The Hunt is Closer

And the great house hunt is here!

Or it should be here... This is a qued post because I know my bank and my stress levels. My little sister will be getting married (and I'm the maid who is horrified of honor) that involved several trips to the city. A wonderful stomach flu that has a slow recovery. And did I mention that I don't trust my bank?

Yes, I will follow up with what actually happens, with out all the internal screaming that I know will be happening.

What should be happening is that The Bank will contact me that it's time to take the class! One that is supposed to teach you how to budget a house or something like that. Kinda in the vein of how having automatic transfers to a special account is supposed to mimic mortgage payments.

I don't know how many times the class meets or anything else that would be useful.

I do know that I don't feel that I have enough money saved up for the closing costs. I have an 'destash sale' planned to try an get closer to that goal. Unfortunately the wedding ate a lot more into my budget then I expected.

Once that class (or series of classes) is done? then I have to start house hunting.

That means I actually have to re-evaluate my need list. I plan on making a few 'need' lists so I can have options. I realize how strange that sounds, its more of if I sacrifice this, then these other things have to be there.

For example:
I will go with a one story house if it means I get a crap ton of land and a fishing stream. If it has a gas connection? I might sign then and there.

This is a harder method and I will be flipping through notes all the time... But it will keep me on track. Unlike my bank.

I really don't want to deal with the bank. I just want this done and over so I can start gardening.

The art of second hand

Once upon a time I thougt about selling second hand finds online. It didn't work out so I made a lot of donations. I also ended up finding a lot of neat and useful to me stuff.

I have all the dishes I could possibly want and Could probably go a month with out having to reuse the same dish. Yes I am going to weed stuff out. I have a lot of china but I also have a lot of chipped and 'other' things.

Most of the plates and glasses I got for $0.10 each.

After all that I can't really get myself to spend money of new store bought stuff unless there is either a real need or it fills a set. That doesn't mean I don't by knickknacks, but my impulse is a little bit more controllable out-side of a garage sale.

I will point out that I have been collecting things from garage sales since I was little.

Most of my very early finds were glasses, the odd one that would catch my attention. Next was canld holders, the weirder the better. Over ten years ago I found two large glass bowls while garage sale-ing with my aunt. It took almost ten years to find two more in my home state. These are one of the best finds (and I might have a custody battle with my parents for them).

This isn't to say I am not missing things that I wouldn't mind having. I just happen to have the majority of the basics, plus a few (of a ton) of fun stuff.

Pest Controle

This might be less pest control and more vengeance.

We get Japanese beetles out here. Beautiful but they decimate the garden. I have gone around with a jar of lightly soapy water and knocked the suckers into it. Then dumped that into a larger jug that I forgot on the deck in the summer sun & heat. My mom was not happy with this method.

I think this year I want to try shop vac-ing the suckers.

I can already predict my dad covering his face with his hands. My mom will probably start saying no. I think I can convince them with the satisfying sound the bugs will make as they ricochet into the dust collector.

I also have the fact that my mom used a similar method to take care of a ladybug infestation about twenty years ago.

I am almost looking forward to trying this.

Sun light and spot lights

I know this is the 80's & 90's talking, but I want to have some spot lights on my land. Fortunately I can get cheep solar lights these days. As I think about it, the led lights will probably cost more then that actual light fixture.

This is assuming that there is a feature that I want to be able to see at night. Like a nice gnarly tree. Maybe even a few angled just right to light up a porch table for an outside dinner or game night. Ooooh! A bug wall would be nice for science!

I wonder if it would help to deter deer?

Now that is an interesting idea. At the very least I would be able to spot them and chase them if needed. And by 'chase' I mean use an air zooka thing. I'll have to ask my friends if an air zooka would work...

Back to lights, I have always loved the look of a properly angled light shining into the branches of a tree. It almost has a spooky feel while keeping the worst of the shadows at bay.

Yeah, I am totally putting solar spotlights.

Hydroponics experiment

So there isn't a lot I can experiment with before I have my own house. My orchid in water is doing really good. The blossoms fell more from me smacking the crap out of it while cleaning then environment. A plus.

My new experiment? Mini Hydroponics.

I have gold fish and since they are little poop machines, I figured there wouldn't be too much harm in having a natural filter to help lower the nitrogen and nitrates in the water. I want a planted tank... But a few trips and they decided that the plants were tastier then the feeding cubes. Nosy little things.

I just now put a small rooted cutting of a philodendron. One of the common varieties. Not sure which as long ago it was in a flower basket that was gifted to my grandmothers wake. It is insanely hardy and stubborn.

The little cutting will be joined by a bulb of some kind. Probably a generic one that you find in the little glass things that arn't supposed to get very big. I will also get to learn how to deal with bulbs over the winter. Yeay?

On the real plus side, if I can get this to work, stepping it up to a real pond system shouldn't be too much worse.

A Rose to eat the house

I am... So very looking forward to a rooted rose cutting I might be able to buy. I just need to wait a month and a half or so until they grow roots.

I'm not worried at all because the person selling them is awesome!

Soon... XD

*EDIT*
Once I get the rose I will post more about what variety it might be and such. I just don't want to bombard the people with the roses just yet. Thank you.

Internet and a House in gods country

So... I use the internet. A lot. Not just for this blog but for fun and to sell art. It is a thing that i need to have access to. This is another not-so-small problem with my house hunt.

Because i want a good deal of land, i have no idea if the area would have cable or better internet. This might actually make or break a house. This is a need.

The only exception would be the perfect house on the perfect land that was way under budget. That would be the only reason i would happily go without internet. So i will probably have to make sacrifices on house, location, size or price.

To think i just found a site that made it look like i had more options then i knew. I don't think any of them mentioned internet. One or two had tvs on so they might have cable because i hadn't seen any satilight dishes.

This... This is a pain.