Tiny house and the snails pace ...

 

The actual statement on the court records states:

	7/15/2014	CASE REOPENED FOR ROO
	7/15/2014	MOTION TO DIRECT CLERK TO ISSUE WRIT OF POSSESSION (DONNA ASHWOOD)

 

And we wait…

 

But on a plus side, when looking at it lined up this way, really every week, we are one step closer to getting in and starting on the project.

Here a Writ, there a Writ, everywhere a Writ....

I am finally resigning myself to the fact that I will probably not be "in" the tiny house until after the first of August... Seriously - at the rate this crap drags on, if it takes a week for the judge to review and rule on the writ of possession.

I have to remember, just because the summons for writ is AT the courts doesn't mean it's not now at the bottom of a very LARGE stack of paper.

So writ was delivered to the Annex at FWB on Friday - with a 1 business day transfer timeline to get it shuffled over to the main court - anticipated arrival and logging time would have been today at best. So, the paperwork is in play - finally. After reading everything I do believe this could have been a stalling tactic by the lawyer - who may not be "the" lawyer for long. I have read that for mailing of any item the courts want you to add an additional 5 days to the "count" of days. So if the eviction notice was mailed on the 11th (as claimed) the 5 day period would have been the 18th - doesn't that seem fishy that the paperwork miraculously started moving again then?

So... now it's at the courts. This could take upwards of a week - THEN we add the sheriff's office and their scheduling into the mix to SERVE the paperwork. This could again, take a week - or three - depending on their backlog of work. So... August it is... I can do August... I just have to know what on earth I'm looking at. ON a plus side, I now have insurance as of tomorrow on the place. That gives me some piece of mind. The COST however does not give ANYONE piece of mind. Good gracious! Ok, this is going to be worth it, this is going to be worth it, this is going to be worth it...

Butch was talking to me on the porch the other day and was saying in three years when Angela is out of high school we should consider moving down there. I have found his job nitch down there too - adaptive fishing. Seriously there are NONE in the FWB/Destin area. The closest I could find were in the Keys. I mean, come on folks, with a VA hospital right there, you would think there would be more need for this, wouldn't you?

Donna 

Lawyer frustrations

This process takes WAY too long!!
June 25 - place winning bid on house
July 5 - 10 day wait for anyone to contest the sale
July 10 - title on house issued by county
July 11 - notification sent to current occupants of house to vacate or produce valid lease
July 14 - writ of possession paperwork filed with courts

The retarded Lawyer MAILED it... as of Thursday it still wasn't in the courts hands.  My email went unanswered to her Friday of "what is your backup plan to get the paperwork THERE?"  I suggested a courier service.  I mean come on, I have been hounding here every step of the way to get the paperwork here/there, etc.. I was the one that emailed her the NIGHT I found out the title had been issued late the day prior... she should KNOW to hurry this along and not waste my time doing the whole thing by US post office when there is no tracking!  Goodness!!!

Hurry up and wait...

This process takes WAY too long!!
June 25 - place winning bid on house
July 5 - 10 day wait for anyone to contest the sale
July 10 - title on house issued by county
July 11 - notification sent to current occupants of house to vacate or produce valid lease
July 14 - writ of possession paperwork filed with courts

July 16 - And we're STILL waiting on a ruling from the courts on if we can evict the people in the house...

Really?? I guess if it took an additional 5 days after the waiting period was up to get the title issued, we're looking at Friday to get the judge to sign anything if we're lucky?
Sigh... I'm so over waiting... I want IN the house now...

Then I look at a calendar and it's really only been three weeks today since the winning bid., I'm not sure what I'm so worked up about :) I'm just not patient!

Of course, this just gives me more time to finish the table and other projects. Yesterday was not a day to paint as it was raining and thundering... and for all the hoopla with the wind and such, we only got about 1/4 inch of rain.

Took a chance...

I took a chance on a VERY beat up box for an offset umbrella. Normally $3xx.xx - 70% off at $11x.xx. I had some concerns about the condition of the box.


Turns out it was in GREAT shape and works like a champ for a fraction if the cost ;)

Butch put it together while the girls and I were shopping.

On other fronts Angela and her friend were "opposite" twins today!



One with purple shoes and green socks. The other with green shoes and purple socks. Cute :)

Ridiculous amount of projects

A scary amount if projects!!


As seen from the outside. There are:
End table and coffee table
The dining table and five chairs
Two solo chairs (sanding)
Another side table


Oh but wait why not do it all? There are two metal stools
AND a globe that is cut in 1/2 for hanging lamps.


Dad and mom came over to assist in the effort!


Don't I look lovely? That's a dust mask on my head. I have
Been out sweating from 7am to about 12:30 when this was taken.


After this I got a shower and we went to a nice Mexican lunch. Yum!!

I'm in love

Let me say I'm not allowed to shop for the beach house ANY MORE!
No more!!
So why do I say this? Well I had gone to good will yesterday and found a cute green end table for $10 I couldn't pass it up. It will be perfect in one of the bedrooms.
So why this reaction today?


So cute!!!


So inexpensive!!! With five chairs I asked a nice guy in the store to help me pull it apart as there was a leaf function. I could feel the locks!

Turns out the leaf is missing BUT it has TWO drop leafs on either side! Yes you read that right! It shrinks down to two feet wide!! Perfect for a tiny beach house!!!

And he said "I can do better than that $49.99 and a tip for me" heck yeah!!

So into the car it goes!!


The car is FULL and you can see this is MOST of the table.


Oh and had I unpacked the day priors find? Nope! So it was relocated to the front along with two dumpster found plant stands!


Another road side find plant stand!


And a cute lamp to redo for the living room too!


Yeah I know I'm not even IN the house yet ;)

Why don't we have keys yet?

Kind of a poopy situation as we have coughed up the cash...and have a bill if sale...however have no house. WHY?
Well, here is why:



The title can be issued after the ten day waiting period is over. When IS that day? Well, that will be the 5th. Yeah, that part bites too. The clerks office had my property scheduled for the 8th...so on the 8th or 9th we will be taking the legal actions to take the house back and get in there.

Now is when we need prayers that all is well and the house hasn't been trashed completely!!

Conjectures..

Conjectures of what the house will look like inside shape wise.

This is a house in the same area, same year and even the same layout and orientation.


Photos proved interesting as to placement of walls and rooms


Very informative!


The half bath now makes sense to me!





Here what I think the layout will be. Now we wait until we are in the house and we will see just how close I was :)


I really want to get IN there already!!

Lizzie's leg (peg leg Sue)

She's NOT happy about being here :(


And off comes the cast


And now we know why her heel was hurting. Poor Lizzie!! Working on a nice skin ulcer there. BOOOO!!


Now here is the SHOCKING picture. Loss of muscle mass in a matter of five weeks of non use.


Now the GOOD news?

She's out of her cast!!!

Wooohoooo one week more of no weight bearing, then just walking with foot on the ground with crutch. Then three weeks come back and see where we are then.


Progress.

In other news...

Today was cast check! Lizzie had a naked leg for the first time in three weeks!


There is a marked difference in calf size :o/ Her foot is still swollen :o(


And blue in odd spots..where the blood pooled from the bruises. I would have thought four weeks after injury (yes 4 from injury, 3 from cast) it would have reabsorbed. No such luck. And nice snake skin too!


Foot bath before the next cast. Still not released to the boot yet :(
(focus went wonky)


She went for blue this time :)



The old cast in the garbage :) I wasn't in there when they removed it

I had a farm in Africa....

I had a farm House in Africa Florida….

 

So as of approximately 11:20 CST (12:20 EST) on June 25^th, 2014 we had a bought a house.  It looks like this:

Sorry, no full shot of the house without the silly two picture look J but you get the gist, right?

 

Well we sort of bought a house… this is a slippery slope and the more I read, the more I get a little freaked out.  I am vacillating between thrilled and panicked.  I guess that is to be expected.  It’s harder still because it was a cash sale, so ALL of our savings is now dumped into this house, sight unseen and apparently still occupied (lights were on in the house last night – drat it!).  Although most of me KNOWs that the value of the house is a minimum of $15,000 above the assessed value, it’s still a bit scary to have all that money sunk into a very UNKNOWN hole.  L

 

So, here are your foreclosure facts for today:

 

The Foreclosure Sale:

At the foreclosure sale, the property will be:

•sold to the highest third-party bidder, or

•revert to the foreclosing lender and become REO.

The borrower has ten days after the sale to file an objection to the amount of the bid. After ten days, the clerk confirms the sale and issues a certificate of title to the purchaser.

 

Statutory Right of Redemption

Florida Statute 45.0315 allows foreclosed homeowners to redeem their property by paying the final judgment amount prior to the issuance of the Certificate of Sale to the new owner. In other words, once a final judgment amount is entered, the lender may auction the property. It is not until sometime after the sale is complete before the Certificate of Sale is issued. At any time before or after the auction, up until that Certificate of Sale is issued, a foreclosed homeowner can pay the final judgment amount and redeem the property, which voids the auction sale. (I understand the certificate of sale will happened when the money hits the court system and is considered paid in full)

 

Equitable Right of Redemption

If the foreclosed homeowner cannot pay the final judgment amount, there is another way to challenge the property's sale. In a foreclosure proceeding, a Florida court will typically order a foreclosure sale and specify how the sale will occur. Once the property is sold, the foreclosed homeowner has a 10-day equitable right of redemption period to object to the terms of the sale based on violation of the court ordered procedures or because the sale price was a result of bidder collusion or other unfair practice which lead to an artificially low sale price. This right is important because if the property is sold for less than what the foreclosed homeowner owed, then the lender may obtain a deficiency judgment against the foreclosed homeowner.

 

From the occupant’s perspective:

Eviction Following Foreclosure

If you don’t vacate the property following the foreclosure sale, the new owner will likely:

•offer you a cash-for-keys deal (where the new owner offers you money in exchange for you agreeing to move out), or (yeah, NOT going to happen folks)

•evict you.

The eviction process is typically part of the foreclosure action with the right to possession included in the judgment. After the certificate of title is issued, the lender files a motion for a writ of possession. When the motion is granted, the clerk of court issues the writ, which gives you 24 hours to move out, and the sheriff posts it to the property. If you do not leave, the sheriff will make you leave.

 

The good news from OUR perspective, it’s MUCH shorter time frame than the 90 days it could be.. so pray that we can get the folks evicted on/near the 8^th of July.  We have 10 days after the sale – that would put it on 5^th.  As that is a Saturday, it will take until Monday for the writ to be issued, then another day to get the sheriff’s office out to do the eviction… so best case, we’ll have them out on/near the 8^th.  BETTER case would be that they have moved out already and left the house vacant and our folks on the ground will go knock on the door and be able to see that it’s empty and we change the locks right now.  Sigh.  I don’t like the “hurry up and wait mode.”

 

I think we should go down there and be on site that week so we can immediately take stock in what we have to do and start the ball rolling.  What do you vote?

Bonus room revamp

Before. Well, I had already dug in a bit so the chair was opened and stuff shoved onto the bed. You can see the futon on the window wall and the bed in the forefront. That's the key change here.


After. The dresser ended up not needing to be moved too far. The "school" supplies that were in the far corner are now tucked behind the dresser. The bed is moved towards the window and the futon moved to make more of a sitting room upon entering.


I like it a lot better. There are two chairs on either side of the dresser that can be pulled out to game. The kids can also use futon to sit on and hang out while others are playing. I may need to get a coffee table for the girls as well.

It all started with Zillow

For those of you with iPads, smart phones or any type of implement that can load an application, and those of you with a LOVE of dreaming of buying a home somewhere/anywhere in the US; Zillow is dangerous. I mean DANGEROUS!!

I have dreamed and shopped for the last 5 years or more. I have watched the market ebb and flow in Fort Walton Beach, Venice Beach, Mexico Beach and a myriad of other places. I have watched homes go on the market, watch them sell and been SHOCKED at what they sell for when going on auction. Been saddened that I hadn't checked it often enough or fast enough to note that the house behind my MIL went on the market in 2011 and SOLD quickly for a mere $75,000 as we had talked to the owner of the house a few years prior telling them "if you ever want to sell, call us FIRST". Well, apparently the husband passed and the wife didn't remember, didn't think to call over to Sally's house and whala the house sold without our having a chance to so much as bid on it... sigh. So I watched and waited and looked at houses and dreamed of buying an auction home down there.

So what should greet me earlier this week but a note on the house directly behind Sally listed at $100. What??? No, it wasn't a typo, that is the starting bid on the property. I talk to Butch about it, show him and encourage him to go down there on the auction date and stand on the court house steps and put his best bid in like you see on TV in the house flipping shows. He agrees and the research begins.

First shocker is that auctions are longer on the court house steps; well, at least not in this county. It's all on line.
Second shocker is that banks will not give you short term secured loans. Really - nope, won't do it.

So the process has begun, a lawyer has been contacted and paid to do a title check on the house to make sure there are no liens we don't know about. That should be done by Monday/Tuesday and the auction is on Wednesday.

This should be an exciting process - wish us luck!

The little notebook that could

Cleaning drawers at the office and look what I found:









Why the little notebook that "could"? This was my constant companion for about three years from 2002 to 2006ish. It was my PC support lifeline. There was a time I would panic if I didn't have it (ask Frankie about that) it had all the "keys to the kingdom" at the time. This year is the year met it's end :( I'll miss that notebook.

Cerused furniture

It started with a blog post:
http://www.addicted2decorating.com/cerused-oak-dining-table-table-makeover-finished.html

AND a road side chair:





I forgot to take the true before picture with the top off looking like a snaggle tooth because the spindles were split about 1/3 of the way down from the top and the center piece was laying on the ground. Sigh. I tried to see what it would look like without the center piece. Yeah, it looked terrible so when I glued it all back together the center piece stayed.

And I waited and ordering started because I needed some liming wax.

I didn't take pictures if the chair after paint and stain. But it was impressive then.





And even more so now with the wax buffer out :)

Goodwill finds this evening

On a whim I stopped at Goodwill tonight and found some folding chairs like these:

very nice for $8.99 each for a seat of 2
I also found a cute poppies painting... I have at thing for RED and a thing for poppies from our time in Italy.  That and sunflowers, but my red fetish has me always going to the poppy pictures in stores.  This one is a Kirtland one that was originally $80 for $20.  Can't beat that... and I love the theme :)

Summer

While reviewing this years calendar for summer, I noticed something - there really is NO summer for Angela this year.  She was out of school on the 22nd of May.  In reality she got out a few days early due to exempting finals (GREAT work on her part to be over 90% in all her classes!!).  Her color guard practices started on the 5th of June - what's weird is this didn't even give her the first two weeks of summer off!  In the past they have had guard all summer, however they have had two full weeks OFF of school to get things done, to have some fun and play. 

 

I had planned on sending the girls to Florida for a week during those two weeks off and wouldn't you know it the VERY first week of summer Lizzie broke her foot.  No, really - school for Angela got out on the 22nd; Liz broke her foot on the 27th. 

 

Sigh... not even 5 full days after summer officially began.  Let me tell you, this ruined some plans for me too!  She was to be my driver this summer to make sure the little ones got to and from color guard camp during the week and cleaning of the house.  Surprise!!!

 

Needless to say summer is flying by already and it's just begun!  Right now it's full of appointments for kids and such.  Liz for foot issues and revisits to make sure everything is healing just right.  Angela for Color Guard camp and trekking her from point A to point B.  Butch and I are in charge of Tuesdays - Butch takes them TO the school and I go get them at noon and take them home.  Today is the first Tuesday (they started last Thursday)... we'll see how much this impacts my day having to go all the way home and back to work in less than an hour if I'm lucky!  OH and grabbing food on the fly as well.

 

On to MORE summer updates... pictures to follow when I get a few (I'm updating via email that I take DAYS to compose!).

Beds.  Angela has had her daybed for a few years now and it was purchased from the local "junk" store - love that store, but not revealing where it is to keep it "my" little treasure trove to DIG through... :)  Anyway, it was a steal from there.  I want to say it was $40 total for the whole thing, trundle and all - $20 each piece.  It needed some love even then.  It was missing a few of the springs (I got the replacements from Lowes) and needed to be updated a bit (it had gold accents).  So, I dragged it home, painted it all white and she has loved it ... a LOT.  It's taken her growing and growing and pushing on the bars and breaking the bars in her sleep ;)  So... after many a mend with white tape (used for her color guard or we wouldn't have known it existed) it's time for it to go away...   I don't think it's salvageable without some serious welding at some of the joins and honestly - not worth it even if I paid $40 for each piece.  It has lived its life and given it's all for a few children, I'm sure!

 

So what is she going to sleep on now, you ask?  She wanted to take the futon from upstairs to her room.  I was in agreement until I really thought about it.  I LIKE having two beds upstairs for when company comes.  I like having two beds up there when the girls have sleepovers.  Lets face it I like having two beds up there and having a futon and a bed is just ideal in that the girls can go upstairs to play games and watch TV with friends and make all the noise they want during a sleep over and NOT disturb us.  Bonus!!  So, no, that futon had to stay upstairs and we took a trip to Wal-Mart last night to see what futons they had available.   They had a gray one to match her room colors and a plan was hatched and futon purchased.

 

The good thing is that they are packaged in such a way that the box is rather "square" and fit perfectly into the back of the pilot!  It was meant to be! 

 

THEN I went to Target... BAD Donna, BAD!  I have been looking at a different solution for the foot of my bed as my little "puff" boxes are getting really ratty looking where the pleather is peeling off from being well loved and used over the years.  I have been looking at a bench with cubbies for a while and made the choice last night to purchase it at 30% off... I wasn't willing to chance it not being there at 50% off.

  

 

Well, this poses a problem as I have two kids and the entire back of the car is FULL... hum... so I have to pull my seat forward to get the TOP of the long bench box into the car, then into the foot part of the seat next to Liz, then move the seat back again.... while holding the box a bit higher in the car.  Sigh.  It worked, it all fit and life was good and we went home with a CAR full of goodies!! 

 

 

OH and the last thing I purchased was wall paper... why wall paper?  What for?  Well, the back of my china hutch.  I had been looking for the perfect accent to put on the back wall of the unit and I FOUND it.  It's perfect.

I’m IN LOVE!!!!

So now I will push forward with the hutch remake and get it on the move.  I have the “glass” taken out now and it’s sitting waiting for the next move.  This was the clincher.  It will be white with this lovely yellow wall paper on the backboard… I’m excited!