I've been reading through some of my old journal entries, and man did I used to update a lot. I don't know what happened to that. Actually, I do -- writing nine recaps last week kind of used up all my words.
But I thought I would give you a little non-pictorial update as to what Jim and I have been doing lately -- house hunting! I know I've talked about it before (I told you I've been reading my old journal entries) but we are really serious this time.
It all started about two weeks ago. Every Sunday, I read the paper, including the real estate section. Anyway, there was an Open House listed at a house that sounded like something we would like. I had a vague idea of how much of a mortgage we could qualify for, based on calculations on various websites, and this was in our range. It was a nice day out, so we decided to take a drive and see what this house was all about. We got to the house and drove by, then went back and decided to actually go inside. The best part about this house was that it was very secluded, but also fairly close to major highways. And it had a stream with a mini-waterfall, right in the yard! It needed some work, but most of the houses in our price range do. We were both pretty excited about it, and I called a realtor the next day to find out what we needed to do to get the process going.
We met with the realtor a few days later, and found out what kind of mortgage we could qualify for, etc. The realtor called me back a few days later to tell me that she had talked to the listing realtor and...the house was already sold. SOLD! Right out from under our noses. I guess it sold the day after the open house. It was only on the market for less than two weeks. I know in other parts of the country, that's a long time, but around here it's really not. Jim, especially, was very saddened because he really loved that house, especially the yard. But I buckled down and decided to look for more houses. Our realtor sent us some listings, and I kept searching the online listings as well. Oh, also at this point, we talked to a mortgage broker about getting pre-approved and such.
This past Saturday, we decided to take a long drive and check out various parts of Central New York, to try to determine exactly how far out we are willing to live. It doens't matter so much for me right now, since I work from home, but Jim has to deal with a commute, which is a factor. We also want to have a big yard. Not so much because we want a big yard, but because we want some distance from our neighbors. So I guess we could live next door to a house with a big yard. We just want more of a country setting than a suburban setting.
I looked up a number of listings that sounded good, and off we went. We drove all over hell's half-acre looking at houses, but didn't find any that fit the bill. We did see some beautiful scenery, and got a better idea of what parts of the area we would like to live in, so it wasn't a waste of time at all.
Then, on Sunday, my realtor sent me the newest properties added to the MLS database, and one of them sounded pretty good. Right area, right price, right size -- all the makings of a good match. I didn't want to waste any time, so Jim and I hopped in the car and drove right over there. I loved it. It's on a golf course, which might make you think of a really expensive snooty house, but it totally wasn't. But it did meet all of our other requirements, and I was excited. I even called my mom and told her all about it. I left a voice mail for our realtor, saying that we'd like to schedule a viewing as soon as possible.
My realtor called me back today to schedule a day and time, and the earliest appointment that would work for both of us was Friday. I was a little anxious, because of what happened with the other house, but I reasoned that it had just gone on the market on Thursday, and it's not like it was in one of the more highly prized areas of the county or anything. Right?
Wrong. My realtor called back five minutes later, having just called the listing realtor and finding out that the house was already sold. Bid made and accepted. In three days.
I have a couple of theories about this. One is that it's possible that the seller already had a buyer in mind, and the listing was just a technicality. Another is that the golf course bought the house, with the intention of knocking it down to expand the course or something. The most plausible is that interest rates are so incredibly low right now that people are just buying houses willy-nilly. Or something. I don't know. I was incredibly disappointed and dispirited. Now I know how Jim felt about the first house!
So now we've both fallen in love with a house and had it bought out from under our noses. Maybe next time will be the charm? I'm still looking. I try to tell myself that everything happens for a reason, and if we didn't get those houses, it means that another one will come on the market soon that is better for us in some way. And also, there's really no rush. We're month-to-month on our lease, so we can stay or go whenever. I'm just really, really, really sick of this apartment.
I am becoming very adept at realtor-speak though. Here are the terms I've been able to define.
Perfect starter home = Really fucking small
Charming = Still really small
Cozy = Again, just tiny
Rustic = Falling down and rotting
Handyman's special = Tear it down and salt the earth so that nothing grows there again
That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned for our further house-hunting adventures!
I had to take two of my three cats (Grendel and Mia) to the vet today for their booster shots and a general checkup. You'd think this would be fairly easy, since I've been taking the cats to the vet for...well, as long as we've had them, so six years. But it's really like a military operation.
Okay, so the appointment was for 11 AM, and it takes about ten minutes to drive there, so I wanted to be out of the house by about 10:45. After I dropped Jim off at work and returned home, it was about 8:45 AM. Here are the things I needed to avoid:
- Letting either cat get into the bedroom, where they would hide under the bed and it's impossible to get them out.
- Letting either cat know that we were going to the vet soon, which meant that I had to leave the carriers out on the porch, because if they see the carriers, they know.
- Leaving the door to the porch open, because Roxanne has developed a habit of running out there when the door is open, and hiding behind a door, so it's nearly impossible to get her out.
Okay, so keeping those goals in mind, not long after I got home, I shut Roxanne in the bedroom. That solved most of my problems. She couldn't run outside, and the other cats couldn't hide under the bed. And I did it about an hour before I had to leave for the vet, so that the other cats wouldn't get suspicious. It's actually pretty routine for Roxanne to be shut away in one room or another, because she's a pest. She doesn't really mind -- she usually just goes to sleep.
Anyway, about 10:30, I decided to put my operation into motion. I got dressed, first. Then, I saw that Grendel and Mia were both sleeping on the couch in the living room. I decided to shut Grendel in the bathroom while I took Mia out to her carrier first. My reasoning was that since she had to be hospitalized earlier this year, Mia is far more scared of the vet, and routinely hides when I try to give her treats, because she thinks it means it's time for the vet. It's my own fault because I used to always use treats to lure her out of hiding places and get her into her carrier. So I figured if I could take care of Mia first, Grendel would be pretty easy to take care of second, especially if I shut her in the bathroom, where there's really nowhere to hide.
Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong. As soon as I picked up Grendel and carried her to the bathroom, Mia knew something was up and hid under the couch. No amount of treats would lure her out. By this time, it was almost 10:45, the time that I was supposed to leave. I reached under the couch and petted her, trying to talk her out. No dice. Finally, I just moved the couch and she was so stunned that she just stood there. She tried to run away, but since pretty much every other door in the house was shut, she had nowhere to go. So I grabbed her while she was looking for an escape route. She wasn't happy, but I managed to get her into the carrier. One down, one to go.
I went back in for Grendel, who was sitting in the bathroom going, "Huh?" Grendel hasn't been to the vet in a year, so she was pretty clueless. I scooped her up and carried her out to the porch. As we got closer, she could hear Mia yowling and started wriggling away from me, but I had a death grip on her. I managed to somehow stuff her in the carrier, take both carriers out to the car, and drive to the vet. Both cats yowled the whole way there.
Once we got to the vet, they both shut up. My vet has a bird in the waiting room that will meow back to the cats or bark back at the dogs, and I think my cats were completely stymied by this. They just kept looking at me like, "The fuck?" They both passed their exams with flying colors, and all is well. Except for when they took Mia in back to get her shots, she was screeching and howling, and the other people who worked in the office would pass by where I was sitting and just laugh at Mia's dramatics. She is kind of a drama queen.
Then, they yowled all the way home. I set the carriers on the kitchen floor and let the beasts out. Roxanne ran right over and got in one of the carriers, because she's a freak. Grendel went to eat something, because like her mom, she eats when she's anxious. Mia ran and hid under the couch.
I don't know what I will do if I ever have to take all three cats to the vet. I'll have to start planning that one about a week ahead of time.
On Labor Day Weekend (which I realize was a month ago at this point!), Jim and I took a drive down to Ithaca, about an hour south of there, and I took some pictures. I hope you like waterfalls. Click on any picture to see more.
On the way down, we stopped at the Book Barn of the Finger Lakes, which is basically just a barn stuffed full of every used book imaginable. I think I could have spent at least a full day in there, but we were anxious to be on our way, and somehow escaped with only one book each.
So first we went to Buttermilk Falls State Park, and this is the eponymous Buttermilk Falls. The area at the bottom is for swimming, although we didn't go in. A lot of kids were, though, and some adults. There was a diving board to the left of this picture, and that looked like fun. So after looking at the scenery for a few minutes, we decided to hike the train. It was only a mile, so I figured it would be no big deal, even though I'm terribly out of shape.
Well, the trail was pretty much uphill all the way, as you'd expect of a trail that goes from the bottom of a waterfall to the top. The day before, Jim's dad had told us that it was a good idea to get a ride to the top of the falls, and then hike down and get into your car at the bottom. I thought, "Well, Jim and I are young! We can hike up and down." Yeah, Jim is young. I am old and fat. And out of shape. So after making frequent rest stops, I thought about turning back. But I decided that this trail was not going to defeat me! And I kept walking. Jim was very sweet and offered to walk back down with me, but that just made me feel more like an invalid than ever. It didn't help that there was an older couple in front of us, holding hands and just striding along, hardly even breathing hard.
We finally reached the end of the trail, and I felt like I had won something. I don't know what. Jim ran ahead and stood on this bridge so that I could get a picture. After you crossed the bridge, you hiked pretty much the same distance, but all downhill that way. I had no trouble with that at all, so I guess it was just the uphill part. It was nice and peaceful there. We saw a few groups of hikers, but not too many. As we neared the end of the trail, we saw some people heading up the hill, including one woman who seemed to be struggling already, and she was carrying a baby in one of those backpack deals. I wanted to advise her to just quit while she was ahead, but it was really none of my business.
I thought this picture would give you a good sense of scale of the gorge itself, because there are people in it. They're on the right hand side of the picture. This was a family -- a dad, mom, and probably ten-year-old boy. They were totally adventurous, going off the trail and hiking around the waterfalls themselves, even though there were signs saying to stay on the trail. So I followed them, and I'm glad that I did, because it was pretty cool. On this hike, there were tons and tons of little waterfalls and cool rock formations, but I'm only posting the very best pictures here, because after a while you would be like, "Yeah, yeah. Another waterfall. Moving on." But if you look on the right hand side of the picture, you can see some steps going up. That's the actual trail. And the family is not on it.
Hey, I'm in this picture. Jim had gone ahead a way to check out some crazy rock formation. He tried to get a picture of it, but the light was all wrong and it came out way too dark. And then he turned around and took a picture of me, on the trail below him. These are the steps that you could see in the previous picture. I look kind of knock-kneed in this picture, huh? But I'm making a big V for Victory to celebrate my victory over the hiking trail that nearly took my life.
Okay, I'm going to move on in my story, because most of my pictures are from Buttermilk Falls and we only spent half the day there. So check out the pretty picture! After finishing that hike, we were kind of hungry, but not really hungry enough for a full-fledged lunch. So we decided to head to our next stop, Taughannock Falls State Park. On the way there, we found a convenience store, so we bought some snacks and drinks and headed on our way. It's funny because Ithaca is a very cool town, but not that big. But Cornell and Ithaca College are there, so it's not like it's tiny. But if you go about five minutes outside the town, you are in Rural America suddenly. We weren't even sure that we would be able to find a place to buy gas without going back into town. It's just farms, fields, and mailboxes. Which makes for a pretty drive, but not the easiest place to find snacks.
This picture is the swimming area that you could partially see in the first picture, and the valley and hills beyond. So after refueling, we headed to Taughannock Falls State Park. It was much busier, but it was also later in the day, and Labor Day Weekend to boot. It's right on Cayuga Lake, so there is a boat launch in addition to the hiking trails. We walked over to the lake short and parked it on a bench, and sat watching the sailboats on the water while we snacked. It was so beautiful. If only the annoying family on walkie-talkies hadn't been standing right next to us. They were talking to their relatives on a boat somewhere on the water. And then there were the jet skis. On the plus side, there were a lot of dogs around, and I like dogs. If I lived in Ithaca, I would want to go there every weekend with a picnic lunch. If not for all the other people. Oh, well. It was still nice to look at.
After snacking, we headed over to the hiking trail, where you could hike right up to the highest falls in New York State -- even higher than Niagara Falls. At first, we went to the top, but the trail there didn't really seem to be getting us any closer to the actual falls. But I did get this picture of the valley and Cayuga Lake beyond, so it wasn't a total washout. Plus, we saw these two people lying on the ground on a blanket, dead asleep. Or possibly just dead. They were all entwined, and Jim and I kept referring to them as "the love-ahs" a la Rachel Dratch and Will Ferrell on SNL. We did get to see the falls from afar, but noticed that there were people right down at the base of the falls, and decided to try to figure out how to get there, as long as it didn't involve any more hills.
We finally found the beginning of the trail and headed out. It was so awesome. You can hike right up the creek bed, and because it was late summer, the creek had slowed to a trickle. There were a ton of people wading in the water and looking at minnows and such, so I took off my shoes and socks and joined them. The sun was beating down, but it wasn't too hot. It was just a perfect day. After hiking for about a mile, we finally reached the falls, which were truly impressive. If you look at the big version of this final picture, I think you can see the people in the lower right corner, and compare how big the falls are. While the amount of water coming through wasn't huge, the sheer height of the drop was amazing. Being the rule-breaker that I am, I ignored the signs (like everyone else there) and got closer to take a picture. I didn't go right up to the falls like the people in the picture though. I was too chicken. I could just see a giant rock falling on me.
After that, we hiked back to our car and drove home. Actually, we got lost on the way home in a very "Duelling Banjos" kind of area. But we figured it out, and got home safely. It was a great day! I'm sure it's even more beautiful now with the leaves turning and everything. Maybe we'll do it again before the snow flies!