Getting ready for summer

 We've uncovered the deck furniture and washed off the tabletop and chair webbing. Today we enjoyed an early birthday celebration with a friend.  His 90th. His children are throwing a party in June, but it will be the first day of our vacation, so we won't be in town.  The guys met at church in 1967, so that's about 57 years of friendship with Ron. He and his wife whom he met at Upper Arlington high school died four years ago. Dinner was grilled salmon, steamed cauliflower and asparagus, mixed fresh fruit and Key Lime Pie. We actually ate inside because there was a very noisy machine spewing ear splitting sounds across the creek, then after it quieted down we went outside to enjoy the lovely spring weather.

Phil's house is in contract

But I won't hold my breath.

Nothing has gone well for us in the last 9 months; why should it start now?

We actually didn't take the highest bid--and I say bid because it was $15,500 above our asking price. Many people wanted this house, and for similar reasons why Phil wanted it.  One floor, easy to care for, in good condition, light and bright and airy, a city lot big enough for a garden, but not too big to take care of, 2 car garage with good storage and accessible for shopping and free-way. It included all the appliances, so that is a cost savings for the buyer. However, we went in contract for less.  We accepted the offer of a man with limited vision, foreign born, who lives alone.  It's perfect for him.  Plus it was a cash offer. The highest bidder had to get financing. But it could still fall through so our realtor will be prepared with a 2nd offer.  The buyer has some time to have it inspected and withdraw his offer, even though it was sold as is. We spent a lot (to me) just to have it clean and ready--spent about $2,000 for power wash, repainting trim, and having the inside cleaned and staged. Repainting the inside would have probably been over $5,000 (high ceilings).  Since we had 2 offers the first day on the market, we probably wouldn't have needed to do even that or the minor repairs we'd done in May. It's expensive to sell a house--pay 2019 taxes and pro-rate 2020; pay realtor fees; pay the cleaning costs; pay the fees, pay the warranty charges, our lawyer's fees, and my goodness, if we added in our family's time, it's definitely not cheap.

I like thinking about someone as neat and tidy as Phil, who also had limited vision after his stroke, sitting on the deck, watching the geese in the pond, or growing tomatoes in the garden. I hope he'll have some parties for the neighbors like Phil did, or maybe have a dog he loves as much as Phil loved Rosa.  Perhaps he'll attend GRCC, which has quite an international congregation.  Maybe I'm a sucker for a good story, but I'd like to see a happy ending to this nightmare.

My new desk

Good for bird watching.