I've been feeling more nervous about our decision to buy a house with every day that we get closer to May 12. Between incessantly checking our bank account to make sure we will still have enough as an emergency fund in savings after we close, I start feeling trapped. With a house payment, I don't have the liberty to start a new career (unless it pays) or move across the country whenever I want.
Granted, when I really reflect on it, I would never do either of those things anyway. I don't have the guts. Instead, I have the guts to throw all of my money into a house in a town I know very little about (except for that is has a heavy Norwegian influence and a tiny four-screen movie theater downtown that only shows G-rated movies and serves pizza and ice cream). I guess that's all I'm really looking for in a hometown anyway--Syttende Mai and a big fat double-scoop of cookie dough while leaning back to a matinee of Cars 2. No really, that movie theater doesn't have theater seating. Each theater has a bunch of circular tables surrounded by chairs-- so you can enjoy pizza and a show. It's peculiar. Check it out.
I also stand corrected. Looks like they are showing Arthur, which is PG-13.
One thing I do want in a hometown is somewhere to buy rosettes and lefsa. I'm seriously striking gold here.
Despite my serious (though mostly facetious :) ) love of Norwegian specialty items, there is one thing that Josh and I can't really live without--and it appears that Stoughton has us covered.
Who could possibly fear settling down in a town that sells cheese by the name "Drunken Goat?" Please note that Cheesers is in close proximity to Cinema Cafe. Might have to wash that cookie dough down with some Gruyere. Did you check out their virtual tour? Looks like Cheesers also sells jam, sparkling wine, and stuffed animals. Look out Stoughton...it's time to party.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Chair!
Josh wakes up at 4:45 a.m. this morning to get ready for work:
"Chair!"
Josh brushes his teeth last night and pops out of the bathroom:
"Chair!"
Josh rounds the corner last night after dinner:
"Chair!"
Josh sends me a text message with this picture today while I am at work:
Subject line: Gets me every time!
So the chair itself is LOUD (it scares me to think of how I will be able to design a living area to complement that pattern), but when you stick it in a tiny 600 sq. ft apartment, it SCREAMS.
Change is good, but Josh is thrown off every time he sees the chair, and has developed the habit of screaming "Chair!" back at it every time he turns the corner and remembers that we now have a chair, yes, a chair, in our entryway (IT DOES NOT FIT ANYWHERE ELSE!).
Depending on which I can pull off, I might end up putting one of these screaming objects in a guest bedroom :)
"Chair!"
Josh brushes his teeth last night and pops out of the bathroom:
"Chair!"
Josh rounds the corner last night after dinner:
"Chair!"
Josh sends me a text message with this picture today while I am at work:
Subject line: Gets me every time!
So the chair itself is LOUD (it scares me to think of how I will be able to design a living area to complement that pattern), but when you stick it in a tiny 600 sq. ft apartment, it SCREAMS.
Change is good, but Josh is thrown off every time he sees the chair, and has developed the habit of screaming "Chair!" back at it every time he turns the corner and remembers that we now have a chair, yes, a chair, in our entryway (IT DOES NOT FIT ANYWHERE ELSE!).
Depending on which I can pull off, I might end up putting one of these screaming objects in a guest bedroom :)
Homeowner's insurance
Everything went great with State Farm. Our monthly premium is right about where we thought it would be. The last obstacle for us before closing was getting that nailed down and getting our insurance agent in touch with our lender, so now, we wait!
20 days until closing!
Side note: my shower curtain came and is darling :) Can't wait to hang it in my own shower in my own bathroom in my own house on my own corner of Stoughton! And by "my own," I mean "our own." Sorry Josh :)
-Anna
20 days until closing!
Side note: my shower curtain came and is darling :) Can't wait to hang it in my own shower in my own bathroom in my own house on my own corner of Stoughton! And by "my own," I mean "our own." Sorry Josh :)
-Anna
Monday, April 18, 2011
Inspection Day!
Nothing reaffirms your decision to put an offer on a house more than having a trained professional spend three hours in your potential future home, picking apart all of its defects.
We had an inspector...inspect (what else do they do?) the house last Thursday. For a 34-year-old house, everything went according to our expectations. There were some creaking stairs (go figure), and the house was also missing some GFCI outlets, sealant (around windows and bathtubs), and surprisingly, most of their doorknobs? It is baffling the things you miss the first time walking through a property.
While there was some evidence of past leaking in the basement, it was clear they had put in a sump pump long after the house was built. This was a little scary because we knew that the house had leaking problems in the past, but also encouraging that the leaking had stopped because of the actions the previous homeowners had taken.
But the biggest, most intimidating problem that the inspector found was that the boiler is 17 years old with an estimated life of 20 years. That is not that big of a deal, we hear, because boilers last far longer than furnaces if you give them a little TLC. But this boiler hadn't been serviced since 2004! There was corrosion around the joints, which is evidence that there is a leak somewhere along the way.
Yes. We could replace the boiler...if we won the lottery. Apparently these things run upwards of $5,000 to replace, and after putting a down payment on the house, we will be pretty much tapped out as far as major purchases go.
So we sent the sellers an amendment to our offer, adding the condition that the boiler must be serviced by a certified HVAC specialist, repaired/replaced if necessary, and that the sellers must provide us a report/receipt from the HVAC specialist. We were under the impression that they HAD to fix the boiler because it was a major defect in the house, and that if they rejected our amendment, we could walk. The sellers had until 9 am on Sunday to respond to our amendment. By about 1 pm on Sunday, we still hadn't heard anything. Things were looking pretty grim. While we convinced ourselves we were comfortable with walking away from that house (no air conditioning!), we didn't want to. We had already put so much time, energy, and emotion into this house, and we didn't want to start all over.
After a couple calls from our real estate agent, however, it came out that because the boiler wasn't specifically listed in a "major defect" section in the inspector's report, the sellers did not have to abide by our amendment. In that case, we would have to replace the boiler ourselves if necessary, and we couldn't just walk away from the deal. $5,000?! That's a pretty scary number.
But that loophole we weren't aware of flew over the sellers' heads too. Luckily, I received an email from Judy (our realtor) at 6 am this morning (Monday). Both sellers had agreed to and signed our amendment. Looks like May 12 is actually happening! So I celebrated by buying this chair
. :)
So the moral of the story is: Make sure the inspector lists the major defects in the major defects section of the report! Do it!
Also: Don't go to Steinhafels on a beautiful Sunday afternoon looking for "design ideas" and let your fiance walk out with a brand new piece of furniture. Don't do it!
We had an inspector...inspect (what else do they do?) the house last Thursday. For a 34-year-old house, everything went according to our expectations. There were some creaking stairs (go figure), and the house was also missing some GFCI outlets, sealant (around windows and bathtubs), and surprisingly, most of their doorknobs? It is baffling the things you miss the first time walking through a property.
While there was some evidence of past leaking in the basement, it was clear they had put in a sump pump long after the house was built. This was a little scary because we knew that the house had leaking problems in the past, but also encouraging that the leaking had stopped because of the actions the previous homeowners had taken.
But the biggest, most intimidating problem that the inspector found was that the boiler is 17 years old with an estimated life of 20 years. That is not that big of a deal, we hear, because boilers last far longer than furnaces if you give them a little TLC. But this boiler hadn't been serviced since 2004! There was corrosion around the joints, which is evidence that there is a leak somewhere along the way.
Yes. We could replace the boiler...if we won the lottery. Apparently these things run upwards of $5,000 to replace, and after putting a down payment on the house, we will be pretty much tapped out as far as major purchases go.
So we sent the sellers an amendment to our offer, adding the condition that the boiler must be serviced by a certified HVAC specialist, repaired/replaced if necessary, and that the sellers must provide us a report/receipt from the HVAC specialist. We were under the impression that they HAD to fix the boiler because it was a major defect in the house, and that if they rejected our amendment, we could walk. The sellers had until 9 am on Sunday to respond to our amendment. By about 1 pm on Sunday, we still hadn't heard anything. Things were looking pretty grim. While we convinced ourselves we were comfortable with walking away from that house (no air conditioning!), we didn't want to. We had already put so much time, energy, and emotion into this house, and we didn't want to start all over.
After a couple calls from our real estate agent, however, it came out that because the boiler wasn't specifically listed in a "major defect" section in the inspector's report, the sellers did not have to abide by our amendment. In that case, we would have to replace the boiler ourselves if necessary, and we couldn't just walk away from the deal. $5,000?! That's a pretty scary number.
But that loophole we weren't aware of flew over the sellers' heads too. Luckily, I received an email from Judy (our realtor) at 6 am this morning (Monday). Both sellers had agreed to and signed our amendment. Looks like May 12 is actually happening! So I celebrated by buying this chair
. :) So the moral of the story is: Make sure the inspector lists the major defects in the major defects section of the report! Do it!
Also: Don't go to Steinhafels on a beautiful Sunday afternoon looking for "design ideas" and let your fiance walk out with a brand new piece of furniture. Don't do it!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I Can't Cur-tain My Excitement!
I know. It's an awful pun, but really--
The one thing I feel I have power over at this point is my shower curtain. There are still major details to hammer out, like the inspection and final approval of our mortgage, but I've already done all I can to keep the gears turning as we approach May 12, our closing date. So in the meantime, I'm decorating the bathroom in my mind.
The house has two full bathrooms and Josh and I have already decided whose is whose. He thinks this bathroom assignment is in respect to who gets to decorate which bathroom, but to me, it is in respect to him staying the hell out of my WOMAN bathroom (though he still insists he will be marking his territory in my domain. We'll see).
But back to this shower curtain thing. There is only so much online shopping you can do for shower curtains...and that equates to about 5 hours worth. So I think I've finally settled on one
. My inspiration? A paradox of masculine femininity--sleek whites, grays, and blacks with straight architectural lines... all with a sparkly softness :) With that theme in mind, I can easily envision myself showering behind this piece. It is simple enough to fit the masculine color scheme, but the ruffles amplify the girly-ness I'm looking for.
So I order it.
But in seconds, Target makes me perfectly aware of these
.
$32.99 for three novelty towels.
"Gorgeous," I think.
"I need these," I know.
"Do I need these?" I question.
"No," Josh decides.
See the moral of the story is this: When you decide to take on a house payment, every little cent begins to count. Where $30 dollars was a quick meal out to eat on a second's notice before, now, if you make the decision to save that $30 seven times, you can buy that lamp from Pier 1, which would happen to look fantastic next to that floor mirror (that you could buy after make that decision to save $30 three more times).
So I didn't get the towels. Three towels for $32.99? Come on. Then again, I could have about 18 novelty towels for the price of that lamp. :)
Love, Anna
The one thing I feel I have power over at this point is my shower curtain. There are still major details to hammer out, like the inspection and final approval of our mortgage, but I've already done all I can to keep the gears turning as we approach May 12, our closing date. So in the meantime, I'm decorating the bathroom in my mind.
The house has two full bathrooms and Josh and I have already decided whose is whose. He thinks this bathroom assignment is in respect to who gets to decorate which bathroom, but to me, it is in respect to him staying the hell out of my WOMAN bathroom (though he still insists he will be marking his territory in my domain. We'll see).
But back to this shower curtain thing. There is only so much online shopping you can do for shower curtains...and that equates to about 5 hours worth. So I think I've finally settled on one
. My inspiration? A paradox of masculine femininity--sleek whites, grays, and blacks with straight architectural lines... all with a sparkly softness :) With that theme in mind, I can easily envision myself showering behind this piece. It is simple enough to fit the masculine color scheme, but the ruffles amplify the girly-ness I'm looking for. So I order it.
But in seconds, Target makes me perfectly aware of these
. $32.99 for three novelty towels.
"Gorgeous," I think.
"I need these," I know.
"Do I need these?" I question.
"No," Josh decides.
See the moral of the story is this: When you decide to take on a house payment, every little cent begins to count. Where $30 dollars was a quick meal out to eat on a second's notice before, now, if you make the decision to save that $30 seven times, you can buy that lamp from Pier 1, which would happen to look fantastic next to that floor mirror (that you could buy after make that decision to save $30 three more times).
So I didn't get the towels. Three towels for $32.99? Come on. Then again, I could have about 18 novelty towels for the price of that lamp. :)
Love, Anna
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Welcome
Buying a house and getting married.
One is the scariest thing we've ever ventured to do. The other? Piece a' cake (we won't mention which is which). Both of these changes are lifetime commitments--but only one has impending fiscal consequence. This blog is to chronicle the updates to our new home and to share some life-changing stories as we take the plunge into married life. We hope you can learn from our mistakes!
Love,
Josh and Anna
One is the scariest thing we've ever ventured to do. The other? Piece a' cake (we won't mention which is which). Both of these changes are lifetime commitments--but only one has impending fiscal consequence. This blog is to chronicle the updates to our new home and to share some life-changing stories as we take the plunge into married life. We hope you can learn from our mistakes!
Love,
Josh and Anna
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