DebSP - nice to see you posting, so very sorry about your grandchild. I think you're right about misery, sometimes it's just nice to know that the people we share common ground with, also experience similar issues from time to time.
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DebSP - nice to see you posting, so very sorry about your grandchild. I think you're right about misery, sometimes it's just nice to know that the people we share common ground with, also experience similar issues from time to time.
Hello Deb, im so sorry about your grandchild. I'm glad things are turning around for and I hope you continue to feel better. Please do check in when you can,
DebS, thanks for checking in, it is good to hear from you. I'm very sorry to read about your grandchild and I totally agree on being able to share with people who have common ground/experiences. It's important.
On a completely unrelated topic, we've broken 2,000,000 views on this thread :cool:
My condolences on the loss of your grandchild. I know nothing anyone "says" can make it all go away, but just posting here helps sometimes. Sounds like you are doing all of the right things to get your body back to where you want it. Physical activity, any kind, is really one of the best things you can do for yourself when faced with emotional things.
So, the people "loved" our house. We went to the grocery store during the showing, and DH was driving me nuts watching the feed from our security camera... it just shows if there's any movement in our driveway. So we knew how long they were there (half hour) and we saw them having a lengthy conversation with their agent. We have an audio feed, but we could only get snippets. We saw kids running around, while the parents were talking. Oak, one of the little boys was trying to touch the creepy owl!
Later on, we had feedback from our agent. They loved the house, they are coming back today during the open house, and, they are a somewhat different family than the typical group around here. Five kids (:eek:), all home schooled. They said the house would be tight for them, but doable. I have always believed that whoever buys this house will be slightly different (what does that say about me?). Hopefully, we'll have an offer soon.
Hope they're the magic buyers, Crankin, having a house on the market is just zero fun.
I finally did it yesterday, I got to go into the ocean!!!! My wife is not a water person and the waves scare her, but I still need help with stability so the most I've been able to do is go ankle deep. We had a friend visiting for the weekend and she loves to water so she helped me go out chest deep and we had a ball in the waves, it was so freeing!
Crankin, good luck, it sounds hopeful!
Yayy Pax, that sounds like fun! I can certainly understand your wife's perspective (I am not really a water person myself), but glad you found someone to help you with that :D
Ocean sounds good, Pax!
Meh, the people did not come back today, but I haven't written them off yet. I must say, it does seem like the world has changed in the past 10 years... I think people are watching too much HGTV! We've realized that our decision making process is quite different than others. Once it's made, we don't dally.
Had a nice, albeit cold, ride over to the condo today. Hard to believe that last Sunday, i was riding in short sleeves. Thinking about toughing it out and commuting tomorrow. I don't have to be there until 10:00, so even if it's 35 or so at 9, I'm good. I especially like riding home in the dark, when it's cold. We'll see. I am *finally* feeling better. Eyes still itchy, but less, but my head is not hurting and sinuses have really calmed down. We went out and had a nice dinner with our friends last night, and i was able to enjoy it.
To echo what Catrin said, that's very encouraging about your possible buyers, Crankin. We thought the same when we had our NC house on the market (that the buyers would be a bit "different") and sure enough, we were right. They had three kids (but one was going off to college in the fall), were vegan, and the father of the husband was actually quite well known. If anyone has heard of the China Study, well, the author's son and his family are the ones who bought our house. They were all very attractive, fit, healthy, but just a bit different from anyone we've ever met. And we did actually meet them, oddly. They wanted to ask us some questions about the house and specifically asked our realtor if they could meet us after we had a signed contract. We felt a bit strange about it, but it went fine.
Pax, so glad you got to experience and enjoy the ocean! I love it too so I understand the joy it brought you!
Crankin - I've been saying for years that HGTV is wrecking the home market, everyone thinks they need an open concept floorplan and quartz or granite counters, even first timers who have little money. It's certainly skewing the idea of what a home is supposed to be, not a place to live, but a showplace for entertaining.
Emily - that's cool about your house, I've read the China Study, cool that you've met them.
That's us too. I am sorry they didn't come back, darn it. Hope something just came up, or else they decided they didn't need to go back through since they were ready to make an offer!Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
Glad you're feeling better!
I totally agree. I am amazed by the shows where people with small budgets and buying their first home expect granite, hardwoods, etc. Our first house had carpet, vinyl floors in kitchens and baths, and laminate countertops, and I was THRILLED. I was just so excited to be getting into a house with a yard and garage. Times have changed so much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pax
OTOH, I do appreciate HGTV, as it's really helped me hone in on what I like and don't like, and introduce me to so many places I knew nothing about, especially the international shows. I eat that stuff up, and it's funny, too, since we aren't even homeowners any more and don't really have a home base other than for short-term.
DebSP - I'm so very sorry for the loss of your grandchild. Take good care.
Pax - ocean, yay!
Crankin - I wouldn't read too much into their not coming back, hope you do hear back from them. Fingers crossed.
Fall is here. Brought in my remaining green tomatoes and peppers two days ago ahead of our first frost. It's a beautiful day for running though, even if it's the first time I'd run in sub-freezing temperatures for almost a year.
Well, when I bought my first house, there were no granite counters, stainless, and most hardwood was covered! Even my second house in Tempe, in a very nice neighborhood, had dark wood cabinets, sheet vinyl, and all wall to wall carpets. The home I grew up in, had beautiful hardwood underneath all of the carpets.
My house has all of the bells and whistles. It's not that. It's more like if there is one thing people don't like, they can't see past that, no matter how small. People can't imagine how they might change things. As I carried on about, the house is staged, in that, it's all my own furniture, but a lot less of it than was there. It's pretty easy now to see the bones of the house.
Our agent said it's super slow everywhere, even at good price points. Our house is at the lower end of the mid price range in my town. The average price here is about 1.2 million and we're nicely below that! The fact that people come and look, who are downsizing is crazy. It's all on line, so when they say it's too big, or too many stairs, they could have seen that and not wasted anyone's time.
Yep, I'm sure it's just the market. From what you've said about your house in this post and others, I am sure it's gorgeous. But you can't please everyone, and when there is a limited pool of buyers, it's even more difficult. Still crossing fingers for you!Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
You nailed it, people seem to know so little about how things are done they cannot understand changes are completely doable. When we toured our place down here both Mary and the realtor were just not sure about it, but I could see (contractors daughter with hundreds of hours working jobsites with dad) all the little things that were wrong were easy fixes. Since the 50 other people who toured the place over the previous six months couldn't see that, we got a screaming deal on the place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
Ha, it was the opposite when we bought our house, there were lots of things we planned to change, but once we bought the place and got the contractors in, turned out the changes we wanted were at least cost-prohibitive if not downright impossible. None of them was a deal-breaker, thankfully, and we're still glad we bought the place and satisfied with the price, but it isn't what we envisioned. I guess the lesson is, get a general contractor to take a look before signing the contract, if it's a major deal.
Oak, that made me laugh. I remember sitting in on new client meetings with my dad, and him trying to very patiently explain that the client could not have what they wanted... no interior walls (well, we need a couple to hold the roof up) or a four car garage (on a 70x140 lot) or a full on commercial commercial kitchen (with a $5000 budget).
It's easy to see how HGTV and similar TV shows, raises unrealistic /expensive expectations on home buying.
I seriously wonder how easily I could have sold my condo nearly 14 yrs. ago. Thankfully the buyer had some ideas with her realtor son to change the place..
First of the exams down. Too danged many more to go. Didn't do as well as I wanted (right on the class average), but that's good enough (and well above passing - I keep reminding myself it's pass fail). We're doing hematology. I am fairly confident I could diagnose someone with B12 deficiency or Iron Deficiency. Otherwise - uh - glad I have a lot more years of training and they aren't setting me loose on patients now.
Fun fact: If you're vegan you probably better supplement B12. According to what we're taught you cannot get it from plant sources (I know there *are* some vegan sources - but from what we were taught they aren't reliable). You store several years (up to 10) worth of it, so you have a while to figure it out. :) In true med school fashion, I have diagnosed myself with B12 deficiency, folate deficiency, and iron deficiency in the last 2 weeks. I have none of these - but you start seeing all the things that can go wrong and think you have had them go wrong.
Blueberry - did the same thing with the DSM-IV, diagnosed myself and everyone I knew. :p
I’ve only seen a couple of hgtv shows. It’s called entertainment programming for a reason though. Thinking normal first time home buyers looking at low end track houses in the suburbs wouldn’t bring them many viewers.....and besides sometimes it is observing the ridiculous that helps to keep us grounded.Quote:
Originally Posted by shootingstar
I did like an hgtv episode of a show i saw about a woman that does rehabs on older homes. She did deconstruction rather than demolition and recycled, resold and re-purposed items. Plus I kinda crushed on her a little…..
Architect Sarah Susanka and her "Not So Big House" series of books and articles is to me is a good guide on getting a home that while neither too small or a McMansion gives someone a well built, well designed and energy efficient house that functions well with todays lifestyles. Quality construction over quantity.
housing prices here are expensive but i've also gained around 250k+ in value since i bought 5 years ago because of the desirability of living in this area, the high incomes here and the quality build of my building. All things i considered important before buying.
Oh yes, all for entertainment value. The daughter of one of my friends in AZ moved to Hong Kong. She applied to be on House Hunters International when choosing an apartment. She made the cut, but after finding out the deception that is involved, decided to pass on it.
Pax, you nailed it. My DH can do just about any house related thing, including painting, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, and landscaping. And, if it's beyond his comfort level, he knows what has to be done, even if someone else is doing it. This says something for having your kids experience a trade type job before graduating from college. He learned this all in summer jobs. On the other hand, no one in my family had any sense of this. My mom was good at this stuff, but of course, it was not popular for woman to "fix" things in the 50s and 60s. My dad was as useless as I am in repair! I guess what I am saying, is that when you have generations of people who have no idea of what it takes to get things the way you want, your expectations are unrealistic. I like a lot of HGTV renno shows, as opposed to the house hunter ones. Then I laugh at the ones where you can buy a house like mine, for, oh, about 200K.
I stopped diagnosing myself about a year before I started my grad program :). But, I spent a lot of time diagnosing various relatives and friends in my head... a bit easier when you can infer it from behavior and history and not a blood test!
Ha, me too! Former psych grad student here, although it was the DSM-3 back in my day. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Pax
LOL... sounds like Rehab Addict or possibly Fixer Upper. Both excellent shows, and I like the way they recycle, repurpose, and end up with a very eclectic, warm house with lots of personality, not cookie-cutter or sterile in the least.Quote:
Originally Posted by rebeccaC
YES Nicole Curtis and rehab addict !!!!!!!!!!!! ThanksQuote:
Originally Posted by emily_in_nc
Thanks everyone for your kind words and thoughts. As I said this forum has helped to remind me that lots of people are going through lots of stuff. I just had to post because I saw that you were talking about the forum slowing down and I wanted to let you all know that all your post appreciated. :)
We're on to the DSM V. I rushed to take my licensing exam quickly after I graduated, so I didn't have to learn it right after learning IV. It went official on10/1, except now we have to use the ICD 10 codes.
I would hate to have to learn all new codes. My agency was so in the dark ages we still wrote case notes by hand (I left in 2007), so having codes memorized made the process much quicker.
At least DSM-IIIR and IV codes were the same as ICD-9 codes, is it the same with DSM-V and ICD-10?
No, DSM 5 codes are like the 4 codes, but some disorders have different criteria. However, the ICD 10 codes are right in the DSM. We can type our notes, but electronic records are coming very soon. Meh. One more thing to learn! I still write my notes, but everything else like assessments and tx plans on the computer.
Seems to be that these people are working with bad realtors. The one I worked with when I bought my condo readily pointed out things that could be changed easily.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
Good luck with the rest of your exams, Blueberry.
Well, we've only had one "showing," where the people came with a realtor. The others all came to see the house at Open Houses. But, I think you may be right.
Good luck with your exams, Blueberry.
I am really sore this morning, after my first Tabatta class at new (old) gym. Good thing was, I didn't embarrass myself. Only thing I couldn't do was throw and catch a 14 lb. weighted ball (huge) against the wall at the same time as jumping up. She gave me a 4 lb. ball, but I was just too uncoordinated to catch it! However, I could do it with a regular, unweighted ball. Lots of choices and equipment, and not as much peer pressure to not modify. Didn't particularly like a warm up of running several laps around the gym, but thankfully, I had warmed up on TM, walking. I will need to do this for a longer time period, though.
OMG the Mets are National League champs!!!
I'm stunned!! (In a good way.)
I was a huge baseball fan when I was younger, kinda lost touch with it but still always go to a game when I'm in NY visiting family during the summer. This year we happened to be there during a pivotal point in the season. This month I'm way over my text message limit thanks to group texts with family members during the playoff games, but it's not like this sort of thing happens often!
Yeah, that happened to me in 2004, when the Red Sox won. Now, I am m back to not caring.
I am so happy with the gym switch. I went to a circuit training class this morning. I loved it, other than the fact it's hard to remember what all of the names of the movements at each station really are. The coach told me I have perfect form, blah, blah. He kept showing showing me modifications in the beginning, but he stopped, when he realized I could do the stuff. But, this is what I love. Everyone is encouraged to do the exercises at their own level. At my old gym, I felt intense peer pressure to get up to the level of the others, right away, when I hadn't really done classes like this before. Plus, a lot of the people in the class are people I know from when I was a member here before. I stayed so long talking, after class, that I ran into nasty traffic on the way home. Well, that won't be an issue, when I move, as it's like half a mile.
Another house showing tomorrow!
NY, my DH is a big Mets fan, so we've been watching the games (well, he watches, I am online in the same room and get to hear his commentary). Congrats!
Crankin, glad the gym is going so well. I do miss going to a gym but not enough to join one here since I have plenty of other fitness activities, and the affordable gym is not air-conditioned. There's a more expensive gym that caters to tourists that does have A/C, but it's a lot longer walk, and with the price, not worth it to me.
Good luck with the showing...I wonder what happened with the people that were so interested? Did you ever get any feedback from your agent?
We never got any feedback, other than they loved it.
But, bad news yesterday. Our septic system failed the test. I was glad I didn't get home until 7, as I had an appt. at the hair salon. DH was calmed down by then. This is bad and may impact when we move. We have to get it fixed, can't sell the house without the certificate, and now the Board of Health will be involved, a lovely group of morons. But, as we said, it's only money. We have the money, although we hate having to use it for this. No one is dying or in jail. The reason it may impact when we move, is the fact the ground will be freezing soon and possibly covered with snow, so we are not sure if the work can be done quickly enough. Generally, when this happens, and you have an offer, you reach some kind of deal with the buyer, so it's not a total take the house off of the market now thing. Our realtor said we will still have the showing. Now we have to choose someone to do the work.
DS called yesterday, about the results of his blood work. Apparently, he is a carrier for xi factor, an autosomal recessive blood disorder, that is extremely common in Ashkenazi Jews in the US (1/8). It's called a mild form of hemophilia, in that you don't spontaneously bleed, but you can have issues after surgery. DH and I don't which one of us is the carrier (or both), but we obviously don't have the actual disease, as I did not bleed to death after childbirth or dental surgery. He did tell me that they have already had their fertility tested, in terms of sperm and eggs and that was fine, so now it's back to the doctor to figure out what is going on.
OK, DH just texted me and said we're pulling the listing after today. He's talked to engineers and the fix isn't anything unusual, but we can't get it done in a timely manner, with winter coming. So... we will still move when all of our rennos are done (December?), start the work on the septic system as early as we can, in March, and then re-list the house, in the spring, when, it will sell!
Ugh Crankin, that's so frustrating.
Emily, I don't remember where you are, are you in the path of the storm? Be safe!
Big excitement on our road last night, deputies busted a meth lab. All the neighbors have been pretty sure for a while now that that's what's been going on there, and the general shenanigans coming from that house was part of the reason why the people who lived very nearby moved out. I'm sure the new owners are glad that it's (hopefully) been shut down, but can you imagine buying a house, and then two weeks later, the hill is crawling with cops and hazmat crew?
Good lord, what a pain in the ***, Crankin. So sorry you're dealing with this.
Interesting about your son, I'm a "bleeder" and never knew why, then the retina specialist found out I'm an ocular albino and bleeding issues are common in people with the albinism gene. Really hope I never have heart issues, they slap everyone on blood thinners and that would be very unpleasant.
So frustrating on the house! Been there with the major house issues (had to do a ton of foundation work on the last house we sold). Not a lot of fun. Will you not move into the condo until the house is sold?Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
Interesting on the hemophilia. Oddly enough, that's part of what we have been learning this week. It's also called Hemophilia C, and if you have to have one of the 3, it's the mildest. It's also very variable in its expressivity - so some people who have it will have almost no symptoms. Maybe more gum bleeds with flossing - that sort of thing.
Glad you're keeping it all in perspective.
Yeah, Pax, we know DH would only be a carrier, after 10 years of being on Plavix, he would have bled to death if he had the actual disease! He stopped taking it before his clavicle surgery, and never went back, with the OK of his doctor. And, I also don't have any of the issues listed. I really hope they don't have to go down the IVF route, as nothing is showing up yet.
We are being realistic about the house. Most likely, we would not get an offer this fall, so it's not like we haven't already expected to move before it's sold. We just hate spending our investments for retirement to fix the septic. They do have a special loan program for people in this situation, but, we really don't want to have debt. We know we are lucky to have access to funds to pay for this, but it sucks when you are this close to retirement. DH's bonus will cover it, and we can re-invest some $ in February. A few years ago, DH would be beside himself now, but he's learned some things from me about mindfulness!
Blueberry, we will move before we sell. We had planned for that, anyway. The rennos are going on schedule, but poor DH is having to be there, like a foreman, since we are using Lowe's for the major stuff. When we remodeled this house, we had a person from the place doing this.
Emily, I was thinking about you, when I saw the weather, this morning. I know you are not on the west coast of Mexico, but I hope the storm doesn't take any unexpected turns toward you.
I bagged my ride today. It's 48 and extremely windy. Had my down jacket on when I went shopping. The sun is only half out, too. Thinking maybe I'm the one who is nuts, since I saw people riding in shorts and, a runner in a sleeveless top and shorts. I know you get hotter running, but, in no way is this a sleeveless/shorts day. I don't mind the temperature, but the wind really bothers me. We were supposed to do a metric Sunday, but it is going to rain in the AM. It's on the south shore, a new area to ride in, but I am not going to travel 1+ hr. to ride in the rain. We'll do at least 50 miles tomorrow, and hopefully get something in Sunday afternoon.