Wish us luck! We put in an offer on a lot today. We wound up deciding
to go with a modular home builder, who has been wonderfully
accommodating to our needs - modular homes are way more flexible than
I'd imagined and I think we are getting something that is better for us
at a somewhat lesser price than the stick-built home we'd looked at.
We've been messing around working out the final arrangements with him
but got scared into making a move on this lot (one of the ones in our
school district that I posted about earlier) because suddenly out of
nowhere, another couple turned up who was ready to make an offer on the
same lot. It's turned out that they decided to put in an offer on
another lot in the same subdivision so we breathed a sigh of relief
(this one was really our favorite, although our second choice would have
been the one they picked), but we also decided that we were convinced
enough that we wanted to do this that it was time to take the plunge.
Our real estate agent suggested an offer $20,000 less than the listed
price of $130,000 - I'm dubious they'll go that low but it would be
awesome if they did, it would mean that we could afford to do a few more
things with the house. Anyway, they are supposed to let us know by 5:00
PM tomorrow! Here's hoping... 
They didn't budge - their counteroffer was just a repeat of the
listed price of $130,000. They also wanted us to take out the
"study period," but I'm danged if I'm going to take possession
without being sure that a viable well can be drilled on the lot. There
are no red flags to make me think it can't - a well on a lot down the
street that the same builder is working on got 10 gallons per minute -
but in this area, the water is in narrow cracks and fissures so there is
always a chance that just because the guy down the street got a great
well doesn't mean you will.
So, we will try again tomorrow with $120,000 - but I won't be surprised
if they say "$130,000 and no study period, take it or leave
it." And, much as we'd hoped to save a few thousand on the lot
price, we would suck it up and pay $130,000...but I don't know
about the no study period thing...
So, they didn't accept $120,000 for the lot either, BUT they accepted our stipulation that we be able to drill a well and get at least 4 gallons per minute before closing. Although we had of course hoped to save a few thousand dollars, the real issue for us was the well, so we will go ahead and submit a contract for $130,000 (tomorrow's Bob's West Virginia day, so it'll have to be Thursday). I'm a little disappointed about the money, but mostly relieved about the well - all of a sudden this is looking really real...
Well, we submitted a contract for the lot on Thursday. But on Saturday they came back to us and said they don't want to close in November (which it has said on all three of our offers, so they're only bringing this up now?), they want to close in January (so they can get some tax break, we're all assuming). The salesperson we're working with at the builder's was concerned that this might raise the cost of working on the lot because it puts the excavation in the dead of winter, and he was supposed to ask his boss today. I haven't heard back yet. If it's not going to raise our cost then I guess we'll probably accept it, but if it is, then I either want a discount of the amount it's going to cost us, or to close in November. Grrr...I think this guy has a lot of balls to refuse to lower his price and then expect us to be fine with waiting two months...
We have a signed contract on the lot. The builder said that he
thought he could deal with it without it costing us any more, so we
decided to just go ahead and accept the January closing date. The
sellers (the guy and his wife) had already signed, made the changes and
initialed them, so we just had to initial the changes too.
Next step will be to sign the contract with the builder. We're just
futzing around with a few details to determine the final price there - I
suspect we will be ready within the next week or so. The builder is
going to carry the cost of the land and building until it's complete,
which is why a longer delay between closing on the land and finishing
the house would have cost us, since their cost for that is ultimately
going to be folded into the mortgage. Then, once the well has come in OK
and our plans for the house have been approved (there's a covenant that
says that building plans have to be approved by the sellers, until the
lots are sold at which time it passes to an HOA - we stipulated in the
contract that our building plans had to be approved before closing),
we'll be good to go!
Meanwhile, I'm taking off a couple of days next week to work on getting
our house ready to sell... 
Today we finally had our first "team" meeting at school this year...
It went very well! The only negative thing we heard didn't surprise
us - that she's been having seizures at school. Trying to get something
done about her increased seizures has been maddening - three weeks after
my first conversation with the nurse in pediatric neurology (who was
supposed to talk to a doctor and get back to me) I tracked her back down
today to find out that the doc thought we should up one of her seizure
meds, but forgot to say how much before he went back out of town. The
kid is suffering (twice now she's told us through eye gaze that the
seizures [which are partial, so she remains conscious] hurt) and it
makes me so angry that we are not getting a better response! 
Anyway, I digress from the meeting today. Aside from that, NOBODY had
anything but positive things to say! The PT is happy with how long she
can stay in the stander and feels that her body positioning has
improved, the adaptive PE teacher said that she has been enjoying APE
and responding well (I understand that she didn't like it at first this
year, but now she's always happy to see "Mr. Dave" - who I
have to say is a decent-looking college guy, and I'm suspecting our
girl's a bit of a flirt!), the OT commented on how her oral eating is
becoming faster and smoother, she's attentive in class (although she
does get pulled out a lot for therapy) and best of all the group feels
that Laurel has gotten command of the whole yes/no question thing and
that it's time for her to move on to some actual communication software!
They are still setting it up (customizing something to be similar to the
communication book she's been using) but making quick progress on it -
it looks like they should have it set up pretty soon. They are a bit
worried about whether her physical control will be good enough (since
her answers are more consistent with eye gaze than with switches) but
are 100% convinced that she's otherwise ready and needs to move
on because communication with the book has been too frustratingly slow
for her. (As the special ed teacher's aide told me, "It takes seven
questions just to tell me she's cold.") It was thrilling to see the
whole group finally agreed that we have a smart girl on our hands! Their
affection for her was obvious, and they talked about her patience and
sense of humor (apparently now that they are making her tell them where
she wants to go for a walk as well as just that she wants to go for a
walk, she'll make them do things like go left, right, left). The special
ed teacher actually thanked us at the end for having such a wonderful
daughter and allowing them to work with her! It really feels like a
breakthrough year for Laurel.
I've been so busy
lately...with trying to get our house ready to sell (which seems like a
depressingly endless slog), making decisions about the new house (which
my darling DH has not been a bit of help on), adapting Laurel's homework
and doing it with her (I'm sure we spend more time on homework than any
other family in the first grade), moderating the local Freecycle list
(which has over 6000 members, a number of which seem to be certifiable),
and having quite literally more work to do than I have hours in a day to
do it in (I met with my boss last week over this, but nothing really
helpful came out of that), I just feel like I'm on a hamster wheel. At
least eventually there will be an end to the extra house-related
stuff, and also to Freecycle - I'm figuring on finding and training
another mod to replace me after the holidays and before we move. So that
will help, but right now I'm just focusing on hanging in there! 