I don’t have a fourth resolution for the Self Portrait Challenge this week, because I’m too busy working on my first resolution. Here’s my self-portrait for this week:
I’ve been playing in the woods, and there are a lot of trees down after the big windstorm we had last month. It’s interesting to be able to see the tops of these huge trees that were way up in the sky just a few weeks ago. And the roots are pretty cool too.
Tomorrow we’ll make an offer on this place. It’s small, but it’s in Olympia, in a great neighborhood, and it already has a garage so Preston won’t have to build one. We’ll offer a lot less, since we don’t need the seller to do the carpet/roof/paint etc.
We decided to get out of the Pearl Street house completely. There were just too many things wrong with it. Today, we met with a new realtor and went to look at these two houses:
The Kulien street house we just didn’t feel good about. We’re going to look into the Lincoln Street house further. It’s almost completely gutted, with just a kitchen and a bathroom. Everything else is totally open, except one bedroom. There’s a lot of work visible just to start with, without even looking under the house or in the attic.
In the course of conversation with the realtor, we were talking about the house we decided not to get. I mentioned something about the owner being in Mexico, and the realtor said, “Wait, is the owner’s name Buffi Bloom?” When I confirmed, she said, “Well, I don’t want to say anything bad, but she’s a total slumlord.” Apparently Buffi owns 16 buildings in Centralia, most of the multi-family units, and she’s selling them all off. Cecilia, the new realtor, has been in a few of them and she says they are totally pieces of crap. When we mentioned the handyman, she said, “You mean Fernando?” and you could tell by the way she said his name that she wasn’t a big fan. I get the impression that Fernando actually speaks English just fine, but he prefers for people to think he doesn’t. Anyway, just a nice confirmation that we probably made the right decision.
We are super impressed at our agent’s knowledge so far. At the Kulien street house, it came up with the current renters that the owner lives far away and the owner’s son takes care of the house. The renter kept referring to him as John, and Cecilia asked him what John’s last name was. There was this long pause and the guy obviously didn’t want to tell her who the owner was. Finally he said, “Olsen”. Later, when the renter’s were gone, Cecilia said, “I think this house is owned by Buffi also. Her real name isn’t Buffi, she changed it after a commercial deal scandal some time in the 80’s. I think her previous name was Olsen, but I don’t remember for sure. I’ll look into it and get back to you.” Besides that it’s just pretty cool that she has our backs, it also totally pisses me off that Scott (our old agent) has been in business in Centralia for a few decades and no doubt knew all of this information about Buffi, but didn’t bother to tell us. I’m glad we switched agents, too.
I wrote before about one of my New Year’s Resolutions to eat better. That crockpot meal turned out okay, but a little bland. I’m such an incredibly visual person that I do a lot of my cooking by sight. It seems like if something looks good, it often tastes good (but not always!). So that last stew was pretty bland looking, with chicken meat, and potatoes making up the bulk of it. I’m trying it again today, and let’s see if I can remember what all is in here:
I think I’m forgetting a few things, but you get the idea. I just walked through the produce isle and picked up the most colorful things I could see.
Resolution: Create green spaces, wherever I live.
To see more resolutions, check out the Self Portrait Challenge.
Yes, it’s true, we’re having a touch of cold feet about the house. While we are generally logical and rational people, things just aren’t, you know, like, feeling right, man. Every time we’ve had a scheduled appointment to do something at the house, either the handyman has been there working on something, or something that needs to be inspected isn’t available. Most recently, the bank’s appraiser was out on Monday to check out the house. Most inconveniently, the seller’s handyman was there working on the bathroom sink, which meant that the bathroom sink was on the floor in the kitchen. Not so impressive for the appraiser to see. That also meant that the water was turned off, so every single time we’ve been there, the plumbing hasn’t been turned on. I know the owner is in Mexico and all, but it’s starting to make me wonder what’s up with the plumbing, you know?
Tomorrow is the end of our feasibility study, when we need to either commit or walk away. I actually went to the agent’s office today and signed the paperwork to make a slightly different offer, but mostly commit to buying the house. The agent wasn’t in, just left the paper for me, which I signed and left with the secretary. I didn’t really feel good about it after I left the office. On my way to the store I decided to swing by the house and get another look at it, figuring that seeing it again might get me excited again about the possibilities. I was just having a little look-see through the windows and couldn’t help but notice that neither the front nor back door was locked. So, I thought I’d poke my head in and see if the handyman was around. He wasn’t, but since I was inside anyway…
The sink was hooked up and the water turned on, so I thought I’d see how it works. It leaks. Not from the incoming water side, which would be more serious, but from the drain side. Big drops of water right onto the bathroom floor. It makes me wonder what else the handyman has “fixed”. We know that he repaired the hole in the back deck by nailing a piece of plywood over it and applying a new coat of paint. What else has he worked on?
But here’s the real issue. I think that it was really unfortunate that they had the heat turned off for the coldest week of the last few years. Doubly unfortunate was the fact that they had the carpet cleaned after the heat was off and only a day before the coldest week of the last few years. So the carpets never dried completely. All that water just sat there for the last few weeks. Then a week ago when they turned the heat back on, water condensed everywhere. When we were last there, the heat had been on for a day and there was water literally running down the inside of the windows. Unfortunately, it also created the perfect warm moist growing medium for mold, which is a huge issue here in the Pacific Northwest. As I walked through the house today, I found big patches of fluffy white mold growing on the carpet in the bedroom. In the back room, there were dark mildew-ish stains growing along the bottom two feet of the walls. We had planned to take the carpet out anyway, but not until spring. If we decide to go ahead with this house, it would now mean tearing out all the carpet before we can even move in. And probably replacing the sheetrock in at least that one bedroom.
I drove back to the real estate office and took that signed piece of paper back off the agent’s desk. We still have until tomorrow if we decide to give it back to him. We are still torn. It is a really cute place, and we’ve been reading all these remodeling books and have grand ideas for what could be done with it. We were feeling like it might be the best thing we can afford, so when we got home today we did a quick search to see what other houses are out there. We came across this one which already has a garage (we would have to build a garage at the yellow house), and is within the price range that we are prequalified for. So it’s not like we’re stuck with the yellow house, and we’re feeling like maybe we should call it a lesson and move on.
To top it all off, we got the house inspection report today, and it seems like he has his reports partially mixed up, or he cut-n-pasted the wrong information or something. There are a bunch of things on the report that are just flat wrong. Like he says that the water heater is 16 years old, but we actually had two separate and very clear conversations about how the water heater is only 2 years old, and he showed me the manufacture date and everything. He names the wrong brand for the electrical panel. He says that none of the faucets leak, but in reality the water wasn’t running either time he was there, so he has no way of knowing that. I’ll talk to him tomorrow and point these things out. Now that we’ve paid him $330 for a walk through, and Preston tagged along on the whole thing, we sort of feel like we don’t need an inspector for the next time. Preston and I are totally capable of doing everything the inspector did. He crawled in the attic to check for water damage. He crawled under the house to check the plumbing and to look for water damage. He used a nifty little plug-in to test the outlets. I’m pretty sure you can get one of those little plug-ins from Home Depot for $10 or so. And he walked around on the roof, determining that “yupp, there sure are some shingles missing up here, just like it looked like from down there.” He was a very nice guy, and we liked chatting with him, but it seems like Preston and I know what water damage looks like, and we know how to identify a missing shingle. Anything more complex than that, and he recommended a specialist. In this case, he recommended that we have a professional roofer take a look at the roof and see what he thought, as well as having a professional plumber look at the plumbing. We’re pretty sure that we could see enough to determine whether we needed the specialist on our own. So we may decide that we paid $330 for the lesson in how to inspect houses, which was very useful.
If we decide to pass on the yellow house, we will most definitely switch to a new agent. This one has not been helpful in the least. The only reason to have him around is for access to his legal documents, which he very kindly prints out and leaves on his desk for us to sign. So far, the only person in this process that we’ve enjoyed working with has been our bank loan person. Her names is Roberta Wilkinson with AlaskaUSA Credit Union, and if you are looking for a home loan, I highly recommend her. She has been really helpful and friendly. She recommended an agent for us, who we will contact if we decide to look at some other houses.
…I am an arteest!
I finally got around to ordering a few of my favorite prints and framing them. I’ve been hauling around these frames for a couple years, so it’s about time I used them. That’s Preston’s surfboard in the corner, and my pet skunk on the chair arm. Here are bigger versions of the pictures on the wall, if you’re curious.
…our kitty is the Cutest Kitty Ever…
Eat Better!
This isn’t really a New Year’s resolution as much as an ongoing project. I’d like to spend less money on eating out, and eat healthier, more balanced meals. The Crock-Pot will be key, since I am essentially a very lazy person. Into this Crock-Pot I’ve thrown:
I’ll cook it on high for about 5 hours, making it ready to eat just about the time Preston gets home from work. How’s that for domestic planning?
I’ve been tracking all my food intake and calorie output for the last couple weeks. My sister passed on to me a highly organized Excel workbook that helps to track the calories, fat, carbs, protein, fiber, and calcium of all your daily intake, as well as tracking daily exercise. I’ve discovered that I love love love fat. While I don’t have any trouble staying withing the USRDA for calorie intake most days, I usually more than double the recommended fat intake. Something to do with root beer floats and peanut butter cookies, maybe. Also, I don’t eat anywhere near enough fruits and veggies. I think this makes me pretty much your typical American. I do not like to be typical anything, particularly American, so I am working on eating more fruits and veggies and less fat. Nothing radical though. I still like me some peanut butter cookies.
