posted
We closed on the house! It took about 1/2 hour to complete the closing. We showed up, brought our checkbook, and starting signing papers at about 10:00 am. Smokey was waiting in the car with a dish of water and a trailer-full of stuff that we needed to start working on the new place, assuming all worked out.
Usually they want a cashier's check to cover the closing costs, but they never told us how much to make it out for, so we just showed up. I wasn't too worried about it because we'd moved money into our account at that same branch of the bank, so it looked like we'd just have to run to the teller to get the check made out.
So I asked how much.
$21.
Credit.
Seriously, we closed on the house and they paid us $21!!!
Between our deposits and the part-year taxes that the prior owners owed us, and the cap on escrow accounts, they ended up having to give us back $21. WooHoo!
After that we went over to the house and sort of looked around getting used to it being ours, and not someone else's. That meant we could do stuff! Like get rid of things they left behind, and decide whether or not the tubs were in good enough shape, etc.
Smokey came inside, sniffed around the carpet by the front door, and peed on it. Clearly it was already marked territory, so I guess she had to claim the house too.
Then, Dana's folks, our friends from Ames, and my mom arrived right before noon. The work started. We took out all the carpets downstairs (including the one Smokey had marked). The weird homemade shelf that was added to the back stairs was ripped out. The closets were swept and vacuumed. Carpets were removed upstairs.
Linoleum floor in the upstairs bathroom was ripped out.
Nails and screws were removed from the walls. Hundreds of those. The previous owners really did have a lot of stuff hanging on the walls. We probably will not have nearly as much decoration.
The plan for the kitchen was revised, and re-revised.
A refrigerator was purchased.
Some stuff was unloaded from the cars & vans. All our most breakable stuff is now there so the movers don't have to mess with it. A bed and a blow-up mattress are there for folks to use.
It's sort of like camping, I think.
Dana's dad figured out that the A/C compressor has power going to it, so the reason it's not working must be internal to the unit itself. I heard today the good news that we're covered by a home warranty that came with the house inspection, so no worries there. Just need to arrange for a service call and pay a small fee.
Should be good.
Dana got all the utilities changed over to our name and arranged for the cable and phone installer (same person, we're getting cable phones). High speed internet too. They're giving us a free cable modem. Not too shabby.
And that's about it.
I think they took a bunch of before pictures. The after pictures should be pretty striking given that we're going to sand & varnish the floors, paint, and generally clean up the last few years worth of oddities done to the place.
More later...I'll get a progress report from Dana tonight.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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one minor warning, though. There was an article in today's Tribune about how 911 dispatchers can't trace calls from internet phones like they can from cell phones and land lines, and as a result there have been multiple deaths in the last couple months. Please please check into that as soon as you get a few minutes and see what your cable company says about emergency services.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Remember though, the more work you do on that house, the stronger it gets. It could start stealing things like...your computer. Your hammer. Your crowbar. You know.
posted
Dana called last night. Slight change of plans. The work has shifted from floor sanding to minor demolition in the upstairs bathroom. Basically, since I stripped out the linoleum, we found the floor in there was damaged to the point that sanding and varnishing were not realistic options. Not a huge surprise, but disappointing.
However, since we have to put in new flooring, there's no sense taking the old toilet out and putting it back in. So, we will take the old toilet out and put in a new one. And a new toilet practically screams "new sink!" So, we got a new sink too.
And that makes the medicine cabinet go from "well, we'll change that out someday," to "that has got to go NOW!" So, new medicine cabinet is there too.
Basically, the tub is left where it was.
For now, we're doing a vinyl tile floor in there, so we won't be too upset if we have to tear it out later in life, and yet it'll still look nice for now.
The other major work involves lots of sanding -- the guys are doing baseboard trim removal and sanding so that they can get all the way to edge on the hardwood floors.
Still not sure what's going on with the electrical. Our guy hasn't called back. May need a new guy.
The A/C compressor probably isn't covered by the warranty afterall, but that's okay, we got money from the sellers at closing because it had been damaged. Won't cover a new one 100%, but not too bad... And because the electrical line is already there, we're in for a pretty easy installation of the new one.
I'm sorry I'm not there to help, but work is very busy right now and I don't really have any leave available. So...I miss all the fun and the bonding experience. Ha!
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
So -- I missed it -- where did you end up buying? On the Council Bluffs side or Omaha side? I'm pretty familiar with that area, and just wonder where, approximately, you ended up buying.
Tony and I closed on our home but couldn't afford to fix it up in any way, shape or form. Save pulling the disgusting tiles from beneath the mantel - to find out they were there for a reason - covering the cracked rendering of the fireplace.
Oh, and we ripped up all the carpets. Hardwood floors beneath all of them.
By the end of the year we'll have enough saved to start the stuff that needs to be done - painting, fixing windows, sanding and polishing floor boards. I can't wait.
I'm glad you guys get to do it now.
And I'm also looking forward to the before and afters!
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote: Sounds like the perfect occasion for a Pun Smackdown, to me.
Just like you to demolish such a moving thread with your cries for a Pun Smackdown. Seems to me you've got Bob all boxed into a preapproved role.
Congratulations Bob and Dana. It's good to know Smokey was comfortable in the car. If it had been winter, she'd be a brrr-brrrr car pet.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
You know, I've come to conclude that doing the fix-up work before you move into the house is the only way to get it done. Otherwise it goes on a list and seems like too much trouble. You've got a lot of excited energy going on when you first buy your house.
Good luck and congratulations!
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Ha! We were curious about that. Your e-mail said Niki had school through Weds...
Anyway, they'll still be there tomorrow, but you should definitely call first. It's floor sanding day and carpet shampoo day. They are going out at some point to pick up the machines, so you'll need to coordinate.
There'll still be plenty of work to do, but there might be a halt to some of the work due to not wanting to walk on newly sanded, not-yet-varnished floors.
Help with the manual sanding would probably be welcome though. As would maybe more painting. And if the one carpet doesn't shampoo clean enough, maybe some help rolling it up and wrestling it to the curb.
Who knows what fun you might have?
Or, Dana said to tell you that it'd be okay to stop by to just visit if you'd prefer. Chances are, however, that you really should call first in that case because once these people get the floor sander or the rug shampoo thing cranked up, there'll be no stopping them.
posted
More news from Radcliffe and Council Bluffs.
Dana and her parents are stripping and sanding floors today. Apparently they've discovered a few deeper than expected problems in the floor. Initials were carved into the floor. I like to think that this was done by a young lad, much like myself, back in the early 1900's. It gives me a sense of connectedness to the prior owners of the house.
Of course, it's just annoying the heck out of Dana. But then, she's there dealing with it and it's only natural to want the floor to actually look perfect (or nearly so) after you do all the work of stripping, sanding and revarnishing.
I think it will look great. And that's good enough.
Here in Radcliffe, I'm trying to keep my head above water work-wise and spending evenings and early morning packing for the move. The house is a shambles. I'm surviving off of frozen pizza from the corner gas station, and trying a few things that've been in the downstairs freezer with dates that are somewhat troubling.
I tried cooking some sausages the other day. Up close, they smelled just fine. But when I started cooking them, it was like the crypt had opened or a rat had died inside the wall. YUCK! Then I burned the darned things because I was on the phone with Dana and forgot to turn the stove down. The house filled up with rotted meat smell and lots of smoke. One might wonder about the condition of our smoke detectors here at the old place. Not one of them went off and I was pretty close to having to crawl my way into the kitchen to get the pan off the stove.
Tonight I'm packing the old computer, printer and scanner, and getting all the non-essential work stuff into boxes. After that, I'm pretty much packed. That means that when Dana gets back home tomorrow, I can be of more use to her rather than trying to pack up my stuff while she's trying to do hers.
We have a lot of stuff.
I think maybe burning the place down (by accident) would've been a blessing.
Sure, I'd miss my dog and that crappy painting I did in high school art class, but it'd be worth it not to have to pack.
Well...no it wouldn't. Smokey (hmm, how appropriate a name is that!) is too good a dog to lose.
Oh well... Guess I'll just get back to it.
I truly hope Dana is having a good time. I sort of doubt it. Although she is probably enjoying being with her parents. She has them all to herself. No siblings vying for attention. Ah, bliss...
Make sure you open all the built-in storage spaces. Especially that big one over the stairs that has the access doors high up in the bathroom. There's at least six boxes in there. And the hidden slidies above the kitchen cabinets.
On the bright side, Daddy called today and said that your pine floors were a lot easier to sand than my oak ones were.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Tell him he should be sanding or painting instead of posting, (although how you're supposed to do that in Radcliff is beyond me, I would have said packing, personally) and that in revenge for the big mess you left in the bathroom they are leaving you an even bigger one.
quote: Tell him he should be sanding or painting instead of posting, (although how you're supposed to do that in Radcliff is beyond me, I would have said packing, personally) and that in revenge for the big mess you left in the bathroom they are leaving you an even bigger one.
Today is devoted to more packing. Lots more packing. We're roughly about 1/2-way done packing. More or less. Probably less. Packing...
I heard about the mess in the bathroom. I took out the linoleum floor (which reeked, by the way) and apparently that prompted wholesale removal of the green plastic wall tiles (which is certainly a good idea), along with smoothing of the walls (somewhat) in preparation for wallpaper, shower inclosure, and, of course, vinyl tile for the floor. This will also involve the aforementioned replacement of toilet and sink. So, basically, except for the tub, everything in the upstairs bathroom is gone.
Except the wolves on the ceiling. They're still there. But we have a can of KILZ to take care of those critters.
Sheesh.
I would like to point out, however, that I never asked anyone to strip things off of walls. He did that entirely on his own initiative. And, while I applaud the effort, I don't feel that it should harm my status as "favorite son-in-law" in any way.
Don't make me hire Dagonee! We'll take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to!
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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I think that spending some time at the new house has helped my brain transition from "Radcliffe is home, and we must leave everything we might need available until the last possible minute" to "Council Bluffs is home and we must pack everything we might need."
This is a very good thing.
We refinished the floors in the entryway, parlor, butler's room, and dining room. The entryway and dining room will be gorgeous. The parlor will need a small rug in the middle. We managed to eliminate the initials and possible gang signs carved into the wood and most of the stains, but could not quite eliminate the sander marks from the elimination of the aformentioned.
There is so much potential, and so much I'd like to do before our stuff gets there. We didn't have time for any painting, except in the pantry (which is good, 'cause there was no way I was putting anything in that pantry the way it was. It took Mom two days to clean it, bleach it, and sand the crap off the shelves with a belt sander. Then she re-painted the shelves.) The new floors downstairs are going to make the walls and ceiling look pretty shabby, though. Paint store, here I come!
I got the tomatoes planted. It was nice to go out and spend a few minutes digging in nice clean dirt after a day of yucky inside dirt. (Example: The previous owners left a toilet plunger in the bathroom. It was sitting in a plastic margarine tub, and a glance into it revealed that they did not rinse the plunger after use. It (and the margarine tub) went straight into the trash.)
I'm trying to prioritize next steps and it's hard. The guest bedroom will probably be left alone for awhile (I already cleaned the walls/ceiling and shampooed the carpet) because it's in pretty good condition. But the decorating choices make me cringe. How could anyone think that blue-green carpet, mint green walls, and forest green woodwork (including the 12 inch baseboards and the doors) would go well together?!?!? Part of me wants to do that room first, and wait on the rooms where the wallpaper is peeling and the paint is chipping just because the colors aren't so noticable.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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We are not moving, but reshuffling after getting new carpets in three rooms. We moved out of our room so the kids could have their own rooms, and we are moving down to "the office." We had to move all stuff out of three rooms. Most of it went into our bedroom. Then, once the caroets were in(revealing beautiful hardwood floors, by the way, which we had been told were just boards when we bought the house).
Now, my daughter's room is pristine and beautiful, free of dust and clutter, and all the stuff is piled in our son's room. Argh. Well, i have all summer to get it straight.
Long and the short of it is: good luck!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Maybe we could start a national Hatrack Clean Sweep group, taking turns to clean the living tar out of each other's stuff. Mrs. M. could be the organizer lady. Punwit could be the builder-painter guy, etc.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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We went into Ames to get more boxes. Had to call ahead to find the one U-Haul place that was open until at least 5:00 on a Saturday. Got there and they had closed! I mean, we told them we were on our way and that it takes about a 1/2 hour...and they were gone. So, just on a chance, I called their phone number again. It had the owner's phone number in the message. So I called him, and he came down and opened the store up so we could buy boxes.
He's just lucky he did it! dkw was all set to write a very stern letter! But he was a very nice guy and his clerk had gone home sick. Of course they were almost out of the size box we'd told her we wanted, but that's okay.
We bought GOOD boxes. I mean, these are premium quality boxes. Made with love in every corrugation.
they must be. They cost so darn much. I think we'll pass them down like family heirlooms. Each grandchild will get six small boxes, 2 medium boxes, and a dish pack.
We took the opportunity to grab some food in Ames, and then came home to more packing (Bob & dkw) and some sermon writing (dkw). The kitchen is almost done. That's the last major headache area. We've got stuff in the dining room and the basement and garage, but most of that is already in boxes, and just needs some minor attention. Like "should I repack this box and what IS that weird dripping fluid?" Or, "wasn't there a lawn-mower around here somewhere? I could've sworn there was one in here. Oh yeah, that was 3 houses ago."
So...brains are fried. It's 10:00 pm. We're calling it quits for tonight. Think of us tomorrow. It's crunch time!
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote: We bought GOOD boxes. I mean, these are premium quality boxes. Made with love in every corrugation.
they must be. They cost so darn much. I think we'll pass them down like family heirlooms.
I know those boxes! I bought ones just like them last year.
Want to know the ugly truth? Some of them haven't stood up to a year of things being taken in and out of them, and will have to be replaced in a few weeks (assuming I do end up moving in August).
Good luck with finishing up the move!
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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There comes a point in every move, I believe, beyond which the "executive" mind takes over and simply gets the job at hand accomplished. Beyond that point, one does not scan each item, weigh its future value in the new life to come (the one after moving, although after death is not a bad analogy) and give it a thumbs up or down vote. No. Beyond "the point" things go in boxes that would not rate a trip to the dumpster on any other day. Seriously. Conversations along the lines of "what's this green fuzzy thing?" followed by "I don't care, pack it" are considered perfectly normal discourse. No doubt this is the source of many misunderstandings. The people helping unpack at the other end, being observant, note that at least one person in the household must have a fondness for green fuzzy things and thus a gift-tradition is born. "Well, Bob & Dana are easy to shop for...just get them another green fuzzy thing. Bigger this time!"
Meanwhile, you've packed a dead mouse.
Our move is going much better than either of us expected at this point. It is, however, not going as well as we'd hoped in our most optimistic moments. With the exception of the garage, every room (even the basement) has been "gone through."
Going through a room (under the law of "the point") started out being something along the lines of a top-to-bottom review of every item. Individuallly. Now, glancing through the door at the room and noting that it still retains its physical shape counts. So...we actually have not even LOOKED in the garage. But we've gone through all the others.
Mostly, everything is in boxes. Dana's computer needs packing. Her ceramics need a careful touch (thus I am barred, for good reason), and there's just a light dusting of "stuff that didn't fit in a box yet but will soon" coating every surface except the ceiling. Philosophically, moving consists of reducing this coating to zero. As everyone knows, you can cut the coating in half, and in half again, and again, until almost achieving the zero state, but you never quite reach it.
Another thing that happened is that the rule for "what can stay in a drawer" has changed. Anvils and living things are still off the list, but pretty much anything else goes. The movers told us we could leave clothing in the upright dressers. Well...really...who's to say I won't wear that framed portrait someday? It's in my colors afterall.
Well, I hear dkw stirring. We got a few hours of sleep last night. Things always look brighter in the morning. Of course...the sun is up.
T-minus-3 hours 43 minutes until the movers arrive.
posted
Congratulations on your new house!! Sounds like you have your work cut out for you - hope you can get it into shape with as little aggravation as possible.
We had big plans for fixing up our house when we first moved in here, and we ended up doing nothing, due to cost issues. Our house is livable, but there are things that could be improved. Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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quote: Beyond "the point" things go in boxes that would not rate a trip to the dumpster on any other day. Seriously. Conversations along the lines of "what's this green fuzzy thing?" followed by "I don't care, pack it" are considered perfectly normal discourse.
YES! I have so done this!
And then you have to figure out where to PUT the green fuzzy thing. Because after all, you went to the trouble of moving it . . .
Bwahahahahaha!!!! Now, was the green fuzzy thing the mouse or was the mouse another fuzzy thing that slipped in while you were debating the green fuzzy thing?
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Mrs.M, where are you moving, again? I thought it was in the midwest somewhere, but then I saw something about Richmond.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:As everyone knows, you can cut the coating in half, and in half again, and again, until almost achieving the zero state, but you never quite reach it.
So true!!
Good luck dears, you're gonna make it!
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
It's 7:09 Tuesday morning. dkw left Bob_Scopatz AGAIN! He was holding her back. Well actually, they figured someone should be in Council Bluffs when the movers arrive . . . and he is pulling a big trailer and she speeds (just a little), so went on ahead.
They left Radcliffe at midnight and drove as far as West Des Moines. They left at 6:30 this morning, so will be in their new house very soon. Smokey is at Camp Mike and Patty for a while . . . until the hassle of moving is over. Thank God for good friends.
Posts: 113 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
dkw called at 7:46 a.m. She said, "I know I'll beat the moving truck because I just passed it." (Not to suggest dkw is speeding . . . we all know those big trucks are slow.)
Posts: 113 | Registered: Nov 2004
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