Got the news yesterday afternoon…
This is wonderful news, it’s been a good week for Mercury and her babies – but this leaves poor wee Hubble unadopted. Someone needs to come adopt that boy, and fast!
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See part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.
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*The day we looked at all those houses and ended up at the house on Chapman Mountain, there was another house we liked a lot. It was a great size, a good price, and located on a cul-de-sac. Fred had found it on Zillow and hoped that it would be as beautiful in person as it was in pictures. It was – it is – and we liked it a lot. It was move-in ready – not a single thing would need to be done to it, which was appealing since every other house we’d considered (even the one we’d made an offer on) would need extensive painting and removal of carpet – and we loved the colors on the walls. It was big, it was bright, it had a ton of built-ins, and it had a GREAT kitchen. The back yard was fenced in, BUT it was short fence (about 3 feet tall) and would need to either be replaced or would need cat fencing that would stick up over the top. A big plus was that there was no HOA, and the realtor selling it (who lived in the neighborhood) talked to the neighbors about whether they’d object to us replacing the fence. Their feeling was that they liked the fence as it was, but they’d understand if it needed to be replaced.
*Despite the fact that we liked it so much, we were leaning hard toward making an offer on Deep Cove, and I’ll take responsibility for that. In the 21 years I’ve lived here, we’ve lived pretty much in the same general area. We were in an apartment for a couple of years, and when we moved to our first house in 1998, it was a move of 8.4 miles. Our move from the first house to the second in the summer of 2001 was 1.5 miles. Our move from that house to Crooked Acres was a WHOPPING 13.6 miles. I wanted to get back to the Madison area because it’s convenient and I know it, and I cling to the things I know. New things skeer me! Fred really wanted to move to the Southeast Huntsville area because that’s where he grew up, but he was willing to bend. So basically, we were both willing to settle for Deep Cove. And we would have been okay there, I think. But that KITCHEN (she said, like a great big snob).
The house in southeast Huntsville:
Front of the house.
The KITCHEN.
The view from the street in front of the house. Fred’ll be climbing that mountain at some point.
*So we made the offer on the house in Southeast Huntsville, they countered, and we accepted. It happened fast, we both feel really good about it. And Fred will be able to get back to hiking. Before we moved to Crooked Acres, he hiked several times a week, and he’s missed it, but hasn’t wanted to drive 45 minutes to get to the mountain. He also used to walk every morning when we lived in Madison, and he’s missed doing that as well, since the road Crooked Acres is located on is very busy, and the roads off of that road are dark, narrow, and have no sidewalks.
*As of right now (I’m writing this ahead of time, before we closed on the house), we’re good to go. The home inspections went fine, the buyers are committed to buying Crooked Acres, the sellers are committed to selling their house to us. I don’t foresee any glitches; and I feel like this is how things were meant to end up.
*Well, there was one little glitch, but it’s not really a glitch. We were initially slated to close on both houses on December 15th. Once the buyers closed on their house in Virginia, they asked if we’d be willing to close sooner. (We knew that this was something they might be interested in doing, so it didn’t come out of the blue.) So instead of closing on December 15th, we closed on November 30th. Did it all go smoothly? I suspect it did, but I’ll have to let y’all know.
Update: It all went smoothly!
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Questions I am anticipating you have about this whole thing.
*Will you still be fostering? Yes. I was fostering before we moved to Crooked Acres, I’m planning to continue. HOWEVER, I am anticipating that it’ll be at least a few months before we start fostering again. Right now our #1 concern is making sure the permanent residents are acclimated and happy, before we close off that room and install new fosters in it.
*How many foster rooms? One.
*Did you take all the permanent residents with you? Even Khal? Yes. This question confuses me – do we strike you as people who’d move away and leave cats behind to fend for themselves? I mean, there are days I’d sell any of them to the highest bidder, but that never lasts (and no one seems to be bidding anyway. DO I HEAR ONE DOLLAR? ONEDOLLARONEDOLLARONEDOLLAR HOW ABOUT FIFTY CENTS?)
*WHAT did you do with the cats while you were moving? We boarded them at our vet’s office for two days. (Again, I’m writing this ahead of time, so I’m hoping all went well.) I set out the carriers all over the house 10 days ahead of time so we could pack them up with as little trauma as possible. (More about this in tomorrow’s post, if I remember – if I don’t, someone remind me.)
*Why didn’t you tell us this was happening while it was going on? Because I wanted to know the ending before I started telling it. And I say this with love: I wasn’t looking for advice. Also, I don’t think the location of Crooked Acres would be too hard to figure out for anyone who wanted to really look, and I was afraid that announcing the house was up for sale would bring out the lookie loos even more.
*What happened to the chickens and ducks? The chickens (there were 33, I think) went to a farm in Hazel Green (about 45 minutes from Crooked Acres), and the ducks went to a farm in Athens (about 15 minutes from Crooked Acres.) None of them went to freezer camp, you’ll be happy to hear.
Chickens, headed home.
Ducks, headed home.
*Why did you sell Crooked Acres? Because we wanted to be closer to things. Also, we wanted less land and less work – in the summer, Fred spends upward of 5 hours a week mowing the lawn around the house and the back forty, in addition to his regular chores. We loved our time at Crooked Acres, but we’ve been ready to leave it behind for a couple of years now.
*Why why oh WHY are you so intent on letting the cats outside? Cats can be perfectly happy as inside cats, you know! I am fully aware of that, but we have 11 cats and they are accustomed to going outside. I think that with the RIGHT 11 cats, they’d be okay as inside cats, but if Archie, Stefan, and Khal, were not able to go outside, we would have a situation here that I believe the kids call “a shitshow.” Especially Archie, who has a short fuse when it comes to other cats. We are moving into a house where coyotes are regularly spotted, and so we are doing our level best to make sure the cats are confined to the back yard during the day (with cat fencing), and inside the house (or possibly the garage) at night.
*What about the cats that show up at Crooked Acres? Who will take care of them? Honestly? I don’t know. There are animal lovers in this neighborhood, so I’m hoping that one (or several) of them will step up. This may sound cold, but we weren’t ready to stay at Crooked Acres because there’s a possibility that more cats will show up. We have 11 cats. We never WANTED to have 11 cats – which is not to say that we don’t LOVE every one of those goobers, but we have zero desire to increase that number.
Tomorrow: I’ll try to answer any additional questions you may have had, and an update on how the cats are dealing. Also, a tour of the new house (pictures I took when we did the final walk-through the day before we closed.)
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“Who’s gonna guard the well house, lady?!” (Frankie, doing just that.)
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Previously
2016: *”What kind of a name is JUSTIN for a cat?” Fred scoffed yesterday.
2015: She likes to fall bonelessly onto the floor into a floompy pile of floof and roll around ’til you rub her belly.
2014: No entry.
2013: She had important burning questions that she needed to find the answer to, you can see.
2012: “Whar’d it gooooooo?!”
2011: If there’s one thing Chuckles does and does well, it’s make himself at home.
2010: Did I perhaps mention that the Brady Bunch like themselves some sunshine?
2009: I tried to convince Fred that we should go next weekend and take a chicken to have its picture taken with Santa, but he doesn’t seem to be going for that.
2008: No entry.
2007: Tommy & Stinkerbelle.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.