Inspection on the new house went pretty well, not too many unexpected findings and most of them not expensive. We need to check on the price of repairing the chimney if we want to add any sort of wood or pellet stove in the basement.
After a couple of days of calming down, our buyer is sounding amenable to $1k to clean the mold and repair the shower vent, so that is much less stressful. The mold in the attic is much less wide-spread than she originally made it sound.
Basketball yesterday was finally a win for our team, thank goodness. We didn't play especially well, but the other team only had 6 people and one of them had a sprained ankle during the game, so they were a little worn out. But last week, we lost to a team that only had 4 players for most of the fourth quarter, so we certainly can't take anything for granted.
K is snuffly and coughing continuously, and my horrible hacking cough is back after a sharp elbow to the chest yesterday.
16 January 2006
14 January 2006
Inspector gadget
Inspection time on our current house came yesterday and with the exception of the re-occuring mold in the attic, went fine. Now all I have to do is figure out where we're going to get $5k to "remediate" the mold so it doesn't come back.
This afternoon is our inspection on the new house, so I'll try and update later. I have a sad sinking feeling about the whole deal, but K tells me I'm over-reacting.
This afternoon is our inspection on the new house, so I'll try and update later. I have a sad sinking feeling about the whole deal, but K tells me I'm over-reacting.
11 January 2006
Workin' hard for the money
I didn't update on Monday to tell you the rest of my patented HAPPY DANCE news. I got the ambulance job at the new place. The giant scratch down the length of the passenger side of my brand-new car (from sliding off the driveway into the ditch) was able to be buffed out for $30 instead of having to repaint the whole thing for $800. And of course, the house.
I ran into some folks in the hallway at work on Monday afternoon and just after hello they said, "Wow, you look really happy today." Maybe that happens regularly to other people, but I don't remember it ever happening to me. Generally people believe I'm pissed off at all points in time and I've even had a few tell me I'm kinda scary. I've been working on that, so maybe it's paying off. Or maybe the HAPPY DANCE gave me away.
For the new job, I had to drive 2 hours on Tuesday to leave pee with them (you have to take your drug test within 48 hours of being offered a job). I convinced them to do the rest of the physical/paperwork/everything else we could cram in then too, but I still have to go all the way back down on Thursday for them to read my TB test because they don't trust anyone else to do it. Thankfully, I talked them out of requiring my second TB test next week down there - requiring 2 more round trips, and I'm having it done at my doctor.
In case you were wondering, no, I'm not still doing the HAPPY DANCE. That ended Monday evening with a call from the woman (T) buying our place. She needs to move the closing back from 2/1 to 2/8 because she is having urgent (but not quite emergency) surgery on 1/31 and won't be out of the hospital. Yes, she told me all the details and it's for real, she may actually have to have it as an emergency surgery some time before the end of the month. Our closing on the new house isn't until 2/10 so that might not sound like a problem. But, for those of you who haven't done the house-buying thing, purchase contracts have contingencies where if something doesn't happen by a certain point, life is bad.
Our sales contingency was for our house here to be sold and done with by 2/1. T and I tried very hard to figure out another way to get everything done before her surgery, but the bank can't do it any earlier than 1/31, the money for their down payment isn't available until 2/1, she isn't out of the hospital until at least 2/3 (and even then will be drugged probably past the point of legal competence), the bank won't close on the weekend, and before you know it we were back at 2/8. So today I get to make a dozen phone calls to try and figure out if our sellers will accept the change, if our bank can handle the transfers in a timely enough manner for the money to be available by 2/10, and just how and whether this is going to work. Aack. If I had a stress dance, I'd be doing it.
I ran into some folks in the hallway at work on Monday afternoon and just after hello they said, "Wow, you look really happy today." Maybe that happens regularly to other people, but I don't remember it ever happening to me. Generally people believe I'm pissed off at all points in time and I've even had a few tell me I'm kinda scary. I've been working on that, so maybe it's paying off. Or maybe the HAPPY DANCE gave me away.
For the new job, I had to drive 2 hours on Tuesday to leave pee with them (you have to take your drug test within 48 hours of being offered a job). I convinced them to do the rest of the physical/paperwork/everything else we could cram in then too, but I still have to go all the way back down on Thursday for them to read my TB test because they don't trust anyone else to do it. Thankfully, I talked them out of requiring my second TB test next week down there - requiring 2 more round trips, and I'm having it done at my doctor.
In case you were wondering, no, I'm not still doing the HAPPY DANCE. That ended Monday evening with a call from the woman (T) buying our place. She needs to move the closing back from 2/1 to 2/8 because she is having urgent (but not quite emergency) surgery on 1/31 and won't be out of the hospital. Yes, she told me all the details and it's for real, she may actually have to have it as an emergency surgery some time before the end of the month. Our closing on the new house isn't until 2/10 so that might not sound like a problem. But, for those of you who haven't done the house-buying thing, purchase contracts have contingencies where if something doesn't happen by a certain point, life is bad.
Our sales contingency was for our house here to be sold and done with by 2/1. T and I tried very hard to figure out another way to get everything done before her surgery, but the bank can't do it any earlier than 1/31, the money for their down payment isn't available until 2/1, she isn't out of the hospital until at least 2/3 (and even then will be drugged probably past the point of legal competence), the bank won't close on the weekend, and before you know it we were back at 2/8. So today I get to make a dozen phone calls to try and figure out if our sellers will accept the change, if our bank can handle the transfers in a timely enough manner for the money to be available by 2/10, and just how and whether this is going to work. Aack. If I had a stress dance, I'd be doing it.
09 January 2006
Country road, take me home
Awww yeah baby! We have a house! The sellers took our counter-offer and we are all hooked up. Now we just have 7 million pieces of paper to sign, a home inspection, a bank appraisal, and figuring out some way to get all our junk off the giant hill our current house is on. Piece of cake (I'm trying to be optimistic). [Insert HAPPY DANCE here]
08 January 2006
Home at last?
We put in another offer yesterday, and someone is finally talking to us! We haven't come to an agreement yet with them but they countered our offer, and we responded with another price within $2500 of theirs, so we're waiting again. Their agent said that their last offer was "rock bottom" price, but us and our agent were fairly skeptical about that. I'll update when I hear.
06 January 2006
How rude
Okay, a little venting here. WTF is wrong with real estate agents? How can you be a listing agent on a property and not return phone calls!?! We've had difficulty getting in to see houses because of this, which maybe I can understand a little bit - if they have to call the people who are living there and all that jazz. But once someone puts in an offer on the property?
This is basically the foreplay stage of house buying and you do NOT just stop returning calls if you ever want to get to the big finish. We've now put offers in on two separate houses and nothing. A whole lotta nothing. I could handle a "No" or a counter-offer asking for more money, but to just ignore us completely? The second house is about ready to be foreclosed on, I expected the lawyer would be motivated to do something. Apparently that something was to ignore us.
p.s. Check out the new link to the Hayflinger blog and see the cute twins!
*Edited to add (13:00): I heard back from our agent this morning and apparently the lawyer on the almost-foreclosed house accepted another offer because it didn't have the contingency of selling an existing home which was apparently a big deal, despite the fact that our house is under contract already. The first house had 2 other offers to present with ours so I'm not surprised we didn't get it, just seems rude not to at least call and say that they accepted something else. But that is the same place that the selling agent called our agent to make sure we didn't want "to increase our offer" before she presented them to the sellers, so I wasn't too shocked she didn't know how to be polite.
This is basically the foreplay stage of house buying and you do NOT just stop returning calls if you ever want to get to the big finish. We've now put offers in on two separate houses and nothing. A whole lotta nothing. I could handle a "No" or a counter-offer asking for more money, but to just ignore us completely? The second house is about ready to be foreclosed on, I expected the lawyer would be motivated to do something. Apparently that something was to ignore us.
p.s. Check out the new link to the Hayflinger blog and see the cute twins!
*Edited to add (13:00): I heard back from our agent this morning and apparently the lawyer on the almost-foreclosed house accepted another offer because it didn't have the contingency of selling an existing home which was apparently a big deal, despite the fact that our house is under contract already. The first house had 2 other offers to present with ours so I'm not surprised we didn't get it, just seems rude not to at least call and say that they accepted something else. But that is the same place that the selling agent called our agent to make sure we didn't want "to increase our offer" before she presented them to the sellers, so I wasn't too shocked she didn't know how to be polite.
03 January 2006
House hunting
Along with moving always comes finding somewhere to move to. As pathetic as it sounds, I actually like house hunting. Not quite as much fun with the empty houses, but always fascinating with the ones that people are still living in. You see so much that you wouldn't normally be privy to and from people you don't know and will probably never meet. I go out of my way not to pry in the occupied houses - I don't open cupboards, I only briefly open closets and try not to notice anything, I try and imagine how my furniture would look rather than staring at theirs. But sometimes, the stuff that is there overwhelms my ability to be discrete.
Yesterday we looked at three houses. One was purely frightening, beginning with the old tractor and dumptruck/plow in front of the house (I'm guessing the neighbors were thrilled to see the realtor's sign go up), continuing to the 1/2 bath with a toilet so close to the washer and dryer I think you'd have to be a contortionist to use it, a floor you could just about fall through in the kitchen, along with appliances probably original to the house in the 1940s, and having a stunning conclusion in a spiral staircase so narrow and rickety that living in that house would be pretty much a death sentence for someone as clumsy as I am since the only shower was up there. It also appeared not to have been cleaned in the last 20 years.
House number two was considerably less frightening, but K was completely distracted by the contents. After he pointed out the 47th guitar and/or amplifier, I snapped. How am I supposed to notice important things about the house - like whether it looks like the ceiling is going to fall in, or what the heck is wrong with that siding, or how many pieces of trim are missing - when every 5 steps someone is wanting me to look at something completely irrelevant?
House number three was empty with both the electricity and the water turned off, so it was about 40 degrees inside. K commented later that it was sort of hard to picture that house as warm and inviting since it was so darn cold, but we actually liked it and will probably put an offer in on it today. The most entertaining thing there was all the faux finishes. The kitchen was "country" with crackle finish on the cabinets and wire mesh in the doors above the fridge. The 1/2 bath downstairs also had some sort of odd "antiquing" on the cabinets. The wall by the stairs was maroon with a gold random leafy pattern stenciled on. The walls in the master bedroom were green with a stencil pattern that resembled abstract palm fronds. I can't even imagine the hours it took to do all that, nor the desire to do it.
Yesterday we looked at three houses. One was purely frightening, beginning with the old tractor and dumptruck/plow in front of the house (I'm guessing the neighbors were thrilled to see the realtor's sign go up), continuing to the 1/2 bath with a toilet so close to the washer and dryer I think you'd have to be a contortionist to use it, a floor you could just about fall through in the kitchen, along with appliances probably original to the house in the 1940s, and having a stunning conclusion in a spiral staircase so narrow and rickety that living in that house would be pretty much a death sentence for someone as clumsy as I am since the only shower was up there. It also appeared not to have been cleaned in the last 20 years.
House number two was considerably less frightening, but K was completely distracted by the contents. After he pointed out the 47th guitar and/or amplifier, I snapped. How am I supposed to notice important things about the house - like whether it looks like the ceiling is going to fall in, or what the heck is wrong with that siding, or how many pieces of trim are missing - when every 5 steps someone is wanting me to look at something completely irrelevant?
House number three was empty with both the electricity and the water turned off, so it was about 40 degrees inside. K commented later that it was sort of hard to picture that house as warm and inviting since it was so darn cold, but we actually liked it and will probably put an offer in on it today. The most entertaining thing there was all the faux finishes. The kitchen was "country" with crackle finish on the cabinets and wire mesh in the doors above the fridge. The 1/2 bath downstairs also had some sort of odd "antiquing" on the cabinets. The wall by the stairs was maroon with a gold random leafy pattern stenciled on. The walls in the master bedroom were green with a stencil pattern that resembled abstract palm fronds. I can't even imagine the hours it took to do all that, nor the desire to do it.
01 January 2006
Space invaders
Okay, maybe he's not from outer space, but little Z certainly has taken over our place. I don't mind, in fact I asked for it, but it is truly amazing how one little person can positively rule the roost within minutes. He fusses and we all snap to.
Last night was K and I alone with Z while NSP had a fun party evening with people she hadn't seen in a year, and it went better than expected. He only got up a few times (although staying up from 4-6a was a little uncalled-for) and managed not to scream too much. K even managed to sleep through much of the night, but when his watch alarm (!) went off at 6a, I handed him off and told K that since he woke Z, he could get him back to sleep. And I got an early a.m. nap. Z treated us to some toxic waste later in the morning and was ready to see his mommy when she got home.
Last night was K and I alone with Z while NSP had a fun party evening with people she hadn't seen in a year, and it went better than expected. He only got up a few times (although staying up from 4-6a was a little uncalled-for) and managed not to scream too much. K even managed to sleep through much of the night, but when his watch alarm (!) went off at 6a, I handed him off and told K that since he woke Z, he could get him back to sleep. And I got an early a.m. nap. Z treated us to some toxic waste later in the morning and was ready to see his mommy when she got home.