Radon

As expected we did not pass our Radon test for the home sale.  For those of you that are not familiar with the Radon issue it is huge in the Midwest and has become its own little industry attached to the buying and selling of homes.  Even though there is generally no government law or regulation that mandates testing and remediation the real estate industry has seized on this and now makes it a requirement when a home transfers hands.  You have to be tested, which the buyer pays for, and have a reading of below 4 (whatever unit they use???).  Funny thing is no one can say where this “Safe Level” of 4 came from.  As the tester told me, 46% of the homes in this area fail.  Sure enough we had a reading of 10 with an average of 7 for the whole test (48 hours).  Now as the seller we have to bring our home into compliance by having a remediation system installed.  The system, for our size house, is around $1,000.  It involves installing a fan and vent pipe over the crawl space area of the basement.  It circulates air up and out of the basement.  What you are paying for, besides the installation, is a guarantee that you pass the re-test.  Interesting!

I have seen many of the systems installed on homes in our neighborhood as they changed owners over the years so I fully expected this expense at sale.  However, as I continue to research the issue I am beginning to feel like a conspiracy theorist.  I think this is a government hoax and nobody is calling them on it.  If it was such an issue why is it not mandated that all homes be tested and that new construction have systems installed.  “They” say that thousands of people are getting lung cancer each year because of this.  Sorry, I am not buying the hoax, but I am buying the system because I want to sell my house!

On a lighter note.  Since selling the house it has seemed like Christmas all over again at our house as we get a delivery about every other day of items ordered for the trailer.  I had put together a list of things that we would need for the trailer and had held off ordering them until the sale.  Now Amazon is my best friend, no shipping and no sales tax.  They beat Camping World on just about everything I need for the trailer.  I bought and installed the roll out pantry and am very pleased with that idea.  Other things have included a 50 amp extension cord in case we get caught with an electrical hookup far from the trailer, heavy duty wheel chocks to secure the trailer, new Corelle dishes, home theatre system, fold up ladder, leveling blocks along with other minor stuff. 

The big issue will be to see how we do on weight for the trailer.  RV’s have a weight limit determined by the manufacturer and you should not exceed that as it will void the warranty.  Mainly it has to do with the axle and overloading them as our truck is rated to tow much more than the maximum rating for the trailer.  We have room for about 3,000 pounds of cargo and any water in our holding tanks.  Hopefully we can make it.  Most campers say this is the biggest issue for full timers, they take too much stuff and overload their rigs.  Once we get it loaded I will take it to a local truck scale and get it weighed and see where we are at.

Memories

It was interesting what popped into my head today as I was scraping ice off the driveway and sidewalks. Yesterday I was shoveling snow and these two actions are what prompted my thoughts.  It was Martin Luther King Day yesterday and when I was employed I had the day off and so did the kids.  Prior to living in the Midwest we lived in northern California.  On MLK day we would all pile into our van and start driving up towards Lake Tahoe stopping when we reached snow.  This was our SNOW DAY.  We were all bundled up in snow boots, hats, gloves, etc..  We had our sleds and stuff and had a merry old time sliding down a hill by the side of the road.  That was it, one day out of the year, go play in the snow!

Now I just want it to go away.  With the anticipation of moving out of the house and to start traveling, to warmer climates, it becomes a real chore to deal with the snow and ice.  I don’t foresee us going out of our way to have a SNOW DAY in the future, but who knows maybe we will miss it.

We made it through the home inspection with some minor issues that we gave a concession on to go away.  Presently the radon test is ongoing and we fully expect to fail that and have to install a remediation system.  About half of the homes in the area fail and most with partial basements (crawl spaces) fail.  After that it should be clear sailing to move out day.  Our closing date is March 3rd but most likely we will leave the week before as the house should be empty of everything.  At the moment, depending on the weather, we will most likely head on down to Memphis to spend a few days on the Mississippi river.  We found a campground last year we loved and would like to go back.  From there we will head onto Houston.  If there is snow or ice in either of these two cities when we are there I will SCREAM!

SOLD!!!

Yes, the house sold on Monday.  I find it interesting how the process worked.  The couple came back for a second visit on Saturday morning and left around noon.  Their realtor immediately notified our agent that an offer would most likely be made.  We heard nothing until 9:30pm on Sunday when our agent called us to say an offer was being prepared.  We received the offer at 10:15pm Sunday night.  I guess that is called “Realtor Time”.  No matter, it was a solid offer with a little negotiation that finished Monday evening with a respectable sales price, 90% of our original list price in June.

That was the last big check mark on our plan to “Life on the Road”.  Next up is to sell our car we no longer need, have a huge garage sale and clear out.  Settlement date is set for March 3rd, but we may leave earlier depending on when things get done and Fran finishes up with work. 

Begin looking for our RV in your neighborhood!

Update–1/7/11

It is COLD here!  We did get a few warm days a week or so ago and that melted all the snow, but the Chicago winter is out in full force. 

After all the improvements we put the house back on the market a week ago.  We upped the price a little due to the improvements.  The response has been good so far with 4 showings to date and two more scheduled this weekend.  The feedback has been positive with indications people may come back as they are interested. 

I confirmed that the title on the trailer had been issued by Illinois to our lienholder but the plates never made it to us, so a new set has been ordered.  Does not really matter as I have started the process to get the trailer registered in South Dakota and all I needed was to know the title had been issued.  That will complete all the vehicle transfers.

I went out to the trailer a couple of times in the past week to take some measurements, make sure everything was OK with it and to start the generator.  The door lock was frozen so that took a little work just to get into the trailer, but other than that everything was fine and operating.

What we have found out in owning trailers is that they put storage all over the place but do not go the extra step to make it really functional.  If you look at the pictures of the interior of ours you will see cabinets at the ceiling level all around the inside, but no shelves and no dividers between each cabinet.  This ends up in lost space and significant movement of stuff when the trailer is in travel mode.  We have come up with ideas in the past that we will implement in this one and are also looking around for other good ideas.  One I did find online and hopefully it works out is a roll out pantry.  We have two narrow cabinets (9” wide) that are deep.  This is designed to hold all your non perishable food items.  Problem is how do you get to the items in the back and also maximize the storage.  I found a company that makes a roll out unit that has adjustable baskets.  It does not go as deep as the cabinet but I think it should allow us to store more and get to it easily.  I have not received it yet, so hopefully it works out as planned.

I also was frustrated at the lack of good sound systems for an RV so that we could have surround sound when watching TV or a DVD.  In our previous trailer we had a 5.1 surround system that was nice, nothing fancy but it did the job.  In this trailer they put a very basic system that has 4 speakers inside and 2 outside but is not surround sound and is very cheaply made.  I did some research and could not find any RV specific home theater systems.  Note: RV systems are designed to operate on 12 volt DC instead of regular house current.  I did not want to run speakers and wires all over the place in the trailer so I decided to go with the Bose 3-2-1 system.  This creates a surround sound atmosphere with only two small speakers and sub-woofer type module.    Bose had a great online deal for Christmas so I went ahead and bought it and am very impressed with it.  It should fit nicely in the trailer and will not require the running of any wires.  I figured we will use the existing system to listen to music on the iPod, satellite or whatever but not to play movies.  I find it interesting that the manufacturers put in 12 volt DC sound systems that include a DVD player when the TV is not DC and can only operate on AC power.  I can see having a radio that runs on DC but go the extra step and put in a decent DVD player and surround system!

Update–12/24/2010

We have finished (I think!) the upgrades to our house.  We did new stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, new granite countertops and the last item was new carpeting throughout the house.  We temporarily took the house off the market for the holidays to complete the upgrades and to avoid any showings while family was visiting.  The house should be back on the market around the 1st of the year.  We will see if the upgrades helped.

I was just reading an article in today’s Chicago Tribune about buying a home and how buyers feel paralyzed because there are so many homes available, many with desperate sellers (foreclosures and short sales).  Because of this buyers just keep looking and looking because they want the “best deal” out there.  They are looking for the McMansion at a starter home price.

Another task completed on our checklist was renting a storage unit and moving some items into it.  A big thumbs down to Public Storage on this issue.  I did my storage unit shopping online to see what the best rates are as there are a few companies out there and many facilities in our area.  On their website Public Storage came out with the best rate for the size I wanted and it was only a few miles from the house.  I was quoted $71 per month for a 10’x10’ unit.  I completed the reservation in November.  When I arrived at the facility with my truck fully loaded the manager advised me the rate would be $88 per month and the online quote was only good for 7 days.  The confirmation did not say anything about this.  The manager stated she had no authority to make a change to the confirmed price.  End result, after many phone calls, was that customer service for Public Storage states I will get the $71 rate but the correction has to be done by the regional manager.  The local manager said this should be done by next week.  Meanwhile I did move our stuff into the unit at $88 rate but may have to do some additional follow up on this.  Public Storage, if you are trolling the web, I am not a satisfied customer!

Christmas eve today and we have a snow storm on the way with one daughter flying in and one driving in.  Hopefully the weather does not delay or cancel their travel plans.

Update 12/13/10

Life on the road is still life in the house.  With the holidays we are getting no activity on showings for the house.  We have taken a more aggressive approach to selling.  We lowered the price another $10,000 and bought all new kitchen appliances, stainless steel.  Here is a picture of the kitchen showing the new range and microwave.

The dishwasher is to the right but would be in another angle.  We already had a stainless refrigerator (fortunately!) so it was not too expensive for these 3 appliances.  Next we will be putting in granite countertops.  We hope to have that done before Christmas.  That will probably be it for the improvements.  I hope it helps!

Our daughter Kim moved into her apartment this past weekend so that cleared out some furniture and other stuff in the house.  We then had to do some creative arranging with our existing furniture so rooms would not be vacant.  I think we did a pretty good job.  It does make the house look bigger!

Next up is to move some of the boxes and other stuff we are keeping into a storage shed we are renting.  That is set for next week and will clear out some stuff presently in our basement.  The last thing to do will be to have a garage sale to get rid of all the remaining furniture and stuff we and our daughters do not want.  That will be done when the house is sold.

Merry Christmas!

Just to keep you interested

It has been a couple of weeks since my last posting, so I thought I would write a little something to make sure my followers stay engaged with this blog.  The entries will be skimpy until we actually get close to going on the road.

The house has not sold but we did get our first offer just after my last posting.  The offer was very low and was not even close to what comparable sales have been in our area this year.  It appears the buyer was limited to a maximum loan amount that put our house out of his reach, but he tried.  From this offer we did learn that there are buyers coming into the area for the new Navistar Corp. facility nearby.  From what I read in the papers there is supposed to about 1500 employees at the facility that is about 10 miles from our house.  This buyer was one and we learned at least one other person who viewed the house was from Navistar.  To stimulate interest we did another price reduction, our biggest yet.  Hopefully someone will want a house for Christmas.

We did start the sorting process for all our “stuff”.  This meant taking everything out of the storage space in the basement and deciding whether to keep it, sell it, put it in the trailer or throw it away.  We needed to do this to get all the Christmas stuff out plus our daughter, currently living with us, is moving into her own apartment, so she will be taking a bunch of “stuff”.  I did rent a storage space to begin later this month so I will begin moving some things there to begin clearing the house out a little in preparation for our move into the trailer.

Meanwhile the weather begins to turn ugly for us.  This should be our last winter and it will be one thing that will not be missed.  It has been very nice living in the Midwest except for the winter.  From mid November until mid March it is like somebody covered the area with a gray sock.  You don’t want to go out because of the cold and snow is only pleasant for an hour or so until it turns mucky, dirty and gets all over the place.  Growing up in California it was always neat to go see the snow and play in it, but once you live with it, FORGET IT!  You have never seen a car get so dirty than after a snowstorm, then you go to a car wash while it is freezing outside, go figure!

OK, I have rambled enough.