It just dawned on me last night that Sophie's seventh birthday is only three weeks away!

I have no idea what gift we should get for her. She doesn't have any suggestions either.

Ideas, please??

I had thought maybe we could get her a trampoline if the house sale goes through ... however that's certainly not a done deal at this point. We had the home inspection done this morning (another 300-odd bucks out of my pocket, sigh) and they said that the entire roof will need to replaced within the next couple of years.

So, it's up to the seller now : our realtor has suggested that they either they have the roof replaced right now, or get quotes and write us a cheque that'll allow us to replace it when necessary. Someone is coming to give them a quote tomorrow, so they can see how much they're looking at. The inspector estimated around $5000. Then they'll have to decide what they want to do. Oh, and the airconditioning system also looked a bit dodgy; apparently it's working fine but it's quite rusty. Not good.

It would be insane for us to buy it as is : we need to be able to sell it as a profit in two or so years' time.

Aside from the roof and the air-con system, everything looked good. No evidence of termites, no dry rot or weird wiring or anything ..

Seems like they just don't build things to last here. Apparently a roof only lasts 12 or so years down here in Florida - they don't use real tiles (too expensive, apparently) - and whatever composite stuff they use just doesn't stand up to Florida sunshine over the longterm. Did none of them ever read the story of the three little pigs when they were young, that's what I want to know. All these wooden houses (in one of the top three termite zones in the country, the inspector told me) with roofs that disintegrate after a few years ... it's silly.

Hopefully we'll hear back from the seller tomorrow, because if we need to walk away from this house we need to get busy with the househunting again.

Meanwhile, don't forget, I need ideas for the Sophster's gift!