Just as we were heading out the door to go to Niko's little league game today, we got the call from our realtor that the seller had countered on the house. We had offered about $10,000 below her very reasonable asking price. She wanted to split the difference and extend the close by about 10 days to July 21. We accepted immediately and took off for the ball park.
I don't think that I mentioned why it was that we wanted to see this house. The seller is an acquaintance of Briar's (probably her boss next year) and the principal at Niko and Maya's school. For some reason, the house didn't show up in Tracie's search based on the criteria that we'd given her. Briar was telling the seller a week or so ago that we were about to start our house search. Briar told her what we were looking for and the seller told here that here house was for sale and that it met all of our criteria. Based on her knowledge of the seller's attention to detail, Briar was certain that this house couldn't be anything less than perfect. She was right.
I mentioned a little bit about our soon to be home town of Oakham. Oakham was, at one time, known as Oak Hampton. The ton is no longer there but they pronounce Oakham as if it still was (Oak Ham). The town is small enough and our soon to be home unique enough that, when we've mentioned to a couple of locals that we've purchased a place near the town center, they say 'Oh, you must mean so-an-so's house" and proceed to tell us about the deconstruction/reconstruction that the house went through a few years back.
The RV Resort that we are staying at has been peaceful and almost deserted until yesterday afternoon. Apparently, this is one of the go to campgrounds in this part of Massachusetts. With the coming of the weekend, the place is packed and children on bicycles are everywhere. Tomorrow night or Monday morning, the kids will be back in school and the place will be dead again. The kids will be out of school next weekend so the full time chaos will be on.
We spent our morning this morning, familiarizing ourselves with navigating the surrounding communities and figuring out where we'll be doing things like buying gas, groceries, etc. After Niko's game this afternoon, we went back to Briar and Gus' for dinner.
We're booked in here through the night of June 1. During one week of that time, Briar and Gus will be on a cruise and we'll be abandoning our trailer here while we stay with Niko and Maya. When we leave here, we'll pull into Briar and Gus' driveway and stay at their house until the close. They'll be in SoCal for about 10 days of that time so it'll just be us, the cat and the chickens.
-JC-
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
We've made an offer!
Tracie showed us 3 more houses today. The first was the one that we've been wanting to see. It was love at first site. We went ahead and looked at the other 2, and then, after some discussion, decided to go ahead and place an offer.
The house was built in the 1850's but was taken down to the studs in 2006 and completely rebuilt. It still looks old but everything is up to 2006 codes. They even poured a new concrete foundation over the old rubble stone. They did salvage and replace some irreplaceable materials - for example the upstairs floors are very wide plank chestnut (where do you ever see chestnut?).
The downstairs floors are also wood but are newer materials. The kitchen has cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances and grey silestone counters. The master suite is on the first floor. The house is 1776 square feet but the upstairs has an enormous framed in but unfinished space that will add some additional footage when finished.
The house is on a 2.6 acre lot and is just a couple of houses down the street from the Oakham Town Center - a central park with gazebo, a library and a couple of very pretty churches. Oakham, population 1902, has no businesses at all and is considered by many in the area to be the quintessential New England town. There are concerts in the park on weekends in the summer and it looks like the kind of place where we'll easily get to know our neighbors on our frequent walks.
Obviously, we're pretty excited. We think that we've made a good offer and the seller has 24 hours to respond.
Fingers crossed...
-JC-
The house was built in the 1850's but was taken down to the studs in 2006 and completely rebuilt. It still looks old but everything is up to 2006 codes. They even poured a new concrete foundation over the old rubble stone. They did salvage and replace some irreplaceable materials - for example the upstairs floors are very wide plank chestnut (where do you ever see chestnut?).
The downstairs floors are also wood but are newer materials. The kitchen has cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances and grey silestone counters. The master suite is on the first floor. The house is 1776 square feet but the upstairs has an enormous framed in but unfinished space that will add some additional footage when finished.
The house is on a 2.6 acre lot and is just a couple of houses down the street from the Oakham Town Center - a central park with gazebo, a library and a couple of very pretty churches. Oakham, population 1902, has no businesses at all and is considered by many in the area to be the quintessential New England town. There are concerts in the park on weekends in the summer and it looks like the kind of place where we'll easily get to know our neighbors on our frequent walks.
Obviously, we're pretty excited. We think that we've made a good offer and the seller has 24 hours to respond.
Fingers crossed...
-JC-
Thursday, June 4, 2015
House Search: Day 2
We're house hunting in an area that doesn't have a huge population so the number of houses on the market at any one time is small. Yesterday was an off day while our realtor, Tracey, regrouped and got ready for today.
We went out yesterday with Briar and showed her our two top choices, both of which have been pretty much eliminated at this point.
One of the two seemed perfect in many ways. The owner was one of the local builders who has completely redone the house in preparation for the sale. The problems? Some of his design choices are questionable and would have to be immediately redone. Also, it's on a 5 acre strip that is about 100 ft. wide. One acre is usable and 4 are impenetrable woods. The bigger problem is that a high tension line with a wide clear cut strip underneath follows the entire, long, property line. Not only that but the part of the house with the cathedral ceiling and huge windows looks right out at the power lines.
The other had some strange features. The master and one other bedroom are on the first floor with 2 additional bedrooms and a bath upstairs (I kind of liked this). There's at least one room that's completely random and of questionable purpose (no windows, it's own door into the master bath and kitchen, etc.). There are two front doors, one of which opens directly into the dining room and one into the living room (i.e., no formal entry). Also, what had been the back deck had been converted to a wonderful sun room with sliding glass doors all around. The problem was that we would need to add another deck off of the sun room so that we'd have a place to sit outdoors, bar-b-q.
Today, Tracey showed us 3 more houses. One had a beautiful kitchen but the rest of the house would have needed to be redone. One was just odd. The third, in the town of Paxton, is a real contender. Very nice neighborhood, 2.5 acres, long sweeping lawn down to a quiet road, etc. There's a lot that we'd need to do to bring it up to date (refinish floors, recarpet bedrooms, redo kitchen) but it could all be done within our budget.
That last one may be the winner but there's one more that we just have to see first. Our trailer is in the Town of Oakham. The principal at Niko and Maya's school is selling her home in Oakham. It's an 1830's house that was stripped to the studs and completely redone in 2006. It's just several houses away from Oakham's town center which has no businesses at all but is just as charming as can be. The town square has concerts in the summer, the library is right there and there's even a local baseball field and team. We've looked at the outside of the house and it's beautiful. Her realtor insist on being there for showings and has been tough to pin down. Tomorrow morning, we get to see it.
I'm very hopeful that we'll reach a decision tomorrow.
Now that the rain has stopped, the skies have cleared and the temperatures have climbed out of the 40's (actually, into the high 60's today), we've had a chance to explore our campground. We are on the side of a very pretty lake. The signs indicate that the lake has recently been treated to control the aquatic plants but, as you can see in the following pictures, the plants seem to be thriving.
-JC-
We went out yesterday with Briar and showed her our two top choices, both of which have been pretty much eliminated at this point.
One of the two seemed perfect in many ways. The owner was one of the local builders who has completely redone the house in preparation for the sale. The problems? Some of his design choices are questionable and would have to be immediately redone. Also, it's on a 5 acre strip that is about 100 ft. wide. One acre is usable and 4 are impenetrable woods. The bigger problem is that a high tension line with a wide clear cut strip underneath follows the entire, long, property line. Not only that but the part of the house with the cathedral ceiling and huge windows looks right out at the power lines.
The other had some strange features. The master and one other bedroom are on the first floor with 2 additional bedrooms and a bath upstairs (I kind of liked this). There's at least one room that's completely random and of questionable purpose (no windows, it's own door into the master bath and kitchen, etc.). There are two front doors, one of which opens directly into the dining room and one into the living room (i.e., no formal entry). Also, what had been the back deck had been converted to a wonderful sun room with sliding glass doors all around. The problem was that we would need to add another deck off of the sun room so that we'd have a place to sit outdoors, bar-b-q.
Today, Tracey showed us 3 more houses. One had a beautiful kitchen but the rest of the house would have needed to be redone. One was just odd. The third, in the town of Paxton, is a real contender. Very nice neighborhood, 2.5 acres, long sweeping lawn down to a quiet road, etc. There's a lot that we'd need to do to bring it up to date (refinish floors, recarpet bedrooms, redo kitchen) but it could all be done within our budget.
That last one may be the winner but there's one more that we just have to see first. Our trailer is in the Town of Oakham. The principal at Niko and Maya's school is selling her home in Oakham. It's an 1830's house that was stripped to the studs and completely redone in 2006. It's just several houses away from Oakham's town center which has no businesses at all but is just as charming as can be. The town square has concerts in the summer, the library is right there and there's even a local baseball field and team. We've looked at the outside of the house and it's beautiful. Her realtor insist on being there for showings and has been tough to pin down. Tomorrow morning, we get to see it.
I'm very hopeful that we'll reach a decision tomorrow.
Now that the rain has stopped, the skies have cleared and the temperatures have climbed out of the 40's (actually, into the high 60's today), we've had a chance to explore our campground. We are on the side of a very pretty lake. The signs indicate that the lake has recently been treated to control the aquatic plants but, as you can see in the following pictures, the plants seem to be thriving.
-JC-
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
House Search: Day 1
Our realtor, Tracey took s to see six houses today. We saw two that we want to keep in the running. One was in Barre and one in Rutland. We'll be going out again with Tracey on Thursday.
Tomorrow, we'll be showing the two to Briar and we'll be exploring the proximity of the 2 sites to shopping, health care, etc.
Our campsite here is close to Rutland but is on a lake, deep in the woods. We expected to be in a bustling campground but, again, because the schools haven't let out yet, the campground is almost empty and most of the facilities are closed.
Last night, it poured all night. We're under trees and I think that the water dripping off the trees hits the roof of the trailer particularly loudly. We didn't get a lot of sleep last night, The temperatures today, again, didn't get out of the 40's. On the news, they're saying that we've had record low highs for two days in a row.
Fortunately the sun has come out, we have our windows open at 7:30 PM and the temperatures should be in the high 60's tomorrow,
-JC-
Tomorrow, we'll be showing the two to Briar and we'll be exploring the proximity of the 2 sites to shopping, health care, etc.
Our campsite here is close to Rutland but is on a lake, deep in the woods. We expected to be in a bustling campground but, again, because the schools haven't let out yet, the campground is almost empty and most of the facilities are closed.
Last night, it poured all night. We're under trees and I think that the water dripping off the trees hits the roof of the trailer particularly loudly. We didn't get a lot of sleep last night, The temperatures today, again, didn't get out of the 40's. On the news, they're saying that we've had record low highs for two days in a row.
Fortunately the sun has come out, we have our windows open at 7:30 PM and the temperatures should be in the high 60's tomorrow,
-JC-
Monday, June 1, 2015
Stop 20: Oakham, MA (WE'RE HERE!)
Our trip is complete! Tomorrow morning, we'll be meeting our realtor and start looking at some houses.
Our GPS's were in rare form today. Google Maps indicated that our 181 mile route should take us straight East on US-20 until we hit I-90 in Albany. Mack's 231 mile route would have had us backtrack to the West and then head North until we hit I-90. Maggie's 206 mile route would have taken us a few miles East before heading North to I-90.
We headed straight East, per Google Maps, and watched both GPS's recompute again and again, all the time dropping their mileage and time estimates. Eventually, both GPS's agreed. Unfortunately, they both agreed on a ridiculously convoluted route from I-90 to our campground. But they did get us here.
Today was a great November day for June 1. It was wet all day and never got out of the 40's. We've been using the AccuWeather application on our smart phone and it has been working surprisingly well. This morning, it had been pouring for hours but the application said that there would be a 35 minute break starting in 13 minutes. I grabbed a quick shower and was out there packing up the trailer in 13 minutes - no rain. We were able to get on the road just as the rain started back up.
Once we got set up today, we headed over to Briar's and spent the afternoon with her and the kids.
-JC-
Our GPS's were in rare form today. Google Maps indicated that our 181 mile route should take us straight East on US-20 until we hit I-90 in Albany. Mack's 231 mile route would have had us backtrack to the West and then head North until we hit I-90. Maggie's 206 mile route would have taken us a few miles East before heading North to I-90.
We headed straight East, per Google Maps, and watched both GPS's recompute again and again, all the time dropping their mileage and time estimates. Eventually, both GPS's agreed. Unfortunately, they both agreed on a ridiculously convoluted route from I-90 to our campground. But they did get us here.
Today was a great November day for June 1. It was wet all day and never got out of the 40's. We've been using the AccuWeather application on our smart phone and it has been working surprisingly well. This morning, it had been pouring for hours but the application said that there would be a 35 minute break starting in 13 minutes. I grabbed a quick shower and was out there packing up the trailer in 13 minutes - no rain. We were able to get on the road just as the rain started back up.
Once we got set up today, we headed over to Briar's and spent the afternoon with her and the kids.
-JC-
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Stop 19: Richfield Springs, NY
We've had some freaky weather. Yesterday, it was in the 90's and just as humid as it could possibly be. Late in the afternoon, it started to pour. It continued to pour most of the night at which time the wind started. When we woke up, it was 42° and misting.
In spite of the cold, I wore my swimsuit, crocs and a tank top to get everything stowed and hooked up this morning. I nearly froze but it made it easy to change into dry clothes before our departure.
It stayed misty all the way to our destination and the temperatures barely got into the 50's today. Fortunately, the mist let up just long enough to let us stay dry while we set up.
Richfield Springs is a beautiful spot in Amish Country just North of Otsego Lake. Otsego Lake is lined with enormous estates and the beautiful town of Cooperstown is at it's Southern tip. Cooperstown is, of course, the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum so we had to pay it a visit.
-JC-
In spite of the cold, I wore my swimsuit, crocs and a tank top to get everything stowed and hooked up this morning. I nearly froze but it made it easy to change into dry clothes before our departure.
It stayed misty all the way to our destination and the temperatures barely got into the 50's today. Fortunately, the mist let up just long enough to let us stay dry while we set up.
Richfield Springs is a beautiful spot in Amish Country just North of Otsego Lake. Otsego Lake is lined with enormous estates and the beautiful town of Cooperstown is at it's Southern tip. Cooperstown is, of course, the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum so we had to pay it a visit.
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| Kristen (orange sweatshirt) in front of the Hall of Fame. |
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| Babe Ruth's ghost. |
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| A world series trophy (with an unfortunate Yankees connection). |
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| Rollie Fingers jersey and (I wish that I'd realized it at the time) and Oakland A's world series trophy. |
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| Oakland A's exhibit. I looked up the jersey numbers. #75 is obviously Barry Zito but #15 has changed almost yearly. |
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| The plaque at the Oakland A's exhibit. |
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| Just for Niko: The Boston Red Sox exhibit. We could easily become Red Sox fans. They've got the whole hating the Yankees thing down to a science. |
-JC-
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Stop 18: Canandaigua, NY
It rained heavily last night but, fortunately, was sunny and clear by the time that we had to pack up and get on the road. Our trip today was relatively short - under 100 miles - and took us to the Finger Lakes region of New York, just South of Rochester.
Canandaigua Lake is one of the Finger Lakes and the town of Canandaigua is at the Northern tip of the lake.
As we set up today, the sky was getting increasingly threatening. Me managed to get set up and then get in a walk on the lake shore before sky opened up. It's eased up for now but still looks threatening.
Here are a couple of pictures that I snapped of the lake:
-JC-
Canandaigua Lake is one of the Finger Lakes and the town of Canandaigua is at the Northern tip of the lake.
As we set up today, the sky was getting increasingly threatening. Me managed to get set up and then get in a walk on the lake shore before sky opened up. It's eased up for now but still looks threatening.
Here are a couple of pictures that I snapped of the lake:
-JC-
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