Is it time to settle down and buy a house?

After living in the motor home for almost nine years, we've started feeling like it was important to spend more time with our children and grandchildren. Is it time to settle down and buy a house? We have enjoyed staying at our children's houses, and they have always made us feel very welcome. We have also stayed in the motor home at campgrounds near their homes for longer stays. But all the campgrounds around Kansas City are about a 45-minute drive from where our grandchildren live. That convinced us that if we bought property we wanted it to be closer to all this cuteness.

We started looking for property in the Kansas City area about a year ago. We envisioned an acreage a few miles out of town where we could put in a RV site with electric, water, and sewer hookups for the motor home. We could use those utilities in the future to build a house on that acreage. But we soon found that nice plots of land had already been snatched up by developers paying huge prices. We also learned that any plots within city limits had ordinances against parking an RV on them. 

So we moved on to Plan B. That would be to look for a nice house outside of city limits where we could park our motor home beside it. We drove the back roads encircling Lenexa and other towns in the area. We found out that a brand new battery manufacturing plant was being built nearby, and they were gearing up to employ thousands of people. The housing market was going crazy! We didn't find anything we liked that we could afford in the country.

We went to a few open houses and the parade of homes last spring. We got to know the area, as well as the housing market. We walked neighborhoods and met some really friendly people that made us feel welcome. When we found a house and a neighborhood that we really liked, we found that houses sell fast. Within hours of coming on the market, the sellers might have five offers over the asking price, and some of them were cash offers. This was going to be more competitive and harder than we thought!

We left for our summer travels, knowing that we couldn't do anything while we were on the road. But we got daily updates on houses coming onto the market through the zillow app. We really hoped that the perfect house didn't show up on those listings, because we were too far away to do anything about it. 

After months of following the area housing market, we came to a better understanding of what we really wanted. At our age, we thought it was important to have all of our living areas on one level. While stairs are no problem for us now, we planned to live in this house for the long haul. Our son has a large house that is great for big family gatherings, so we wanted a small house. That should be cheaper to buy and cheaper to heat and cool. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms would be plenty for us. Since we have almost no furniture, that would also mean less furniture to have to buy to fill it up. We made a list of all the things we would have to buy immediately: a refrigerator, washer and dryer, living room furniture, dining table and chairs, beds . . . Making all those purchases right away sounded very expensive and very intimidating. We also preferred that this house be less than ten miles away from our son's house, and hopefully on an easy-to-drive route. We preferred a  neighborhood with big trees, but we also wanted a house that was less than 25 years old. We have learned that almost all new housing in this area is multi-level, and most have a basement. We preferred an unfinished basement that would give us good storage and a place for our grandchildren to play.

Once we arrived in the Kansas City area to baby sit, we started looking in earnest. We started by looking at five houses that filled some of our wish list items, but ruled them all out upon further inspection. We found that autumn was a slower time for home purchases, and fewer people put their houses on the market in the fall. We were keeping track of all the new listings, but found nothing. . . until . . .

We saw a brand new zillow listing that was "for sale by owner." Even though we were baby-sitting, we took Eli with us to see the house for the first time. That's him, standing at the end of the driveway with the "for sale" sign in the front yard.

We situated him in the living room with some plastic dinosaurs to play with, and we took a few pictures of the inside of the house.

It checked a lot of our boxes. It was small--with three bedroom and two bathrooms. The kitchen and dining area and living room were all connected in an open floorplan. All the living areas were on one level.

Down the steps was a full unfinished walk-out basement. That was the exact combination we preferred.

For people (like us a year ago) that aren't familiar with the Kansas City-preferred housing style, this is what the back side of a house with a walk-out basement looks like. This city was built on rolling hills, and houses have sprouted up on the sides of those hills with sloping yards.

The house was built in 2009, so it checked the box for being within our preferred age. It's at the top of a nice cul-de-sac that doesn't get much traffic. The best part was that the front door was just 2.4 miles away from our son's house, down an easy-to-drive street. We were feeling pretty hopeful.

The house was owned by an older couple, who had purchased it new. They both passed away in the last 18 months, and their daughter decided to avoid realtor fees because she would rather sell it herself. She planned to have an estate sale to get rid of all the furnishings. But because we own almost nothing, we decided to make an offer "as is." The good news was that the family had left a lot of things that we would need to set up housekeeping in a sticks and bricks house again. The house would come with a refrigerator, washer, and dryer. It also had a dining room table and chairs, a love seat, recliners, some end tables, etc. That would make our list of things that had to be purchased right away a lot shorter. The bad news was that we wouldn't need a lot of the things that were left in this messy basement and garage. The kitchen and bed rooms also had lots of boxes and cabinets still filled with the couple's lifetime accumulations.

There were a few things that the family would still be taking--like those ladders that we really could use. But the rest of the stuff would take a lot of time and effort to sort through, and getting rid of the things we wouldn't keep would be a pain.

We had a building inspection, and found only a few things that needed to be fixed. The situation was complicated by the fact that we were baby-sitting. We had a schedule to keep that included school drop offs and pickups, and Eli's afternoon nap schedule. We were the busiest we had been since our own children were 5 and 2. What a time to be seriously looking at a house!?! We bathed the purchase decision in prayer and had some sleepless nights pondering our future and how this house might be a part of that. Is it time to settle down and buy a house?

Grandbaby time!

After a week in the panhandle of Oklahoma with our mothers, we drove Denisa's mother to Oklahoma City for another doctor appointment. Then it was on to Kansas City, for some grandbaby time! For those that aren't familiar with our family, that would include our kindergartener named Carter, that loves making things. For the picture below, she fashioned a whole wardrobe of kingly accessories that Grand-dude was modeling.

Our other grandbaby is 2-year-old Eli, who loves playing cars, pretending that he's a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur, and rolling around in the grass.

We arrived on Labor Day weekend, where we met the family for one last summer weekend at the lake. We were hosted by our daughter-in-law's parents, who have always been so gracious to include us.

When we went out on their boat for the last sunset cruise of the summer, Eli was more interested in reading books with Grand-dude than watching the clouds turn to shades of pink.

Then we headed to our son and daughter-in-law's home in the suburbs west of Kansas City to catch up on more grandbaby time.

This was a long-standing grandparenting time that we had planned our summer travels around. We were here to keep the two children while our son and daughter-in-law went on vacation. They had planned a trip to Switzerland in the spring of 2020, but Covid cancelled it. So three years later they were finally getting to go to that destination. While we were scheduled to keep one grandchild in 2020, now we get two grandchildren for the 2023 trip! 

Carter had a birthday party invitation while her parents were away. So Gram went to the party with her, and visited at the party with all the young mothers that were half her age. Denisa found that parties are much fancier than the ones that we hosted 30 years ago. They had a bouncy house, a pinata that opened up when all the children pulled their attached ribbons, and a professional face painter. Parents (and one old grandmother) were encouraged to get their faces painted too. So Denisa got her first-ever face paint job.

Our youngest son came to help on the weekend, and both children adore Uncle Blake. He was there to walk them to a soccer game on a beautiful Saturday.

Carter enjoyed spring soccer so much that she wanted to play again in the fall.

Carter had one day off of school, so we took advantage of that to take her to the Kansas City Zoo.

Now that we are out of the mountains, we will have to use zoo animals for our wildlife pictures of the day. This lioness was napping right by the viewing window.

We arrived just in time for the chimpanzee feeding time, so they were close as well.

But Carter's favorite interactive animal exhibit was the large sting ray pool. Visitors were encouraged to put hands into the water, and let the rays glide right by.

We also love the carousel ride at the zoo. You might notice that Denisa has new jewelry for her trip to the zoo. Carter made earrings and a matching necklace that spells out "Carter Love Gram." It's a prized addition to Denisa's limited jewelry stash.

It was a fun opportunity to spend all day just with Carter while Eli was at pre-school. Now that she's started all-day school, we recognize that time with her is getting more precious. We ended a successful day at the zoo with snow cones.

We had more time with Eli, and he also got a solo trip to the zoo on a day that Carter was in school. Yes, we rode the carousel three times in a row just because he wanted to ride the zebra, the tiger, and the ladybug.

With their season passes, the whole family has gone to the zoo many times. But today's trip was special because the new aquarium just opened this week.

This popular attraction requires a timed reservation to keep the indoor exhibits from getting too crowded. They did a first-rate job of making interesting and beautiful displays that you can see up close.

Eli loves reading books about sharks, so we knew that he would enjoy the aquarium. 

We also went to the Lenexa Fire Department open house. The twelve days that Mom and Dad were gone just flew by!

We took many more pictures, but we didn't want to completely overload a travel blog with all of them. After a successful summer of traveling through Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado, it's nice to be back in Kansas for some grandbaby time!

A Week of Oklahoma Country Fun

 

After a faster-than-planned departure from our summer travels, we settled in for a week of Oklahoma country family time. Mark's mother got out of the hospital the day after we arrived, so Mark escorted her home. Denisa's mother had an appointment with a specialist to have a basal cell carcinoma removed from her eye lid, so Denisa and her sisters escorted her to Garden City, Kansas. Between doctors' visits, the Beaver County Fair was also in full swing. On the day that Mark's mother got out of the hospital, she was back at the fairgrounds to see her great grandson (and our great nephew) and his wife perform at the fair.

Mark's mother was also at the parade the next morning. This year the Beaver County fair was combined with the the annual Cow Chip Festival that usually takes place in the spring. For those that don't know, a cow chip is dried cow poop, and Beaver hosts the "World Cow Chip Throwing Championship." The parade had to include the town statue of the beaver holding a cow chip. We had a family friend bring his children to visit, and their young daughter asked, "What's with the statue of the squirrel eating a cookie?" 

You've got to love a parade that includes a ten-foot-fly-covered-cow-chip zooming down Main Street, throwing candy to the parade watchers.

After the parade we went to a shooting competition hosted by our nephew, in which several more relatives participated. This wasn't exactly a good spectator sport with the action happening far from where we were parked. But it was interesting to see how they organized a competition.

Denisa's mother was recuperating from her eye procedure, and she announced that she was ready to go to church on Sunday morning. So Denisa took her to church, where we learned that the pianist had called in sick that morning. After they announced that we would be singing a cappella that morning, Denisa whispered to the preacher that she could play. Denisa probably should have checked to see what hymns were planned, because she ended up sight-reading all the songs at the Beaver Methodist Church that morning. Then the preacher asked her to play for the nursing home services that afternoon!

While we stayed with our mothers, our motor home was parked at the ranch. The resident guineas and their babies were patrolling the parking area.

Several of these big-body-small-headed guineas had been missing, and they assumed that they had fallen prey to a bobcat. But they showed back up a couple weeks ago, leading these babies they had hatched.

Speaking of babies, it is calving season on the ranch. This little guy was born prematurely, so he's in the corral near the barn for some extra care. 

The main care is actually for the mother cow. This baby was too small and wasn't strong enough to suck properly. So he needed some guidance, and the cow had to be milked because her teats were too full. Life on the ranch is never boring.

The panhandle has been blessed with good moisture this summer. While we normally see a few sunflowers that grow waist-high, the rains have caused them to grow to monumental heights this year. They were twice as tall as Denisa!

Those rains have also brought green grass in the pasture. After having to sell off much of the cow herd during the drought, it's time to buy cows to replace them. We were there to help push a few cows through the shoot to welcome them to Cap-o-Ranch.

So that's a wrap-up of the week we spent in the Oklahoma panhandle. We were here to check on our mothers and help them. But as you can see, this was a happening place to spend a week enjoying family time and Oklahoma country fun.

Both of our Mothers were at the same Emergency Room on the same day?!?

 We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 23, 2023

After sitting at one spot for close to a month, there were more things than usual to pack up and put away. Denisa enjoyed having her piano out so she could play on the days that we got home early from a day of exploring. When we are hopping around the country with 3- to 7- day stops we never take the time to get the piano set up. Now it was time to put it away once again.

We spent some time in the morning getting the motor home ready to roll again. This would be a normal day of packing up until we got a text from Denisa's Mother. She had a biopsy on her leg a couple weeks ago. This day the wound had reopened and she couldn't get it to stop bleeding, probably because of the blood thinner prescription she takes. She made an ambulance trip to the local hospital, where they got the bleeding under control and bandaged her up. That was an unexpected turn of events to monitor from afar!

It was a very sad day to see our 14,000-foot mountains in our rear view mirror. We have enjoyed this time with cool summer weather and beautiful views all around us. Our drive out of the mountains took us along the Arkansas River.

Highway 50 is a curving road that loses elevation as it winds down the Arkansas River Canyon. Just like we had rafted on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista, we saw rafters further down-stream enjoying this picturesque part of  the river. 

Our month-long stay in one place was nice because we did not have to worry about where we would be camping for a whole month. As we made our plans to leave, we had to call quite a few places to find a campground on our travel path that wasn't full. It reminded us that it was still the summer travel season. 

We were on the road with the motor home heading south, when we got a phone call from Mark's sister. They had taken Mark's mother to the emergency room, and they admitted her to the hospital. So both of our mothers were at the same emergency room on the same day! It was time for us to get back to the Oklahoma panhandle to check on these two special women. They are 93 and 95 years old, and still living on their own.

It was a down-hill drive, as we left our campground at 8,200 feet and drove to Rocky Ford, Colorado at 4,178 feet. While we usually drive less than 100 miles on a moving day, we went 200 miles because we were in a hurry to get back to the panhandle of Oklahoma where we were raised. Our overnight stop in Rocky Ford was at the local fairgrounds. They had just finished the county fair, and they were renovating the regular campground. But they allowed us to stay overnight at a spot with electricity. We thought that the campground sign was interesting. We did register with the local police department as the green sign instructed. Then we happily complied with the white sign. We have no dogs, we will keep our bicycles in their rack, we don't carry a skateboard, and we will gladly not bring any snakes! Why would snakes be on that sign!?!

When the fairgrounds office allowed us to spend the night, they didn't tell us that we would be in the water sprinkler zone. We woke up to water hitting the side of the motor home. So Mark decided to take advantage of the water to do a fast wash. He had to time his brushing to coincide with the revolving sprinkler's spray on the side of the motor home.

Then we realized that this free wash job was from the local water that was leaving hard water spots as it dried. So we had to hand-dry both sides of the motor home. Sometimes free things aren't really free.                                                                                        

This overnight camping allowed us to shop the local produce stands the next morning. Rocky Ford, Colorado, is famous for its summer melons. In the pickup, we visited five different fruit stands along the highway.                                                                                  

Our favorite fruit stand was Knapp's Farm Market. Their cantaloupes were 99 cents per pound. We ended up buying more than 30 pounds, so our 14 melons were just 80 cents per pound. The motor home is doubling as a delivery truck to bring lots of melons to friends and family in Oklahoma.

Watermelons were expensive, so we only bought one $10 melon that was surprisingly small.

It was good to shop around, because we saw rattle snake watermelons as high as $14.99, and cantaloupe for $7.99 each. Of course, you could get a real bargain if you bought two for $16?!?

We also bought a box of Colorado peaches and a dozen ears of corn. Then we left Rocky Ford and headed down the road for the motor home's annual oil change. After doing extensive research, Mark contacted a truck repair place in Lamar, Colorado. He asked them lots of details and gave them all the parts numbers for the filters they would need to do the job. The young man on the phone assured Mark that they would have everything needed, and we made an appointment. When we arrived, they didn't have any record of our appointment, none of the parts were in stock, and they confessed that they had never changed the oil in a motor home. The price we were quoted also went up dramatically. The young man who seemed so competent on the phone was gone. We had planned our route around this service, and we were disappointed to be leaving without this annual chore completed, Bummer! 

We were so mad that we decided to just drive all the way to Oklahoma. We drove right on through Kansas . . .

where we stopped for the last diesel fill-up at just under $4 per gallon.

Normally, we would have spent two weeks driving from Buena Vista, Colorado back to Oklahoma. We would have stopped at several campgrounds and enjoyed some more mountain hikes in Colorado. But instead of two weeks, we made the trip in two days this time. After two much-longer driving days than is usual for us, we were welcomed to Oklahoma through a bug-spattered windshield. 

We arrived in Beaver, Oklahoma, as the sun was setting. We parked the motor home beside Denisa's mother's house. With both of our mothers visiting the same emergency room on the same day, we were in a hurry to check on them.