Jim, are you living there right now? Or was this just a trip down to do some pre-move in work?
At any rate, welcome to home ownership. It's a blast and a PITA all at the same time. I can see you're loving it already. :) Jim Davis wrote: > 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:5:198179 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=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
