Mike and Tina's Excellent Adventure Continues …
It's summer in southwest Florida. Beautiful blue sky
mornings with brief thunderstorms most afternoons bringing life sustaining
rains to the Everglades. Wetlands are refilled providing ideal nesting places
for all sorts of birds. Across the road Muscovy ducks have hatched and we get
to watch the babies grow into replicas of their parents, though fewer in number
than when they were born.
Last April we decided to become permanent Floridians, so we
put our small condo on the market. And priced it at $75,000 fully furnished.
Since buying it in February 2011 for $57,500 we had replaced all the furniture,
upgraded the air handler, put in a new fridge and garbage disposal. All
together we had about $10,000 invested above our cost. Working with our agent, Carmen Baden Foege of
Real Pro Realty, we spent two months looking for a new home. We set a budget
and decided to stay under $195,000 if possible. But as fate would have it we
kept gravitating to a new development we'd looked at for a couple of years,
Marbella Lakes.
We first saw the unit we really wanted when we were down
here in our motor home in 2009 during our
tour of the US perimeter chronicled in “On the Road with Mike and Tina”.
After repeatedly looking at the model we wanted (Sorento) it was apparent that
we could afford it but we wanted a ground floor unit and the Sorento was only
available as a second floor unit. After continuing to look around the Naples
area we finally agreed that our best bet was to select a slightly smaller unit,
the Positano (http://www.glhomes.com/marbella-lakes#/move-in-ready-homes).
So, in mid April we worked with Karen, the salesperson at
Marbella Lakes to lock up the unit we wanted. With a purchase agreement signed
we went to GLFinance and worked with John to set up our mortgage application.
Selling at a price of $234,000, with a
$6,000 signing bonus and $56,000 down we
only needed to get our other place sold. And so the tale begins...
For several reasons, our best buyer would most likely be an
investor or someone like us looking for a winter getaway. At $75,000 and with a
nice suite of furniture we had several showings a week. Several offers were
made but none of them were accepted as they weren't cash or were lowball
offers. Finally, in early May about two weeks after signing to buy a new place
we had a cash offer at $72,000. Papers were signed and a closing date of May 25th
was set.
With all parties to the two transactions notified, Tina and
I started making plans. Because we liked the way the model unit was furnished
we went to Baer's Furniture and worked with Janet, one of their designers, to
select our furniture. She also arranged for a contractor to make several
upgrades for us – crown molding throughout, painting the two bedrooms, adding
some architectural details, valences and curtains. We paid half down and left
happy.
Since we knew that it would take about a month to complete
closing on the new place once the old one was sold and furniture wouldn't be
delivered until at least the first week of July we made plans to fly to Seattle
on May 26th, day after closing, for a visit with family and friends
and to empty our storage locker on Whidbey Island. With all our arrangements made we packed up
everything in the condo of a personal nature and put it in storage planning to
leave the keys on the counter when we left.
Up to this point everything seemed to be sailing along just
fine. Then the first shoe dropped. Apparently, Briar Landings, the HOA where we
had our old condo had a clause in the condo documents that required all sales
to be offered to the HOA for “First Right of Refusal”. This is commonly called
an Estoppel Certificate and is requested by the Title Company as soon as a
closing date is set. This didn't happen and we didn't find out until May 20th.
Then, Tina and I were told (incorrectly as it turned out) that we were
responsible for getting the Estoppel. By now we're only a few days from closing
so we requested an extension to the sales contract to May 31st,
figuring it would only take a few days to complete. The buyers agreed and I
submitted the request to the HOA and crossed our fingers. Having done all we
could, we grabbed our bags, put the dogs in their soft crates and headed for
the airport. Leaving the car in long term parking we caught the shuttle to the
terminal, checked in and made it out to the gate for our flight with time to
spare.
Before we left we had taken the dogs to the vet for a
checkup and prescription for something to help keep them calm on the flight. We
gave them a dose 30 minutes before boarding and another after we got seated.
The meds were totally ineffective. In fact, they seemed to have just the
opposite affect. What a nightmare. For four hours Tina and I flew bent over in
our seats with our hands in the crates trying to keep the kids from going
ballistic. Another dose about an hour into the flight only seemed to make
things worse and the flight attendants wouldn't let us put the crates on our
laps. By the time we got to Dallas for our transfer we were almost ready to
rent a car and drive the rest of the way.
After talking it over we decided to bite the bullet and fly
the rest of the way. Hoping that the first leg was a fluke we tried again to
sedate the dogs before boarding with the same results. Finally, an hour into
the flight, I asked the attendant if we could put the crates in our laps. She
said, “Sure, whatever works best for the dogs.” Ahhhhh, finally a break! With
the crates in our laps we were able to unzip one end so the dogs could put
their heads out. Eventually we all slept for a couple of hours until it was
time to land. The rest of the flight passed without trouble and Tina's sister
Shanda met us at the airport and drove us to her house in Lakewood, just south
of Tacoma and next door to their Moms house.
Since we planned to be gone a month we spent several days
visiting including a trip to the island to have lunch with Mary Jo and
Windwalker, owners of Raven Rocks Gallery who are renting our home on Whidbey.
We had a great visit and the house and grounds looked loved and cared for.
While on the island we made arrangements to rent a U-Haul truck from our
friends Maureen and Angus McDonald at the Tartan Thistle. We also had a chance
on another day to visit with our friend and broker, Richard Davis. We miss our
friends on Whidbey and spending time with our family. Fortunately I was able to
get together with a couple of my pool shooting buddies, Pat and John to shoot a
little pool. Daughter Marni celebrated her birthday as did granddaughter
Nakeisha. We also got to see grandson Joshua at his home in Federal Way.
Then the other shoe dropped. On June 4th we got a
call from our agent Carmen that since the Estoppel Certificate hadn't arrived
by the end of the contract (by Florida statute they had 15 business days to
provide the document), the buyers backed out of the deal and we had to put the
place back on the market putting the new house purchase in jeopardy. This was
followed by lot's of emails back and forth between all parties to keep things
moving forward. Fortunately our lenders and people at Marbella Lakes were very
understanding and wiling to be patient while we worked on a new sale.
Eventually it was time to think about packing up and leaving
so on June 14th we jumped in Moms Buick and drove to the island,
picked up the truck and went to the storage unit. Our oldest daughter Lori and
her boyfriend Patrick met us at the storage unit and helped us pack the truck.
Four hours later we finished, said our goodbyes and headed south to Moms for
one more night where we met everyone for a final dinner at Olive Garden.
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| "Admiral" Tina at the wheel |
Saturday morning the16th was cool and with blue sky overhead
we headed for I-90 and our first day driving across Washington State, Idaho and
through the Rocky Mountains into Montana stopping for our first night in
Missoula. We had great weather, no traffic to speak of and no problems with the
truck or load. We made a nest of pillows and blankets on the jump seat between
us for the dogs and they settled in with no complaints.
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| View from the passenger seat |
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| Wicket and Punky on the jump seat |
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| Pool Party |
Since we didn't need to be back to Naples until the 28th
we had altered our route to go through Wisconsin to visit family and it only
added a day of travel time to our drive. So our next leg was to Salem Wisconsin
with the following day taking us to Tina's sister Denise's house in Trevor
Wisconsin. We arrived early in the afternoon for a three day stay. So far we'd
covered a little over 2,000 miles in four and a half days.
We had a great visit joining in the festivities at a big
pool party and BBQ but all to soon it was time to leave for home. Again we had
great weather and light traffic as we drove to Nashville Tennessee and a night
at the La Quinta Inn. We decided to get home early in the day so we could take
a break from driving before putting everything in storage. So we made a longer
day and drove from Nashville to Lake City in northern Florida staying at the
Jamesson Hotel for our last night on the road.
The next morning we were on the road early and drove down I-75 to the
airport to pick up our car. Leaving the airport we completed the last 30 miles
in tandem arriving at our condo parking lot around 2:30pm having traveled a
total of 3,500 miles spread over 8 days. The next day, with our trip back from
the northwest complete we unloaded the truck and dropped it off at the local
U-Haul office. Now we could get on with the condo saga – heheheh!
Well, to cut a long story short, we got lucky and another
cash offer was made a few days after we got back. We agreed on a price of
$70,500 and set a closing date of August 20th to give us time to get
the Estoppel Certificate completed. With a new buyer, new Title Insurance and
new people who knew what needed to be done, we were able to complete the sale
closing by the 15th instead of the 20th. The new owners
agreed to let us rent for 30 days while we completed our purchase and move into
the new place so we didn't have to stay at a hotel.
Finally all the approvals for the new loan were complete and
we were able to close on the new place on the
morning of the 22nd getting our welcome packet and keys that
afternoon. We took formal possession with photos of Tina making the ceremonial
first opening of the front door! Wheeeeew!!!
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| Whewww! Everything from storage fit! |
With keys and a garage door opener, we spent the next day
getting a U-Haul truck and emptying out two storage units – the small one with
all our stuff from the old condo and the big one with all our stuff from
Whidbey. Everything was put in the garage with some boxes going into closets in
the den or one of the bedrooms. Once we got the truck back we decided to take a
break and start emptying a few boxes into the kitchen.
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| Tina organizing the kitchen |
Meanwhile, the contractors arrived and spent three days
installing the crown molding, painting and putting up other trim work. While
all that was going on we did lots of running around to pick out fans, tile for
the kitchen backsplash and set up schedules for deliveries of carpet and
furniture and installation schedules. We also picked up our water feature for
the lanai and looked at lots of lamps and mirrors.
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| Making progress, the TV and sound system is in place |
With furniture arriving and most of the upgrades completed
(still waiting for the tile backsplash in the kitchen) we have been able to do
more unpacking and putting things away. We spent most of our time today getting
Comcast hooked up (internet and TV), the TV, sound system, and Blu-Ray DVD
player installed and everything working correctly. Unfortunately the set-top
box from Comcast doesn’t work so they’re sending a technician tomorrow. So it’s
movies tonight. Tina made a salad and spaghetti for our first dinner in our new
home!
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| Our first dinner in our new home - Hurray!! |
There’s still lots of unpacking to do plus we have to go
clean the old place now that we’re moved out so we can send the keys to the new
owners. That’s about it for now but stay tuned, there’s bound to be more
surprises as we motor down the road of life!
