Friday, July 23, 2010

Jumpin' Through the Hoops--July 21, 2010

Woke up at 12:01.  Yes, the afternoon.  Wasn't too thrilled about that.  But I had to pay the penalty for staying up so late last night.  Grr!  So much for having two tests done by noon!  Grabbed a bowl of cereal and headed back to my bed to get started on this Flight Instructor Renewal Course.  And that is what I focused on.  I literally spent much of the day in bed, going through the 100-minute study courses and taking the following quiz.  I was able to knock out the first two early on in the afternoon.  I just lay in my bed and went through the courses.  Pretty dry!  They are fairly long.  Basically, I read 10-20 pages (takes about 30 minutes usually), then have to wait until the 100-minute-mark passes!  Then and only then can I take the quiz.

A PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!  But I have a nice system down now.  Basically, I read the material, then just leave the browser open while I do other things on the internet.  It's really the only way to do it.  100 minutes is just waaaaaaay too long.  I knocked out a third one later in the afternoon around 3:30-ish.  Agh, what a pain it is!  Too much waiting around.

But I was feeling better about the whole thing.  I wanted to knock out half of 'em today.  So I studied for the fourth one but didn't have time to take the quiz before I had to run some errands. So around 5:15, I headed into town to pick up a gift certificate for Mom for her birthday, then grabbed some gas, then picked up a pizza for the party tonight, then headed over to Mom and Dad's house.   I spent the rest of the evening there.

I even took my fourth quiz while there!  So I am officially halfway done!  Woo hoo!!!  Several of us were over for Mom's birthday party...Casey, Boogs, Baby, Jobu, Kristin, Ma, Pa, myself, and then Crazy showed up later.  A good crew.  Nice to have everyone around.

Out of curiosity, I had checked out the house that we have been waiting on for over a year now on the internet before I came.  Sure enough, it was listed for sale!!!  So much for the two companies calling me that I had asked to call me the day it went for sale.  I just KNEW I would have to do it on my own.  So I called up a realtor and asked to see it.  He said tonight would work best, so we set up the time for 7:30!  I was pretty excited!  The asking price was $89,900.  It might be a decent bargain!

So we headed over to the house around 7:30 and walked in.  It's a huge house...1664 square feet.  And it has a decent lay-out.  But as a whole, I was pretty disappointed.  It had just been neglected for too long.  The walls had some cracks from shifting, the carpet would need replaced, and virtually all of the windows would need replaced.  The roof needed replaced and probably the wood underneath the roof.  The back patio area should probably just be pulled off altogether.  And there were just minor things here and there, but it spoke of a pattern of the owner on a grander scale.  A cabinet was missing here, a contraption built there.  It was probably functional for the owner at the time, but it just didn't have much appeal to a buyer.

Agh, I was disappointed!  I mean, seriously, this house COULD look great with $50,000 thrown into it.  But it's probably only worth $120,000 in tip-top condition.  It's just not worth it.  It would actually be a decent house to live in while you did the work (if you could keep motivated!), as you could get a fairly large house for a relatively low price all while having a place to stay.  It's a win-win.  But that is not what I wanted or need.  I am looking for an investment property or a house to flip for profit.  This just didn't meet the ticket.

My realtor says I am spoiled from my house!  ha!  He's probably right.  I had a heck of a bargain there.  It took two years of searching, but she is a gem.  He keeps reminding me of that!  You just have to be patient!  VERY patient!  But with this other house, we WERE!  We had literally waited for over a year!  Oh well.  As the realtor said, a good bargain happens maybe 1% or 10% of the time.  It's pretty rare, especially in this easy-to-sell market in Springfield.  Touche.

We all headed back over to Mom and Dad's house around 8:30 where I enjoyed two bowls of homemade ice cream.  Ended up stayin' over there until about 10:20 or so, but then headed home as I was VERY tired.

Came back home and ended up going to bed around midnight.  Alarm is set for 9:10 A.M.

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