08:03 – We finished the BBC Wartime Farm series last night. That was the last of the BBC Farm series. I told Barbara I wished they’d make more. She wondered what was left to make Farm series about. I suggested Neolithic British Farm, Roman British Farm, Saxon British Farm, and Norman British Farm.
More relocation stuff to deal with today via phone calls. It’s getting late enough in the year that we may not be able to get this done until the first half of next year, but we’ll keep plugging. Almost everyone involved wants this sale to go through: us, the listing agent, the selling agent, the bank and other creditors, and probably all the neighbors. The only ones who don’t want the sale to go through are the current owners. As our agent said, they’ve been living there for free, running up bills and debts, and they want to continue living there on other people’s money for as long as they can. They’re already bankrupt and judgment-proof, so they’re motivated to throw up as many obstacles as possible and just keep living in the house. At this point, Barbara doesn’t think we’ll get the house unless we drive up there, drag them out, and shoot them.
17:28 – We’re just back from Sparta. We met our agent and the home inspector at the house, and spent the next 90 minutes or so looking at everything. The inspector didn’t find anything serious. Stuff like a GFCI socket that needs to be replaced, some loose weather stripping on the bottom of one garage door, and so on.
One surprise. When we got there, I started following the inspector around while Barbara walked around shooting pictures inside and outside. She shouted up from the basement that it looked like they were taking the woodstove with them. I thought she was kidding, but she was right. They disconnected the pipe to the flu and disconnected the ducting. I didn’t think one was allowed to rip out items that were physically connected to the home, but they obviously plan to take the stove with them. That pisses me off, but at least they’re packing stuff up, so it appears they’re going to show up at the closing.
We also spent some time driving around town to familiarize ourselves with where things are. We filled out an application to join the rifle club. Apparently, shooters are a majority in Sparta. That doesn’t surprise me from those few people we’ve met. Our real estate agent is a shooter, as is another agent at her agency. He’s an officer of the Alleghany County Rifle Association, so we filled out an application while we were sitting in his office. We need a sponsor, and he volunteered to sponsor us. Our real estate attorney is also a member of the ACRA, as is her husband, who owns a gun store. From what I’e seen, I’d guess probably 75% of the adults and teens, men and women, in Alleghany County are shooters. We also filled out an application to join the electric power co-op, and found out what we need to do to get Internet service. There’s already fiber-to-the-home, and the lady at the Internet co-op said all they had to do was press a few computer keys to get the service turned on once we give them the word.
While we were signing up at the electric co-op, I noticed large propane containers and propane appliances out in the display area. I asked about those, and the lady explained what they offered. Assuming the sellers do carry away the woodstove, we’re going to buy an unvented propane heater to heat the basement finished area. It’s only 25,000 BTU/hour, but that’d be plenty to keep us warm and to keep the upstairs pipes from freezing. That heater will consume propane at a bit over one pound per hour, or roughly four gallons per day. A 100-gallon tank will last nearly a month running 24 hours a day. That’s probably plenty to cover us in any normal power failure situation, but I still may talk to them about installing something larger, say 250 or 500 gallon.
Barbara was lobbying in favor of propane. I wanted to go out and buy a woodstove. She understands why I want a renewable fuel but she makes good points about the advantage of propane over wood in normal circumstances. But I’ve already told her that I plan to build an outbuilding eventually, and that will certainly be heated with wood.