House under contract. Now doing inspections from hundreds of miles away. We might go down for the major inspection. We’ll see how things line up. Not where I’d MEANT to go. About 100 miles away. So, within the range of my malfunctioning sense.
There’s a couple of iffy points that could cause us to run yet. Don’t know.
If we don’t run….. OMG so much to do before we close, so this house can go up shortly after. Because I don’t want to get stuck out of a chair when the music stops. Also, tight as hell till this one sells.
But all you can do is all you can do. Thank heavens I have younger son’s help with the painting, flooring, boxing and carrying, for now. I’d never survive by my ability alone….
Anyway, just wanted to let you know I’m back and safe, despite our rental car having California license plates. Some dirty looks, sure. And someone recommending we buy in THE most liberal city in the state. But other than that….
So, y’all take care. I’m taking the rest of the day off. Well, other than laundry and some writing.
Tomorrow starts the packing, cleaning, etc. Just in case we do close when predicted.
According To Hoyt 
Congratulations!
oh, not yet. Let us navigate both the mountain of crap to do and the inspections….
Well then, good luck with the deal!
May the inspections be accurate and show nothing more than minor issues,
and may you have good fortune in your fixing/selling phase of the move.
Or perhaps something different…..
May the inspections be accurate and show some above minor issues. Because the sellers were either honest or unable to hide the faults.
fingers crossed!
Ditto.
o.o
wait, you finished unpacking? 😛
When I had to move my mom and dad I found 20-year-old unpacked boxes… 😁
Does anyone ever completely unpack, this side of heaven?
I did once….Unpacked the last box about 9 years after moving into the first house I bought. A year later I moved. Now I still have stuff packed from that move, and I’m now on house 4 with 2 rentals in the intervening time period.
We still have some boxes from when my husband packed stuff some years before I met him. We’re seeing our 28th anniversary this fall…
Husband and I both have boxes from “Before we deployed to Japan”…. we *met* on deployment to Japan…. 😀
35th. The last box had some (unused, thank heavens) infant diapers which from the vintage of the other stuff came from older son who turns 30 this summer.
Send them to him and maybe he’ll get a hint. [Very Very Big Crazy Grin]
Wow. I thought it was just us-uns; I mean, my sister left stuff here after she got married (but who doesn’t); they left stuff here after their brief sojourn with Mom when they were moving into the house they live in now. Brother-ln-law’s film camera is close enough for me to touch. We have stuff under the carport from the last clean out of the old house….
[eyes boxes of books that were packed up ca. 1980 and haven’t been seen since]
The unpacked boxes aren’t too bad, but there’s a lot of stuff sitting idle that a) may or may not work anymore, b) is obsolete to the point where giving it away is impractical. The worst group is a bunch of music equipment where the old hardware has little to no value, because the functions work well (or better!) in a computer as software emulation. One of these days, I need to see if any of the stuff works, and disposition as appropriate.
Real estate prices got crazy enough and neighborhood demographics got a lot better (surrounded by people we like, rather than empty houses…), so we’re back to making this place work for us as long as practical.
I have the same problem with obsolete computer equipment… doubtless way more than I need.. but a lot of what I deemed worth moving is starting to be collectable and in-demand by retro-gamers, so not quite trash. I’m sure there must similarly be collectors for old music equipment.
I’m already where I’m going to be til the end of time, and as far away from the crazy as I can get and still have something like a growing season, so at least moving again isn’t a major concern.
I’ve got a little obsolete computer stuff. One desktop machine died after sitting idle for a few months, and I couldn’t resurrect it with a new coin cell. The other works, but has so little memory I can’t use all the software that would be handy in the shop.
One of the synthesizers is sort-of valuable–’tis the oldest, bought cheap before collectors got interested. Of the other two, one is a good piano if I can find/make the room to set it up. The other had a great heyday 30 years ago, but the interest in it (as of a couple years ago) was for the sounds it had; and synth emulators with current computers do a good job.
When I get the round tuit, I’ll check the equipment out, and do disposition. I might be able to donate some of it to a deserving group. I think I know who to talk to.
Whenever I see “dead computer” I start to drool… my daily drivers are frankenputers built from the discarded and the dead. 🙂
Namebrand PC that Just Dies usually is the power supply. Dell and HP both use the most minimal PSU that will more or less run without being kicked, and they seldom last far beyond warranty (and sometimes just get weak as they age, commonly from bad capacitors). Most PCs will take any replacement PSU that falls on your head, but a few Dells have proprietary pinouts (tho I’ve never run into one), and mini case might need it to sit outside.
Dead coin battery won’t prevent power up; just makes ’em unable to remember settings that aren’t default. If you don’t mind resetting values at every power-up, they’ll nearly always run fine with the battery completely dead — some laptops won’t power on, but never seen that with a desktop. (Some of mine have run with a dead battery for years, because they’re seldom restarted and I couldn’t be arsed to untangle the spaghetti just for that.)
Hopefully the synthy stuff will go where it’ll be loved… hate to see working hardware go to the dump.
Looking at Reverb dot com shows even the Wavestation now at an attractive price. I’m guessing the covidiocy changed things around, yet again. Whether the WS-1 still works is a question to be answered.
One of the refurbed Optiplexes that I’m now using had a power supply fail. Mercifully modular, and a new supply was in place a few days later. No such luck with the dead Dell Inspiron. Some of the supply works, but I haven’t dug into it. The dead coin battery was suggested by the service manual. I’m now partial to used business machines.
If it gets tossed, I’d pull the disk drives, though I might chance a generic PSU (or borrow the Sony’s if it’s compatible. Doubt it, though.)
For power supplies I’ve become an Enermax bigot. Only had one fail and it had at least 23 years in service. Pick ’em up used off eBay. For $12 or so you can get a PSU tester that shows voltages… you’d be shocked how many “working” PSUs are NFG due to spiking/sagging. Inspiron had a PSU that just barely powers the system as it came from the factory, and with a little age gets to where it can’t keep up, and then it plays dead (tho it may work and test good under less load).
Easy way to evaluate PSUs is weight (bigger capacitors and heatsinks). Under 3 pounds are… not for use in PCs that you value. Bad power gradually kills everything else. — Doesn’t have to fit in the case; just run wires inside via any handy slot.
Check for swelled capacitors on the mainboard; Inspirons hit the tail end of that Plague.
When I strip one for parts, if the mainboard is dead, I keep: RAM, CPU, drives, any cards, cables, jumpers, screws and mounting brass. (If the mainboard ain’t dead, then it’s PSU and easy swap.) And any old-style RaidMax cases I happen across…
I had no idea that a power supply tester was a thing. It’s knowledge like this that makes this place more than worth the price of admission.
Cybersmythe (durn nesting limits)
Yeah, power supply tester with voltage display is a must-have. Even more than a POST card (card that displays boot codes and where it stops is what’s broken). I had an older one that only showed Works vs Dead, but when I got the tester with voltage check — about half of the pile of “live” PSUs proved NFG, and one was spiking bad enough to kill a system.
And having checked probably a hundred PSUs… only Enermax are 100% stable. (At least their old ones from when they were the one and only wholly vertical manufacturer. Haven’t checked enough of their now-OEM’d models to have a firm opinion, but so far okay.)
I’ll throw in a plug here for The 8-Bit Guy. He’s a Youtuber who specializes in old computer/console tech. He also has another channel called 8-Bit Keys that focuses on old music tech as well. If you have stuff in either category and can’t find anything else to do with it he might be interested in taking it off your hands, and one day he might even do an episode on something you sent him.
It would probably make sense to actually LINK to the channel I’m plugging, wouldn’t it: https://www.youtube.com/user/adric22
When we moved back to the US, the movers unpacked every box and left the stuff in piles. It took us years to put it all away. After a lifetime of moving across the oceans, I swore they’d only take me out of this house feet first. WuFlu changed that, and now I’m looking at the options.
Good luck with the house. My daughter is under contract for her first house and it can be fraught.
Part of it. We expected to stay here forever. Circumstances…. have changed.
My family moved a bunch of times when I was young. We were always completely unpacked when the move itself was done.
Why bother? Makes easy for next move
dear Lord, no. Mostly we’re throwing stuff away.
Yeah, the thing that has always amazed me when I move is how much more stuff I have than I thought I did, and that’s after culling the stuff I’m not taking with me. Last move I just about filled a dumpster with the cull, and I was living alone at the time …
Yay! Good luck on the inspections!
The picture certainly looks idyllic and with some land. Hope it works and there isn’t a know it all local government. Freedom and autonomy count for so much.
Caption says the picture came from Pixabay, so not likely that’s the same house.
Which is the safe thing to do. Given the ability that people have shown to locate a place seemingly in the middle of nowhere (the Shia Labouf flag comes to mind, though admittedly that was a live feed), and Our Hostess has indicated a desire to avoid those who might go looking for her with nefarious intent, it’s probably a good idea.
Sarah’s previously said she’s moving next door to Dick Cheney’s 2001 Undisclosed Location…
I think that’s where Rusty Shackelford PhD (The Jawa Report) and Robert Spencer also live. All the cool kids are there.
But then she might encounter his spawn.
Ideal for people who want to vignette.
That is not the house. Just a Pixabay pic 😉
Not the house, just a house.
Stick to that story.
~
Jolly good shew, old bean! Well done, pip-pip and Cheerio.
Rest your weary self for soon your time of labor will once again commence.
Oh, and for the record: is that illustration of your intended house, representative of your intended house or merely representative of a house, one not at all like the one you’ve offered on so don’t go looking if we know what’s good for us.
Also: Red state or Blue? (As if there’s much likelihood of the latter – but how securely red is it?)
~
representative of A house.
Red.
How securely red is anything?
Well, Class M red dwarf stars can last a few trillion years, but even they end up as black dwarfs, eventually … 😛
> nano universe.h
change BACKGROUND to 0x00FF0000
save, recompile
Utah has been Red since 1985.
Idaho has remained Red since 1995, as have both Dakotas.
Nebraska has been Red since 1999.
Each of those states have sufficiently small populations it would be difficult to mass manufacture the votes to switch them — nor would it likely be worth the effort.
West Virginia has only been Red since 2017 but I don’t see those coal miners voting Democrat again within my lifetime. So, not for at least five years.
One interesting note: while the states of California, NY, Illinois and Virginia seem like HUGE rotten boroughs for the Dems, 120,110,821 (36.5%) live in Blue Trifecta (both houses and the legislature controlled by Dems) states, 137,479,602 (41.8%) live in Red Trifecta states and 71,180,884 (21.7%) live in Divided states as of the 2019 count — meaning the Red/Blue ratio has improved with Covid-motivated movement.
per: https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_composition_of_state_legislatures
~
Montana, Governor election before last: Democrat probably won by cheating, given that about 7% of votes in one of the most populous counties (as well as THE most left-leaning) have since been determined to be bogus. And that’s just the county we know about due to an audit.
Small populations still elect U.S. Congresscritters, whose votes are occasionally critical. Our less than beloved Senator Tester was also most likely the beneficiary of manufactured votes (I watched the tally in realtime, it behaved just like certain 2020 Presidential counts) — only about 2% of the vote and only two counties (of 56) obviously involved, but enough to swing the election.
So… don’t discount the value of cheating in a ‘small’ state, or whether it can be done. You don’t need to manufacture near as many votes, and there’s that much less chance an injection conduit gets exposed. (Or why we need local hand counts on paper ballots, supervised by suspicious patriots.)
The GOPe congresscritter for rural Oregon retired before he could be primaried, but his replacement managed to hit the ****-list as one of the 35 who voted for the 1/6/2021 not-a-riot-nor-insurrection commission.
Alas, the GOP in Oregon has been the red-headed stepchild in state politics since vote-fraud by mail was instituted. There are a couple of fire-breathing conservatives around, but so far, they’re working in the state legislature and lower positions.
That vote-to-join-Idaho is gonna make things interesting… I imagine the metro politicians are already formenting revenge.
It would be better for them to split into their own states. Idaho doesn’t want them.
Likely so, BUT merely moving the border is an end-run on the Constitution: since it wouldn’t be a “new state” it doesn’t need approval from the whole rest of the country.
I suspect there would be national implications and an effort to suppress re-drawing of state lines. Northern Virginia, for one, probably does not want the state’s Western counties joining “Greater West Virginia” … although their attitudes may change if the GOP takes the governorship and reclaims the legislature (“We’re tired of trying to drag those Neanderthals out of the Stone Age.”)
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few Western North Carolina counties consider the realignment, too. Some Central Pennsylvania counties might be amenable to new membership as well. It wouldn’t be all that hard to draw a new state of Allegheny from a renamed West Virginia and aligned neighboring counties.
~
Thing is, this is pretty much the same end-run the Blue-Hairs are attempting to turn D.C. into a state. So if they want to get away with that, they’ll have no way to object to other states rearranging their boundaries.
The Constitution explicitly bars the District of Columbia from being a state, and none of their games can change that. OTOH, there’s nothing in there expressly declaring states cannot renegotiate their boundaries.
Not that I think they give two whoops about what the Constitution says.
~
The Democrats are trying to claim that D.C. must be made a state or its residents are subjected to ‘taxation without representation’.
“Fine, let’s exempt all D.C. residents from income tax.”
“NNNOOOOOO!!“
Oh, I think the national Powers That Be would try to get involved, especially if some of California were to try to join in. OTOH, the two likely counties (Siskiyou and Modoc) are full of Deplorables and don’t generate much tax money. Nor marijuana.
It’s cute how many of you still believe there’s going to be an election next year.
They have to hold the election next year to keep up appearances. Now, as to whether it will be a fair and honest election ….
The USSR held elections for its duration.
Are there ever fair and honest elections?
Perhaps in some regions, but that is akin to looking upon a man with smallpox and declaring that most of his skin is unblemished.
~
“Mostly Peaceful”.
One bit of free sage advice, worth every cent you’re paying for it & you probably already feel the same way already anyway, Sarah, if there’s a balloon payment included in the contract, consider very very carefully or just look elsewhere.
It may be cynically observed that balloons are used to induce defaults so the same property can be sold over and over, collecting a profitable down payment each time.
Er. Why would there be?
Though we’d consider it, because once this house sells, we’ll pay most of it off and refinance.
Just make sure there’s not prepayment penalty
Yeah! Here’s hoping your intuition works, the house becomes yours, and the move is calm and uneventful.
I will need my current house to sell quickly, so as usual, we’re having everything done to “make it perfect.” (And doing a ton of it ourselves.)
The good part about having been in the same house for 40 years is that by now the land the house is built on is worth far more than the house, so we can let the place get shabbier and shabbier without worries… because whoever buys it will almost certainly raze the house and put up a McMansion.
The bad part is… eh, the books in back corners have been breeding like rabbits. We are dumping box loads of books weekly and it makes no perceptible difference. As for the rest of the junk you acquire in forty years of not moving… it doesn’t bear thinking of.
I’ll keep praying that it works out if the Big Guy wants it to. But so far -congrats!
That is what the 10% is for!
Biden being God would explain far more than I’m comfortable with…
Congratulations!!! Wish you the very best on it, but I do sincerely wish we could get together before you go…but I’m currently packing our home in hopes of moving in less than 10 days…but finding something in our rental price range & available now…sigh
Let’s meet anyway. Toast for breakfast sometime next week?
Great!!!!!
100’s of miles away…but not cross country. hmmm…. tired of cold and sensitive to bugs & allergens…eager to move away from blue state tyranny…. Given Utah is out, Arizona is drifting leftish, and Wyoming is colder…..Sounds like you’re looking a bit to the East & maybe South-ish. Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, north Texas….? Lots of nice options there! Good luck with the relocation and home buying/selling.
Don’t forget low altitude.
And strong internet.
With defensible borders, and not in the obvious path for fleeing urbanites.
Not in the path for fleeing urbanites….That does complicate matters. Having befouled their own nests and made them unlivable but not yet had the lightbulb moment about why that happened – they’ll be looking to migrate to new places they can try to “reform”.
I was thinking more in terms of panicked flight after Things Fall Apart and the urban areas go into Escape From New York mode.
As the person who just endured a day from heck as the local supremely and professional and competent HVAC replaced the AC coil AND put in new lines to the outdoors whatsit in the backyard because the lines between the two may have been pierced or otherwise damaged when the new siding was installed last fall … oh, where was I? It was supposed to be a fairly uncomplicated install, done in a 4 hour window starting at 8 AM. Instead, with the new and additional work – stretched to 10 PM. Dear Ghod, bless the techs, it took that long to complete the job — they were determined, come hell or high water (and there was high water involved from an overflowing drain line and a malfunctioning shut-off switch, which took out a large hole in saturated drywall in the den ceiling) that my house would have functioning and efficient AC when they were done, no matter how long it took. (Me, I’m wilting after 8 PM. The HVAC company involved, BTW – Jon Wayne. They’re a bit pricy for stuff, but so reliable, and their techs are magnificent, and a lot of them are mil-vets.)
There’s nary a night goes by but I include gratitude in my prayers for His putting me on this orb at a time when Central Air and Heat are widespread … as well as appreciation for indoor plumbing. I arrived in time to experience their lack and rain blessings on the heads of those who provide and maintain those systems.
~
I too.
Nothing makes you appreciate indoor plumbing like staying on a farm with relatives who never shovel out their outhouse.
You don’t shovel an outhouse — you dig a new pit and move the shack, then plant something on the old site and watch it grow like crazy.
though I worked out in the yard most of the day, I had to fire up my AC for the first time this year, yesterday. Woke up and noticed it was 77 and 75 for temps on my clock (one outside one in) . . . wait, the 77 is Inside! Later it got to a balmy 86 outside.
this morning I cursed the until for I felt too cold, and then noticed it was just a bit cooler outside than it was 24 hours earlier. Right now it is 52.
Two weeks ago my heat was on. in the last week, I had to use AC. Indeed, I was grumbling about how little the night cooled the house off.
*Fingers crossed, knocks on wood!*
Congratulations on the find, and best of luck on nailing it down!
As to the radius from your intuited target, you probably neglected to compensate for Coriolis effect.
Curvature of the earth, temperature, wear…; Drachinefel has a whole video on this (so does the battleship New Jersey museum): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cbXyAzGtIX8
oops, two ‘i’s, one ‘e’ Drachinifel.
Congratulations. I pray all goes well. Good luck with packing and the move.
How about just buying a motorhome and a long box truck? You could live in the motorhome and put your “stuff” in the truck.
Paint “FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF RESIDENTIAL SERVICES” on the sides, and just park wherever you want…
There’s much to be said for the singlewide trailer, small enough to be pulled by a serious pickup.
Which one would need the CDL for the double tractor trailer for library though.
That’s why you rent the warehouse.
In all fairness, don’t know about single-wides, but can say from experience that RVs come with glitches. We had one totaled after one summer because someone at the plant had installed a pipe join backwards and by fall the floor was mush in three places.
Then again, modern manufactured housing is a different breed.
When I was a newlywed in Columbia, SC (manufactured housing capital of the world) there were two competing trailer companies in the area. Fantasy Homes and Love Homes, to be precise. The dueling commercials were hilarious: “A happy home is manufactured!” “Remember, true Love is no Fantasy.”
There were two companies down the road from where I lived in Texas, and one was a Palm Harbor. The Palm Harbor manufacturing burned to the ground, and now it is just a lot with the homes towed in. The other is right next door and was iirc a Redman but is now Champion. When I quit satellite installs I applied at both (“We are desperate for workers, Will Train!”) neither called. Seems they will hire anyone . . . except anyone with construction experience.
Towable and plantable trailers are different beasts, and self-powered RVs are another kettle of worms. In fact, from what I’ve seen, mostly worms. I’d rather have the reliable truck, the trailer I can tow or park as desired (or in a pinch, abandon and immediately have the speed to run like hell), and not have their respective problems and limitations married to each other.
Airstream trailers are actually designed for full-time livability, but have become priced like a small house. Most of the other newer travel trailers… some are made decent enough, others suck, but with most the center of gravity is too high and the suspensions are absolutely dreadful. I’d hate to be towing any of those soft-bottomed, high-centered trailers in any serious crosswind or on a less-than-ideal road, especially the single-axle types, egads. (And you can frequently see them in pieces alongside Cajon Pass.)
Conversely my old ’74 Wilderness, with its heavy frame, set-down 3000# axles with springs to match, and lower profile, is sufficiently stable to tow in a 60mph crosswind. (And it cost me the trouble to haul it away.) Seems Fleetwood (which mostly made park models) used the same undercarriage regardless of size…
Ma and Dad looked closely when choosing for a Fifth Wheel to become their retirement home. Bought an older and slightly heavy Alfa and some years later spent winter and stayed through summer working part time in Florida to buy a newer Alfa.
The original is on an Uncle’s land as a camp, and the newer is on the old family farmland as a summer home. Don’t know what Ma has planned, long term, for it now that Dad passed, but I have to run up and get it set for her visit this summer (burying Dad’s ashes and whatnot)
My pipe dream is to have a hotspot on my phone, a trailer behind my (nonexistent) truck, and just GO. Size of trailer and company in truck varies by day, mood, and pet/family behavior. (When I’m really, REALLY cranky I find myself fantasizing about a slide-in camper in the back of Nonexistent Truck. Nobody can fit in there but me.)
Fingers crossed it all goes well!!!! and that there are no nasty surprises.
Congrats! 🙂
congrats!
Best of luck in your effort to relocate.
I’ve recently been trying to help my brother pack for a major cross country move. He’s a far worse pack-rat than I am. I couldn’t contemplate such a move without serious incentives. I do, however, try to leave the option of cutting and running with only a bare minimum of clothes and weapons if things really turn bad.
Whoo-hoo! Good luck and here’s to everything working out!
Dang I’m glad when I was young and foolish(er) I was smart enough to move to Alaska because it was just like the Florida I grew up in! -grin-
Salmom=tarpon?
Alligators= grizzlies.
Barracudas= killer whales.
Miles and miles of miles and miles = miles and miles of miles and miles. 😉
Orange trees = ????
Low-bush cranberries
Glacier and tundra == swamp?
I guess it might get swampy in the summertime. All six weeks of it.
Glacier and tundra = mosquitoes, and don’t let anyone tell you different. People up north pray for frost in the spring.
Flat and damp and swampy some places, yes. There’s a bomber still sunk in the lake at Eilson AFB outside Fairbanks and in summer it’s swampy enough.
You clearly had the foresight to anticipate the effect of Global Warming.
~
Yep, a 345 foot sea rise and I’ve beachfront property to sell! 😉
Yay!!! I’d offer to help you move, but I don’t want to lie to you.
I’m happy to help the move … in a purely supervisory capacity.
Alas, manual labor does not seem to be in my near term future – and in the present circumstances “near-term” seems to equate to “this side of the grave.”
~
Moo!
Congrats.
Hope everything works out OK.
Congrats and hope everything checks out okay.
If anywhere in the plains make sure that that any inspection covers the tornado shelter, whether separate or a basement.
Rapid search to contract is great! Hope the inspection is accurate with no issues. Most of all good fortune, sleep and energy for packing, house preparation and swift, clean sale at an inflated price. All financings, contracts and moving to be covered by a spell of effortless achievement.
Going completely off topic (off topic??? Moi?? Perish da thot!), I was listening to Adam Corolla on Jesse Waters’ FNC show this evening and he said of Congressperson Occasional-Cortex, “She’s never satisfied, she never pumps the brakes, she never stops, she’s never satiated.” and it struck that he just gave the basic character description of … errr …. rhymes with “corn stars.”
~
Going further afield, the Epoch Times reports the latest instance of White Supremacy:
New York Man Arrested for Setting Fire to Jewish School, Synagogue: DOJ
A New York man was been arrested and charged for setting fire to a Jewish school and synagogue in Brooklyn, the Justice Department said.
The man, Ali Alaheri, 29, from Brooklyn is accused of piling garbage bags against the side of a yeshiva, or a Jewish school, and synagogue on 36th Street in Brooklyn, and setting the bags on fire in the early hours of May 19, according to a criminal complaint (pdf).
Alaheri was captured on surveillance footage allegedly committing the act as well as punching a man wearing traditional Hasidic garb several hours later without provocation. Federal prosecutors said Alaheri and the victim had no prior interactions before the alleged assault.
The task force officer responsible for Alaheri’s investigation said he identified the 29-year-old from photographs available in the New York Police Department database. Alaheri was arrested allegedly wearing the same clothing as was seen on the suspect in the video footage of the assault.
The criminal complaint also alleges that Alaheri was in possession of a stolen bicycle during the course of the incident. …
[END EXCERPT]
While it would certainly be among the least likely places for anybody to go looking for Sarah & Dan, I doubt New York is where they are going to ground (although I gather Upstate is comparatively well managed – to the extent Albany allows.)
~
Parts of upstate are fairly nice, but economically depressed. The extreme southwestern corner was quite pleasant a few years ago. But if you’re an oenophile, watch out – they think Concord grapes are dry. Their dry wines would be anyone else’s dessert wines and they go downhill from there.
(The area is where Dr. Welch planted lots of Concord grapes to produce his Non-Alcoholic Communion wine, i.e., Welch’s Grape Juice).
Sonds like my kind of territory. I have no taste in wine and I know it. (I maintain, however, that icewine is *magic*; it tastes like what my childhood self thought they drank in Narnia.)
They used to make, maybe still do but I haven’t seen it in a long time, very good sparkling wines in the finger lakes district. They gave many champagnes a run for their money since the Frenchies discovered they could sell any old plonk if it fizzed and most champagnes are, frankly, crap.
Would enjoy visiting wineries near the finger lakes, but we were on duty when we worked there.(We belong to a Methodist volunteer group and while Methodists aren’t quite teetotal, an unfortunate event many years ago on one of the projects prompted the leadership to put in a “no booze on the project,” rule).
I did my undergrad in the area majoring in rugby football and lacrosse as one does. I did a bit of math too in what crew hours were left over.
I prefer sweet, low-alcohol wines. Where can I get these grapes? 😀
Around Erie, PA.
Or by Geneva NY. The finger lakes are very pretty country.
Also northern Ohio. There are some decent (if you like sweet) Concord & Catawba wines made there.
Look at Verde wine from Portugal.
Snake River area, Idaho. (I especially recommend Indian Creek’s White Pinot Noir, even though it’s pink.)
Also Northern Idaho and Washington’s Yakima valley. (Camas Prairie used to have excellent sweet reds, but I haven’t tried them since the hippies who founded it sold out. Latah Creek has an excellent Maywine.)
Unfortunately, most of the pretentious market where you can make lots of money wants dry wines. So much of the region’s character has been sanded off to appeal to urban hipsters. That being the case, cheaper is generally better.
The one I’m really trying to replicate was a Ste.Chapelle white Riesling (from west of Boise), only 6%, lightly sweet, and pseudo-sparkling… was probably bottled in 1981, but have not seen it before nor since; I get the feeling it was a mistake batch. I’m not of the wine-tasting set, otherwise don’t know one from the next, and had generally not cared much for wine until I hit this one… oh my, this is it, if I could get it.
[Well, the bottle said 6%; I suspect it was somewhat less.]
I’ll keep an eye out for the various suggestions… worst thing that happens is they join the Nope collection under the sink.
Oh geez, NOW I look them up… for a year and a half I lived hang-a-left, go-down-a-mile from Indian Creek winery, and of course no idea they were there.
Sometimes the world is *microscopic*.
Congrats on finding one you like enough that fast. Be prepared for your current house to be up on the market and GONE in days if not hours. Market is bonkers nation wide. People see the inflation coming and want to lock in rates right damn now.
When we left Denver area our house sold in 3 days. For 75k more than the first realtor thought we could get for it.
It’ll most likely be fast and quick with all going on like this.
In regards to moving boxes… I set a goal to get rid of 3 boxes a weekend. Emptied them all out… and still have a room full of boxes. I’m still not sure how that happened.
They breed during the week. Watch out for the tiny boxlets…
Caterpillars –> Moths or Butterflies
Socks –> boxes or (non-useful) cables
Math books –> science fiction
History books and biographies –> historical novels
Historical novels –> mysteries and romances
It’s not just that they breed, it’s that they don’t breed true.
Leaving this here:
How did you get a picture of my room full of boxes??
Better yet, make it “Starting price this, now taking bids” and let the price rise as it will. Just heard of a house in the Bay area where someone bid a million dollars over asking price.
I’m not sure comparing anywhere to an anecdote instance in the SF Bay Area Real Estate market is valid – It’s been crazy here for a very, very long time, and the local market is currently pushing the craycray to new and improved loonytunes levels.
The Seattle market is continuously crazy as well. I wonder why we don’t see more auctions — if I was going to sell my house tomorrow, I’d want to see buyers bidding the price up against each other openly instead of the covert, take multiple offers, pick the highest one, ask the second highest if they want to beat it, etc., system we use now.
Remember that honest capitalism is evil.
Dishonest, behind people’s back machinations on the other hand is totally ok since they do it.
I see auctions as a regular feature of listings from Oz & NZ (why, yes, I do have a real estate listing viewing and daydreaming hobby – Why do you ask?) but I have yet to see one of those in the US.
In the “There are two types of people: Those that separate people into two types, and those that don’t” mode, there appear to be two RE Agent theories in listing positioning here – first group prices at or over what they think the market will bear with the acceptance that if they overshoot or the market cools they may have to reduce, and the second lowballs the listing intentionally looking for “over listing” offers and eventual sales, which coincidentally pads out their RE Agent bragging rights.
Trust me, your hobby is not as odd as … lawn mower forums.
Have you seen the new Makita dual battery model? Woo, baby!
There are similar overbid stories from all over, if not that extreme. A week ago word from realtor friend was that Great Falls MT (never a hotbed, but always some churn due to Malmstrom AFB) had only 37 houses on the local market. Normal would be a few hundred.
I hope that everything goes as smoothly as possible for you on this. I’ve been thinking good thoughts your way all week! Glad you are back safe. 😉
Congrats, and here’s hoping for a (very) successful and pleasant outcome.
Moving is never pleasant, though…
Last move, got up at 0100, drove 600 miles, met the inspector at the new address at noon, 4 hours of crawling, poking, sniffing, examining, etc., etc. All was well, drove the 600 back. 25 hours. but worth it. Do not be afraid to walk away. Sometimes the deal is not worth salvaging, apply logic not emotion. The sun will rise again tomorrow and new opportunities will develop. Guaranteed.
Pro Tip: Find your own inspector, one that is ASHI certified. Your realtor will recommend an inspector, but sometimes that inspector is a bit too friendly to whomever recommends him.
Require – not request, require – a copy of the most recent survey plat for the property as part of the contract. Knowing exactly where your property lines are has value.
Moving: Put stuff on pallets, get strapping and the tools for it, rent (or buy a cheap one) a pallet jack to move them, on moving day hire a forklift and driver for 2 hours to load the truck, same at the other end to unload. Don’t handle 700 fifty pound boxes, use tools to move 1,000 lb pallets instead. Plan your pallet loads carefully – planning is everything. The last pallet on the truck is the first off and it’s got the most critical stuff on it.
The sooper-critical stuff – SOME clothing, necessary cooking/eating stuff, SOME food – goes in the car with you.
If possible, except for beds (having someplace comfortable to sleep is really, really important), dispose of furniture at the old end, buy replacements at the new end. Furniture rental actually works, especially in the short term while you’re looking for deals and sales. Plywood on top of stacked moving boxes can also work short term.
Stories of stuff still in boxes from the move 20 years ago are legend, and true. Don’t be “that person” – dispose of it before the move. Be logical – VERY logical – but ruthless.
You will – probably – have enough expenses to qualify for itemized deductions, so donating to worthwhile outfits is another option to the proverbial “pre-moving garage sale.”
A local college is a good source of fairly inexpensive manual day-labor, so is the youth group at a local church, so if you go the “700 boxes” route, there are options.
If you can, procure a yellow pages directory ASAP for the new location. Phone books are passe, but they still work and give you an information resource while you’re waiting for your internet to be hooked up or turned on.
Finally, don’t panic. Problems will arise, you will deal with them and overcome. Take deep breaths. When/if it gets to be too much, walk 3 minutes in any direction breathing slowly and deeply, then walk back and issue the necessary commands.
More crossed fingers.
Hoping for the best. I first assumed that was a picture of the house, but saw the later comments. If that was the house, I was going to say that it needed the someone to look at the roof. 🙂 Anyway good luck.
Good luck! Hope for no structural issues…
Last time I moved, almost 25 years ago, I took four pickup trucks full to the dump. How on earth someone can live in a house for three years and collect four pickup trucks full of “garbage”, I don’t know. Over the past ten years or so in this house I have done sweeps about every other year and gotten rid of things, hoping that if there is a next move, it isn’t like that one.
(Almost) Everything is “This might come in handy” until it’s “Do I *really* want to pack-haul-unpack(maybe) this?
I have learned the hard way: that thing you can’t see why you’re keeping WILL be the next thing you absolutely need, and can’t reasonably replace, as soon as it’s gone and irretrievable.
So if I have to ask… it stays.
“That’s a perfectly good piece of wood!”
DadRed and I were ordered to dispose of some wood, including a half-sheet of birch plywood. We managed to conceal the plywood long enough to need it for a furniture project. Gee, look what we found!
Considering the current prices of sheet goods (7/16″ OSB going for a couple bucks less than 1/2″ plywood with a nice hardwood veneer), that birch ply would be a treasure.
I’ve got a 18″ or so length of ebony that was supposed to be used for either a wizard’s wand or drawer pulls. It’ll get used eventually. Maybe.
Caught my neighbor up the way burning a pile of random lumber (mostly long stuff) after their mom passed and the house was sold, and the new owner wanted the shop cleaned out. I was like — hang on, I’ll be right back with my truck and save you a lot of bother!!
At the current price of plywood, even scraps are worth keeping.
It’s even more fun when the schedule is tight. “Why did we keep/get rid of *that*?” was a common question the first few years after we moved. Hey, we had a whole two weeks to get the house/garage/shop/storage shed(s) cleared, along with multiple dump/Salvation Army/storage unit runs. The mixups were somewhere between entertaining and seriously annoying.
The first couple of days after we moved into the new house (with a bit of stuff–major move waited a couple of weeks) featured catching up on sleep.
^ This
Few things are as terrifying as my wife with a roll of garbage bags.
Yes, I need to keep those cables.
I don’t care that it’s been a quarter century since I read all of Shakespeare, the books are staying.
No, that’s not “just a rock”. It’s a very unusual rock, and I was very lucky to find it.
Yes, I realize that it’s only your stuff that’s getting thrown away. That’s because you’re the one throwing it away. Don’t drag me into it.
Dang if I can find where you hid the video camera and the mike…
When I moved (probably for the final time), I filled up the 4-horse stock trailer and took that much to the dump (in my defense, some of it had been accumulating in the shop yard for a few years) plus hauled off several pickup-loads of scrap to recycle. And gave away most of the contents of the #2 trailer that had been storage-never-looked-at for 15 years.
Somehow this didn’t reduce the amount to be moved by enough to notice.
We’re about as bad. Husband has empty boxes for computers that no longer work or exist.
My dad had a whole shelving unit dedicated to cardboard boxes. Full of… cardboard boxes. Often with more cardboard boxes inside.
I guess that’s what happens when you grow up in the Depression. And that wasn’t even the most useless stuff I found. Like, at some point he tossed my Bicentennial Edition Encyclopedia Brittanica (that I won by coming in 2nd in the state spelling bee when I was in 6th grade), but he kept my crappy particleboard trestle table I used to have in my bedroom.
*Britannica. Sigh.
Lord yes. My dad was born in 1937 on a very rural farm in SC. It’s almost like the Depression never ended around here. He passed in 2019 (one day I’ll have time to grieve), and we’re still dealing with stuff. When you have 445 acres, well, there’s lots of places to have…lots of places. To put Stuff. To wit: 5500 lbs of scrap metal (just counting the steel, not the aluminum or tin, and not the old farm equipment that is itself only good for scrap), and we’re not even half through. Three long-bed loads of old motors/alternators. I’d already taken care of the even ton of lead-acid batteries, which we at least got OK money for.
When he was still alive, I picked up an old jar that probably had something canned in it from the forties (1940s, though sometimes I’m not sure about the century digit, given that they came over here ~1742). It had degenerated to brown goo. He about had a fit when I went to throw it away. “We can wash that out and use it!!!” OK, but NOT for food. Some of the other people around here are NOT going to eat anything you put in it, even if they are starving, not even if you autoclave it just shy of the melting point of the soda glass itself. And I’ll just let YOU try and get the lid off…
Elderly who went through the depression as adults. Check every drawer, shake out clothing, shake out out books, check every folder and envelope. Check any possible hiding places. Hubbies parents found thousands of dollars just randomly saved, everywhere, when clearing out house to move MIL’s father in with them after his last wife died. My grandparents were the same, the difference was they didn’t have that kind of money. OTOH we did find lots of checks (mostly from family) to “help them out” that were never cashed (destroyed the checks, was just going to creditors anyway, who shouldn’t have been giving them credit). Paternal grandmother didn’t have the cash, just piles of yarn and fabric stashed everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. The in-laws themselves didn’t have the money stashed anywhere (lesson learned?) but they had duplicates for duplicates. (How many cat leashes do you need for one cat? Only one example.)
Off topic. We are back from our vacation. Little shorter than planned. First week planed but second week was “wing it”. We’d planned on taking Beartooth Pass east out of Yellowstone, Saturday, after driving up from Wilson WY. Only Beartooth Pass wasn’t open yet (another week) which meant a huge detour. OTOH we can readily recommend a 2-bed (sleeps 7) Vrbo condo in Wilson at the Outpost. Plus the Yellowstone Lodge in West Yellowstone.
Between Grand Tetons (5 days) and Yellowstone (1 day), we saw moose, bear (both black and grizzly, latter with yearling cubs, no COY), including infamous 399 with her yearling cub quartet (got the money shots too, not that either sell our photos), a coyote (finally), pronghorn, buffalo (lots), some elk, and foxes. Then there were the Tetons themselves with fresh snow on them. Weather fantastic until Friday, when it turned cold and wet. Saturday cleared, until relatively late in the day. Sunday got up to bad weather coming down, including snow, that stuck causing roads on NW upper loop to be closed. By pictures posted, looks liken about 2 inches of fresh snow at the West Yellowstone gate entrance.
MIL was like that. Born in 1943 in rural Alabama, youngest of five, paid for her first pair of eyeglasses by picking cotton. She had currency stashed in all kinds of places.
Hooray for answered prayers. Best of fortune on all the yuk that has to happen. Which it will.
Well done!
I offer Schroedinger’s congratulations, and have my fingers crossed and god-bothering slated for the best of all possible outcomes.
Fingers crossed! Moved 2 years ago, still have unpacked boxes…
Hoping that all goes well!
Keeping my fingers crossed that everything proceeds without complications. (So it’s all your fault that I’m not writing. Too hard to type with crossed fingers.)
As previously read here: Population downturn (link to NY Times articles): https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/451570/#respond
OT: It’s gotten obvious enough that some are starting to notice…
https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/05/23/1645250/are-we-ready-for-a-looming-decline-in-world-population
The NYT actually published an article along these lines. Not that I read NYT, but it was a headline that loaded on my home page – I’d read it, but I refuse to pay for drivel
For some reason I knew Sarah needed this:
The Zhurong rover successfully landed on Mars. Given how frequently NASA does it (and has been doing it for forty-five years), you could be forgiven for thinking that such an act was simple. But apparently that’s not the case. Only the US, USSR, and PRC have successfully landed on Mars, and there’s an argument to be made that the single Soviet “success” doesn’t really count, as it failed almost immediately after touchdown.
Europe and Russia keep trying. And they keep failing.
The Mars Defense Grid is intermittently functional after all these millions of years.
I hadn’t heard that the Russians had finally gotten a probe to Mars. Shows you how well I pay attention to such things. They used to have an impressive string of failures.
They were the absolute kings of getting stuff to Venus, though.
I still wish y’all were moving to Texas.
Wish I was still in Texas.
Going through the same thing myself. Just signed contract, need to do inspection. Been in same house for thirty five years, and we’re finding boxes from when we moved in.
Best of luck to you!
We’re in kind of a similar situation, but we’re not doing the repair work ourselves, as I can’t be described as handy in any way. Neither did we move very far — we just got into an apartment a few miles up I-95. Not much smaller than the townhouse we lived in for 22 years, and no stairs to climb.
The only bummer are the neighbors directly above us. There kind of noisy, usually around nine at night I’ll hear loud music and heavy footsteps. I’d complain to management, but I’m a little afraid they’d look at me and say, “That apartment? That apartment’s vacant. We can never get anyone to stay more than a week!”
100 miles?
That’s a pretty small margin of error.
Best of luck!
c4c
Hope all goes according to “plan” and you fly through all the processes with nary a hitch!
Good luck with slaying the paperwork ‘dragons’, and hope the inspections come out okay!
If you don’t have it yet, I suggest buying Adobe Acrobat for the “fill and sign” functionality. It’s so much faster to just drop in your saved digitized signature 23 times and email a PDF, than it is to print to paper, physically sign, and then either snail mail or scan and email.
Congratulations on finding a new home out of Colorado. One trip? That’d be a huge record for us. I know locally that is required now as homes are not lasting on the market more than “Three hours open house. Submit your offer in 4 days (max).” Hope the inspections go well and all is well with the home structurally, with no pests, etc.
We’ve never managed it before. We also never managed to clean, pack and stage a home in four weeks, but we’d like to do it in three. 2021. The year the Hoyts went nuts.
>> “2021. The year the Hoyts went nuts.”
But could anyone tell?> 😛
Shuddup you.
Good luck!