The Time Is Close for Our Departure

Just as they promised the coach was finished late Tuesday afternoon. I picked it up about 5:30PM and brought it home. The shades are a great improvement over the pleated shades that came standard. I failed to take a picture of the old pleated shades before we replaced them, but here's a picture of the new AutoMotion shades we had installed.

The upgrades we wanted on the coach are complete now and we have a couple of days to finish getting the motorhome loaded and the house cleaned out. We have to finish and be out of here sometime Friday.

The next couple of days are really going to be busy.

Until next time...

Front End Alignment and Back to Classic Coach

I picked up the motorhome from Classic Coach on Friday and took it back to the house so we could load some of our stuff into it over the weekend. The refrigerator was finished and it really looks good. 50% more space in roughly the same space as our old Norcold 12 cu. ft. fridge and an ice maker that can keep up with us. 

This is a photo of our old Norcold 12 cu. ft. refrigerator before we replaced it with the Samsung residential model.

 

And here is the new Samsung model RF197 residential refrigerator we had installed.

We're very happy with the new refrigerator. What we like the most is it is an 18 cu. ft refrigerator vs. the 12 cu ft Norcold, It stays colder in the fridge and freezer and is less dependent upon the outside temperature swings as the Norcold is, and the ice maker makes plenty of ice for the two of us. We use a lot of ice and the ice maker stays full of ice.

We worked on loading the motorhome over the weekend and on Monday morning we took the motorhome to Josam's for the front end alignment. When we left Josam's to head back home I noticed right away there was a drastic change in the steering and handling. I'm very pleased with the work they did. It was like driving a totally different RV home. 

Alan called me Monday afternoon and confirmed that the shades did ship and would arrive at Classic Coach on Tuesday morning before 10:30AM. I dropped the coach off at 8:00AM on Tuesday morning and I am suppose to be able to pick it up sometime this afternoon.

A Bit of a Change in Plans

I dropped the coach off at Classic Coach on Tuesday morning to have the refrigerator installed and the shades replaced. The coach was suppose to be finished by Friday and ready for pick up. We were going to pack some things over the weekend in preparation for our departure. Then on Monday take the coach to Orlando to JOSAM's for the alignment. Then we would be finished with the coach modifications. We would have 3 days left to finish packing before we were to leave. 

I received a call from Alan on Wednesday to let me know that the shades that were suppose to arrive on Thursday did not ship. It seems the manufacturer has an issue receiving some part of the mount for the shade from their supplier. The shades were ready but couldn't be shipped until the part for the mount was installed. The shades would not ship until Monday, May 7th. They would be shipped overnight at the manufacturer's expense. They should arrive no later than 10:30AM on Tuesday and they would be installed the same day. Now I'm worried again. Alan assured me the technicians would stay until the job was finished and I would take the coach home on Tuesday night. 

I told Alan I had an appointment at JOSAM's on Monday morning for an alignment. He told me the refrigerator would be finished by Friday and we could pick it up so we would have it for the weekend to be able to pack and return it to them Tuesday morning to have the shades installed. What a plan!!! If it all comes to fruition as planned.

That will give us two days to finish loading everything in the motorhome we're taking with us and get the house cleaned out. We'll have to see how this all works out.

The Last Garage Sale and Getting the Coach Ready To Go

We dropped the motorhome off at Creative Coach on Friday morning, went to breakfast at the Auburndale Diner, and went back home to get ready to go to the closing. What a wonderful day!!! We have waited for this day for a long time.

The closing was fast and went very smooth. After the closing Don took us all to Red Lobster for lunch. It was very good and we truly enjoyed it. Then it was back home to get things ready for the garage sale on Saturday. This was going to be our last garage sale, finally. When we dropped the coach off at Creative Coach we asked the guys if we could leave it until Saturday afternoon. By leaving it there I wouldn't have to move it down the street to my neighbor's house again as we have been doing for the previous garage sales. They were great guys and told me it was no problem at all. 

The garage sale went great and we got rid of a lot of stuff. One of the people that came by told us since it was our last garage sale he would come by and make us an offer on what was left if we were interested. Since we didn't want to take anything back inside and it was going to be our last sale we said sure. He came by after the sale, loaded up what was left, folded up our tables for us, and we were finished with garage sales.

After the garage sale was finished we stopped by Creative Coach to pick up the motorhome. I had told them when we dropped it off that I thought there might be something wrong with the steering and asked if they would check it out. Sure enough, Lester, the service writer, told me I needed a front end alignment and recommended a place in Orlando called Josam Frame and Alignment. He said it was the only place he would recommend and they use a laser alignment system. We looked it up on the internet and decided to see how soon we could get an appointment. I called them today and they said they were about a week out so I made an appointment for next Monday. 

I sure hope this all works out. The coach is scheduled to go to Classic Coach on Tuesday morning to have the refrigerator replaced with a residential model and all the shades replaced with the AutoMotion day/night shades. It is suppose to be finished by Friday. Then I take it to Josam's Monday for the alignment and we have to be loaded and out of here on Friday May 11th.

A lot to do in a short amount of time.

Until next time...

Events of 4/12 - 4/26 (Continued)

We are closing on the house tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM. We have an appointment to take the motor home in to Creative Coach tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM to get it serviced. I heard about them from a blog that I follow and they are close to where we live so we thought we would try them out. They are going to change the engine oil, oil filter, and fuel filters, replace the transmission filters, and lube the chassis. We will drop it off tomorrow morning and hopefully pick it up tomorrow afternoon. After the closing at 11:00 Don is taking us and the buyers to lunch at Red Lobster. 

When we finish lunch we are going to come back home and work on getting things together for the yard sale on Saturday, which hopefully will be our last yard sale. I talked to Alan of Classic Coach Works this week about upgrading our refrigerator in the motor home to a residential refrigerator and replacing our shades with Auto Shades day/night roller shades. Alan told us we would need to get the coach in no later than Wednesday morning of next week in order to have it all finished by Friday. I told him we would have it  there no late than Tuesday morning, in case there were any problems it would give them an extra day to get them ironed out. 

We want to get the upgrades done that we want before we make the move into the motor home in 2 weeks. I'll tell you more about the upgrades we're doing in a later post. For now, I need to get to bed and try to get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Until then…

Events of 4/12 - 4/26

We have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. Our efforts to get rid of the "stuff" has escalated to the next level and in the mean time I have fallen behind in posting what has been going on with us. I apologize for that and will attempt to catch you up on our progress.

We have sold most of our larger items by posting things to Craigslist on a regular basis. If, after a week or so there is no interest, we lower the price and continue this until we see activity on the item for sale. You reach a point where time is of the essence and the goal shifts to getting rid of it even if you don't get what it's really worth. We have a limited amount of time to get rid of all this "stuff" and you have to do what you have to do. In the end, it doesn't matter. What matters is to be able to get rid of it all and not stress out over it. We have a yard sale scheduled for this coming Saturday and we hope this will be the last one. It will be the largest one yet and the goal this time is to get rid of it at any cost.

We are closing on the house Friday morning 4/27 at 11:00 AM. Don has invited us and the buyer to lunch afterwards and we are so looking forward to finally closing on the house. Last week the temperature in the refrigerator started rising and by Friday I could tell there was something definitely wrong so I called the repairman. The condenser fan was bad and he didn't have a replacement on hand. He gave the fan a spin and it started running again but not knowing how long it would last I told him to order a replacement. He said it should be in by Monday or Tuesday. I kept watching the temperature in the fridge over the weekend and by Tuesday I had to spin it to keep it cooling about 4 different times. Man, was I glad when he called Tuesday afternoon to tell me he had the fan in. He came out to replace it late Tuesday afternoon and we are back up and running again. 

I loaded the motorcycle on the Hydralift and drove over to Lazydays RV on Thurday, 4/12 to drop the motorhome off to have the last two items on the warranty list taken care of. We also contacted Wade RV, which is located on the premises of Lazydays about installing their snap on tire covers while the coach was in for repairs. The black and grey tanks have been giving us erroneous readings since we bought the motor home. The last time I had it in the shop, which was back in October, just before the snowbirds started coming back down for the winter I was told that the tank sensors had been replaced. If they were replaced, I had the same problem when I picked it up as I had when I dropped it off. The great thing about Lazydays is they will eventually take care of the problem if you continue to have issues. I had researched some tank probes online and found some probes called Horst Miracle Probes. It sounded like the solution to my ongoing problem so I order a set for the grey and black tanks. When I called to make the appointment to take the coach back in, i asked if they would install the probes I had bought online under warranty since I was still having the same problem after they had replaced the probes. They agreed to do that and I must say the tanks were reading properly when we picked it up. I'll let you know about the probes after we have had them for awhile. The other problem was the porch awning would not close all the way when it was retracted. The problem was a bad motor and they did not have one in stock. It had to be ordered and wouldn't be in until the first of the following week. The plan was to drop the coach off on Thursday and pick it up on Friday afternoon, then spend the weekend at the Lazydays Campground. With having to order the awning motor they had other jobs that could be completed so they didn't install the probes before the weekend either so a quick call to Shawn, our service advisor, and the coach was put on a service site for the weekend so we enjoyed the weekend away anyway and at no cost. It was a great weekend. The coach was finally ready the following Saturday so we picked it up in the afternoon and brought it home. 

Sorry for the lengthy post but when you get behind and at the pace we're moving right now it takes awhile to get caught up. I'll stop for now (it's getting late and I need my rest) and I'll try to finish catching everything up tomorrow.

Until then...

What a Relief!!!

I received a call from Don somewhere around noon on Wednesday. He told me he heard from the bank on the appraisal and wanted to call instead of sending a text. He said he wanted to hear my reaction when he told me the appraisal came back with enough to carry the offer. What a relief that was and I immediately felt a load lift off my shoulders. I didn't realize how wound up I was over the appraisal and hoping it would be "enough". Ellen and I had discussed it previously and we had decided that under the circumstances as long as the house appraised for enough it didn't matter to us if it appraised for much more. From everything we've heard from several people in the real estate market I don't believe that it did. The bank won't tell the seller how much a house appraises for unless it's not enough to carry the loan, but if it carries they will only let you know that it was enough. We could probably ask the buyer and I think he would tell us but we decided it didn't matter to us, so we won't ask. We both have been doing a lot of praying lately and thank the good Lord we can now continue towards our dream. We should have a closing date in a few days and we are both so very excited that our plans are moving forward.

Until next time...

Another Yard Sale and Appraisal

We spent most of last week getting things ready for another yard sale. We have had good luck so far. On Saturday we had our 3rd yard sale. We didn't know how this one would turn out since it was Easter weekend but we decided to have one anyway and see what happens.  For each sale we've had we listed it with the local newspaper in print and online. We also posted it on Craigslist and put out yard sale signs at the main intersections near our house. We had a good turnout once again and was able to sell a lot of stuff. There wasn't a lot left after the sale that we had to bring back in. We also continue to sell a few things from time to time that we have listed on Craigslist. We are planning on having one more sale in about two weeks and hopefully we will be able to wrap it up.

I have an appointment this coming Thursday at Lazydays RV where we bought our motor home to have the last of the 30 day warranty items taken care of. Even though we bought this motor home last August they are very good about taking care of any issues you have after purchase. I had the motor home in for these items already but they weren't fixed completely on my last visit which I think was in October or November. My service writer said they would take care of it and since the snow birds were beginning to come back down and they were getting very busy I could wait until things slowed a little before bringing it back. We really like Lazydays. We bought both of our motor homes from them and we highly recommend them to anyone looking to purchase an RV.

My appointment is for 9:00 AM on Thursday and the plan is to stay until Saturday evening. I took Thursday and Friday off and Ellen will come over Friday night after work. They have a little sports bar cafe called Exit 10 Cafe at the Lazydays Campground across the street and we enjoy stopping by for a few cold ones and visiting with Mike and Julie. They work at Exit 10 and we always look forward to going over and seeing them. We always have a good time.

There is a shop on the Lazydays property called Wades RV. They custom make snap on tire covers for motor homes and while the RV is in for service they are going to install the tire covers on the motor home. We've been wanting to get these for a long time.

We received a call from Don last Friday and the appraisal was scheduled for Monday at 11:00 AM. The appraisal was done yesterday and we were told the bank should have it by Wednesday. Don said the appraiser was impressed with all the upgrades we have done to the house. He also said MidFlorida Credit Union, who will be financing the house for the young man who is buying it, allows a little more leeway with appraisers for upgrades so we're hoping everything works out well. We should know by Wednesday.

Until next time...

A Little Spring Cleaning

We decided to get up this morning and do a little spring cleaning around the house. The vinyl privacy fence around the back yard hasn't been cleaned since last summer and it has built up some mildew with all of the pollen we have had lately. We sold our big gas powered pressure washer that I used to wash down the fence, but we bought a small electric pressure washer a few months ago that we use to wash the motorhome with. I got it out and spent the day pressure washing the fence while Ellen did some weeding in the flower beds to get them looking presentable. It sure took a lot longer to get the fence cleaned with the little electric washer than it did with the gas powered one, but hopefully it will be the last time I have to take care of that chore.

The appraiser should be coming out to do the appraisal on the house some time soon so we thought anything we can do to make the house look better may help in some way. Probably not, but that's how we looked at it. The fence sure looks better now that it's clean. It looks brand new again.

We're planning on having another yard sale next Saturday so I guess we'll be working on pulling things together for that in the evenings after work this week.

Until next time...

 

Body by Vi, Home Inspection and Shopping

My plans for Saturday didn't work out as I had hoped. According to the weather guessers on Friday night, a cold front was suppose to come through our area, rain sometime during the night and clear out around 9:00 or 10:00 AM Saturday morning. We decided to take the car and go to breakfast while the inspection was going on and return later, then maybe go for a bike ride. When we awoke in the morning there had been no rain but it was cloudy so we went to breakfast as planned thinking the front had probably slowed overnight and rain would start at any time.

After breakfast Ellen decided she wanted to do a little shopping so we went by Belk's and we both found some new clothing we liked. After we left Belk's we stopped by Beall's to do a little more shopping. Both of us have been on Body by Vi since November and have lost enough weight that our clothes aren't fitting very well any more. I've lost 22 lbs. and Ellen has lost 15. Body by Vi is a meal replacement shake and it's been working very well for us. We're also saving a lot of money on groceries. You drink a shake for breakfast and one for lunch, then have a sensible dinner. The shakes are very tasty and we don't get hungry between meals. So many of us in America could stand to lose a few pounds and Ellen feels so strongly about the health value of the shakes, she started promoting the Body by Vi challenge. If your interested in finding out more about Body by Vi check out Ellen's website here.

When we were leaving Beall's Don called to let us know the home inspection was finished so we went back home. It was probably somewhere between 12:00 and 1:00 PM when we arrived back at the house and in less than 30 minutes it was pouring rain. No bike ride today!

Don told us the inspector said our house was the most well maintained 30 year old house he has ever inspected in his career. He found nothing at all negative. What a world of difference from the inspector on the first contract. Of course, the first inspector was friends with the lady we had the contract with. Sounds fishy, I know! We truly believe it was planned in case she wanted to get out of the contract for some reason. The things the first inspector found were trivial things that should never have been on a report. Would you think that an aluminum soffit that had a dent in it that looked like maybe a broom handle or something similar had hit it and put a small dent in the aluminum would be on a home inspection report?

Anyway, the home inspection went very well with nothing negative to report. I guess now we wait for an appraisal which should be within the next couple of weeks. That's going to be the next hurdle for us. I sure hope it appraises for enough that we can come to some kind of agreement to close the deal. I'll definitely be glad when this is all over.

Until next time...

 

Home Inspection Tomorrow

We were suppose to close on the house today on the first contract. Oh well...

We received an email from Don yesterday wanting  to know if tomorrow would be OK to schedule the home inspection. We told him that would be fine but we were holding another yard sale so we would be here as well. He said that was no problem so the inspection is scheduled for 9:30AM tomorrow morning.

When we get up in the morning we always turn the TV on and listen to the news and weather while we're getting dressed for work. The weatherman said we have a cold front coming through so we have the possibility of rain coming in tonight. It's very possible we may wake to rain tomorrow morning. We have been so tired and mentally drained lately that we decided with the chance of rain not to have the yard sale. Instead I think we might go for a motorcycle ride and have a nice lunch somewhere and relax a little. We need a break.. The rain should exit our area somewhere around 9 or 10:00AM in the morning so I think we should be OK after that. I'm feeling better already.

We'll let you know how the home inspection goes the next time.

We Have Another Contract

Don came over last night and had another offer for us on the house. The young man that had placed an offer the same day as Cherie did has modified his offer. It is more in line with what we need to get so we accepted it. Remember I said in an earlier post that we're going to the table with money in order to sell. There is only so much we can do also.

The young man is an EMT and is engaged to be married soon. He and his fiance both really loved the house when they saw it the first time. He told Don they were so depressed when they lost the bid and have done nothing but think about it since. They have not looked at another house since. We are really glad they like the house so much and we're hoping it will work out this time for them as well as us.

Another contract in less than 24 hours. That's awesome! I guess we'll see what happens next...

The Deal on the House Fell Through

We've been talking to Don, our real estate agent the last several days concerning the termite issue and what we can do about it. The shed measures 10' x 12' and the termites have been treated so that's no longer an issue. There is some wood that was damaged but nothing significant. There is a clause in the contract that states we would cover up to $1000 for any kind of termite damage found. That would certainly cover the damage that had been done. The problem is after what we have been through the last several days with other things, we don't believe we could make her happy no matter what we did. We offered to discount the sale of the house the $1000 and she could have it repaired the way she wanted. She called Don on Monday and said she wanted an addendum added to the contract to have an appraisal done on the house and if it didn't appraise for what she offered we would sell her the house at the appraised price. Keep in mind we were suppose to close on the house this coming Friday, March 30th. We have been back and forth so much with her giving in on everything she has asked and with the developments of the last few days we said absolutely not.

By now we have had enough and Don has as well. She wanted to invoke her rights under the inspection to get out of the contract and we agreed to release her. Don came over Monday night and we signed the release. Don asked us if we would allow him to call the other person that had lost the bid on the house when we accepted Cherie's bid instead. We agreed to leave the "Sale Pending" sign out until Don could contact him and get back to us. We'll see what happens next.

Until next time...

I Now Have a Hydralift

I left for Titusville about 10:00AM on Thursday to meet the folks from Georgia to get get the Hydralift. I arrived about 11:45AM and got checked in. The folks from Georgia had not arrived yet so I figured they would probably be arriving shortly since it wasn't yet noon. I received a phone call from JoBeth, the lady I had been talking to about the lift, about 12:15PM informing me they had been involved in a fender bender on the way down and was running a little behind. She said they would arrive about 12:45PM. I talked to Mike and told him what had happened. He said as soon as they arrived he would get them backed into a bay and get the lift removed and they could be on their way. He would then get my coach backed into the same bay and begin the installation. It will not be completed until tomorrow sometime so I'll be staying in the bay overnight. Since there is a 50 Amp service in the bay it wasn't bad at all. When installing a Hydralift the original trailer hitch receiver is removed and a runner extension is welded to the coach frame. Once the runner is installed the base plate is welded to it and the lift is bolted to the base plate. Everything went well with the installation and by 5:00PM which is the time they close the Hydralift was mounted on the coach. Peter, the mechanic who was doing the installation said that was the easy part.

The shop opens at 8:00AM and Friday morning at 8:00AM Peter started working on the rest of the lift installation. These guys are very good. I saw Peter and some of the other mechanics standing around the shop drinking coffee a little earlier but at 8:00AM everyone immediately began working on their individual projects for the day. No lingering around here. Peter installed the hydraulic pump and reservoir to the frame and ran the electrical for the pump. He then installed the electrical plug he had removed from my original receiver to the Hydralift. After everything was mounted and secured he checked the controls to make sure everything was working properly and then he adjusted the alignment of the lift. The final touch was painting the runner extension that had been welded on. The installation went so smoothly that by noon on Friday the installation was complete and I was ready to hit the road again.

I want to thank Mike and Josh Thibeau and the rest of the guys at Eagles Pride RV for the great work they did on getting the coach in and installing the Hydralift so quickly. If you're ever in the Titusville area and need some RV repairs give them a call.

Here are a few photos of the Hydralift installed on the coach.

Inspection Results and Road Trip

I got a call from Don yesterday on the results of the termite inspection. No problem with the house, but we have termites in the little shed out back. Can you believe it! I called the company that did the termite inspection and made arrangements to have the shed treated. The home inspection only showed a couple of very minor FYI type things on the report; nothing to worry about there. We'll have to see what shakes out about this.
I've been looking for a Hydralift motorcycle lift for the motorhome so we can take the motorcycle with us when we hit the road. I searched Craigslist in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama trying to locate a used one. They're pretty expensive so I've been hoping to avoid the cost of buying new. I located one in North Georgia that I have been trying to working a deal on. It is currently mounted on their motorhome and it's only 1 year old. It was on the motorhome when they purchased it from an individual last year and they don't have a motorcycle. They were suppose to be coming to Ormond Beach, which is about 120 miles from my house, sometime in May or June. I emailed them the other night to see if there was an update on their arrival and was told they were just about to contact me when they received my email. Plans have changed and they will be leaving for Ormond Beach today. They will be tied up all day tomorrow and will be leaving either Sunday or Monday to go back to Georgia. I called Eagles Pride RV, which is a stocking dealer for Hydralift to see if they could work us in on such short notice. Eagles Pride is a family owned RV repair facility in Titusville, which is about an hour south of Ormond Beach and about an hour and 40 minutes from Auburndale. Mike Thibeau is the owner and such a nice guy. I had talked to him previously about removing the lift from their coach and installing it on mine once we got the details worked out. He told me he would need about a weeks notice to get us scheduled in. Mike was not in when I called but I talked to Josh who is the service writer and Mike's son. They were extremely busy but Josh worked with me and got us scheduled for Thursday. We will have to be there no later than noon and they will remove the lift from their coach and begin installing it on mine. I will probably have to spend the night in the bay on Thursday and they should be able to finish it up sometime on Friday. I like it when a plan comes together, especially on such short notice.
I'm leaving for Titusville on Thursday morning and my sister Rosemary and my brother-in-law Chris are coming in sometime Thursday night. Oh well, it can't be helped. This is a deal I can't pass up. Ellen can keep them company and give her and Rosemary some time to catch up until I get back.
Until next time...

Another Saturday Yard Sale

We spent the rest of the week taking photos of items we still needed to get on Craigslist and getting them posted. I've posted so many things that I had to print out a list of active items with prices in order to keep things straight when interested people call. We were also busy gathering up and sorting through things for another yard sale that we were having on Saturday. We limit our yard sale to one day only so we still have some time for ourselves on the weekend. The yard sale went very well and we figured we had close to 200 people show up. Between the yard sale on Saturday and the response from Craigslist over the last week we've sold a lot of stuff. We sold the patio set so the pool area now looks pretty empty. Good thing we bought a couple of folding chairs for the motorhome. At least when we're cooking on the grill we'll still have a place to sit and have a couple of cold ones while we're doing it.

The termite inspection and home inspection are scheduled to be done on the house this week. Also my sister and brother-in-law are coming down Thursday night to stay for the weekend. He has a gyrocopter and they have some kind of big gyroplane fly-in in Wauchula this time every year. Wauchula is about an hour south of Auburndale. The fly-in is called Bensen days and Chris, my brother-in-law will be going down there for that. My sister will probably stay here and visit while he's there.

That's about it for now.

Until next time...

 

We Have a Contract - Sale Pending

Don called and scheduled an appointment with us for last night. We had a total of three offers on the house. The first lady that looked at the house onThursday of last week and two of the people that had appointments to see it on Saturday. The house has been on the market for less than a week and we have multiple offers. We're so excited… That's wonderful news.

We considered each of the offers Don presented to us and after some discussion we decided to counter one of the offers. The lady that looked at it first last Thursday was a cash buyer and wanted a quick closing. As part of her offer, knowing that we still had a lot of "stuff" to get rid of before we moved, also stated we could stay in the house two weeks after closing. We liked the idea of a cash buyer and a quick closing which also means a lot less paperwork and hoops to jump through. After a little discussion we decided to make a counter offer. We asked to stay in the house for one month after closing which would give us a little more time to get things together. The offer was for a little less than we had asked for but with the additional month in the house and no RV lot rent we would come very close to what we hoped to get out of it. (If you remember in one of my earlier posts, due to the economic situation in Florida, homes are worth a lot more than they're selling for right now and I believe it's going to be several years before home values get even close to what they should be. What we were hoping to get isn't what the house is worth. The closer we get to what we had hoped means less we have to go to the table with.) Don called her to make the counter offer and she agreed without any hesitation. She loves this house and was ecstatic that we had accepted her offer.

We signed the contract last night so now the fun begins. We have six weeks to sell everything and be ready to move out. We just added much more motivation to get things going. We've got to get to work so I'll update our progress in a few days.

Until next time...

 

More Showings Scheduled

The showing for Thursday went very well. The lady fell in love with the house according to Don. She currently lives in Tampa and works from home. She's getting tired of the big city and wants to move to a small town since she can work from anywhere. She has looked at houses in Pasco and Hernando County, both are north of Tampa, but hasn't found anything she was interested in. She doesn't know anything about Auburndale, so Don gave her the Chamber of Commerce tour of downtown  and the surrounding area before he took her to see the house. She likes the small town atmosphere and as I said she loved the house when she saw it. We're hoping she makes an offer.
In the mean time, Don called me on Friday morning to let me know that our house was garnering a lot of interest. He had several others that wanted to see the house on Saturday. He had a showing scheduled for 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and one at 3:00 PM. He wanted to know if that would be OK with us. We had planned on getting some things together for an upcoming yard sale and doing some clean up. We told him we would postpone that and would find something else to do during that time. He called back Friday afternoon and wanted to book another showing at 2:00 PM so we decided we should find something to occupy our entire day on Saturday.
We decided to check out a couple of RV parks in the area that we had visited last year to check on availability. The first one we looked at was Sanlan Ranch Campground in South Lakeland. It's about 10 miles southeast of Auburndale. We like the location because it will shorten Ellen's drive to work since she works in Mulberry. She goes by there on her way to work everyday. It's a nice campground but it's pretty expensive compared to most other RV parks. The other park we looked at was Carefree RV Resort in North Lakeland. It's more reasonable but the drive to work for Ellen would be about the same as it is from our current home. She drives about 25 miles to work one way. They both have spots available but Carefree is about $300 a month less than Sanlan.  There is a $25 application fee per person at Carefree for a background check. We were impressed with that. I think it's a great idea. At least it makes you feel more secure.Which one do you think we're leaning toward?
With that done we still had some time to kill so we decided to stop by Hooter's and have some daytona wings and beer. We got home about 4:00 PM. We had a nice day out and got a couple of things done that we have been putting off.
Don called and told us the showings went well and he was expecting a couple of offers Monday. That sounds encouraging. We had purchased tickets to Theatre Winter Haven's production of "The Buddy Holly Story" several weeks ago so we topped the day off with a relaxing and enjoyable show.
Until next time...

We Have a Showing Scheduled

With the contract signed Monday evening, our realtor was coming by on Tuesday to take pictures for the listing, so needless to say we were up late Monday night clearing the kitchen counters, coffee table, desks, and dressers. The idea is to make everything look roomy and open. Since we will still be living here until it sells, we also have to make sure when we leave for work every morning that everything looks nice, neat and ready for showing.
The pictures were taken Tuesday as stated and by Tuesday evening we received an email with a link to the listing. We were asked to look it over and make sure everything was correct. There were 12 pictures of the house and they really looked good as did the write up for the ad.
On Wednesday the listing was online. I received a call on Thursday morning asking me when we left the house was it ready for a showing. I thought he was joking but he had a lady that had called himThursday morning and wanted to see the house. She saw the listing on the internet and wanted to see the house at 2:00 PM. Don said he is usually able to give the notice a day in advance. Since I work about 10 minutes from home I told him I would run by and make sure everything was good to go.
We didn't expect a showing for a couple of weeks after it was listed but maybe this is a good sign. I'll update on how the showing went later.

We Did It, Boy Did We Do It...

We needed a little more motivation to get things going for another yard sale and to get things posted to Craigslist.
So, what do you do when you need a little extra motivation? You sign a contract to put your house on the market of course. We called the realtor that we talked with back in December about putting the house on the market and signed a contract with him last night. Our house is now officially "For Sale"...
Yes, I'm nervous...

Tiffin RV Rally - Sarasota, Fl

My how time flies!!! We've never been to any kind of an RV rally, but we've wanted to, just to see what it's like. When we bought our Phaeton last August from Lazydays RV one of the benefits we received was a one year membership to the Allegro Club, which is the official club for owners of Tiffin Motorhomes. In the first magazine we received from the club we saw there was going to be a Tiffin Rally in Sarasota March 1st - March 4th. Sarasota is only about 95 miles from where we live so we decided to register for the rally to check it out. Well, before we knew it here it is. It starts next week!
For several weeks in a row now, we've had things to do on the weekend instead of working on getting rid of our "stuff". We had already paid for the rally so what do you do? We went to the rally for the weekend. I attended a couple of seminars, one on the Freightliner chassis and one on Onan generators that were interesting but overall I was a little disappointed. Most of them were nothing more than vendors giving a sales pitch for their products.
There was only a handful of vendors there, but there was one that had magnetic RV windshield shades that I have been interested in checking out. These go on the outside of the windshield and are installed using magnets. No snaps,ladders or climbing needed. It also gives you some privacy. You can see out but it's difficult to see in during the day. t's called Magne Shade and I liked the concept so well I ordered a shade for the windshield and driver's side window. It takes about 4 -5 weeks to get them after you place the order because they're custom made for each model motorhome.
Your registration fee included parking and a 30Amp service. I wish the rally had been more fun, but we did enjoy getting out and spending some time in the motorhome again.
Now it's time to get to work. We're going to have to stay home for a few weeks and get some things done. No more weekend getaways for a while.
Until next time...

Ribs on the Ridge and Another Big Decision

We competed this past weekend in the "Ribs on the Ridge" barbecue competition in Haines City. We had so much fun seeing many of our old friends that compete who we haven't seen in awhile and and also making some new ones. It is such an awesome experience and you meet the nicest people. Ellen's sister Harold, her husband John, and niece Luccy surprised us with a visit Friday afternoon. They live in Oldsmar which is about a two hour drive. We visited for an hour or so and when they left they said they would be back on Saturday. They stayed at a nearby motel and came back out about 11:30 Saturday morning and stayed for the awards which started at 5:30. We had a great visit. Ellen doesn't see her sister very often and it certainly made her day to spend some quality time with them all. Here is a picture of Harold, Luccy, and Ellen.

This was our cook setup.


We had a great time but you know what they say, "All Good Things Must Come to an End" and our competition BBQ is no exception. This was the last time Ellen and I will be competing. We have discussed it at length and with what we're trying to accomplish we are not going to be able to continue. We will be putting the house up for sale soon and will be moving into an RV park until I retire. There will be no place to store our trailer at the RV park and we would have to rent some place to keep it. It just wouldn't be worth it to us. We also have two cats and we stay in the motorhome when we compete so it would be like moving your entire house, pets and all for a weekend cook.
We've had a great time and a lot of fun over the last couple of years doing this. We thought we had good BBQ before we started and a lot of our friends thought so too. Many of them encouraged us to start competing because they thought it was that good. But I must say we have learned a great deal more about cooking good BBQ because of these competitions and the many great BBQ cooks that we've had the pleasure of getting to know. Many of them have shared their little "secrets"  with us that have helped us improve what we were doing. We've met so many wonderful people and made some great friends along the way. We will certainly miss it.
Until next time...

Bahama Breeze and Friends

 

We love motorcycles and we haven't been riding in quite awhile, so last weekend we decided to go for a bike ride instead of working. I heard of a restaurant chain a couple of different times on one of the blogs I read and I've been wanting to check it out. It's called Bahama Breeze and I found out there was one in Kissimmee, which is only about an hour from us going a backroads scenic route so we decided to check it out. We called Steve and Sasha, friends of ours we haven't seen in awhile and we decided to meet for lunch and a couple of drinks. Bahama Breeze has an island-inspired menu as well as a casual, tropical atmosphere. The food was good and we had a great time visiting with our friends. They have so much on the menu we wanted to try but we never got past the appetizers. We'll definitely have to go back again soon. Here's a photo Ellen took of Steve and Sasha when we were at Bahama Breeze. Aren't they an adorable couple?

Our friends, Jay and Kelly sold their house a couple of years ago and moved into their fifth wheel full-time at Tropical Palms RV Resort in Kissimmee. Since we were only a few miles from there we decided to ride by and visit with them for a little while. Kelly told us a few weeks ago they were having a Jimmy Buffett weekend out by the pool on Saturday so we thought that might be cool.
When we arrived they were already out by the pool and you could hear the band playing from the front entrance where we stopped to call them. This is the first time we've been here since they moved and we didn't know what lot they were staying in. We rode over to the pool area and Kelly met us outside. They had a great table by the pool near the band. Actually they were sitting at the bands table. There were only two members in the band so I guess technically they were a duo or a duet. How many members does it take to make a band anyway? They were good and we really enjoyed it. They have a poolside cafe that serves food and draft beer. A pitcher of beer by the pool and Jimmy Buffett? What more could you ask for on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Below are a couple of photos we took out by the pool.


After the pool party was over we rode down to Jay and Kelly's site with them on the golf cart. We grabbed a beer at their place and rode around the park on the golf cart checking it out. Tropical Palm is in a busy area of Kissimmee behind Old Town although you would never know it once you're in the park. Old Town is a theme park with food shopping, and carnival rides. Every Saturday night they have the most well know classic car cruise in the world. A classic rock n' roll band starts on the main stage at 7:00 PM (weather permitting) and the classic car cruise through Old Town begins at 8:30 PM.
While we were riding through the park on the golf cart these deer came out of the woods as we were driving by. We stopped and watched them for a while. Jay and Kelly said they come out just about every afternoon. What a treat that was.

It was beginning to get a little late so we rode back over to Jay and Kelly's fifth wheel and had the grand tour before leaving for home. They have a very nice fifth wheel. They enjoy this lifestyle so much they told us they didn't plan on buying another bricks and sticks house. We had such a wonderful time visiting with them. Thanks again Jay and Kelly for being such wonderful host.
We've got to get back to work. Until next time….

 

Downsizing is Hard Work

Downsizing is hard work and a great deal of it is mental! We don't have a lot of time to work on it during the week, so most of what we're able to do is on the weekend. For the last couple of weekends we've been cleaning out closets, drawers, and desks throwing away things we wouldn't be taking with us and didn't think would sell in a yard sale. We were also putting things together that we felt would sell and setting them aside. We were also taking photos of larger items that need to be posted on Craigslist and once we get 5 or 6 items ready I post the ads. It's really time consuming, but I think things sell better with photos. People like to see exactly what things look like before contacting you. At least that's the way I am. I want to see what kind of shape it's in and if there is no picture I won't even consider making contact.

The hard part is really understanding just how much "stuff" you have to get rid of and breaking the perception in our minds that "more is better".  We're preparing to move from a 1450 sq. ft. space into a 320 sq. ft space. A little more than that when the slides are extended. I'll admit I'm struggling with it but it's getting easier. It's unbelievable how much "stuff" you can accumulate over the years. We have lived in our current home 15 years and you acquire things that somehow end up just sitting on a shelf or in a closet that you never use or enjoy. Sometime you even find things you forgot you had. That doesn't make it any easier to get rid of, but we're working on it and we're making progress.

Testing MarsEdit

I've been playing around with MarsEdit the last week or so to see if I want to purchase it once the 30 day free trial is over. I like being able to work on a post offline and save it as a draft. You can edit the draft and save it until you're ready to post. Then with 1 click in MarsEdit and it's posted to your site. I'm going to test inserting photos into the post now.
Last year we competed in the "Ribs on the Ridge" BBQ contest in Haines City and we're registered to compete again in this years competition. Here's a couple of photos of our setup last year.


I hope this works. This year's contest will be February 24th and 25th at Lake Eva Park in Haines City. We're looking forward to it. We haven't competed in a contest since May of last year in Venice. I hope we remember how to do it and haven't lost anything in our timing. You turn in your first entry, which is chicken at 11:00 AM. You can turn in from 5 minutes before until 5 minutes after the hour and it is timed to the second. You then turn in one entry every hour for all four categories (chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket) with the last entry at 2:00 PM. It's a lot of work, but we have fun doing it.

Here's a picture of one of our turn in boxes. This is beef brisket with some candied burnt ends on the sides.
I inserted this picture aligned to the left to see what it would look like once it was posted.

I think it's going to work the way I thought it would. I'll keep my fingers crossed. This next picture is a picture of Ellen and I after the last turn in. After the last turn in it was time to celebrate.
Well, I guess it's time to see how this turns out once it's posted.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it seems like it's a little tricky making your text look the way you want around the photos that you insert with the blog. Oh well, more playing around is probably going to be required.

Desktop Blog Editing Software

I was reading one of the blogs I follow the other day and the writer mentioned using "Microsoft Live Writer" for editing and posting to his blog. Being very new to blogging it peaked my interest and I decided to "Google" Live Writer to see what it was all about. It turns out it's free desktop blog editing software from Microsoft for PC's. I made the switch from PC to Mac about a year ago so Windows Live Writer is not going to work for me. I haven't been blogging very long but I've already had a few issues with posting using the standard web interface with my browser. I've already lost my blog post once by inadvertently closing the browser in the middle of what I was doing. It also seems awkward and slow using the web interface.

I decided to do a little research on the internet to see what blogging software is available for a Mac. From my research the three most popular programs seem to be Blogo, Ecto, and MarsEdit. After comparing many of the reviews for these programs, it appears that MarsEdit is probably the most used. None of these are free programs like Windows Live Writer and MarsEdit at $39.95 isn't cheap, but between the three programs, I think MarsEdit has the most features and it seems like it will be a user friendly program. You can download it for a 30 day free trial here. I downloaded it and have been playing around with it for a couple of days now. I don't know how it compares to Live Writer since I never used it but it seems like it might be a pretty good alternative for Mac users. I wrote and posted today's blog using it and so far I like it. We'll see how it performs for the next 30 days before I decide whether to purchase.

Not much else has been happening this week. "Smoke on the Water" starts today, so we'll probably check out our buds and the band tonight. We will be judging the competition tomorrow. Maybe we can get some things together Sunday for the upcoming yard sale. We need to keep at it as much as possible if we're listing the house this month, but it's been nice to take a little break. I'll be glad when we get the house sold and move into the motorhome full time. It will be such a relief.

 

Danny's Diner and Pig Fest

This past weekend we didn't get a lot done towards our preparations for another yard sale. I did get a few more items posted on Craig's List on Sunday, but that was about it. I hope this round goes as well as the first round did. Ellen has  been a little under the weather the last few days and has stayed inside trying to get over it. She went to the doctor Friday and got a shot of steroids and a Z Pack of antibiotics. She was beginning to go stir crazy by Saturday so I decided to take her out for a little while during the day. It was such a nice warm day.

We went over to Tampa to try this diner we recently saw on an episode of "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" on the Food Network. Ellen and I love to watch this show and write down some of the more interesting places we see in hopes that once we retire and start Rving full time that we will be able to experience some of them as we travel. On this particular episode they finally had a diner that wasn't too far away that we could try. It was only about a 35 to 40 minute drive from our home in Auburndale to the diner. It is called "Danny's All American Diner and Dairy Bar" and on the show they featured the "Home Run Chili Cheeseburger" and the "Cuban Sandwich Danny Style". It really looked good, so we decided to drive over and try it out. We ordered one of each and had them cut in half so we could share.The first thing we noticed was Danny was not doing the cooking like he did on the show. When our order arrived the cuban sandwich was barely warm and the burger was overcooked. When asked how we liked it after we were basically finished, Ellen was honest and told the lady that the cuban wasn't hot, the cheese wasn't melted and the bread was chewy. (If you don't want an honest opinion, don't ask Ellen what she thinks) She isn't rude but she will tell the truth if asked. The lady she was talking to told us they have told the staff over and over again how long the sandwich needs to remain on the press in order for it to come out right. Maybe they were having a bad day. I sure hope so because the lady gave us a card for a free burger to entice us to come back and try it again. We'll see...

After we left Tampa we stopped by the "Lakeland Pig Fest" for a short while to see some of our friends that were competing, this was a KCBS competition. It's been quite a while since we've seen them. Our friend that got us started, well is our mentor,  was there. His name is Terry McKay and he is a one man BBQ team. The name is "Get-R-Smoked". He won team of the year last year with the FBA (Florida Barbecue Association).  In this KCBS competition there were over 70 professional teams competing this year. We stayed long enough to hear him get the call for 1st place ribs but they were taking so long to make the award announcements between back yard division and the pros we had to leave. It was getting late and I wanted to get Ellen back inside before dark. We looked online that evening and saw that Terry took 4th place over all in the competition. What a great accomplishment.  "Congrats Terry".

That was about it for our weekend. Now it's back to work.

Until next time...

Yard Sales and BBQ

We've spent the last couple of weeks posting some of our larger items that we need to get rid of on Craig's list and continuing to get things ready for the yard sale. I posted 5 items two weeks ago and sold the fourth one yesterday. We sold our beloved kegerator, a couple of Dell desktop computers and a motorcycle windshield. I'm sure going to miss that kegerator. I guess I'll need to get busy soon and post some other things that need to go. This coming weekend is the Lakeland Pig Fest so I don't think I'll get much accomplished toward that goal  in the near future.

We went to the Tampa RV Supershow on Saturday, the 14th. That was a lot of fun. It was the first time we had attended this show and man was it huge. We arrived about 9:00 AM and didn't leave until almost 6:00 PM. We attended two seminars that were about an hour each. One was  "Basic RV Maintenance" and the other was "Extended and Fulltime RV Travel". The rest of the time we checked out the vendors and walked through a few motorhomes. You just can't see it all in one day. It was reported that a new record of over 54,000 attendees visited over the five public days of the show. We really enjoyed going and checking out all of the vendors. There were some vendors soliciting for workampers which is something we're interested in doing once we hit the road. It was nice talking to them and finding out about that part of the RV lifestyle.

"Lakeland Pig Fest" is the first BBQ competition of the year for KCBS. We've been every year for the last few years and enjoy it so much. We were judges in the professional division last year for this event but decided this year we just want to hang out, have fun, meet up with some of our buds that compete in this contest, and listen to some good tunes. The following weekend is "Smoke on the Water" in Winter Haven. This is an FBA competition and we'll be judging it, so we can't miss that one either. Three weeks after that is "Ribs on the Ridge" in Haines City and we've decided we'll compete in that contest. We haven't competed in 9 months and we really miss it. We competed in it last year and didn't do too bad. Maybe we can get something done in between all these BBQ events in the next few weeks. We'll try. We fired up the smoker this past weekend and had a test cook. We had 4 butts and 8 slabs of ribs on the smoker. Our friends really like it when we test.

Forging Ahead

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. Ellen and I decided to stay home and stay off the streets again this year to celebrate the coming of 2012.  The couple up the street rang the door bell on New Year's Eve to invite us over for a little get together around their fire pit with some of their friends.  We should consider them our neighbors but we really haven't spent any time with them only a wave as you pass on the street.  We had a great time and enjoyed being invited to a new circle of friends.

Now that we've had some time to digest the news about the "State of Real Estate in Florida" we have come to a couple of conclusions. First, we can't change what has happened to the real estate market in our part of the country and "it is what it is". The second thing after talking to a lot of people in the real estate market, some who are friends of ours, is it doesn't appear that it will change within the next 3 - 5 years. Some are even saying real estate prices could go down even further before it begins to turn around. With all of this wonderful news we have decided to forge ahead with our plans to sell the house and move into an RV park until the day comes we can take off. We could continue making mortgage payments for a couple of years and still have to go to closing with cash in our pockets or we can sell now and go to closing with cash in our pockets and pocket the mortgage payments for a couple of years. When you look at it that way it just makes sense to continue with our original plan to sell now.

With the decision made, we have spent the last couple of weekends getting things together for a second yard sale.  We have taken pictures of the bigger items and put them on Craig's List and will probably have items for Ebay.  The realtor told us that we needed to "stage" the house.  Staging is the process of removing all of your personal belongings leaving generic items so the house looks less cluttered and the vision of their items can be imagined. I guess we have our work cut out for us for awhile.

Until next time...