It rained for almost a whole day so no work was done on the pool deck area. But then we had very high winds and everything got dry fast. All the metal has been put in the back of the truck to recycle. I have planted a corner where the deck was with Chard, lettuce and garlic.  Today we are going to get some black plastic to put in the pond. It will look more like a fish pond if it is dark colored .

Smokey and Ciel in the hammock in my office.

The deck removal is coming along slowly but surely. Whoever built it did a good job and it is really held together well, with many nails and metal braces. 

 

 

Thanksgiving here was busy. We invited Don Peake and girlfriend Linda. Doug's ex Nancy, Jody, Jonathon, Jessie and the three grand girls. Don and Doug played some music together and we all had a good time.

I decided to take down the deck and remove the swimming pool. The space will be great for more garden and to grow vegetables. It is a lot of work and we will have a lot of wood. I plan to make several benches, The wood is redwood and stained on one side.

The garden October 2013.

The bathrooms

pg" imageanchor="1">

Since we moved our lives have been a non stop blur of activity. The biggest thing was going to Monty Roberts Flag is Up Farms near Solvang. Our horse and ex landlords Steve horse went up for a clinic that Monty was giving. Our horse has been deemed unrideable (but possibly could be retrained but a lot of time would be involved) because of his sensitivity to being cinched and the disrespect of him surrounding that in his earlier life. Steve's horse got to accept going in the trailer calmly and some plastic bags on a stick. Both should be coming home next week. The whole thing was free of charge for us. It was very interesting to meet Monty and see what an amazing and humble person he is.

We have moved

Around here: Aiden and Quinn the grandchildren. The sun rising with the haze from a wildfire. Me riding Karrot with pink swat for flies around his eyes and Roy at his side.

So much has been happing. Above is a picture of the famous Don Peake who wrote the beginning  for Let's Get It On . Played guitar usually electric for almost every big name band in the 70's. Wrote music for Knight Rider and is  phenominal

.  He is a personal freind and treated us to a bit of music and his company and Doug played banjo and guitar with him also. He came for a Memorial Day Barbecue at our friends house in Simi Valley.
Then the house that we are buying is rapidly getting all the paperwork done. We are waiting to see when the sellers will be moving.
I have ridden Karrot several times, we have been hiking( picture above of Sage Ranch Simi Valley where we went hiking) and having interesting times with grand son Aiden, who lives with us and his Dad part time.  I had a major  personal upset with my sister over how horses are trained. My daughter had a fairly large earthquake ad several after shocks where she and husband live in N E Califirnia. But all was well.

So the wildfire has been out ever since we had some rain.  It rained about an inch, but because it has been hot and sunny for many days everything has dried out again.
My step grand son was here and after half a day of throwing up was taken to the doctor and diagnosed with infection in both ears and strep throat. He was to fly to Florida the next day and had to endure an antibiotic shot in the thigh. I hope that he does not have have any more shots for a long time. Now a week later he is back with a horrible case of hives being managed with benadryl.
Our house purchase is progressing slowly but surely, there are about 6 weeks to go until close of escrow. In the mean time I have been cleaning and sorting to give myself something to do and of course planning what to do to the new house.  The very first thing will be to paint the master bedroom which is blue, and to buy a fridge, as the present owners want to take the fridge with them. Then after that we will be doing floors and counter tops. I want to paint over the new used brick around the fire place. I am really looking forward to planting the plants that I have in big pots and brought from Fort Bragg.

Everything has been dominated by the wildfire burning pretty much out of control. Thankfully it is at least 10 miles from here. It started at the side of freeway 101 cause unknown, and because of high winds quickly spread twards the oceon, highway one is closed at the moment.
The house that we are buying is now two weeks into escrow, we have a 60 day escrow. There is a lein against the house of over $700,000 but no one seems to be concerned. I am presuming that the sellers have funds to pay it off, because the money from the sale of the house will not. It is a probate sale, the legal owner died in 2012 and the house is being sold by her son and daughter.
I am looking after step grandson Aiden this morning. His dad has gone to a golfing tournament in Las Vegas. Aiden was dropped off by mom on her way to work, and he had been throwing up since 5am. He is sleeeping quietly at the moment. Doug has gone to babysit one of the other grand kids, who was to have come here.
Thankfully the extremely high winds have calmed and I am able to feed the horses hay with out it all blowing away in the wind.

It looks like the sellers are looking into costs of things that need to be done to the house and the appraisal is tommorow. So things are looking good. I certainly hope all will be Ok, I am really ready to move.

We are waiting for several things to happen with the house. The appraisal, the pest report, the FHA inspection. We have had our home inspection and there are quite a few things wrong with the house. The main thing being, asbestos ducting, wires over wood in the attic and no ground fault protectors. Doug wants the sellers to repair these. So we are not sure what the attitude will be. But within the next week we will know.

OUR OFFER WAS ACCEPTED !! we are thrilled next is inpection and appraisal. It is a 5 bed 3 1/2 bath house on .26 with a pool.. We had to offer over asking and there were 5 other offers. We will leave the horses here and pay board.

We have an offer on the best house that we have seen yet. The offer is over the asking .... wish us luck that this will be the one.

We have looked at quite a lot of houses. Three we went inside of and one we made an offer on. The one that we made an offer on was sold to someone else and the other two were not that great. What seems to happening is that there is a big shortage of houses for sale. The good ones,  in a good location and at a reasonable price are gone in a few days. Some are coming back on the market possibly because the buyers could not get financing. Most seem to be selling for cash to bulk buyers who are fixing them and then renting them. It is quite a challenge to look on Redfin to see what has just been listed and get out to see it asap. We are also limited not just by price, but also by location. We need to live within a reasonable distance to here because the horses will be staying.
So hopefully soon more people will decide to sell their houses and we will have more choice.

Well life goes on and I have a choice to be mired in depression or uplifted by joy and inspiration. Once again I am re reading The Power of Now and it is such a tremendous help.
Every time I read it I see something new that I had not noticed in previous readings.
But the basic concept is to live life in the present moment. Not to spoil things by thinking what if or remembering what I had.
I am putting more energy into the garden around here, or what is becoming more of a garden.
Instead of waiting to move, I am thinking more of what I can be doing now.

I am absolutely devastated. We heard that we were all set to get the house. Papers were signed we were told yes all looked good. Then we found out that the listing agent submitted the offer in the wrong way. Because there are two banks involved in this short sale the FHA ( reverse mortgage loan) will not pay the second. They will not allow anyone else to pay the second. The bank will not reconsider adjusting the papaerwork. So that is pretty much it. After all this time and using our precious down payment money in rent, plus having to take the reverse mortgage qualification test a second time and paying for that. It is also extremely hard to find a house with land in our price range. An option right now is to buy a house with out land and board the horses. I just can not believe that this has happened when we waited so long and were within a few days of getting the house.

The latest news now is that the house has another lending intitution involved. So there are two banks involved. So the bank with the most money loaned out has to settle with the second. Surely any day now we will know. They say short sales are not for the faint of heart. It has now been over three months since the first papers were signed.

In the meantime the weather has been rainy, an now warm and Spring like.  We have had some amazing sunsets.

The New Year starts with promising news on our house, the one that we have an offer on. The bank has got our paperwork and is going to review it shortly.  Fingers crossed. Then we have to get a house inspection and a reverse mortgage approved. We have driven past the house many times, and the last time we did it looked unoccupied and the dog cage that was on the front porch was gone. The grass is about a foot long in the front yard. I have lots of gardening plans in my head. Probably the first thing is to get some bare root fruit trees and roses before the season is over.
Doug and I have been on a couple of short hikes, one to the old Paramount movie set, and one to Tapo Canyon. Both were interesting and nice and green from the rain that we have had recently.
I am hoping that the next time I write here we will be making plans to move.

We had a great Christmas and New Year. We visited with Ryan's dad and step mom in Palmdale and Heather and Ryan came to stay with us. We went out for New Years to the Angel City cafe with our friends Rob and Madeleine, and listened and watched Don Peake, Harlan Spector and band play. Doug and I got to dance, and we went home after midnight.