chastened by mother nature for act of hubris

After enjoying spring-ish weather, walking around the new neighborhood, and doing some cleanup in the yard... we decided to purchase some patio furniture for the back deck.

I feel I must apologize to everyone in the valley for resulting snow fall. We had at least 2-3 inches at our house.

house chaos, kitchen chaos, more lame book reviews

We've slowly been settling into the house. Hampered in large part by our decision to remodel the kitchen. So far, so good. It has stayed on schedule, and is turning out well.

A little over one more week of no kitchen sink or appliances to go, then we'll be able to stop living off of the kindness of friends and family, the mini-fridge and microwave, and waaaaaaay too many take-away and fast food dinners.

Further lame book reviews accumulated during the move and holidays. To further distill my always lame, and always blessedly brief reviews, they will be presented in list form.

First the Good:

• Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman. Interesting alien(s).
  
• They Call me Naughty Lola, edited by David Rose. A collection of personals from the London Review of Books. Bizarre and very funny.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (aka Bladerunner), Philip K. Dick.
  
• Also decided to pick up some science fiction classics I had never read. All pretty fun. A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge. Also, The Mote in God's Eye, and The Gripping Hand, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
  

Next, the mediocre:

• Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
• The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road -- by Guy Gavriel Kay. Re-read these. I remember picking them up years ago because I'd heard such good reviews. I remembered not liking them much. I thought I'd give them another go since my tastes have changed quite a bit since then. Still found them very annoying. Stilted dialogue, and the whole college-kids transported into alternate medieval reality thing kept making me think Ren Faire.

so close, yet so far

The appraisal is complete and our buyers haven't complained so it must have covered the sale price. Our buyers decided to do the inspection themselves, which we found odd. It's a fairly new home, and we are paying for a home warranty, so maybe they don't think much could be wrong. But, we're baffled that they wouldn't spend a couple hundred to get a professional to look over the house to verify there aren't any non-obvious problems.

The sellers on our new home were happy to extend the closing date on our contract for another couple weeks, so everything is looking good for the closing and move in the next 2 weeks.

Our buyers came by on Sunday to do the inspection, said they needed 3 hours. We decided to head up to the new house, visit our friends across the street, and rake leaves. I'd assumed it would be about an hour's job.

15 orange bags, 6 blisters, and 4 hours later, we were done.

Did I mention we've got 7 big trees on the new lot? 2 ash trees, 3 maples, and another 2... something else ... and a couple assorted smaller trees -- peach, crab apple, birch. The ashes and had dropped all their leaves, the maples and other big trees still had the majority of their leaves. Guess what I get to look forward to doing again in a few days?

We roll back home around 8pm, and realize our buyers had left the back door out of the garage wide open. Awesome!

Soon all the contract drama will be over, and all that will be left is moving 9 years of accumulated crap. And then we can kick back on the huge back deck at the new house.

under contract!

Lots of interest on the house -- typically 5-10 viewings a week, for the 5-6 weeks we'd been listed. No offers till about 1.5 weeks ago when we got two in one day: one good offer, one low offer.

The 'good offer' went south fast. They had acted very flaky, so we were disappointed but not surprised.

• Our agent is told (on Wednesday): "We'll send you an offer today!"
• No offer. Our agent calls them and is told: "Oh, they're putting an offer in on a different house"
• 24 hours later, we get their offer. They've only offered $500 earnest money, ask for %3 in closing costs, and don't have show any money down for the loan.
  
• We decide to counter-offer, asking for $1000 in earnest money, and say we'll cover $5000 in closing costs rather than %3. Send the counter-offer Friday morning.
  
• Saturday: We hear from their agent, "I'll be talking to my clients this afternoon"
• Sunday: No word
• Monday: No word... Our agent calls, and is told "I'll be talking to my clients this afternoon"
• Monday evening: Their agent says the deal is off. Leaves some nonsensical message for our agent saying we should have just accepted the offer and we could have closed in 3 days. I don't know why he thought he could get the inspection, appraisal, and loan stuff all worked out in that time.

In the meantime, we'd also counter-offered the other offer. And did the counter-offer thing every day last week. The buyers appeared solid financially, and were motivated to buy in our neighborhood -- their cousins had just bought up the street from some desperate sellers (they had been on the market 6 months). That house also probably screwed everyone in the subdivision on appraisals (they'd listed in May for $280 and gradually dropped to $250, accepting a $237 offer). It was nearly identical to our house -- 100 sq feet more, but hideous inside. Despite the hideousness, it was clear from the start that our buyers really, really didn't want to spend more than their cousins.

After talking them up $7k from their initial offer, we ended up accepting quite a bit less than the asking price. However, with the current market, and the fact that we'd already found our new house and were under contract on it, we decided that we couldn't wait for the perfect offer. At the price we accepted we wouldn't have any worries with appraisal and it gives us enough profit to put 20% down on the new house with a bit left over.

Our agent's co-workers are amazed she got us under contract in ~5 weeks. Some of it was us being priced right, in the right location, and our hard work keeping the house clean. But a huge part of it was how hard she worked. Lots of marketing, including at least one open house a week. She was awesome, and very funny. Best of all, unlike a lot of horror stories we'd heard about realtors, she was always available. Any time we had questions, she was very quick to respond to phone calls or e-mails.

If you're selling (or buying) or planning to, I have no reservations recommending her. Shauna Thomas at the Sugarhouse Keller Williams (599-9126). Shauna also hooked us up with a mortgage broker: Rain Wallace at Citywide Home Loans. We didn't have as much one-on-one time with Rain, but she was great -- quick to answer phone/email questions, patiently showed us our options, and helped us lock in a loan with a great rate.

found it!

The pictures of our house are now on the online listing... all the paint colors and floor photographed well. And, our cat is now famous.



So far, things are looking pretty good for selling our house. Lots of interest. Open house this Sunday. Our realtor is so optimistic, she's going to have a 2 co-workers there to help her out.

Hopefully it'll all work out because we found the house to buy. The location we wanted, near my parents, near friends. Great neighborhood. We'll be going under contract on it tonight. I'm not sure if I feel relieved, or more panicky.

Best of all... the new house optionally includes 6 chickens. I know it's a bizarre and sad thing to have always wanted... but I really have liked the idea of having chickens. We're already speculating that our cat is finally going to be even more fascinated and intrigued by the outside. Maybe enough to get over her fear of the unknown.

sweet spot

After many self-imposed deadlines came and went, finally listed our house for sale this weekend.
We felt bad about letting the deadlines pass, but we wanted finish all the painting and staging of the house before we listed. Turns out that was a very good idea.

Listed it about 3pm Saturday. Around 5pm Saturday we got a from our realtor saying there was someone who wanted to look. Aaaiiiiieeee! We weren't ready. The house was a mess. Paint cans, cleaning supplies, unpacked rooms. A couple hours of last-minute cleanup got 90% of the rooms ready for viewing. They seemed to like the house, and also said that even with our mess, it was one of the top two homes they'd seen in the area.

Got a wake-up call Sunday from our realtor. Another group wanted a viewing. We didn't have to do much because of the previous day's frantic cleanup. We run a few errands while they look at the house with a realtor. Afterwards, we get back home to be accosted by a family in a mini-van asking about the house.

Late Sunday afternoon, I finally get a breather and mow the lawn. Interrupted once by a couple while mowing the front lawn. Interrupted a second time, and nearly had a heart attack, while mowing the backyard when a realtor waltzes through the gate with another couple in tow asking if they can view the house.

I guess we hit the sweet spot w/ regard to location, price, and size of home. We don't even have the pictures online yet (that should happen today). It's a big relief, seeing the amount of interest in the home. And, seeing that our work over the past 2 months was worth it.

If only our own house hunt was as successful. Still having found the right home after viewing probably 70+ homes. At least we're done with our own home now and we can focus on finding our new home.

update: Got a call from the lovely wife. Another realtor and their clients just dropped by "We were in the neighborhood...". 4 viewings in the 2.5 days it's been listed. Aiiiiieeeee. We're beginning to wonder when we'll have time to do the final cleaning for the open-house next weekend.

stressful vacation, house hunting, awesome basement

Just finished a week of vacation. 'Vacation' being code for fixing up the house -- finished laying the laminate floors, installing new baseboards, some new bathroom cabinets, and lots of painting.

Still not terribly near the end point. Plenty more painting and packing to do before we'd feel comfortable having potential buyers look at the house.

The lovely wife and I have been house hunting with our realtor. So many open houses, they're all a blur now.

The price on one with a super-awesome basement has finally dropped enough to be worth it. Those are indeed built-in sofas. The tales those cushions could tell.

But seriously, that house has a great location, great square footage, and the extra fantastic basement. And, the price has dropped enough that we should be able to update the kitchen and a couple other out-of-date rooms prior to moving in.

Of course, the basement would have to stay as-is. It's just too awesome.

crappy neighbor water hazard

Three times over the last couple weeks, my and one of my neighbor's backyards have flooded. The picture is the view from my yard into the neighbor's. Our house isn't that effected... but the water is right against the neighbors foundation. Not good.

Seems another neighbor can't figure out their inflatable above-ground pool.

• The first time, I think they forgot to turn on the filter and decided to the drain the funky water
• The second time, they started refilling the pool and left for the day.
  
• The third time (two days after flood #2), they hadn't tightened a coupling and didn't notice the leak.

On the plus side... I've talked to my fellow-floodee neighbor more in the last week than I have in the ~2 years they've been in their house.

On the minus side. The flooder neighbor seems more annoyed that we're upset, rather than apologetic. I understand that once the water is out there isn't much they can do about it. But, it'd be nice if they seemed slightly concerned about things they do that effect their neighbors.

finally, a chance to wear a toolbelt

We've been thinking of moving for a couple years now. But, we'd wanted to get a few things fixed up with the house. I needed to get the yard and flower beds into better shape, and we wanted to replace some of our carpet.

A few months ago, we'd bought some glueless laminate flooring at Costco while it was on sale (ended up saving around $150 because of the sale). Finally got around to starting the project last weekend. Finally realized the extent to which one of our cats ruined the carpet. Ugh.

The flooring went down quick. Not as easy as the instructions make it seem. But, it looks nice, and gave me my once-every-two-years excuse to wear a toolbelt.









And, in odd things I've stuck in my pie-hole news:

• The 'Hog Burger' at Britton's (964 East Union Square in Sandy). A burger with grilled onions nestled between a grilled-cheese sandwich with bacon, and a second grilled-cheese sandwich with tomato. The first half was good. The second half was 'what have I gotten myself into?'