Another Idaho run

Fritz offered to help Mom with her hearing aids so Mom and I headed up to Idaho for the weekend. A grueling long day in the car for Mom but she handled it like a trooper.  Fritz is such a sweetheart, and made sure we had a fabulous weekend.  We went out to dinner, and lunch, and breakfast.  We spent time in Twin Falls, Buhl, and Hagerman.  All were on Mom's list.  And what a treat.  Fritz's Mom and sister joined us too.  It was fun and we had lots of laughs and great conversation.  Here are some photos.

The valley/gorge floor.  There is a fancy golf course and Country Club down there.

 

Mom and I

A lovely Brunch with Betty, Me, Fritz, Mom, and
Laurie.  It was a beautiful day and delicious!

Fritz took us for a ride though the countryside of Buhl. 
This is the creek that runs through his and his Mom's property.

Horses out in the country.  They seemed surprised to see a car.

We drove to "Balanced Rock" in Buhl.  It reminded me
of Southern Utah but black rocks instead of red.

More rock formations.

Mom and Fritz in the garden.  Harvesting for dinner!

Best dinner.  Peach Gorgonzola pork chops, Idaho corn,
Hubbard Squash, zucchini, tomato, and rice.  Delicious!

We drove to Hagerman for breakfast and stopped to
look at the waterfalls along the Snake River.

 We had a great trip and really enjoyed ourselves.  It is always very relaxing and like a mini vacation for me.  Now back to reality of laundry, cleaning, house selling, and working.  Hopefully I can head back up again before bad weather comes.

Philip's visit

Friday, Philip came home for the holiday weekend.  I know he just left but I can't tell you how nice it was to see him again.  In true college student fashion, he brought a suitcase stuffed to the brim with dirty laundry.  Not one stitch of clean clothes!  That is okay.  I'm a good laundry doer and he had clean clothes here anyway.

So he says he is loving college.  He said "I found my people".  He is surrounded by fellow aggressive student engineers that are learning and growing.  He already sounds too smart for his own good.  He said his Calculus 3 class is pretty intense but it sounds like he is keeping up okay.  He likes his roommate and they have lots of fun.  He said he is walking 3-4 miles a day to class and around campus.  And he even went to play soccer at 1:00 am the other night.  He is staying in the honors dorms so the reputation of the school being a party school apparently doesn't transfer over to his area.  In fact, partying is highly frowned on.  Maybe he is just saying that to rest his mother's anxiety but it sounds good anyway.

We've had a good weekend going out to eat, getting his hair cut, buying better supportive shoes, and he spent some time with Tiffany. All good stuff. 

I know I'll be sad to see him leave this afternoon but it really was a good visit and I can't wait until his next school break to see him again.

House update

You've probably been wondering what is going on with the sale of my house.  We've had a ton of showings and the open house 2 weeks ago was well attended.  I am guessing between both, we've had about 20+ showings.  But no offers.  The feedback has been mostly positive but several people commented on the siding saying it was old and rough.  So I brought in a painter last week to fix that up.  The other consistent feedback is that the basement has a low ceiling and was dark.  Not a lot I can do about that.

Last weekend, I noticed several more homes for sale in the area for significantly lower than I am listed.  So I pushed for a price drop.  We dropped $10,000.  I suspect we went on the market a little high so it wasn't too painful.  Unfortunately, the price drop didn't go in before Sunday so we missed the rush of the weekend but continue to have showings every day (until today).

I've been pretty discouraged and starting to feel like the timing of the house sale is off.  I am really tired already of cleaning the house and leaving for it to show each day.  I can't tell you how much time I've spent in my car the last 2.5 week.

This morning, I received an email from  my agent that she had an offer.  It was low.  But workable.  So we have been working on a counter offer all day.  So different from when I sold property 15 years ago.  Everything is done electronically and over the phone.  You aren't presented offers in person anymore.  It is just an email document you go through yourself and call if you have questions.  I'll know tomorrow if he accepts my counter offer.  Even if he does, he has a house to sell so it isn't a done deal.  We built into the deal that I can still market and accept offers and the buyer will have 24 hours to perform or I can take another offer.

I'm going to look at condos again tomorrow.  This time, I am focused on further south...Murray, Holladay, and even Sandy.  Hopefully something will come together and be a perfect fit, at the perfect time.

Selling your home is not for the faint of heart....