Yet another mini-update
Financing approved! We're now chained to a $150K, 30 year, 6% mortgage... or we will be officially next month. Just have to wait for the sellers to finish up the few repairs and inspections that we requested, and we'll be good to go.
I am really looking forward to having enough space for my books and my knitting stuff. Right now I live with stacked bags of yarn and leaning towers of books everywhere.
As a side note - for anyone who I am linked to via Facebook, I do want to keep the ties from here to there a one-way avenue. In others words, people who read the blog can be aware of that stuff, but I don't want the people I know only from the big F to mosey on over here. If they find me on their own, fabulous. And kudos, too, because I have tried Googling myself in a hundred different ways and I never turn up, which I consider a good thing.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sicko
Headcold just in time for my first day of work yesterday. So far, so good. Still in the set up phase, and it's hard to be productive when you're blowing your sore red nose every five minutes.
Mostly I'm reading all the information I need to be familiar with ASAP. Also signed up for Facebook. (Yes, finally! My sisters have been on me to do that for awhile.) So if I had an email addy from you, and you were in the Facebook network, you might have gotten tagged. Just say yes, okay? If you are on Facebook and are looking for me, I'm now there. I know you're excited - don't lie. Ha ha.
No new info on the house yet. I'll certainly update when I know more.
Headcold just in time for my first day of work yesterday. So far, so good. Still in the set up phase, and it's hard to be productive when you're blowing your sore red nose every five minutes.
Mostly I'm reading all the information I need to be familiar with ASAP. Also signed up for Facebook. (Yes, finally! My sisters have been on me to do that for awhile.) So if I had an email addy from you, and you were in the Facebook network, you might have gotten tagged. Just say yes, okay? If you are on Facebook and are looking for me, I'm now there. I know you're excited - don't lie. Ha ha.
No new info on the house yet. I'll certainly update when I know more.
Friday, August 17, 2007
A few more tidbits
Inspection went very well. I highly recommend buying from a builder who doesn't like to be cold. Foundation solid, insulation good, no water damage, good electrical. The hot water heater and the furnace will need to replaced sooner rather than later, but we were expecting that. Mostly needs some cosmetic work - scraping, painting, caulking - deck needs to be bolted in on one side where it is pulling away from the house a little (like an inch) and the back corner of the garage/outbuilding has a bit of erosion that needs to be fixed. So now we're just waiting on the bank. Appraisal is scheduled for Monday.
And that's all for now, because I just came back from the eye doctor and my pupils are still pretty blown.
After we close in September, I'll put some pictures of the house on Flickr.
Inspection went very well. I highly recommend buying from a builder who doesn't like to be cold. Foundation solid, insulation good, no water damage, good electrical. The hot water heater and the furnace will need to replaced sooner rather than later, but we were expecting that. Mostly needs some cosmetic work - scraping, painting, caulking - deck needs to be bolted in on one side where it is pulling away from the house a little (like an inch) and the back corner of the garage/outbuilding has a bit of erosion that needs to be fixed. So now we're just waiting on the bank. Appraisal is scheduled for Monday.
And that's all for now, because I just came back from the eye doctor and my pupils are still pretty blown.
After we close in September, I'll put some pictures of the house on Flickr.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Meep
Home inspection scheduled for Wednesday. If that goes well, appraisal will be Friday.
I start the new job on August 20th. I will still be working at the LYS (that's Local Yarn Shop for you non-knitters) every other Saturday and teaching the occasional sock or lace class.
As for the job, I don't want to post too many details here, but it's basically a guidance counselor-type coach and coordinator for the at-risk first-year students. If they want to succeed, I help them find a way to do it.
Also, I deleted blog links for anyone who hadn't posted since March. If you visit here and notice your link is gone, that would be why. If you start posting again, please let me know, because obviously I liked your blogs enough to put up the link in the first place. There's still a few who haven't updated since May. If that's still the case in October, those will be cleared as well. I do like to remain mostly on top of stuff like that - otherwise I forget and click the link and get disappointed all over again.
Home inspection scheduled for Wednesday. If that goes well, appraisal will be Friday.
I start the new job on August 20th. I will still be working at the LYS (that's Local Yarn Shop for you non-knitters) every other Saturday and teaching the occasional sock or lace class.
As for the job, I don't want to post too many details here, but it's basically a guidance counselor-type coach and coordinator for the at-risk first-year students. If they want to succeed, I help them find a way to do it.
Also, I deleted blog links for anyone who hadn't posted since March. If you visit here and notice your link is gone, that would be why. If you start posting again, please let me know, because obviously I liked your blogs enough to put up the link in the first place. There's still a few who haven't updated since May. If that's still the case in October, those will be cleared as well. I do like to remain mostly on top of stuff like that - otherwise I forget and click the link and get disappointed all over again.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Made Peace
Came home to find another note from the LL - profuse apologies and telling us she'd like to come to an arrangement with us. I went over to talk with her because I desperately needed to not feel all stressed out all the time. Again, big apologies from her, hugs, congratulations on the house, encouraged me to stay until our closing (Sept 14th!) and offered to help us move when the time came.
She also explained a little better the source of her stress - her daughter's expecting her first baby (after a few miscarriages) in November - and admitted that she just freaked out and stopped listening and then completely overreacted by calling her lawyer.
I'm still a little less forgiving about the note she left for us yesterday morning, but I think I need to let it go.
Anyway... now we just need good news on the home inspection and from the bank. We meet with the bank tomorrow around noon. Wish us luck.
Came home to find another note from the LL - profuse apologies and telling us she'd like to come to an arrangement with us. I went over to talk with her because I desperately needed to not feel all stressed out all the time. Again, big apologies from her, hugs, congratulations on the house, encouraged me to stay until our closing (Sept 14th!) and offered to help us move when the time came.
She also explained a little better the source of her stress - her daughter's expecting her first baby (after a few miscarriages) in November - and admitted that she just freaked out and stopped listening and then completely overreacted by calling her lawyer.
I'm still a little less forgiving about the note she left for us yesterday morning, but I think I need to let it go.
Anyway... now we just need good news on the home inspection and from the bank. We meet with the bank tomorrow around noon. Wish us luck.
Checking In
We came to an agreement on price with the sellers. Going to sign papers in a minute.
We also found an alternate place to live for September.
Now we just need to get a house inspection and clear things through the bank. We were pre-qualified for $5000 less than we're going to need, but I don't imagine that $5K will be a huge stumbling block.
Will post more as it happens.
(I'm still too stressed to eat, but at least I got a good night's sleep last night.)
We came to an agreement on price with the sellers. Going to sign papers in a minute.
We also found an alternate place to live for September.
Now we just need to get a house inspection and clear things through the bank. We were pre-qualified for $5000 less than we're going to need, but I don't imagine that $5K will be a huge stumbling block.
Will post more as it happens.
(I'm still too stressed to eat, but at least I got a good night's sleep last night.)
Monday, August 06, 2007
Blindsided
This all just went down last night, and I got about 4 hours of sleep (instead of my usual 8.5) and I know that unless I get this out of my head a bit, it's going to keep me up for many more nights.
We've been living in our current apartment for two years. We don't have a written lease. Partly because our landlady told us she's never had written leases, and also because we had a very good experience with our previous landlady without a written lease and it didn't occur to us that this time might be different. (Not smart on our part, clearly.)
When we moved in we agreed to stay through May. In May '06 we agreed to stay through August. In August '06, we agreed to stay "through the winter", and that after that we said we would be looking to buy a house. She asked us in June if we would be able to move out by August. As we hadn't seen any houses we liked then, we said that we weren't able to guarantee that, but that we were looking for houses. So in June, she told a potential renter that the place wouldn't be available for sure in August. She never seemed terribly upset about this and just asked that we keep her informed on the status of our house hunting.
We've been keeping her updated. There just hasn't been much definite to share.
Last week we found a house we like and today we'll be putting in an offer. If the offer is accepted, then our real estate agent said to expect 4-6 weeks for the closing process. We wanted to wait to see if the offer was accepted before giving our LL a definite date. For some reason, we were thinking that 30-45 days notice would be appropriate. (Maybe because it always has been in the past...)
Last night LL showed up all pissed off and ranting about how could we forget it was the beginning of the month? We had forgotten to give her the August rent check, which admittedly was our error. She lives in another house on the property so we usually just hand it to her when we see her. She's been down at her son's house taking care of the grandkids this week, and we've been running around house hunting, job interviewing, and farewell partying for friends who are moving away. But we've been a couple days late before and she hasn't cared, and we've given her rent up to a week early before when she needed it before a vacation. So I thought this was not such a huge deal.
She apparently took it as an insult and thought we had decided that August was going to be our last month and that we had just chosen not to inform her. We apologized repeatedly, but she wasn't hearing any of it, she just kept accusing us of taking advantage of her. She asked us if we could be out by September 1st because she has someone else who is interested in renting, and we said that we didn't think so. We said that October would be acceptable, and she countered with "I can't do November!" Um. Okay.
Insert much more yelling that we were being unfair and deceptive and just wanted to do things on our own schedule without thought for anyone else. Especially since EVERYONE KNOWS that she rents August to August only... Everyone except us, apparently. So we're sitting on the couch kind of just sputtering because we're completely unprepared for this, and she just says fine, she'll talk to us later, and storms out.
Ten minutes later she returns to let us know that she just talked to her lawyer and is "serving us papers" to be out by the 9th of next month. She says this is more than fair, fairer to us that we have been to her, and that she's giving us more notice than we gave her, and that she should have known better because she only has problems like this with people who have too much education. (!!! She teaches, same as we do...) We asked for clarification on that last month's rent and the security deposit, and she answered, adding, "Because I'M not dishonest." Basically implying that we are, of course.
I'm more upset about that than about having 30 days to figure out our living arrangements.
Pretty much I think it comes down to all of us hearing the same words and interpreting them differently. It's an issue of communication more than anything, and I have definitely learned my lesson about getting these agreements in writing.
So right now, best case scenario is that our offer is accepted, inspection goes well, bank agrees to finance (we are pre-approved, but they have to decide the house is worth the purchase price), and we're in the new house by October. Worse case, inspection goes bad, we have to find another apartment for a year. Either way, I think we're going to end up with our stuff in boxes, sleeping in a friend's spare room for a couple weeks.
I'm not sure whether I want to cry or scream.
This all just went down last night, and I got about 4 hours of sleep (instead of my usual 8.5) and I know that unless I get this out of my head a bit, it's going to keep me up for many more nights.
We've been living in our current apartment for two years. We don't have a written lease. Partly because our landlady told us she's never had written leases, and also because we had a very good experience with our previous landlady without a written lease and it didn't occur to us that this time might be different. (Not smart on our part, clearly.)
When we moved in we agreed to stay through May. In May '06 we agreed to stay through August. In August '06, we agreed to stay "through the winter", and that after that we said we would be looking to buy a house. She asked us in June if we would be able to move out by August. As we hadn't seen any houses we liked then, we said that we weren't able to guarantee that, but that we were looking for houses. So in June, she told a potential renter that the place wouldn't be available for sure in August. She never seemed terribly upset about this and just asked that we keep her informed on the status of our house hunting.
We've been keeping her updated. There just hasn't been much definite to share.
Last week we found a house we like and today we'll be putting in an offer. If the offer is accepted, then our real estate agent said to expect 4-6 weeks for the closing process. We wanted to wait to see if the offer was accepted before giving our LL a definite date. For some reason, we were thinking that 30-45 days notice would be appropriate. (Maybe because it always has been in the past...)
Last night LL showed up all pissed off and ranting about how could we forget it was the beginning of the month? We had forgotten to give her the August rent check, which admittedly was our error. She lives in another house on the property so we usually just hand it to her when we see her. She's been down at her son's house taking care of the grandkids this week, and we've been running around house hunting, job interviewing, and farewell partying for friends who are moving away. But we've been a couple days late before and she hasn't cared, and we've given her rent up to a week early before when she needed it before a vacation. So I thought this was not such a huge deal.
She apparently took it as an insult and thought we had decided that August was going to be our last month and that we had just chosen not to inform her. We apologized repeatedly, but she wasn't hearing any of it, she just kept accusing us of taking advantage of her. She asked us if we could be out by September 1st because she has someone else who is interested in renting, and we said that we didn't think so. We said that October would be acceptable, and she countered with "I can't do November!" Um. Okay.
Insert much more yelling that we were being unfair and deceptive and just wanted to do things on our own schedule without thought for anyone else. Especially since EVERYONE KNOWS that she rents August to August only... Everyone except us, apparently. So we're sitting on the couch kind of just sputtering because we're completely unprepared for this, and she just says fine, she'll talk to us later, and storms out.
Ten minutes later she returns to let us know that she just talked to her lawyer and is "serving us papers" to be out by the 9th of next month. She says this is more than fair, fairer to us that we have been to her, and that she's giving us more notice than we gave her, and that she should have known better because she only has problems like this with people who have too much education. (!!! She teaches, same as we do...) We asked for clarification on that last month's rent and the security deposit, and she answered, adding, "Because I'M not dishonest." Basically implying that we are, of course.
I'm more upset about that than about having 30 days to figure out our living arrangements.
Pretty much I think it comes down to all of us hearing the same words and interpreting them differently. It's an issue of communication more than anything, and I have definitely learned my lesson about getting these agreements in writing.
So right now, best case scenario is that our offer is accepted, inspection goes well, bank agrees to finance (we are pre-approved, but they have to decide the house is worth the purchase price), and we're in the new house by October. Worse case, inspection goes bad, we have to find another apartment for a year. Either way, I think we're going to end up with our stuff in boxes, sleeping in a friend's spare room for a couple weeks.
I'm not sure whether I want to cry or scream.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Still Here
Been a hectic week or so. We found a house we intend to make an offer on, had friends visiting from out of town, have friends leaving town unexpectedly for a new job in Virginia, had a job interview for a newly created position at the college, been working at the yarn shop, been knitting, been reading...
Hmmm. Looking at that list, no wonder I haven't posted in a while.
The job interview went well. I'm one of their top two candidates out of 56 people who applied. The other guy interviews on Monday, and I should know about the job by the middle or end of next week.
We'll officially put the offer on the house after I know about the job, just for peace of mind sake, though we will still offer on the house even if I don't get the job. It's a little farther north than we had originally intended to look, but it's the first house we've seen that I felt at home in. It has views, three bedrooms, good light, a separate garage/workshop, about 3 acres, and in a quiet neighborhood that's really only about 5-10 minutes from the interstate, and 5 miles either direction to two good kayaking lakes.
Things might continue to be quiet around here until the next week or two play out, but I will be sure to update as I get new information.
Been a hectic week or so. We found a house we intend to make an offer on, had friends visiting from out of town, have friends leaving town unexpectedly for a new job in Virginia, had a job interview for a newly created position at the college, been working at the yarn shop, been knitting, been reading...
Hmmm. Looking at that list, no wonder I haven't posted in a while.
The job interview went well. I'm one of their top two candidates out of 56 people who applied. The other guy interviews on Monday, and I should know about the job by the middle or end of next week.
We'll officially put the offer on the house after I know about the job, just for peace of mind sake, though we will still offer on the house even if I don't get the job. It's a little farther north than we had originally intended to look, but it's the first house we've seen that I felt at home in. It has views, three bedrooms, good light, a separate garage/workshop, about 3 acres, and in a quiet neighborhood that's really only about 5-10 minutes from the interstate, and 5 miles either direction to two good kayaking lakes.
Things might continue to be quiet around here until the next week or two play out, but I will be sure to update as I get new information.
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