Day 300 - Family Room and Guest Room done

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER


Even though Smith & Noble screwed us royally on our blind order - they had the order for over a month and would call us every week with problem after problem - "this not available", "this blind's too heavy to build this way", "this valance is out of stock", "well now we can't get it to you for christmas even if we didn't have any problems" - that in the end we cancelled so we have temporary paper blinds up in the FR. However, bar hanging a few pictures and adding a few accessories and shelves, the FR is done and the guest room is done. My mum and Jim arrive tomorrow. Sweet timing and appropriate to celebrate our 300th day in our own property.

Day 286 - Family Room update

Still waiting on the carpet for the family room but it has come a long way since the dark gloom of brown plywood. Also need to add second coat of prime to stained wood window frames (yuk!) and then gloss. Once the carpet is in and the furniture is back it will look fab - and hopefully all in time for Chrimble.

Day 282 - The Fireplace Surround/Mantel is done!

It's done - Bob will have somewhere to hang his stocking. I bought the lumber for everything but the pilaster molding and top and bottom blocks - that came as a pilaster kit from Lowes (?). I got some good guides to how to do the structure from here

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hi_fireplace/article/0,2037,DIY_13914_2269267,00.html

and here

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/bw0011.asp

and here

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/buildfireplacemantel

Day 251

Phew! The family room is coming along. Spent the last month or so making decisions on the ceiling and generally getting ready for the drywall guys: removing and replacing insultation, Bob did a great job moving outlets and wiring the speakers and cable into the wall. Then I moved a heating vent as didn't want to do the flooring and then move it. We had to abandon the beadboard planking above the joists. I had primed a few of the rafters and mocked up the plan with some beadboard planking and it was going to be a lot of money and I wasn't convinced withe the lumber that was in the ceiling (overlapping joists and trusses that overlapped the joists not butted to them) that it would look really as good as we wanted. So the ceiling is getting sheetrock and the far wall will be 1 x 6 beadboard planking.

The barely english-speaking drywall guy came yesterady with a buddy and hung and did 2 coats of mud and the room is looking great. The dimensions of it seem to have changed - especially now that there's a ceiling when we had the rafters open for a couple weeks. Once the beadboard is up on the 4th wall it should come back into the shape we remember. 3rd coat of mud today, sand and 4th tomorrow and prime on Sat and then the guys will be done. Then we just have to paint and solve the problem of choosing flooring - hardwood (like the rest of the house) or carpet. Ten we can get our house back as most other rooms have stuff from the FR and the large furniture is crammed into the living room. Didn't seem to bother Bob though, he was sitting in "the man chair" in the middle of it all last night watching the telly.

Day 224 - Anyone out there need 1950s Weldtex ceiling tiles

Pics are - the old family room as it was when we viewed the house with the Weldwood panelling and the Weldtex tiles. The tiles themselves with 1800 nails pulled and the ceiling I'd like to duplicate with beadboard/planking above the joists.

Yesterday Bob got the remaining Weldwood off and the ceiling tiles off before I got home. The carpenter came over with his drywall guy and we discussed stuff and learnt about the joist/roof structure. Looks like the builder built the roof structure from lumber - the joists are not single span but are bolted together mid-ceiling and the trusses overlap the joists and are nailed rather than butting and being joined with metal plates or other wood. The family room is single storey so no weight-bearing up there other than the roof structure. Offers a few challenges to our plan to beadboard above the joists. I just need to suit up and rip down the old fiberglass insulation and then pull thousands of staples and nails that still remain.
Tiles are no more - last night I pulled 1800 tacks out of about 150 Weldtex striated plywood ceiling tiles. I hate having wood lying around with nails in it. I guess I entertain the concept that someone else might be able to use them or repair another Weldtex ceiling with them - even though we don't want that "look" I am pained to just chuck them out.
Room looks kind of harsh gutted but I like to think of how great it will look finished.

Day 223

Since the kitchen re-do has been put back to January we are ripping out the wood panelling in the family room (aka "the brown room"). We got a start yesterday morning and then I was off to work and Bob spent the rest of the day prying off trim, molding and interestingly unscrewing the electrical outlets from te panelling. They were mounted to the panelling and not the studs.

The panelling is interesting - a label on the back of one panel shows how much times have changed. It says "Weldwood Samara African Hardwood Plywood, Manufactured in French Equatorial Africa by CFG exclusively for United States Plywood Corporation. Interior grade." This label is classic 50s (the family room was added in 1955, four years after the house was built) in it's art, and also it's political and environmental incorrectness. (Love the spears, hate to think how much rain forest, albeit plantation was slashed for these panels.)
Tried to google weldwood and have found some newspaper ads from '57 and '59. I guess for that era it was all the rage which would be in keeping with our belief that the previous owners, the original and only, liked to be up with the trends of the day. Let's not forget they at one time had carpet over wide plank pine flooring over narrow strip oak hardwood flooring in the living room (the carpet wasn't there when we moved in and we pried up the pine very easily and laid and refinished it in the master bedroom.)

If anyone out there has more info on Weldwood, I'd be interested to here it just out of my interest to understand the history of the house.

Day 221

Yikes - not very consistent on the blog - 214 days since last post! Good news is that we have got lots done - that's basically why we haven't blogged - we have been DOING instead of WRITING! Bob has been away heaps which I like just fine as I can work until late and get lots done. Here's a quick update then I'll try to get some pics later:

Back lawn - tilled, limed, fertilized, reseeded - growing! Gurneys.com sent crappy (old) seed so they are sending more but it's starting to get to 40s overnight so the overseed may have to wait til April. 80 ft tall trees trimmed back away from the roof and to get more sun into the back.
Front lawn - city dug up to replace a burst water main (our first) then spread crappy top soil full of purslane. Huge yew bushes are yanked and I have reseeded 10 ft of the front border and edged, gravelled and reshaped that. Moved the azalea from the side to hide the a/c unit. Tilled parts of the lawn that need it and limed, fertilized, reseeded - it is just popping it's fine green little blades out of the soil. Ripped out the ground cover ivy and took down a few crap trees on the side area (no the side lawn - that seed is up too - Scott's comes up super fast - which makes me suspicious of them - do they put something in it so you get quicker results?). Driveway has 24" band of pond stone to widen it and top end of side lawn is ready to be converted to a parking spot.
LR - ceiling, walls, trim (except fireplace baseboard) painted. French door hung. Floors finished. Currently full of all the FR furniture too as we get ready to drywall in there. Have already down 3 paint stripping coats in the fireplace brick and have finally made progress - really want to get that done to the bare brick before we build the mantel. Bob has replaced the outlets/plates - they look fab and really finish the room off.
FR - still the brown 70's nightmare. Everyone loves the wood ceiling tile but we can't think of a way to keep it and change the room so we're going to take the tile off, rollup the insulation in the roof space, remove the sheathing under the tiles and put 2.5" beadboard-style (altho not as narrow as beadboard) above the roof joists then paint it all white. We are having a practise go in a small area to see how it will look as it will effect the cost of the drywall job (they'll have to cut the drywall around the joists and the floor to beadboard height will be more than 8'. The switch to the outdoor porch is now on a remote.
K - the kitchen re-do planning was in full swing when my mum accepted our invite to come over for Christmas from the UK so we're still working on quotes and planning etc as we have to redo everything but we'll start the work in January. Have found a great carpenter and have a couple drywall guys coming to give quotes. We have been talking to Kingswood kitchens whose factory is just about a mile down the road and really like the Bosch appliances. Trying to get quotes done so I can get the permit app in.
DR - painted (not the trim we left it bare). Chandelier hung and old hole patched - I am getting good at them thanks to TOH magazine.
Office - status quo, except now it is all Bob's domain as I moved my computer upstairs.
MBR - this along with MBR2 is on the verge of being the first truly finished room, all painted, curtains hung, Bob sprayed the louvre closet doors this past weekend. I just need to paint the dreaded window and roller the doors. Bob replaced allthe outlets and plates so everything is pristine white and sharp. Looks great. One outlet is remotely operated from a switch at the doorway.
MBR2 - likewise - just the doors to roller and that's it. My computer and desk are now in this room. Need to buy the Mac Mini so we can go all wireless - I am the last hard-wired holdout. Same with the outlets/plates.
MBA - recessed light installed over the sink and in the shower so we can see! Bob has spray painted the insides of hte cabinets and the doors - they look great. This room will look fab with some fresh white ceiling paint and a medium green on the walls to work with the existing small tile floor and green mid-60s formica worktop. It will actually look OK and will tide us over until we redo this room.
Workout room - status quo
Guest room - mother's trip has brought this to the "get done by Xmas" list. We bought paint last week and I'll get this done on one of Bob's next trips away. One outlet is remotely operated now form a switch by the door.
Hallway and front BA - status quo. Oh, except Bob bot a nice curved shower rail and we hung a curtain.
Attic - I cut access as there was none - more to check out stuff. Space is remarkably good, dry, clean shape. Joist bay insulation looks like paper covered brown sawdust - house inspector says it's probably not asbestos but to always assume that it could have some in it but didn't see anything white. Seeing which way the joists went and the fact that they were split on the center wall helped me figure out that the kitchen wall we need to remove is not load-bearing as the city inspector said. I've called him and he'll come out and look again - I also cut holes in the ceiling to see the joists running parallel to the kitchen wall.
Basement - I measured all the floors and measurements to all the ducts and vents and drew them and overlayed them to find out where our ducts go - there is none in the wall we're taking out in the kitchen but one in the closet wall which will change the kitchen design a tad. Very interesting mystery to solve where all the ducts springing out of the furnace like methusala actually end up.
New hot water heater. We had the electrical upgraded a bit - there was already a 200A panel but the original fusebox was still in play so we had that replaced with a 100A panel.

I've probably missed a few things. We've been busy that's for sure and now when we show friends around the house we are beginning to realize how much we have achieved in 6 months.

Ok - I gotta go do some work now. We still love the house - even more now. We had our first fire in the fireplace on Friday as the fall chill moves in.

Day 7

Another busy day. The floor guy was in finishing laying the MBR floor and beginning sanding. Bob and I went and bought a washer and dryer courtesy of his Mum - thanks Annie! We picked up a Frigidaire floor model reduced from $699 to $519 - nice EnergyStar front loader and the matching dryer. We'll get a further $40 back on the washer through EnergyStar/local electric co. CL&P. Also ran to the local recycling/trash center and our favorite paint store- Ray Roth's.
Bob and I took up the linoleum in the hallway to reveal more wood. The part right by the front door was damaged a while ago by a pipe burst so we will take that part up and lay a slate tile or something (Ed. - we laid more hardwood) on about 9 sq. ft. but now we have oak floors all the way from the living room across and up the stairs so it's looking a lot cleaner lined. We pulled all the nails out of the floor for Tom.
Last night while I was at work Bob demo'd the DIY fireplace mantel, surround and textured wood panelling to reveal some lovely 1950's grey blue wallpaper. Pulling off the panelling left some big nail holes in the plaster but really cleaned up the fireplace area. Bob just wanted to sheetrock over it but I wanted to give it a go stripping and spackling. The guy at Ray Roth's sold us a wallpaper perforator and a product called DIF - something to break down the glue.
So I scored and soaked and soaked and soaked and then the paper came off like slicing cheese - nice! While I did that Bob put in a programmable thermometer.

Day 6

Among other things - Bob demo'd the fireplace mantel and wood panelling leaving behind many nails to be pulled. A pattern is establishing that he is the advance party and I am clean-up - how did that happen?

Day 5

Don't forget to floss!

Day 5

The back stairs bonus wood.

Day 3 & 4

Bob spent yesterday ripping up the carpet in the master bedroom in preparation for the wide plank pine from the living room to be re-laid there. Nasty work - lots of staple and nail pulling. Then he finished taking up the last part of the front stair carpet to reveal the oak flooring.
He thought he was done and had asked me to clean up and vacuum in the master bedroom - he makes the mess and I clean it up seems to be a theme that's developing - so I was vacuuming when I noticed that the top step/edge of the subfloor on the rear stair into the master bedroom was oak. So I called Bob over (at this point he did not wish ever to see another carpet that needed to be pulled up) and said "Look at this. Why would there be oak here unless the stair was also oak?" At that point he started wailing "No, no, why me?" in true Nancy Kerrigan fashion and timidly peeled up the carpet in one of the corner treads to reveal an absolutely mint red oak stair tread.
It looks like it was never even exposed to the light - looks freshly laid. So now we have 2 stairs to refinish. Along with 1 living room, 3 bedrooms and one upstairs hallway. Plus re-lay the pine in the master bedroom and if any is left over then lay that in the dining room.
We didn't expect to find an oak floor under the living room pine floor and we definitely didn't expect to find oak treads on the rear stair as we specifically asked about where there was hardwood floor. So that was a nice bonus. I called the floor guy to warn him but also say that we did a bunch of his prep work taking up the plank and carpet. He is starting on the floors tomorrow - it's very exciting - can't wait 'til they are done. Good job Bob!

Day 2

The door hung - yes! we CAN use power tools (and cut straight - well done Bob) and the room with door replaced and floor taken up (chair was left on the rear porch and has become the only seating in the house!)

Day 1

The floor beneath the floor. Wide planks were nailed down with decorative raised-head nails which posed a problem for finishing.

Day 1
Change locks on doors, replace louvre doors to back yard and porch with a real door and remove the wide plank pine floor (had to do that anyway to be able to hang a regular height door).

February 27th 2006

So we are homeowners! The closing went fine and with sleeping bags and cats loaded in the car we went over to the house and crashed there Fri and Sat night. Lots of work to do especially as the floor guy is coming Wednesday to refinish etc.
Shani, John, Henry and Hannah stopped by to become our first official guests. H & H ran around the house all the time - they love the two stairways as they can do laps.
Cats do not like the big empty rooms with no where to hide and at 4:30 am Saturday morning were jumping around on the bed and eventually both of them buried down my sleeping bag for the rest of the night.
Saturday morning was a quick drive to the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru' - all of 1/2 mile away - and then on with the projects...

I have already pulled 160 nails out of the walls. One of the sellers liked to paint (and apparently hang) lots of pictures but had not (apparently) heard of a picture hook so there were all kinds of sizes and types of nails all banged into the plaster walls through a little "X" of scotch tape. So make that 160 nails pulled and about 100 little scotch tape "X"s removed. Many holes spackled.

February 22nd, 2006

Eefah! Well the low moment that our broker warned us about has arrived. When we had the inspection done in late January they didn't turn the water on (the house had been winterized and they didn't want to turn it on and then have it freeze and they didn't think to trun it back off again) saying they would turn it on just prior to closing.
We sensed two things: i) a rat; and ii) some penny pinching as we're paying them a few hundred thousand dollars and they're balking at $100 to get the plumber back out to turn off the water and drain the system.
Anyhoo - the sisters executing the sale for their parents were back up this past week to clear the house of all the furniture and had the water turned back on. We had the water inspection on Monday 2/20. The highlight of which was the mystery 5" diameter open pipe that disappeared into the garage floor. Two smaller daimeter pipes rested on the lip and drained water from the master bath shower and 2nd bath bath tub. but to where did they drain that was the question. Clearly not into the sewer as they should have. Now, I;m no plumbing expert but this set-up was decidedly dodgey and most likely a through back to when the house was on a septic.
The inspection report came back saying that these pipes drained to a footing drain (i.e. near the foundation of the house - gee is that why they have a sump pump?) and that they needed to be hooked up to the main sewer. This was communicated to our broker, the seller's broker was in agreement that it needed to be done. By Thursday he was out at the house with the seller's daughter and a plumber who also said it needed to be done. So the seller said "we'll book the plumber for Friday" (when we were meant to be doing the final walk-thru') "but we won't pay for it". So that opened up a whole exchange between the brokers and us and us and the lawyers with the seller's alwyer saying that he couldn't belive the whole deal was going to fall thru' over $450!
Unfortunately it was communicated during this exchange that the seller's we're threatening to put the house back on the market. Irrespective of hte fact that we had a signed contract with a cluase that we had added saying we could sue the life out of them if the seller's backed out but apparently this didn't phase them. We think what really happened was that they came to clear the house, saw a house on the market at the end of the street (which needless to say was 2x the plot size, 400 sq. ft smaller and in move-in condition), saw that it was on the market for $75,000 more than they sold the house to us for and tried to figure out a way to get the house back thinking now that it was empty of furniture they could repaint and get more money. Plus now we are in the selling season and not the mid-winter.
Too bad - should've thought about that 8 months ago when it first went on the market. They put the house on the market with 20 year old paint on the walls, a dirty, dusty cobwebby house (at least after 7 mths it was), packed with furniture and needing a new kitchen and they ex[ect to get top dollar. Not gonna happen and the 11th hour is not the time to be second-guessing that.
Our attorney advised us to delay the closing (set for Friday at 2:30pm) but I pushed him to be less knee-jerk and more looking for a remedy to ensure that the closing did not have to be moved.Fortunately for us - the brokers worked out a remedy and the plumbing was done and we closed as planned.

February 16th, 2006

The wait 'til the closing is killing me.

I want my pony!

February 13,2006

So things are still ticking along smoothly. Closing is only 11 days away and I am still waiting for the "low point" that our real estate broker warned us to be prepared for.
Finalized the home insurance today. My insurance broker quoted I think 4 companies and came back with Traveller's being the best. I currently pay $249/year for renter's insurance (and bob pays his renter's) so $914 for the house insurance sounds like a deal to me plus Traveller's quoted my car insurance at almost $300/year less. So Traveller's it is and Patty is faxing binders to the attorney's office and the mortgage broker's office.
Talked to Garner (Ginny's business partner) about getting into the house one more time before the sellers come up this weekend to move all their furniture as I'd like our hardwood floor guy to evaluate the floor refinishing before the closing so that maybe we can have him come in the week after the closing and do the floors and not lose time as we want to move in before the end of March.
I'm glad that work is fairly slow right now as if I was editing all the time or just busy it would definitely be a bit manic.
I think everything is set. Mortgage company needs (or maybe already has) finalized contract so I think we (yikes, dare I say it) be set.
Have been chomping at the bit recently with pent up decorating desires but have to just keep them in check. I've been swotting up on door hanging and window filling-in/replacing know-how off the web to help with the first few projects and watching a little HGTV here and there.
:-)

February 6, 2006

So we are inching ever closer - mortgage is set - just need Bob to get home so we can sign the documents and send back. Home insurance is underway, appraisal came back OK and water will get turned on ealier than we had hoped so we can get that part of the inspection done. The owners are coming down on Feb 16 to move their stuff out and will have water turned on so it will have been used a few days before we have the water/plumbing inspection on 2/20. Psyched about that as their desire to turn the water on only on 2/290 when we are closign 2/25 was a little worrying. I just presumed it was a good indication that the pipes froze but Ginny said that the seller's agent is away now until 2/20 so that was why he chose then.

Looked up some quotes for cleaning the house once we close with Merry Miads etc - it would run about $300 - still can't decide if we should go that route. Bob and I will have some work the first w/e - changing the locks and putting in a new back door so is it worth paying someone to clean it - maybe I want to save that cashola.

February 1, 2006

OK ... ebay fund is at $318.01, not bad for a pile of stuff that was going to go to donation. Finalized the mortgage finally today - that was a mind blower - though i had a good rate but turned out to be interest only on the 2nd mortgage (doing 10-10-80) and then another quote was quoted on an in correct credit score so in the end we chose Coldwell Banker Mortgage - the guy there worked hard - not that the others didn't - but he was always very clear and up front with the numbers. So it is good to get that decided.Closing still planned for Feb 24 - only a little over 3 weeks away!
Bob is still in Detroit being driven slowly crazy by the ABC Superbowl crew so it's been tough to chat with him on some stuff but to his credit he has been patient (nost of the time!). Thought we might have to overnight documents to him to sign but he may be able to sign them inbetween getting back from Superbowl and flying out on his next gig 3 days later. Plus it looks like he is getting a job offer - which he couldn't take 'til after we close due to the mortgage thang.
So now I just have to call and get home insurance quotes and then maybe I can breathe a wee sigh of relief. Oh - went over the contract with a stand-in attorney yesterday - ours was out on a family emergency- the stand-in guy was such a friggin' windbag - basically had an hours-long conversatoin with himself, telling tales, implying that he would save the world from mean seller's agents. Thank goodness we are on Bob's company legal benefits coz if that guy was on billable time I think I might have had to been rude to him. Hopefully next time we will have our attorney Karen Nejame back! So I have to drop off some signed stuff and a check for 9% to bring the downpayment monies up to 10% to hand over when we get the contract dialled. Hopefully there won't be too much heave-ho on the contract and the water tests (they didn't turn the water on for the inspection) go OK. And soon we shall have a house! Phew!

January29, 2006

More stuff slowly selling on Ebay. Today's hot item(s) are 6 older but unworn cycling jerseys that I have from 2000. Six of them. We'll see where they end up.

January 28, 2006

Things are moving along. The Radon test results came back - finally! They were just a little over 1.0 so that's all good and we are going ahead with the purchase. Contracts arrived at our attorney from teh seller's attorney and we are reading them over along with an addendum that our attorney added in response to some things in the inspection report (bearing in mind that we are buying it in "as is" condition). Still have to get the water turned on and tested, plumbing and water heater checked.
Now I just have to call our 3 contacts for final mortgage rate offers as Bob is in Detroit working the SuperBowl. Still can't decide whether to do lendingtree.com as well? Then we'll try and block off some time with Bob Tuesday a.m. to go over the contracts with our attorney as we have to have that back to the seller's attorney by next Friday.
Health and building depts at City Hall have no plans and no permits/COs so we need to check if legally you had to file them back in 1951 (built), '55 (FR + BA added), '60 (screened-in rear porch added), '65 (MBR, MBA, DR, office, rear stair, garage, attic, front porch added) and '88 (fence erected on side of property line). There was a field card so it exists in someone's system.
Getting very close.

January 23, 2006

Dig those cars!

January 23, 2006

Gosh darn! Who'd have thought that a bag of old shirts would fetch $180 on Ebay! There's a couple of items that I listed this weekend that will close next weekend so maybe, just maybe we'll hit $200 for the faucet fund. Bob couldn't believe it. And that OLN crew shirt ... the top seller... went for $41! (Which is kind of wierd because they could've done the "Buy it Now" for $9.99.) Go figure but thanks anyhoo!

January22nd, 2006

We've started thinning through our stuff as joining one house and one apartment is not going to be easy. Last wekk Bob and I went through his vast wardrobe. We got rid of 4-5 large black garbage bags of clothes to go to donation and anything that was in the donation pile that was TV/sports logo'd I put on Ebay - someone somewhere surely wants to buy an OLN Tour de France crew shirt from 2002? He has an incredible array of stuff. Hottest items seem to be his many UFC t-shirts. We've called the auction funds the "faucet fund" as we both liked this groovy faucet that IKEA has for $249! Auction ends later this afternoon. Stay tuned!

January 21st, 2006

Well we had the full inspection last Thursday. It confirmed some things that we had been told already in the mini inspection that we had prior to making an offer. Basically they are things that you would exepct in a 50-year old house that probably hasn't had serious maintenance in 15 years and has been empty for 7 months. There's poor drainage (from clogged gutters and bad grading) and some water leakage in places like the chimney flashing and some rotted wood (base of garage frame and one window sill). Some stuff to bring it up to code (no GFCIs etc) but nothing huge. There's certainly plenty of work but I am still excited about getting in there plus checking my rental lease - I had forgotten all about the $2,000 secutiry deposit I paid - so that'll buy a few repairs!!

Bob is on the road so he will read the inspection tonight and then we'll confer. We want to close on Feb 24th so if we decide to go ahead I can chat with our broker tomorrow and then shop for mortgages Monday and Tuesday. A local bank - Ridgefield Bank - has given us the best offer so far - if they come through with the 2nd mortgage for just prime seeing as I have a brokerage account with them.

So I've been making up a project list and looking at the new kitchen plan and trying to read up on home repair! We both want to just get in and get on with it. Still keeping fingers crossed as don't want the sale to fall through.

January 17th, 2006

Well, well, well. Much to our (and our broker's) surprise our offer was accepted, even though it was lower than an offer that we know they turned down in November. I guess some of it was the timing - the owners (Frank and June) are older and don't want to go back and forth with negotiating so they said they would come back to us with an "as is" price that they would accept. They were very concerned about who bought the house - wanting someone who would love the house as much as they did. We had asked on the offer for copies of some historical photos of the house that they had on display that showed them adding the FR and the DR over the years. Apparently they liked that and came back and said that the "as is" price would be our offer.

Yikes! We had expected some back and forth and negotiating so we were a little caught off guard. So we are going ahead with a full inspection this Thursday - the value of the pre-inspection kind of pays off as we are fairly confident that there's nothing too heinous. (The pre-inspection turned up a joist missing a header in the FR and the fact that the screened in porch will need a new roof soon - it's asphalt tile.) That was pretty much it.

So now I am calling a few places for mortgage rates and Bob is calling lawyers. Part of his work benefits include legal services which he signed up for for like $5 / month. So we will get the legal services for free I believe. So it's been very exciting and Bob now calls me and asks "Hello, is it possible to speak to the homeowner?" Wise-acre.

January 15th, 2006

A week ago I took Bob to see the green Colonial - calling at the yellow Cape in Brookfield on the way for some perspective. The Cape was having an open house - it was a nice clean-lined house just too small.
So off we went to the green Colonial to meet Ginny. Long story short - Bob likes it alot - even though the kitchen is dire and only 11 x 9. We couldn't quite understand the electricla panels in thebasement and had other questions so we drew up a list of 30 questions for Ginny to ask the seller's agent and also to get the seller's disclosure that wasn't in the house with the packet.

Got the answers from Ginny Monday and the seller's disclosure that tells us that it's been on the market since early-July when they were asking 409k. It came off the market and then back on in early-Nov at 389k. They didn't really answer much as the seller's daughter is representing the seller's so there seems to be some info loss in there somewhere. The seller's disclosure wasn't fully completed which gave me a somewhat uneasy feeling.

We like the house - there will be plenty of work. Not so much remodelling but at least 2 rooms have that 1/4" plywood sheathing on the walls and that will eventually need to get ripped out and re-sheetrocked. Anyhoo - we decided to get a mini-inspection before making the final decision to make an offer.

Mini-inspection happened Friday afternoon and we got the OK on the house - there's a few things to fix but no horrendous nightmares.

So we've put in an offer! Spoke to a nice guy at Coldwell Banker Mortgage who did our pre-approval letter and also talked us through estimated costs for closing. All in all it was very reassuring to talk with him and find out that our monthly "nut" was less than we had thought.

We expect the offer to get turned down but to hopefully give us a good place to negotiate from. We'll see. It's exciting but we don't want to get our hopes up too high in case we don't get the house.

January 5, 2006

Brookfield, CT. Cape. $369,900. 1600 sq.ft.
Viewed this one the other afternoon. Cute cape in a nice litle neighbourhood up near Candlewood Lake. Someone will no doubt like it as it's ready to go but the kitchen was only 8 x 8 with really no room to expand. Upstairs there were 2 BRs with a jack-and-jill bathroom. A good use of space but I think too small and tight for us - not much closet space. There was a finished basement room downstairs but personally I think that's just not space that you'll use - it needs to be on the main level or upstairs. I have an unfinished basement where I rent now and I pop in and out all the time but it's only 5 steps down so I guess that would be the maximium. it works on mine because it's a split level linear ranch thing.

Found out a little more about the faded green colonial re: orig. asking price, and an offer they had that they rejected. I did a little analysis on $/sq.ft of houses that have sold up there and the going rate is between $188-250 dollars over the past 2 years. These houses were all in mint condition. The house I feel has potential comes in at $200/sq. ft and it needs work - quite a lot of work which kind of reinforces our feeling that it's overpriced and they already dropped it $20,000 from the original asking price. Doing the math you could extrapolate that when renovated it might sell for 240/sq. ft which puts it up at $465,000 which is unlikely as the highest priced sale up there has been $410,000. So Bob and I will go view it Sunday as he hasn't seen it - he may hate it (I'm pretty certain that I am game for more work and renovation projects than him). Also he has some potential change at his work - currently in Manhattan but travelling most of the time but just got offered a job that might have him in the city 3 days/week. So we have to keep that in mind too.

Found a pretty cool design tool for kitchens on ikea.com. You can put in room dimensions and everythign adn spec out a kitchen and it tells you all the stuff you've spec'd and how much it costs. It's kind of fun to get some kitchen ideas that way.