mason garden

Since things have slowed down in the blogging world I’ve decided to start a review of the day. This may include all sorts of products. Today I’ve picked the jiffy green house. I couldn’t find a picture of the 12 peat moss jiffy but this gives an idea. The 12 green house fits three across my kitchen window and grows beautiful starter plants in as little as 4 days. So far the best plants to grow in these jiffy pots include several varieties of squash, cucumber, lettuce greens, and pumpkin. Those that didn’t work very well included: beets that did come up strong but didn’t transplant well; bell peppers that need a warm but dryer environment after germination; and spinach that just turned to mush a few days after the leaves came up. If anyone does try these out I would recommend not over watering. Plants turn to mush quickly if there is too much water present.

Due to popular demand I’ve decided to give an update on all the current goings on of our home buying progress.

As of today it has been 31 days since we made our original offer on the cute little condo displayed in our gallery. Two weeks after our original offer we finally signed the final offer papers after a very slow negotiation process. Two weeks after that we finally! decided who the lucky lenderwould be. That process was not fun. There is plenty that I still do not understand. Legal language is difficult to follow. Luckily James was able to follow the gibberish better than I. He was very impressive as he asked question after question to this lender and that one and compared Good Faith Estimates. I have to say that lenders don’t make it easy to compare either. Some estimate high while others give what they think is a close estimate. On top of it all there is the ever changing rate and likely fees. Now that we have picked a lender we need to decide on the type of loan. We’re working on that today. Other goings on include an inspection two weeks ago that went well and now we are waiting on a pest report and will sign a disclosure report tomorrow. That’s about all that’s happening.

Since we’re purchasing the condo from a bank the process is slower than what you’d get from a home owner. We should get the keys May 11 which we will promptly have changed to prevent theft. Did we mention that all of the kitchen applianceswill need to be replaced? Someone appears to have stolen them after the bank took possession of the condo. Fun fun. I am looking forward to new appliances even if I have to pay for them. Once we’re moved in we plan to invite an many people as we can muster for an open house. Hope at least some of you can make it.

Happy Birthday to Amanda and Candice last week. Best wishes to some very good friends.