The Importance of Getting Your Own Tradesmen

It has not been easy to find local tradesmen who would come out this far in the country.

 

Tradesman, a person engaged in trading or a trade, typically on a relatively small scale, ie: craftsman, workman, artisan.

So in otherwords, I needed a local electrician and plumber and I really needed a good general contractor or go-to guy, hence, Mr Fix-it!

The first thing I did was look up the nearest town my place would be at and found a website and there it listed all of the different people for different trades. This isn't many as this is a very small town and not even grid like streets. Every place is spread out along different roads. It's not like a city or town that has buildings all set up next to each other along one street.

Searching on the internet was not easy as it came up with special services that would try to find you someone or give you a number to someone but all of those I had tried just led me to people who never called me back or answered their phone or they just were too far away.

I got lucky as the town here listed two electricians. I tried the first one listed as the 2nd one said 'Master Electrician' and I thought he might be too expensive. Well the first one didn't answer his phone and never called me back so I didn't wait and called the 2nd number and wha-la! he answered and we talked briefly and set up a date for him to come out and take a peek at what I had going on.

I mostly wanted the electrician because of the house inspector we had who pointed out several weird things going on that he recommended an electrician look at. Also it's a good idea to get in contact with your local service/trademen so that if something goes wrong, you know who to call.

 

On top of all of that, this house was built in 1978, so it's fairly old already and a lot of the codes back then are not the same as today's standards. So it would do you well to bring the house up to the current codes of today and make sure to identify any issues that may need to address now versus later or when it's too late and you have a major issue on your hands.

So I got in touch with the Master Electrician with Hillside Electric and he came out and took a look and we went over the house inspection report for all the electrical work and I ran down a small list of things I knew I wanted done off the top of my head. He gave me an estimate as to how much it would be and we identified what was more priority than others and then he set up a date and time he could come out and begin to work on them.

 

WOW! I was so excited that I finally got someone to come up AND he is not that far away either!! JACKPOT! On top of that, he was able to give me the name and number of a local plumber and a contractor. I was so excited! The Master Electrician also did not cost me an arm and a leg, he kept his prices reasonable so I absolutely adore him! He's wonderful! Friendly, personable, quick wit and great sarcasm, he is a pure joy to have him work with you on whatever you need. He is very honest and will take the time to explain things to you as well. I just couldn't ask for more. Because of all of that, he will be my electrician for all projects in the future and I would highly recommend him!

My first concern was the electrical system as I wanted to be sure it was taken care of, but after that got squared away, I called the plumber. I noticed that my kitchen faucet was leaking and also I had no garbage disposal.  So John Maynard, the local plumber came out and tho' he charged a lil more than Paul, he was great! He remembered the last time he was here in this house, 1987. He was really brilliant! I loved that he came up so quick and is local and gave me straight, no-nonsense information. He took his time to explain about what I did not know. Very kind and patient man, understanding.

 

What made this even better was that I was able to get a Mr Fixit--handyman through the electrician to come and help me with some of the other items in my house. I also found out through all of these men, just how much things were suppose to cost. I realized then, just how much I was being overcharged by Home Depot and their vendor/installer, Breakwater Building & Design. I'll get into that later as to what a nightmare it has been with them. I just wish I had talked with my local tradesmen a week before I got involved with Home Depot and Breakwater, it would have saved me thousands of dollars that I was ripped off.

 

In the end of this fiasco with the big companies, was the true pleasure it has been in working with the local guys. They are fairly priced and will treat you right. Friendly and forthright, all of them out here in the country are handymen and know how to fix most anything and if they don't, they know who they can recommend to you to get it done and not cost an arm and a leg.

 

Gotta love the local boys! :)

Remodeling Bathrooms

As we had an approved Project Loan with Home Depot with a 7% interest rate, I saved it to use for both of the bathrooms. I figured we could get both of them done with the 20k that was approved. So started the ardurous task of picking everything out, including the grout color! It was insane and took up a lot of time even with me being as decisive as I am.

I realized what we were looking to do, was even more extensive than having the house built for us in Texas was. Changing things around took a lot more thought and strategy and planning than the whole house.

One thing Breakwater recommended was for us to get our own electrician and plumber, someone local for both of those trades. I already was planning on that anyway what with the inspection report we had done before purchasing the house. Breakwater said that it would be cheaper and easier if we used our own guys. Made sense to me.

So we picked out everything for both bathrooms only to realize it was really just the 2nd floor bathroom we HAD to get done before the floors were installed. The reason being is that with the 1st floor bath, we did not have to worry about getting to the plumbing to move it around as we had a full basement with a drop ceiling and so could easily get to it. So all attention was placed on the 2nd floor bath.

I then had to wait for HD to send it to Breakwater to get an estimate. Days go by and then I get a call from HD saying I needed to go down and pick something else out, so off I'd trek to HD an hour away to pick out whatever I needed. Then Breakwater would call me and tell me the whole design of the bathroom shower probably won't work because of this or that so I have to redesign it over the phone with her. Then I get a call from HD that I have to explain to her what we did and it just went around and around like this for weeks. WEEKS! I was not happy. All we needed was a 3 way conversation and we'd have it done. I am very decisive, it doesn't take long, I am not that picky, I just need it done at this point. Finally tho', we get everything, HD sends it to Breakwater and we then again have to wait for them to send over an estimate.

After it was all said and done, the final cost was over $29,000!! Holy smokes! We had to apply for the project loan to be larger and that was approved. But that was for just one bathroom! WOW! I thought I could get both done for that amount and actually less! It was a huge awakening, rude one at that. But, knowing we didn't have the money to put out at all for the renovation so the thought of being able to finance it all and at just 7%, was really enticing. It was still overpriced. We were able to whittle it to 28k but that wasn't that much better. But after all the trouble we had gone thru already, we decided to go ahead with it, as crazy as that is but we were wanting it done right and professionally.

They had told us that they could not set up an install date however until I had received the cabinets and I would have to inspect them all. If everything was as it should be, I was to either email them or call them and let them know and then we could set a date. This didn't happen.

Meanwhile, we have moved 3 trucks up here from Delaware, all of our stuff, packed into the 5 bay car garage, beds crammed into the house, the queen in the living room! Clutter everywhere. We have been living in this mess and limbo since June 6th and it's now August 2nd! Almost 2 months waiting for them to get their act together.

Luckily, Breakwater did NOT wait for the cabinets to come. Good thing as they STILL have not arrived yet. So Breakwater started a couple weeks ago. Finally. They started to tile the shower yesterday.

Now, the workers are awesome. I can't complain. Not one bit. They are amazing.
The owners however? I am not happy. See next blog post on "The Importance of Getting Your Own Tradesman".

Removing Carpets

As we have been in the house since June 6th, I knew even before then, that we would have to take out all of the carpets. There was old shag or sculpted carpet in the entire 2nd floor aside from the bathroom and thankfully, not the steps, as well as carpet in the downstairs bedroom.

 

I have 3 cats. Cats and carpet are not a good combination even tho' cats do use the litter box, they also tend to throw up hair balls now and again and at times they may have accidents or as with my half-Persian, have pooplets that might fall off or like with any animal really, they can get ill and have issues.
The problem arises when they have their accidents on your carpet and it goes straight down into the padding and sometimes even into the wood. It is very difficult to near impossible to get that odor out or to remove any trace of the urine or whatnot from your carpet. There are cleaners out there but when you have padding under that carpet, it is still difficult.

 

Not only the pet issue but there is also a lot of other issues that comes along with carpets: allergies, dust, dirt, and food and liquid spills can get trapped within the fibers of your carpet. If you can get a great vacuum to get them out, awesome! If not, it will build up and carpet fibers get worn, etc etc.

 

Carpets are not made to last for the long term.

 

I found the better thing to do instead of having carpets installed, is to get those throw carpets. That way you can lift them up, clean them from the back side, you can clean the floor under them and you are able to get messes out of them so much easier.

 

Some people just toss carpet down, some are taped, some tacked or seamed to another. This carpet was tacked down. I've had carpet taped down to a terrazzo floor when I lived in Florida. That was in base housing on a military installation and the problem with that was that when you move in there, any changes you make, you have to remove and put the house back to how it was when you moved in. So when the time came to move away, we had to remove the carpet and then there it was. Carpet tape residue. My good friend David had come over and I still remember to this day of how he was scraping it off with a razor blade to get it off. What a pal!

 

This carpet however in this house was tacked down. It came up easier than expected as some rooms it was just placed there and the baseboard was not utilized to help hold it in tact.

 

Now, before I go any further, I want to say when we were thinking about having those floors redone, carpet removed and then put in that new kind of porcelain tile that looks like hardwood, we thought of Home Depot and that they do install. Awesome!? Well yes and no. So I am going to start this series of Home Improvement topics and to catalog the issues and events as they have been unfolding.

 

For now, we'll focus on the carpet part of it.

 

So anyway, as you may have read of where I was having issues in finding any local tradesmen who were willing to come up here to help get some items addressed, I did manage to find an excellent electrician who had an assistant with him who ends up is like a Jack of all trades! :) Love it!

I'll get into the importance of getting to know your local tradesmen in another post.

 

But Jack, we'll call him for now, offered to take the carpets as he could use them himself. So I agreed and he came out and pulled them up and took them away, including the padding! Awesome! There are some carpet nails then that he is removing as well.

You may not realize it, but carpet really helps to absorb sound. Without them in here, the place now echoes more.

 

When I went to Home Depot to put together this huge project as it encompasses the whole second floor, well over 1,000 sq feet, we sat down with the people at my local store and we proceeded to pick out everything :) Everyone there is so friendly and helpful! They put together a great plan and then they set up for the payment to open up a credit card and we'd be able to have 2 year no interest as well. Then they set up a date. Now I was up here at the house for 3 weeks ahead of time before we officially moved up, so that I could see about having the floors done before we had any furniture to move around. Good idea! Except....yea, there is an except....Home Depot was booked and they were not able to get a date until 26 July! This was early June. Yikes! So they said they would try to get me in by the 18th and later, yes they were able to.

 

One thing I realized is that if you are in a hurry, don't rely on Home Depot.

 

This whole thing hinged on our bathroom upstairs getting done. That was a separate project and so I'll get to that in another post.

 

Home Depot wanted to charge me over $1,000 to take the carpets out and dispose of them. That was way too high when I could have Jack do so and he would take them away as well for nothing and they were going to someone who could use them! So I let Home Depot know they could take that part off cause I was able to remove the carpets and they wouldn't have to.

 

After picking out the tile and grout for the floors and whatnot, the total of the bill was just over $20,000. Yep, that's very expensive. What is nice is not having to pay up front and no interest and then we could just pay it off before then, but ouch! High price tag but we do have a lot of square footage.

 

Still....it's a lot. Well it is down to 19k since Jack removed the carpets.

 

I had hoped I could get both bathrooms done for under 20k as originally we were able to qualify for a project loan through Home Depot at 7% interest. Nice! But as we had issues with the computers there at Home Depot and wanted to get this order in for the flooring as soon as possible, the lady there talked to us about applying for the credit card to make sure we get that install date firmed up. So we did that and then had the flooring put on the credit card instead of the project loan which we saved for the bathrooms.

 

So we then focused on the bathrooms as a separate project.

 

Wind and Weather

Just wanted to shine a light on the new link I've added for Wind and Weather.

 

You can find them here:

 

http://www.windandweather.com/

 

They have all sorts of lovely garden items to add sparkle and shine and just very unique things for your home, yard and patio.

 

 

Love them!

 

 

Wasps n Bats in the Belfry...er Attic Crawl Space

As I was having my master electrician and his assistant come over to the house to install some ceiling fans and other electrical items, they were going to go up through the attic crawl space. Now this entry point is just 12 x 12 and so the assistant was going to cut the entrance wider so he could get up there. Before he did, he had the forethought to peek up there to see what he was going to cut first. I was at the ladder as this space is inside a closet in one of the rooms upstairs.

Then I heard him say, "Uh oh".
I replied, "Uh oh, what?"

He came down a step and looked at me and said, "You have bees up here. You have 40-50 beams going across and there is a nest about the size of my fist at every junction, some places, two."
Then we heard a squeak! He looked back up and said, "And you have bats."

Holy crap!

He called for the master electrician to come over and have a look and he poked his head up there and sniffed and could smell bat guano and said, "Yes, bats." He started to say he did not want..and I quickly finished his sentence and told him, "No, no, I don't want you up there either dealing with that. I'll have to get rid of those first so let's hold off on these ceiling fans for now."

I called the pest company I had previously signed with and they sent someone out to look. They also referred me to the wildlife side of their company and arranged for someone to come out to see about the bats. When the pest guy arrived, he looked and he saw two bats looking at him from behind one of the nests. He told me I probably have close to 100 nests of wasps or hornets up there.

So here goes the quandary, a conundrum for sure!
The pest/bee guy couldn't spray because of the bats. Bats are endangered and you don't want to kill them anyway as just one bat will eat a 1,000 mosquitos in one night! You just don't want bats in your attic crawl space as the guano and all is very bad for your health.
The bat guy didn't want to go up there into the attic crawl space and deal with the bees. These were not honey bee nests as again, you wouldn't want to kill those as we need the honey bee to survive on Earth. But they are hornet or wasps nests. I believe paper wasps. The good news is that some of those hives may not be active as they won't re-inhabit an old nest. Interesting there. The bad news, is that you can't tell if it is an active one or not.

Just to make things interesting, we need the 12 x 12 space widened in order for anyone to get up there.

The bee guy said when you go to make the hole wider, you have to hope you don't get too many bees mad at you at the same time. LMAO!

My thought to resolve this was for them to work together and to utilize bee keeper suits!

So talking to the bat guy, they gave me a quote. Very expensive ($1,100 over the phone to start with they said) for them to remove the bat and seal up the entry points so that it allows the bats to leave as they will each night to forage for food, but they can't get back in. It is a mesh they caulk in place and they can do it from the outside and not have to go up there. Then, he said they could cut the hole larger too on that day but that was another cost and after figuring things out, it was going to be $2,100 as I have such a large roof and it's two story and then another $6200 for them to remove all the soiled insulation and clean up the mess in there plus put back other insulation (better stuff too than what I had and that was one of those things I needed to have done that was on my checklist from the home inspection), a whopping total of $8,300! I was able to get a bit of a military discount and they were able to let me make payments, thankfully.

Now yes, I could have had Joe-Smoe do this for a helluva lot cheaper, but somethings I just needed to have done by professionals and this is one of them. They are giving me a 2 year warranty as well instead of 1 and I didn't want to worry about them being bitten or stung either.

So this is what they will do:
1) Bat people descend upon my house, stuffing mesh and caulking it into place all around the roof where there are crevices. They will also cut the hole bigger too for the entry point and we'll close it back it up with a board or piece of dry wall.
2) About a week later, the pest guy will return and get up into the attic and take care of the bees and remove the nests.
3) About 2 weeks after that, the bat people return and clean up the soiled insulation and the area up there and they will then blow new insulation in there.

Now something I will want is to see about having the holes filled and sealed up and then vent holes made in the sides of the house and proper ventilation/screening so that the bees can't return nor the bats.
Plus, I will want the entry point made to seal and framed out nice.

To answer a few questions I received from friends:

Didn't you have the house inspected?
Yes, I did have the house inspected and he did take a picture of the attic crawl space but it was only of the insulation to show I needed to have more put in there. He did not cast his camera upwards, otherwise, if he had, he would have seen the bee nests and possibly seen the bats or their guano on the insulation. This was mostly because  he could not get up there  as the opening is just 12 x 12, so when they opened up the hole, he just stuck his camera up there.

What happens to the bats afterwards?
I did buy a bat box/house kit and will put it together and then we are going to get a board and attach this to a tree, far away from the house that gets the morning sun. I also bought an attractant spray but the bat guy told me to wait to put this up until they go to do the clean up as they could rub some bat guano on it to let other bats know that bats had been there. Otherwise if I just put this up now, I've just put up a bee home as the bees will quickly take that over.

Someone asked me wouldn't the bats eat the bees?
Yes, if they happen upon some wasps or bees, the bats might eat them. However, what is happening here is what I like to call the "Ladyhawke syndrome". For anyone who has watched that movie, you'll get right away what I am talking about. If you haven't seen it, do so, it's awesome!
You see, during the day, bees/wasps are active but bats are sleeping.
At night, the bees/wasps are sleeping and the bats are active.

One other note is that bats are migratory so they will leave when it starts to get too cold. But I can't wait til then as all the damage they could be doing up there, just with the guano alone is a health hazard.
Bats also have their babies in the summer. So I have to hope there are no babies up there as the babies can't fly. I'd have to wait longer I believe to get them out.

Not a good situation.
The bat guys will be here next week to start this process so as I learn more, I'll share! :)

As I say on my Halloween blog...

~*Bugs n Hisses*~

GP
/|\

When Choosing a Moving Truck

When choosing a moving truck, size really does matter.

 

It can often be very misleading when you look inside a moving truck and try to picture your things in there and wondering if it will at all fit.

 

Check out these guides and tips from UHaul:

 

https://www.uhaul.com/Trucks/

 

I had two storage units, one 10x20 and one 10x15. It was not packed to the rafters and I still had plenty of room in each one, almost would have been able to combine them into one. I was able to fit all of those, mostly boxes mind you, into one 26' truck.

 

Then, I had a 3 bedroom apt with hardly any furniture, only 3 beds (1 queen, 2 twin) and 2 movie chairs and one small dresser, some benches, and a tv stand. The rest was folding tables and then lots of boxes. Of course I also had the garage of boxes and then a few bulky items like the Cauldron Creep and the Time skellie I had made.

 

Due to the bulky items, I was not able to get it all into the 26' foot truck and now, will have to go back and rent a 10' to pick up the rest of the items.

 

You can have more than what you think!

 

One huge tip tho' is to box as much as you can. Try not to have any loosey-goosey stuff. Your things will get there more in tact and not as broken.

Plus, don't force or shove things in between, more than likely they will get busted up in the shifting as you drive.

 

Again, the plywood really makes a difference in helping to compact your stuff so it does not fall onto each other or shift.

What is also nice is that the rental companies will have dimensions of the truck, inside. This is very important when you are getting plywood and also in putting your items in there to be sure you get a large enough truck.

 

Try to make sure you have a low truck and with a ramp at the very least.

 

After your things are packed, you will want a lock that fits.

You will also need to think about the route you are going to take to your new home to be sure a truck can travel on the road and there are no low bridges.

 

Make sure the a/c and heat work too before you drive away with that truck.

 

Little things like that can really throw a monkey wrench into your plans.

 

 

Planning is key and good research will always serve you well!

 

 

 

Choosing a Moving Truck for DIY Moves

It is never easy to choose whether to move yourself and try to save yourself some expense or to shell out the money and have someone pack your things and move your stuff for you.

 

There is a lot to look at. This is what I have learned thus far out of all the moves I have done.

 

Having someone move your things for you:

Many of my moves in the past were with the US Air Force who came in, packed your stuff and moved it for you and then they would deliver it and you unpacked yourself.

Having packers pack your stuff means they are not going to be as careful with your things nor will they really pack relevant things or worry about fragile things being under heavier items. They will fill the boxes and use tons of paper wrap for nearly everything. If you left an orange out, they'd wrap it and put it in there, a booger, yep, they'd wrap it and put it in there.

Now the bad thing about this is that your boxes could have some mismatched items and not be labeled with what you deem is more important so you know what's in it. The movers tend to put on the boxes where it came from, what room.

The other bad thing is the cost. Hiring movers is very expensive to do, professionals do not come cheap.

The good thing is not having to move anything heavy on your own. Plus, they will pack the truck very tight so as to avoid anything from falling or getting broken. They don't usually use bubble wrap however so the getting broke part can be questionable.

 

Moving yourself can also be expensive but not nearly as much as hiring someone if you shop around.

But, you will have to get all your own boxes, tape and then try to find a cheap moving truck and guessing how big you need to move all your own things.

 

The bad thing is if you have heavy things to move and unless you have help, it can be quite difficult to not only move it, but to get it up into the truck and then you have to secure it. It can be daunting of a task and a lot of hard work so much comes down to what you are physically able to and if you have help.

 

The problem with help is that everyone has their own ideas as to how to do it best and usually not in agreement with how you may want it done.

 

But, to do it yourself, here is what you want to do:

1) Find a good moving truck, Uhaul or Penske as they seem to have some good prices if you can get a good deal from them, military discount is always bonus. Look for extra days, convenience of location for drop off and extra mileage. Often they will let you use a dolly for nothing or the moving blankets and you can get boxes from them, although they are cheaper to get the boxes from Home Depot or if you have a great restaurant that tosses out boxes in good condition, you can get those for free possibly.

 

2) Start to pack months in advance if you can. Buying boxes over time makes it seem less painful to the wallet when you start to pack your things. You also can figure out what you really NEED and what you really don't and can do without.

 

3) Once you get a truck, go right down to Lowes or Home Depot and buy some moving cargo straps and some sheets of plywood. This is the trick we learned, especially when you have odd pieces or just a lot of things. Using a 26' truck, measuring inside it, we realized that the sheets of plywood that are 4 x 8 won't fit in the 26' truck but will if you have HD cut a foot off the 8 side. Then you can stand the plywood up and overlap the middle a bit. So what you do is pack it as much as possible and in the 26' truck, about half way is a cut area between the wood rails and this will fit the plywood perfectly. So when you pack to that point, bring in two sheets of plywood and stand them up and then use the cargo straps and secure the plywood sheets in place. Then you can go ahead and continue packing as high again as you can. We used a step stool to help get to the top as well and then like Tetris, you fit your boxes in as tight as you can. Then we added two more sheets of plywood with more cargo straps when you get close to the end. This helped us tremendously and stopped a lot of our things from getting broken or shifting too much. Felt like professionals at that point!

 

4) Try to make sure you pick a place to return your truck that has a 24/7 drop off to where you can just drop the keys into an overnight box. This makes it so convenient!

 

5) Don't use too many old boxes or ones that have been used as they are weaker and not as rugged or sturdy. I know it's tempting in trying to save some money and some boxes might not be in too bad of a shape but...on the whole? No, best to get new ones.

 

6) Get not only a tall dolly, but a furniture dolly for moving those heavy items. I recommend 2 as you can get them at Lowes or Home Depot for $20 a piece! Great price!

 

7)Use bubble wrap. You may think it's frivolous, but it does help to cushion the more fragile things.

 

8) Good packing tape and something that cuts off easy so you are not having to mess with it. Can't ever have enough packing tape.

 

9) Get a nice big black Sharpee so you can mark your boxes how you wish to.

 

10) Save your own blankets for furniture blankets if they are not too fancy or you can use some old towels as well.

 

Those are the big tips. You can get friends but best to just get one or two that will do as you want and not rush you. You need to pack it so you feel good about it. Last thing you need or want is to be arguing or such about it. The less frustrations and stress, the better.

 

Also, give away all your spices or food items to your neighbor. This is the best time to share that stuff so you are not taking it with you and can start fresh when you get to the new place. It's less to pack, less to unpack.

 

Which truck company? Get quotes for prices. We used to use Penske trucks as we didn't like the Uhaul but this time we went with Uhaul and were very happy with the price and of course the staff was top notch!

 

Penske was nice and one thing to do, is to always get the insurance! Yes, it's an extra cost but little did we know when we left Texas, was someone had stolen the catalytic convertor right off it! We got as far as Tennessee and boom...truck went kaput! Called Penske and they had a husband and wife team come out with a new truck and moved them end to end with no room in the middle, perfect fit and then they did what they called the "Tennessee Hot Swap" they swapped the contents from one truck to the other. We didn't have to lift a finger, it all came with the service! Awesome! Loved them for that!

The bad thing with Penske when we rented again from them was that the a/c didn't work and they wanted us to take it somewhere to get it fixed and wait or not have a truck or something? It was bad as we had reserved a truck, we'd expect the a/c to work! So as we did not have time to dilly-dally around with that and we were in a rush and all, we just McGyvered the a/c with a nail clipper to make it work and pressed on!

 

Uhaul was awesome, extra days, mileage...just really awesome and they had a great area above the cab we could pack stuff into! They were really great!

 

 

The biggest thing this comes down to tho', is what your abilities are. You have to be honest with yourself and ask those big questions. Are you up for it? Do you want to even mess with it?
The choice is yours, but take notes with each move you make so you have a reference for the next time. This is probably the last move we will make on our own as we are not getting any younger. Its a stressful situation no matter how you slice and dice it.

 

Just be careful if you do it yourself and don't push yourself too hard. Know your limits. :)

 

Good luck to you!

  

Looking for the Right House---Hurry up and wait, Again!

Well that is it! All papers filed, all documents signed and turned in and the bank did their final review and everyone is happy and so now we hurry up and wait. A term we learn in the military.

But now we are focusing on getting our things packed. I have only a couple weeks now before I am off to drive up for closing. Of course it's not only about packing but being sure I have enough money to close.

One thing we had agreed to, foolishly I might add, is that in exchange for them paying some closing costs, we agreed to pay for the leftover oil and cords of wood. This is where it gets hairy because there is no telling how much oil they will have left, and presumably, we will have it checked and then calculated at the going rate. Then, they had said they had about 4-5 cords of wood and we thought the cost was about 100 dollars a cord. Of course he wants to get his money back from no doubt having the wood split and stacked for him and now he is saying it's more like 5-6 cords of wood.

After seeing where they have the wood, (up against the house and garage) we realized we are going to have to move it and thought we'd rather he just up and sell it or whatever but too late, we had agreed to take it. Not like we won't use it, as we will, but still, it will be a lot of work to move it all.

They are saying we are only obligated to pay 4 1/2 cords at this point and I am still not too happy about the whole deal as instead of 100 per cord, they are saying 215 per cord. I just kept seeing dollar signs ka-chinging everywhere.

Now granted, this is still going to come out cheaper than if we paid all closing, but it would have been nice if they just split closing with us. I know we are still making out on the deal tho', it just hurts to have to give them a check at this point.

So now, the hurry up and wait game comes in too with all the things that we know we need to get once we have the keys in hand.

One thing I have inquired about is the name of the electric company, water etc...tho' it is our own water so not too sure there as I am so used to paying for water.

I have also began to set up all sorts of different tradesmen to come up and do different things. Electrician to check out the electrical aspects from the inspection report, the pest guy to help go thru the garage and get rid of the wasp/hornet nests and help to seal the garage up from the mice and then Home Depot coming up to measure the floors that we are wanting to have redone and the cable/phone/internet guy coming up to install all of that. Plus, I'll be stopping by on the way up to see a flooring guy to talk about the aerobic floor I want to put in the basement. Lots of things to do! :)

It's exciting and there is a big temptation to rush out and get everything we need or want all at once. But the bad part of that is charging up credit cards and end up back with tons of monthly bills and you are paying interest on it all. Not a good idea.

So what we have planned instead is to get the most important things now, as we can afford them. Then, make a list of all the items we want to get and do and put them in order of their importance and then, we will save money and get them as we can afford to. There really isn't any hurry for it all and we want to be mindful of not hurting our credit and to not strap ourselves with high monthly bills. Plus you are tossing money down the drain when you charge things on those credit cards especially when they have high interest.

We do still have other big bills to pay down too and yes, the IRS to pay as well. So we have to take our time and be sure that everyone is paid as we go along.

It's exciting tho' to make this move and to actually be able to relax and be in our own home again. This time to not have any neighbors right up against us and to have the land to breathe and wander and just enjoy the views.

So next step is to complete the packing, see things and do all we wanted to here in this area before we move far away from it. And to also try to save as much money as we can for the move.

It's all coming together now!

Posts to come will be the move itself and the closing aspects and how that goes. After that, it will close out this whole topic for now and we'll move on to individual projects and reviews. :)

Almost there!

Looking for the Right House---Final Review

Well that is it! The final review was done by our bank and they have informed us that they have all the needed paperwork and everything looks good, good to go!

Now we wait for closing.

But not idly by any means. We are more focused than ever on packing the past few weekends and ordering things that we would need for sure to take with to closing so I can be there for a few weeks to set up electric, cable, internet and all that fun stuff.

What has really helped me a lot was being able to have every document scanned and kept all in the same place in one folder that I can get to quite easily. That way, when the bank or realtor asks me for something, I can easily get it and email it to them. A couple days ago, our bank was asking for the receipt for the water test that we had paid for, so I knew exactly where it was in my folder of moving documents and while I had her on the phone, I found it, attached it to an email and popped it over to her.

I know her and our realtor have been impressed that I've been able to be on top of everything like that. Bing, boom, bam shoot! They've had it in their hand within minutes. I like it that way. It helps tremendously to be that well organized so there is no hold up on our end.

So that is all I will be writing on this until closing. The truck is already reserved and I am picking up a couple furniture dollies as well as a regular tall dolly to help move the boxes and heavy items easier.

The next few weekends will be spent packing and doing things we want to do before we leave in the area. Spending time with family and just taking it easy. We will go over to storage again to do a final check on Memorial Day weekend as that is the last one I will spend here. It seems like it is coming up fast now! Still lots to do yet. :)

Enjoy your weekend and should you be moving, don't let it overwhelm you, make lists and keep everything in one spot, well organized and it makes things very easy and not so stressful. :)

Looking for the Right House---Water Quality Test and Title Search Info

We got the water quality test in last week and it's all fine! No bacteria, no issues.

So the move is definitely a go! This test was done by the same inspectors we had hired for ourselves and they emailed me a nice test result document as well as an explanation as to what the tests were about and term meanings. This was part of the whole inspection I had hired them to do and the water quality test was something that the bank definitely needed to have done. So I am very happy, very pleased with the thoroughness and although yes, it was expensive, it was well worth finding out about all the items that are going to need my attention as well as providing necessary paperwork for the sale of this property to go through.

 

Now we focus on packing while our bank gets ahold of the title company that will send her the information for the title.

 

I spoke to the bank as well as my realtor and they wanted the copy of the water test so I emailed it to them.

 

Now what is the title search about?

 In Wikipedia: "In real estate business and law, a title search or property title search is the process of retrieving documents evidencing events in the history of a piece of real property, to determine relevant interests in and regulations concerning that property."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_search

 

So although we saw the documents for the deed and title, it has to be done legally.

 

In the meantime, we are now focused more on packing and ordering what we will need up there right away, especially as I will be staying there to get everything installed and ready to go for everyone else before I go back down and bring up the cats and all.

 

This past weekend, we were in the haunt in the garage and got it all packed up in just two days! Wow! that was a lot and could not have gotten it all done without the help of our neighbor who came over and generously volunteered to help! What a great guy! It really did help us out a lot too!

 

This Saturday we will head up to PA to pick up some wooden gliders made by the local Amish we have had our eye on and want for the deck. Plus, we'll make one last stop at the rock shop that I adore up there. Sunday is Mother's Day but we'll be packing the laundry room and the downstairs bathroom which will take all of about 30 minutes to an hour tops.

 

I still have to pack my bathroom and we have the kitchen as well. Then it's just odds and ends and on Memorial Day weekend, we will do a final check through of anything needing to be packed into a box to make moving day easier.

 

One of the more smoother moves I think we have done! And definitely very exciting! :)

 

 

 

Looking for the Right House---Appraisal is In!

Friday afternoon, the appraisal came in via FedEx. It was exciting as I riped open the package and quickly scanning it to try to find the amount the property was appraised at.

 

So the verdict is in, it appraised at $5k lower than our agreed upon price! Whew! I was so glad and so relieved!

 

Looking back through it closely, I saw where the land was worth $300 an acre and that each bay of the garage was worth $2,500. That was good to know as we were thinking of adding on even more bays or to have an outbuilding for the 'toys' we know we will need to have.

 

I called our bank and talked with our representative who is handling this transaction and she said she needed a few other documents from me so I emailed them to her and then she mentioned the water test. I let her know it was to be done more than likely this coming week. I spoke to the realtor and let him know what was going on and my bank called and talked to him too.

 

So after this water test comes in and hopefully it is all ok, if so, then it will be a complete go!

 

This weekend I've been packing up the movies and will be working on my room and bathroom and then next week, I'll be packing up the haunt in the garage, allowing two full days to do that. It is going to be a huge task as there is so much in there. But I believe we can get it all done in two days, no problem.

 

It's exciting to be packing things and getting ready for this move. I finally did tell my uncle I may have mentioned and that was hard to do as I know he wanted us to settle here in DE. But I feel as though I need to be near my daughter for one, and two, I just want my own land. I want the woods and wild and to do things with it, grow things and take care of the forest and the stream and just enjoy more time out in the country. I know there may come a time that I can't take care of the land and ourselves and if that time comes, then we'll probably sell it as are the current owners and move to a retirement community or such. But until then, I really want to enjoy my time up there in the wilderness. Just so looking forward to it!

 

My uncle's gf repeated again about being sure we are living close to a hospital as we are not getting any younger. Ok, I have such an issue with this. I wanted to say, why not cut out the middle man and just live next to a cemetery and roll me over the lawn? Save time and money! DOH!

I know they are just concerned and that is nice and all, but I am not going to live my life worrying over a hospital being near me. Right now, I have no medical issues really and yes, that will most likely change as I get older, but it's not right now. And yes, if I am an hour from a hospital and something bad happens, I might not make it and I might die. So be it, I do then. I will have lived my life and enjoyed it fully then on my terms. Perhaps they are trying to be practical, but I just can't live like that, I can't plan my life around the what-ifs or when's or eventually's. I don't want to give up living out there in such a beautiful place simply cause someone thinks I need to live near a hospital? No. I appreciate the caring and concerns, but I need to follow and do what feels right for me. It is probably not forever, and that's ok. :)

 

But like the Goonies say, "This is our time...." and..."Goonies never say die!" :)

 

So off we go, in about 5 weeks! It is going to go superfast!

 

Next up, is the water test!

Looking for the Right House---Hurry Up and Wait!

A motto in the military is the infamous, "hurry up and wait". It goes along the same thought process as if you see a line, go stand in it, chances are you need to do so.

 

So we hurried up and got all the documents back in to the bank for final review.

Now the bank will contact the title company, that's a company that goes off in search of the title to the property. It pulls up the history of who owned it before you and before the sellers did and makes sure it is clear.

 

What does that mean? Check out the link here that explains about the title search:

 

http://www.stewart.com/washington-dc/whats-in-a-title-search

 

The bank will also be in contact with the appraiser, our contact said, if they don't hear from them this week, they will next week. I know from the realtor that the appraiser is to do the appraisal this weekend.

 

So its all happening!

 

This is what is left to do along with the water quality test after the UV system is installed. This should also be conducted this weekend I believe from what the realtor said.

 

It's exciting and daunting all at once! It's a big move and I have had so many ideas run through my head as to what I want to do with the property, the house and land and garage and even the road!

 

Hopefully then, next week, we will find out if this is really a go or not. I am pretty sure it will all be fine, no problems.

 

So as the list is starting to form in my head, I'll be writing it all down as to what we want to have done and in the order/priority it needs to be done and then start to save money or allocate funds for each project. As I do them, I'll show them here for the most part and give a few reviews and all that fun stuff.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Looking for the Right House--More Info

We heard back from the bank and they are wanting a few documents yet from us. One was the phone number of the nearest relative as we did not give them that, only the address. Oh well, I did not want to give out the phone number but I guess they need to have it.

 

Another item was to initiate Home Owner's Insurance. I have renters insurance right now and it is about to expire, funny enough, so it will be really good timing to cancel that and start the home owner's.

 

The third item was to get a letter from our employer to saying we can work remotely from home and it is not going to effect income or position. This is weird when you travel for your work so it really doesn't matter where you live. I have to call and check on this one with the bank to be sure we are on the same page.

 

4th request was some sort of documentation for a large deposit I had made into the savings. I had to laugh because if they are looking into my account, they could go back and look at the checking and see where it came from!? DOH! I wanted to say, oh it's the money I printed up in my basement last night! Hahaha! Man, sometimes I think they are really too picky and silly. Just look!

 

But yea, if that is all they are wanting, that is easy enough to get for them.

 

Just waiting on the water test now for radon first and then after the UV system is installed, will get the water quality test done.

 

While on the phone with them, I am also going to nudge them about the appraiser as my realtor has not heard anything from them on that one. That is the last thing really that all of this hinges on as I am sure the water will be fine.

 

Keeping fingers crossed!

Looking for the Right House---The Inspection

The inspection was conducted yesterday. This is a completely optional thing for the buyer to do, hire an inspector to go to the prospective house they are buying or wanting to buy and have an inspection done. This is recommended to do by the realtor for at least the water to be tested as a standard.

They can also recommend that you have a general overall house inspection done.

 

Why?

 

Well this lets you know what you are getting into. Yes, the seller is obligated by most laws to reveal all the issues or problems or whatnot, but often, the seller may not even be aware of issues or they feel it is perfectly fine and yet, it is not up to code or standards or whatever.

 

As this particular house was built in the late '70s that we are looking to buy, it definitely needed to be looked at. The typical house inspection, general, is $350.00. When you start to add on other things like water, radon, a garage, etc, it does add up very quickly.

 

The problem with this that I see, is that the buyer puts out this money for the inspection to be done and if this uncovers major items that need immediate attention, the buyers may opt out from buying the home altogether, especially if it is too expensive. They don't get that money they spent on the inspection back, however they would get their earnest money they put down.

 

Typically, the contract the sellers and buyers sign, has a date on it and it's 14 business days for the inspection to be done and the buyers to make a determination if there are any big concerns or if they wish to renegotiate the price or have the seller fix it, or walk away from the deal.

 

The inspection is NOT the appraisal. So the inspection is only viewed by yourself--the buyer and the realtor and of course the inspector themselves. Your lender doesn't see it, the sellers do not see it, no one else does but you as you are the one who paid for it. IF the seller were to have it, and the buyer (you) walked away from the deal, the seller then would have to disclose that information, by law, to the next potential buyers.

 

So this inspection we had set up was conducted yesterday morning at lunch time. 3 people went in along with the realtor and they went over both the house and garage in great detail, taking a lot of pictures! This team was excellent! They even had thermal imaging cameras and shared details of what they found, pictures of it and they also gave us a lot of information on how to repair certain items or links to more information or videos that were very educational. It was well worth the money spent.

 

The inspectors will email you the report and in the body of the email, these inspectors highlighted the items that they felt were of a higher priority. There was a full report linked for a pdf file as well as a summary of the report as well. Very professional, very well done. I was highly impressed.

 

Right out of the gate, they tell you to try to not be overwhelmed. Wow, that's an understatement. They found a lot of items that definitely needs addressing and tending to. A lot of tlc. There wasn't anything that was a huge deal, there were some items that we knew about, many we did not, and some things we have plans to take care of anyway. At first, seeing this huge long list and pictures and recommendations and all that, we wanted to back out. It was just sounding like a money pit and too expensive to have to fix up everything. Thoughts of the UTV or all the fun toys we wanted to get, went right out the window as other priorities came to mind instead.

 

So after talking about it for a while, I slept on it and in the morning, it felt better. I looked around at other properties I had saved and did comparisons in not only price, but taxes as well and the look of the land and location. I have to say, I just couldn't see any place better really, even with all the issues!

 

I wrote an email to the inspectors and the realtor with a few questions and comments and thank yous for the inspection report. The inspector called me back and we chatted for a while as she talked over my concerns and gave me a few ideas on how to handle a few items. That made me feel better and as we calmed, I began to see that a lot of things were small nitnoid items really. There are a few big things but nothing that major. Then I spoke to the realtor who also gave me his opinion. Now granted of course his opinion is that he will want us to buy the place and pay what we had negotiated for as he is getting commission on it, but his thoughts and solutions to some of the items made sense and did not feel nor sound like it was blowing smoke.

 

I know we have a lot of plans for this particular property and in the end, its the taxes that says it all. That is what will remain forever and they won't go down, they will only continue to go up. Plus, we do have friends and we can get help for what we need and nothing says we have to take it all on at once. We plan on being there for many years and as such, we can take our time and do things one project at a time. So we will have to make a list of what we want done and slowly work on that, item by item, prioritizing as to what is the most important to get done. At least now we have a full inspection report that details it all out and also where and if we have any issues or need help in figuring out what is meant or location, we can always call the inspectors to ask. That is very nice.

 

Now that we are calmed again and back on track, we have pretty much decided to proceed forward. I don't want to ask the elderly couple to do anything because some of the things that had been done were just quickly done and not installed professionally. Case in point was a woodstove in the garage that look like it was hillbillied with a beer barrel. Don't ask! But no it doesn't make moonshine! ;)

We would rather see to any repairs or modifications or changes ourselves. This is because I am not going to nickel and dime this couple like what had happened to us in Texas. Plus, if I hire someone to do work there, I will know it is getting done right and I will learn something as I usually watch what they do and pick up tidbits of information from them. And, this way, I get to know the tradesmen in case I need to call them back out and they are familiar with me. :)

 

Next up is the appraisal. Our realtor has not heard from anyone yet.
The bank did call today, they did get the disclosure packet all signed and our processor looked it over and it looked fine but now it is sent on to the inspector team there who look it over to be sure they have all the right documents and if not, they will notify us so we can send in whatever is needed.

 

That's where we stand today.

Home Gym Flooring

As I am getting ready to move, a house I picked out has a nice sized basement and I thought it would be a great place to pick out an area to put all the workout equipment and weights. Not the whole basement, but at least one portion of it I thought would be good to use for working out. Better than upstairs on the 2nd floor or the first even so that you can jump and do things without bothering anyone under you.
I plan to mount a tv to the wall and have a dvd and vhs player down there as well as a bookshelf for all the workout dvds I have. I could put hooks up to hang the stretch bands and then get a weight rack for the free weights and for the curl bar I intend to get. I also have an elliptical machine I could put in there and a flat bench.

But the flooring...that is always the tricky part. In the past, I have worked out on carpet and terrazzo and carpet covered terrazzo, cement and wood and lately, laminate covered cement I am sure is what it is under the laminate flooring. All of those are very bad for the feet and joints to be jumping on.
Granted, being a heavy topped girl, I don't do a lot of jumping anyway but still, you want a floor you don't slip and that you can do some jumping on.

I did buy a few of those foam tiles but they were so hard and despite being textured, they slid like crazy on the laminate floor. Laminate is slick enough already and really is cheap crap if you ask me. It's made to look like wood but it's worse as it is just like paper and scratches so easy. It's horrible.

Now the new house I was intending on putting in some porcelain tile that looks like hardwood. I used to want hardwood flooring completely but after going to the Log and Timber show in PA last year, I learned a lot not only about log cabins but hardwood floors. Hardwood floors take a lot of upkeep and despite seeing all those beautiful cabins with the cathedral ceilings with all that glorious bright warm sunlight streaming in and glowing on the floors, the sunlight? is the worst thing for those floors! Wood will fade with that sunlight. Case in point anything you put outside fades in the sunlight over time. So if you have this one shape of sunlight coming thru a window every day and shining on the same part of your wood floor, in time, you will have a faded out spot right there. UNLESS....you take measures to protect your floor and there is a lot of upkeep to the hardwood floors. They can also scratch and stain and it is very expensive to protect them correctly like they need to be.

So I looked into the porcelain flooring that looks like wood. It's tougher, cheaper (usually) and it is more fade resistant, stain resistant and you just need to put a sealant on it every few years. That's not that bad. There is also ceramic flooring that looks similar but ceramic does break a lot easier than porcelain if you dropped something on it. Porcelain is tougher. It will take more to make it break. They range about the same price.

Now although this sounds nice, I don't feel it is good flooring for a home gym. I wanted those special floors they use on the workout dvds or in the gym.

So after doing some research, I found what I wanted, it's called virgin rubber. It means that it has not been recycled and no nasty chemicals in it to make it smell bad. Be careful in choosing this type of flooring and read the specs carefully as there are some who just have virgin rubber on top but you don't want that. Yes, this is much more expensive to have it all 100% virgin rubber but I have a feeling you will be glad you did put forth the money for it.

To test this out, I have sent for a single tile to see how I like it and to really see how big it is and then to take it to the new house and measure to see exactly how many I will need.

Here is an article that covers the different floor types for home gyms:

http://homerenovations.about.com/od/floors/tp/Best-Flooring-For-a-Home-Gym.htm

I found it very informative!

Will let you know how it goes when the tile gets here! :)

Looking for the Right House--Water Test

Most would think that if the people are living there, that the water is probably just fine.

Or if they are getting the water from a well or underground stream that it must be good.

This isn't always the case. Nor is water from a municipal source, town or city or otherwise, it does not mean it is safe to drink.

I remember when I lived in Conshohocken, PA, we used to joke our water came from the Schukyll river and that it was one of the most polluted rivers around!  I don't know for sure if that is the case on any of those counts, but I do remember going to Philly as a kid in 1976 and stopping at the Civic Center and going into the bathroom and went to wash my hands and the water was tinged yellow in the sink. It was not good.

We used to put our tap water into the glass jugs that our orange juice came in and kept two in the fridge at all times. We'd use the one then fill it and put it to the back to chill as we brought the one in the back forward.

When I went into the Air Force, the water on the base always had a funny taste to it so I just couldn't drink it. I stopped drinking their water many years ago and began to drink bottled water.

My dad used to say when I was a kid that he knew one day we would have to pay for water. He was right. The water on Earth has become so polluted, it is hard to find a fresh, pure water source.

 

Just with the EPA cracking down in PA and making people get sand mound septic systems, to prevent the waste getting into the water table, spoke volumes.

 

Somehow, out in the country, I just didn't think it would be as much of a problem, but it still is.

 

The current owners to the house we are looking at, were pro-active and went and got their water tested only to have it come back with bacteria in it! Oh no! They are going to be installing a Ultra Violet Purification system that will kill 99.9% of all bacteria. I looked it up online and found this interesting ad/article about it as I remember the realtor or someone telling me that all that would need to be done is pour some bleach down there. Umm no. Take a look here:

 

 http://www.waterproblems.net/bacteria.html

 

So our inspectors are to be there on Wed and they will return later to retest the water again. I do know the pipes will need to be flushed out for sure. This bothers me a great deal and makes me worry. I know we were not planning to drink the water but still you wash your clothes in that and shower/bathe..etc. Its important to have good quality water.

 

Reminds me, I need to call Sparkletts/Crystal Springs again as they never got back with me about delivery service there in Maine. Just emailed them again. They did have one person call to ask if anyone had contacted me and I said no and they were going to report it to their supervisor and then nothing? DOH! I do love Sparkletts/Crystal Springs water a great deal but their customer service has always been lacking. I have had mixed experience with the drivers. Right now I have a guy who comes once a month and he's very nice. The one before him was horrid and often didn't stop by when he ran out of water! DOH! So since that happened a few times, I had to make sure I got 8 containers of water at a time as I hate to run out of water. It's a pain to have them sitting around but I'd rather have them than to run out. Just have to get a good place to put them.

 

It will be interesting to find out what happens and what results we will get after the inspection on Wed.

 

Looking for the Right House---Processor

So the bank processor called yesterday, just as we were signing and going thru the all the documents and collecting the paystubs, tax info and bank statements that are required to send back. That was nice she did as she went over it all with us and I was able to say, yes, got that, got that, got that too. :)

Love it!

She said she would write me an email with a summary of all we went over on the phone and it would have her contact info too. We talked of our realtor and I gave her permission to give them whatever info they needed. She said she would give them a call too as a few questions she had I let her know they would know that information like for example the inspection we are having done. She had said the appraiser would want certain types of inspections done so I let her know we had already hired an inspector to do that and it was to be done on the 6th. So that was good we did do that. Save us time later.

On that note, with closing in June, we have plenty of time and although that is a good thing to not be rushed, we have to be careful about the locked in rate as that is only good for so long and then it would expire so we have to be mindful of that and something for you to be as well if you are buying a house.

After we signed all the documents and dated and gathered the extra forms and info needed, I scanned it all in. 60 pages! One thing was that a few pages were legal size and it didn't scan in well with the others but I didn't want to separate it and change my settings and the only parts cut off was the bar codes the bank had and well, I didn't worry about that part. I just wanted to keep a copy of the whole thing myself just in case. The documents were then put into the Fedex envelope the bank had provided and sent off via Fedex. The processor told us to be sure it went Fedex as they would never get it through regular mail. We have a lot of experience with Fedex so that wasn't a problem and we wrote the tracking numbers all down. So that was good. :)

The bank had sent on two Fedex envelopes and so one was for the packet and the other is was just in case I need to send more. I have a feeling that's for if you forgot to sign anything. I had to go over those 60 pages very close to find all the spots I had to sign and date. I went over them twice. Some pages were just instructions but they had explicit instructions to send back ALL the pages. So I did. Instructions and all.

I did talk to the realtor some more and he explained further about the appraisal. He told me the VA was wanting to loan us money for a house and place to live in, but they were not wanting to loan us money to make money. So when it comes to all that land we are looking at, if we had a lot of road frontage, then technically, we could have sectioned off some of the land and sold it, partitioned and then sold it and made some money off it. But as this property happens to be at the end of a road and our land is bordered by other people's property and there isn't a way we can section it off, he said it was more like pretty land. Land you only view and look at but not really land that would be worth a lot because you can't develop it for other people to live on. So he said it was probably going to come in as worth about $500 an acre which isn't much he said when in comparison to the house as the house has to be worth 80%.

So I get that, kinda. It's a bit crappy in a way as it would seem the VA is dictating what I could do with my land and what I could not. It's their money they are loaning us, but I am paying it back with MY money. Of course after I own it, they couldn't say a word, but still.

Nonetheless, I have no intentions of doing that anyway, I have plans for that land but it's not to have others live on it. Visit, yes, live no.

The realtor said that was why he wasn't really worried about the appraisal and that he feels it should all be fine. I am glad the land is situated the way that it is then so we won't have any issues there. One of those got lucky kind of things and also good to know about getting a VA loan when you are looking at buying a house with a lot of acres.

I did receive the email from the processor so I have all of her contact information and she is to call every few days and keep me updated as to the progress and with any updates. That is really nice so I can feel good about it all and not left in the dark. It will be good to have someone like that and so nice too, to help walk us back through this whole process again. The realtor has been so super helpful as well. I am very happy so far with how everything is working out.

Next up will be the inspection on the 6th. Keeping fingers crossed!

Looking for the Right House--Disclosure Packet

It was a little hairy this week as the realtor needed a statement from the bank saying that we were intending to go forward with the loan or were in the middle of processing it. Yet the bank contact said he could not give a statement outside the paperwork. He had sent the disclosure packet and had expected us to receive it last Friday or Saturday but it did not come until Tuesday.
Luckily, a letter of intent was included in the packet which we quickly signed, scanned and then emailed to our realtor so that we could fulfill that contract requirement as he had given us 5 days. He told me he normally gives 3 but felt he needed 5 for USAA.
I was thinking 10 would have been better! But it all worked out well.

Now the disclosure packet has all of the bank forms and loan documents that we will need to sign and send back via the fedex envelope they provided. These documents will go to the processor at the bank who will then work with us to continue on with the process.

We are sending those back today.

I will of course scan all the signed documents into my computer which I am keeping in a file and then the originals get sent off as per the instructions.

So that's one thing you should get for yourself if you don't have one yet, is a scanner. I can't begin to say how handy that has been to scan in documents and send things to people. So even if I did not need it for work, I would still have one. Plus, it is also nice to have a fax line although I am going to be doing away with that as I can always move the line to the phone and then fax out. The only thing there is remembering to move it back off the fax!

The bank has said all is moving forward fine as it should. They are going to call for the appraisal to be done now. My realtor told me it would take about 2-3 weeks for the appraisal to be done. It is mostly the time it takes to get an appraiser out there as the actual appraisal does not take long, like 30 minutes.

We also have the inspectors going out there with the realtors tagging along on the 6th.

These are the only two things that could stop this whole thing really. The big hitch to get past.
So I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Other than that, more packing this weekend and also sorting out storage to get it organized and pack up some of those items better. We also need to box up the VHS tapes, moving them out of these small cabinets and putting them on craigslist and giving them away. We want to make it as easy as possible for the move.

The haunt in the garage won't be packed up until after the appraisal comes back and all is ok. If it is a go, then we pack that monstrous thing. :) It will be nice to do that and will look so odd to be empty!

So that's it for now. All is quiet while the next steps are mostly in the hands of the realtor, bank, apprasier, and inspectors. :)

Looking for the Right House--Inspection vs Appraisal

I got a call yesterday from the people who will be doing the house inspection. Now this is something that is totally optional for the buyers to do. We don't have to have the house inspected but it is always a good idea so you at least know what it is you are getting into, a sort of protection.

 

The house we had in Texas, the people who bought it, had it inspected and we were insulted about it and luckily, we were not there either for the inspector to go through and nitpick away on it. It was bad enough reading the list of things they wanted us to fix.

I hope these sellers will not be there for it either cause this is the painful part when you are proud of your home. The buyers for our place in Texas were awful in that they were insisting we fix and repair a whole list of nitnoid crap and it made me feel like they were wanting a brand new house or something? We had lived there for 8 years, it was going to have some scratches and dings.

 

I WILL NOT do this to the nice couple in Maine!

 

The inspector (a husband and wife team) told me that I would find out everything I ever wanted to know about the house and then some! A friend of mine had told me how cursory that house inspectors are, suggesting nearly it was more of a scam and he didn't get much at all looked at. This was surprising to me as I told him all that they were going to do. Our inspectors told us they were going to take a lot of pictures and would be happy to go over the report anytime after we get it if we had questions and they would also go there to the house and show us what they were talking about! Gotta love that! Plus, we are having them inspect the garage as well and also several other tests like radon for not only the air but also the water. A normal house general inspection is $350, but with all the extras we wanted, it is going to be $800. And yes, that is a lot but it is something that we will feel better about having, that knowledge of the house beforehand so we will know what to put on our to-do list and some things that we may not have thought of or notice at first. So I am not going to bug the sellers to fix anything. A lot depends on what it is of course, but I have no intentions to do that to them. The house isn't brand new and I don't expect it to be, I expect there to be things that I will need to be mindful of and that's fine.

 

The inspectors emailed the invoice so I can write a check and mail it up to them. Our realtor picked them out and a lot of this, is trusting your realtor. It is a must, especially when you live far away.

 

The inspector is different than the appraiser and you need to be aware of that. The inspector is someone that the buyer can hire to inspect and go over the house and conduct tests such as the radon, water quality, etc.

The appraiser is someone that is sent out by the buyer's bank who goes out and looks at the property to determine it's worth. As I mentioned in a prior post, the bank will not lend money for a property that is not worth what you are wanting to pay. That is a good safeguard for the buyer but it is the scary part.

 

So at this moment, everything is ok and good to go until we get the appraisal. I will probably receive the report from the inspection first and so that will give me a clue as to what the appraiser might find, but we'll see what happens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for the Right House---Locking in the Rate

After you get the fully signed contract that has your bid/offer for the property and it has been signed by all realtors, sellers and buyers, this is the point that you call your bank back to let them know you now have a signed contract.

 

At this time the bank will go back over the information you had given them to be sure they have all they need and some of it they go into more depth and detail.

 

I called USAA and we went over everything and he put me on hold a few times to pull reports and all that fun stuff.

 

Now something to really make sure you know before you go to your bank for a Pre-Qualification letter should be: find out if that bank can offer loans for the type of property that you are wanting to purchase. USAA for example typically does residential but they do not offer loans for property that is zoned as agricultural. Our property is zoned as rural so it places us on the sticky side of the fence. They did move forward with the loan however but said it would come down to the appraiser in finding comparable homes nearby and also that the home would need to be the majority of the property in comparison to the land. I am not sure if that is for area or value. They have to make it work. So keeping fingers crossed there as the appraiser will have this whole deal in their hands. Granted there is a large garage on the premises too, so hopefully that can help and be a factor in it.

 

Our contact at USAA told us we would need to procure pay stubs from the last 30 days and also find out what the title company will be, their physical address, phone and fax and email as well as a point of contact name if possible.

In the meantime, an envelope coming by FEDEX will be arriving with disclosure documents we will need to sign and he would call us then once we received them as they can track that on their end.

 

Now for the rate.

I was always confused about all of this. But it seems from what I understand, is that you are buying your rate, your interest rate that is for the loan. This so seems like a....hmmm scam or I don't know what the word is, but it's kinda buggy to me.

But anyway, we were able to lock in a good rate and had the choice of either paying for an 1/8th of a point that would bring the rate to a certain number or pay more for a bit lower rate. The deal is that if you are going to have your home for a long time or plan on it, then it would behoove you to pay more now and then over the life of the loan, you would save in interest. Otherwise, if you are only going to have the home for 5-10 years, then you wouldn't worry about that so much. I plan to have this a long time and although I didn't want to pay $1,400 or so, I opted for a middle price instead.

 

Of course the VA has a fee and it can be rolled into the loan. For us it is $7,590, so yea, ouch.

And then, he talked of closing costs. Oh man, here is where it gets even more expensive to buy a home. With the sellers agreeing to pay up to $3,500 for their share of the closing costs, we still have to bring approximately $6,300.00. AND we'll need more than that to pay for the wood and oil that we agreed to pay. Now granted, USAA had the taxes due for this place to be twice as what I understand them to be, so if that is the case, we will not have to pay quite so much at closing. That $6,300 is for also setting up the escrow account and all that jazz.

 

To further explain closing costs:

http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-learning/closing-costs/

 

It sounds like I will have to have my checkbook in hand for closing.

 

So at this stage of the game, I have to contact the realtor and get the title info....

.

Just called them and they will get that information to me. They need something however from the bank to say that we have started the application process to fulfill the obligation on the signed contract saying we would get that letter to the sellers. So I just emailed my contact to request that statement.

 

The realtor also told me they were able to pick out an inspector for us and would email him to let him know he can call me when he is free to go over what all we want done on the inspection. Now you don't have to have anything inspected, but its usually a good idea to at least get the water done. I have a few other things I'd like done so I'll be going over that when he calls.

 

Land: Purchasing & What to Research About

History of Land---Paranormal & Historical
This is important on several counts to know the land that you are wanting to purchase.
First, to find out about any historical significance. Find out about the people who were once on the land, travelled across it or camped or fought upon the land. This is important for many reasons. Was the land once a creek bed? Or did a river run through it and is it now dammed and you are below the dam?
That brings to mind it would be good to find out not only of your own land but the surrounding land as well just for that reason alone, would be important to know if you are below a dam and if that dam should burst, would your home then get swept away?

Has there been earthquakes or tornados in the past that have come thru there?

Just why is the land for sale? Why are the current owners selling it? Recently looking to buy property, I asked that all important question. After talking with the owners myself, face to face, it gave me a very good feel for things. In this situation, the owners, an elderly couple are selling their property to be closer to their kids as they had sadly lost two sons and want to be closer so they can spend time with them. I could also see that it was starting to get to be too much for them. The house is too big than needed and the land is a lot to take care of.

And of course, these days with the heightened awareness to it, you should also try to find out about any paranormal activity. I tend not to ask the owners of this unless they are younger. Otherwise, we discretely used a K2 to see if there were any high EMFs in the house. Funny enough, we got nothing until out in the garage in the storage space above, as we passed by these tribal African masks, that's when the K2 went off.
Yes, it is important to know if people died on that spot. Were there any traumatic incidences that might have occurred there? Battles fought, skirmishes, prisoners of wars, rapes, torture...the list goes on!

The area I am looking at currently, I researched the history and it land that was given to the revolutionary war soldiers when they retired after the war. The land itself was given to Maine from Massachusetts. I also looked up the local Native American tribe that had inhabited the area before, the Abenaki who sadly were part of the Native Americans who died from diseases no doubt brought in from the Europeans who settled there. Those Abenaki that survived retreated to Canada or they merged with other villages and the lines blur into other tribes.

For this property we are looking at, we also did find out the current owners had buried a goat out in the sandpit, so although not paranormal unless you get rammed in the butt by something that isn't there while bending over, we at least knew that if we dug into the sandpit, to be careful of the goat that is buried out there.

Research the land's history and find out as much as you can about it. It can sound anal but it could come in handy to know as much as you can upfront before you make a purchase.

Knowledge is power.

Other items of interest:

Appraisal
Knowing how much the property is really worth is key. The bank will not lend you money for more than what it is worth. When selling, this is a good thing to know beforehand so you know what your top price could be.

Mineral/Gas rights--land rights to the State
This was the case in Texas in the community, believe it or not. The state of Texas had full rights to the mineral and gas that might be found on the land and they had permission to come onto the land and drill or dig as they wished. This always bugged me for I didn't really own that land.

Flood zones
Always good to know. Best times to see the property you are thinking of buying is early spring when the snows melt or during the rainy season so you can see just how wet the land can be.

Right of Ways
For this property, it's more of a long private road-right of way, but that will come in handy during the winter with the plowing that is included in the Road Association fee.

Community Planning
Is there anything that the town (if you have one) is planning on the neighboring land? Noise factor, ruining your views?

Land next to this land
Again, knowing what is to happen with the neighboring land or if it is privately owned is really important. This property I am looking at is bordered by a stream and private land owned all around. I'd rather state game land or forest, but as it is so much land and so remote, I should be fine.

Utilities, Electric, Water, sewage, cable, phone, gas, trash
Do you have access to all those things? Are they important to you? Do you need to take your trash elsewhere to dump or is there a pick up service? How good is the connection for your phone? Is it cable or dish? Is water from a well or spring?
Is your sewage to be septic and if so, is it sand mound or the traditional type of tank or do you have sewer?

Buildable--Got Permits? Can you build on the land? Are there any restrictions?

Taxes--Property & School
Finding out what the taxes are is very important in buying property. After the mortgage payment is done, you will still have taxes and yes, most likely they will increase as time goes by. Even with the mortgage payment, you have to include the taxes into it so you know what you are getting into for monthly payments. It can be quite expensive. In Texas we were paying $700 a month for property taxes on top of the mortgage. So it was very high.

Height Restrictions on Homes
Important to know if you are building a home on land or improving the home you are purchasing. This was the case in the community where you couldn't build anything too high. They tried to keep most of the houses pretty uniform.

Number of building restrictions
Just in case you wanted to build some outbuildings, chicken coop, barn, shed.


Who are your neighbors?
Important to know if you have a junk yard next to you for example.

Nearest child abusers or sex offenders
http://www.familywatchdog.us/
That is just one of the many sites you can check to see if you have any sex offenders in the area you are looking to purchase. Forewarned is forearmed.
And just don't look at one site for your area, I tried that one and didn't get anything and then tried this one:
http://www.criminalwatchdog.com/neighborhood-watch/ and I got a hit not too far from where I am looking to buy. It is really good to know what you are getting into, especially if you have little kids.

Making sure there is a survey done
This is if you can afford to. If you have a lot of land it could cost several hundreds if not thousands to have your land properly surveyed. It's important to know your boundaries and have it marked if possible. Smaller land mass is cheaper to have it surveyed.

Types of trees
This is important to know if they are deciduous (lose their leaves) or if you have evergreens. It will mean what can be seen through them, your place or others or if surrounded by trees that lose their leaves, all those leaves you might have to clean up.

Has land been scraped or any of it removed (for foundation/house settling)
See one of my blog posts here about that. http://weirdnwonderfulnwackytips.blogspot.com/2013/08/adding-or-taking-dirt-away.html
 When land has been cut away, before you build on it, it should be left to rest and settle. You've created air pockets and loosened up the soil so it needs time to settle it back down again,  otherwise if laying a foundation, you run the risk of the foundation cracking when the land does settle and having to redo the whole thing. It's a mess and a big concern.

Miscellaneous laws on the property and also state laws--water/lake restrictions?
There are always some type of odd ball law you may need to be aware of.
No dumping, or burning of certain things.

The more you research, the better informed you will be. I've ticked off several items that can help you in this post and I hope they do and get you to thinking before you buy your land or property!

Looking for the Right House---The Bid

Now after all of my experiences, and I know I am buzzing here on posting about this but will stop at this point once I finish as we are just at the end of this stage of it.

Ok so the bid. What do you bid? How much or little? I feel this is a bit backwards of a system and I'll explain why.

First however, what you should really do when wanting to buy a home, is to go to your bank and get what is called a "Pre-Qualification Letter". This is where your bank will pull your credit and see what amount they can approve to lend you. It takes about 30-40 mins on the phone and you will know and the document is online at your bank's site and they can also fax it to you.  This allows you to take that in hand and go shopping for your new home. It also tells the sellers that you are serious and ready.
I went to look at this property first however before the letter because I was planning on going up there to Maine at the end of April and not so fast. So I did not want to have my credit pulled too soon and for just one property and if I ended up not liking it, I will have wasted a month to where I could have paid down my debt more to raise my credit scores and then have a better interest rate in the long run for the mortgage. See? A lot of factors go into this.
But after returning from seeing this one, I didn't need to wait any longer and so called my bank and got the Pre-Qualification Letter and sent a copy to my realtor to put with my bid on the property. He whites out the numbers as its best the seller does not know what the buyer has qualified for, the maximum, else they will hold out thinking the buyer can afford more. Then he writes up a tentative contract with my bid.

So how much do you offer?

The seller puts a price they want for the property. More often than not, they ask for more than what they really want. So it is accepted and expected for you to offer a lower price. They can counter or say no and then you go from there.

Looking at this particular property I am wanting to buy, they originally had a price on it for $249,000 in the fall. They eventually lowered it to 235k which is when I looked at the listing more closely. Of course, I would offer them a lower amount. So I did at 220 and then offered for us to split closing costs.

Closing costs are what pays for the appraisal and other various fees that are involved in transferring the deed over from the sellers to the buyers. This is usually about 3% of your purchase price. So yea, ewe, it can be several thousands dollars, in this case over 6,000.

Now something to take into consideration before placing the bid, is the appraisal, This won't happen (set up by the buyer's lender/bank) until after the contract is signed between the buyer and seller having agreed upon the terms of the sale.
This is where it's backwards a bit.

The bank will send an appraiser out to look over the property to determine its true worth before they will lend me the money to purchase it. The sellers will sign a document saying that they acknowledge this is a contingency on me buying the property (as this is a VA loan and it's one of their stipulations), that it has to appraise or be valued at the price we agreed upon or higher.
If it does not, then I have a few choices. Either walk away from the property, ask the sellers to come down further with their asking price or I pay the difference out of my pocket.

This seems backwards as I would think the sellers would get an appraisal ahead of time so they would know what the highest price they could ask for their property before listing it. That way, they wouldn't lose a prospective buyer because a bank won't loan anyone more money than what they deem the property is worth, VA or otherwise. 

So I put in the bid and the sellers took a day and night to think about it and countered with 230k, split closing and then I pay for the leftover oil and cords of wood they have on the land and they pushed closing to June versus May. I agreed. So then came the contract which was signed via DocuSign online and sent off to them and they signed it. That whole process is quite easy. HOORAY!!

Afterwards, I found out what the sellers had paid for the property when they bought it, 235k and they put in 75k of their own into the place!? Oh noooo I felt bad in some ways about the lower offer I had made. But no, some of the things they had put into it was needed and would depreciate anyway over time. They don't stay new and the place is in boonieland and no town nearby, why the low taxes. Still, I felt they should have asked for more like 300k! Just to try to get back what they had put into it. Again however, depreciation on a lot of things and on top of that, they had started out higher but were not getting any real bites at least because of the remoteness of the place no doubt along with other issues like the Road Association would/might deter some people, it nearly had me. Although the place has more pluses in my mind, it could have minuses for others. It all comes down to taste and preferences.

Now, that signed contract will go to my bank in the morning who will move the loan forward with the VA. Plus the bank sends me a disclosure statement and goes over a few things with me and then sends for the appraiser.

In the meantime, my realtor is setting up an inspector to inspect the property. You don't have to do this part but it's a good idea nonetheless to not only have water tested but the structure itself and radon and a few other items. This will at least let you know what you are getting into before you buy it.

My only worry is how much the VA will appraise the property at?
This will take a couple weeks to happen if not longer.

This post brings you up to date if you'd like to follow along as I go over the steps and all that I am going thru in buying this property.