In the urban neighborhood of the type I live in coupled with the type of condominium complex I live in, if you have a particular matrix of what you are looking for and the complex I live in is a perfect match, there are not nine properties on the market that are good matches, all at the same time. It's a sort of niche market, unlike the broader suburban market where there might be nine in the same neighborhood, ninety in the general community and 900 in the vicinity. Take it from me, the buyer has a pretty open ended set of criteria if they are looking at this And a dozen other properties all at once.

I think I would move on to someone else. It sounds like this guy has a poor work ethic, as well as being downright strange. I hope you didn't pay out a huge deposit. The extra stress isn't worth the money lost, or the toll on your health. By the way, I found hiring a builder caused WAY more stress than DIY building. My husband and I have built three homes. Two we built with our own sweat. The third we hired a builder. Never again. We sold that house, bought some land, and are in the process of building a log home, ourselves. Fortunately, we know some local trades people, who are wonderful to work with, for the large jobs that we need extra people for. Good luck. I'll be looking for a good cabinet maker also, as the quality of the ready made seems to be poor these days. Sandy

Wow. My husband and I are extremely lucky to have the insurance that we do. We are both retired State employees. We both have Medicare Parts A (hospitalization) and B (medical), and we also have a Blue Cross PPO supplemental plan which includes prescription drug coverage so we don't need a separate Medicare Plan D (prescriptions). We both receive a monthly retirement pension from the State as well as Social Security retirement benefits. Our Medicare premiums are deducted from our SS payments. Our Medicare premiums include the Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) for Parts B and D because our income exceeds the maximum to pay only the regular Medicare premium. Our Retirement Health Benefit reimburses us in full for our Medicare & IRMAA premiums and also reimburses us in full for the monthly premium for the Blue Cross PPO supplemental policy. The reimbursements are included in our monthly retirement pension payments. (Well, the reimbursements for the Medicare & IRMAA premiums are included. They don't deduct anything for the supplemental policy because it's covered by the Retirement Health Benefit.) The supplemental policy covers the Medicare deductible, and it also pays the portion of the Medicare-approved amount for services that Medicare doesn't pay (the portion that the individual would normally have to pay). And if Medicare doesn't cover something (hearing aids, for example), the supplemental policy covers it. We will never hit the "donut hole" on prescription costs because the supplemental policy would pick up the costs (but neither of us currently takes enough meds to ever hit the donut hole). So, we pay no premiums, and we pay no deductibles or co-pays. For medications, we pay $5 (or less) for a one-time prescription, and $10 for a 90-day supply of a continuing medication (like my blood pressure medication. If a medication is only available as a brand-name drug but it is on the formulary, we would pay $40 for a 90-day supply. For dental insurance, we each pay a $12.91 per month premium, which is not reimbursed by the Retirement Health Benefit. We each have an annual deductible of $50, and the maximum payout per year is $2,000. We also both have vision insurance through our employment with the State, and it pays for new (gas permeable) contacts for me each year and new glasses for Hubs. It costs me $35 each year for the contacts (and I wear true bifocal contacts), and for $60 Hubs gets a new pair of prescription sunglasses and a new pair of "clear" prescription glasses each year.

I think one of the things that makes rose gardening so addictive is the fleeting and intermittent positive reinforcement we get from it (referring to an older behaviorist theory from B.F. Skinner in the 50's). Theory in layman's terms: "when we know to expect the reward after taking a certain action, we tend to work less for it. Yet when the timing of the reward or the certainty that we’ll get it at all is unpredictable, we tend to repeat that behavior with even more enthusiasm, in hope for the end result." With all the work we do on our roses, we never know which days one or more blooms, or bushes will be PERFECTION, versus the next - covered in bugs, fried from heat, dead from freeze, blown from wind. But striving for - that perfectly formed bloom (for a day!), or the orchestration of a bush where it looks like someone actually coordinated its' blooms hoping the sun will stay in place long enough to capture in a photo - which never seems to replicate the beauty our eyes actually see, or that delectable fragrance that inevitably diminishes with subsequent sniffs, not allowing us to actually "capture" that ecstasy for more than a moment. It is THESE moments we garden for. Thats why we bother!