We have spent 3 grueling days looking at property!!!  It is so much fun, but work too.  I keep a notebook of all the places we see with our impressions written down, I snap some photos, hubby has taken bits and pieces of video for us to review as well.  I think what’s also sort of tiring for us is THE HEAT!!  In and out of the airconditioned car — from reasonable temps to 108 — over and over again.    Today we checked out one of those “over 55″ communities.  It was nice, but we just weren’t sold on it.   You can get a great house, and they are offering quite a few free “upgrades”, but we simply found others we liked better. 

Here’s a sampling of what we have seen…  Keep in mind that ALL of these places are in foreclosure.  We have learned that when people find out they are going to be foreclosed on, they tend to “trash” the home they are living in!  Some of the places have been absolutlely horrific.  Well, maybe not quite that bad but it really is amazing what some of them look like.  One house had the microwave oven smashed up, many others were super dirty, with many closet doors torn off and cabinet doors askew.  Foreclosure homes (AKA bank owned) are normally sold “as is”.  In other words you can’t ask the seller to fix this or that.  You take it on as YOUR project! 

Here are some pictures of places we have seen. 

We have safely arrived here in the HOT California desert!  Our first night was spent “meeting and greeting” the super nice folks that own the house we are renting.  Sharon and Kevin live in LA, but have this place as their vacation getaway home.  When they’re not here, they rent it out to folks like us!  We hit it off so well with these people that we ended up sharing a bottle of wine and then going out for dinner (Mexican food – YUM) with them. 

Sunday we spent driving around all over the Desert Cities… checking out different neighborhoods that we may or may NOT want to look at homes in.   Then in the late afternoon, we came back “home” and hit the pool!  What fun!!!!!!!!  We barbecued our dinner, and fell into bed exhausted at 10pm.  Today we will spend some time with our real estate agent, Tracey.  Here are a few pics I wanted to share:

The pool and part of the back yard

We think this is a pomegranate bush? In the back yard garden

They have a fig tree! We've been picking and eating - delicious!

Suz in the pool

Desert sky in the morning

I’m getting a little sick of winter.  Funny thing, when we lived those four years in the California desert, I was flat out craving all-things-winter.  Maybe that’s human nature, looking at things you used to have and wishing you had them again.  Now I’m itching for the sunshine and the warmth that comes with spring/summer.  When we lived in California, we didn’t have seasons.  Nope, out there in the desert we had “Pleasant” (which meant the days didn’t go above 90 and the nights managed to drop below 60), and we had “Big time burn your hands on the steering wheel Summer”.   I got sick of knowing that every day I’d wake up to the sunshine.  I wanted some change.  Well, I got it.  Except the “change” meant that I’d be faced with waking up for 5 months (at least!) of the year to gray skies and often times rain.  Here we go again, human nature… hard to be happy with what we’ve got.  Thats a shame really, and I need to get over it!   Which brings me to the topic of contentment. 

Sometimes it’s good for the soul to write out a list of things you are grateful for.  So here’s a short list in no particular order:

• New glasses, that I can read AND see distances with… AND that the insurance company paid for in FULL
• Money enough to pay the bills and that includes the PROPANE bill (which has gotten pretty darn bad) and my gasoline bill – which is also qutite hefty.
• A wonderful loving husband who was sure blessed with a sense of humor
• Good health
• A job that allows me more that twice as much time at home than at work.
• Fantastic neighbors
• The knowledge that yes, SPRING IS COMING, soon.

One more “cheery” thing –  check out www.unclaimed.org  — I did, and woohoo!  I found out that T-Mobile has some money they are just itching to give to me!!  This is a totally legit website.  Who knows, you might just find some long-lost $$ too.