Finally, some good news!

Since we applied for the financing with Chase, we've heard from someone new daily, it seems, asking for some new documentation. So when Gerald responded to the last inquiry, he asked about the appraisal. 

Yes, it was completed and it was favorable. In fact, it came in at about $150,000 more than the one Wells Fargo had ordered. We were relieved, of course. To think we had lost as much value as Wells Fargo said we did was almost inconceivable.

Now we have choices. We can go back to Wells Fargo to see about getting our original equity line reinstated as the new appraisal was well over the benchmark they told us it would take. Or we could proceed with Chase. One way or the other it looked like we were going to be able to finish this thing after all.

Still, the whole thing made us wonder about the process of appraising Real Estate and how two trained assessors could come up with such wildly different estimates.

Construction resumes, day two

We woke up on Sunday morning to raindrops on the canvas pop-outs. Gerald muttered a few choice words, but the rain didn't last.











I was able to take my morning hike without even getting wet. I had several opportunities to play with the different settings on my new camera. It has an awesome telephoto feature, which let me zoom in tight on one of the ranch's smaller residents.









By the time I returned around 7, Gerald and Joe were up and dressed. After breakfast, it didn't take them long to work out a system. They worked well together and swore they were getting more done with the just two of them than they did with all that help.









By afternoon, they were able to walk on a sub-floor over what will be the master bedroom. It was another hot day, and they learned it was helpful to soak a bandanna using water from the cooler and put it under their hats. This also protected their necks from sunburn.

You can see Joe's new truck in the background.








Even working until mid-afternoon on Sunday, there was still quite a bit of work left to do. But that would have to wait until next weekend as Gerald couldn't get any more help before Saturday. The garage door is to be delivered and installed on Friday morning, so we're hopeful that we'll have a secure storage place by next Saturday night.

Construction resumes, day one

We eventually got the appraisal from Wells Fargo, which was appalling and humbling, and didn't help us. We decided that rather than appeal it, we'd pursue other financing.

We started to feel like those people we read about in the paper all the time. People who did nothing wrong and didn't get caught up in the housing boom. People who now want to put ailing construction workers to work, people who can afford to, people who have good credit and have always paid their bills, but can't get financing. In short, we are now part of the crisis in liquidity that became one of the fallout from the housing crisis.

We applied for financing with Chase and got conditional approval. The condition, of course, being a home appraisal. The process would take 20 days on a fast track.

Meanwhile, Anderson was telling us we needed to get the doors and windows we had bought out of their warehouse. Gerald had the idea that if we could install the portion of flooring above our garage, we could at least secure the garage and store them there. So he scrambled to pull together the materials and labor with the hope of getting that accomplished on Saturday.

Christy's fiancee, Joe, had just bought a truck for his business. Normally, Joe matches up loads with trucks that are owned by someone else, but owning his own truck would put him in a different class. So Gerald "hired" him to haul some lumber up from Home Depot. Christy told him he'd better not take many clients like us, or they'd go broke, as he was working for no more than gas money. But Joe was still excited as this would be the first load in his new truck.

Gerald also bought some lumber from a lumber mill in Prescott, which was delivered Saturday. He also bought these overalls at Home Depot and modeled them before work began on Saturday morning. Bubba also modeled his ranch attire. I thought they both looked very handsome.

This is what the garage looked like before work started.













For the day, Gerald hired some help: J.C. Campbell (in the cowboy hat), who had done some brushing and backhoe work for us previously, and Mike Russell, our builder's retired father. Joe (right) volunteered his services.

Unfortunately, the morning was slow going. There was much angst about the measurements not being square, and many calls between Mike and Paul, our builder who was in Missouri, to discuss what to do about it. By mid-morning, frustrations ran high. Many on the crew thought Mike was being overly exacting. Also, temperatures were in the mid-90s, which didn't improve things.

On the brighter side, I'm happy to report that the wasp trap that Clay Thompson recommended in his column in The Republic worked very well. Our trap was packed with dead wasps. We discovered Kilt Lifter beer by Four Peaks Brewery also worked well. After noticing that her beer seemed to be attracting wasps, Christy left a half-full bottle out as a trap, and it was soon full of floaters.

Unfortunately the wasp factory seemed inexhaustible and, for some reason, they loved the garage. There were dozens of them flying around. The men talked about how it was a wonder no one got stung. Joe said one even flew up his pants, but then flew out again. It didn't make for good morale. Christy found that a butterfly net worked well and set about clearing the site. I had to put my camera on the sports setting to capture the action.

The men worked until it was dark, almost until 8 p.m., yet it seemed they had barely made a dent and J.C. and Mike would not be available to work on Sunday.

Hiking treasures

Here are some of the cool things I've found on my hikes.

This old car wreck is at the end of a little-used and overgrown road. It's a motorized car, but you can tell it's very old because the wheel spokes are wood.

I literally stumbled upon this mine shaft, which is not far from a road. There's nothing to warn you it's there, or any protection around it. I can see how people fall into these things. 

Here's a view of the mica mine. The silvery looking stuff is the mica.

Ranching relics are everywhere, as are active stock ponds and windmills, as cattle are still run all over the ranch. These old chutes are near our property line, adjacent to the old tin barn.

Of course, there's no lack of panoramic views. Here's a view of Rocky Boy Peak, with Peeples Valley in the distance.

One impasse down, one to go

We spent Friday driving around Prescott on various errands: picking up the transformer pad from APS, evaluating wood at a lumber mill. We also looked at a double-sided fireplace Gerald saw advertised on Craigslist. It had been installed in a restaurant and never used. We picked it up for $250.

During the course of the week, we came to an understanding with our builder, Paul Russell, along the lines of our original expectations. That was a relief. All that remains is dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's on--you guessed it--a contract! 

As for the credit issue, that was another story. The appraiser appeared 

at our house promptly on Monday morning, conducted his assessment and told us he hoped to get the full appraisal done that day. He said the loan officer at Wells Fargo would have it no later than Tuesday by the close of business. By 5 p.m. Friday, the appraisal was still MIA. 

We called the assessor's office Friday afternoon. Someone there told us that the assessment had to be done no later than that day, but the deadline was midnight. Wells Fargo assured us that their loan office was open both Saturday and Sunday. But when we called on Saturday, we were told there were no underwriters working. So it looked like Monday will be the earliest we'll get it resolved.

That was frustrating, but when we arrived at the land Gerald noticed a cloud with a silver lining, so we took it as a good omen.

We had a visitor while we were sitting around the campfire, but he didn't stay long.

Members of all three households in phase three of Ruger Ranch were in residence, which was rare, and occasion to celebrate. So we headed to Nowhere for an informal gathering of the Homeowners Association. From left to right between Gerald and me are Tom and Linda, who live part-time in the house at the gate, and Don Stowe who lives full time at the only other house in phase three. His wife Kathleen was behind the camera. The Stowes are our closest neighbors. Their Painted Shadows Ranch is about 2 miles from our parcel.

We decided to try a new method for trapping wasps. The so-called commercial wasp trap we bought didn't trap a single one. 

Our friends the McCraines suggested hanging a strip of raw bacon over a pail of water. That seemed to work, but mostly when we weren't there. When we arrived, there would always be bodies floating in the bucket, but the wasps seemed prefer our company when we were there. 

This new method, cutting the top off a bottle and inverting it like a funnel we took from Clay Thompson's column in The Arizona Republic. It's supposed to act like a wasp motel. Wasps check in, but they can't get out. We'll see.

It rained most of the day on Saturday, which was fine with us as we spent it at the old, one-room schoolhouse in Peeples Valley. The Yarnell-PV historical society invited a longtime owner of several mining claims on nearby Rich Hill to tell stories. It was very entertaining, and the cookies were killer. Gerald ate four. We had dinner in Yarnell, and by the time we got back it had stopped raining.

The morning dawned clear and beautiful. When I set out for my morning hike, the sun illuminated the water droplets that clung to the scrub oak and grasses. 

When I got back from my hike, Gerald insisted on taking this picture of me in my hiking gear even though I was sweaty and suffered from hat hair. He seemed to think the blog needed more pictures of me. 

I'm wearing brush pants, which are great protection from cat's claw for those times I wander off the road, which I do more often than I intend to. That's a Walther P22 on my hip. Gerald insists I carry it, mostly to make enough noise to scare off a mountain lion or bear, if I ever encounter one. In my backpack I carry the things I've found essential for exploring: a cellphone just in case I get into trouble, flourescent tape for marking trails, hand clippers and gloves to cut cat's claw and scrub oak from trails, a camera (so I can share the wonders I've seen with Gerald), a hat, a bird book and binoculars. 

I've seen a lot of beautiful birds on my hikes: red and black Spotted Towhees, bright yellow and black Hooded Orioles, Phainopeplas (which sound lovely, but unfortunately spread mistletoe), a Red-tail Hawk, and blue bird that Gerald figures is probably a pinyon jay, though I've only actually seen a flash of blue. A Western Kingbird has taken up residence in the pinyon pine right outside our "casita."

Effects of the mortgage crisis and other tales of woe

The last weekend of July, we didn't spend much time at the land. We attended an event at the Phippen Museum in Prescott on Friday night then stayed in Prescott with friends and attended the Cowpunchers Reunion Rodeo in Williams on Saturday. Here's Gerald outside Rod's Steak House in Williams.

Friday afternoon, on the way to the Phippen, we dropped off a check to APS. By the time we arrived at the land on Saturday afternoon, they had already marked where they wanted the trench dug.

The block work was completed-- here's our garage--but we were still at an impasse on the framing.

Since we put the framing out to bid again, we had some trouble with our lender, Wells Fargo. We had been building the house using a line of credit they had offered us on very good terms.

Gerald was just about to transfer enough to cover the materials package, when he noticed that our available balance was far too small. In fact, it would just about cover materials and nothing more. He checked with the bank and found that they had reduced our credit line by nearly $100,000 based on declining real estate values. We could, however, request an appraisal, which we promptly did. If the property appraised at high enough to reinstate the full equity line, we wouldn't have to pay for it. Then they started asking for all sorts of documentation. "Wait a minute," Gerald said. "You're asking us to reapply for a loan you already gave us?" Yes, the bank official said. That's what they were doing. That offended Gerald, since we have used Wells Fargo for all our accounts, including business, for years but after arguing for several days, he gave in.

Meanwhile, we were having some misgivings about our builder, Paul Russell. Since moving to Missouri, things weren't working out as we had hoped. He kept talking about how this project was causing him difficulties. We started to think he was going to back out. That might have been okay except for the situation with the backhoe.

When Paul was still here, he had the idea that we could buy a backhoe. The benefits to us would be that it would be on site to do all sorts of things: brushing, APS trench digging. It would save us money because we wouldn't have to pay for a backhoe to be transported every time one was needed. At the end of the project, Paul would take it with him to Missouri, which would make him more valuable to his new employer.

So we bought a backhoe Paul found for $30,000. We paid Paul for expenses like permits. We paid him for digging the septic system after the contractor he recommended came in at what seemed like an unreasonable price. We paid him what he would need to pay the concrete people and for doors and windows. We also gave him what we thought was a $10,000 deposit on lumber. We didn't pay him for his labor because in our minds he was working off a $30,000 backhoe. Unfortunately, we didn't put any of this in writing.

So when the question of framing came up, we got our own bids and also asked Paul for one. We had a bid from a contractor we liked for $36,800 that included the framing and siding. Paul thought he'd be able to put together a crew, come back for a couple of weeks and complete the framing for maybe $15,000 plus the backhoe. Then we'd all be done and he could get on with our life. With our credit squeeze this sounded like our best option.

We waited for weeks for Paul to come up with a bid. When he finally did, he said he found a contractor who would do the framing for $26,000, not including siding. Paul would come back to help. He'd also dig the APS trench and we'd pay him $10,000 and he would take the backhoe.

This didn't seem like a good deal to us. We could pay one contractor around $37,000 to everything including the siding. The other option was to pay a total of $36,000 to Paul and a different contractor plus the $30,000 backhoe. Suddenly using Paul didn't seem like a smart move.

Given our cash situation, this was disappointing. And if we didn't use Paul, we still had the unresolved the issue of getting the backhoe worked off. At least there was the $10,000 materials deposit. We decided to ask Paul to send it back and use a different contractor as soon as we could get the financing resolved. We also asked Paul to send us a breakdown of the work he had done for us, so we could see what was remaining on is commitment. Gerald thought Paul had about 37 hours into the project and that wouldn't go very far toward paying off the backhoe.

When Gerald asked Paul if he could send the deposit back, he said he couldn't. "What do you mean you can't," Gerald asked. Apparently Paul had been using the money as a draw. His labors, he said, had come to nearly the whole $10,000. In his mind, he wasn't working off the backhoe. He somehow got the idea that if he kept the price of the project under a certain amount, we would give him a $30,000 backhoe. 

In addition to paying for his time. 

"What about the breakdown?" Gerald asked. Paul said he had e-mailed it, so we should have it when we got home. It was there, but it was less then illuminating. Paul listed $9,500 for "month and half (sic) dealing with permits, digging footings, layout of home, phone calls, trips to prescott, phoenix, gas, making sure all went well and people lined up, haul lumber, cut trees, etc." There was  no accounting of how much time he had spent, what he had actually spent for gas, what he was charging us for picking up a load of lumber to go to a job site he was heading for anyway. We had some problems with some things on the list. For example, if Paul had to re-dig footings, he should have charged back the contractor he hired to do it. We did think we should have to pay for it twice. There were other things, too.

Gerald spoke to Paul and said we had expected a little more information. $9,500 seemed like an awful lot for what we thought he had done. But in the end, he decided not to push for more figuring Paul would use whatever creative accounting he needed to to justify using that money. 

He let him know we weren't happy with the situation and couldn't seem to get Paul to see it as we did. Paul kept saying that if he kept the job under a certain amount, he would get the backhoe as part of his payment. Gerald couldn't seem to get him to understand that while we agreed on the target estimate, that didn't mean we wanted to spend more than we had to. And that's how this weekend ended, with Gerald asking Paul to come up with a solution that would work for us both by Tuesday. 

It was a painful lesson. The moral of the story? Don't assume anything. Get everything in writing. Ask for a detailed accounting often. Simple rules of business. Gerald is a shrewd and careful business man, which made the whole situation all the more painful. We could only hope that we could come to an understanding we could live with in the end.