Looking for a new house is a pretty fun adventure. Basically you go around looking into other people’s homes and lives. It’s a voyeur’s jackpot.

We gave the real estate agent our guidelines for a new house, and she set about showing us everything on the market. One major guideline we have is that we want to stay in our school zone, so Calfgrit8 won’t have to change schools again.

We originally chose our current location for the school zone — one of the best in the county. But that changed last year. Now we’re restricting our new home search to either stay in our current school zone (it’s turned out to be a good school) or get back into the old school zone. But then, we also know there’s no guarantee that the zones won’t change again sometime, sooner or later.

Our agent has sent us web links to about 30 homes, but some we’ve immediately rejected for various reasons. We’ve actually gone to see around 20 homes. Almost all the houses we’ve visited are 15-20 years old, and most of them look it. None of them are really run down or bad or anything, but compared to our current house they feel like a retrograde, even if they are bigger.

Out of the ones we’ve visited, only one remains on our list to consider. It’s only 9 years old -– the youngest we’ve seen –- and it has a really big backyard. We currently have a really nice backyard, and it’s one of the things we really appreciate about our current home. A big outdoor play area is essential for boys.

Then we visited a new neighborhood where they’re still building new homes. This new development is literally right next to Calfgrit8’s school. (But I’m sure the school board could find some way to defend changing the zone, anyway.) On the other side of the neighborhood is a big, town park, with a lake. Hmmm, says the home shoppers.

And now, as of signing the contract for selling our current house, we will be “homeless” in two months if we don’t make a decision quickly. The choice is between a 9-year old house with a great big backyard, or a brand new house in a great location. But the brand new house doesn’t actually exist yet. It’ll take 5-6 months to build.

Fortunately, Cowgrit’s mother lives very nearby, and she’s graciously offered to let us stay with her for a few months if we need to. This seems to be a repeating them for us: Cowgrit and I, way back before children, lived with my mother-in-law for several months while our first house (before our current one) was being built.

So, choose the good house that isn’t new but is ready right now, or choose the great house that is brand spankin’ new but won’t be ready for several months? Can we all live together in Cowgrit’s mother’s house for 3 or 4 months without anyone (us or my mother-in-law) going insane?

Yep, home shopping is a grand adventure.

Bullgrit

I thought I had mentioned it here, but checking through the recent posts, I see I haven’t. We’re selling our house. A couple of weeks ago, we started clearing out some large and small clutter, and then last week we called a pair of real estate agents — one to sell this house, one to find us a new house.

We’re outgrowing our current home. It was perfect when we bought it 8 years ago, when it was just Cowgrit, myself, and a little infant Calfgrit, but now with two growing boys, we’ve reached the max capacity for this space. It’s time to get something bigger.

Our selling agent put this place on the market last week. We had several lookers, and immediately got an offer, which we agreed to (it was exactly what we wanted). We signed the contract this past Monday, and we’ll close August 20. So now we have two months to find a new house.

We’re already thinking about how much we’ll miss this place. We’ve kept it up well, and we’ve constantly upgraded everything about it. It’s 15 years old, but it doesn’t look more than maybe 5 years old — hell, no appliance or utility machine in it is more than 5 years old. (That’s probably a big reason why it sold so quickly.)

It’s pretty much exactly how we want a house, inside and out; we really don’t want to leave it. It’s just that our family is outgrowing it — we need more rooms and more space. It’s a bit saddening to think we’ll be forever giving it away in two months.

Bullgrit

My mom and I had been picking up a few things at the grocery store, and we were heading for the front checkouts. We approached the checkout with no other customers in line, but just before we got there, a man standing up at the front quickly moved ahead of us.

He was already closer to the checkouts than we were, so his getting ahead didn’t really stand out. But he had nothing to check out until he swiftly reached over and picked out a pack of gum off the candy shelf. Then he slid up to the counter just before we got there. That struck me as odd.

I mean, he had been standing up there for a minute, and then suddenly chose that moment to grab some gum. The move seemed timed to just barely beat us.

My mom and I sat our few items on the conveyor belt as the cashier rang up the man’s gum purchase. I saw the man pull out a twenty dollar bill to pay for the small pack, and he rambled on some idle chatter with the cashier. The memory of the scam pulled on me, over twenty years before, came to mind.

After getting his change for the purchase, the man asked the cashier if he could get change for another twenty, “while you’ve got the drawer open.” That set off my scam warning. I stepped a foot closer to the exchange, and watched what was going on. I decided that if the man asked for any other swap or transaction of money, I was going to speak up.

This whole situation just screamed “scam.” The grabbing a small item just before other customers came up, (so the cashier would feel rushed), the paying for the small item with a twenty, (to get a lot of cash on the counter), and the asking for another transaction, (to get more cash moving), and the continuous “idle chatter” from the man, (to keep the cashier from concentrating on the money), was a text book pattern for running such a scam.

You see, I’ve since learned some things about how scam artists work since my very first encounter with one.

But the man stopped the transaction at getting change for the twenty. He thanked the cashier by name (which he could have gotten from the boy’s name tag), and left the store.

My mom and I dealt with our transaction and walked away. When we got out into the parking lot, we both mentioned what we saw. My mom saw how I was suddenly very attentive, and she also suspected something strange was going on — the man just acted a little too friendly with the cashier boy. And he was a little too animated.

I mentioned how that looked so much like a scam, and I was watching and counting what was going on. There wasn’t enough money exchange going on, so I didn’t think the man got away with anything. If he got something, it couldn’t have been more than maybe five bucks in the change for the twenty.

I even thought that maybe the man had bailed on the scam when he saw me standing close and paying attention. After discussing it for a minute, I told Mom that I wanted to go back inside and warn the cashier, and maybe the manager about that guy. So we relocked the car doors and walked back into the store.

So as not to scare the cashier, I tried to be nonchalant and easy. I walked up when he wasn’t busy, and said, “Hey, I’m just a customer. I was in here just a couple minutes ago,” he nodded his head in remembering, “and I was wondering if you knew that man who was in line right ahead of us.”

The boy said, “Maybe.” His face went blank, and he seemed to pull back from me just a bit. He immediately went into full defensive mode, wanting to protect himself from trouble.

Crap, that’s not how I wanted this to go. “I’m just asking because he talked like he knew you, but I think he might have been trying to scam you.”

“Oh, Mr. Pearson?” the boy answered. “No, I know his daughter. He wouldn’t do something like that.”

So, the friendly chatter was just that. I mentioned to the guy that the man just was acting suspicious with his grabbing gum right before us, using a twenty to buy gum, and then trying to get more change for another twenty. The kid completely dismissed any chance that the man was dishonest.

I wasn’t convinced. The man could have intended to use the familiarity to get the scam to work better.

But I let the issue go. “OK,” I apologized, “sorry to have bothered you.”

Mom and I walked back out. We talked about the situation some more on the drive back home, and I’m still convinced that man was trying to work a scam. The whole situation was too perfectly arranged and executed to have been pure randomness. But, I also don’t think he actually pulled it off.

Bullgrit

I was really tired last night when I sat down to write today’s post. It was a hectic and frustrating day at the office. And at home, both boys were being unusually ornery — they were constantly antagonizing each other, and whining about it.

Then, when I sat down to start writing, there was an argument that just took all the wind out of my sails. I lost all inspiration. My weariness just overtook my motivation.

Unfortunately, all my computer games are packed up for the house selling, so I don’t have my normal catharsis. Maybe I need to take up smoking and drinking.

So I just went to bed in hopes of salvaging at least some good sleep to make up for the lousy, tiring, frustrating, and aggravating day.

Bullgrit