Monday, July 02, 2007

We went a-visiting...

I spent this afternoon out driving with my mother in law. We went to take her sister home, who had gone up to the cottage with her last week. After we dropped her off, in a small town about 20 minutes or so from us, we went the the next little town and visited her other sister for an hour or so. When we got there, we noticed they had a "For Sale" sign on their front lawn, so she filled us in on their news of listing their house for sale. They've decided it's time to down-size. Their house is one of those nice old and big two story brick homes that was built around the start of the last century. They have a walk up attic space too, so it really could be a three story. They've lived there for years and years, and she was saying when they first bought the house, she was so worried that they wouldn't be able to make ends meet with having a 25 year mortgage for $19,000!! Oh my God! You can't even buy a car for that now! Well, a new one anyway! But then again, we're talking about 40 years ago when they first bought this house.

So their realtor has their house listed at $289,900! Not a bad return on that $19,000 investment, huh? But here's the kicker... they're planning on buying a condo now. Not a new luxury condo or anything, but just a nice place for the two of them. I think she said it was eight years old. The price tag on that is $177,900, and they'll have to pay condo fees too. So there goes most of that almost three hundred grand profit they'll make on their house. But her and her husband are looking forward to moving and having less work to do around the house. Makes me wonder what our own house is worth, and what it will be worth when the time comes that we decide to sell it.

After we left there, we stopped in at my sister in law's house, who lives in this same small town. We had a short visit with her, and checked out all the ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) she's been getting in the mail through swaps. She belongs to some craft swap site online, and has got these cool cards from all over the world. Some of them are really pretty and very detailed. And then some are pretty plain and simple. I think I may join in on these swaps come this fall. I wouldn't mind making a few of them myself, but I'm too busy right now to think about doing anything until after the summer.

Then we came back home, and I was dreaming about dinner all the way, hoping that my husband had the BBQ warming up to grill our steaks we are having. We get back home only to find out that my husband isn't home. He's got the bag of charcoal sitting outside, but he's nowhere to be found. If he doesn't get home soon, I'm going to start that BBQ and eat myself! I'm starving!

Olivia

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