Catching up on the news...

Okay, I know, it has been a while since my last post. I have good excuses, really. I was traveling for work...Chicago and lovely Omaha, we were getting the house on the market, so lots of cleaning, hauling garbage, putting things away, and I have just been lazy. I think the majority has been the lazy business.

Anyway, the remodel is over, the house went on the market 2 weeks ago. The Open House was mobbed, according to the realtor, there were over 50 visitors. Some returned later with measuring tapes to see if their furniture would fit, etc. We decided we would review any offers 1 week after listing. Some agents that brought prospective buyers were kind of shocked at our brazen confidence. Many thought we were over-priced, but all agreed we did a fantastic job on the remodel. Well we got 1 offer on the appointed offer review day. How many offers did we need? The offer came in at 5% below our asking price, which was set at a premium. The realtor asked me what I thought of the offer...I laughed and said, "In this market, who the heck knows what this house is worth?"I thought we were asking a lot initially anyway, but prices have gone up so quickly, who knows? The buyer was afraid of other offers, so she added an escalator clause willing to beat any other legitimate offers by $500, with an upper end of $5500 over the original asking price...crazy! But that told me she was willing to go higher, so we countered closer to our asking price, and she accepted. So, our flip house is now under contract and should close by the end of June. My goal was to get it under contract before June 1, so I am pretty happy. We got our goal of profit as well, so all in all a successful foray. Now I need to find a new project house. I also need to build a spreadsheet to track the improvements, mileage, etc. for our accountant. I am not looking forward to looking at all those Home Depot receipts.

Now that the house is done, Lori and I feel weird just sitting around in the evenings...almost as if we should be doing something...so we just put ourselves to work in our yard...long neglected. It is hard to just relax anymore, but I am sure that ability will come back.

The neighbor down the street from the remodel wants me to take a look at his place...seems he just bought a bigger home in the neighborhood and wants me to do "the magic" on his place. It could use it, too. Looks like 4 different carpenters built it at the same time. But it has potential.

On the family front...Jeff returns from college in a week. Finals are this week. He also just finished his certification for Lifeguarding, so he will have a summer job. He will also look for something else to do, since the pool hours will be limited. Melanie also passed certification, so we will have two lifeguards in the house this summer. She actually started working already since the pool opened Mother's Day weekend. The new manager has been calling me regularly to help her figure out the pumps, filters, chlorinator and heater. I used to be the facilities board member, so I know the ins and outs of the pool system.

I am slowly getting ready for my trip to Africa in July. I know, I haven't said much about it, but it is happening. Lori and I are helping support an AIDS Orphanage in Kisumu, Kenya. The Ring Road Orphanage and School. Our church is heavily involved in feeding, housing and educating about 350 orphans in Kenya. There is always a need there...mosquito netting, clean water, electricity, food, etc. Our role is to pay the rent. Seems a group of Danish businessmen pledged to pay the annual rent, but reneged, leaving a huge whole in the budget. We had been looking for a way to get involved, and this seemed perfect for us. We send enough to cover the annual rent, plus a little more to give the children meat in their diet once a week. That was their number 1 wish...not Gameboys, or Nintendos, but a little meat. How could we refuse? Preparation for this trip involves getting shots, learning a little Swahili to get around (really for bargaining...you know how I hate to pay retail for anything!), and working on donated products. My latest request was made to Oakley for some sunglasses. It is on the wish list of the medical director at the AIDS clinic at the school. I guess the retroviral treatment of HIV leaves some light sensitivities, and Africa is not the place to have sensitivity to light! I am hoping Oakley will kick in a few hundred pairs of sunglasses. We will see. One of my personal goals going over there is to see if I can help them set up a cottage business of some kind. I want to use my business training, food science knowledge and imagination to come up with a business plan for them. I think self-sufficiency is my goal. Gee, let's see...Kenya grows some of the best coffee in the world, I know how to set up a coffee business...hmmm.

I leave for Kenya July 6 and will be gone 20 days. If you feel like making a donation to this effort, leave me a reply in the comments section and I will get in touch with you. I think the toughest struggle is the school getting accreditted. Seems the Kenyan government really doesn't want to give legitimacy to the orphans, but our little school had the student with the highest score on the national exam! Actually the 3rd place finisher as well. So threats to close the school have quieted down. It is amazing at how the children survive and thrive under these types of conditions. I credit their faith in God, and their pure survival instincts. I am expecting to be changed when I go over there. I think I will learn much more than I will teach.

Okay, I promise to make more frequent posts. Any requests?

Chow!

Preparing for the "Empty Nest"

Lori and I were sitting home tonight on the sofa in the family room watching Jeopardy! on TV, and we realized that we were alone. Jeff is off to college and Melanie was away at some school function. We didn't have any projects going, and we could actually sit and relax. We kept wondering why we were able to just sit there and veg out...well of course! It's because the house is completed and on the market.

I was thinking to myself that tonight must be what the "empty nest" will feel like once Melanie heads to college (hopefully far enough away to have to stay on campus). It was too quiet, actually and it will take some getting used to. Not that it will be a bad thing, but just that it will take some practice. Our neighbors, Kirk and Janet are enjoying their recently emptied nest by playing more tennis and traveling a bit more. They also just moved down the block, so they spend a lot of time thinking about redecorating, furniture shopping, etc.

Lots of my younger co-workers are announcing pregnancies, weddings, and other key milestones of younger lives. We chat and when they find out my kids are almost gone, they wonder how young we were when we started a family. I explain it to them that it isn't how old you are when you decide to have kids, it is how old you want to be when you can enjoy life after they are gone...that makes the decision about when to have kids go much smoother and easier. When you are young, first married and contemplating a family, it never seems to be the right time...or you never seem like you have enough money...it is always something. So Lori and I did "scenario planning". We took our lives far out into the future and asked ourselves how old we wanted to be when the kids left the nest...guess what? The decision about when to start was made in 5 seconds!

Maybe this blog space will also start including tips for parenting...ha! I can start draining all this powerful parenting thought out of my brain and onto this page. Potty training tips, allowance advice, Daddy's 401K plan, goal setting, the opposite sex, dating, driver's ed...the list is endless. But I digress...

Lori, me and the dog...gonna take some getting used to, but I think we will like it!

Chow!

On the market!

Our flip house is finally on the market! The realtor just finished staging the house and put it on the MLS. The broker open house is tomorrow, public open house is this Sunday and hopefully we will have a buyer by the end of next week...notice how I said, "hopefully". The market is still very strong in Seattle, but more importantly in the Burien area. Prices are up 18% in the past 6 months...making an annual increase of over 30%. Considering where our realtor originally had us in November ($X79K) to now being on the market ($Y29K) I would say we are right on average. Here are the final before and after shots. Sorry that the angles are not exactly the same, but the configuration of the house is a little different, and I couldn't remember where I stood for the "befores". We are glad to be done! Now we are looking for a new project.

Here is the front before and after. The small porch was demolished and a new front porch added. The front door was brought out from a vestibule arrangement to line up with the exterior.

Here is the back before and after. New addition connects the garage to the kitchen, adding a laundry room, furnace room, new Master Bath and new Master walk-in. Check out the new paver driveway.

Biggest changes were to the Kitchen and Master Bedroom where the most usable space was added. We refinished the oak floors in the living room, veneered the brick fireplace with slate and added a Craftsman styled mantle.

There is new cork floors in the kitchen and new laundry room, and new stainless appliances.

This is the new look dining area. New sliders to the new deck.

The new bath is much more functional and seems more spacious just by flipping the bath to the outside wall.

Here is the new look to the living room...

And the Master bedroom...where there once was a window and a wall is now the new walk-in closet, small sitting area and new bathroom to the right...hard to see, but it is just like the other bathroom and it is located just behind that closer wall to the right of the picture.

...and finally the granite tops.

Chow!

Maui, WOWEE

Man, y'all, I hate to be back...landed in Seattle late last night. It is cold and rainy...56 degrees! We left Maui and a beautiful 84 and sunny. Sigh. The time was too short, but long enough to unwind, enjoy most of what Maui has to offer, and remind me to keep a balanced perspective about work and rest.

We had a very relaxing time...Maui Time as the locals say. Although it was very difficult to interact with the locals unless they were either serving us something or selling us something. It isn't like Oahu where there are tons of locals...Maui seems to be about tourists, or time share participants. Everyone seemed to be from the mainland. My "pidgin" English never got fully developed.

We landed in Kapalua airport and headed by van to our rental car. I thought we would do the fun thing and rent either a convertible or Jeep...what an original thought! NOT! Seems like everyone had either a Mustang convertible or a Jeep Wrangler, including yours truly. We had to memorize our license plate number so we could find our vehicle in the parking lots. First order of business was to hit the beach at the Westin...nice. The facility was beautiful. I guess the thing to do is to bring a few friends and get married here. We saw at least 4 weddings while we were here.

We figured since we were on Seattle time, it would be easier to wake up early and get a start on the long drive to Hana, a small town at the opposite end of the island. It was about an 80 mile drive at about 25 mph. The road to Hana has 57 1-lane bridges (trust me I counted), twisting and turning roads that are sheer excitement for the driver, but pure car-sickness for the passengers. I was lucky to be driving. We almost met our end after rounding a blind curve...seems a cement truck was "cheating" to our side of the road to take the turn at a higher rate of speed...he was in our lane barreling down on us at around 45 mph. He pulled hard to his right to get back into his lane and almost tipped over, and I pulled hard right onto the miniscule shoulder to squeeze past...3 inches to spare!

The road to Hana was especially lush, with tropical forests, gardens and waterfalls a plenty. We got to dance across a black sand beach (bring shoes next time), picnicked at scenic spots, and enjoyed a short hike to the 7 Sacred Pools (past Hana). Lovely. We spent the entire day on the road...6 am to 4 pm.

We spent one day on a snorkling trip to Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. Molokini Crater is a national underwater park inside a dormant volcano. It "peeks" just above the surface of the ocean, well half of it does. It looks like a crescent shaped island. The water clarity is amazing, with 200 ft visibility. What I thought was a baby Moray Eel was actually a 6-footer, it was just 50 feet down. Turtle Town was amazing. It is a reef that the Green Sea Turtles hang around just off the beach at the Ritz-Carlton. I think we saw 8 turtles in that short hour. One came very close to our group.

The rest of our stay consisted of lounging by the pool, shopping in Lahaina and searching for great local food. I would say our mission was accomplished. My favorite restaurant was a local haunt called the Aloha Mixed Plate. Lau-lau, Mac salad, two scoops of rice, Kalbi ribs, and the best panko-crusted beef teriyaki on the planet! The food was only matched by the sunsets we watched from our beachside table.

Hope you enjoyed the post! Mahalo!