It's that time of year again when home owners have to drag themselves out of the air conditioning and cut the grass and weed the flower gardens. It's both terrible and satisfying at the same time. You look at the lawn when you finish and it looks so nice. You just have to deal with being out in the heat and humidity when you do it. Or you could pay someone to do it. That's always an option I suppose. Our lawn is small enough that with a push mower I can get it done in less than an hour. I remember cutting the grass growing up and my brother and I would split the work between the two side yards and the front and back yards. It seemed to take forever when we did it, but that could just be because we were so young. Living in a neighborhood where the houses are so close together, I have been thinking about law cutting courtesies. At what time is it appropriate to get out and cut the grass? When is it too early or too late in the day? You don't want to be that house on the block that everyone hates because you cut the grass at the wrong time. If you don't know which house is that house on your block, you might be that house. Don't be.
I first started to think about this because I left for work one day a few weeks back and the owner of the house on the corner was almost done cutting his lawn. It was 7:00 in the morning. My only thought was 'wow, what a dick'. I understand a lot of people, myself included, would prefer to get the grass cut early in the day before it gets too hot outside. I cut the grass this morning around 10:30 and it was already above seventy degrees. It was not pleasant. It is Friday and I figured it was a reasonable time. Most people are at work if they have a standard Monday through Friday type job. If there was anyone around that maybe works different hours like overnight or second shift type jobs, 10:30 shouldn't bother them, right? The last thing that I would want is to be trying to sleep and a neighbor being out with a loud mower or weed whip.
I'm not a huge fan of lawn work in the evening. I always look at the
evening as a time to relax and unwind from the day. The last thing
that I want to do after work is do more work. Plus, it seems that bugs are more active in the evening. Who wants to swat at mosquitoes and gnats and try to cut grass at the same time? I know I don't. However it could be the only time to do it. It's not that I flat out refuse to do evening grass cutting, I just prefer to do so in the morning.
How early is too early? I suppose it depends on the day. If it is during the weekend, and I want to be outside doing this, I might start a little bit later. Most everyone catches up on sleep during the weekends. During the week, I'll maybe start a little bit earlier than on the weekend. An easy way to know is to just wait for someone else to start. Let someone else be the asshole that wakes the neighborhood up. Personally, I think 9:00 during the week and 10:00 on the weekend are perfectly acceptable times to start lawn work.
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label house. Show all posts
07 June 2019
30 October 2018
Deck Work
One of the great things about owning a house is that you can make any improvement that you want. The one terrible thing about owning a house is that you have to do the improvement. Even if you have a decent concept about how much time, effort, and money a project is going to take, there always seems to be a point when you look around and wonder why you would do something like this. The payoff, however, is great. We are very happy the way it turned out and cannot wait to tackle our next project. Even if it is a small one.
A wonderful feature in our house is the back deck. It is large enough to have our grill, a couple of chairs, and a few more things if need be. It was in fairly rough shape though. The paint was peeling in several places and needed to be redone. We got help from both of our families at different points in this project. That is another reason why it is nice to live close enough to family to have that network of support. We are also a stone throw away from our neighbor's house. One thing that my wife wanted to put in was a privacy fence on the deck to give us just a little separation from them. As fun as it is to look right into their house, the fence just adds a little bit more to it.
This is a picture of the deck after we got everything was stripped and the privacy fence was added.
The color for the deck turned out great. We used this product called Deck Over which is suppose to fill in cracks and screw holes. It is extremely thick and is the same consistency of pudding. We joked that it looked like chocolate pudding and made us both hungry as we were painting over the course of a few days.
A wonderful feature in our house is the back deck. It is large enough to have our grill, a couple of chairs, and a few more things if need be. It was in fairly rough shape though. The paint was peeling in several places and needed to be redone. We got help from both of our families at different points in this project. That is another reason why it is nice to live close enough to family to have that network of support. We are also a stone throw away from our neighbor's house. One thing that my wife wanted to put in was a privacy fence on the deck to give us just a little separation from them. As fun as it is to look right into their house, the fence just adds a little bit more to it.
This is a picture of the deck after we got everything was stripped and the privacy fence was added.
The color for the deck turned out great. We used this product called Deck Over which is suppose to fill in cracks and screw holes. It is extremely thick and is the same consistency of pudding. We joked that it looked like chocolate pudding and made us both hungry as we were painting over the course of a few days.
13 June 2018
Deck Work
We have moved to the exterior of our house for our next house project. When we first bought our house, we knew that the back deck was something that was eventually going to need attention. Not structurally, but aesthetically. The paint and stain was starting to peel within the first year, and it just got a little worse over the past winter. Both sets of our parents, along with my sister and her kids, came out for a visit and helped with the project. While the project is not one hundred percent done, the heavy lifting has been completed. All that remains is the painting which can be done over the course of a weekend.
The first steps were taken at the beginning of the month. We stripped away all the old paint from the planks, but struggled to decide what to do with the spindles that lined the deck. We eventually determined that it was going to be much easier to remove the spindles, there were only two screws per, and sand the paint away. Over Memorial Day weekend, my in-laws came into town. We had plans to make some decent progress, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The entire time that they were here we were in the midst of a mini heat wave. It was topping out in the mid to high 90s, with heat index topping 100. Because this project is something that we can take our time on, we did not feel rushed to work on it. We got everything removed and stripped a good number of spindles, but it was just too hot to do anything. I mean, why would you exert yourself on a project that does not need to be completed quickly?
This past weekend, my parents and sister came out and we finished the most difficult part of the project. We built a privacy fence on one side of the deck. We are extremely close to our neighbor's house. In fact, their driveway butts right up to our property. So it will be nice to be able to sit on the deck and not look into their living room or back den. It ended up running the length of the deck (about eight feet) and is about seven feet tall. We also replaced the lattice work that was on the bottom of the deck. The previous owners just placed cheap white plastic lattice work around the edge and it looked terrible. Over the course of time, the white plastic took on a green hue from all the grass being cut. With the paint, we hope to avoid that.
The last things that we have to do are reattach the spindles and paint the deck. We bought it at the start of the project and that is what got the ball rolling. It needs two coats and needs to be painted when there is no rain in the forecast for two or three days. This is the most difficult part because not only do we have to work around the weather, we have to work around our work schedules. Not having every weekend off will make this last part very difficult. The nice thing is that all the hard work is done and we can still use the deck. It'll just look incomplete until we have time to paint it all.
The first steps were taken at the beginning of the month. We stripped away all the old paint from the planks, but struggled to decide what to do with the spindles that lined the deck. We eventually determined that it was going to be much easier to remove the spindles, there were only two screws per, and sand the paint away. Over Memorial Day weekend, my in-laws came into town. We had plans to make some decent progress, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The entire time that they were here we were in the midst of a mini heat wave. It was topping out in the mid to high 90s, with heat index topping 100. Because this project is something that we can take our time on, we did not feel rushed to work on it. We got everything removed and stripped a good number of spindles, but it was just too hot to do anything. I mean, why would you exert yourself on a project that does not need to be completed quickly?
This past weekend, my parents and sister came out and we finished the most difficult part of the project. We built a privacy fence on one side of the deck. We are extremely close to our neighbor's house. In fact, their driveway butts right up to our property. So it will be nice to be able to sit on the deck and not look into their living room or back den. It ended up running the length of the deck (about eight feet) and is about seven feet tall. We also replaced the lattice work that was on the bottom of the deck. The previous owners just placed cheap white plastic lattice work around the edge and it looked terrible. Over the course of time, the white plastic took on a green hue from all the grass being cut. With the paint, we hope to avoid that.
The last things that we have to do are reattach the spindles and paint the deck. We bought it at the start of the project and that is what got the ball rolling. It needs two coats and needs to be painted when there is no rain in the forecast for two or three days. This is the most difficult part because not only do we have to work around the weather, we have to work around our work schedules. Not having every weekend off will make this last part very difficult. The nice thing is that all the hard work is done and we can still use the deck. It'll just look incomplete until we have time to paint it all.
08 May 2018
New Closet
We have finally tackled another house project. This time it was the closet in our main bedroom. Not all home improvement projects are awe inspiring. They aren't all new kitchens or living rooms. Sometimes they are just boring small corners in a room.
Here's the before:
There was a lot of wasted space. The shelves on the left side of the closet were pretty useless mainly because they were so small. You could put just a handful of folded up shirts or pants on them. And it wasn't exactly installed well. One support bracket in the middle of the shelf across the back. The back shelf also consisted of two cut shelves with a joiner bracket. The shelves on the left were also supported with what can only be described as a cheap stripper pole. So....just not good. It's like they threw it together quickly as a fix for something.
And now the after.
Same type of shelving as before, but we wrapped the shelves around the top. It utilizes what little space the closet offers. We also added a second horizontal bar on the left side of the space. A fresh coat of white paint made the closet brighter as well. This could have been done over the fall or winter, but we were just too busy. Plus, spring time kind of feels like the right time to do home improvement things for some reason.
Here's the before:
There was a lot of wasted space. The shelves on the left side of the closet were pretty useless mainly because they were so small. You could put just a handful of folded up shirts or pants on them. And it wasn't exactly installed well. One support bracket in the middle of the shelf across the back. The back shelf also consisted of two cut shelves with a joiner bracket. The shelves on the left were also supported with what can only be described as a cheap stripper pole. So....just not good. It's like they threw it together quickly as a fix for something.
And now the after.
Same type of shelving as before, but we wrapped the shelves around the top. It utilizes what little space the closet offers. We also added a second horizontal bar on the left side of the space. A fresh coat of white paint made the closet brighter as well. This could have been done over the fall or winter, but we were just too busy. Plus, spring time kind of feels like the right time to do home improvement things for some reason.
18 November 2017
New Hotness
You know how when you buy a house there is always that sense that something is going to go wrong? In that first five or six months, in the back of your mind there's just that little bit of an inkling that something is going to break. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you just dropped your life's savings into this new house and you wonder what would happen if something went wrong. No? Just me? Okay then. Despite the feeling of grandeur in being a new homeowner, there should be that feeling. That way you can prepare for it when it does eventually happen.
When we did the home inspection, we did know that the appliances were a little on the old side. They were all in the ten to fifteen year old range. Things like the furnace, the air conditioner, the water heater. All the big fun stuff that makes living in house comfortable. The home inspector did say that some, if not all, would need to be replaced within five years. Here's the thing though, when you hear that you might automatically think that you have that five years. Not always the case. Also, don't do that. Be proactive about saving money for a bad situation.
While we did not have anything go wrong in the first year of home ownership, we did have our first major issue last week. We woke up to a pretty cold house. This only happened one other time and it was right after we bought the house. That was our 'what the hell are we going to do' moment. Luckily, there was just a disruption of the gas supply to the house, and we were able to relight the furnace and hot water heater. This time, we were not so lucky. We called a local heating and air company and found out our furnace was shot. While they were working on it, they made note that the air conditioner was about as old as the furnace was. While this is definitely their job to try and make money for their business, it also can and will help us out. In one fell swoop we had a new furnace and air conditioner.
On the plus side, this is something that we should only have to do once. Maybe twice if we live in the house for thirty or forty years. And it adds to the value of the house. All you have to do is try to find the positive to a situation that is kinda shitty and it can almost make you feel better about dropping a boat load of money you weren't prepared to drop. If you look at it as a long term investment, you can almost feel better about the situation. It's always difficult to think about it, but now that we know that at any moment something can break to the point where they cannot be fixed, we can start really look into setting aside money for that kind of situation. Even if it is something like fifty dollars every pay period, that will build up over time.
When we did the home inspection, we did know that the appliances were a little on the old side. They were all in the ten to fifteen year old range. Things like the furnace, the air conditioner, the water heater. All the big fun stuff that makes living in house comfortable. The home inspector did say that some, if not all, would need to be replaced within five years. Here's the thing though, when you hear that you might automatically think that you have that five years. Not always the case. Also, don't do that. Be proactive about saving money for a bad situation.
While we did not have anything go wrong in the first year of home ownership, we did have our first major issue last week. We woke up to a pretty cold house. This only happened one other time and it was right after we bought the house. That was our 'what the hell are we going to do' moment. Luckily, there was just a disruption of the gas supply to the house, and we were able to relight the furnace and hot water heater. This time, we were not so lucky. We called a local heating and air company and found out our furnace was shot. While they were working on it, they made note that the air conditioner was about as old as the furnace was. While this is definitely their job to try and make money for their business, it also can and will help us out. In one fell swoop we had a new furnace and air conditioner.
On the plus side, this is something that we should only have to do once. Maybe twice if we live in the house for thirty or forty years. And it adds to the value of the house. All you have to do is try to find the positive to a situation that is kinda shitty and it can almost make you feel better about dropping a boat load of money you weren't prepared to drop. If you look at it as a long term investment, you can almost feel better about the situation. It's always difficult to think about it, but now that we know that at any moment something can break to the point where they cannot be fixed, we can start really look into setting aside money for that kind of situation. Even if it is something like fifty dollars every pay period, that will build up over time.
12 October 2017
What a Year
Tomorrow is a wonderful anniversary for me and my wife. Tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of being home owners. Every once in a while when I drive past the house coming home from running errands or coming back from work, I can't help but glance over and smile. It's our little piece of the American Dream.
When we first looked at the house we knew that there were going to be some projects, but nothing that was a deal breaker. Obviously. We bought the house. There aren't major ones that needed to be addressed right away, but the kitchen and bathroom both need work. They're functional and
Here's a few things that we've learned over the year. We've agreed that the kitchen will be addressed in about five years.
Here's a few things that I think others might find helpful.
Buy a house at the end of a season. We bought our house in October and didn't have to cut the lawn until the following Spring. That also meant that we didn't have to invest in things like a lawn mower and weed whacker for a few years. Sure, we had to buy a rake for leaves and a shovel for the snow, but those aren't nearly as expensive as a lawn mower is.
Tackle small projects early on. It felt like the day after we moved in, my wife was already making a list of things she wanted to change. I was like, damn woman give it a minute! She is a very visual person, so the first things she wanted done was painting. We got the living room and dining room painted pretty early on in our home ownership. It makes it feel like it's yours just a little bit more.
Don't feel like you need to keep up with the Joneses. Our neighborhood has plenty of small houses and small families. There aren't extravagant houses or any new houses so there isn't a need to make everything look perfect. Yes, you need to keep the grass cut and making sure your yard doesn't look like a yard sale, but as long as your yard looks better than the next guy people won't notice. Right?
Raking leaves is stupid. We have two large trees in our front yard. They made it feel like a never ending task. Especially since one tree lost all it's leaves and the other one waited a couple of weeks after to shed them. Last fall, this was the limit to our yard work. We didn't have a lawn mower, plus the grass was pretty short when we moved in. Raking leaves felt like an on going joke. Every time you looked out in the yard, even an hour after we finished up, there were leaves on the ground. It was dumb. This year we have a lawn mower. I'm all for mulching the leaves this year.
When we first looked at the house we knew that there were going to be some projects, but nothing that was a deal breaker. Obviously. We bought the house. There aren't major ones that needed to be addressed right away, but the kitchen and bathroom both need work. They're functional and
Here's a few things that we've learned over the year. We've agreed that the kitchen will be addressed in about five years.
Here's a few things that I think others might find helpful.
Buy a house at the end of a season. We bought our house in October and didn't have to cut the lawn until the following Spring. That also meant that we didn't have to invest in things like a lawn mower and weed whacker for a few years. Sure, we had to buy a rake for leaves and a shovel for the snow, but those aren't nearly as expensive as a lawn mower is.
Tackle small projects early on. It felt like the day after we moved in, my wife was already making a list of things she wanted to change. I was like, damn woman give it a minute! She is a very visual person, so the first things she wanted done was painting. We got the living room and dining room painted pretty early on in our home ownership. It makes it feel like it's yours just a little bit more.
Don't feel like you need to keep up with the Joneses. Our neighborhood has plenty of small houses and small families. There aren't extravagant houses or any new houses so there isn't a need to make everything look perfect. Yes, you need to keep the grass cut and making sure your yard doesn't look like a yard sale, but as long as your yard looks better than the next guy people won't notice. Right?
Raking leaves is stupid. We have two large trees in our front yard. They made it feel like a never ending task. Especially since one tree lost all it's leaves and the other one waited a couple of weeks after to shed them. Last fall, this was the limit to our yard work. We didn't have a lawn mower, plus the grass was pretty short when we moved in. Raking leaves felt like an on going joke. Every time you looked out in the yard, even an hour after we finished up, there were leaves on the ground. It was dumb. This year we have a lawn mower. I'm all for mulching the leaves this year.
23 April 2017
Quite The Post
'Nothing echoes like an empty mailbox.' -Charles Schultz
When we bought our house, after the excitement of being a homeowner wore off, we started looking around at small things that we wanted to change. We've painted a few of the rooms, found colors for others, and made some slight adjustments. Nothing major yet, but we have plans. One thing that we wanted to change was the mailbox. The one that the previous owners had was on a post to the side of the front porch. It was white and started to rust a little on the bottom. It just didn't look right. To make matters a little worse, moisture was getting into it. Nothing crazy, but the mail every time it rained or snows was a little damp.
For whatever reason, some years ago, some idiot sealed up the mail slot that was built into the house. It's a cute little feature, but it's covered up now and that sucks. You can see the door from the inside of the house, but it has been sealed and it's covered up from the outside. I'd love to have that as the mailbox again. It's a cool feature that was pretty standard from the time our house was originally constructed.
We went out to a home improvement store to find a new one. We went with one to mount on the exterior of the house. Something simple and classic looking. When my parents were out here a few weeks ago, they put it up one day while we were at work. How nice of them! After I took the old mailbox off the post, the next step (naturally) would be to remove the post. It was a simple metal post and I thought it was something that was just a few feet in the ground. As it turns out, nope. Not the case. I had to take a shovel to it to dig it up.
Below is the post in our garage. The damn thing is about seven feet long. SEVEN FEET! What the hell were they worried about? Did they think a strong wind was going to pick up a measly little five foot post and send their mail flying about? Were they worried some mischievous pranksters were going to try and take it? Who knows. Anyone need a seven foot metal post?
21 April 2017
Lawn Care
'A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule.' -Michael Pollan
We have entered a new stage in our home ownership. The spring. Buying our house in the fall we didn't have to worry about much lawn care. The only thing we had to deal with was raking leaves. While it is time consuming to do so, raking leaves does not require a lot of effort or equipment. A rake, some bags, and that's about it. After all the snow melted away from the winter, and the occasional snow storm, we started thinking about a lawn mower. We don't have a large lawn, so a push mower is in our future. There are just so many options. At least more than I had originally thought about. From mulching to bagged, gas to electric (corded or cordless), just many more than I thought.
We (mostly I) thought about battery operated push lawn mowers. I don't know if it's because it's newer technology that hasn't been improved, but I was disappointed in the reviews when it came to battery life. The 'best' reviewed mower I could find was, first off, about five hundred dollars. It also had a running life of about forty five minutes. If I'm going to invest that kind of money into a mower, I better be able to cut the lawn without having to take a thirty minute break while the battery recharges. To be fair, they are not all that expensive and most are priced about the same as some of the gas powered mowers we have looked at. Yes, it would be nice to get away from gas powered mower. It would be more cost efficient in the long run, but what kind of time frame would you be looking at for it to basically be paying for itself. Take into account cost of gas/oil and cost to recharge the battery. This might be a viable option eventually or if we really dove into researching the right mower we might be able to come up with one right away.
No matter what we end up going with, this is just another exciting facet of owning a house. Sure, by the time the end of August rolls around I'm sure I'll be excited to no longer be cutting the grass, but for the foreseeable future, I'm looking forward to it. Just like with shoveling snow or raking leaves, it comes with the territory. It shows you care for your house and property. It might be just another job to some, but to me it shows investment in your home. You don't want to be the house on the block that has an unkempt lawn. It just looks trashy. Let your neighbors be the trashy people.
18 February 2017
Another Project
'We'll provide complete solutions for do-it-yourselfers, wannabes, and do-it-for-me homeowners' -Bob Vila
When we bought our house in October, there weren't major projects or renovations that needed to be done. If anything, we saw a few small improvement opportunities. Things like painting were the main thing that we noticed. Our basement isn't finished, it's main use is for storage. At one time the laundry was in the basement, but was moved up to the main floor at some point. The unfortunate fact is that we cannot use the laundry chute that is still in the house. We know that eventually we will tear up the kitchen, the main bathroom upstairs and the second bathroom/laundry room, but they are all livable. There is no dire situation right now. *knocks on wood, throws salt over shoulder, punches a Nazi, or whatever it is that superstitious people do to ward off bad luck*
There is a bank of shelves in the basement and we thought that this one bank along with the one that we bought from IKEA several years ago would have been enough. Boy were we mistaken. As it turns out, Rubbermaid totes take up a lot of room. A LOT of room. I'm not entirely sure where we put everything when we were living in the townhouse, but they seemed to multiply on our move. We had everything up on the shelves, but it was just extremely cramped.
We got extremely lucky in that my store was getting rid of a bunch of eight foot tall uprights that are used for shelving in the store. Instead of just throwing them all away, my boss was nice enough to offer them to me. The problem is that the rafters in the basement are about six and a half to seven feet tall. And by problem, I mean a fun problem. That meant that I was able to play around with power tools. All that was needed was to cut off two feet from the top and to re-drill a bolt hole in the top of the uprights for the cross support. The really awesome thing is that the shelves are adjustable so if we need to raise or lower them that is an option. I can also get an extra shelf or two if need be. Below are a few photos of the material once it was off loaded from the Jeep, one of the banks of shelves, and then the final setup. We ended up with two sets of six feet of shelves and one stand along three foot set of shelves. Along with the IKEA shelf we bought many years ago. Eighteen feet worth of shelving if you add it all up. It really cleared up the main room in the basement. Again, it's an unfinished basement so we aren't going to be down there constantly.
I think that one thing that these little projects (painting, shelves, etc.) is helping us out with is confidence that we can take on projects in the house. We know we aren't professionals and we don't have the means to be pros, but it's going to be these small projects that a house feel like a home. Things you can point to and say 'we did that'. We're eyeing up the closet in our bedroom for the next project. The previous owners didn't really utilize the space very well. Again, it's going to be something small, but manageable.
16 November 2016
First Project!
We have been in our house for just over a month. We have settled in nicely and have gotten our everyday stuff unpacked and put away. The only things that are left are things that aren't used on a regular basis. You all know them as the boxes that remain packed for years after moving in. We eventually want to paint our living room, so we haven't put pictures or art or shelves up. Our walls are bare, but we do have the Christmas season coming up in the next three weeks, so we'll probably have holiday decorations take up space.
Speaking of walls, we have finished our first project in our new house. It was nothing major. We painted our dining room. The room itself is large enough to hold our dining table, granted our table only seats four or five people at a time. However, when we saw this house, the previous homeowners had a table that sat their family of six. So there is room for a larger table if so desired. The problem with the room was the color. It was a darkish red. The pictures below are the progress of painting the room. The pictures don't do it total justice, but what I will say is that putting lighter colors on the wall definitely makes the room feel bigger.
Speaking of walls, we have finished our first project in our new house. It was nothing major. We painted our dining room. The room itself is large enough to hold our dining table, granted our table only seats four or five people at a time. However, when we saw this house, the previous homeowners had a table that sat their family of six. So there is room for a larger table if so desired. The problem with the room was the color. It was a darkish red. The pictures below are the progress of painting the room. The pictures don't do it total justice, but what I will say is that putting lighter colors on the wall definitely makes the room feel bigger.
20 October 2016
Historic Door
The house we bought was built in 1941. It predates America's involvement in World War II, the atomic bomb, and Reganomics. There are plenty of stories in this house that we will never know. That's kind of the beauty of older houses. They have stories. Whether you know the stories or not, you know there have been plenty of things that have happened. One thing that we do have is the door that leads down to the basement. Someone, at one time, thought that it would be great to document some stuff on it.
Documentation that people lived here. Families lived here. The majority of the stuff written on here is kids' names, age, height. Stuff like that. It's like stuff you see in Rockwell paintings. Hash marks and names. It's cute. The oldest date that we can find on here is from 1970. There's marks from every decade since the 1970s. It would have been awesome if there were dates older than 1970, but who knows, the door could have been replaced. It doesn't seem as old as the house. Most of the dates are in pen and will eventually fade over time. There are some in pencil that are almost gone. The smart people wrote in permanent marker. We talked with the previous owners and they said that this door was one of the best features because of all the documentation. There's another set of numbers of someone's pregnancy. Weeks along and the circumference of the woman's stomach. Sorry to use the word circumference, I don't know how to describe a woman's pregnant stomach without it sounding awkward.
And here is our mark in the house. I took this picture the day we got the keys to this house. It was really the first thing we did here. We added 'our first house' under the date. We don't have kids to mark their heights. I suppose we could mark the height of the cat? It wouldn't change, but we still could. That would be absolutely terrific for whomever owns this house after us.
This is the last up close of the door. The last name is personal for me because it is a family name. It is my mom's maiden name. The funny thing is, my family is from Michigan. And who knows, we could be related to this person in some way, shape, or form. For those who believe in signs or fates or anything like that, if you saw a family name in a house that you were looking at, how could you not buy it? We were convinced that we were going to buy this house before we saw the names and dates, but if this wasn't a sign from whatever you believe in, I don't know what would be.
Documentation that people lived here. Families lived here. The majority of the stuff written on here is kids' names, age, height. Stuff like that. It's like stuff you see in Rockwell paintings. Hash marks and names. It's cute. The oldest date that we can find on here is from 1970. There's marks from every decade since the 1970s. It would have been awesome if there were dates older than 1970, but who knows, the door could have been replaced. It doesn't seem as old as the house. Most of the dates are in pen and will eventually fade over time. There are some in pencil that are almost gone. The smart people wrote in permanent marker. We talked with the previous owners and they said that this door was one of the best features because of all the documentation. There's another set of numbers of someone's pregnancy. Weeks along and the circumference of the woman's stomach. Sorry to use the word circumference, I don't know how to describe a woman's pregnant stomach without it sounding awkward.
And here is our mark in the house. I took this picture the day we got the keys to this house. It was really the first thing we did here. We added 'our first house' under the date. We don't have kids to mark their heights. I suppose we could mark the height of the cat? It wouldn't change, but we still could. That would be absolutely terrific for whomever owns this house after us.
This is the last up close of the door. The last name is personal for me because it is a family name. It is my mom's maiden name. The funny thing is, my family is from Michigan. And who knows, we could be related to this person in some way, shape, or form. For those who believe in signs or fates or anything like that, if you saw a family name in a house that you were looking at, how could you not buy it? We were convinced that we were going to buy this house before we saw the names and dates, but if this wasn't a sign from whatever you believe in, I don't know what would be.
19 October 2016
Housing Adventures
In the middle of June, my wife and I were faced with a dilemma. The same dilemma we faced the year before. Do we renew our rental lease or do we take the giant leap and look for a house of our own? After considering the pros and cons, we made the decision to look for a house to buy. It has been quite the adventure. Not always in a good way, but an adventure nonetheless. While we knew going in that it would take a while, and that it was not going to be as nice and tidy as they show on the HGTV network, it might have been just a little bit more than we originally thought.
There were several steps along the way. The first big one was where we would be looking for a house. Currently, my wife works about an hour south of the Twin Cities. I work in the southern central part of the metro. We live closer to her work than we do mine, but that was just where we moved because that is where we could find a place to live that wasn't the shitty apartment we found when we first moved to Minnesota. We thought about staying in the city we are in now. It is small enough that it reminds us of our hometown, but still close enough to the metro that you can get there in half an hour. The problem is that everyone else is aware of this and the houses on the market are either too expensive or look like flop houses. So we expanded our search in the hopes of finding somewhere near the middle to make our commutes similar. We also took into account the fact that we both may not stay at our current jobs forever, more so her than me, that if either of us were looking for new employment, it would be closer to the metro, so to move a little bit further north made the most sense.
After we determined the general area of where we wanted to live, it was just a matter of finding a house. Not just any house, not even the house. Just one that would suit us. It also had to fit into our budget, our wants for the house, you know stuff like that. In the course of our house search, and after we made an offer on the one we are going to buy, we thought back to all the houses we saw. To put it into context, we were driving about thirty minutes each way to go look at these houses, so we wanted to see three or four at a time just to make it worth our while. Including the open houses we went to on weekends, we figured we saw between thirty to thirty five houses. When we first started looking, we had a decent idea of what type of house we wanted, but weren't sure what we were looking for if that makes any sense. We knew we wanted a house that pretty much move in ready but we wouldn't turn away from one that had small projects or anything like that. The more we saw, the better idea of what we were looking for. Some houses we wanted to see because we were going to be up there.
We found a house finally. We put in an offer a few days after seeing it and the hard part was waiting. It had just come on the market a few days before we saw it. With the sellers waiting a few days to accept or negotiate or offer we figured they were waiting to see if they got any other offers. Either they didn't or they thought our offer was good enough to deal with. We negotiated a few times on the price and they accepted our second offer. I figured negotiating the price was going to be the hardest part. After our offer was accepted, the house inspection came next and of course there were many thing that came up. We compiled a list of things that needed to be fixed. What our realtor told us was to ask for them to fix as much as possible, they'll come back with what they'll fix, and you compromise on the list. This was the most annoying part of the purchase, I thought. We finally came to an agreement on what they would fix and what we would eventually take on.
After we came to an agreement, it was just a waiting game. We had a closing date. We had a last walk through date selected. Our mortgage went to underwriting which was the worst part. It was the worst because we weren't really involved in it. We sent all our paperwork in and all the work was being done by people we hadn't ever met. It was all very distant. We'd get random emails from our mortgage person saying they needed a piece of paper from this or that. Or we'd need to send them something else. It was all repetitive and tedious. And downright annoying. They would need every single page, even if it was a line that just said one thing on it.
And finally, we were homeowners! The grand adventure was over. At least the first chapter was over and another was just beginning.
There were several steps along the way. The first big one was where we would be looking for a house. Currently, my wife works about an hour south of the Twin Cities. I work in the southern central part of the metro. We live closer to her work than we do mine, but that was just where we moved because that is where we could find a place to live that wasn't the shitty apartment we found when we first moved to Minnesota. We thought about staying in the city we are in now. It is small enough that it reminds us of our hometown, but still close enough to the metro that you can get there in half an hour. The problem is that everyone else is aware of this and the houses on the market are either too expensive or look like flop houses. So we expanded our search in the hopes of finding somewhere near the middle to make our commutes similar. We also took into account the fact that we both may not stay at our current jobs forever, more so her than me, that if either of us were looking for new employment, it would be closer to the metro, so to move a little bit further north made the most sense.
After we determined the general area of where we wanted to live, it was just a matter of finding a house. Not just any house, not even the house. Just one that would suit us. It also had to fit into our budget, our wants for the house, you know stuff like that. In the course of our house search, and after we made an offer on the one we are going to buy, we thought back to all the houses we saw. To put it into context, we were driving about thirty minutes each way to go look at these houses, so we wanted to see three or four at a time just to make it worth our while. Including the open houses we went to on weekends, we figured we saw between thirty to thirty five houses. When we first started looking, we had a decent idea of what type of house we wanted, but weren't sure what we were looking for if that makes any sense. We knew we wanted a house that pretty much move in ready but we wouldn't turn away from one that had small projects or anything like that. The more we saw, the better idea of what we were looking for. Some houses we wanted to see because we were going to be up there.
We found a house finally. We put in an offer a few days after seeing it and the hard part was waiting. It had just come on the market a few days before we saw it. With the sellers waiting a few days to accept or negotiate or offer we figured they were waiting to see if they got any other offers. Either they didn't or they thought our offer was good enough to deal with. We negotiated a few times on the price and they accepted our second offer. I figured negotiating the price was going to be the hardest part. After our offer was accepted, the house inspection came next and of course there were many thing that came up. We compiled a list of things that needed to be fixed. What our realtor told us was to ask for them to fix as much as possible, they'll come back with what they'll fix, and you compromise on the list. This was the most annoying part of the purchase, I thought. We finally came to an agreement on what they would fix and what we would eventually take on.
After we came to an agreement, it was just a waiting game. We had a closing date. We had a last walk through date selected. Our mortgage went to underwriting which was the worst part. It was the worst because we weren't really involved in it. We sent all our paperwork in and all the work was being done by people we hadn't ever met. It was all very distant. We'd get random emails from our mortgage person saying they needed a piece of paper from this or that. Or we'd need to send them something else. It was all repetitive and tedious. And downright annoying. They would need every single page, even if it was a line that just said one thing on it.
And finally, we were homeowners! The grand adventure was over. At least the first chapter was over and another was just beginning.
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