Fingers crossed

Took a week of nonstop work, but the house is ready, and, I had my first open house on it today. Have two people interested. One of them is going to her bank tomorrow for a preapproval letter. She is worried the house won't be available when she gets back. My realtor says she had left and come back three times during the open house with different family members in tow. Sounds great. Realtor said there was another couple who are also interested, and, there were a couple showings after the open house was over. I am glad to be home and actually able to sit down and watch a bit of tv and relax a bit. I have been going nonstop all week, between work and moving stuff to storage, cleaning, fixing things. Not a fun week, but the end may be in sight. I get the new house august first, hopefully this one will be sold before then. The couple that is really interested in it, live in an apartment now, so no contingency, which would be fantastic.

First, and hopefully last, open house Sunday

Been getting called all week with people wanting to see the house. I am finally ready. Open house tomorrow afternoon with a couple appointments right after the open house. Houses in the neighborhood have been flipping really quick, usually within a couple days of going online. Last one that sold, sold for $1500 over list price as they had multiple buyers bidding against one another for it.  Of course, I did what everyone does. I fixed things that have needed fixing for years so it will sell quicker. Just got done fixing grout in kitchen. Looks like a new install. Really makes the house pop when you walk in. Dog is at the kennel for the week  to free house up for walkthroughs. Hopefully be a done deal really quick. I am ready to get in to the new house and get my new garage built. Just want life back to normal again. Spike will love the back yard. It is HUGE, and fenced. Plenty of romping room, and with all the mature trees, should be lots of squirrels and rabbits to annoy.

Weekend fun, not

One whole day off this week, and I spent it packing. Rented a small rental unit to store some of the clutter so the house looks nicer for showing. Today, disassemble treadmill and bowflex and take to rental unit, which is not close to home now, but really close to new house, so it works out. Then, tore my reloading table apart, packed up my Dillon press and all supplies, and took them to the unit. Came back and packed up some more boxes, loaded the truck so I can drop them off after work tomorrow. Have to have house ready by next weekend. Should be doable if I keep busy. I want to clear some of the garage as well. Lots of stuff out there. Break down the workbenches, knock down the mill for moving. Box up all the loose stuff. I can't wait for this to be over. Move into new house august first. If I sell this place fast enough, may see if I can schedule garage construction to start.

New home, and soon, a much bigger garage.

Finally found my new home. A little over half an acre. Nice neighborhood. Only a 1950s era one car garage, but, I have a quote for the soon to be three car garage that will be going up in the back yard. Six weeks of nightmare while I sell the current abode, but I move in august first. I can't wait. Don't have to paint or remodel, short of some electrical work. Being out of the 50s, it has a few rooms that lack ceiling lighting. I will be crawling through the attic putting in ceiling boxes and installing ceiling fans in the living room and bedrooms. Short of that, I shouldn't have to do much. Walk out basement finished in knotty pine, with a bar and full kitchen, half bath, bedroom and family room. Kitchen has wall oven, which I like. Has a nice breezeway between garage and house with a ceiling fan. I am counting the days :)

New respect for the traveling pros

I have a few friends that work on the road all the time, only home on weekends for the most part. I always respected that, as it is a trait I lack. I like being home in the evenings and on weekends. I hate hotels and can never really and truly sleep well in one. I had to travel for work this week. Spent the week in the Dayton area of Ohio training on the new machine. It was very interesting to say the least. We went over grinding threads and non-rounds, being any odd shape. Totally amazing what the machine is capable of. Got to see the many styles of machines Studer makes. Awesome to say the least.
As par usual, my company did manage to purchase an odd configuration on many levels. The boss, who doesn't machine or grind at all, took it upon himself to order the machine in the configuration we need using the information he thought he had. God forbid management involve the lowly worker in important decisions, like what they need or want in a machine.
Our machine uses an older and less often used software pack than the new machines do. Non round is not a really popularly used item, kind of a specialty niche. Our machine has an older and slower version installed, even though it is a brand new $600,000 machine. They wanted to save a few bucks. The more popular up to date software uses offline programming, so I got to learn how to do it through a computer instead of on the controller I use, because the school didn't have one, since it is not popular. So I did learn how to program, sort of. They are very similar, but it will take some playing with to get use to it on the machine. Also, my version doesn't include some of the features that allow you to import and modify DXF files, which I need to do, so I will have to figure out how to accomplish that. Had work send a couple DXF files for us to practice with. They sent some very poor prints that were done in a weird format, not the one my company uses, so we had to waste time redrawing the threads, which are not normal threads, on a cad system so we could actually import them. Wasted countless hours on stuff we didn't buy and trying to use prints that were useless. Very frustrating week. It is going to be fun playing with, but I would have liked it better if they would have paid for the trainer to come to our place and work with us on our machine with our software. It does look like it is going to be very easy to use once I get use to it though. I just wish management would take the input of it's workers into account. Never going to happen though.

I am very glad to be back home. The dog and I are relaxing a bit. I knocked out the lawn work right after I got home to get it out of the way. I can now relax for the weekend. I am going to start packing things I don't need. and stacking in the guest room. I am hoping a house I went through last week will come down on price. I want to be ready for the next house I find. That one may be it if I can get them to drop price. Has a full basement, an acre of land, two car attached garage and a pole barn. It is perfect. Has more bedrooms than I need, but that won't hurt anything. This weekend is holiday weekend and I intend to rest and enjoy a bit of down time.

 Hope to line up financing for house next week. My bank, which is one of the big ones, is about useless. All they could tell me about bridge loans was "most people don't like them". In other words, the kid I was talking to, their mortgage expert, didn't know enough about them and didn't want to find out. I had taken time to do what you had to do in the old days, printed out last few paystubs, brought in last years tax return, etc. He didn't even look at them or run a credit check. Told me best bet was to sell house and then I should be able to buy the other house. He didn't even check my accounts to see how great my credit is or the fact that I have my mortgage and all accounts there, as well as direct deposit of paychecks. That will be changing very soon, and I will be glad to tell them when I close as to why they lost a customer and multiple accounts.

 My subdivision is very popular and houses generally sell within a week or two of listing. I want the bridge loan so I can get the dog out of the old house, as well as a lot of the stuff in the house and garage to make the house look better and less cluttered. With the dog out of the house, they can put a key box on house and show anytime they want without the dog to worry about. I would also like the extra time to move gradually and put stuff away as I move and paint and ready new house as I go rather than trying to work around stuff. Hopefully this will be my last move.

MIni vacation

It is almost time for the machine gun shoot. Starts Friday. Tomorrow, get some work done around the house. Friday, watch mayhem and destruction at the shoot. Been a while. I got off work today and picked up a load of river rock and got it laid out around the house. One more trip should do it. Hopefully the rain blows past us tomorrow and I can get it done. Got rid of most of the moles. Smoke bombs choked them out pretty good, so far. No new tunnels. I am trying to get the grass fixed. Hope to get the house on market next month. I have found a few houses of interest.

Getting use to the new machine at work. I absolutely hate the safety interlocks as they do make setup unnecessarily hard. Haven't crashed it yet. It is a sweet machine. Get to train next week on grinding threads and non-rounds. It is going to be interesting grinding square stuff in an OD grinder. I have seen videos, get to see it first hand. Should be able to crash the machine really good with a 14 inch square block of steel spinning on the chuck :)

Mole patrol

Moles have moved in, and I am having fun evicting the vermin. Smoke bombs and spades are making some progress. Poor elderly gentleman that live behind me has the Scotts yard of the neighborhood, and they are tunneling through his yard as well. His cat is helping out. He gives the cat treats for every dead mole he brings him. Said cat likes to torment my dog. He sits under the bushes just outside the fence and it drives Spike nuts. I am taking a nap on the couch, generally happens after I eat whether I mean to or not, and the dog starts going insane. He is throwing himself against the screen door and frothing at the mouth. I jump up thinking intruder. I wish I had a camera handy at the time. The stupid cat was sitting a couple inches on the other side of the screen door, staring the dog  in the eyes. I went to open the door, the cat leaped on top of the fence and stared down at the door. Silly cat loves tormenting the dog. Smart little critter.