Breaking in

Last night, after I had cleaned out the old house, and I decided to see if the new house was open. To my dismay it was locked. They have usually been leaving it open as of late. I tried to open the garage door but to no avail. I then went around back and looked through the windows - DARN - they had installed the screens on the windows. Anyway, I saw that one of the bay windows in the dining area was open so I took the screen off and helped myself to wander the house.

I had thought of some excuses if I were to be caught by the police because of the nosy neighbors or something. But I didn't get caught. I even tried sending them some bat-signals through the windows to show them I was there but to no avail.

I did find that the carpet layers were finished. Here are a couple of pictures of their work:





The appliances also came and I was well pleased with what he had chosen. I think that the white appliances look really good along the dark cabinets and counter tops.



The picture site is updated with all of the pictures that I took last night.

More Brick and Cabinets

On my run this afternoon, the bricklayers - let's just call them the St. Louis Billikens - were eating lunch in our bedroom. But they had finished laying the brick around the windows. All what is left to do is the brick around the posts. Of course I didn't bring my camera, but this morning, I took a picture of the bricks around the garage:



I also updated the picture page.

The work progresses

The bricklayers have come this morning. On Saturday, they said that it would take a couple of days. So that is pretty exciting. It would be nice if they would pour our sidewalk and entry so we wouldn't have to walk through the mud. I have also updated our picture site. So take a look at that for other pictures.

Vinyl, cabinets, and concrete - oh my!

Lots of stuff has happened since the last time I have updated about the house. Since we sold the house, we are getting even more and more excited. As you can see, lots has happened. I will post more pictures on the picture site, but here is a few of what has happened. Note the last picture the stucco.

And there was much rejoicing...yaaay.

I have mixed thoughts as I am writing this post. But the majority of those thoughts are good - very good. We received another offer on our house (the people who made the previous offer didn't accept out lowest counter) last night. We countered this morning and then they countered back to us. To make a long story short, we accepted the offer. They put on their offer that they would close on Jan 31 so that would help us out even more. So we actually haven't "sold" the house, but we have an accepted offer.

It was for less than what we were thinking of getting which causes me a little grief. But I do have to admit the grief is lessened quite a bit by the fact that it is going to be sold. Especially lately, as Al and I would go by the new house and see various things happen with it, we would drive away and mutter under our breath, "I hope that we will be able to move in." But that has subsided. I have been excited about this house for a long time - when the framers were working, drywall, etc. But now it has become even more of a reality. We are actually going to move into a new house! And what's more, our old house is sold (knock on wood)!

Again, I am relieved. Don't get me wrong. But I wish that we could have got more out of it.

On a side note, this is my last semester of school. I am only taking one class right now - and it is a negotiations class. We discussed how during a single issue negotiation, it is always a win/lose negotiation. A couple of the people in my class didn't understand that. I can fully understand it now. Although I think that in this negotiation, it wasn't just single issue. We did want to sell the house very quickly. So in that instance, it was a win/win issue (at least that it what I keep trying to tell myself). But I still feel that we kind of lost in the negotiations.

We did end up making quite a bit of money on the house. In that I cannot complain. When we bought the house, we knew that we were buying an "investment" property after we fixed it up and stuff. We did really well.

Hoping

We have received an offer on our house. It wasn't quite what we were hoping for - actually it was quite less than what we wanted. We countered with what we know is our lowest offer and told them that. We were supposed to receive an answer today by 6:00 but our Realtor called and said that they wanted to think more about it.

I asked him if that was a good sign or not, and he said yes and no. I am not sure if he was feeding me a line or not. How can it be a good sign? If they were willing to accept the offer, shouldn't they have just accepted it? A few of his comments when we signed the counter offer:

"They wanted to replace some of the kitchen cabinets"

"They wanted to replace the carpet"

"They want the projector"

"They want the sandbox" (I am assuming that he is referring to the play area - which is full of wood chips, not sand)

"They want us to pay for 3% of the closing costs"

"They are getting 100% financing - so the closing costs are important to them"

Later last night after we had put the kids to bed, Al and I were thinking about how that really is the lowest we could go. We (she more than I) go back and forth between just selling it at that price, or hoping that the reject the offer and someone else comes along and takes it at a higher price. But the more we think about it, it would just be good to sell it and be done. What a relief that would be.

Meet the Neighbors

Their house blog.