New Neighborhood

Today we drove around our new neighborhood and the surrounding areas to get a lay of the land (and to get Nora to take a nap!). I learned that we have lakefront access with a park and picnic area 2/10 of a mile from our house and the public library is only 4/10 of a mile! It is going to be great to have so many things within walking distance even though we are technically going to be living in the sticks.

We also pulled our tomato plants out this afternoon. They were completely infested with white flys. Brian looked them up on the web. They were very tiny, but they were laying eggs on all the leaves and in the stem of the plant. There were tons of green tomatoes, but none of them were turning red. It was pretty gross cutting them down because the flies would fly up into your face like a cloud. I guess it was better to take them out now rather then right before we move when I know we will be feeling overwhelmed.

Congratulations to Brian's parents who have joined the ranks of the Bloggers:
http://the-tortoise-and-the-hare.blogspot.com

Link

The link for our house is acting funny. Sorry about that. Our house is the one in Woodinville, not the one in Kenmore.

We are now in the process of getting a quote on putting hardwood flooring in the entryway hallway, down to the kitchen and through into the back family room. We'll see! It sure is a lot of money out of pocket all at the same time. I guess this is what we have to look forward to for the rest of our lives ;-)

We Finally Have a House!

And one we really like for that matter! We just signed all the papers at the realtor's office. There shouldn't be anything to hold this one up because the owners did a pre-inspection before putting it on the market and fixed everything that came up! New roof, new furnace, new septic system, new EVERYTHING. Plus, I get my kitchen back and then some.

Over

The deal is done. We found out that the aluminum wiring had caused a scorch mark to be created in one of the outlets...can you say "fire hazard?" The electrician said it would cost $4300 to put in new wiring. The roof also had to be replaced and the owners weren't willing to budge on their price or to simply have it fixed.

So, we're off the hook. I think that place just has bad karma.

The search continues.

No Townhouse...a Real HOUSE!

We heard back from our landlords about selling us the townhouse. The amount they were asking for is absolutely ridiculous, so we started looking for what Brian calls a "house house." We've found a great realtor that is pretty close to our age and has two little boys. She understands what we want and need with a little one and the potential for another coming up. The best part about her is that she is from New York and doesn't take no for an answer. She isn't all fluffy and nice, she's bitchy and gets the job done. Love her!

So, we looked at a house on Wednesday night that was pretty nice, but needed a lot of little updates that I wasn't really into. On Thursday we looked at a terrible home and then came to 'the one.' That afternoon the price was dropped by $10K and the people we swarming to look at it. It has everything we want: 4 bedrooms, 2.25 bathrooms, big garage, 2100 sq. ft., and a big deck and backyard. We decided not to look at the other home we had scheduled that night and go make an offer. Things go so fast around here that we knew we had to act quickly.

By 10:00 on Thursday night we had a verbal agreement for an accepted offer. The next morning, the other peoples' realtor called and said they were looking at another offer. Our realtor got pissed and started bitching at him. He came back and said they would take our offer if we didn't have an inspection! NOT! I can't believe anyone would ask for that! They finally agreed to let us have an inspection if we got it done the next day.

We just got back from the inspection and found out that the house has its original roof (from 1972). It is toast and needs to be replaced right away. I couldn't believe that a roof could last that long because that would never happen in the Midwest. I guess having snow and ice sit on your roof for 5 or 6 months out of the year takes its toll! Anyway, when the inspection report is given to the sellers, we are going to tell them that they need to replace the roof or the deal is off. Our realtor is convinced that they'll do it because no matter what happens, they are going to have to disclose that the roof is 34 years old to any potential buyer. I don't have my hopes up at the moment. More to come...

To buy or not to buy

I'm sitting on the couch waiting with bated breath for an email from our landlords. They have agreed to sell us the townhouse that we have been renting for the past nine months. Now comes the hard part, agreeing on a price.

Buying a home in the Midwest seemed like such an easy (ok, not all that easy) undertaking, but here it is absolutely insane. We feel extremely poor around here. For one thing, we can't afford a house because a mortgage of $3K a month is CRAZY. Secondly, the cars people drive around here are insane: Jaguar, Lotus, Maserati. That car payment could be just as much as a 3 bedroom mortgage. Finally, I see plastic surgery creations walking around every day. I see woman of all ages with major work on their faces not to mention all the boob jobs floating by.

Where does all the money come from? Do I even want to know?

Ok, back to buying the townhouse. What happens if Brian is offered a job in Timbuktu next year and we have to go through the same thing we did in Milwaukee when trying to sell our condo? I don't think I can go through the rollercoaster of having a house on the market for 6 months again. On the other hand, I have all these great things planned out in my mind that we could do to this place: new kitchen cabinets and counter tops, new appliances (god I hate electric stoves!), tear out the peach carpet in our bedroom...the list could go on and on.

Of course we need to buy something soon. We are just throwing away our money renting in a place where home prices keep going up at a rate of about 18% a year. Not a bad savings account return! It would be nice to be in a place that we knew we would be in for awhile, but what kind of fun would that be? I don't know what would happen to us if we lived in the same location for more than two years at a time. Would we melt like the Wicked Witch of the West? Would we turn into old farts that didn't have the need to explore the world any longer? Or would we just continue to be happy and actually be able to live in the present rather than thinking about what the next move would be.