Well...it has been quite a while since I’ve been logged in here but I thought it may be time to re-engage...of course I’ve been lurking since my last diary and quite enjoy this site still...but most of my posting has been to my own website, “Overqualified and Unemployed” where I recently reached the milestone of 10,000 posts...with being completely retired now, I think it’s time to get back to commenting and writing a diary or two sometimes when I get the urge to wade in. As a little backstory, I haven’t been here much with rehabbing a house for a couple of years for my oldest son that he inherited from his grandparents but that was condemned when the friend that was supposed to be taking care of it ghosted him...so after two years of my hard work, he and his wife planned to move back to GR from NYC and the date was a little surprising, which gave me about 6 months to find and buy a house for me in the middle of the feeding frenzy of 2021...and that was such a disappointing process trying to find a place I could afford and to stay in the GR area...oh, that’s Grand Rapids, Michigan...but, the houses I looked at costing upwards of 150K were so terrible I couldn’t even move into them without months of work that I didn’t have time or money for. On a Friday night in January 2021, a listing came up for a house in Muskegon, a city that I had never considered, and my brother the realtor told me we had to move or we’d lose it so, the listing came up at 8 Friday night, we looked at it at 10am on Saturday, put in the offer by noon, and they accepted it by 5pm. We had spent a grand total of 30 minutes in the house but, after the crap we had looked at, we looked at each other and said “buying it” and started the process. The listing was for 80K, I offered 90 to make sure I’d get it and I did to my great relief. I had lived in an apartment for almost 15 years and really wanted another house so I was overjoyed when I could cash in my last life insurance policy for the down payment and we got the deal done. I have felt so lucky to have my brother and his team working to make this happen and to be able to afford it on SS...it is a nice little 1200 sq ft two bedroom with everything new, windows, doors, roof, furnace and water heater on a double lot...things I didn’t notice until after I bought it...and the best thing is that it is only 4 blocks from Muskegon Lake, and Lake Michigan is only 6 miles away with a bike trail that goes all the way there...and I make the 15 mile round trip out there twice a day….so, I hope to come here more often than I have, although I have just started rebuilding this place and have 3 of 6 rooms done and that takes a lot of work for a house that hadn’t been taken care of for 40 years or so. That’s about it...just wanted to do a re-introduction to the community I visit every day and, even without diaries, feel a part of...can’t start my day without C&J or the APR and I hope I can contribute in the future...who knows?
