The Gate Story.

Our gate story began back not long after we moved in to our new house. We wanted to put two sets of gates across our driveway (it's in the shape of a U) along with fencing to tie it all together. Interviewed a number of contractors, chose one in the middle, after checking out his references. We signed a contract, agreed on a start date and provided funds so he could purchase the gates themselves. All seemed well and on track. And yet, we ended up caught up in a bit of a scam. This caused a lot of embarrassment (how could we fall for this?) and anxiety (we are out over $5,000) but for the guy who did this to us, we were not willing to deal with the embarrassment and the anxiety for the rest of our life. We kept in contact, put things in to place and finally, the week after we got back from our holiday, he was able to actually pay us back, in full and some extra for our stress. A bad situation solved. The only downside is now I will forever and ever, from this time on, have a very hard time trusting future contractors. Not fair to the real guys but we'll do our best to regain our trust in time. Our deck contractor, who's done quite a bit of work for us over the years with both our new house and our old house, now our rental, is able to do a gate install and we've loved his work, so we'll start with signing him on for this big job. I'm looking forward to eventually having our home secured and beautiful gates to greet us at the end of the day. P.S. The gate above is not ours but a rendition of what we hope ours will look like in the future. Wish us luck .... our hearts need it!

Falling Behind.

One of my hopes for 2014 was to write daily in my blog, even if it's just a small snippet of daily life here in our little house in the big woods. I started quite nicely, creating a total of 7 blog posts in 6 short days. And then life happened!

My parents bought a beautiful time share back in 1993, which they used all the time and even gifted us several trips that we were so grateful to receive. When you have a house full of small children and a frugal budget, the opportunity to get away is heavenly! But in time, she stopped traveling and we found our own peace of heaven to visit, so it wasn't getting used as much. Then the company had some issues, ended up in court and had to sell, so all the terms changed and the fees went up drastically, beyond my mom's retirement budget. She tried to see her unit but it wouldn't sell as all the owners were trying to get out at the same time. Then the owners offered a buy out with a huge fee attached. My mom fussed for months without telling us her  dilemma, which was keep paying the ridiculous fees or accept the buyout. She talked with her lawyer and then made the decision, even though it meant her meager savings would be down to nil. Finally, in a moment of desperation, she contacted me, as she needed both my brother and I to sign off on the forms to accept the buyout as well. I went to her house on Friday afternoon, with a bouquet of flowers and some fruity danishes for our tea. We went over the forms and immediately I knew something was out of place. I called the company and discovered that the amount my mom thought she had to pay was actually not what she needed to send to end this mess. I confirmed the correct amount with the rep, then called back again, talked to a second individual who confirmed the details that the first shared with us. Got off the phone, showed my mom the correct figure and she burst in to tears. Such a worry she's carried and now she can sign off this burden without draining her entire savings account. We now have an agreement in place that any financial decisions that cause her to worry she needs to contact me so that I can make sure she's not being taken advantage of. The scary part of all this is if she had not confided in me and just sent the funds, they would have kept the amount instead of letting her know it was too much. Crooks! But now all is well and tomorrow, the documents go in the mail. Done. Fini! Yeah!!

Now we can get back to life again and stop worrying. One less thing for her to pay for each year and I'm hoping she'll consider taking the amount she was setting aside for this payment and put it in to her savings each month. Build it back up and take a trip when she's ready to again.