December, 2013

We have been looking at houses in the area since August. At first, we had been looking at the entire South Placer Area and had thought about getting property and building. Over the past few months, we have narrowed our focus to homes in Rocklin. The fees and permits are just too outrageous to build and we have grown to love Rocklin, not to mention the proximity to our kids. Rog spent a lot of time poring over available homes on the internet. He found a home for sale, although it was a bit higher in price than we wanted so it hadn’t shown up on our MLS searches. It had a large lot, was in a nice area of Rocklin, and was within a mile of both kids. We did a drive by and then asked our realtor to show it to us. By the end of the first week of December, we had placed an offer, then countered the counter offer and it was accepted.

Escrow closes on January 3. We are excited and nervous. It was sort of nice having that chunk of change sitting in our bank account. But it doesn’t do much good just sitting. There are a number of projects that will keep us busy and we have the apartment until April, so we have a few months to do the dirty projects (removing the cultured stone fireplace and 2 popcorn ceilings). The home was built in 1976 but much of it has been remodeled already. It is livable as is, but we want to do some renovations before we move in. Rog inspected the house himself and we didn’t find any major problems.

We now spend our nights dreaming of landscape designs and interior decorating. A lot bigger project than a boat, but just as much fun! And none too soon…I am finding that I am accumulating stuff faster than I can find storage spots for in the apartment. So..on to our next adventure!

We are finding it easy to entertain in the apartment though. It is as decorated as I can get it, with a small 3 foot tree and my Santas all around. We had an afternoon card game here with the Nordstrums and Remaleys. Then we invited the Lloyd family over for a brunch the Saturday before Christmas. Bill and Nita with their new kids, Jasmine and Kavon, Bev, Beau and Arlene. The Blooms came as well so it was a full house. Then the annual Christmas dinner here with both kids and their families and my sister Micki with her husband, Brian, and mother-in-law, Marilyn. So enough entertaining for a while.

We were again included in the Christmas Eve BBQ at the Blooms. This year the weather was much milder as we sat around the open pit BBQ on their new patio. We roasted hot dogs wrapped in a delicious pretzel dough, and made s’mores. A perfect evening. We returned the next morning at 7am to share our Christmas morning together. Max scored big with craft projects and Karissa got not only a Barbie, but Princess Belle. Overall, a wonderful Christmas Holiday.

We continue to enjoy our Monday crafts with the grandkids. This month, they helped make the wreath for the front door, paper bag reindeer puppets, elf doughnuts, and foam penguins and snowmen.

The rest of December was spent finishing the photo scanning project, making gifts for the kids (a socket set holder for Ryan and a crocheted bag for Michelle), and trying to sort through the health insurance jungle. Rog got onto HealthNet a few months ago, but I held off for the Affordable Care Act. What I will save in premiums, Rog will lose. He currently pays about $330/month and that goes up to $603 when we switch to Kaiser. If I had insurance now, it would cost me about $1100. Mine with Kaiser will be $603. We had thought that HealthNet would be out of our area by Jan 1 but it is staying until April 1. So at the last minute, we are trying to keep the HealthNet while we can. The entire insurance scene appears in chaos with ACA changing things around. I am sure we will all survive. A little poorer, but hopefully things will sort themselves out soon. I am more worried about the scarcity of doctors out there. We shall see! I guess we could always go down to La Paz and see our good doc down there, both cheaper and quicker than here.