What Happened with Animal Control?

 Someone pointed out to me that I never shared what all happened with animal control... at the time, there was a reason for that (and since then, well, I guess I forgot).

My court date was scheduled for August 20th, which was a Thursday.   I called animal control (AC) the Friday prior to that, knowing that Sue (my favorite ACO ever) would be out of the office and would call me back Monday.  Which she did, and scheduled her visit to come out to my house Tuesday.  This visit was so that she could verify that all the animals were, in fact, gone, and that I was no longer running a business out of the house.

What helped tremendously was that that Monday was the day that the house was scheduled to have pictures taken for it's listing.  So, myself, Nikki, and Mike killed it on Sunday patching, painting, cleaning, staging, and organizing everything.  Monday, myself and Brad washed all the floors and walls and removed the last couple of things prior to pictures being taken.

...and then Tuesday, Sue showed up.  I already had the McColly "for sale" sign in the yard, and actually, at that point, already had an offer on the house (without it even being listed yet).  So Sue and another ACO came over, verified that I have no animals (I currently have a hamster and Kailey) and said yep, looks like the business is gone.  

At that point, I had also already put in an offer on a house.  If I remember right, the inspection was scheduled, but not yet completed, and I wasn't ready to share with the world that there even WAS a potential house, before I knew that it would stand up to inspection.  But, Sue asked if I knew where I was moving, and I shared the info that I had put in an offer on a house and it had been accepted.  I talked to Sue some more and she said to try to get to court early so maybe we could get this settled without having to go into the courtroom.  Check, would do.

The next day, Wednesday, myself and Brad are at my house, weeding and doing outside clean-up, in preparation for the showings later that day, when I get a call from animal control.  Sue's calling to tell me that if I give them the address of where I am moving to, that will verify that I'm moving out of the area, and the prosecuting attorney will agree to drop the case.  Address given, all that gone and done with.

...which, as someone has since brought up, proves that they really didn't care that much about a monetary fine or anything like that, but what they really cared about was just getting rid of me.  How nice.

... that said, I'm not complaining about there not being a fine.  So anyway, that's what happened with AC.

Where's the New House?

So... since my last post, I've been inundated with emails / phone calls / texts of people asking, where is the new house?  What does it look like??  Is it on land???  Is there a barn???  Is it unincorporated?????

Well... I'm good at jinxing things.  That's why most of this info has not yet been shared, and will not be shared until after closing.  Which is still a ways away.  Patience is a virtue.  Not one that I have, mind you, but I recommend trying it out 😁😆😂

What I will tell you is this....  the new place is still technically in northwest Indiana (at least, I consider it to be).  It is less than 3 miles off two major roads / highways, so it is easy access for all of the out-of-towners.  AND it unincorporated.  YAYYYYYYY!!!

It does need some work to be done, both minor things inside the house, and more importantly, in the barn.  Yes, there is a barn.  

...and that is all I will say.

Newest Update for You All

Since you've all been waiting patiently, I thought I would share with you all that we are moving forward with moving.

We have found a house, made an offer, and had that offer accepted...

AND

we have listed the Hammond house, had multiple offers, and accepted one of those offers.

...and now we wait.

After these offers were accepted, next thing was the home inspections.  One was done on both the house I am purchasing and the house I own.  My realtor and I provided the homeowners with a list of things that we wanted repaired, and I was provided with a list of things that the to-be-Hammond-homeowners wanted repaired in my Hammond house.

Most things for the Hammond house are minor --

(1) the plug in the garage should be changed over to a GCFI plug -- Mike (boyfriend) will do this

(2) the garage door will be repaired (it was off it's track at the time of inspection) -- a garage door company has already come and repaired this

(3) low water pressure issues throughout the house would be evaluated by a licensed plumber and repaired -- as I write this, the plumbers are cleaning up after having been here for about 7 hours, re-plumbing the entire damn house with copper lines

(4) gutters need cleaned -- Brad (worker) will do this, as soon as I borrow a ladder 

(5) furnace will be cleaned / have a maintenance check -- furnace company came and did this last week

Other than the plumbing job which is costing a small fortune, the other repairs aren't a big deal.  I asked for a bit more major stuff for the home I am buying, such as repairing / replacing a (possibly non-working) furnace (there are two furnaces and two AC's for the house, due to there being an addition), having an electrician come out and fix all the non-grounded outlets in the home (which was most of them), and having the well shocked to eliminate the bacteria.  Thankfully, the person who owns that home has agreed to make all the necessary repairs.  Yay.

So, at this point... we wait.  I am working on the repairs on my end -- the garage door was done last week, the furnace was done a few days later, the plumber was here the same day as the furnace guy to get an estimate... and today they were here working on the plumbing.  When the plumbing is wrapped up, all that will be left to do here in Hammond (as far as repairs) will be the GCFI outlet and cleaning the gutters.

Well... sort of.  Let's note, the plumbers were here due to low flow issues on two pipes.  One pipe, yes, did have low flow issues.  The other area... they said the faucet is bad, and that's why there's low flow.  Maybe I can get Mike to throw a new faucet on that sink for me.

I would also like to accomplish some minor yard work, cleaning up the backyard, and of course, I still need to remove everything from the house.  There's not a LOT here, but there's stuff that I can't be without until the very end... so that stuff will wait, and in the meantime, Brad and I are still churning out orders, and making runs to the storage unit, to stash stuff away.

I have (at least temporarily) removed my drill press from Ohio to a friend's shed in Portage, so I can still make those (clearly) beloved hammock shelves that I can't seem to keep in stock, and I'm looking to get a chop saw in the near future, which will probably also be in Portage until I'm able to get into the new place.  My friend Colette, who helps sew hammocks / tube covers / hanging houses / etc... she just shipped me a box of hammocks along with some tube overs and hanging houses... those will be listed soon, as soon as I grab some tubes out of storage, to put the covers on.  So... until closing, business is more or less as usual here.  It's awfully quiet, without all the people coming and going, and it's weird seeing the house so empty... but good things are on the way.