Monday, October 15, 2012
For the children
When I go around town and see all those hateful orange signs that say to vote no for "choice" it makes me feel sick. I want Noah to grow up in a place where the definition of mom, dad, husband, and wife are understandable and he will have the option of creating a "traditional" family because 1) it will still exist legally, and 2) there will be girls who were raised with similar values. We can still show loving kindness to those who choose differently, but we don't have to promote it in our education systems and allow judges and legislators to make all kinds of rules about how we raise our children.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Lake Superior livin'
We're tired of pouring money into our house, but Brian really loves home improvement. So, we've tried a couple of times to buy a foreclosure house around home or move to a new "project" house with no success. Since he also keeps up substantially with the Lake Superior market, he knew this one would be a winner. It would be fun to own while working on it because we have more opportunities to get "up north". We can finally "prove" the concept to ourselves that you can make money by renovating properties, hopefully...
Every so often, you hear stories of foreclosure purchases being a real pain in the neck. This transaction went so smoothly that it was surreal. Do we really own this place?!
Before we came up north for vacation in August, Brian saw this property and his interest was peaked. He sent an inquiry to the lising agent just asking what the association costs would be and for any other information she might want to share. The association fees were high enough that he didn't look back. We did not visit while on vacation because the ongoing costs were deemed too high. Then several weeks later, I prompted that the association would be okay as long as it included everything, Brian wasn't sure what it included and agreed to ask the agent again. Before he got around to doing that, the agent sent him a notice that the price was being reduced and corrected her previous information about the association fees. We decided at that price, we couldn't go wrong, but it's a foreclosure, so let's toss out a low-ball offer anyway. The bank countered with the magic number that we were hoping to settle at or below and "the rest is history" as they say.
We bought the place without laying eyes on the property. Only looking at pictures and realizing that with an association owned exterior and heating system, we have the skills to fix anything else that is wrong with it and it wouldn't cost more than we would want to manage. We can have it as long as we want it and can choose to sell or put it in the rental pool when it's "ready". Now, I have the big challenge of keeping Brian reigned in on the budget for the place!
Enough chatter...
This first visit's goals: 1) see what we bought. 2) clean it up so we're willing to sleep/stay in it. 3) get it properly locked where we hold the key. When we asked the realtor, how we would get in/get the key, she said that there's a key in the kitchen and the door would be open for us. The door was open for us, but no key to be found and neither door lock functioned properly.
Every so often, you hear stories of foreclosure purchases being a real pain in the neck. This transaction went so smoothly that it was surreal. Do we really own this place?!
Before we came up north for vacation in August, Brian saw this property and his interest was peaked. He sent an inquiry to the lising agent just asking what the association costs would be and for any other information she might want to share. The association fees were high enough that he didn't look back. We did not visit while on vacation because the ongoing costs were deemed too high. Then several weeks later, I prompted that the association would be okay as long as it included everything, Brian wasn't sure what it included and agreed to ask the agent again. Before he got around to doing that, the agent sent him a notice that the price was being reduced and corrected her previous information about the association fees. We decided at that price, we couldn't go wrong, but it's a foreclosure, so let's toss out a low-ball offer anyway. The bank countered with the magic number that we were hoping to settle at or below and "the rest is history" as they say.
We bought the place without laying eyes on the property. Only looking at pictures and realizing that with an association owned exterior and heating system, we have the skills to fix anything else that is wrong with it and it wouldn't cost more than we would want to manage. We can have it as long as we want it and can choose to sell or put it in the rental pool when it's "ready". Now, I have the big challenge of keeping Brian reigned in on the budget for the place!
Enough chatter...
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| Dang that's a fantastic view! |
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| Love the wood-burning fire, hate the green plush carpet. |
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| The ceiling was covered in hooks with these gaudy fake plants hanging everywhere. |
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| Hotel sized bathroom and more of that awesome greenery. |
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| Want to lighten and brighten that up! |
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| 2nd bedroom, it has a private deck overlooking the great lake. |
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| What a sweet piece of shoreline! |
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| View from the rock beach, our unit is hiding behind the big pine. |
Monday, July 30, 2012
Noah biking
Video links:
Noah rides!
Noah rides more...
We took Noah out to the nearest empty parking lot and gave him a few lessons on launching himself on his Spiderman bike. He already knew how to pedal from riding our big red bike, and he knew how to balance and steer his bike from becoming a master Strider. He was able to put the pieces together amazingly fast! He's not really ready for hills yet, so we're challenged at our house for where/how to ride. In the first video, he got launched so fast, I was not able to push record before he was up and pedaling.
He's pretty proud to be riding his Spiderman bike now; he told a bunch of people that he couldn't ride it until he was 4 - accomplished that goal!
Noah rides!
Noah rides more...
We took Noah out to the nearest empty parking lot and gave him a few lessons on launching himself on his Spiderman bike. He already knew how to pedal from riding our big red bike, and he knew how to balance and steer his bike from becoming a master Strider. He was able to put the pieces together amazingly fast! He's not really ready for hills yet, so we're challenged at our house for where/how to ride. In the first video, he got launched so fast, I was not able to push record before he was up and pedaling.
He's pretty proud to be riding his Spiderman bike now; he told a bunch of people that he couldn't ride it until he was 4 - accomplished that goal!
Sunday, July 29, 2012
New Year's Resolution
I did pretty good with my New Year's resolution of taking and sharing more pictures up until bike team started. We're between our bike team seasons now for a few weeks, so I'll try to get caught up...
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| Scary teeth - January |
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| Noah the Builder! (March) |
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| Exploring Plummer House gardens - May |
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| Camping for lunch on daddy and Noah day - May |
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| Playing at the Park Point beach, Duluth - June |
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| Having a horse ride on our "wild west" trip - July |
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| Canoe outing with our friends - July |
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| Look ma, pedals! - July |
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Bike time
This past weekend was the first race of our bike season - the "Sandwich 50" a 7 lap race of our most local mountain biking trails. We signed up to do the race as a duo, so we could take turns racing laps and watching Noah. The night before the race, it rained... substantially. We spent the morning of debating whether we should even bother because the course would be a muddy mess. Brian voted no, I voted to at least show up. He wasn't looking forward to cleaning up the bikes after the "fun", while I was thinking about all the effort put into packing our picnic and biking gear the night before. Noah was looking forward to it, so we had 2 votes for go.
Noah knew that the grass was wet from the rain, so he dressed appropriately - froggy boots! When we picked up our numbers at the registration table, Noah observed that he didn't have one for his bike right away. The registration guy, Jeff, knows us from bike team, so he hooked Noah up with a number plate for his bike. He was pretty proud of being included in the fun.
About the race, all I can really say is hauling an extra 10 pounds of earth stuck to each tire makes biking a LOT more work than I was conditioned for. I originally was planning on completing 3 laps, but didn't take long to taper that down to reality of 2 laps, and they were slow laps. Both Brian and I dropped chains during a lap; I struggled to get mine back on (don't think I've ever done that on a mountain bike before). My bike slid out from under me on a little wooden bridge, but I managed to keep my feet underneath me, so it wasn't a problem. We didn't "pass the baton" very efficiently either, calling the other over from playing at the playground took a bit extra time against our lap clock. I found myself feeling hungry quite a bit while out on the course as well.
The extra fun feature of this low-key local race is that a group of supporters set up a station in the woods to help provide, well, support for the racers. They have some music going, grill bacon to hand-up as riders are cruising past, lawn chairs under an easy-up tent, beer hand-ups, and many more items available upon request. Brian's pride of the race was that someone objected when another "supporter" suggested a beer, that he was clearly too young for it! I claim it's because they were familiar with the high-school racing jersey that he was wearing, he claims he just looks that refreshingly young! Noah had been hearing about the bacon stand, so when we were done racing, we had a family trip into the woods to "bike" to the bacon tent. The main organizer of the support station welcomed us and took really good care of Noah - bacon, water bottle, doughnut (the size of Noah's arm and he ate the whole thing in record time!). Noah discovered a little obstacle adjacent to the course right by the bacon station and rode or walked countless times over the rocks and down the log. He's getting good training for smooth bike handling!
Back down at race headquarters, hot dogs were being grilled and white elephant prizes handed out. Noah scored himself a horn to put on his bike (it only fits, poorly at that, on the spiderman bike), kiddy head-light and tail-light set with dead batteries, and more than enough junk food.
We bailed out just in time as it started raining again shortly after getting home; Brian hadn't even finished hosing off the muddy gear. Noah was a piece of work, desperately needing a nap - too much excitement and junk food for one morning. After a short bit of crying, he fell asleep and had to get awoken to head to church.
It was good that we went - we spent the time outdoors instead of grumpy about the weather inside. We networked with a few local bike promoters who might help somewhat with bike team this year. Noah had fun, practiced biking, and learned some trail etiquette. We got 4th to last out of a field of about 70 participants - I'm proud to have done more/better than a few people.
Noah knew that the grass was wet from the rain, so he dressed appropriately - froggy boots! When we picked up our numbers at the registration table, Noah observed that he didn't have one for his bike right away. The registration guy, Jeff, knows us from bike team, so he hooked Noah up with a number plate for his bike. He was pretty proud of being included in the fun.
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| Noah and Brian starting the race! (I did the actual first lap.) |
The extra fun feature of this low-key local race is that a group of supporters set up a station in the woods to help provide, well, support for the racers. They have some music going, grill bacon to hand-up as riders are cruising past, lawn chairs under an easy-up tent, beer hand-ups, and many more items available upon request. Brian's pride of the race was that someone objected when another "supporter" suggested a beer, that he was clearly too young for it! I claim it's because they were familiar with the high-school racing jersey that he was wearing, he claims he just looks that refreshingly young! Noah had been hearing about the bacon stand, so when we were done racing, we had a family trip into the woods to "bike" to the bacon tent. The main organizer of the support station welcomed us and took really good care of Noah - bacon, water bottle, doughnut (the size of Noah's arm and he ate the whole thing in record time!). Noah discovered a little obstacle adjacent to the course right by the bacon station and rode or walked countless times over the rocks and down the log. He's getting good training for smooth bike handling!
Back down at race headquarters, hot dogs were being grilled and white elephant prizes handed out. Noah scored himself a horn to put on his bike (it only fits, poorly at that, on the spiderman bike), kiddy head-light and tail-light set with dead batteries, and more than enough junk food.
We bailed out just in time as it started raining again shortly after getting home; Brian hadn't even finished hosing off the muddy gear. Noah was a piece of work, desperately needing a nap - too much excitement and junk food for one morning. After a short bit of crying, he fell asleep and had to get awoken to head to church.
It was good that we went - we spent the time outdoors instead of grumpy about the weather inside. We networked with a few local bike promoters who might help somewhat with bike team this year. Noah had fun, practiced biking, and learned some trail etiquette. We got 4th to last out of a field of about 70 participants - I'm proud to have done more/better than a few people.
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