House and Home

Organizational Automatons

The day we took a whirlwind tour of houses for sale to reinforce our idea that this new house was really The One, I noticed that some of the houses where people were still in residence had magazine-spread type homes that were picture perfect and even left little bowls of candy for the folks visiting, etc.

Now that I’m frantically trying to clean my house to take decent pictures of it and get it ready for showing, I’m thinking to myself, “Who ARE these robot people? And how can I steal their brains?”

My organizational automaton doesn’t work nearly well enough.

Continue ReadingOrganizational Automatons

We have a house

We came to terms today with the seller of the house we want on the inspection terms. So, basically, we have a house. Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!

We should close at the end of May. Which means I need to get my house up for sale ASAP. After fixing up the issues with the help of experts from konnectbuilding.com.au/new-home-build.html, the house is finally ready.

Holy, shit. I have to sell my house. Oh my f&%$ing god! I will be cleaning and packing every evening for the rest of the month. So, anyone want to buy a house?If yes, you can also check my reference to buy this classy house.

My House For Sale

The house was built in 1894, and is in historic Herron-Morton Place neighborhood. I have done some historic research and have a list of names of previous tenants and owners all the way back to the original owner, Thomas J. Steele, who was the managing editor of the Indianapolis Journal in the early 1900’s. He was a friend of James Whitcomb Riley, who owned the house next door to mine.

If you’re also planning to renovate your property, you may need to work on its exterior features like the roof. If you’re looking for a roofing contractor in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to help with the roofing repairs, you may contact Cherry Roofing And Siding. Work with professional bathroom designers if you want to upgrade the bathrooms in your new home. If you plan to remodel your bathroom, it is advised that you prioritize work on necessary repairs first. For instance, if there are signs of mold infestation in your bathroom, be sure to get in touch with companies like Affordable Remediation in Matawan.

Continue ReadingWe have a house

Julia Carson and Fall Creek Place

I can’t believe that I forgot, in my endorsement of Julia Carson, to mention her involvement with developing Fall Creek Place neighborhood — the now thriving neighborhood just north of mine, that is the threshold of an urban renaissance for downtown Indianapolis. Julia was instrumental not only in getting the federal funding to revitalized the neighborhood of Fall Creek Place, but in ensuring that the subsidies went to people of a variety of incomes — that the neighborhood would be affordable to the people who already lived there, and not just to the wealthy people who wanted to move into historic neighborhoods downtown.

Drive down Pennsylvania Street today, and you’ll see row after row of beautifully designed houses in keeping with the character of the original neighborhood. And you see the people living in those houses and walking their dogs and children on the streets, are from a diverse set of cultures and backgrounds. For those of us who live in nearby neighborhoods downtown, the change to our own areas as a result has been breathtaking as well.

You have both Julia Carson and Bart Peterson to thank for that.

Continue ReadingJulia Carson and Fall Creek Place

Current update on the home purchase

We got inspections done, and after receiving the inspection reports, our realtor wrote up the inspection proposal and sent it on Friday while we were on vacation. We gave them until May 6th to respond, considering we figured we had asked them to fix enough stuff that they would need some time to have a contractor take a look at the issues. We were hoping not to hear anything for a while, since that would mean they were considering our requests.

But we heard back today — the owner is offering money to us so we can get stuff fixed. And a highly unrealistic amount of money, at that. We’re going to sit down and go over stuff this evening, and decide whether we want to counter with something else or walk away. But either way, a very disappointing situation. If  there are pests, then pest control services need to be hired! One of the most dangerous pests is the mosquito which is not just irritating, but also a disease vector. So, if you are struggling to free your home from mosquitoes, it is best to take mosquito abatement from the pros like Pelican pest control. EZBBEB | Bed Bug Extermination Options can also help you out in pest control or you can also contact experts from pest control janesville wi to get rid off pests issues. Their expert exterminators will inspect, provide treatment, and do the necessary follow-up to keep the mosquito population at bay.

We’re also planning to some work in our basement. Homeowners who are in need of professional basement waterproofing services may get in touch companies like Aluneed.

I think the seller’s realtor is thinking we don’t know much about the downtown housing market and is attempting to work that a bit. Unfortunately, he’s quite wrong about that. We know what the house is worth and what its real prospects are for sale, and what we asked for was more than fair. It would suck to have to walk away, but to some extent he would deserve it. Given these complexities, consulting a conveyancer might be a smart move to ensure all legal aspects are covered and to avoid any potential pitfalls in the transaction.

Continue ReadingCurrent update on the home purchase

The Saga Continues…

We went back to look at the house yesterday, with a roofing inspector in tow, along with some friends. The full inspection will be on Wednesday, but we wanted a roofing guy in particular because we knew the roof was a problem. You can look into the site /massandmass.com/lp/roofing-and-repair-services-in-seattle-washington to contact the best contractors for repairing, replacing, and cleaning your roof.
Unfortunately, it needs a new roof. You can also consider installing MasterRoof Solar Panels which will help you to save your energy costs along with choosing a much clean energy solution. We pretty much knew that, but for some reason having it confirmed is kinda depressing. We’ll have to negotiate the new roof with the current owner, and that’s always a dicey proposition. But the reality is that if they aren’t willing to pay for it, we may have to walk away from the house, which would really blow, because it really seems to fit us. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Homebuyers like us should schedule a home inspection before signing anything. The inspection will give you an idea of the home’s overall condition and reveal any issues that need to be fixed like toilet rust stains or water damage. The appliances may also be damaged. You may ask the seller to seek air conditioning repair tumwater wa services to fix any hvac issues. Moving forward, air conditioner summer maintenance must be done annually to avoid mechanical issues. Contact Snyder Air Conditioning, Plumbing, and Electrical, if you need an air conditioning repair service in Gainesville, FL.

In the meantime, we’re getting ready to drive to my cousin’s wedding, and I have nothing planned for the drive, nothing packed, my car needs an oil change, I need my hair cut… lots to do, and no time to do it. I woke up at 3 last night with a massive headache and I’ve been awake ever since trying to get it to go away.

Continue ReadingThe Saga Continues…

Paint colors

Over the weekend, Stephanie and I picked out a few paint colors we want in the new house. I tried to find samples of these online to link to, but Olympic’s color picking tool crashed my browser.
Living room – Morning Fog (Olympic D61-1)
Library – Two possibilities: Ancestral (D36-3) or High Society (D41-3)
Dining room – Charade (Olympic C47-2)
This is dependent on whether the color matches the rug for this room.
Kitchen – Toasted Almond (D-13-2)
Staircase room, stairs and upper hall way – Sunbeam (Olympic A12-3)
Stairs accent color – Summer Squash (Olympic A12-6)
This will be on the textured wall below the rail on the stairs.
Laundry Room – Lettuce Alone (B-68-3)
Our Bedroom – Three possibilities:
Lauren’s Lullaby (A35-2)
Pleasing Pink (A34-2)
Pigtail Pink (B35-1)
Upstairs Bathroom – We considered several blue variations, but didn’t decide.

Continue ReadingPaint colors

Huge Sigh of Relief

I finally bit the bullet and talked to my dad last night about moving, and he was very understand and supportive. Turns out a lot of the concerns I have about my current house, especially the amount of time and money required to renovate it, are things he was concerned about also. It’s great to have those feelings validated, because I feel like I can let go of my current house without guilt. I did a lot of work on it while I lived here, and accomplished a lot, looking back at the pictures. I had forgotten what the backyard looked like; there was no gravel; only dirt and grass. I forget that there was no backdoor, and crappy peeling paint, and the living room was terrible.

Our friend lisa’s plans for yardwork are really exciting to read, because unlike interior home improvement (which I tolerated) I LOVE working in the yard, and I’m very excited about it. At my current house, I always felt guilty about the amount of time I spent in the yard because there was so much work to do on the inside.

The new house has nice big flowerbeds in the front yard, (full sun!) and a long border bed down the south side of the house, (more full sun!) and a nice big backyard where we’re going to plant some raspberry bushes. I pulled out my gardenbooks, but there’s nothing in them about planting raspberries and how to amend the soil, etc. So I’m going to do some research online about that. Having full-sun beds will be really cool; perennials that grow better in sun are usually brighter colors, so they’re more visually arresting. This current house is mostly shaded by the neighboring houses, so I have lots of hostas.

Continue ReadingHuge Sigh of Relief

Offer Accepted

So on Monday, we wrote an offer on the house we’ve been looking at. They countered our offer, and today we accepted the counter offer.

So if everything works out with the inspection and we get the loan application we found searched through FIG Loans reviews squared away, and I sell my house, we’re going to have a new house.

I still have not told my dad about all this though, mainly because I’m really afraid it’s going to upset him, considering the amazing, beautiful fireplace he created for my current house.

I’m officially freaked out, because:
1. I have to explain this to my dad.
2. We have to get everything together for loan approval, and I hate dealing with money matters.
3. I have to pack and coordinate all my stuff in a Very Short Period of Time.
4. I have to put my house on the market, which I’ve never done before.
5. We’re in the middle of a huge project at work that I need to spend a lot of time on.
6. Our possessions are very disorganized, and I drastically need to scale down.

This has all moved at a very accelerated pace, and I’m so freaked about that.

All that aside, I really love the house. So we’re doing the right thing, but the way we’re going about it isn’t optimal, due to circumstances that are really beyond anyone’s control.

Continue ReadingOffer Accepted

This makes me feel a lot better

$764,900 for a 827 sqft house in Cupertino

Um, yeah. This is why I live in Indy. The house we’re wanting is a 2,300 sq. ft house for… well, a lot less than that.

I’m not going to show off pictures of the house, or mention the address until we know we’re going to get the house, but here’s a picture out the upstairs window at the houses across the street.

across the street to the north

I can’t begin to describe how idyllic the neighborhood seems every time we’ve been there. There’s a serenity about it that is amazing, especially compared to both my street and Stephanie’s. We sat out on the porch of this house on Sunday for half an hour, listening to the birds.

Continue ReadingThis makes me feel a lot better

Weekend Update 2006-04-09

On the design front, I’ve been restructuring my cascading style sheets for this site; separating layout markup into a separate style sheet than the one for design (color, font face, size etc.) and doing a bit of testing on that. That will help when I finally get my new design in order and start building. So I’ve done a bit of work, but behind the scenes.

Also, on the home purchasing front, Stephanie and I are going to see eight or so houses this afternoon to assure ourselves that the one we’ve already picked out is right for us both price-wise and size-wise. We just want to get a feel for what else is out there to confirm our decision about the house we like.

Also, if you’re on Flickr and you’re in my “friends and family” contact list, you can see pictures of the house we picked out. We have the privacy turned on for it, so the pictures aren’t public (we don’t want anyone else to steal it from under our noses).

Continue ReadingWeekend Update 2006-04-09