The Joy of Homeownership

Have you ever heard a story of something that happened to someone and say to yourself, "What?  I've never heard of such a thing."?  I have, but I didn't think it would ever happen to ME.

A couple weeks ago we were contacted by our homeowners insurance company.  They stated that they needed to send someone out to do a 4.1 inspection on our house.  This inspection is pretty common in Florida and is required for all homes over a certain age when you first get your policy.  For those not aware, this inspection looks at the main (aka. expensive) components of the house: the air conditioner / heater, plumbing, electrical, and the roof. 

Although our house was originally built in 1970, there were many updates to the house before we moved in.  We knew the electrical and plumbing had been updated in the 90's and the roof was updated around the same time.  We knew the roof was getting old but were told when we bought the house a couple years ago that we had maybe 5 years left.  So our big concern was the air conditioner.  Hubby has fixed it to help limp it along for a while and we were worried the inspector would say it's too old.  When he didn't even look at the air handler (the thing hubby fixed), I thought we were in the clear. 

Unfortunately, that was not the case.  The middle of last week we were informed that if we don't repair 3 things, our insurance will be dropped.  The first thing mentioned was that we needed to power wash the outside of the house.  Say WHAT?!?!?  Yep, they will cancel our policy if we don't power wash our house.  And yes, every time I think about that my mouth drops. 

The second thing is that we have 2 very large trees in front of our house and some of the larger branches reach over the house.  That one's legit.  In fact, we started work on it last fall but haven't finished.  So now we have the incentive to finish sooner rather than later I suppose. 

The third and final thing is that we have to replace the shingles on our roof.  Like I said before, we knew it was coming.  We just thought we had a few more years.  So when I was informed last week that we had till Aug 2 to get everything done, my heart skipped a beat (or three).  You see, with hubby being without work for a while, we had to dig into our savings and we haven't been able to replenish it back to the point where we could redo the roof and still have money left in savings.  That means we have to get a home equity loan of some sort.  Those take time.  I've been told it could take up to a month to get approval.  Umm... that takes us beyond Aug 2 right there!  So I explained to the lovely people at the insurance company that there is no way we can get it done that quickly.  They were SO generous (insert sarcasm here) and extended the repair date to Sept 9.

Needless to say, I've been on the phone a lot the last few days.  Scheduling contractors for bids.  Contacting the county to see about whether we want to do it ourselves.  Contacting the bank to get the home equity stuff rolling. 

Contractors start coming today, so hopefully we will know how much it will cost soon.  First thing on the list is working on the branches (that way if they damage the roof, at least it wasn't the NEW roof).  We can do this ourselves while we wait for the home equity approval too.  Then we deal with the roof.  And after all the roof work is done, we can power wash the house (I'm sure the roofing will add some dirt and grime so might as well clean that off at the end).

Now I'm off to have a little lunch before the first contractor of the day shows up.  Wish us luck!

Calgon Take Me Away

Today was one of those days where I which I could have skipped to the end, because I'm not sure a redo would have helped.  I think the issues that made the day so tough have at least been worked out to such a degree that we don't have similar issues in the future.  At least I hope so, because I don't even have a bathtub I can use to relax at the end of a day like this.

Here's to bigger, brighter, and better things tomorrow.

Takin' One for the Team

At my son's cleaning visit, the dentist recommended I take my son to see an orthodontist.  I wasn't surprised really.  Unfortunately for him (and our bank account), he has a curse courtesy of hubby and me.  You see, we both have small mouths.  I also cursed my son with rather large teeth.  Large teeth in a small mouth is not a good mix. 
In fact, I was expecting the orthodontist to recommend that we needed to start appliances immediately.  What he recommended was that we have 2 teeth removed sooner rather than later so that his teeth could shift around before they started to permanently attach in their current locations.  One of those teeth was already loose but was behind the adult tooth.  This made it hard to wiggle and get the tooth out.  So the orthodontist recommended he chew on something like taffy or Starburst. 

Say what?!?  Yep.  The orthodontist recommended that he eat candy to get his loose tooth out.  We scheduled the tooth removal for a couple weeks after the orthodontist visit (the dentist was busy and it would give us more time to get the loose tooth out).  The first three nights after the orthodontist appointment my son diligently age his Starbursts.  They loosened the tooth some but it just didn't seem like it was going to come out.  Life got in the way for a while and we didn't really focus on the tooth until the night before the appointment to have them removed.

We got home late from a friends house (as in 10:30).  My son asked if he could try the Starburst one more time.  At first I told him no because I didn't want him to get sugared up before bed.  He reminded me that if he didn't get it out on his own it would cost me more money.  And you know what, he was earnest in wanting to save me money. 

As my regular readers are aware, my family has been spending lots of money on dental work as of late.  My daughter had 10 fillings, Hubby had 2, and I had 2 as well.  All within the last 7 months or so.  Luckily my son has been cavity free.  But he knows how expensive all this has been.

So I gave in and let him try one last time.  We had one last 2 pack of Starburst left, and although he winced a few times with the first one, it didn't do much other than loosen it up a little.

But that second one... well, the tooth came out!  Not without some pain.  Oh, and the tooth got stuck in the Starburst and he accidentally bit into it and then swallowed it.  Oops!  Guess we found the down side  :-)

Who knew that Starbust could save money on dental work?  How much money you ask?  According to the dentist's office $140.  So what did I do... I took him to Wendy's to get a Frosty on the way home as a thank you for saving me money and for being such a good patient with the one tooth that was removed.

Scheduled Relaxation

The life of a Realtor is an interesting one.  It definitely offers a level of flexibility that many other jobs don't.  At the same time, you are also at the mercy of others to a degree.  For example, when someone you've been working with for a while contacts you letting you know they have a house (or houses) they want to see on a particular day, you do what you can to make that happen.

I've often been asked if I take off Saturday or Sunday and to a degree I do.  I don't schedule anything for Saturday evening so I can go to church with the rest of my family.  I also try not to do anything on Sunday, but sometimes I will have someone who is only available to see homes on Sundays because of their work or travel schedule.  So, I'm kind of on call (with a little notice to schedule seeing the houses).

So when I heard about a surf camp for kids at a nearby beach that's being offered on Sunday afternoons I jumped at it.  I figured it would be a great family trip but also just a way to force me to take a break from technology.  And with the exception of taking some pictures and videos of my kids surfing, it was just that.

Sunday the kids and I spent about 2 hours at the beach and we had a great time.  I admit it, the kids probably had more fun than I did.  After all, how can you not have fun learning how to surf (and doing it too)!

One of son's first attempts

One of daughter's last attempts for the day

Ignorance is Bliss

Do you remember how a couple weeks ago I mentioned that I went to see a new dentist.  Well, that visit was a new patient consultation so they did x-rays and looked around.  Today I went in to have my teeth cleaned and get a couple fillings that they found I needed during the new patient visit.

My least favorite part of seeing the dentist is the scraping the hygenist does.  So when the hygenist looked in my mouth and said, "Looks good.  I don't see a lot of plaque." I thought, I've got this in the bag!  NOT!

She scraped on my teeth for close to 30 minutes.  Perhaps what she meant was, "Looks good.  I don't see a lot of plaque for someone who hasn't had a cleaning in 3 years."  All I know is that I was glad when that was over.

As I'm moving to the other room to get my filling, I'm joking with the assistant / office manager about how it's hard for me to decide if I would like the cleaning or the filling less.  She said the filling and I disagreed with her because of just how much I hate the scraping.

Going into today, I was told there were 2 little cavities that would be really easy to deal with.  As the dentist was cleaning the area for the second cavity she found out that a filling in the same area had a bunch of issues so she took that out and had to put in a new one.  That meant a lot of extra grinding (and keeping my mouth open).  Add to the fact that it went from the top of my farthest back tooth to the back side of it and it made for some serious contortions for the dentist and my mouth.

Although my mouth is still numb, I can tell my jaw is going to be sore and I'll probably get a headache too (tension in my neck). 

Do me a favor.  If you see me in the next couple days, please don't yawn.  I'm not sure my mouth can take it.

Accountability

Back on the treadmill today for the first time in a while.  Yay!  Feels so good.  I initially stopped after my 5K because I needed to make sure my shoes dried out :-).  I also had some muscle aches and pains that took a while to go away, so I took it easy for a while.

THEN I got to thinking about the next thing I need to train for... a half marathon in November.  I'm not having trouble with the thought of actually completing the half.  I am a bit concerned with how early it starts though.  Although the thought of running in Florida in the middle of the day (even in November) makes me sweat, I'm NOT a morning person so starting a run at 6AM is not appealing.  I get why it's set to start so early, so I will get over it  because it's only for one day.

The real issue I'm facing is finding the desire to keep training knowing that at some point in the not so distant future, training sessions could take 3 hours or more.  Like I have time for that!  I'm a homeschool mom, a wife, and a Realtor.  Did I mention that I'm not a morning person?  That means I don't like to get up early to do anything much less train.  Oh, and even when I get up early my kids seem to know and they have to seek me out and ask me TONS of questions while I'm trying to run.  Have you tried answering numerous annoying important questions while on a treadmill?  Not easy I'll tell you.

I am definitely a night person, but I've found that exercising late in the day doesn't work for me for a few reasons:  I've eaten dinner (my biggest meal of the day) and running on a full stomach is a BAD idea.  Dealing with kids and work all day makes for a mentally and occasionally physically tired me.  Because of the adrenalin rush, I can't seem to fall asleep for a couple hours after running no matter how physically and mentally tired I was before the run.  And as much as I'd like to stay up really late, my children and or appointments dictate that I get up in the morning so I can't stay up too late.

So if you have ideas on when and how best to train for something like this, I'm all ears.  Do me a favor and check in on me every once in a while and make sure I'm sticking with it too.  Nothing quite like accountability.

Expiration

Last March my family bought an annual membership to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  For those not familiar, that is where Winter the dolphin lives.  Late in 2013 and early 2014, they were filming Dolphin Tale 2 at the Aquarium and had it closed for filming off-and-on for two months.  Because of that, they extended our membership through the end of this May. 

Last month I also purchased discount tickets to go to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa and they expire May 30.  So what's a girl to do when you are in the last week of the month and have passes to two places about to expire?  You go to both of them in the same day, of course!

We had been to Lowry only once and that was 3 years ago.  I remember there being animals as well as a few rides for the kids.  We've been to the Aquarium a couple times in the last year so I figured we'd spend less time there so we started at the zoo.

We spent about 3.5 hours at the zoo where we walked just about every path we could.  Being that it was 90 out we also stopped for snow cones.  Aside from the fact that they helped cool us down, we were able to dispense our own flavors.  I had a wonderful tropical fruity concoction while my kids had I have no idea what to call it... a fruity cacophony of flavors.

Unfortunately, the two rides my kids were most interested in were either closed or they were to big to ride  :-(  Did I mention they were water rides which meant our initial plan for cooling off didn't work.  Yay for snow cones!

We were able to see a couples shows, as well as see some animals up close.  So all in all it was a good time and I'm glad we did it.

Lorwy is one of 5 locations in FL that takes in hurt manatees

National bird.  Got to see one fly and heard their call (very different than what you think).

Baby is almost 2 years old.

One of my daughters favorite animals.  Flock flew by us and one right over us too.

After the zoo we drove over to the Aquarium and spent about 45 minutes there.  We got there just in time to see most of a Winter show / training session and got to see some of the changes that were made for the filming of the new movie.  Although this was a really short stop, I know Winter is a favorite of my daughter, so I'm glad we went since I don't think we'll be going back for a while.

Winter is way down there in the middle of the picture.  Down side of getting there late = bad view.

Only thing about the trip I disliked... the drive.  It's a long drive to begin with, but on the way home we encountered 2 separate accidents with overturned SUVs which had traffic backed up big time.  In fact, it delayed us so much that we didn't get to see my hubby before he had to go to work.