We closed on our first house Friday morning. It was months of living hell getting there, but we're done.
We borrowed the down-payment from my Savings and Investment retirement plan and they screwed up the transfer so badly, TWICE that we had to, at the last minute, borrow the money from my parents to close the deal (I got my actual money a day too late - and six weeks later than they originally said). We wanted to close on Tuesday to give us some time in the house (the kids were off from school last week) but the seller wanted Friday. So we decided on Friday on 1pm so that we could split the driving into two days and stay with my mother-in-law one night (we're in Boston, MA the house is in Scranton, PA). So then two days before the lawyer announced that he could only do Friday at 8:30 AM or 3:30pm. The seller had a shit-fit about the later time so we moved everything around and lost our money on the hotel reservations and had to drive through in one evening. But we did Okay on our end. The U-Haul cost much more than I thought it would but we got it loaded and unloaded without incident or disaster. I'd never seen the house in person (my wife did all the hunting). It had some unpleasant surprises. Nothing that has to be addressed immediately but still: +) The yard was much smaller than I thought and much more uneven... then again most homes in Scranton are on the valley wall - about 70% of them have uneven lots. +) The owner had run cable lines - VERY BADLY - EVERYWHERE. He had Cable TV, Satellite and two (what he called) "backup" roof antennas. He had two TV's in the living room, two in the family room, one in the kitchen, and one in each of the three bedrooms - and he lived alone! He drilled holes in the carpet and walls floors... it'll take me a week to pull out all of that wire. +) The garage floor is a lot rougher than I could have hoped. Not at all dangerous (it's smooth) just rough. +) The downstairs (finished basement) lights and drop ceiling are in poor-ish shape. Nothing that needs to be addressed at all soon but eventually. +) The carpets in two of the bedrooms were self installed at some point: cut badly and wrong. The edges are ragged and make any furniture you set against them uneven. +) I can see I'm already going to have a fight with my neighbors: my yard has no fence and abuts theirs and my yard is dug up like crazy and COVERED in dog-shit. We always planned on getting a fence put in sooner than later but still... However there were some very nice surprises as well: +) The crappy carpet in the bed rooms covered up some very nice original hardwood floors - so we pulled it up in those two and will probably do the same in the last one. Also as we pulled up the carpet in my daughter room we found a small cache of birthday and Christmas cards hidden under the pad - one of which had $250 in it. Nearly covered the money flushed down because of the missed hotel reservation. ;^) +) As bad as the carpet was in those two bedrooms the carpet in the living room/dining room/hallway was good. Pristine, well mounted and not a single stain (although he did, as mentioned, drill through in several places to run crappy cable lines). +) The bathroom was carpeted with an indoor/outdoor pad - it didn't look bad really but we didn't like it (ALL of the houses we looked at in the are had carpeted bathrooms - something I'd never seen before). We peeked under it and found that it covered some gorgeous original tile. We mopped it and looks like new. +) The owner had just recently put in all new windows and doors - very good windows and doors. The house has four outside doors (Backdoor, family room, utility room and front door). All of them have a heavy screen door with full length screen or double paned windows and strong locks and all eight doors use the same key (I currently have three keys just to get into my apartment). +) The house has central air but we didn't realize that the lower level has vents as well (there's a negative - the ducts actually travel through my daughter's closet, but that's a small price to pay). +) The kitchen has a garbage disposal that we didn't know about and some really nice built-ins (a slide-out cutting board, a rotating cupboard and several custom built cutlery guides). So all told I think we made out pretty well. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:198178 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
