The House Across the Street

 As I age and time takes it toll on my body and spirit, I have come to realize most things in life are bittersweet. Being a resourceful and eternal optimist I take the bad with the good and push on.

This year the elderly gentleman across the street from us passed away during the Thanksgiving holiday. He was well into his 90's and had recently fell and broke his hip, making himself immobile. When we returned from Portland we were surprised to see huge donation trucks emptying the entire house. A few days later a for sale sign mounted in the yard.

This sparked some enthusiasm for Brent.

He told his family about the house in hopes to get some of them over here.

Unfortunately the house is too small for his brother's needs, but it was perfect for his parents.

I was hesitant to encourage them moving over here. After all, Brent's mother has ONLY lived in SW Portland/Tigard area her whole life...this is quite a change. In addition his father's health is fading and I am not sure if switching medical is the wisest idea.

However, the town is small and navigable.

It is wonderfully dry here, with distinct seasons.

In addition we are right there, across the street.

I love small towns.

I love driving around here surrounded by farms and wildlife.

I love having the mountains and rivers so close.

I love the snow in the winter and the scorching summers...

Still, it is not for everyone.

With painful detail and exaggerated vocabulary I painted a picture of our small town for his parents. I wanted them to make the most informed decision possible. 

His parents gave us the green light to go check out the place and tell them whether it was worth their time or not.

Brent and I scheduled an appointment with OUR realtor who handled the buying of our house, she was more than happy to come show us the place.

It does seem perfect for two people at the point in their life where they are thinning out their belongings and downsizing. 

The house is roughly 900 sqft, 2bdrms, 1 bth with a single car garage, car port, and work/storage shed. It is on .17 acres...and RIGHT across the street from us (if I failed to mention that already).

After the initial viewing we had several lengthy conversations with his parents and expressed all of our opinions. I posted ALL the pictures and videos I took of the place for them to see.

They decided they wanted to make an offer.

Their offer was accepted and promptly an inspection was scheduled.

Brent decided to sacrifice our (what could have been) wonderful New Years plans, to drive his parents out here and do an inspection.

It was very time consuming...but very thorough.

After the inspection we were able to  move forward with the confidence that there was nothing major going on with the house.

Having the in-laws in town also let us give them a nice little tour of Prineville.

We showed them where the Senior Center was.

The Veterans Club, churches, visitors center, library, all the stores, etc...

While they were in town it decided to get VERY cold (-10). 

I tried to explain to them that it does get cold here, but not usually in the negatives. We do hang right around freezing in the winter (with the freak almost 60 degree days here and there).

There was also snow on the ground that fell while they were driving here.

It was nice for them to get a little piece of winter here. We also saw about 5-6 deer eating right off the road, which is a common sight here.

Kay was tickled at all of the things we have here. And although she was here before, I feel she was picturing an old western scene complete with posts to tie your horses on. I explained it will be a lot closer to visit Jay when he is at his property. There are a lot of awesome things about Central Oregon.

Again, we'd love for all of our family to move closer.

Even if it happens one by one. 

They are building a new hospital, so I am hoping I can get Carleen out here. She has come close before, she loves Bend.

Jennifer, likes the city too much. I think she is a lifer.

My Dad really likes it here, so who knows...

 

So here we sit.

Fingers crossed.

We get more information tomorrow (Monday) about the appraiser timetable and other things. So far the close date would be February 6th (Kay's bday).

We'll see. 

A lot can happen when purchasing a home.

_______________________________________

These pictures were from our FIRST visit inside. 

All the excess stuff is emptied out now.

Here was a picture showing the RAMP right at the front door, so it is already accessible for walkers and wheelchairs.

Living Room

Dining Area

 All of the appliances stay with the home too.

So the stove, washer and dryer, microwave, air conditioner...all stay.

Kitchen

Chandelier and coffee curtains

Brent looking into the garage, right off the kitchen.

Inside the garage. Well pump, washer & dryer, water heater

Some cabinets and shelving with water pump housing.

* all this is cleared out now, but this is the single car garage. We talked about building into an actual room.

The double sink and kitchen window, a feature Kay loves.

from the dining/kitchen area looking out the front window

ceiling fans are very nice here.

I really like the front door. It is really pretty carved wood

Stove, and some funky wallpaper (that of course Kay liked)

The bathroom had one of those arched shower curtains, and it had the railing already installed on the wall and in the bathtub. It was really sturdy too. I did some hanging on em' to make sure

One of the bedrooms

The other bedroom...which is now cleared out

* Oh yea, they left the drapes but Kay loves them too. To each their own :)

I was excited to show them that the cabinets in the kitchen had pull out shelving.

Looking out of front window at ramp (and our house in the background)

 When they came to Prineville for the inspection we finally drove up to the lookout point. We had never been up here. It was actually pretty cool. There were picnic tables up here and stuff...

It had snowed though, so we did not stay long. 

You can see the Ochoco mountain range from up here.

This was nice too, because they could see the ENTIRE town.

The golf course was covered in snow

Because George loves pancakes, I did different variations of pancakes each morning they were here, except the last morning when I made oatmeal.

Here are the sleepy boys sitting with their grandparents...

It was nice having them out and letting the boys play games and watch movies with them.

George was telling them that he doesn't really feel like he knows any of his grandchildren and would like to actually feel like he has a relationship with at least some of them.

Mitchel and Brayden were pretty receptive to this and made sure to take some special time to listen to some of his stories and tell some of their own.

Again, I stress family terribly and it does pay off.

There are a lot of details that still need to be planned/thought of regarding the move. I of course would never make decisions like his parents without having some rock solid, crazy detailed plans, BUT...

I kind of get obsessed when I transition things. I kind of over plan and get a little psycho about things. Plus I like things "just-so" and it rocks my world to have unknowns.

Knowing this controlling nature I tried to curb some of my questions, like:

"are you packed?"

"which moving company are you using?"

"what ALL are you thinking of bringing?"

I just know I am in the middle of a crazy term and will NOT be much help to them at all.

I tried to explicitly relay that, but I have a feeling this move will be pretty stressful on me.

Hahaha.