We Have a Contract!

Regular readers might remember that when we went to upstate N.Y. at the end of last October, we looked at various lake properties, hoping to purchase a small place to spend the summers. Well, this week, five and a half months after starting the process, we have an accepted offer on a cabin. We had been negotiating on the one property but three months ago, when we put in our final offer, and said it was final, it was again countered with a higher amount. We were not that far apart, but it really was our final offer because there are a lot of improvements that have to be made. So negotiations were cut off.

There was another property I was interested in on a nicer lake, but the lot wasn't as nice and it was across the road from the lake. The price had dropped ten thousand dollars, too. However, Cheryl wasn't convinced that was the one for us. So we did nothing. Last week, that property sold and we were out of options. We planned to go back up this summer and start looking again.

Last week, Thursday, I talked to our agent and the folks who had been rejecting our offers decided to accept. They had recently had a few offers fall through because folks couldn't get the financing. We already had that part accomplished. We faxed in our contract offer on Friday and they accepted yesterday. Yesterday afternoon we closed on our home equity loan to pay for this property. Now we just wait for the lawyers to do their thing and we will do a long distance closing in a couple of weeks.

The cabin is three bedroom, one bath, and comes almost fully furnished and includes a rowboat and paddle boat and a good sized storage shed. The lot is 105 feet road frontage, 208 feet deep and 100 feet lake front and is on Lake Gerry, a small pond/lake just outside Oxford, N.Y., not far from Binghamton. It is fairly centrally located from most of our relatives in N.Y. My mom is about 40 miles away and one of Cheryl's sisters is only 12 miles. New York City where my youngest brother lives, is a little less than 200 miles. All other NY relatives are within sixty miles.

We are planning to go up at the end of June for two weeks and be back just in time for my MD Anderson appointment July 13. We will take a small U-Haul with a couch, dresser, table and chairs we have here. The only furniture they are taking out of the cabin is the table, but the bedroom furniture is a little sparse and the futon in the living room will be replaced with an extra sleeper sofa we just happen to have here. Starting next year, Cheryl will be retired and we plan to go up each summer from the end of May to about the beginning of September. We are excited.

As you know, my leukemia has been revving up into higher gear lately, but the last couple of weeks I really feel like I might be stabilizing again. I even think my neck nodes might be down a bit. Maybe it is just wishful thinking, maybe not. I won't know for a couple more weeks until the next blood test. Ideally, if I have to start chemo again, I can do it around September and be done with it by next February or March. Spend those next couple of months recovering and going into remission in time to spend a nice restful summer in upstate N.Y. That is our prayer, anyway.

Here are a few pictures we took last October of the property that soon will be ours:

I wonder how much I can get on EBay for that pink plastic flamingo and plastic palm tree in the living room? I hope Cheryl can bear to part with it.