In the midst of dealing with everything else going on in our lives it felt like no one wanted to buy our house. We would have people interested, but no offers. Paula, our realtor, had several open houses while we were out of town, and finally we got two offers within a few days of each other. The first was not strong so we held out for the second offer we hoped would be coming and it did. While it was not for the amount we hoped, it was a strong offer. So we countered and the potential buyer walked away... he wasn't willing to pay a penny over the original offer. We were really blown away... that was the first sign that the buyer seems to be a bit of a hot-head. But our realtor contacted their realtor and resurrected the offer eventually. That was a relief. While we still did not like the amount, it was better than not having a buyer at all! So then came the inspection. We have not had any problems with the house at all... nothing outside of normal. But the inspector found what he thought was a water leak near the pool equipment. We were surprised and disappointed because we already had so much to deal with. But we agreed to repair the leak, whatever it was and the buyer's option period came to an end. Another big relief. I began calling the Sprinkler company to have them repair the sprinkler leak that seemed to be the source. Thinking it was all being taken care of we were focusing on Frank's dad as he was not doing well at all... we knew he did not have long, but didn't know how short the time was. When I returned home and talked with the sprinkler repair man he explained he could not find any leak in the sprinklers. So I turned to Riverbend again needing them to make absolutely sure nothing was wrong with the hot-tub or equipment. Really Riverbend had been awful to work with through this... they did not seem to care what the problem was or want to solve it... they just wanted to reiterate it was not their problem to deal with. During all of this time we were moving out of the house... and the night after we moved is when Big Frank passed away so we were in Austin. While in Austin I got in touch with Riverbend to schedule a time for their repair man to meet with the sprinkler repair man because he thought he could help explain what he found. When I returned from Austin I went to the house to get some last minute things... and with just days before closing I was starting to panic that between Riverbend coming out and the sprinkler guy doing his work we still didn't have the leak resolved. That weekend, Frank, a water leak specialist with Riverbend, came out to do more pressure testing. They still couldn't figure it out. Finally a person from Riverbend who really cared and wanted to help us, but he couldn't because he too was not able to figure out what the problem was. They just knew it absolutely was not the hot-tub or the hot-tub equipment... that it was not the sprinkler system... and that it was not a leak with the plumbing with the house. All good news except that we still couldn't explain the water that was pooled on the side yard. This was Saturday with closing scheduled Monday. On Sunday after talking about the dilemma with our neighbor, we had an epiphany... it was the french drain! So the wonderful sprinkler repair man rescheduled everything he had scheduled for Monday morning to come to the house first thing to flush the drain and get it to drain properly. After a couple of hours of pushing a pipe through and looking for clogs, he found a big wad of stuff that was blocking the water from flowing and solved the problem. This was just minutes before the scheduled closing. This was just as the buyer's agent came to do the walk through. Our realtor had us sign an amendment that we repaired the french drain blockage and the buyer's signed it at closing as well... and with that we said goodbye.
I think with everything that we have gone through recently with Frank's dad that my emotions were spent... I didn't have a tearful moment really... I was sad of course, but really I felt ok. It had been a wonderful home for our family. So many cherished memories... In that house we went through many ups and downs... we had the loss of a pregnancy... the excitement and joy of bringing home two babies... the loss of a beloved pet... 6 years of birthdays, holidays, celebrations. Lots of memories planting flowers... doing the yard work we were always so proud of. We remember the fun time we had building the house and picking out all the colors that we wanted. Watching it go from a mound of dirt, to the slab being poured... framing, bricking, and everything coming together. We will miss Emerson's beautiful mural and Cameron's room... It was our house... a really great house with great neighbors. So yes, we will miss it. But we are thankful that we have this new house where we will make new memories... and we know this new house will be wonderful for us. So, farewell Lofty Lane. We hope the new owners take as good of care as we did and that they, too, have wonderful memories there.
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