Our troublesome shed, too busy, Victoria’s house

When I got home yesterday Grandpa and Mama were working on the metal shed but it did not look like they had made much progress. I worked on something for Grandma real quickly and went out to see how they were doing. It was not good. They were taking apart the gable end on the front for the third time. For some reason it was not fitting properly; surprising as that is.

They had the gable end on the back of the shed still up but it was going to come down also.  One of the roof beams – if you can call it that – was being supported by a 2x4 so that it did not fold at the connection. Neither of them was terribly complimentary of either the engineering or the materials of the building. But they have come too far to turn back. At least if we do need to move the building at some future date it will have the structure to be relocated; thanks to Grandpa.

Meanwhile, Mama is getting desperate. The weather is supposed to turn for the worse Thursday afternoon with significant rain predicted by Saturday morning. Right now we are sunny with the highs in the high 70s. By Thursday morning we are supposed to sink into the 30s with wind and high temperatures in the 40s and 50s. I am sure the chickens will survive, but Mama is less than enthusiastic about the turn of events.

If we had not been in such a hurry to leave the farm we would not be having this little issue; but that was not my decision. We have made the choice and now we must deal with it as best we can. We still have one chicken and the lone guinea still at the farm in Bowie as well as the large cage Mama starts her chicks in. We need to go get those sooner rather than later, but I am not sure when that will be.

When I look at our schedule it is busier than I ever thought it would be. We are definitely not settling into the “empty nest” lifestyle. I think we are as busy now as when we had all seven children at home. Maybe, we just like being busy.

We are at church Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and all day Sunday. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 7 pm I call a halt to activities and we sit down to study for the class we are talking Monday evenings. If I get the few minutes to practice either the guitar or violin before we break to do our homework  I get that done because Grandma and Grandpa are usually in bed by 7:30 pm. Perhaps as the evenings start to lengthen they will go to bed later but that is not the case for now.

Victoria only gets to study with me and Mama on Saturday evenings and every now and then on a weekday evening. She is looking for a different job but is in no hurry to leave what she has. For the moment she needs to stay at the pharmacy because it will help her get the loan she is trying to get for the little house.

That does not seem to be going very well. The bank is very hesitant to loan money on the house since it is not habitable and the land value without the house included in the appraisal is not worth the asking price. We are at the point of needing an appraisal to see if it is even a strong possibility to make the deal.

If the heir will adjust his price downward to reflect the appraisal value we will be in less of a bind but at the current asking price, we are going to have to come up with a lot of money to cover the 20% we are required to put down and whatever the price difference is – past the 80% from the bank (based on the appraisal) and the 20% we put down to cover our portion of the appraised value. If the appraisal is $16500, we will need to put $3300. That is 20%. But if the asking price is still $29900 we will have to make up the difference - $13400.

I am less than certain that we are willing to cover that amount.