Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I feel like my posting has gotten very light. This is correct. I found I have made just 24 posts in the entire month of July and that I have dropped the ball on some of my duties here. Not the least of which is our Engine of the Month poll. I sincerely apologize for this. There will be one for September and possibly a late and abbreviated one for August which is already upon us. Time sure does fly.

I have had the stresses pile up as free time vanished altogether. I have been so busy I find myself well spent at the end of most days. After about 4 years of trying to get our house sold, we finally have it under agreement. For those who don't know, our pesent home is less than 1 mile from GE's former world headquarters. When they moved out to Boston there entire executive suite and staff left and this was 800 employees. This put a few hundred extra homes on the market in an already soft housing market in our immediate area. The covid has clearly helped get the glut of homes on the market dried up and likely is what allowed us to finally get a sale going. This means that while still servicing my clients, Simone and I must find a place to move to. A few years ago we had planned to rent for a while but that is off the table because all the rental homes have been snapped up by New Yorkers wanting to escape from covid central. We have been all over the state and have looked at hundreds of potential homes online and have had our real estate agent show us well over 20 homes, and just drove by some homes, some as far as 1 1/2 hours away. We are doing this because we can realize considerably more value for our money if we are willing to move more inland and a bit north. 

I have been working from home since early March 2020. My company is allowing those of us in my position as a financial advisor to continue working from home. I will likely arrange a sort of hybrid schedule where I go in to the office perhaps just once a week. I won't mind a drive of an hour or more each way just one day a week. I must admit I have grown comfortable with my commute for the last 16 months which has been a short walk across the house! (grin)

After much searching we found a place about 45-50 minutes from our present home. We were looking forward to this and then the inspection.... We learned that mitigating the moisture problems may be a big deal. Our inspector found some mold in one of the walls (not good) and lots of work. In a couple days I will meet a specialist at the house and get an estimate of the moisture and mold mitigation/remediation costs along with an honest assessment of whether we can make it dry enough to house our collection and some very fine machine tools I have come into. We are not happy about this because much of this place felt just right for us. 

As a back-up plan we have already selected a few more homes to look at in case we have to walk away from this deal. We are both quite sad about this, at least for the moment. I must believe we will prevail in the end and that by his grace we will make the right decisions.

Gil

Thanks, Bruce! We shall prevail. We will find something just right for our family and for the new Office of Steam.

Congrats on finding a buyer for your house.

  Sorry to hear your house choice may have too many problems.
Hopefully, the news from the specialists won't be too bad.

  We spent 1 1/2 years looking in the Sheepshead Bay area
in Brooklyn and was in more than 100 houses - 10 in one day.
We even came close to buying four different houses, but
thankfully, we learned the lesson that follows.

When in doubt, be very careful.

  We looked at and made an accepted offer on a house whose
electric box was underneath an outdoor brick stairway.
It was kind of nasty and did look a bit like there might have
been a water problem.  Later that night it was pouring and
I turned to my wife and said 'I wonder if water is running
under the stairs and near the electric box'.  That was
all it took.  Saying no was the best thing we did.  The
house we bought, a row house (some say townhouses), was the
best deal we had seen, closed in Nov 2006 and it only took
15 years to fill it up with our hobby stuff.  But, there
is always room for another steam engine.

  So, Gil, take a deep breath.  Don't worry too much about
the Forum.  The house hunt will take all your energy.

Good Luck,
Wayne

Best of luck finding a home that suits your needs, Gil. No worries from me, I've been even more absent and preoccupied although in a far lesser way. If you need a place to escape the zombie horde fleeing new york-and can withstand some brutal heat and humidity along with the occasional hurricane and tornado- come down south. But dammit man it's hot.

Stay away from moisture problems. Super expensive to fix.

Just saw your post Gil...4 years and counting on selling your current home, but hopefully the end is now in sight.  Been doing same thing for eldest daughter, helping her sell her existing home as the upkeep is more than she wants to keep spending money on.  Purchase offers in past month have fallen thru twice and yesterday she accepted a 3rd offer...but as we have seen, house is not sold til the checks cross the table.

Perhaps when it comes to moving time...you could solicit some forum help to move the jewels from the Office of Steam...they deserve TLC for sure.

thinking of you,
Rog