I miss you guys!!

[VroomGrrl]

Hi everybody,

Well things are still crazy. We are due to close on the sale of our Tuscaloosa house in the next few days. We had a contract on a house in Bham that looked great, but the inspection revealed some issues we couldn't work out with the seller so we had to let that go. We are putting an offer on another house in Bham tomorrow, but it'll take a miracle for things to work out so that we can be into a house once we're out of here. So we're looking at temporary accommodations for us (and the dogs, and the cat, and our house full of crap) to cover the gap.

Meanwhile, I have a huge trial due to start the same day we have to be out of the house. I am blessed with some awesome friends who are going to help me get the house packed up once I have to drop all this and go into trial gladiator mode. It would be so great if these cases (ALL SIX OF THEM) would settle, but I can't count on that.

HEAD=EXPLODING - daily!

The good news is, I am 100% sure everything will work out fine, and in a few weeks I'll be tapping the keys from our new place in Birmingham, wherever that ends up being. I know the roller coaster will have several more dips, twists and turns before things settle back down and I'm just trying to hang on for the ride. Yall send us good thoughts wontcha?

In the meantime, I MISS YOU ALL! I was so excited about this season AX and track stuff, had all kinds of plans, and so many commitments to work all over the place. It was so hard to cancel all that, and it's hard watching the event reports as they come in and to be missing all the fun and all of yall!

When I do get back out there, it's gonna be like starting all over again, again!

Don't forget me - I'll be baaack!

x0x0
Kathy

[TouringBubble]

Just curious Kathy ... where did you have a contract on the first house in B'ham? What area/subdivision?

[Jedi1]

I'd be happy to help with anything that me and my getting better back can handle.

[VroomGrrl]

Just curious Kathy ... where did you have a contract on the first house in B'ham? What area/subdivision?

Southside, baby!

[dpeele95]

That's where i live. Vestavia/Homewood area. I live on the line where they meet so technically i live in both.

[VroomGrrl]

I'd be happy to help with anything that me and my getting better back can handle.

Thanks Sean.

Maybe yall can help me figure out where to store my 911 while we're in transition. Who wants to rent me a garage space, eh???? I'll need somewhere safe for it to stay for at least the last 2 weeks of May, and maybe beyond for a few months until we get carport/garage sorted.

any idears yall?

[engled]

If the purchase of the land I'm working on goes threw I'll have a lockable building you could store it. I'm not sure how soon this will happen though.

[waflet]

hideeho
as mentioned elsewhere i have some garage space. i would be more than happy to let you store the porshe for a few weeks. untill we get a lemon i have plenty of space. even then i'll put the lemon out in the driveway for your car. send me a pm & we'll trade info.

[Cholewa]

Wow, why a house in southside? Move out to cahaba or vestavia, out of the city and into the burbs.

If you give my your contact info I can probably set you up with my boss' wife, who's a real estate agent, and is wicked awesome.

But seriously, why would you want to live in southside? There's much better everything pretty much everywhere else. If I were you, which I am (starting a search for a house/townhouse) I would A: stay away from southside, west end, ensley, and really anywhere else inside of birmingham city, and look out on the edges in vestavia, hoover, homewood(the part near soho, that's actually decent), liberty parkway, etc. And if you can live with a little commute, trussville has some great housing markets right now, and almost all of them have garages. There's a community developing down the road from me called the cotswold. Check www.cotswoldscommunity.com and see what they have. Nice houses tucked back in the woods for pretty decent prices, and they're all spec homes so nobody's lived in them.

[VroomGrrl]

Wow, why a house in southside? Move out to cahaba or vestavia, out of the city and into the burbs.

If you give my your contact info I can probably set you up with my boss' wife, who's a real estate agent, and is wicked awesome.

But seriously, why would you want to live in southside? There's much better everything pretty much everywhere else. If I were you, which I am (starting a search for a house/townhouse) I would A: stay away from southside, west end, ensley, and really anywhere else inside of birmingham city, and look out on the edges in vestavia, hoover, homewood(the part near soho, that's actually decent), liberty parkway, etc. And if you can live with a little commute, trussville has some great housing markets right now, and almost all of them have garages. There's a community developing down the road from me called the cotswold. Check www.cotswoldscommunity.com and see what they have. Nice houses tucked back in the woods for pretty decent prices, and they're all spec homes so nobody's lived in them.

Ahhhh...the wisdom of youth! Thanks for your thoughts, seriously. But you and I have aims that are very different. We want an old house, a "lived in" house with some history - in the city. I have been commuting for 20+ years, first in Atlanta, then since 2001 here (Tuscaloosa to Bham) and I'm done with that. I've been doing "the burbs" for a very long time, complete with cookie-cutter subdivision houses, "we have everything the city has" strip malls, etc. - and I'm ready to come in town for awhile.

My husband has lived in Tuscaloosa all of his 50 years, and since I've known him, he's longed to live in town, preferably Southside. My office is right there, and his new job takes him all over Bham (he just met with one of your bosses this week about adding some selections to your wine list ). The market is very buyer-friendly right now, and we are so glad to be able to take advantage of it to get much more house than we ever thought possible for the $$ - intown! So those are the reasons we are moving to the Southside.

Next stop? BEACH HOUSE. That's a very long-range plan, but it's out there

[Cholewa]

Ahhhh...the wisdom of youth! Thanks for your thoughts, seriously. But you and I have aims that are very different. We want an old house, a "lived in" house with some history - in the city. I have been commuting for 20+ years, first in Atlanta, then since 2001 here (Tuscaloosa to Bham) and I'm done with that. I've been doing "the burbs" for a very long time, complete with cookie-cutter subdivision houses, "we have everything the city has" strip malls, etc. - and I'm ready to come in town for awhile.

My husband has lived in Tuscaloosa all of his 50 years, and since I've known him, he's longed to live in town, preferably Southside. My office is right there, and his new job takes him all over Bham (he just met with one of your bosses this week about adding some selections to your wine list ). The market is very buyer-friendly right now, and we are so glad to be able to take advantage of it to get much more house than we ever thought possible for the $$ - intown! So those are the reasons we are moving to the Southside.

Next stop? BEACH HOUSE. That's a very long-range plan, but it's out there

This advice is coming from a person who lived in southside for 4 years. Trust me when I say, southside is not all that. homewood is part of the city, it's a 3 minute drive over 20th. In southside, you get old houses with character yes, but also problems. Most of the people who have lived in southside either rented to college students, or were bums, so the houses are ill maintained and outdated. Now there are a few (like, 10) houses that have been renovated and are ready for people to live in, but they want far too much for far too little. Don't get me wrong here, there's some nice neighborhoods tucked away with nice houses, but nobody moves out of those houses.


As for the wine, he gave it to the manager who doesn't drink wine, and it's not going to be added to our menu because the guy he talked to is a dick and doesnt like new ideas. We had to fight with him just to get a wine tasting set up for all of the servers. We'll get a 6 pack case of wine that they're "thinking about adding" and the only people who ever see/touch/taste that wine are surin, his brothers, and sushil. These are people who won't buy me a new cooler (1300 dollars, cmon) for beer on the bar, because the old one works most of the time. The old one also doesn't have racks so we can't organize beer, it doesn't drain, it's tiny, loud, and overall more of a hassle than anything else. Basically, the way they see everything is: if i'm already making money, why change anything. I could go on for hours about this but I wont. If your husband is serious about getting something added, tell him that he needs to basically force the manager (sushil) to let him bring the wine in for a tasting by the servers, so we can try it, and bug the hell out of him until he adds it.

[EWaugh]

Honestly, I moved out of Jefferson County completly. My water bill with from $100/month, to $30 and my garbage is included in that. I'd go (read: did) farther out that what Chelodsaqaa is talking about. Part of Leeds is outside of Jefferson, and Leeds in about to be hoppin'. I'm in Margaret, which is just east of Argo 2 exits North of Trussville. Sure I'm 30 minutes away from downtown. Do I mind? Not at all.

[VroomGrrl]

Thanks, you guys. In case you can't tell, we have made up our minds and are moving to Southside. It's a great time to get lots of house for the $$. I love city living, just have never been able to do it in a house before, so this 'll be great. Just a mile from my office. We're both over the moon about moving into town. I'll post when we have a final deal on the new place (IT'S SOOO AWESOME) and if you can stand coming into town you will have to come visit.