The Eagle has Landed

As many readers of this blog know, we are fortunate to own a little slice of heaven on the shores of Lake Huron, just about 3 miles south of the Au Sable River, near Oscoda, Michigan.  We purchased our cottage in January, 2010, and little by little, we have made this place our own.  In 2010, we contracted to have new windows and flooring installed.  In 2011 a new kitchen found its way to our cottage.  This year, we put in a deck to make the comings and goings from the beach a little easier.  The deck is also a fine place for a libation at the end of a long day.


This is a view of our cottage and the new deck taken a few feet towards Lake Huron:

This is the view from our deck towards Lake Huron:

We gave our cottage a name, calling it East of the Equator.  The origins of that name can be found here.  We purchased this place to relax, unwind and most importantly, recharge.  Deirdre and I have hectic jobs that keep us busy almost every day of the week.  We come to our cottage to get away from recharge our batteries to face whatever comes our way during the next work week.


An added benefit of owning a cottage where we do is that American Bald Eagles are part of the indigenous animal population.  We have been fortunate to see a few of these amazing birds quite a few times since the beginning of the year.  There is a pine tree one cottage south of ours where an eagle will sometimes roost and today, roost he did.  Here are a few images of the eagle, who was clearly enjoying the view, too:

These were the best images I could capture with my Nikon CoolPix.  Deirdre had her Nikon D300 with a zoom lens and she captured more images, that will certainly soon make it to her blog.  After about 20 minutes, the eagle had seen all that it wanted to see, and left.  He was completely silent as he departed, flying down the beach for a hundred yards or so before heading inland.  It is an amazing thing to see this magnificent bird of prey fly.

So, if you ever find yourself near Oscoda on a Saturday or a Sunday during the summer, chances are Deirdre and I will be East of the Equator, along with perhaps an eagle two.  Stop on by and remember that cocktails are served at 6:30PM, sharp!

Oscoda musings

In the very near future, a moving van will darken my door and take a few belongings on a road trip to the eastern edge of the Enchanted Mitten. The aforementioned van will travel to Oscoda, Michigan, where they will stop at the cottage me and the HR Maven purchased back in January. We had some work done on the place in March and it is now ready for us to put our personal imprint upon it. Look for updates over the course of the next few weeks as we make this property our weekend get-away.

East of the Equator Cottage

OK, a disclaimer. My blog has been pretty quiet the past few weeks and the reason why is that I took the bold step of buying Windows 7. Yep, I fell for Microsoft's advertising and thought, "This time, things will be different. This time, it will just work." I have the sad duty to report that despite the fact that the Windows 7 Support website checked my computer for compatibility with Windows 7 and told me that my computer can run on this operating system, I have experienced nothing but problems with Windows 7. My computer is stable for maybe 45 minutes or so, then I get the Blue Screen of Death with the same error code: 0X000000F7. I have spent a couple hours each night since last Friday on the phone with a Microsoft technician trying to solve this problem. As I type this entry, I am waiting for another call. This, dear reader, is why I have not done much blogging. I have spent my evening hours trying to fix something that is just supposed to work. I am telling you, my next laptop is going to be a Mac.

On a happier note, we are about to close on a cottage located on the shores of Lake Huron. It will be known as "East of the Equator." Below are a couple of image of the cottage:

And this is a view of the beach. Life will be good, just East of the Equator where it is always a quarter past five.

Christmas came a little early for us

So, there I was, wandering around D&W picking up the food we need for the next couple of days when my cell phone rings. Pam, our loan officer from NFCU, called me to let me know that the appraisal recently done on the cottage we are hoping to purchase had been sent from underwriting to the mortgage department. The appraised value of the property is $11K more than the purchase price and no repairs are needed prior to closing. This is fantastic news as now we can set a closing date. Yep, Christmas came early for us this year!

Cottage inspection and pulltabs at the VFW

Well, this was quite a day for us here just east of the equator. Deirdre and I dropped Samson off at Whiskers a little after 7AM and he was howling with excitement when pulled into the parking lot. We handed him off to the able and capable Amber and Samson never looked back at us. We went back home to get clean, dress and then we hit the road for Oscoda at 8:30AM.

The drive east from Grand Rapids was a little sporty. We were hammered with over a foot of snot the past 24 hours and then the temperature dropped to the mid-teens. So we were driving over packed snow and ice until we were just west of Lansing. The I-69 was pretty clear and by the time we got to I-75 there was hardly any snow on the ground.

We arrived in Oscoda at 1:30PM, checked into our hotel and met with our realtor at 2:30PM. We left her office a little while later and arrived at the cottage at 3PM. Our home inspector, Dave, showed up a few minutes later and he went right to work. This cottage was a lot older than the first one we tried to buy but after his inspection Dave was happy to report that he had no major findings of problems. There are a few little things we will need to do once the weather gets warmer, but this cottage is in great shape and we will now order an appraisal so we can move forward with purchasing the property.

We got back to our hotel around 6PM and relaxed for a while and then we headed to Tait's Bill of Fare for dinner. We enjoyed a meal at a truly local place and then headed over to the VFW for a pint of Killian's Red and some pull tabs.

For those who are not familiar with pull tabs, they are sort of like an instant lottery ticket issued by the Michigan Lottery Commission that is sold by private clubs as a fund raiser. They are called pull tabs because in order to see if you won, you pull tabs off of the back of the ticket. I bought $10 of pull tabs, and we promptly won $10. I took the $10 we won to buy ten dollars worth of more pull tabs. Here is where things got interesting. From the $10 of "new" pull tabs we bought, there was a $100 winning pull tab! We also won an additional $3, so I bought more pull tabs. I regret to report that those last $3 of pull tabs did not have a winner. I am, however, happy to report that at the end of the evening we are $90 in the plus because of my $100 winner. An image of my winning ticket can be seen to the right of this text.

We are thrilled with the possibilities of this cottage. The home inspection found no issues with the property, so now all we need is for the appraisal of the value of the cottage to be at least as much as the purchase price. I am optimistic that this will be the case and that we will be able to close on the cottage sometime in January.

Cottage Update

In the course of the inspection on Friday last, there were a few issues identified by our home inspector. There are about 10 items that need to be addressed and corrected before we can close on the property, per our lender's requirements.

When we were at the cottage, the listing agent (call him "Ed" to protect the innocent and the guilty) was present and to be frank, he was depriving a village of an idiot. He argued with our inspector, until he hit the last nerve of the inspector who told him, "Ed, back off. Let me do my job and stay out of my way." After that comment from our inspector, Ed then started talking to us. He said to me, "So, what will need to be repaired after the inspection? This cottage is in perfect shape!" I said to him, "Ed, everything identified in the inspection will need to be addressed and corrected. My mortgage company will not fund the loan unless all items identified in this inspection are addressed and corrected." Ed bantered on for a while about the fishing in Lake Huron, asking me, "So, are you a fisherman?" I said "No, Ed I am not." He responded, "Well, the fish were down for a while, but they are coming back!" After that, I pretty much I ignored him for a while, but after 15 minutes or so he asked me again "What will need to be fixed?" I stated again, "Everything identified in the inspection, Ed."

Well, after we received the inspection report, on Monday we provided it to the sellers, along with our requirement that everything listed in the report had to be addressed and corrected. On Tuesday afternoon, the sellers countered with a reduction in the price of the cottage and to amend the purchase contract to "As is Condition." This clearly does not work for us. We communicated our lender's requirements, again, to Ed who clearly did not understand what I meant when I said that every discrepancy called out in the inspection report needed to be fixed before we could close on the property. We just heard rom our agent that the sellers are bringing in contractors to give them estimates to repair the issues identified in the inspection report.

We remain hopeful that this real estate transaction happens. I just hope that the sellers are not depending on Ed for sound real estate advice.

Cottage Update

Since my last posting about the cottage, we have accomplished the following:

1) Secured financing
2) Drove to Oscoda/Greenbush for the home inspection
3) Had the cottage inspected by a licensed home inspector
4) Communicated the findings of the inspection to the sellers

Now, Dee and I have to wait and see if the sellers will address the items discovered in the inspection. Updates to follow as things develop.

Cottage update

Since my last post, progress has been made on the cottage purchase. I have started the process to secure a mortgage for the property, and we have the home inspection scheduled for next week. We will drop Samson off at Whiskers, and head up for an overnight trip to Greenbush for the inspection. So far, so good. Everything is progressing along smoothly.

Stay tuned to this channel for future updates.

Back in Battery

The subject of this post is a phrase taken from my time in the Navy. Warships carry large caliber guns to shoot at people and things we do not like. These guns are known as a battery, and they have such fancy titles as "Mount 51" or "Mount 32." From time to time, maintenance needs to be done on the guns, and when the gun system is taken off line, it is known as being "out of battery." When the repairs or maintenance is completed, a report is made to the Tactical Action Officer that simply states, "Mount 51, back in battery." That simple report means that the gun is ready for action again.

Well, I am happy to report that I am "back in battery." I last updated this blog almost a month ago. Between work and a few projects, I just did not have the time or the inspiration to write. Well, my motivation is back and a few things have happened my life. Now for the update to the goings on here just east of the equator...

Work has kept me incredibly busy the past few weeks. Despite the tough economy out there right now, the General has kept me incredibly busy. GE Aviation here in Grand Rapids has been chasing new business and I have been busy assisting in the pursuit. I am also now a group manager, so I have additional responsibilities in overseeing the work of seven reliability engineers.

Last weekend, Deirdre and I made a road trip to Oscoda, Michigan, where our friend Steve has a cottage on the shores of Lake Huron. We went there for the specific purpose of searching for a cottage of our own. We visited Steve at the end of August and we got the bug to look in earnest for a cottage. Subsequent to our visit in August, we located a realtor (her name is Missy) and we told her what we were looking for in a cottage. Missy looked at some listings for us and arranged for us to see five different properties. Each one had some different to offer, and all of them were beachfront property.


I am happy to report that we have located a property and made an offer to purchase it. The seller has accepted our offer and now we have to work out a few details of the purchase. We will need to have the property inspected and appraised, and start the process to close on the property. We are expecting to close sometime in late November. The property is a two bedroom, one bath cottage on a lot that is 50' X 175' with a great view of Lake Huron.



The inside of the cottage is pretty typical of most cottages in northern Michigan: varnished knotty pine. The kitchen was recently updated and there is even a garage which blocks the sounds from U.S. 23, a road that snakes around the eastern shores of Lake Huron. This real estate transaction is a "work in progress," and there are a few milestones we will need to meet before we get the keys to the place. Look for updates as evolution this progresses.