A Living Room to enjoy living in

The living room was the last room to be remodeled in the front section of the house. We started by stripping the walls down to the studs. Then we replaced the windows with new windows that would actually keep cold air inside, and Randy removed the ceiling fan.

We hung drywall on the walls and ceiling, and started taping and sanding. More sanding. Always more sanding...

Eventually we got the walls, windows, and ceiling done and a few days ago the carpet was laid. And WOW, we have a living room! Soon we will replace the furniture - this came with the house and it's been nice to have it, but it's time for it to go.

The carpet looks great with the fireplace. Soon we'll install the shelves on either side of it. 

And Shorty has a place to lay in the sun! 

We have a few unusual things to work around, such as the built-out area for cold air return between the original mobile home and the original porch (which is now the dining room). We call those areas "features" and are finding creative ways to use them.  

Randy vs the Loan Company (Randy wins!)

Way back in time, when we lived in Alton and Randy turned a run-down house into a showpiece, we were able to pay off the house loan much earlier than the original date. So Randy called our lender, Wells Fargo, to get the payoff amount. Surprisingly, they wouldn't give it to us unless we paid an additional $60 fee. Randy had read the loan papers back when he originally signed them so he knew that wasn't included in the documentation. Nevertheless, he read it all again. Nope, not there. So, being really smart, he calculated what the payoff amount would be, allowing for postal time, and send a check by "signature required" mail.

Three weeks later the check was returned to us with the information that it could not be applied as a payoff because we had not paid to get the payoff amount. Not that it was the wrong amount (it wasn't) but we had not paid them for the information. And oddly enough, it was stamped as if it was received 2 weeks later than the postal service said it was signed for. Hmmm. Time for another phone call. 

The Wells Fargo lady said we would have to pay the $60 to get the payoff amount. Randy explained that this was not in the contract. 

The lady said we were required to send a Cashier's check to pay off the loan, after we'd paid for and received the payoff amount. Randy explained that according to the contract, this was not required unless we had previously sent them a bad check. Which we had not done.

The lady said they could not accept a check that large. Randy explained they had previously accepted and cashed a check from us that was, in fact, a little larger. 

The lady said, look, we're just gonna had to pay that $60 because they were not going to accept the check we sent them. Randy explained that if they refused to accept a valid check, then in 90 days the loan will go into default, it will go to a judge, and he will laugh them out of court because they returned the check without a single legal reason to do so. And then there will be legal fees for them to cover. 

Finally the lady gave up and humbly asked if we would please send a certified check. Randy said yes, as long as we could do it at no cost. And Randy reminded her that because they had signed for it on a specific date, they were required by law to remove all charges which had accumulated after that date. 

The next year the company made a big nationwide announcement that the $60 payoff fee for home loans was no longer required, because they are such good guys. Randy should have charged them for a class in legal contracts, 'cause he sure took them to school!

Animal Kingdom - in February!

Tuesday it was only 45 degrees outside but we headed to Animal Kingdom anyway! We hoped the "winter weather" would keep the crowds down. And boy, did it! The parking lot seemed almost empty - it wasn't, of course, but compared to a normal day it was. 

Going in we got a temp check, then walked through full-body scanners instead of the old "put your bag on the table so we can look inside" routine (they have scanners at Epcot, too). This is a lot faster.

Our reservation as at 9 so we weren't the first people in, but after seeing the parking lot, we decided to head right to Avatar. And we got right in! The wait was only 15 minute - I've never seen it less than 2 hours before this. And all of that 15 minutes was spent walking through the maze to get to the ride. We've done this a couple of times before with Fast-Passes (thanks to Pete and Donna, and a lucky break one evening) so going through the regular line we saw some of the scenery created to keep guests happy during the long, long wait that used to be. 

This was so fun that afterwards we went right back to the entrance and did it again!

By now it felt like lunch time, but that's turned out to be hard to accomplish. Most sit-down restaurants now only accept mobil-orders. You stand right by the restaurant and place your order. That's OK except that the part of the app that takes payment wouldn't work. We tried about 10 times at one restaurant before giving up and walking towards the dinosaur area, hoping for a snack we could order in person. We didn't find that but we did overhear a hostess say that yes, the payment was a problem but it could be entered manually. We did that and got chicken salads. They looked great . . . but they weren't. We won't get those again. 

At least we weren't hungry anymore. We walked back toward the safari, over a bridge. In place of the parades that used to occur, Epcot takes their princesses through a carriage ride, and Animal Kingdom takes their Characters on a boat ride. 

The safari was good today. The cooler weather brought out some animals that usually hide from the heat. Two big hippos were sunning themselves on the shore. That's a lot of hippo.

And a lioness was out, sunning herself on top of the huge rocks in her area. Usually when we visit in the afternoon the lions are napping in the cooler areas out of sight. 

All that napping got us thinking it was time to go home, so we did.