News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

We closed escrow on the house this morning. We were over there most of the day, installing smoke detectors, curtain rods, etc. The other two boys started moving in while we were there, though I don’t think anybody will sleep there tonight. We will have to go back over tomorrow and finish up a few projects, but pretty soon we have to start behaving like Landlords (advance notice before we can visit, etc., etc.) Wait a minute — my son lives there. Can’t I just go visit him whenever I want? We’ll have to figure out the balance between being parents and landlords!

Apollo hasn’t seen his new home yet. It will be interesting to see how he adapts to living with a smaller yard, but with three kids who might play with him more (hopefully!). Derek’s probably got one more night in our house, maybe two.

You can see the house in Google Street View. Go to maps.google.com, and enter “del rio & college, 85282” for a search. Then click on the Street View link. The house is on the north-west corner.

I posted a comment in Donna’s blog about the leaks in my house from the very heavy rain last week. Two spots were especially bad — 3 buckets worth in the garage, and damaged drywall in the kitchen.

I spent the last two days on the roof over the garage. I started there because there is a big shade tree and I can work out of the sun most of the day. In fact, the shade tree was part of the problem — leaves had filled the gutter that runs along the wall and water had been diverted up out of the gutter onto the roof under the tiles. I cut out and replaced rotten wood, covered much of it with galvanized steel sheets and then tar paper before replacing the tiles. Oh yes, and I cut the tiles back a little so they don’t obstruct the gutter. Hopefully the leaves won’t accumulate so badly.

I was exhausted after two days on the roof (and the obligatory basketball game this morning), but with threats of rain tonight I dragged myself up on the roof over the kitchen. Hmm. Simple problem. Several tiles had slid down out of position. They should be nailed in place, but apparently the roofer had been in a hurry on this part of my roof. So for now, just putting them back in position should work, and I can worry about nailing them down when I have more energy.

But then I noticed a small, black, rat-sized piece of excrement (not “as big as a rat” but rather “the size a rat would produce”). Roof rats! They have been a problem in parts of the East Vally the past few years, but I hadn’t noticed any signs until now. And then it occurred to me that they are probably living under the tiles. And what’s better than a tile pushed out of position, leaving a nice access point. So now I need to keep watching to make sure they weren’t the ones pushing the tiles out of place. Maybe I blocked their front door, and they will just open it again. Sounds like it’s time to call an exterminator.

We are buying a new house.

No, we are not moving; Derek is. We are buying a 3 bedroom house near the university, and Derek and two friends will rent it from us. Derek will probably get a good break on the rent… 😉

I’m a little nervous buying right now, with the housing market down and all the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac problems, but hopefully the market is near a bottom, and hopefully these mortgage issues will get resolved well before we want to sell. The house is much cheaper than it would have been a couple of years ago, but much more than 5 years ago.

Details:
1608 Sq. Ft
3 Bedrooms/2 Baths
Single Level block construction
Recently remodeled — very new looking inside.
Grass front and back (in need of mowing and water)
No pool

I hope the neighbors don’t hate me for bringing college students onto their nice quiet street…

After traveling more than 30 hours, Derek finally got home Tuesday night just before midnight. He went from Moscow to Warsaw, then his flight from Warsaw to Chicago was 2 hours late and he missed his connection. They put him on another flight to Phoenix, but that was 2 hours delayed. But he finally made it, and is slowly converting to MST.

Welcome home Derek!

Devon has been working as an Intern for Spectra Sensors, doing programming, for 3 months. They just offered him a full-time job, which he is considering. Looks like a good offer. He’s a little disappointed that he isn’t doing something with his Physics degree, but he enjoys the work. Grad school Fall 2009 is still an option, so this may be for only a year.

Gisele and I are also slowly adjusting to local time. I wake up most mornings around 5 am, but since I often get up about then anyway to play basketball, that’s not too bad.

We all just wish we could have brought the weather with us (high 60’s to low 70’s).