We were in St. George Sunday through Wednesday of last week, so Thursday and Friday were busy catch-up days at our house.
We had found a nice, large home in a 55+ neighborhood in St. George earlier in the week, and we made an offer which was accepted, and we went under contract on the home. Wednesday, before we came back to Salt Lake City, the inspection was done so we would know if the house had any problems. On Thursday, we got the inspection report back, and it was not good. There were a number of expensive problems, including a big problem with the shower drain in the master bathroom. The entire shower and drain would have to be dug up and replaced. We decided to cancel the contract on the house and continue our search.
I received a text from a friend in the same area where the house that we made an offer on was located. She told us that another home in the 55+ area had just gone up for-sale-by-owner. We called the owners and went through the home but decided that the home was just not big enough for our needs. After deciding to cancel the contract on the home with the bad inspection report, we decided to reconsider the for-sale-by-owner home. We contacted the owner who told us that the home would be listed with a realtor early this coming week, so we decided to make one more quick trip to St. George to look carefully at the home before it was listed. The owner offered us a much reduced price if we bought the home before it was listed, so Saturday morning, we drove once again to St. George to look carefully at the home and see if it would work for us. It is a beautiful, well-kept and maintained home, and the current owners were delightful people to show us all the good (and not-so-good) of their home. We are keeping this home in mind and may look at it again if our first choice (see below) doesn't work out.
Since we were going to be in St. George, we decided to look at yet another home in Ivins (a small town near St. George) that just went on the market. This is an aerial picture of beautiful Ivins - which has a populations of under 10,000 - and also a medical college, two resorts and a lot of multi-million-dollar homes. The home we looked at was NOT one of those.
We asked our realtor to show us the home, which I was pretty sure neither Charly or I would like much, but Ivins is a beautiful area right next door to Snow Canyon State Park where we love to hike. You can see the amazing large red rock bluffs and cliffs which are part of the park, only a few blocks behind this home.
In addition, this home is on a large piece of property with no HOA (Homeowners Association) and the monthly dues associated with that. You can see in this drone shot that the property goes back to the wall behind the two sheds at the end of the long driveway. All of this seems confusing but if you guessed that we liked this home best, you would be right! We made an offer, and we are now on pins and needles waiting to see if the owner will accept it so we can go forward and buy this home. We still have a ways to go in our home search/purchase, but we are encouraged that we have been able to find some nice homes in our price range, so if this one doesn't work out, we will keep looking. I'll keep you posted!
Now on to a few other things that happened this weekend. Whenever we drive to Southern Utah, our first "pit stop" point is this Flying J Truck Stop in Nephi, Utah. When we stopped there Saturday morning, to get a couple of snacks and use the facilities, the cashier who rang us up asked me if I was from Bountiful, Utah (a town about 50 miles north where I went to high school). I replied that yes, I was, and she asked me if I remembered her. She had recognized me, and when she told me her name (she obviously looked a little different when I knew her over 48 years ago), I absolutely remembered her. She lived around the corner from me, and we went to high school and church together. It was so fun to see this woman, who I considered a friend so many years ago. I thanked her for speaking up and asking me if I remembered her. Since we stop at this truck stop every time we head down south, I hope that I will see her again from time to time.
While we drove, Charly and I listened to an audiobook, The Slow March of Light, by Heather B. Moore, which is a novel based on the true life experiences of a young U.S. soldier who was captured and imprisoned by the East Germans while he was on assignment for the Army in the early 1960s. It is truly an interesting and inspirational story.
Of course, Sunday was Father's Day and Charly was remembered with calls, texts and gifts. He is a good man and I am blessed to have married and had a family with such a guy.
Sunday evening after dinner, I went for a walk. While it was triple digit hot in St. George, temperatures here in the northern part of Utah were much cooler.
After my walk, I checked out my garden and gave it a little extra water. If you look close, you can see a little green tomato on the vine already! There are more on other plants as well.
Weekend Gratitude:
- Traveling safely to and from St. George.
- Finding some good houses that would work for us.
- Having our children remember Charly on Father's Day.
Looking forward to this coming week:
- We are making another quick road trip to see Josh and take him to dinner on his birthday.
- I have plans to meet up with my long-time blogging friend, Barb of Barb's Blog for lunch. She lives in Idaho, not far from where Josh goes to college.
- I'm getting together with another friend for lunch and shopping later in the week.
That's all for this post. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week!
Until next time,
😊Deb💖
"...be strong and of a good courage;
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:
for the Lord thy God
is with thee whithersoever thou goest."
~ Joshua 1:9
