Annabella Rose

My niece, Bella, recently had some photos taken that we are anxiously awaiting. While looking for some preview pictures online, we came across an advertisement that has her picture in it! That is my niece on the right! Isn't she cute? Practically drooling through that grin.

Light up my life

Before we purchased our house we noticed there was a bunch of romex wiring exposed in the garage. We asked the realtor to find out if it was live or not. If it was live, we wanted it closed up.

She got back to us and set it was all dead. It was put in for some small projects to install security lights outside and a light in the extended section of our garage but was never finished. No electricity flowing.

Two weeks ago one of my weekend small projects was to get a light switch to install in the side wall by our weight set and get those security lights working so we can see at night when we go out to our garbage totes. The other part was to install a small light bulb fixture above the workout section of the garage into the drywall ceiling (no studs up there).

I grabbed my trusty line tester to see if the supposed lines were really dead or not. The one from the ceiling was live if a flip was switched and dead when off. (i deduced this by seeing the wiring in the attic and from the tester). This light bulb thing should be simple (and it was). Piece of cake!

Then I headed over to the wiring in the wall near the weight set and also next to the auto sprinkler controller. The first line was dead as dead can be.

The second line sticking out, however, was not. An arc very bright in the dim garage connected the two ends of my tester, blowing out the bulb, sending smoke in the air, killing everything in that wall, and sending me flying back more scared than anything else.

"Sonofa!" I yelled. Hard to blame the realtor for being lied to, but come on. That line was brushed every time I changed weights on the weight set or reset the sprinklers' controls. That set had even been used by my squirley nephew. Any one of us could have grabbed on and gotten the shock from hell. I was pissed.

Go flip the breaker, and nothing. The entire wall is still dead. Uh oh! I hope I didn't melt any wiring inside the wall.

Back to the hardware store I go to buy a stud finder that also detects AC magnetic fields to help trace wiring inside a wall. There was power going all the way to where I wanted it, but everything was dead. Then I found a GFI that had popped hiding in the socket the sprinklers were plugged into. It was the only one in the house I didn't know about. Hit "reset" and we are ready to go.

Long story short, I installed the switch and now the security lights work great and no one died, thankfully! During the process I found out that our phone lines also have AC current running on them which explains why we have problems with our phones. The wiring in our attic is a mess. Not sure who installed it, but they have power lines running too close to the phone lines and the magnetic fields are interfering with each other. Too big of a job for me, but calling an electrician to rewire the entire house would be ridiculous. So, screwy phone lines for now.

the End.

Catastrophe, almost

About a month ago I was having a real rough week at work. Stress level was pretty high and looking back I can't even remember why. All I know was that I felt like I was at an emotional breaking point.

Fade in 2nd period PreCalculus class on a Friday.

My phone rings about 20 minutes into class. The principal's secretary tells me that a neighbor called and said a pipe burst and my house might be flooding, what should she do?

I had images of the pipes in the master bath broken and spewing water all over our new house and our cat trying to stay dry by moving to higher ground. That is the one sink that spits out white, cloudy water and we don't know why, other than that we have hard well water with high calcium.

I had a security guard come cover my class as I still stayed an extra 5 minutes to explain the assignment I needed my students to attempt to complete. Then I ran to the office grabbing my car/house keys and cell phone. I sprinted to my car, unlocked it, and opened the door.

Whoops! The handle to my car door broke off in my hand. Cursing, I threw the handle in the car (still not replaced), got in and drove the speed limit the entire way home. (They have been ticketing people on my route home, but I always drive the speed limit anyway). I wanted to floor it.

I pull into my drove and the whole front yard is soaked, but this was not surprising. My auto sprinklers should have shut off only about 20 minutes earlier. I open the garage and run in. I turn around to run back out to shut off the water first, hit my ratchet set and send about one hundred sockets skittering across the garage floor.

Get the water shut off and run into the house via the garage. I realize I left the door open and I have to go chase my cat who was in the garage (and is unfamiliar with the area since we had just moved). I coax her back into the house. Run inside and can't find water anywhere.

Scratching my head I go back outside, this time making sure to close the door with the cat inside. I turn the water back in and then resurvey the yards and the house. Nothing. So, I go turn the sprinklers on. Water is gushing out from a broken sprinkler head in the front yard near the street.

That's it?!! A broken sprinkler? All of this for a broken sprinkler?

I go to our neighbor's house to say "thank you" for being concerned enough to track me down. That was pretty considerate when you think about it. I had not even met this woman yet (85 year old East Indian woman. Extremely friendly and looks like she is 65). She knew I worked at the high school, that was it. So she called and gave my address and that was how they found me. Then she explained why she bothered me at work when she knew it was just a sprinkler.

Turns out that a few years ago another neighbor had a sprinkler break and they didn't contact them. But they also have auto sprinklers and they never shut off in the back, which eventually flooded their house. She said she would have hated for that to happen to us. We seemed nice to her and she sees how hard we have been working to get the yards and the house in shape. Very cool!

So... I was at my emotional breaking point. Call about my house comes in. Handle breaks off in my hand. A mess in my garage made up of sockets I will have to resort. Cat almost escaped. Etc. etc. Then, since it was not a "true" emergency, I was not allowed to take the rest of the day off of work. I had to go back or they would dock my pay. Lame.

The End.

Dusting off

Time to dust off the um....well, dust and cobwebs on this ahere blog. Expect 2-3 entries in the next day or two getting you up to speed on our last month+. It has been hectic, to say the least, but not all of it is bad. We are in a good place right now. More to come....

Holy Attic, Batman!

In more ways than one:

Hole-y as in there is a hole in the ceiling of my garage and in the attic from the garage to the main attic through the firewall. A previous owner knocked a hole in the firewall from the garage portion of the attic to the main house portion and then put his foot through the ceiling in the garage while swinging a small sledge (mallet morelike). This was about 8 years ago and it was never fixed.

Holy as in holy cow! There is a bunch of crap up there!

I tried entering the attic from the bedroom entrance to pull some wires. Blow in insulation made it difficult to get into the part I needed. Realizing about the hole from the garage, I went in from the garage entrance.

Last owners left some high school memorabilia that we will try to get back to them. But the owner before them (circa 2000 and earlier) left some odd stuff up there: box of socks, black bag of clothes, collection agency forms, an old wallet with 3 IDs in it (all same name, 2 of same old guy and one of young dude with same name), old cash register (empty), credit card slider, portable chemotherapy delivery machine or something, broken tent poles, broken ceramic bowls, broken plastic storage bin, broken halogen lamp, dog bowl, worn out shoes and boots, etc.

The only two useful scores were the aforementioned mallet and a Luhr-Jensen Little Chief smoker (used, but with original box). So, hopefully in the near future, when I am not swinging my new mallet into horseshoe stakes, I will be smoking some salmon or ribs or something.

The End.

Peek-chas!

We have some pictures posted finally.

Go here!

Come Visit!

House is up and running. We've had to do a lot of immediate small repairs to make the place livable, but we are getting satisfaction! Hope to clean out the apartment today and be done with it.

We doubt we will have any kind of formal house warming until at least late fall or early winter. Kim already is back at work and I go back Monday. Kim is hopeful for a good year and I am skeptical. I'll be teaching a class called Algebra Shadow for kids struggling in their regular Algebra class. (So they will have 2 math classes!) The class I have does not have a book, curriculum, or materials of any kind at all and I have to teach it 6th period. This should be fun.

Feel free to swing into Yuba and come crash at the Berris anytime you want to see the place. Just let us know beforehand to make sure we are around. Come see us if you can!

(Pictures to come when there are less boxes around.)

It's on!

We got our go ahead to get the keys to our new house today around 11:30am. We just got home at midnight.

With the help of my sister, brother in law, dad, and in-laws we:

1. Magically turned a two-tone pink room into a two-tone of Bavarian beige and some lighter beige (after two coats of primer). We also turned a beige, dark brown, and dark blue striped room into a light beige room.

2. Fixed all of the sprinkler heads and set it up for auto!

3. Found out our water softener and garbage disposal are both broken.

4. Installed a new tp dispenser, found the exiting one hiding in a drawer, took down the new one and boxed it back up, then reattached the original.

5. Shoveled out a full paper shopping bag full of dog crap from the backyard.

6. Temporarily fixed the wood stripping that we kept tripping over in the driveway.

7. Sanitized all of the kitchen cabinets and counters.

8. Cleaned out the vent system for the not yet delivered dryer.

9. Found out how to turn on the back fountain but not the front one. (They came with the house).

10. Dusted off the weight set in the garage. (Purchased from the seller of the house.)

11. Situated the house for the carpets to be cleaned early in the morning. (Vacuumed, cleaned up all of the paint supplies, etc.)

12. Drank a case of water and ate lots of pizza.


Tomorrow the carpets will be cleaned while we try to fix the garage door opener (the remote) and get a second one, move in kitchen stuff and whatever boxes we feel like moving, install 2 shower rods, buy 2 shower curtains, some shower heads (well water pressure sucks) and prepare to do the major move on Thursday. (Father-in-law is going to manicure and fertilize our lawn tomorrow to get us started. He is a saint.)

That's the update. And then we get home to the apartment to find a random painting delivered curtousey of Shawn Gould! It had the wrong apartment number on it, so we are lucky someone didn't snag it! He rocks!

Moving In

We are scheduled for our final walkthrough and signing of the final documents for Monday morning, Aug 4th. If all goes well we will get the keys Tuesday afternoon. We hope to paint two rooms Tuesday afternoon/evening. The carpets will be cleaned on Wednesday. Then we can hopefully move our furniture and boxes on Thursday and Friday.

Kim goes back to work Thursday and I go back the following Monday, so it promises to be a busy couple of weeks ahead. We'll keep you posted.

Our House

Our future house. We might be able to get the keys as early as August 4th or as late as August 16th! Come hang out for some horseshoes, bbq, and berrifun!

Sophie

Ok, here's the cat! Something not house related for once.

In a House with a Mouse

So, we have been pretty quiet on the house tip as of late because it has not been pretty. The house was appraised for $6K less than what we had agreed on with the seller. So, the bank would not finance the entire loan.

The sellers did not want to accept $6K less and we didn't have another $6K in cash to put up. We had about $100 left. :) So we have been at a standstill for 1 week exactly. Now the seller will accept the lower bid if we come up with another $1330 in cash for closing. Also, most of the small fix it things we asked are now out and up to us.

So, I think we still get our house, but we will be borrowing money from parents and going on an involuntary diet for the month of August, sotospeak. The sellers look like they are not motivated to move anytime soon which means we will probably go the full length of escrow. (We could move by this Friday otherwise. We are halfway packed.) So, we will more than likely be moving during Kim's 3rd week back at work and my 2nd (first week with students). yikes!

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. It has been a hectic journey.

House Update

We went into 45 day escrow on July 2nd. So, at the latest we will be in our house (barring anything unforeseen) is August 16th, but possibly as early as August 2nd.

We just sent the check off today to get the appraisal rolling. Hopefully that will happen next week. Meanwhile, we need to start hoarding some boxes and begin our cleaning, purging, and packing process to get the heck out of our apartment. Any tips for box hunting?

Berri Fun House

We are buying our first house after about 1 year of looking and saving money and a few weeks of daily emotional up and downs. We'll completely empty our savings and be without certain appliances (washer/dryer/lawn mower/enough furniture, etc), but it is the house we want. It is older, but updated. So looks contemporary but with style and personality of an older house. The new ones suck.

Our next battle is escrow and appraisal/inspection. Wish us luck.

Fat Lady Didn't Sing

We went up $13K more than originally planned. Seller came down $9K from asking. There is a $5K gap that we can't bridge. Sounds like so little, but that would amount to $18K more than we planned and are comfortable with. No can do.

So, we are at an impasse. We are seeking an extension on our loan time frame at our fixed rate, but we have had no word back from our broker. We have a feeling the seller hasn't had many bids lately and is anxious to sell, but we don't know how much they have to clear to complete their moving plans. Given a few days, they may decide to accept our last offer, but if we can't get an extension, then that won't matter. We won't be able to afford our last offer given the new interest rates.

That is the latest. So, we are considering this house and our loan out unless both of those things change: 1. we get the extension and 2. the seller acquiesces.

The Berris are back to square one. We need a new loan and cheaper houses that we like. Word.

House or No House

Tonight we find out one way or another. There are 3 scenarios, only one in our favor.

Scenario 1: They accept, we get a house.
Scenario 2: They decline.
Scenario 3: They counter and we say "no can do".

Scenario 3 is the hardest. If they counter and we say "no", they can change their mind and say "yes". If they stall for a better bid and then come back to us and say "ok, we'll accept your last offer", we'll have to decline then. Our prequal loan expires on Monday and with the new rates we can't afford this offer.

So it really is now or never for this house. This is either the end or we are back at square 1.

Just in case, I sent out an email to 5 mortgage brokers and am trying to find contact info for 2 more that I know personally. I want them to compete and see what is the best loan available to us for June. So far it looks bleak, but who knows.

That's the update.

Bidding Our Time

No, that is not a typo. I know how to spell biding.

We bid on our first house that we really liked. They countered today, but it is still quite a bit higher than we can afford. We are going to counter with our hard limit and pray like crazy.

The stressful part is the timing. Our loan prequal expires on June 30th and if we start a new one with today's interest rates, we won't be able to afford the same house we can afford today. The new rates are so much higher that we'll have to start looking at houses about $12,000 less than what we are currently looking at. Argh!

Someone go kick G "Dubya" in the ass for threatening to veto a bill in the senate that would give first time homebuyers a tax credit incentive. Then go kick the banks in the ass for jacking up all of the long term loan interest rates up to where no one can afford them even though the housing prices have dropped so much. (Fed guv-ment has no control over the long term loans, just the pansy assed soon to foreclose loans.)

Can you feel the stress? Yup. It's palpable.

Pray for us, light a candle, send good vibes, whatever it is you do. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have a house, but I am not so sure.

Testing Testing, 1 2 3

Since we have had such fun reading up on our friends' lives and watching videos and images of kids growing, etc, we thought we would try out this blogging thang.

Chris is teaching summer school right now while Kim hooks him up with tastey meals in the evenings. We are currently looking for a house to buy and then live in. Funny the order of such things.

Waiting on High Sierra!