Welcome to the neighborhood

Last Friday CP arrived at our new house a few minutes before me. He called me and asked if I knew anything about the fallen trees in our backyard. "Huh?"

I walked into the backyard to find this:

The two downed trees.

I decided to call our realtor to find out if she knew of any reason that a tree would have been cut down in our COMPLETELY FENCED IN backyard. She suggested a utility company or maybe the city's public works department. However, there is no utility line anywhere near where the trees stood and the city would have notified us in some way that they were coming in. Not to mention that they would have hauled the trees away.

CP circled around our fence and happened to bump into our side neighbor. She said that she heard a loud crash earlier that day and saw the backyard neighbor's head pop over the fence. She also said that there was a feud between the seller and our backyard neighbor. AWESOME.

Our realtor suggested that we call the police. While I agreed that we SHOULD, CP and I discussed it and decided not to. We didn't want to be those people.

CP decided to head over to talk to the backyard neighbors. The wife answered the door and said that she didn't know anything about it. That they didn't even own a chainsaw. CP thought that was odd because he didn't say anything about a chainsaw....

On Sunday my father-in-law and his brother (my uncle-in-law?) came over with their electric chainsaw to cut the trees into manageable pieces while we figured out what to do with them. While he was cutting, the backyard neighbor came over and admitted that he cut down the tree. My UIL's response? "If it were my house, I would have punched you." My FIL's response, "I would have called the police." Ha ha.

The neighbor gave a myriad of reasons as to why he cut it down- "the seller had been asking me to for a year and I finally got around to it." None of them made sense to my FIL and UIL. The trees were not on his property, nor were they hanging over his property so he had no reason whatsoever to cut them down. The neighbor then told them that he would like to speak to CP at some point.

So far, we haven't made the time to go over to talk to them. We are too busy unpacking, painting, etc. I'm annoyed that the neighbor only wants to speak to CP- what kind of sexist sh*t is that? I have already instructed CP to tell him that I am an attorney (he doesn't need to know that I am inactive and not licensed in the state of CT) and that he is really lucky that we didn't call the police. Coworkers suggested that we make him take away the remnants of his trespass himself. I like that idea. We were going to take the trees down anyway, but we were going to wait until we had some time. Not when we were still moving boxes and furniture into the house.

It's quite an interesting "welcome to the neighborhood" event. And even after we finally speak to the neighbors, we will have to keep our eye on them....

What is your best crazy neighbor story?

Closing a chapter

This weekend, CP and I will be closing a chapter in our lives. We will make the permanent move into our NEW HOUSE, leaving the rental house in MA behind. This is pretty significant. We have only spent two years there, but it was the first place that we moved into together. That was OURS.

We also have had quite a few things happen while living there:

*I started my first job out of law school. A job that I started with so much optimism and in the past two years, have grown to dislike because I am so bored.

*CP and I got engaged.

*I PASSED THE BAR! How funny that I said that I would never take that test again…and yet CP and I have been discussing whether I should take the CT bar this winter. *sigh*

*I turned 30 and 31.

*I lost weight. I gained weight. I lost weight. I gained weight. I’m working on losing weight yet again. *sigh* (too many posts to link)

*I had the opportunity to be on “Say Yes to the Dress” and promptly said NO.

*CP and I went to Cancun, Mexico with my family.

*CP and I got certified to be scuba divers in anticipation for our honeymoon.

*I spent three months in DC for work, having fun with friends while poor CP was stuck in MA.

*We planned our wedding in the mountains of New Hampshire (again, too many posts to link).

*I had a really fun bachelorette party after having a mental breakdown regarding CP’s bachelor party.

*After our amazing wedding, CP and I went to South Africa and Mozambique for our honeymoon. (that link is the first of a few posts)

*We entertained the thought of moving to Denver, CO, but despite all of the great interviews, we couldn’t make it work.

*We decided to limit our intake of processed foods and haven’t looked back since.

*We planted our first garden!

*We decided to try for a baby. Hopefully that decision will pan out soon!

*We decided to move down to CT, with our focus on starting a family.

I can’t wait to see what we have in store for the two of us (maybe more?) in our new house!

Closed.

Amazingly enough, the closing went off yesterday without a hitch. Ha! Just kidding! That’s only in fantasy land. Actually one of the forms was off by $1.14 so our lender wouldn’t wire the money to our attorney until it was fixed. Because that didn’t happen until 1pm or so, the wire didn’t hit before we were finished and we officially had to have a “dry closing.” Which means that we couldn’t take possession or get the keys to our new place. (Cue CP and me freaking out as we had a 16-foot truck full to the brim and we HAD to unload it. As in, CP was going to break a window if need be.)

Luckily, our attorney was cool. Officially it was a dry closing….unofficially (after the relocation company’s attorney left) he gave the keys to the realtor who then handed them off to us. Shhhhhh.

Fuzzy Britches was very excited to get into the house. Every time we brought a box up to the second floor or downstairs to the finished basement she would follow us. She even explored the backyard a bit and found a disgusting, moldy squeaky toy buried near a tree.

Four hours later, the truck was unpacked and boxes, shelves, bins, sporting equipment, etc. were all in their respective rooms. To celebrate, we went to Chipotle and drove an hour home to MA to pass out. We are such party animals.

Today I have been unable to concentrate as I am tired and sore. I plan to go home and pass out on the couch before figuring out what I am going to do for dinner. CP had to leave early this morning to fly out to OH for work so I won’t have my chef to cook for me. Booo.

I promise house pictures soon- but might wait until we actually get some stuff unpacked first.

What is your least favorite part about moving? Is it the physical labor? The fact that you have no idea where the one pair of pants that you wanted to wear to work is hiding? The fact that some of your things are in the new house, but not the house that you are currently living in?

In need of long nap

Boy am I sore. A quick breakdown of our weekend:

Friday- CP and I headed out to dinner because we were both sad that we didn’t close on the house. A coworker gave me a bottle of champagne to celebrate- we drank it despite the non-closing. :-)

Saturday- CP and I took all of the boxes and furniture that we had moved out to the garage and arranged it in the truck.

Fuzzy Britches made sure that we weren't going to forget her

Fuzzy Britches is ready to go!

That night we got a last-minute invite to the Train/ John Mayer concert and had a great time!

Awful BB photo of Train starting up their set.

CP was mainly going to the concert for me, but ended up really enjoying himself. John has a great stage presence, joking around with the crowd, singing an impromptu song about a couple that got engaged at the concert, and his guitar skills are amazing. Plus, you know, he’s hot. :-)

Awful BB photo John on the big screen.

We didn’t get home until 1am on Saturday night and after moving all day? That was rough.

Sunday- Packed up more things around the house. Fertilized the lawn and then watered it (not because we wanted to, but because our landlord wants the lawn to look good. We want to make sure to get our full deposit back. I don’t see us putting chemicals and wasting water on our new lawn.) Picked a ridonkulous amount of swiss chard and other veggies from our garden.

Mmm swiss chard.




Red pepper, green/yellow pole beans, zucchinis, cucumbers and a funny looking carrot. I still think that our carrots need to continue growing in the ground.

CP made an amazing dinner using both zucchinis and swiss chard, along with some other ingredients in our fridge. He also had the motivation to make both a dill relish and a spicy curry relish. He’s crazy.

Today I am working a half day, then heading over to the closing (*crossing fingers that everything works out okay*). Afterwards we are heading to our new house and unpacking tonight because the truck is due back by tomorrow morning.

Why do I have the feeling that tomorrow I am going to be even more tired and more sore???

How was your weekend?

Should be

Right now we should be signing a lot of documents and preparing to unload a truck full of our stuff into our new house tonight. Since I used the word “should” that should tip you off that the closing is not going to happen today.

*sigh*

So yeah. Yesterday was a sh*tshow. On the phone with our lawyer. On the phone with our real estate agent. On the phone with CP. Calling my dad (who is a real estate lawyer in another state) to see if there was anything we could do. I mean, everything was set until the bank realized that someone at the relocation company signed the documents that wasn’t authorized to do so. What kind of idiot does that? It’s not like this is their first closing. They are a national relocation company.

Sadly, we don’t have any recourse. Connecticut does not have a “time is of the essence” clause in their real estate contracts. As long as the closing happens within a reasonable amount of time then neither party violated the contract.

We are still trying to get into the house early- even if that means moving our stuff into the garage for the weekend. But that is most likely not going to happen. Which means that we will still have to pay for the moving truck that was confirmed earlier this week. We will lose moving help from my dad who happened to be on the east coast this weekend and was going to drive up to help us and check out the house. We will lose moving help from CP’s dad and girlfriend. No new mattress delivery tomorrow.

But. No one died. We don’t have to be out of our current house by Monday (thankfully). The carpenter and electrician are not scheduled to start their work until next week. The appointments I had scheduled with the cable company, the home energy audit company, etc. are not until the following week.

Yes we are inconvenienced by the fact that we are not going to close today. But it is not the end of the world. We have a closing time of 2pm on Monday which means Sunday we will pack up the truck and move things into our new house Monday night. CP then has to leave for another work trip on Tuesday, but we will have plenty of time to move, even if it means losing a weekend. The mattress delivery has been rescheduled.

The world hasn’t ended. But it would have been a lot nicer if we could have closed today!


Replies to Comments

• Raquel- thanks for the cornstarch on the tomatoes tip! My mom gave me that tip earlier this year for a yellow fungus that starts to slowly grow up the tomato plants. I forgot about it for a while, then sprinkled a bunch of it on two plants we had in pots because they were starting to turn yellow. The two plants didn’t feel the wrath of the horned tomato worms. The four plants next to the house that we didn't sprinkle cornstarch on? Well, you saw the pictures. Coincidence? I think not. I will be buying a large tub of cornstarch to sprinkle weekly over the tomato plants next year. :-)
• According to the website, aqua shoes are required for the underwater treadmill and spin classes and strongly encouraged when using the equipment on your own. I could see aqua spinning being hard if you don’t have shoes. But yes, I agree with all of you that it is a little weird.
• Yay! I’m happy to hear that so many of you like your latex mattresses. Hopefully we will have the same experience!
• You guys were really scaring me with your horror stories of house purchases. I’m crossing my fingers that the closing on Monday goes off without a hitch!

STRESSING

So right now I am stressing. Stressing that our closing may not happen tomorrow. Our mortgage broker has been calling, asking for silly things. Supposedly everything was submitted into the lender yesterday morning and they reserve the right to take 48 hours to review the documents. According to our agent, they should get back to us this afternoon. We’ll see.

Additionally, we had to have the walk through on Tuesday as opposed to right before the closing because of the relocation company. We were okay with it....HOWEVER the seller still has a bunch of crap in the house. Stuff like a old refrigerator, bed frame, old dehumidifier, etc. in the basement that were supposed to be out by now. A satellite dish that is still stuck in the backyard. A bed on the living room floor. Our agent and I guessed that she is sticking around for the closing and that is why the bed is still there, along with the food in the kitchen fridge, but the other stuff? Should have been gone. And now our agent has to go back right before the closing to verify that everything is gone.

The one thing that the agent just assured me of is that if the seller doesn’t get rid of the things in the basement, that she guarantees that we will not have to deal with it. She will get it removed herself if the closing happens and the seller doesn’t do what she is supposed to. Which is great. That takes a load off my mind because at least we won’t have to pay for someone to remove the stuff. Sucks for our real estate agent, but she said that she makes the other agent pay when it is something expensive/major.

I just got word that someone at the relocation company that IS NOT AUTHORIZED TO SIGN did so and that is creating title problems. WTF????? You would THINK that people would KNOW WHAT THE F* THEY WERE DOING!!!

If we don’t close tomorrow? We have a truck scheduled and confirmed that will be grounded. We have CP’s dad, girlfriend, and my dad (who happens to be in NJ and will drive up to help for the day) helping us move on Saturday. That means no painting. That means more rushing.

I want to throw up.

Furniture shopping

Furniture shopping. A fun thing to do because there are so many choices, but also a scary thing to do because you are wondering if you made the right choice. Not to mention the cost of the items! Our current living room furniture is too big for the somewhat narrow living room in our new place, so that furniture will most likely go downstairs into the finished basement (*crossing fingers it fits down the stairs*)- which leaves us with an empty room.

We were trying to balance a few competing thoughts as we looked for a new couch, two chairs, coffee table and end tables this past weekend. Do we purchase something that is a bit cheaper as it will get destroyed/stained/etc when we have kids? (realizing that we would have to buy new stuff sooner rather than later if we go this route). Or do we go with something a bit nicer that could potentially stand up better to kid wear and tear, but would still have some battle scars?

So we headed out to Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Raymond and Flanagan, Bassett Furniture and La-Z-Boy. Being the ever engineer, CP plotted out the room size with a corresponding CAD drawing and figured that we needed a couch with less than 40 inches of depth. Also, not wanting to crowd the room with big pieces of furniture, we decided on a couch with two chairs as opposed to two couches.

We found some comfortable couches at Crate and Barrel but our favorite couch was simply too big for the room. Pottery Barn only had two couches in the entire store and we are not going to buy a couch without sitting on it first! We found a comfortable chair at Bob’s, but the sofa quality seemed to be lacking. We then got very annoyed at Raymond and Flanagan as a saleswoman accosted us from the moment we stepped in the door. She wouldn’t allow us to look around, trying out couches ourselves. She ferried us around the showroom, telling us that we really could fit a bigger couch into the room. Ummm no lady. Listen to your customer!! La-Z-Boy didn’t have anything exciting and was actually more expensive than I had hoped.

From the moment we stepped into Bassett Furniture, the experience was great. A no pressure salesperson/free designer and a way to customize the couch to whatever fabric or leather we wanted, along with picking out the style of the couch, the cushions on the couch, the arm style and even the pleating. Wow! Plus, the store was having a 30% off sale. We found a great wool rug to match, along with a coffee table and two end tables. I was scared to hear the final cost, but with the 30% off it is just as expensive (if not less) than if we bought everything at Crate and Barrel. Plus they offer 12 month interest-free financing. Much better than trying to rush paying off a credit card with an interest rate!

After we got home, we started to look up reviews on Bassett. No bad reviews of the specific CT store, but some bad reviews elsewhere in the country. However, we found plenty of complaints on the other stores (to be fair, Crate and Barrel and the like probably have a bigger market share than Bassett). No one has a 100% perfect record.

Have any of you used Bassett Furniture? Or do you know of anyone that has? We are thinking about going with them……

Busy like a bee

Yeah so I am waaaay behind in my blog reading. Friday at work was an absolute MESS. After the day I had with my boss I seriously needed a drink by the time I got home. However, I had worked up so much stress that my stomach ached for hours. So I was only able to drink one Dos Equis before I decided that I shouldn’t have any more.

This weekend was mainly spent packing, complaining that the seller wasn’t going to do as much off the inspection list that we wanted and showing our current place to potential renters. CP and I put together a list of all of the things that we need to do or buy when we first move into the house and boy is it a long list! And quite expensive. Booooo. Luckily we have some money saved up from the last couple of months which will pay for about half of the items are our list. Thank goodness this place is move-in ready and we are only going to paint a few rooms!

Random happenings

Sadly, I am without my wedding ring for the next month or so. While CP and I were up in New Hampshire this past weekend I went to the store where he bought my engagement ring to get it checked out (it continues to be under warranty as long as I get it checked out every 4 months) and cleaned. As a courtesy, the woman also checked out and cleaned my wedding ring bought from a different store. Sadly, she gave me some bad news. A part of one of the diamonds in my wedding band was missing. I checked it out under the microscope and indeed- a part of the diamond had been shaved off!! CP and I brought the ring in on Monday to the original store and they are going to have it fixed for free. Which of course, they should. I mean, I have been wearing that ring for less than a year!! According to the store manager, the specific diamond looks like it wasn’t set correctly and therefore more at risk for it breaking. I’m still not sure how part of a diamond breaks off....

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Yesterday I got an unexpected phone call from our realtor. Despite the fact that it took the relocation company so long to sign the purchase agreement and then get it back to us, the inspection is due 10 days after the company signed, not when we received the contract back. That means that the inspection must be done before Thursday night. Unexpectedly, CP has been summoned to OH for work so we had to rush around trying to get an inspector to come this morning so that CP could make the inspection before he flies out. Thankfully we found someone and he didn't find anything too bad in the house.

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Last night I got to hang out with two ladies I went to college with and it was fantastic. One of them is nine months pregnant and ready to pop, the other has three boys. I hadn't seen one of these ladies in probably 6 or 7 years so it was fun to catch up with her and hear about her kids. A lot of the discussion was focused on pregnancy, giving birth, etc which was interesting, but I of course had nothing to add. It was a little awkward when I was asked if CP and I were interested in having kids and when. Even though I don't think that either of these ladies would go blabbing to mutual friends that we were trying, I kept true to my promise to CP and demurred when the question came my way.

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Speaking of babies, I should find out next week if we are pregnant or not (if my cycle is the same as last month). I just want next week to hurry up and get here already!! (Despite the knowledge that I am probably going to be disappointed.)

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Tomorrow night we have four people coming to check out our rental house to see if they want to rent it after we move out. We have been promised a break on our rent by our landlord for helping him out. If the people tomorrow night don't work out, we have five more (!!) coming on Sunday afternoon. It's a good excuse to keep the house clean, but also seriously annoying on a work night. All I will want to do is lay around watching tv (especially in this awful heat with only two window AC units!), not small talk with random people while showing them the house. Oh well, it's a necessary evil....

What random happenings are going on in your world?

Success!

The relocation company finally signed the purchase agreement and the 10,000 other documents they required so we have a contract! Maybe it’s because the whole process has been sloooow to get going, but I don’t think that it has dawned on me that we are going to be moving. To CT. Next month. Crazy.

So, I’m not quite freaking out yet, but we have a lot of stuff to pack up. Luckily we saved all of our boxes from wedding gifts (our basement currently looks like a graveyard for Macy’s boxes) so we don’t have to worry about that. We have furniture pads saved from our last move cross country. And unlike other moves, this one can be done over two to three weeks (depending on if we make our August 6th closing date or not). After the closing, I will be able to pack up my car every night when I get home, drive into work and then drop the stuff off before heading back to MA. That will make the large furniture moving day(s?) easier. We will be staying in our rental house until the end of August so we won’t have to rush too much.

But yeah. Despite the “easier” move we have in front of us, CP and I should probably start to prepare for it!

Running thoughts

So many pregnancy thoughts running through my brain. I mean, I don’t expect us to conceive in the first month, but I will be disappointed if we don’t.

I KNOW that at our age it could take longer to get pregnant. I KNOW that even with the healthiest and most fertile couples it can take a few months to get the timing right.

I KNOW that there are things that we could be doing, but for now we are not. CP and I are not taking my temperature or using other methods to figure out when we should be hopping into bed. Frankly that doesn’t sound very sexy. I did download an app onto my iTouch where you can chart your period. It tells you based on your cycle when you could be ovulating, but obviously it is just a guess. I mainly downloaded it because without the pill to know where I am in my monthly cycle, my period would probably just sneak up on me!*

I KNOW in the back of my mind that I could be infertile for no reason at all, or that CP could be shooting blanks. But I don’t expect that to happen to us. We joke about buying the house and then not being able to have kids…then just getting a bunch of dogs and they each would get a room. But I would be pretty devastated if that happened. For something that I haven’t wanted until fairly recently, it’s something that I really want.

I KNOW that there are only really five days when a woman is fertile and once those days are up, you have to wait another month to try again. It’s just such a short window. If it doesn’t happen this month, the wait until the next month will be arduous (not the practice though! :-) ). And I wish that I could talk to a friend about it, but I understand CP not wanting to broadcast to the world that we are trying. I feel a little crazy about some of the thoughts that are running through my head.

I KNOW that part of the reason that I am hoping that we get pregnant on the first try is because once I have made up my mind on a path I am taking, I go for it. It’s my personality. Once we decided we were going to scrap the move to Denver, I went full force into finding a place in CT. And now that it has been over a month since I stopped taking the pill, it’s time to get pregnant. NOW. I wouldn’t say that I am necessarily stressing about all of this, but it is definitely on my mind.

Despite only having five days of fertility a month, I have to have hope that if people in drunken one night stands can get pregnant, so can we! Ha!

Sorry if this post is all over the place. Just various thoughts running through my mind.

*And yes, I realize that it is sad that a 31 yr old woman forgets these things, but remember that I have been on the pill since Sophomore year in college. I haven’t had to think about it in YEARS (and before that I would forget all the time too).

Still waiting...

I swear I will NEVER do a real estate deal with someone who is working through a relocation company again. This is ridonkulous! I know that they are just covering their butts by having us sign all kinds of blank paperwork saying that they never occupied the house and therefore have nothing to add to the seller's disclosures, but COME ON.

AND they are wanting a huge chunk of cash for the first deposit instead of the second deposit (usually it is the other way around). This is a bit difficult as we are now sort of scrambling around to get the money, using a post-dated check, etc. I'm whining a bit here but they sure aren't making it easy to buy this darn house!!

Anyway, our realtor is headed over to the other realtor's office to hand her the first part of the deposit check and hopefully that is enough to take the house off the MLS. Our realtor is also sending over all of the documents that we signed last night to the relocation company in the hopes that they will sign the documents before this weekend (at this point? Probably not).

The whole thing is stressing me out. I had two beers last night to calm myself down and CP and I even got into a bit of a fight because I am stressed out that the deal might not go through. I hope to not stress too much this weekend and have good news for you on Monday!

To be continued.....

Waiting.....waiting....waiting....

So I wish that I could tell you that I have a seller-signed purchase agreement for the second house in my hot little hands. But I don’t. You see, we found out that the seller is now with a relocation company so that just adds another layer of paperwork. The verbal agreement is settled on both sides, the closing date is set and CP and I have signed everything and sent it over to our realtor. Now we just have to play the waiting game for the relocation company to sign the darn paperwork!!!!

Our realtor did tell us something that made us feel a bit better- the open house that was scheduled for Sunday has now been cancelled. So at least in the other agent’s mind, this is a done deal. HOWEVER, it would make me feel 10 MILLION TIMES BETTER if the damn relocation company would just sign the purchase agreement!!!!!

Hopefully tomorrow…..

Taking the plunge (again)

We are taking the plunge again. We went out with our realtor last night to check out houses. Our first (and turns out only) stop* was a house that CP and I had seen previously through an open house. It is located on the same street as the house we offered on last week (and thus the same great neighborhood). I discounted it after seeing it because it is a cape- which means that it has two bedrooms on the second floor, one bedroom on the first floor.

My thought was that despite the fact that cape houses are popular in the Northeast, I was worried about the layout. CP and I are planning on two kids. I thought that we would have to have both of them upstairs, with our bedroom also located upstairs in case there was a problem. So despite thinking that the kitchen was beautiful, the yard weirdly-shaped but nice and big enough for a garden, more square footage than that last place and two full bathrooms as opposed to one, I was not interested.

CP kept talking about the place, and I decided to ask my parents and others if there was a problem with the layout. Friends, parents and even our realtor said that it wasn’t a big deal. Of course you are not going to have an infant located on a different floor from you, but for the most part as the older kid ages, you might want to be a bit farther away from their room for some space.

After our walk through yesterday, I had officially changed my mind. An open house is scheduled for this Sunday, so we felt like we needed to pull the trigger. The house is empty so we put in a bid with a shorter closing date (beginning of August) in hopes that they will take it, even though it is a little less than their asking price.

I am sick of looking at houses and really want this one to go through. *crossing fingers*


*Supposedly, our realtor had scheduled another showing last night but it’s possible that she wasn’t even planning on going to it. CP secretly emailed our realtor on Saturday telling her that he was pretty sure that we were going to put a bid on this place after seeing it again. After checking the place out, I asked the realtor if she happened to bring along neighborhood comparables and she replied, “Actually I do. Sometimes I have my act together.” CP was laughing inside because our realtor made it seem as if she was reading our minds ahead of time, when really he had alerted her to the probability of the offer.

I have to give it to him. I had no idea and he waited until I brought up making an offer. He then waited to tell me about the email until we got into the car to head home. SNEAKY CP!!!!

Counting my chickens before they hatch

Sooo funny story. Remember how I posted on Friday that I will be moving down to CT because our offer was accepted? Well…..I might have jumped the gun a bit.

At the time I wrote the post, we had come to a VERBAL agreement with the sellers on everything- price, closing date, deposit, etc. A few hours later, our realtor called back and said that she had received a call from the other agent. I knew that it couldn’t be good. The sellers now wanted some sort of assurance that we were going to close by the end of July. Either a “time is of the essence” clause in the contract (which you NEVER want to put in) or a clause where we agreed to a higher sale price if we didn’t close on July 30th.

Ummm what?? There are so many variables in buying a house. Most of the work is done not by the buyers, but behind the scenes by the lender, appraiser, inspector, etc. CP and I would NOT have been okay with paying more simply because someone else dropped the ball. We already have most of our lending documents into our broker so there is no way that it would have been our fault.

So, our realtor kept trying to get a hold of the other agent to let her know that we would not accept that new clause. Most of the night, CP and I waited to hear something from our realtor, thinking that the fact that this contract might fall apart on that clause is ridonkulous. The sellers already have another home so they are paying two mortgages, they don’t have any other offers because the Hubbard clause buyers went away and we assured them that a late July closing date was fine with us.

Finally at 9pm on Friday night, our realtor called to tell us that another offer was going to be submitted the next morning. And that the other agent was confident that it would be better. CP and I decided to wait until the morning before making a decision. CP was not upset that we had potentially lost the house….because I was tired I was the complete opposite. I am ready to get out of our current small town. I am ready to shorten my commute. I am ready to live around people our age. I am ready to have more than 5 restaurants to go to that aren’t chain restaurants. Getting a purchase agreement signed would have signaled an end date to living in the sticks.

But, it was not to be. We got a call Saturday morning from our realtor who said that the sellers were going to accept the other offer by noon if we didn’t counter with something higher. CP and I then decided to walk away. The house wasn’t perfect. It was a bit small, needed new windows, had oil heat and a few other things that needed to be changed. In the end, we didn’t feel as if it was worth getting into a bidding war.

Needless to say, we are pretty sure that the sellers were stalling in signing the purchase agreement with us because they knew that another offer would be coming in. It’s disappointing, but I am confident that we made the right decision to not increase our bid. We are technically in no hurry to move, so it would be better to wait to find a new house instead of potentially overpaying for one. Especially now because it is a buyer’s market.

The search for a house in CT continues tonight…..

I'm going down to Cali....Cali...Cali....oh wait wrong state

Screw my Friday weekly wrap-up. There was a counter-offer made last night. So we countered back and it was accepted! My law school friend is already joking that I am going to become a Stepford wife in no time (yeah right!).

Needless to say, I am exhausted but excited. We close before the end of July so this is going to be quick!! I think that we might keep the house in MA for the month of August while we have new energy-efficient windows installed in the new place. Having both places will also help lower the stress of moving. I could pack stuff up in my car every night, head to work for the day and then drop the stuff off at our new place. Plus we have to paint.

I will now move from being a Masshole to someone from the Nutmeg state. Also known as a “Nutmegger”…..which makes my mind automatically think “Nuthugger.” In addition, CT is a state who named their health insurance program for lower-income kids the “Husky” program. And despite knowing that UCONN’s mascot is a husky, I always want to think that they are ripping on the obese kids in the program.

So yeah. Moving to CT.

Good news vs. Bad news

Good news: It was confirmed that I have a job here in CT. Yay!

Bad news: I hate my job. I still hate how they treated me, putting me in limbo for the past couple of weeks. And I still will be screwed out of the promotion. Needless to say, I will be trying to get another job.

Good news: My friend from law school has a semi-law job that he is leaving in mid-August. I will be giving him my resume, writing samples, etc. and hopefully I can move to that job with his recommendation.

Bad news: I have to be careful as to when I start the new job as I can’t leave my current job until we close on a house.

Good news: Our two favorite houses from this last weekend are still on the market.

Bad news: The four houses that we visited last night were not added to our favorites list.

Good news: We have made a decision between our two favorite houses. We asked for advice from our parents, our realtor and our lender in trying to make a decision. We literally changed our minds daily as we truly would be happy in either place. There is a price difference of $73K between the two places and even with a 30 year mortgage, that is still a bunch of money a month.

· House A (the less expensive house): Smaller square footage. Updated kitchen. Three bedrooms, one and half bathrooms. No family room/den, just a living room. Finished basement. Windows are as old as the house (60+ yrs), so we would need to install energy efficient windows. Older roof. Oil heating. Great backyard for kids, the dog AND a large garden. Cute neighborhood and within walking distance of both the elementary school and the middle school.
· House B (the more expensive house): More square footage. Updated kitchen. Three bedrooms, two and half bathrooms (no master bathroom, just a full bath downstairs in the basement???). Large family room/den with a beautiful fireplace. Finished basement. New windows, roof and furnace. Natural gas heating. Backyard is okay, but too shady for a garden. Nice neighborhood.

Most of the advice we received was to go with the bigger/more expensive house. We will probably grow out of the smaller house in 5-7 years and have to move again or put an addition on the house.

After dismissing the other houses in our price range, CP and I took a drive through the two different neighborhoods around 6:30pm. In the more expensive house’s neighborhood, it was quiet. No one walking around or outside. In the less expensive house’s neighborhood there were people walking with their kids, people walking dogs, neighbors crossing the street to talk to other neighbors and even a sign for an upcoming block party. The short drive through the neighborhoods was what sold it for us. We WANT a neighborhood. We don’t want to be closed off from our neighbors. Neither house was perfect, so we are going with the better neighborhood and the lower mortgage.

Bad news: So while it is great that we finally made a decision and we are excited about it, there is a potential snag. The less expensive house has a Hubbard clause on it. Meaning that the sellers already have a buyer, but the buyers need to have a contract on their current place before a closing date can be set. The clause allows the sellers to continue to market the property (they just dropped the price another $10K last week) which is how we were able to see it. So when we put an offer in, the buyers can try to get a contract on their current house within the offer timeframe (which I think is usually 3 days?) OR try to get extra financing in order to get two mortgages. My money is on the buyers not being able to obtain financing for a second mortgage- especially in today’s credit climate. However, maybe they have received an offer on their other house recently?

My stomach is tightening up just thinking about not getting the house. I know that I SAY that we would be fine in either house, but after seeing people out and about on a random Tuesday night I’m getting all excited about the smaller house.

Stay tuned!

Frustration

I am so frustrated that I could scream right now. CP and I had a productive weekend visiting a bunch of properties with our realtor. We will be checking out houses tomorrow night, but if we don’t find anything then we have two from this past weekend that we love. There is a big price disparity between the two houses though- one we would have to do some work on. Not necessarily as soon as we move in, but we would need to add on a family room/den once we have kids. The other one is move-in ready, new windows, roof, furnace, etc., updated kitchen, and has plenty of room- without being a McMansion.

HOWEVER, even if we wanted to, we can’t put an offer down on either house. Before I left the office last week, my boss advised me to not make any offers. Because I might not have a job come August. Scratch that- I would have a job at my company, but it might not be in CT. UMMM WHAT??!??? They potentially could tell me that my job is across the country in a state that I don’t want to move to “because that is where they have the need.”

The whole thing is utter bullcrap. They wouldn’t move me to Denver, so CP and I decided that we would stay here in the Northeast because that is where we had jobs. Now that we are ready to buy a house and start trying to have a kid they suddenly tell me that my job might be located elsewhere? RIDONKULOUS.

Not to mention the fact that I was told at the end of last week that the promotion that I am eligible for in September? Is not going to happen. Now before you say anything about the hard economic times and how I am lucky to have a job (or not considering the news above), the promotion is built in to my program. So it is complete crap that they suddenly are like, well, you are no longer eligible. My new salary was built into the budget so it’s not like they don’t have the money.

I’M SO FRUSTRATED WITH MY COMPANY. This is NOT how you treat employees. Guess it is about time to update my resume…..

House hunting

Boy, I forgot how tiring house hunting is! The places really start to blend together after a while.

Saturday CP and I got up early to check out six houses in one of our top two towns with our realtor. She was helpful in pointing things out, answering questions and then also asking us questions to get a feel of what exactly we were looking for. We had two houses that were maybes, but overall we were very disappointed. The houses all had a lot of acreage (more than ½ an acre so that CP can have a BIG garden, the dog has room to run, kids have a place to play, etc.), but they were hilly and mostly woods. So, no usable land. How silly! And we don’t have the money, time or desire to cut down a lot of trees in order to plant grass.

Feeling a bit dejected after not seeing anything great, we made a wonderful ceviche and drank two bottles of wine while watching Avatar. Boy did that movie stink. CP was the one that put it in our queue and then he proceeded to fall asleep with 45 minutes left in the movie! I was very unhappy that I had wasted 2.5 hours on that dud.

However, on Sunday we checked out open houses in our other top town and had MUCH better luck. In fact, out of the six houses we saw, we could see ourselves in four of them. :-) I think that convinced CP that it was the better town for us. More neighborhoody, small lot sizes- but all usable land, more amenities (aka restaurants, shopping, grocery stores, etc) and still a short commute to work for me. A big win all around.

We are headed back to the second town on Saturday to check out some more houses with our realtor. We have a meeting with a mortgage broker tomorrow during lunch. It’s all coming together….. :-)

Wrap-up Friday

Hey look I actually remembered my new weekly post! Amazing!

Workouts
· I am a bit disappointed in myself this week. Saturday we were busy all day cleaning, gardening and looking at potential houses on the internet so we didn’t even get a walk in with Fuzzy Britches. Sunday was great- 1.5 hours out on the kayaking and then 9 holes of golf. Monday was a wash with the parade, BBQ, and then passing out on the couch once we got home. Tuesday I was in training off site all day and when I got home for our walk, it was pouring rain. Booo. Wednesday I was good and ran two miles, then walked that night with CP and Fuzzy Britches. Yesterday I flat out was lazy. I brought my stuff in to work to go to the gym, but before I knew it, it was 1pm and I didn’t want to go to the gym and then eat lunch at 2pm. LAZY. Today I am having lunch with a friend so I can’t do my lunchtime workout, but hopefully will walk tonight.
· I was thinking that because it is brighter out in the mornings I would start to TRY to wake up early to do 30 Day Shred before heading to work, but I really can’t start it this coming week because I have to travel to far away trainings Weds, Thur, and Fri. Wow just saying that makes me want to slap myself. Maybe the best thing is to try to start the habit Mon and Tues and see how it goes. I would potentially like to start doing it every weekday morning as it is not too hot out (we don’t have central air) and then CP can’t make fun of me because he is still in bed. :-)

Food
· I probably shouldn’t even discuss the weekend. You don’t want to be the guest that shows up to a friend’s house and has all kinds of dietary guidelines. So CP and I didn’t worry if the burgers we ate were from a grass-fed cow, we didn’t worry if the buns we were eating were whole grain, we didn’t worry if the ketchup had high fructose corn syrup, etc. We simply didn’t want to be THOSE people. It was in the back of my mind as I ate things though…..
· The rest of the week was really good. I found two organic/non-antibiotic whole chickens at our local grocery store and CP threw them on the rotisserie and made up the Peruvian aji sauce I talked about earlier in the week. Delish! He also put together a curry quinoa side dish. We had the chicken, quinoa and a side salad for dinner almost all week. Lunches for me were pretty good too- although I do want to buy some Pyrex dishes to take into work to be able to reheat food. I keep reading about chemicals leaching into food from the plastic containers. Gross.

Replies to Comments
· Because I was too lazy to post on Monday AND Tuesday, I didn’t post much this week (whoops). But to the question as to where I buy the charcoal pills that I talked about in this post, I buy them at my local drug store. For me it is CVS, but I’m sure that you can get them at Walgreens or other pharmacies. They are usually in the antacid/gas section. My mother-in-law has had some acid reflux lately and I gave her some of my pills- they worked great for her too!

Misc.
· This weekend I am looking forward to house hunting with our realtor!