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.