very little traffic on it. You can not see ANY neighbors from ANY of the windows in the house! In fact it doesn't look like you can see neighbors form anywhere on the property!

Another view of the living room. It is laid out like the one we have here but bigger. The window on the end looks out over the barn & pasture! =)

This was another nice surprise. The master bath tub. You can't really tell from this pic but I have seen so many of these the last few months that I am pretty sure it is a large garden tub. That in it's self is not a big deal BUT the space is big enough that we can replace it with a jetted tub! (That is if we don't get a regular size hot tub on the patio   ; )

I wasn't even expecting this! Master bedroom His & Her closets! They even look like they could be walk in too!

I don't think there is anything about this place we don't like or wish was a little different! because of the lay out of the property & the buildings on the property, what isn't already here we can add to. Because the payments will be low we will have the funds to make any changes we want to make it OUR HOME!      

Raymond House Set Back- part 3

Where to begin! OK, as of my last post Friday the drilling company replaced the well pump and did get the water running. However the well is very slow to recover which really isn't a big deal but will require a holding tank. The realtor thought there is one there & by his description it sounds like there is a small one in place but I am curious why the home inspector, the plumber AND the well guy all missed it? AND why wasn't the water going to it? Hopefully as it is now will be enough to satisfy the bank & HUD that there is water & that it is hooked to the house! AND the fact that we just spent $1500.00 on a house that isn't even officially ours yet will show our devotion to get this done! 

So where we are now is that the water thing has created a hold up in the paperwork. Because everything has to go though all the channels & the red tape involved the inspector/appraiser STILL has not made it back out there. On top of that the bank did not understand that they needed to get all their paperwork closed & sent to HUD 10 business days BEFORE the HUD closing date which is Aug. 7th. If you do the math, we are past that deadline. AND we got an email from the realtor that HUD can just cancel the whole thing if the paperwork is not there on time! Oh and BTW, that $1500.00 we just spent? We don't get it back. SO, needless to say my stress-o-meter was off the chart today! 

HOWEVER after all the drama our realtor saved the day yet again!!!!! He got a HUD closing extension filled out & we got it sent off today, that will give us an extra 15 days to get this done. It wont take that long and if all goes well we should still be able to move late August or early September. 

On the lighter side, I have some new photos & cool new information about the house & property  =) I will post them probably tomorrow. The more we find out about this place the more we love it!!!!      

Raymond House Set Back

Friday, 9:30 am

Good News! The drilling company was able to make it out today after all! Turns out the pump is bad, but he is replacing it. If he can get everything working by this afternoon there might still be time to get the appraiser back out and all the paperwork turned in today. So it looks like closing might be early next week after all! Moving plans will continue & be on schedule!      

Raymond House Set Back. 1:00 pm Alaskan time

The bank appraisal went real well! The appraiser said there was no problem in the value of the property as far as the loan is concerned. In fact the appraiser really liked the house! However they could not get the water pump in the well to work. Both the bank & HUD will not close until there is running water! So we all have been scrambling the last 3 days trying to get a plumber out to try & get it going. 

There was running water when HUD took over the property and in their assessment at the time no repairs were needed. So we figured maybe something didn't get turned on or maybe it needed primed. We were able to get a plumber out early today and turns out the pump is a submersible so priming was not the problem. They verified there is water in the well (that is really good news!) But he couldn't get the pump to work either. He said that sometimes when the pumps sit for a long time they can freeze up. He is going to pull the pump up out of the well & see if he can get it going, at least long enough for the appraiser to come back out & sign it off. If not it will have to be replaced. 

I should mention that the house that is on the property now is only 4 years old but there was an old mobile home on there before. I'm assuming that the pump is probably as old as the well, so it really would not surprise me if it needs replaced. We should hear back from the plumber later today. Hopefully he can do whatever needs to be done today so we can get this done & move on. I will post again later after talking to the plumber.

4:00 pm Alaskan time

The Plumber called back. He can't get to the pump because it is to deep & he doesn't have the equipment to pull it up. We called the drilling outfit he recommended, they can do it but not until Monday. We gave them all the info about the pump so that IF it does have to be replaced they will have the parts on hand. 

So the bad news is that it will be expensive and the funds will have to come out of the back-up moving/appliance & furniture money. But at least the funds ARE available & we can just get it done!

The good news is that if the pump thing can get done early Monday there still might be time to get the appraisal done & still close on time. If not we actually have a few days of lea way before we HAVE to make the travel arrangements in time to move by the end of August. Worse case we might have to spend a little more for airfare. As far as the appliances & furniture are concerned we have options there as well so we should still be OK. 

We will spend the next few days concentrating on fishing. The reds are running stronger than they have in years! This will be our last chance, there are some red salmon in Washington but no where close to the numbers here.

I will post again Monday after I here back from the drillers, or if we hook up good with the fishing!   

        

They say "No News is Good News" Still Waiting

We really shouldn't be so impatient, after all things are really moving at an incredible pace all in all. As of the 13th it has only been 1 month since Mark first saw the listing on the Raymond house and already closing could be any day now. In the mean time, there is still a lot of stuff to do! It doesn't look like it from the photos but the cabin is nearly done. We will be having another moving sale the end of this week and whatever is left will either be donated or dumped.

I have been going crazy trying to figure out how we got all this stuff up here and why I can't get it to all fit in the trailer? The stock trailer is a little skinner but a bit taller than the 17' Uhaul trailer but it is the same cubit foot? We had 3 times this many boxes PLUS a washer, 2 recliners, a small sofa, the mini drifter boat, the waterbed and soooo much more! I have sold ALL the furniture, (except the waterbed) and repacked the boxes into these few and there is still no way it will all fit! 

Well I was ummm... *voicing* my concerns to Mark, his return comment, (after I got through with my rantings) "Darlin, the uhaul truck we came up with was 27'!" Me, "Duh! so that's where all the space went to!" Well now I can understand why I can't get it all to fit but it doesn't get me any more room! 

Sadly all this holiday stuff will have to stay behind. That really is OK though because most of this can be replaced for way less than the cost to ship it. The new house will require different decorations anyway  =) 

I am just getting started packing the house. There will be many more boxes but we will get it down to the necessities. We will have to mail a bunch of stuff. But considering we saved about $5000.00 by getting the stock trailer, barging everything & us flying I think we can afford to mail some boxes. Even if it ended up costing an extra $1000.00 we will still be ahead! =)

Oh before closing this post I have a funny to share. Mark & I were having dinner at the Duck last night. We were talking about the house and some how got into a debate about who was going to get what space, Mark had mentioned setting up a small space in the garage for my painting & crafts. I said no need for that I should have more than enough space in one of the bedrooms for the office & my crafts. I think he was actually thinking how he was going to get everything he wanted into that small garage, being the unselfish man that he is, he offered some of his (what he thought) limited space!  ;)  He asked if there was enough room next to the garage to park a boat and maybe add a cover for it. I said yea but why not just put it in the shop, it has the big door & there should be lots of space for everything? And Mark says, "What shop?" LOL All this time he didn't know! NOW he is really excited!!

 By this time next month I will have the trailer home getting it ready for the long haul! By the time Mark gets home from the next rotation (August 15th) we will have a week to get it loaded, then be in Seattle on the 29th! 

Oh and BTW, even though we are leaving a lot behind, here is a small sample of the replacements!

 

Short post

This will be short, we are both sick, bad timing. But everything is going good & moving along on schedule. The house inspection has been done with only superficial things being wrong. I will go into more detail later & post pics. It has been sent in and the appraisal has been ordered. I'm not totally sure but I think that is all, the next step will be closing!  =) 

 

I finally got all the cabin boxes that I can repacked. All that's left is Mark's stuff, hunting, camping & fishing stuff. So it's his turn sorting & packing. The cabin is still a mess though! We have a lot of stuff to get rid of somehow. I don't know if I will mess with another moving sale or not. I probably will. 

Next is to start packing the house. This will be easy & go fast. The hardest part will be the office, although I have already gone through it a couple of times getting the house ready to sell so it wont be that bad. 

The moving date has been changed again to August 29th. We will drop off the truck & trailer to be shipped then fly out the same day. The actual travel arrangements will be made after closing. 

That's all for now, more details & photos later when I feel better.

 

I should be packing right now but I'm just to excited!

Packing the Cabin; I promised these photos a couple of days ago but got real busy with phone calls, paperwork & selling stuff. As a result I haven't done as much as I wanted to in the cabin but in about 3 days this is how much I got done. These are all the boxes that I sorted & repacked. And I have actually gone through a couple more since this photo. When I get enough done to show a difference from these next photos I will post some more. 

I still have several more boxes here to sort & repack. And then there are several boxes Mark will have to go through but as you can see we are getting real close. We still have a big pile of camping, hunting & fishing gear to go through too but that will go pretty fast. 

I have 2 big piles outside the cabin (besides the boxes) that will go to the dump & thrift store. We might have another moving sale for fishing & the small stuff depending on how the time goes but for the most part a lot of the stuff in the far left corner will be donated. 

Mark will be a busy boy when he gets home! Besides trying to catch the tail end of king fishing, he has a lot of fishing & camping stuff to go through! But it wont take long. I also have more sorting & packing to do in the house but I think we are well with in our schedule! 

 This trailer actually is a long story but I will try to keep it short. We have been going nuts trying to figure out how to get everything back down to WA. Every method we looked into was either to expensive or had some other kind of glitch. (I had actually seen this trailer on CL a few month ago, but thats the long verssion that I will skip). We passed this stock trailer for sale on the way home from the airport Mark's last rotation home. Ok of course my first thought was horses, but I know this kind of trailer. I hauled horses to & from the beach for MANY years. I know the inside & what kind of space there is. THEN I got to thinking, Hummm, I know some construction outfits that use these trailers for hauling other stuff. One thought led to another, there is way more room in one of these than in a Uhaul truck? The price of THIS trailer is just a tad less than the rent of the Uhaul truck. AND it will be less to barge the truck & trailer than it would 2 trucks! ALSO everything will be all together in one place instead of spread out all over the country! So we talked about it and decided the trailer idea was a good one. Mark actually called about it but the people didn't call back. We figured it was sold and continued to look for other trailers. I looked on CL every couple of days, have not found any other deals like this one but also noticed that the add for this trailer was still there. So this morning I decided to call & at least tell them our situation, that I could give them some money after closing & the rest next month. I also said that if it sold between now & then I understand but I just wanted to let them know that if it was still available next month we for sure wanted it. He said OK, but then called me right back and said if I could give him a couple hundred dollars he will take it off the CL and hold it for us!!! Ironically I just happened to have a couple hundred in my wallet from the sale of my kayak the day before! Aint' it great how things fall into place sometimes! 

SO, Moving date as of last night... Deliver truck & trailer to the barge for shipping Aug. 31 & fly to Seattle Sept 1st. However actually having the trailer now changes things. Mark comes home Monday the 11th. The Home Inspection will be done by then too. We still have a lot to talk about & to do. Making the actual travel arrangements (which will be done this time home) might change the moving date again, but everyday brings us closer!         

More up-dates

Raymond House;  The power will be on Friday morning 7/8. The Home Inspection will be Monday morning at 11ish. The report will be emailed to me, Mark & I will go over it and if all looks good we will email it to the lender and he will order the appraisal. The loan file has been sent to the possessor for overview. This is to make sure all the documents are there and in order. If everything looks good the file, home inspection & appraisal will be submitted again for the final review and decision. I think at this point HUD has one more part in all this, but I'm not sure what. In any case there should be no problem to close by July 25th!

Alaska house;  We had a good showing yesterday even though it was a surprise and I had 2 hours to get it ready. Keep in mind I have spent the last 4 days selling stuff & packing so the place was a mess! I didn't even have time to stage it but I did the best I could. They have not made an offer but liked it enough to order some documents & a map. So that is encouraging.

Mark's New Job;  For those who do not know Mark was hired as a temp in this job, however he was offered a perm position that was finalized today  =) I don"t have any details at this time but will post them when I do.
Because of this his rotation has changed and he will be coming home early. This is grate because he can help with any last minute closing details, and this leads into the final up date for today...

Moving Date;  The moving date will have to coincide with his rotations home. With the new rotation he will be home from Aug. 23rd to Sept.10th so the moving date will be a little sooner than expected. It will be a mad dash to get all the travel arrangements done by then but we will make it work. AND we will have to be making those arrangements THIS rotation home BUT after closing! If all goes well we should have an actual moving date by the end of this month, of course I will keep you all posted!

Packing/cabin;  I have been really busy the last 2 days with all the above so I didn't get much done in the cabin. If all goes well I will have some "Cabin After" photos for tomorrows post!

We love you all! And can't wait!!!   

Sorting & Packing the Cabin

Raymond House Up-Date; Not much to report. We should have the home inspection soon. This is a little more important than usual because we have not actually seen the house. I don't expect to see anything wrong, the house is only 4 years old. All that is left is to wait for closing.

Cabin Before

Packing & Selling; I have made a LOT of progress here. It is going much quicker & easier than I thought it would. There are only a couple of the big items left to sell and I think we are just going to donate what little bit of the small stuff that is left. A lot of the boxes in the cabin were half empty and most of what was left in them is trash anyway.

Cabin Before

I have not counted how many boxes I repacked (about 6 I think) but there are 2 HUGE piles of empty boxes! Actually, if things continue to go this smooth I should be done with the cabin by the end of the week! Looking at these before photos, that's amazing!

I am actually enjoying the sorting & repacking! Lots of memories and some treasures! I will post some "After" photos in a couple of days. In the mean time, here are 2 of the many treasures I found. 

Lori's 1st king salmon Ocean Shores

Chris & Shera, Texas

 

Count Down to Moving Day! 66days

Raymond House Up-Date; All the loan papers have been filled out & sent in. Power of Attorney has been filled out & recorded. Home inspection has been ordered. Power & water for the inspection should be on by now. It will be turned off again after the inspection until closing. At that time we can get everything turned back on in our name. Oh and we got some good news this morning! The loan officer called & the closing date might be moved UP to July 25th insted of the 28th! That's a good sign!!

Alaska House Sale Up-Date; The sale price has been officially dropped from $223,000.00 to 219,900.00. BUT good news here too. If it doesn't sell in the next month or so, we will rent it out until it does. There are property management businesses here that do everything so we wouldn't have to even worry about it. The rent will more than cover the mortgage payments, property tax AND the cost of the property managers, with a couple hundred profit! We might even consider not selling it if the renting goes well. The best thing about this though is that we are now free to move with out the worry AND the financial burden of this house! Consequently it also take the edge off of the unknown factor of Mark's commuting costs. Either way, it is a great relief to know that part of the move is covered! 

66 Days to Moving Date; There is a LOT to be done in this time frame. The worse part will be the cabin, which we have already started on. In about an hours time Mark & I sorted 6 boxes, through away a large trash can & a bag full of junk and repacked 2 boxes. We found a couple of treasures too! We are selling just about everything else. We might have to sit on camp chairs for awhile but that's ok, it will be worth it! 

We are still in the planing stages of HOW we will move. We are glad we came up on the ferry, that was an incredible adventure! But I think for the move back we are leaning towards barging everything and the 3 of us (us & Rowdy) flying down. This might end up being a bit more expensive in the long run, but a whole lot less stressful, easier and FASTER! 

From now until closing, the time will go fast. Mark left today to the slope for work and I will be busy packing & selling. We can't wait to see everyone!