so we were running around like maniacs yesterday trying to get all our docs signed and notarized so we could start work on the house tomorrow. God bless our realtor and his patience. he really helped to fix a bad situation that wasn't really his fault to begin with. so thanks for that. and the escrow agent, jolene diaz was really nice and helpful. so jolene, if you ever google yourself (does anyone else ever do that? i had to stop trying, there are like 756 guys - and 3 girls - named adam steele in the united states) and this blog turns up - thank you!
today we get the keys. tomorrow and sunday we demo the whole front area of the house, including the kitchen. then we close escrow on monday.
here is where we stand on the place:
-found out the heater doesn't work and there is no a/c...just before summer. cost of new stuff (with a stellar deal...thanks to my father in law and his subs) - 4500. awesome!
-found out there are termites. we may need to tent the house. 2k. sweet!
-found out the pipes are galvanized, not copper. couple thousand more. ok!
-cabinets - thanks to erick corsa from rocky peak for a great price and a wonderful attitude about the work. seriously one of the best guys around. erick, same as jolene, if you google your name and read this...thanks! anyway, cabinets - 7000 - 8500
-counter tops - anywhere from 1000 to 4000 installed. we need to shop this out.
-flooring is 8 bucks a foot, for either 580 ft2 or 1520 ft2...so either 4500 or 11000. big difference, i know.
-appliances could work for the time being, and that is great. may have to wait on these and upgrade later. looking at around 4000 for all stainless steel stuff.
-sink and fixtures haven't really been priced out yet, but those can be reasonable or crazy, depending on where we go. most likely somewhere in the middle and definitely at least 1k.
-still waiting on the bids for the dry wall and electrical. don't know where to put this.
so for you mathemagicians who have been counting as you go, we are looking at about 17k if we do the bare minimum and about 40k if we go with everything we want right now. needless to say, the 40k ain't happening. we only have about 23k to work with. so we will be cutting some stuff out for sure.
owning our own home - priceless!
i will be posting before pics of the whole house on monday as well as some pics from the demo process.
stay posted for more on the saga of buying a first home. so fun. we'll see if i'm still saying that in a couple of weeks.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
quick note
so things are crazy right now trying to get everything together for the house. we are trying to finalize all the loan stuff to close escrow this friday, and we have to get all this info about the 8k federal tax credit and the 10k california state credit. we are also frantic trying to get all the sub contractors into the house to bid the job so we know what we have to do and how much it will cost.
once that is all done, we have to look at what we want to do, then throw half of it out because we can't afford to do it.
5 weeks from now, we will hopefully be moving into a house that at least is half done. and if we are really lucky, our kitchen will work. what a fun, crazy, exhausting process, and we haven't even started the work yet.
God is seriously so good. we are really excited to have a house and a place we can enjoy our friends, family and future little ones. it's a blessing and we will, despite all the craziness (or maybe because of it), relish this whole process.
i will try and write something of more substance soon.
once that is all done, we have to look at what we want to do, then throw half of it out because we can't afford to do it.
5 weeks from now, we will hopefully be moving into a house that at least is half done. and if we are really lucky, our kitchen will work. what a fun, crazy, exhausting process, and we haven't even started the work yet.
God is seriously so good. we are really excited to have a house and a place we can enjoy our friends, family and future little ones. it's a blessing and we will, despite all the craziness (or maybe because of it), relish this whole process.
i will try and write something of more substance soon.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
the palms
so some friends and i went to a new eatery, new for me at least, in downtown carpenteria for dinner this monday night. it was a very interesting place.
it is a bbq place where you order your meat raw, and then you cook it yourself on an indoor bbq. if there are a lot of people, you have to wait in line for grill space. there is an all you can eat salad bar that come with ever entree that also has bread, potatoes and beans.
all the food was pretty good, and i got a filet mignon for 15 bucks, and it was a good cut of meat (cooked to perfection might i add).
but i couldn't get that episode of seinfeld out of my head where kramer comes up with the idea of having a pizzaria where the people make their own pizzas. seinfeld says it best: "why would anyone pay you to make their own pizza?"
seriously, why would we drive all the way to carpenteria to pay someone to let us use their grill to cook our own dinner? for the experience i guess. and, believe it or not, it was a good one. i would actually recommend this place (to go to once, maybe once a decade...you know, for the experience)
it is a bbq place where you order your meat raw, and then you cook it yourself on an indoor bbq. if there are a lot of people, you have to wait in line for grill space. there is an all you can eat salad bar that come with ever entree that also has bread, potatoes and beans.
all the food was pretty good, and i got a filet mignon for 15 bucks, and it was a good cut of meat (cooked to perfection might i add).
but i couldn't get that episode of seinfeld out of my head where kramer comes up with the idea of having a pizzaria where the people make their own pizzas. seinfeld says it best: "why would anyone pay you to make their own pizza?"
seriously, why would we drive all the way to carpenteria to pay someone to let us use their grill to cook our own dinner? for the experience i guess. and, believe it or not, it was a good one. i would actually recommend this place (to go to once, maybe once a decade...you know, for the experience)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
house stuff
all of my friends who have already gone through the wonderful process of purchasing a home warned me that this would happen, but i don't think even they, having gone through the process already, knew it could be this rough.
first of all, we looked for more than 18 months. i know lots of people look for a long time, but that is a little ridiculous. and it isn't like we were being really picky, maybe in the beginning we were, but for the last year we were pretty open to anything. anyway, we finally get a place and now there is so much paperwork and stuff it's crazy.
again, our friends warned us. we sort of had an idea of what we were getting in to. but again, this is ridiculous. our broker for our loan is on a skiing trip and we are freaking out at the list of fees due at closing. we just found out that this list includes buyers (us) and sellers fees, so the number we have to come up with won't really be that scary. sweet!
and all we are hoping for is enough money to do some (pretty extensive) remodeling, remodel enough equity into the house to get the pmi removed, and have a wonderful, comfortable home that we can entertain in and make the most of while we are living in it. is that too much to ask?
i think not.
ps- guys in my group who are reading this and who offered to help with the house...your first mission has arrived. i need to visit the place and weed whack the crap out of some weeds. then we will need to follow that up with the mower and then with some weed killer. i will talk to you tonight about when and stuff.
pps- for the duration of this rant, blood by the middle east has been playing in the back ground. tough to rant about something and be frustrated when such beauty is luring you away from those feelings of frustration. thank you Jesus for great music.
amen
first of all, we looked for more than 18 months. i know lots of people look for a long time, but that is a little ridiculous. and it isn't like we were being really picky, maybe in the beginning we were, but for the last year we were pretty open to anything. anyway, we finally get a place and now there is so much paperwork and stuff it's crazy.
again, our friends warned us. we sort of had an idea of what we were getting in to. but again, this is ridiculous. our broker for our loan is on a skiing trip and we are freaking out at the list of fees due at closing. we just found out that this list includes buyers (us) and sellers fees, so the number we have to come up with won't really be that scary. sweet!
and all we are hoping for is enough money to do some (pretty extensive) remodeling, remodel enough equity into the house to get the pmi removed, and have a wonderful, comfortable home that we can entertain in and make the most of while we are living in it. is that too much to ask?
i think not.
ps- guys in my group who are reading this and who offered to help with the house...your first mission has arrived. i need to visit the place and weed whack the crap out of some weeds. then we will need to follow that up with the mower and then with some weed killer. i will talk to you tonight about when and stuff.
pps- for the duration of this rant, blood by the middle east has been playing in the back ground. tough to rant about something and be frustrated when such beauty is luring you away from those feelings of frustration. thank you Jesus for great music.
amen
Monday, April 5, 2010
top ten # 4
i have been thinking about this since my last list of my favorite ten bands of all time. while that list, as all my lists are, is subject to change without notice, it seems pretty complete at the moment.
so i have this list in my head of my favorite solo artists of all time. here you go:
10. jason mraz - while his sophmore album was a bit of a let down, i think he is finally finding his groove. and i am feeling it.
9. ray charles - older stuff = better stuff. check it out.
8. bob dylan - while i am not a crazy fan of his, and there are many out there, the things he did for music can't be taken away from him. he changed it.
7. jay-z - a rapper adam, really? well yes, and here's why. this guy puts stuff together that blows my mind lyrically. his beats are sic and he can flow like nothing. he has also solidified himself as one of the most influential, if not the most influential guy in the game. his career alone is enough to get him on the list.
6. johnny cash - this guy made great music until the day he died. god's gonna cut you down. amazing song. you should look it up. now. don't worry, the rest of us will wait for you to finish.
5. damien rice - it will be interesting to see what kind of music he makes without the help of lisa hannigan. but the stuff he made with her on his first 2 1/2 albums is legendary. yeah, i said legendary.
4. aretha franklin - mama can sing. seriously.
3. michael jackson - i think the only argument i'll get here will be that he isn't number one (or two).
2. otis redding - buttery smooth. one of the saddest stories the music industry has ever seen. he died far too young. thank God he got started early and pumped music out while he was working. so amazing.
1. ray lamontagne - crazy at number 1? maybe. but if i could sound like anyone in the world, it would be him...so there you go.
you will notice an amazing lack of estrogen on this list. if you know of some ladies i missed, please let me know. women who almost made the list: janis joplin, etta james, and billie holiday.
so i have this list in my head of my favorite solo artists of all time. here you go:
10. jason mraz - while his sophmore album was a bit of a let down, i think he is finally finding his groove. and i am feeling it.
9. ray charles - older stuff = better stuff. check it out.
8. bob dylan - while i am not a crazy fan of his, and there are many out there, the things he did for music can't be taken away from him. he changed it.
7. jay-z - a rapper adam, really? well yes, and here's why. this guy puts stuff together that blows my mind lyrically. his beats are sic and he can flow like nothing. he has also solidified himself as one of the most influential, if not the most influential guy in the game. his career alone is enough to get him on the list.
6. johnny cash - this guy made great music until the day he died. god's gonna cut you down. amazing song. you should look it up. now. don't worry, the rest of us will wait for you to finish.
5. damien rice - it will be interesting to see what kind of music he makes without the help of lisa hannigan. but the stuff he made with her on his first 2 1/2 albums is legendary. yeah, i said legendary.
4. aretha franklin - mama can sing. seriously.
3. michael jackson - i think the only argument i'll get here will be that he isn't number one (or two).
2. otis redding - buttery smooth. one of the saddest stories the music industry has ever seen. he died far too young. thank God he got started early and pumped music out while he was working. so amazing.
1. ray lamontagne - crazy at number 1? maybe. but if i could sound like anyone in the world, it would be him...so there you go.
you will notice an amazing lack of estrogen on this list. if you know of some ladies i missed, please let me know. women who almost made the list: janis joplin, etta james, and billie holiday.
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