This morning I kind of slept in but not in terms of time slept, only
the fact that it was after nine o'clock when I woke up.
After waking up I created my Pro and Con lists for my top three
houses and a list of the questions and information I wanted to know
about all of the places. I felt like I had a lot of stuff floating
around in my head but my lists ended up being fairly short. It was
still a worthwhile activity, though, getting everything on paper and
seeing it, not just having it floating around ephemerally.
When I felt like I had everything written down, I took a break by
getting ready and going to Target to buy a few things. I got back to
my car right before it started raining, so perfect timing. I had
texted my Dad before I left and he got back to me when I got home so
I headed over to his house.
I wanted to see what the houses looked like with the rain (and he had
the same thought because he had gone around this morning). My Dad
drove, which was a good thing because there was a lot of rain and we
encountered many instances of deep water on the road which my car
would not have handled well.
The first house we went to was the one east of town. There was a lot
of water on the surrounding roads and it was all flowing to the storm
drains but the drains couldn't really keep up. My Dad pointed out
all the spots on the road that showed damage due to the excess water.
The house appeared to be graded well, which is good, but I was
concerned about how much water there was in such a short period of
time. What if it rains for a more extended period of time? I
double-checked the GIS map today because of the nearby river and
creek behind the house but it didn't show the house being in a
floodplain. I thought maybe that was because it was in the next
county and when I looked up their GIS website it didn't have a
hydrology option. I find it hard to believe it isn't in a
floodplain.
Next we went to the townhouse on the hill. It was only sprinkling
lightly at this point but my Dad pointed out the deteriorating
condition of the surrounding buildings and the spots on the place I
like that would need to be fixed. He said he didn't know if the HOA
was responsible for fixing things or the homeowners but whoever was
wasn't doing their job.
We stopped back by the house after that for a bathroom break and so
my Dad could check the radar to see when the next batch of rain was
coming through. It had started sprinkling again so we headed back
out. We drove around the neighborhood of the place by the nursing
home for a bit and then up to the fancy new houses by the golf course
because we still had some time. There are some really big, super
fancy houses by the golf course. I haven't been up there since any
of the building has happened so it was all new to me. My Dad pointed
out at two of the biggest ones that are really just football houses.
Meaning that the owners really only use them when they come into town
for a football game. That is incredible. There are houses and
condos all over town like that, however, so it's not really a big
surprise, but it is still ridiculous. I can't imagine having that
kind of money.
When the next downpour closed in we headed back to the last place.
This was good because when my Dad had gone by in the morning it
hadn't rained as hard. With the heavier rain we were able to see
that the downspout off the garage that led into the ground actually
had water bubbling out of the ground, which is a sign that somewhere
there is probably a blockage in the pipe under the ground. There was
also rain spilling over the edge of the gutter because it was coming
down the roof so fast and the front of the gutter dipped down a
little. Lastly, there was a corner of the driveway that was cracked,
the water was running right down the driveway toward it and my Dad
said the water probably got under there and washed it out, which led
to the crack. I took pictures of all of it. Other than that,
everything else seemed to look pretty good.
We headed back to my Dad's house after that and continued to talk
about the pros and cons about the different places. It slowly became
clear that the place by the nursing home is the standout, at least of
the three I have narrowed it down to. I like the neighborhood, it
seems well maintained, and the price is a lot less than the other two
but I think I'm getting more out of it. I think I want to put an
offer on it and I am worried that there will be an open house
tomorrow following the price drop yesterday. If that does end up
being the case I'm going to text my realtor about it, even though he
is out of town this weekend. I still need more information about the
house and the HOA to be sure but I want to have time to get that
information before someone else comes in and makes an offer. The
stress continues.
I life my Dad's house and got home around eight o'clock. I was able
to do one load of laundry while I ate dinner and spent the rest of
the night not doing much. This entry has taken forever because I'm
tired and easily distracted. But I'm going to finish it up so I can
go to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to sleep in and then work on my
article for the newspaper. I'm fairly certain I'm going to write
about hobbies, because I have plenty of them and the library has a
decent collection of books devoted to things that could easily become
a new hobby. It seems like something I could ramble on about.
One last thing. The power went out for an hour or so when I wasn't
home. Following that, the light in the microwave and three of the
nightlights I have set up in the basement to make it not pitch black
at night, have all gone out. It's as if the power outage caused a
power surge or something. It's weird.
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