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....

Wedding open house

So I will spoil you with 2 posts in 1 day!  This afternoon, we went to Fritz's son, Matthew and Armela's open house.  They had it at a really cute park down in Rock Creek Canyon park.  There were great pavilions, a creek, big trees, and lots of parking.  They had a really cute set up with twinkle lights, tables with great centerpieces, and an open bar set up.  Armela's family made a huge spread of delicious Bosnian food.  Bosnian food reminded me much of Greek food with stuffed grape leaves, lamb, stuffed pitas, baklava, etc.  Great music, great drinks, great company. The most fun part was hanging out with Fritz and his family. I met his sister Karla and her husband Terry.  We took a few photos I thought I would share.

Matt and Fritz

Us and Fritz's sisters - Karla, Fritz, Me, Laurie

Karla, Me, Betty (Fritz's Mom)

Fritz and Me

We had a great time.  The bouquet I made was perfect.  I made it with 2 things of flowers from Costco.  She had peacock feathers for her theme so I got some at Michaels and Fritz had some too.  I watched You Tube on how to wrap the stems with ribbon for holding.  It worked out great and I was even asked which florist I got it from!  Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of it!  I should make a video on how to do it and make millions!  It was fun to play with flowers again for fun.

Tomorrow, after breakfast with Betty, I am headed back to reality in Salt Lake.  We are hoping to get together again very soon for another visit.

Another visit to Buhl

The last 2 weeks, while the house is busy on the market, I've been coming to Buhl to hang out with Fritz.  It really is a great escape of my regular hectic world.  In Buhl, the air is clean, the people are nice, and life is simplier.  Not to mention, Fritz is just a sweetheart to me.  So I will tell about my visits with photos so you can see maybe what the draw is and what brings me 250 miles.

When I turn down the road at the end of the long drive, I drive down a long road of corn. 
There are cute farm houses every few fields but it is mostly corn. 
Remember the farm sprinklers that are huge and go in circles? 
Yeah, I'm very familiar with those now.  I also know about sprinkler bubblers!!
(They clean dirt from the sprinkler lines)

Fritz and his kids treated me to a tour of the farm.  We took the 4 wheelers down to the creek.  The creek is very important to the family and they all have very fond memories of times on the creek.  The fields were quite wet so we had a tough time through some ditches.  We got stuck in one and had to be wenched out with the other 4 wheeler.  While that happened, the cows all stopped and stared at us.

This is the creek.  Matthew (Fritz's son, and his wife Armela).  We were having fun.



We drove past Fritz's fields down the irrigation ditches to get to the creek.

Fritz was having fun although you can't tell by his serious look on his face.
 I can tell he loves his land and getting out there.

 

Gizmo is learning to be calm while I am here working alone.  He misses Fritz when
he is gone and likes to lay in his chair.  He is a sweet dog although he is huge. 
Pretty good for a blind and deaf dog.

This is a sunrise I caught last weekend.  I had to head home super early
for an open house.  The smoke from the fires were thick and made for a spectacular sunrise.

Fritz's front yard.  You can't really see his big elm tree on the left. 
There is a squirrel that lives there.  I can't help but think about evenings
with a good cocktail relaxing on the lawn.  But I am often drawn to the back to watch the sunset instead.

Yesterday I heard this really loud engine noise.  I could tell it was a plane that was flying really low.  Strange.  So I waited and heard it again and again and again.  I finally went out to see what was going on.  This yellow bi-plane kept flying over the corn field next door.  Just one sniff and I figured out it was crop dusting the field.  I don't mean to be a sissy but I wasn't very excited to smell that chemical.  When I talked to Fritz, he said most people just stay inside when they dust.  Probably a good idea.  And not something I've ever seen!

Today we are going to an open house for his son, Matt and daughter in law, Armela.  They actually got married in March in a small courthouse wedding but today they are going to celebrate!  We are going to a park for a big party.  Maybe about 50 people.  Armela's family is from Bosnia and I hear they still have much of the culture and heritage of home.  I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and enjoying some Bosnian food.  Armela said her Mom has been cooking like crazy.  Fritz supplied the alcohol.  I am making a bouquet for her.  Should be fun!

And here we go....

The time is finally here where my house goes on the market!  I've flat worked my butt off getting ready.  Cleaning and touching up until I was exhausted.  The good news is I am practically sorted and ready to downsize so moving will be easier.  I thought you might want to see the listing.  These photos make the house look great.

No I don't have a place to go  yet.  I really planned to financially downsize but I find condos are much more expensive then I expected.  I really hope the right thing comes along at the right time.  Help me by putting good juju vibes in the universe for me!

http://www.spotlighthometours.com/tours/tour.php?&tourid=76435&reloaded=true

Now I get to relax for a bit while I show the house and wait for those millions of offers.  I think I will nap...a lot!  Well and make the bed every morning, wipe down the bathroom, vacuum, do the dishes, and clean the cat box every morning.  Haha.  Seems like a piece of cake after what I've been doing each day.

Philippe the crepe maker

Over the weekend, Fritz and Philip were talking about food and it came around to crepes.  Philip is a great crepe maker so he offered to make crepes for us for breakfast on Saturday.  Fritz likes whiskey and blueberries so Philip found a recipe for blueberry whiskey crepe sauce and made that.  We also put cream cheese, bananas, strawberries, and raspberries in them.  It was like a crepe smorgasbord.  And Philip did a great job.  It was so delicious!  What a treat!!




Chef Philip in the house!

 

 

So good!

I think this is going to become a tradition for us when Philip is home from college!!