Home again, listing the farm, repairs

Now that my trip to Houston is over I can get back into the groove of routine – more or less. I did get to spend a few hours with Grandma and Grandpa Kline while I was in the area. I stopped on the way down to Houston and again on the way back. On the way down we visited for several hours but in the way back we only had an hour or so to visit; mostly over breakfast.

Mama is in a tizzy right now. We are scheduled to meet with a realtor this morning. He is going to list the farm for us so we have spent a fair amount of time getting the apartment and mobile home ready for pictures. Hopefully the farm will be showing on the regular realty web sites early next week. The only problem with the realtor we are listing the farm with is that he is out of Denton so it is a haul for him to show the farm. The reason we chose to give him first shot is that farm sales are something he specializes in. Not many realtors work in that nitch market.

We, Mama and I, are still both wrestling with the sale of the farm. Both of us see the need to be closer to the church, but neither of us wants to let go of the farm. Part of the angst is that we have not found anything else to take the place of the farm in all the searches Mama and Victoria have made.

Mama, Victoria and I looked at a property on Tuesday morning before I left for Houston. The property was fantastic. The home on the property was horrible – and the price was more than we can realistically afford. The time spent was not entirely wasted because the realtor we met impressed Mama enough that we will consider her first when we look at a property in Decatur.

I am perhaps more resolved to the financial constraints we will face in the purchase of another property than either Mama or Victoria so yesterday I asked that they would limit their searches to properties under the amount we can afford so we do not agonize over those that we cannot afford. Both agreed to the restriction so we should be getting closer to finding a suitable property.

Mama’s little chickens are about two thirds grown now. They are getting to the point where we can think about letting them mingle with the older portion of the flock. Since we gave away the rooster and five hens, that integration may actually go more smoothly than if the rooster was present. I am no chicken whisperer but the theory will be tested soon enough.

The insurance adjuster called yesterday to tell us that a check would be coming to us for the maximum amount we are allowed in such cases -10% of the insurance coverage on the mobile home or $3950. It will more than complete the needed repairs but it was a wakeup call to me to increase our coverage since it is far too little to cover the loss since we have built the shop and apartment.

When all the dust settles on this we will have to talk to our insurance agent and get that coverage adjusted.