They are ripping the shingles off of my sunporch as I type this. The water leak that I repaired awhile back had done more damage than I suspected. Time to rip it off and start over. They are going to replace the plywood in several spots and reflash and reshingle the sunporch. This started out as replacing a bit of bad soffitt. I wish my back didn’t hurt so bad, as I would like to be the one doing this.
I sprained my wrist at work last Friday, so renovations on the house have slowed. Luckily, I’m not the painter so that work is still getting done and I am doing the stuff I can do with limited use of my left hand. If I had sprained my right wrist I would be in a world of hurt (pun intended).
I did upload a huge group of pictures to Flickr and will be going through and adding the descriptions and whatnot to them over the next few days.
One of the tricks I’m going to have to learn is how to separate the personal and renovations photos so that they each show up on the correct blog. I Did That will house all my renovation stuff and the more personal (and less interesting) things will be on here.
It is a sad state of affairs when they tell me that we are still on to close at 3 and I really don’t believe them. I fully expect to get there and there be some hold up of some sort.
We will see.
We may never close. It seems that Real Estate and it’s tangential industries have so much money floating around in them that anyone can get a job in it. Competence and a sense of urgency seem to not only be optional, but somewhat discouraged.
The plat still hasn’t been signed off on by Columbia County, so the closing has been moved back to yet another tomorrow.
On the upside of losing 5 days of work, I play really good poker when I’m mad and my Full Tilt account balance has doubled in the last couple of days.
Turns out that yesterday was not Closing Eve. There seems to be a problem with how the plat was recorded by the surveyor, and with the surveyor’s office being closed today, closing wont happen until Monday. This really sucks because it puts me 4 days behind in my work and throws off all the money figures since we will be closing in a different month. It’s not a huge deal as far as the deal itself goes, we will still close. It does have time and money repercussions that I would prefer not to have to deal with. So now I’m in hurry up and wait mode.
Oh, and just for the record, Todd Heath is a hateful little coal-hearted man who wished this on me and I hope he gets diaperchickenitis so bad that his bottom falls off.
Since closing on this new house is like waiting on christmas for me, I would just like to wish everyone Happy Closing Eve. I’m quite excited. Short of getting struck dead by an act of God, we will own a house tomorrow at this time.
Shortly thereafter, a hellified amount of work starts.
Waiting on the 31st so that we can close on our new house is like waiting on Christmas. Or in this case, Halloween.
Much like the house we just sold, it’s a 1960’s ranch fixer-upper. You know, that thing Marilyn said she would never buy again. HA. Actually, it’s not so much a fixer-upper as an updater. The bones and structure of the house are in really good shape. It’s well built, it’s just outdated. It’s got a blue wall oven, for Pete’s sake.
I look forward to getting started on the projects inherent with buying such a thing, but waiting to start is maddening. My wife and I have both made list after list after list of the things we need in each room, how much they cost, what color/design they should be, and it gets to be a bit overwhelming. Communication becomes key in these things, since we don’t actually have a picture or designs drawn out, we each could (theoretically) have different ideas of what is being done in a room. We are learning that when a conversation starts to get heated, it’s usually because some basic assumptions about the room are different and we are imagining two different (and conflicting) things.
And their have been some heated discussions. Part is the aforementioned assumption problem, but part of it is nervousness and impatience and plain maddening waiting. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about cabinet doors and hinges. I think about water drainage from gutters and harvest gold tiles. At work, I find myself thinking about getting rid of green sinks. My nerves are wearing a bit thin. I’m losing sleep. My appetite is shrinking. I’m just plain distracted. I’m just not good at waiting. Either that or I’ve got diaperchickenitis.
My lovely wife and I are now officially not the owners of a house. Our house in North Augusta closed today. I have mixed emotions about the event. We made good money off the deal, but I loved that house. I sweated and cursed and figured out 99% of everything I know about home repair inside those walls. I’m proud of the work I did and I’m positive that visitors to the house will be impressed by my work for years to come.
Oh, and the dude that bought the house? Complete jerk. His checks cashed, though, and that’s what matters I suppose.
Not being ones to sit idly by, we have already made an offer on another house. It’s a 1960’s ranch house that needs a bit of updating. Sound familiar? I thought so. Let’s do it again!
I was pondering the bailout bill today and realized that I have an inherent conflict of interest in the matter and therefore won’t be commenting much.
I think handing Wall Street (or anybody for that matter) $700 billion is just plain stupid. Taking the risk out of financial markets removes the only downside to making stupid loans at historically low rates. And it doesn’t do a single thing to stop the foreclosures that are wreaking havoc on our country.
That having been said, I am now in the market for a house. The more foreclosures, the better for me and my family, as it increases the supply and lowers the price of the available houses. A giddy and cash-flush financial market will mean low rates on new mortgages. Win-win for me and mine.
For perhaps the first time in my life, what is good for America and middle-class Americans, at least in the short term, isn’t in my best interest.
So, to all the Congress critters out there, if you are gonna do something stupid, do something stupid for me.
I made my first attempt at frying plantains today. I would have to rate it a complete failure. I got the grease too hot and it really crisped up the outside of the plantains really fast without cooking the inside enough. In the future I think I will go with thinner slices of plantain and cooler grease.
I’m eating the failed experiment anyways, cause I hate to waste food. It’s okay, but not the deliciousness I expected.
I will try again soon.