Lynn, your annual vacation is always Heaven to me! Such a huge group of you, so much fun, and the place looks like paradise for sure. I can imagine how hard it is to come home and get back into the old routine after that. :o( I'd probably turn into a witch and no one would want to get near me for a good while. LOL. Hey O.A., I was thinking about you....did you know that July 10th is Teddy Bear Picnic Day! a popular children's holiday in Canada, Europe, and Australia --- is held every year on July 10. On this day children and parents have tea parties with their teddy bears. ;o) And then coming up is July 17th Cow Appreciation Day July 24th National Day of the Cowboy Anybody want to play? LOL hugs, Karen

I'm glad you checked in, too. You're so often in my thoughts and prayers. We,too, have some good moments, but the bad ones come,too, and often when we least expect them to. I'm glad you're able to smile about some things again. Your little guy will always be with you. Bless you.

Greetings again, phoggie/Mary. In my earlier post I appeared to be unaware of some info that you appeared to have posted a couple of hours earlier, so much of what I said was not useful. If you want to take a good portion of the things from your current home to furnish the one where you will live in future, I have a suggestion that might be relevant. Son's sister/my daughter moved from near Toronto, on the north side of Lake Ontario, to Phoenix a few years ago, and son and I were discussing yesterday the cost of moving her goods: I'd thought that it was something over a dollar a pound, and he said he thought closer to a dollar and a half ... ... so I suggested that we should have bought her an old school bus, then we could have packed it for her, she could have driven it down there, and sold it after getting her things moved into her new place. Or, if the rules governing licensing required really different criteria, buying one there and driving it up, loading it and driving it back. Perhaps you might be interested in buying an old school bus, packing your goods into it and driving it to Burlington. Then check with (former)/friends to try to find some farm or rural person nearby who'd rent you some space at nominal fee to park it for a time, until you have found a place to live on a permanent basis. When one considers the monthly/quarterly cost of renting a storage space (or annual - and which period does one choose, up-front?), using the school bus idea might not be such a bad idea. There'd be an additional benefit of handling all of the stuff twice instead of four times: saved effort (says a guy with a streak of laziness) and less possibility of damage/breakage. I'd thought of suggesting that, should the contract for sale of your current house fall through, that it might be a good idea to do some checking as to whether that arrangement had been satisfactory. But when I heard that your former husband's son was in a related business, I was fairly sure that he'd have been aware enough of the local housing market to have ensured that you weren't being taken. With regard to the lady who has the house that she's talking of sharing ... how about finding a reason, whether real or imagined/manufactured, to visit there for a few days, or, probably better, a week or so, so that you could stay at her place and get an idea of her lfestyle, including an idea, even if vague, of the financial end, and whether you might feel comfortable with it. ole joyfuelled ... who doesn't have to buy gas for a school bus P.s. I've been saying for some time that it makes sense for several singles, especially senior ones, to live together. Advantages: -intellectual stimulation helps keep Alzheimer's at bay, -shared chores would enable one to continue to live independently longer, -each person would eat better than tea and toast for some meals if living alone, -increased safety: if someone has immediate trauma, as long as one can call, there's someone there to help, plus -they could triage: decide whether we can handle this situation in-house; or we call this person's caregiver to handle the situation; or call 9-1-1- ... right now!, -there's be a major cost saving over buying a smaller home/condo, renting one's own apt., etc. ... and a major one over entering a residential home and certainly over a nursing home. That cost saving would enable them to afford to have someone come in to take care of much of the cleaning and housekeeping. o j ... who lives alone

This is a great example of someone who probably shouldn't be doing FSBO. If the simple stuff upsets you, you're going to be a mess when you start working on an offer. I always FSBO, but I am NEVER rude to agents, even those who call just to offer to list my homes. I am currently in the process of closing a home I was going to FSBO but an agent sent out a letter asking if any units were for sale. I let him sell to his waiting client because he was comfortable meeting my financial needs (I have a bottom line cash out amount I want) and we just upped the price to include his fees and closing costs. If I were you I'd consider calling back and making a totally BS excuse about the fact that you were having a bad day. Share the template information and close your call with a simple "If you know anyone suitable for the house I'd love to show it to them". This isn't the best market to peeve off the professionals. Even in a FSBO there's room for negotiations with pros. I have paid fees to several agents for bringing me a buyer..negotiated fees, less than the normal 6% but still...a sale is a sale and if they have a buyer...I'm never rude!