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...