Meet our new neighbors.
After we moved into our new home at 1816 Seminole Drive - we put our old home at Seminole up for sale. I did not want to hire a realtor - I am home all the time and enjoy a challenge.
It started back in 2004 when we bought the place because it was 3 doors from the George and Joel Dawson and it had a pool. Lulu was convinced if she did not buy a home with a pool - I would never build one. Not only did I buy a home with a pool - I installed a new one. So Lulu was happy. We then went into a 10 year improvement binge - new guest house - new workshop - new pool - new floors - new roof - new windows - new kitchens and baths. We closed in the carport to make a garage - had the whole place landscaped - and put in new driveways - did I miss anything? We thought it was our home for the duration - so we spent way too much.
When we bought an extra house down the street - visions of building from a clean sheet of paper filled our dreams. Lulu was happy where she was but she was game to design the inside of the the home. My job was to shape the outside - you can tell that from the plain box I chose. We expected all sorts of arguments - but in the end - without one argument - our builder Gary Shiver turned our dreams into reality. Bill Richardson put our ideas on paper - our secret weapon.
Then we waited for the offers to pour in. One day I got an email from a Jennifer in England. She said she loved the web page and house. She wanted to buy it. It reminded me of getting one of those emails from a Prince in Nigeria. I blew her off with - you must see the place before you buy it.
The next day I got a phone call from Joe in Vienna VA. He called to say he wanted to buy the house. He had just had surgery and could not travel. I also told him that he should see it before he buys it. He called back a couple times later - Then one time during one of the filibuster phone calls - he said he would wire me $10,000 cash to hold the house for 60 days. I was about to turn him down - when Lulu held up a sign that said - "sell him the house!" Lulu put her foot down once before like this for a motor home - and it worked out. I took his deposit. I check my Wells Fargo bank account and the money was there - bam. I called the bank to make sure the money was secure. I could not believe what happened.
We set a closing day of August 4th. We filled out papers - the closing day came - we expected to have to go to some office. I checked the bank account - like magic - the balance appeared there. Since we did not have to pay realtors.
So the buyers owned a home in Florida - they never saw the home - they never had visited Tallahassee - and some of them were never in Florida. I had to make sure they were not in some witness protection program.
The buyers lived most of their life in Baton Rouge. Joe owned a machine shop. Diane was a school and business administrator. Jennifer and Simon Barrass lived in Middleborough England.
On August 9th - my Mom's and Keith's birthday - we welcomed the new owners to their new home. We put a skeleton set of furniture in the house so they could live there while their stuff arrives from Washington and England. The British container will not be here until December.
The buyers love their new home. They believe they are in a tropical paradise. They have made some major improvements already.
Last night Lulu welcomed them with a party to introduce the neighbors. Lulu made all of the food with a little help from Lindy's Chicken. It was also the first time we had the neighbors in for a party to inspect our new house.
During the party - Manny insisted on buying our Prius. As much as I have rules about selling sight unseen or to friends - those rules are broken when his wife Mia backed him up even after the champagne wore off. So our Prius will continue to prowl up and down Seminole Drive passing our old house - I hope the car does not automatically turn into the wrong garage. We are inbred on Seminole Drive.
Clockwise - Mia Shargel - Fred D - Carol D - Joe K - Lulu - George D - Manny S - Joel D - Diane K - gas fireplace in background.
Clockwise - Lulu - George - Manny - Joel - Diane - Mia - Fred - Carol - Joe - backyard in backgorund.
This reminds me of the big table - and the kiddie table. Lulu's kitchen hosted the party.
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