Sold!!!!

A funny thing happened on my way to a project in Memphis, TN,
on Super Bowl Sunday morning 2 years ago.....

I left home in the morning heading south on I-57.....
cold Feb morning in the mid-20's.
About 4-5 hours later, I had to stop for gas in Marion, IL...
and when I got out of the car it was a balmy 62*.
Same day....same state....obviously living north of Effingham in the winter was a cruel "Effing" joke and the folks in Southern Illinois
weren't letting anyone in on the secret.
This is a place I could retire someday I thought.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2008.....
while spending a weekend in Marion with the kids on a fact finding mission....
we realized really how beautiful Southern Illinois is with the rolling hills, winery's and the gateway to the Shawnee National Forest.....
and not to sound cliche....
but everybody's a whole lot friendlier down there....a whole different pace.

Using all of the most state-of-the-art home searching tools like....
Zillow.com....Homes.com....UnitedCountry.com.....Realtor.com....
we were off house hunting.....and you know how it goes....
looks great online....and in person....it's another story.
Which leads me to the picture above with the FOR SALE sign tacked to the tree.....

During one of my solo searches while in Marion....
I ended up on a dead-end road near the Lake of Egypt, that had some pretty cool houses and was a real quiet spot.....
"nothing available" I thought until I got to the end of the dead-end and turned around to head out....and in the corner of my eye was this FOR SALE sign....
but unlike the picture above....
it was tacked to a tree close to 16 feet up in the air....
to where I couldn't read it and had to take a pic of it....
and zoom in on it when I got home to read the phone number,
written in weathered black marker.

Come to find that the 80+ year-old owner Wilma, knows nothing of Zillows.com/Homes.com etc....
and thought that this For Sale sign was a great way to market her home....
because she "wasn't going with a Realtor!"
Her and her husband were developers who started up in New Lenox, IL back in the day and still have property there.....they built this home on the Lake in the early 90's all to the specs and drawings of her husband.....who by the way was a Quadriplegic and managed everything from a wheelchair. He passed away a few years ago....and it was time for Wilma to move on. Very proud and strong woman who knows every brick/wire/beam and outlet in her house....
and not fun to negotiate with.
Needless to say after a long back and forth....
she accepted our offer on the same evening my Dad died back in Sept.
Not sure if Joe had anything to do with that or not....
but I will assume that he did for the sake of this post.

We closed on the house this afternoon.....very sentimental for Wilma....who now officially has to let go and move on to the next chapter of her life.....
as we open the next chapter of ours.
She broke down during the closing recounting her memories there....
and there wasn't a dry eye in the room.

She gave us photos of the building process and the original blueprints of the home that her husband drew up.....class act.

Pretty cool actually.....
considering her FOR SALE sign worked....just liked she planned it.

Not moving from Lockport anytime soon.....
but are looking for some strong backs who would like to trim some trees to earn
Reward Nights for a future weekend stay!





Best part of the day.....
was to think that it is early Feb....and the bass boat above was heading to his favorite spot.

Worst part of the day.....
When Wilma was giving Maribeth tips on avoiding the snake in the garden.

"You are my wife.....goodbye city life!"


HA!

Marty
Marion, IL