Finally

Ok, so the husband felt the same way I did, a second test was a waste. After my "threat" of not buying the house without mitigation, they said they'd just do it. They have to do another test after the system is installed. We close May 22nd!

Give me a break!

My house has radon in it. Radon is a cancer causing gas that seeps out of rocks and the soil. The acceptable level is 4.0, my house has 4.9. Other houses in the area have tested as high as 100. So 4.9 isn't horrible but it needs to be fixed. You are more likely to have radon if you are situated over a cave system (me) or in the western rockies.

The sellers didn't know they had radon. And they want to do another test.Why? If their test is less, then they'll try to weasel out of the repair. It is 1-2K for the venting system.

So pissy Kim was out in full force today on the phone (my poor Realtor). I told her I didn't trust the accuracy of the second test, there were several things they could do to tamper with the results. I felt like the first test was an accurate one because no one knew there was going to be an issue. They had no reason to fiddle with anything. I was told they signed something saying they wouldn't tamper with the second one. Big deal, people sign things all the time, it doesn't mean anything. I don't know them, I don't know their morals. (can you tell I've been working on Fraud things at work? Trust no one!)

So I don't think it is too much to buy a house without gas in it and told the sellers to save their $150 for the test and just fix it. Someone else might buy it with a failed radom test (morons) but not me. I am already at my limit cost wise on the house and I literally do not have another possible 2K to put in it right now.

And you know what? Pissy Kim will hand delivered the failed radon results to the a new buyer to verify it was disclosed before the sale if they bail out on me. Why? So they can sue. I am not sue happy but there is something about lying that burns me up.

I hate buying houses. This is suppose to be fun. Why do people keep trying to screw me over?

More Pictures

Run run run, that is all I feel like we do! I'm pooped!

Went to a bunch of yardsales near my new house this morning. I got the baby several Gap tops and a pair of Old Navy shorts. I also got her a new nightgown and two cheesy Easter hats that she LOVES. Oh ya, and a pair of Gap skinny jeans. All for $7, I thought that was pretty good. I've stopped getting her things in her current size and as long as I get a great deal on them, I have no problems stocking up on bigger things. For example, one top has a sequined Halloween pumpkin on it. Cute and was probably $10-15 new. I would never buy a seasonal shirt for that much, but ya, I'll pay 50 cents for it when it looks like it wasn't even worn. That lets her be cute for the holiday without killing the budget!

I spent $400 for a home inspection this morning. Boy do I hate the costs associated with buying a house! Anyway, house is in excellent condition. The only thing is there aren't any railings on the front porch and the inspector told me the insurance company would be upset about that. So once the radon test is done on Monday we'll approach them about the costs of the rails. Every house in the neighborhood has the rails but this one. Most have a plain wrought iron which would be my first choice. there were also a few small things, like one of the toilets rocked a little (replace the wax seal), seal the brick on the front porch because it is porous and in 5 years will crack off the house (who knew?), grease the rails on the left garage door to take care of a little catch and spilt one wire off a breaker and put it on a new breaker. He said eerything else was fantastic and my house was built better than many in the same neighborhood - yay me!

Picture time!


Someone has to wear all those leftover diapers right?

At Emma's birthday party. She was so cute pushing Natalie around :)

In the bounce house. She jumped for 5 seconds and she was really high. Then she saw exactly HOW high she was and flipped out - sigh
With Tia, they already have that "sheez Mom!" look on their faces!

Being silly
My fancy cabinet
My stove and fridge!


My sink and dishwasher :)

This shows the columns and the pony wall. There is another one behind Natalie's chair.


My 1.5 story high foyer
It is very open on the main floor.


Loooots and lots of yellow! My brother will fix that tho!

Bye for now! - Kim

Another Day Down!

My day was great how was yours? Why was it great? One day closer to our closing date!

Also one day closer to the great purge. Our yard sale is May 2nd and we are dumping a lot of stuff. I purged about 75% of our stuff when we moved to the condo and it has been sitting in a spare room in the rental house. I don't know if I have mentioned but I am a packrat extreme. If I see value in something and think I'll use it then I keep it. I don't keep like 10 years of newspapers or anything like that but I do keep a lot of clothes, bedding and decorative items. And tupperware - good grief do I have a lot of little plastic bowls!

But out it goes. What doesn't sell goes to Salvation Army. That is totally against the packrat way, I am rather proud of myself.

Tomorrow is the inspection, the only thing I am worried about is radon gas. That area is right next to a state park and there are caves. Apparently caves and radon gas go together. But this isn't anything new to the area and surely the builders did whatever was necessary to keep it out of the house.

I've decided the colors of everything, I just have to match it up to the Sherman Williams ring of colors (have you ever seen the ring of colors? it is a lot of fun, they loan it out to contractors to show their clients, just like of HGTV). Natalie's room is going to be a dark lilac, not quite purple on the gray side. I have a headboard I'll paint white for her and I am going to buy her a new twin bed. She'll have white flowy curtains that I'll trim out in various shades of purple ribbons. I am not sure about her bedspread, it will be mostly white I think. She'll have her white baby dresser in there too. Eventually I'll have crown molding put in too. The lilac and the hardwood will be pretty together :)

My room is going to be light green and blue. I have a piece of designer fabric that I am going to do all the colors from. The walls will be the green, I'll use white flowy curtains too and white bedding too. I have the tray ceiling in there so it won't seem too green you know? Then I'll build a frame and stretch the designer fabric like a canvas for wall art. I'll also get a sample size of blue paint that matches and do soemthing artsy fartsy for the walls to go with it.

The living room, dining room and kitchen will use all my old bedroom deep red stuff. It will be sparse but I am not interested in covering every surface. I have all those pretty fabrics to use from the interior designer sority chicks sale to use for pillows and wall "art". I have some deep purples and golds to use with it too. According to HGTV, that color scheme might be dated but I'm ok with it lol

Downstairs I am going to buy a new turquoise sofa (yippee!) and put all my beach stuff down there that was in my living room.

I don't have a lot to decorate with. I hope to do the entire house for 1K including Natalie's bed and the sofa. Sam's has a great bed for $300 and the sofa is $399. That leaves $200 plus tax for paint. Hopefully that is enough with my brother's company discount.

Whew that is enough for one night, tomorrow I will have baby pictures and house pictures :)

Woohhooooo

My closing date is May 22nd!

Natalie and I drove to the house after work today to check it out. The streets were full of little kids riding their bikes. Every cul de sac had a big basketball goal pulled out with parents and big kids playing. How cool is that? No less than 10 people waved to us. Woohoooo!

:)

It is a wee bit yellow :)


What color would you paint this kitchen? Counters are tan and white swirl, floor is gray, tan and white swirl. It is currently yellow. Most of the house is yellow :)

See? Yellow :) The hall is two tone yellow with chair railing too :)

The den :)
Dad's room. The baby's room is identical but one foot shorter. Her room will be repainted a more childlike color (not yellow! :)
My room :) I am thinking lilac :) I've always wanted a lilac room with black furniture and white bedding :)
Dark and rainy day when they took the listing pictures.
The deck :)
The deck :)
Downstairs half bath :)
My bathroom :) Will probably do lilac too. There is a garden tub and a walk in closet :)

Did I mention I bought a house tonight? :)

Houses Houses Houses

I forgot about my very first green roofed house. So the white cruddy house was actually #6!

Want to play House Hunters? TN style?

(in my best Suzanne Whang voice)

House #7 is a 1970's ranch with a 90% updated interior. Located approximately 4 miles from the core, it is in the school district Kim wants. But at 1450, the house lacks space and expansion possibilities. Plus Kim doesn't love the western cedar trim on the front porch. Listed at 130K, she decides to keep it on the list for the schools, layout and flat yard.



House #8 is a much newer home located 10 minutes from the core. This home offers one level living, hardwood in the dining room and a lovely yard. At 1800 sf, this home is just the right size for this family of 3. But the kitchen and baths are cheaply constructed which turns Kim off. And it is in a different (but not bad) school district. Listed at $168K, Kim decides to pass.

(not the house, very similar)

House #9 is a 7 year old split foyer located 8 minutes from the core and in the same school district as home #8. This home offers hardwood on the main level and maple cabinets in the kitchen. At 2077 SF it is the largest of the three. Priced to sell at 162K, this home is priced 68K less than all the other houses in this neighborhood. Viewing at 6pm.

What a dump

The carport is rotten and pulling OFF the back sunroom. The hardwood had no finish on it, the kitchen and baths were totally worn out. I was so ticked that I wasted my time (and got hopeful over it) that I'm writing a letter to the listing agent. It is false advertisement to list a house as excellent condition when it needs 15K in repairs. Not prettiies, repairs! My foreclosure is in better structural condition!

Speaking of my foreclosure, it is still available. I guess the other couple that bid on it told the mortgage company to take a flying leap too. I am going to think about it tomorrow and might resubmit my last offer on Monday. Regardless of which school is it connected to, it is a great price for any part of our whole city except for the "hood".

We are also expanding our search outside of our "core" to about 15 minutes away. Several new builds are out there for a pretty penny. If I give up my hope for another kid and a new car like ever, I can afford it. I am not too excited about the extra commute, another 30 minutes lost out of day doesn't excite me. But the houses are pretty.

Oh well.

3rd (5th?) time is the charm?

Looking at my 5th house tomorrow. I know some people look at tons before they buy but not me. Believe it or not, I'm not picky! I'm also able to tell in advance if I am going to like a place with the few pictures they show online.

To recap:
House 1 - Dogwood house - huge trilevel fixer. Dad hated it. Too much work. It sold to someone who appreciated it I'm sure.
House 2 - Castle Oaks - love it still. But 1.5 baths. It is being rented now.
House 3 - my foreclosure (still have a little daydream that I'll get a call saying they have reconsidered my offer and that the other couple turned them down flat to. A girl can hope right?)
House 4 - Scenic, in the woods. Horrible dangerous no fence sloped yard. Inside unique and sort of cool layout in need of huge remodeling. Like 40K. Shoot 50-60K with the fence. Pass!
House 5 - Looks a LOT like my little white house now. It is a two story white cape cod. 3 bedroom, 2 bath, master on main. Natalie and I would take over the upstairs. Full unfinished basement. Cute yard, flowering trees and the neighbors house are nice too. Could I have a winner? I'll know at 11:00am tomorrow!

Poor Me

I bought junk for the baby today, someone should be happy right? $25 at our work yard sale, check it out...



The dresses are too big (so are the ones I bought on Saturday blah) but they'll keep.
I thought this was cool.
Th big wand plays music and lights up.
Flounder is a purse.

this is neat, princess pictures appear and talk to her. One of them says "A dream is a wish your heart makes...do you have a dream? And Natalie always deadpans it - no. Every time, it kills me!

a nightgown
a crown
She wore them to bed :)

I also bought a "laptop" game thing for $10 that I am taking back (you can do that sort of thing when you are running the sale lol). All I got was "too loud mama, too loud!". Some other kid will love it.

So Disapointed

They countered at a ridiculous counter so I told them where to go. Actually I told my Realtor to tell them and if she was uncomfortable with that type of language I'd be happy to call myself!

We went to look at a monster of a house in the good part of town today. What a dump. It was owned by an old couple who hadn't worked on it in the 30 years they had owned it. It would need all the walls redone (wall paper removed and paint) and all the floors except for the foyer and den would have to be redone. The baths would need to be gutted and the kitchen would need some serious work. The LR, den, kitchen, dining room, master and 1.5 baths were on the main level. Downstairs there were three more bedrooms, 1 full bath and two huge unfinished areas. But it would be more work than the last place. We would have tons of indoor space (3300 SF) with a yard that went straight down because this house was practically on a mountain. No garden for me, no swingset for the baby. So I'll keep looking. blah

Snort

Happy Easter!

With her Easter bucket. The "bunny" gave her new curlers, a little lamb, an Elmo video, large eggs with fruit chews in them and small eggs with quarters in them for her puppy purse. A banana and two snack bags of marshmallows finished it up. I gave her one Elmo video early and her puppy purse early. Grand-papa has already stocked her purse with wadded up dollar bills (which came in handy when I realized I didn't have any tip money at the golden trough corral (corral isn't better huh?).

A close up. I decided to keep her fancy Easter outfit for a picture section. It has a hat, its that cool.
Nana gave the baby even more stuff. The dino bucket was from Targets after Easter sale last year, 90% off. A whole 89 cents, cute huh? She also got raisins (no candy per mama), a bunny headband, eggs with tinkerbelle panties in them, a lamb basket, barretts, hair elastics, stickers, a mickey pen, mickey mouse cards and a stuffed elephant. Sheez. Is it really obvious Natalie is the only grandbaby?
She really liked these!
With her Aunt Jane in line waiting to get in. GC was a little nuts today!

And of course with 100's of different things to eat, she wasn't interested. One bite of fish, one strawberry, one shrimp. Oh wait, 2 bites of corn too. Oh well!

Happy Easter to everyone!