Recent Updates from the world of TexasFred
Greetings to my family, friends and fans!
I have been away from the blog world for a while, not that I initially wanted to be, but due to circumstances beyond my control, we were forced to move out of the home were leasing, and had been leasing for 12 years in Rowlett, TX.
The house we were living in had suffered some serious neglect; the owner didn’t want to spend any more money than was absolutely necessary to keep the roof from caving in and when the foundation broke and the left front corner of the house fell about 3.5 inches, he was forced to spend money he claimed he didn’t really have.
Long story short; he had the foundation fixed by the lowest bidder and I think we all know what *The Lowest Bidder* provides.
Then the tornado hit us on Dec. 26th, 2015 and damned near tore the house off of the foundation.
Luckily, all we got in visible damage, was the roof blown off and the fence damaged pretty badly, but since we didn’t own the house the owner was responsible for the repairs and he called his homeowners insurance folks and they came out, assessed the dollar amount for the roof and fence and cut him a check on the spot, I know, I SAW the checks personally.
Sounds good huh? Meh … not so much.
The cheap little bastard calls in some cut-rate roofing company that did the job for a considerable amount less than the estimate and then he put the balance in HIS pocket.
Until the day we moved out the fence was never repaired and the damages on that was just over $600.00 if memory serves me well. Again, money from an insurance check put in HIS pocket.
So, there we sat, in a house that was shaken so badly by the tornado that it was very close to being a hazard, and then the owner tells us that we either BUY the place from him or we move because he is going to sell it.
We didn’t really want to leave Rowlett, it had been our home for 12 years, it was where our friends lived and where we did business, we had put down roots in Rowlett. It was also where I was pretty active in local politics too.
We tried to find us a home to BUY in Rowlett but after the recent tornado it was impossible to find anything decent, anything in a reasonable price range or of adequate square footage.
Home prices went out of sight after the tornado because so many people were displaced and it became a STRONG sellers market.
We gave up on finding something affordable in Rowlett and began a hunt for a home in areas close to Rowlett and/or the DFW area.
Our agent, Rick Sheffield, worked his butt off for us and as luck would have it, my wife found a listing for a NEW home that was just being finished and it sat on a one acre piece of land.
Rick jumped all over it and went to work to aquire it for us.
We fell in love with the house as soon as we saw it but we were afraid of the price the builder might ask, being a NEW home and all, so, we entered negotiations and once everything was said and done we stepped into this beautiful new home, 1,800 square feet, and the land, for $40.00 a month more than we were paying for the lease home, about 1,500 square on a city residential lot.
That payment covers everything; house, land and homeowners, property, contents and liability insurance and the utilities here in Oak Ridge, TX are much cheaper than they were in Rowlett, the water and electric services are both a C0-Op and the difference in utilities more than makes up the $40.00 that we are paying to OWN as opposed to leasing.
So, as wonderful as it all sounds, and we are still ecstatic about the home and land, there was one little *catch*. Isn’t that the way it always goes?
We are out in the country and from the 2nd week of July until Aug. 24th we had NO telephone service because some folks at AT&T are just plain damned dumb.
We got phone installed on the afternoon of the Aug. 24th after making contact with persons at AT&T that spoke English as a 1st language, who were Texans and understood the need for phone service.
We have been waiting a bit longer for AT&T engineers to get the ‘net hooked up, it’ll be DSL as opposed to fiber optics but hey, I had no ‘net until today and smoke signals weren’t an option; we have been under a *burn ban*. LOL
I am back on line and blogging should be back to normal soon and when winter gets here it should be even heavier, but for now I have an acre to mow and a NEW HOME to maintain, but I’m certainly not complaining.
I have missed my friends and fans and look forward to catching up with all of you on Facebook and the blog!
I want to thank Todd Gottel and Cindy Burkett for helping to build a fire under AT&T and getting the ball rolling on phone and Internet service. It’s great to have friends with a bit of *stroke*.
I also want to thank Linda Caram with AT&T for being our new CSR and for all she did to make up for the bad BS we suffered from the one that spoke English as a 2nd language.
Slowly, it’s all coming together; I hope to be around for a good long time to enjoy it all!
Am glad life is going well for you.
Welcome back!!!
Good to see you back and running, my friend.
Sounds like you got a great deal Fred. We’ere happy you finally got settled in. I know what a move like that entails and wish you the best. I guess you still cut your own grass as do I. That saved money puts gas in the boat although it’s been so damned hot that we haven’t used it much this summer. Glad to have you back on line.
Ron in Ohio Sez:
I am so glad to hear all is well with you and of your good fortune under trying circumstances.
We too are experiencing a similar, but thankfully lesser problem, after over 5 years leasing our house in a lakeside community. Our betterment to your Rowlett situation is that nobody is asking us to move, just refusing repairs.
At our ages, the thought is scary to make another move. If we do it will be to our own, last home. We thought that this was the best way to go when we sold our last home 5 years ago. As it is, I’m starting to sell-off some of my antique vehicles and get rid of a lot of useless stuff in anticipation of such a move.
Ron
PS:
I’m hoping my sincere comments get’s me outta’ your dog house. I do miss commenting and sending you pertinent E-Mails.
You’re not in my dog house!!
I am so damned tired, worn out, frustrated and whatever else you can come up with… Hell, I might have given some that impression but nope, you’re not, I’m just getting old and more cranky every damned day… 🙁
I am so glad to hear you are okay! I knew you have not been around in awhile and did not know why, I was beginning to fear the worst. This is such welcome news and I am glad to hear you are getting your life back to normal.
Thanks Steve… Normal is a moot point, but it IS life… 🙂
Fred, I am glad you are back. Two things come to mind. One, a new home is better than an old one, especially the one you described. Second, there is nothing like owning your own small chuck of the earth.
You were missed to say the least, and considering what has been going on since you left, well, your input would have been enjoyable. I dropped a little housewarming present your way, so check your paypal (under Dwan or sdkarebay). It’s not much, but I thought maybe lunch for you and the Mrs. on me would be a good thing.
Welcome back again.
Glad your well and safe, great to hear from you again. I’ve been checking in every day,
Welcome back Fred. Believe me, you were missed. Funny thing, when I hit something on Facebook, it said ‘witness protection program’ at times.
I guess you’ll be needing a riding lawn mower to handle that acre. Enjoy the sticks, I’m out here with the Amish, you get used to the smell of horseshit.
Happy for you Fred. All the best with your new home. Now you can get back to your old lib bashing self.
Hey there Fred!
I’ve been checking in every few weeks to see what’s been going on. I feared the worst, since I lost a good friend to a sudden death in July. He was only 53, and just a little over a week older than I am. I caught up with his mother, big sister, ex wife, daughters and son at his memorial, and it got me thinking more about the future. You would have liked him, for he was a veteran, and served in Desert Storm.
Just a heads up: I have a blog troll enemy who goes around under a number of aliases looking for conservative blogs to knock out. One of his aliases on Disqus is This One. He’s a troll known as Lester, LesterLib, Lester Liberalmann, Liberalmann, Wage Slave, Dotado 411 and now Joe Smith. I call him Pookie Toot Toot whenever I confront him. I had 2 blog sites dedicated to smacking liberal trolls around that just got shut down by scroogle: Liberalmann Is A Dingbat and Irl Eats Coq, formerly known as Irl Hudnutt Is A Jackass. But it’s all good. Plenty of people stopped by the site to see Pookie Toot Toot getting what he deserved: a public smackdown and blog beating. I have a few more sites on WordPress that he can’t get to. If that piece of trash comes by, I hope you give him a beatdown and make an example out of him.
Well, he found you here, today, 9/24 and left a rather nasty comment directed to you… He is gone, at least for now…