Day 26

This was the first day we went out with the realtor. We visited 5 properties close to the RV park. All had homes that we liked. However we eliminated three for various reasons. The first was at the top of our price range and had a pool. I looked at the large wooden deck (in need of painting) and decided I'd had enough of deck maintenance in my life. The second was a nice house, but they had been raising horses on it for years. There was a nice barn, two corrals, an exercise ring, and a pasture. Leave that place for someone who can tolerate horses. The third was a house we wouldn't mind living in. Unfortunately, it's 6 miles to the nearest services of any kind and over 10 miles to the nearest grocery store.

Now for the good ones. The first was a house on 10 acres relatively close in. It has a small fish pond, a three pen dog run (with air conditioned dog kennel), a loafing shed (they used to raise alpacas), a bird coop, and excellent perimeter fencing. The house is not so good. Vinyl floors and vinyl counter tops. We figure it would take about $8K to replace the floors with wood. We'd also need to invest $1K or so in an automatic gate. There's also a little road noise even though the house is set back from the road. This house is probably a finalist, but only if they come down in price.

The other house was an amazing bargain. Four years old and 4,000 square feet with a separate partially finished guest house on 4 acres of land for $385K. It was a builder's house and everything in it is first class. We met the owners and talked with them for literally hours. He's 81 and looks to be in his early 60's. He's selling the house because he's about to become the oldest kidney transplant patient in history. The process requires him to go to the San Antonio medical center daily for 1 to 2 years. The drive is about 40 miles each way, fighting traffic both ways. So he's selling the house and moving close to the center. They even want to sell some of the beautiful furniture with the house. I felt like buying it on the spot except for two things. The unfenced lot is long and narrow. For pratical purposes most of the land might as well not exist. The killer though is the property tax. It's over $7K. Damn.

Of course Wednesday is bingo night. We came out good again. Ellen won twice and I won once. Our two session winnings are now up to a whopping $7.