No go!

Well, this last week has been absolutely crazy. Last Friday (July 25th), Tony's cousin Roger passed away in his sleep from a heart attack (47 yrs. old) so because of that it changed our plans for the weekend/week. We were supposed to meet Monica and Aaron at the property on Tues., but instead we had to meet them on Sat. morning. Tony and Aaron went and walked the property a bit. Again, our concern was flooding but nothing had been found out 100%. Well thanks to the wacky neighbor, he sealed our thoughts. He came and started talking to Tony and Aaron and come to find out it does flood-worst was in 85. We don't want to take any chances. He said that it hasn't really bad since then, but it does get pretty high and has washed out the bridge on occasion. Good for us, not good for Monica and Aaron as they just lost their sale. I don't want to spend $$ on flood insurance and then if something does happen spend our time rebuilding whatever is destroyed. The hill looks as if it has been washed out as well. This property sits at the bottom of a hill anyway. So where does the water go?? DOWN DOWN DOWN! I'm sad we didn't get it, but I'm glad at the same time. It will save us a lot of work $$$, and headaches down the road. I called them later that day to tell them we had decided not to buy the land. They were disappointed and I explained to them way. Nothing against them or anything but they really had no idea about the flooding. It had never crossed their minds. I stated that maybe they needed to find out more about it and tell people of they are interested. The impression I got was, 'We're not telling anyone, if they buy it it's their fault not ours." I think they were suckered into buying the land and realized it and now are wanting someone else. There's a reason why it hasn't sold after being on the market for 9+ months. I would want to find out that reason, because 4 acres for 15k is cheap. So, Wed, I got a call saying they had talked and were willing to negotiate the price and pay the 1st year flood insurance. That's nice and all, but are they going to pay when our stuff is destroyed?? Needless to say our answer is still no and it's back to square one!
Sunday, we were to go racing but because we were having to go in Indiana for Roger's funeral we didn't want to spend the $$. We left on Mon. morning for Indiana. We drove 7 1/2 hours to a suburb about 12 miles N. of Indianapolis. We first stopped at this A & Uncle. They were very nice and had an awesome house. I got the approval from them. Never met this side of the family before. His cousin Stephanie came over and we went to eat at Olive Garden. I thought I talked a lot-but she's got me wayyyy beat! We went back to her house to stay. Tues, we went to his cousin Lori's house (sister of Roger) and sat and talked for a few hours. Next, we went to his Aunt's house and met up with Roger's other sister (Theresa) and went to the church to visit with Preacher. This has been really hard on the family as Roger lived with Theresa and her family. Tony has been taking it hard as well. Roger and Tony's dad were very very close and so they spend a lot of time together when Tony was younger. After that, we went to Theresa's house and ate dinner and said and talked and got their approval too. These two sides of the family are sooo totally different. They both like me so that's all that matters. The visitation was Wed. evening and it was very nice. The funeral was Thurs. and it was nice as well. Roger was an avid mountain bike rider and so they had his bikes in the funeral home and had a military service there. He is to be cremated later and his ashes scatter in Mohab Utah. I never met Roger, but from all the stories I've heard and all the pictures I've seen I feel like I've known him forever. I am so grateful that I went with Tony and got to see Roger and hear all of these wonderful things. Heart problems run in the family (the men) and it's not good at all. All of this makes me worry about Tony and I keep pushing him to go get checked out. "I know I know" is the answer I get. I don't want him to be the next! After the service we went to Todd's (Theresa's husband) sisters house for dinner. We left and went to the visitation for Tony's great aunt. She passed away on Sat. We were there for 3 1/2 hours.... UGH! To Tony and I it was boring but for everyone else it was the chance to talk. We left for home Fri. morning stopped in St. Louis to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. YUUUUMMMM!!! We got back home around 5:30. Never so glad to be home! We went to bed very early and slept sooo good. His cousin's house was not comfortable. Beds were hard as well as the couch. I will have some more NEWS to post hopefully by tomorrow as Tony leaves on Monday for work and I have my dress appt. Hope everyone is doing well!

My 2nd job... apparently!

In my last post I talked about the land that Tony and I were interested in. Well apparently, this land has become my 2nd job-except for the fact that I'm not getting paid to do this. Granted Tony doesn't have the time at the moment, his race car is more important. Which I understand since he's just now getting the chance to finish it and race it hopefully Sunday. Beside from that he works during the day and I don't. Because of me not working all of this "other" stuff has fallen into my lap. I will be the 1st to admit that this stuff is not up me alley and I am not good with money or dealing with financial situations very well. I have gotten extremely better, but I wouldn't put myself in charge of anything such as buying land and all the factors that go into. I have been put into this situation and I think I have dealt with it very well. This situation has turned out to be more than what I/we thought. Back to my 2nd job....
I had contacted Monica last week inquiring about the land. I had driven by it a few days earlier and it look pretty decent. Tony and I met up with Monica and Aaron last Saturday and they showed us around a little bit. There are 4 acres and a creek divides the land. About 1 1/2 acres on the front and the rest on the back including a fairly steep hill. The front part was overgrown but not bad, the back had never been cleared. After some discussion Tony and I decided we want to proceed with this further. He wanted to see the legal documents and the map. We met with Monica and Aaron again on Wed evening to look at the documents. They really didn't have a lot that was any help but we looked at the survey report that was done about a year before they bought it. After that, we decided that we needed to go to the property and walk it to see what it was "really" like. Due to Tony's schedule it wouldn't be until next week. I'm not wait to just sit and wait. The last 2-3 days I've spent on the phone with numerous banks trying to find interest rates and what not. Monica's aunt works for a local bank (SMB) and that is where their loan is through for the property now. I contacted her and she gave me the info I needed. She was very helpful since she knew all about it already. I still called around. SMB requires only 20% down, Arvest 35%, and Bank of Amer. 40% down (ouch). If you can afford 40% you might as pay the whole thing! There were some others but nothing to good. Some required you to fill out an app. before they gave you rates. Well, I'm not doing that... if you fill out too many apps it'll hurt your credit score. So.. being that Monica's aunt is already dealing with this anyway I think we'll go with her. I started thinking about the land some more and the creek... wondering about it being on a flood plain. Remember, nothing was stated about this in the survey report. This morning I called SMB and Melinda (the aunt) got out the report to confirm this. I asked if it would have to be surveyed again and she said no but she'd send off what she had to someone and see if they could tell if it was in the flood plain. It would take 48 hrs. I went to the courthouse hoping they could give me some answers. Since there is no physical address due to it being raw land it was hard to find. The map didn't really have anything regarding the flood plains. She sent me to Newton Co Emergency Management. I went there and talked to Gary Roark (his daughter is one of my paras at school). He pulled up the maps... well sort of. The last maps were dated from 1985. HELLO OLD!!! Anyway there was no map showing the land. The property is in Silver Creek but is on the Saginaw border. So the map stops at Saginaw (the land is directly on the other side of the line). That map shows the creek in the flood plain, just not this property. There is no flood plain map for Silver Creek due to the fact that most of Silver Creek is on a hill. Frustrating!!! Based on what we saw, we concluded it's in the flood plain but which zone we don't know. This means flood insurance.. not something I wanted to do. After that my cousin Lindsey and I went to go walk the property as I didn't want to wait anymore. I went to the next door neighbors and asked about the flooding. He said they did have to have flood insurance ($300/yr) and that the property would have to built 20 inches above ground. They haven't had flooding but I don't think they've lived their very long. We walked the front part.. overgrown but not too bad. When it came time for the back part, I gave up. It was all overgrown over me (doesn't take much) and had huge spiders. That part is now left up to Tony!!!! Woohoo.. he has a job now. I wanted to know more about flood insurance so we went to talk to my agent. Again.. no address so didn't really help. He said I would need an elevation sheet and that the surveyor should have it. Again.. nothing about floods in the document. He stated that if we built up from the get-go we would get some discounts as compared to being built low. That's a good thing! Called Monica got the surveyor's # and called. After many phone calls to Monica and the survey place we finally figured out where the property was. The secretary would have the guy who did it call me. A few hrs. later he called me. Apparently, when you get your land surveyed you have to request for a flood plain survey or something to that affect. I didn't know this. The people who had the surveying done before didn't do this. How stupid!!! He said in order to get the elevation sheet it had to be surveyed and marked and that costs $400-$500. OUCH! I guess I'd rather have it done and be safe than sorry. So, I'm spent!!! I didn't think it'd be this hard. I have learned a lot and I think I am doing a darn good job! I am very proud of myself and the job I've done and what I've done to find out all the info. I'm always the ???? person and Tony's the quiet sit back type so I guess it's okay. We want the land, but Tony wants to go walk it. He and Aaron are going to meet next week and go. I'm staying home!!! Spiders?? No thanks! If the flood insurance isn't all that much per yr. that's fine. I don't want to pay an arm and a leg. So my thought is buy the land, sit on it for a while and pay on it. When it comes time to build have it re-surveyed and then go from there. In no way am I ready to build on it now. We have a wedding to pay for and all that comes with that. Lets just say... my money habits will really come into check in the upcoming year!!! I can do it!!!! This is something I really want for us and I know we can do it as long as we think it through and plans things right (not up Tony's alley, planning that is). Next week hopefully Tony will have more time to sit and talk about this. I've put a lot of work into getting all the I think appropriate info. Hopefully my hard work will pay off!!!! Wish us luck!!!!

On another good note.. I went to travel agencies to get info for Hawaii (our honeymoon destination). That's another $$$$$$. I really wish Tony was home to help on this, but I understand where he's coming from as well. Get the car done and then he'll be satisfied. Men and their toys!!! Gotta love em'! I'll post more later.. we have busy weekend ahead!!! Here are some pics of the land!

Clearance and Land

So.. if you read the last blog I posted this is the follow up to it. As you know, I was going to go buy my invitations today because I had 40% off coupons. Now, they were only $34.99 for a box of 40. I didn't need the coupons!!! They were on clearance for $15.00 a box!!!! What a deal is that? Again, some may say I'm cheap. That's fine.. in this case it's fine with me. We got all our invitations for $60 and on top of that I got the thank you notes for $5 a box as well. This came to a total of $80 for all the invitations (with everyone to go with it) and the thank you notes. Who couldn't ask for a better deal???? I am thrilled. What's even ever is I got a call about some land.
My best friend Stephanie had told me that some friends of hers (we all went to school together) had purchased some land a while back. However, due to them having 3 children all in a row they weren't doing anything with it and are wanting to sell it. Perfect!! So Stephanie got in contact with Monica to get the details. So far, this is the best offer we've seen. From what we've ran into is all the land we've looked at we'd have to spend $20-$30 grand for the well. On Monica and Aaron's property it's all Joplin water, elect.. etc. 4 acres for $15,000. It's in a great area and is cleared land (with just overgrown brush). We'd have to drive an extra 5-10 min. to work but for that price and no having to dig a well it's well worth it. Now if I can just talk Tony into it. Everything seems to be looking up!!!! I hope it all works out!!! I have a good feeling about all of this!!!
That's all I know at the moment!!! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted!!!!