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".
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
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:
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
/|\
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:
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!
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
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.
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!
Thursday, May 19, 2016
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!
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!
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