Couch Potatoes

Yes, yes we are.

E & I watch TV in our Family Room almost constantly. We spend more time there than we do in our own beds. We also eat dinner on the couches.

For the past four years (how have I lasted that long?!) we have had hand-me-down couches from E's aunt. Her decor style is country. And these couches were purchased circa 1985. You can't even begin to imagine the sort of blue and white gingham and flower pattern that threw up all over this 1960's-style wing-back couch and loveseat. I wish I had a picture but, alas, the camera is afraid of these couches.

I have them covered with slipcovers. Currently, they sport a chocolate brown microsuede. They look unoffending, for about five seconds. Once you sit on them, you realize that the regular slip-covers don't fit wing-back couches and loveseats. And, no one makes slip covers for wing-back couches and loveseats. My guess is only two people in the world own wing-back couches and loveseats: us and E's aunt.

Anyway, the point. We recently went shopping for a new couch/loveseat set. We went to several places and ended up purchasing at Roomful Express. We bought this set:

We were told that the couches would be in our house between mid-to-late June. But the salesperson hinted that it was more likely to be there mid-June. Apparently she lied.

I got a call today that the couches would not be delivered until mid-July. Putting them at slightly over a month from the purchase! I was not OK with that. I had already had a goodbye party for the ugly couches and was fantasizing about the dog not having a slip-cover to tug on. So, I complained. Not angrily, just in a disappointed way. I mentioned that, had I known it was going to take over a month, I would have purchased from somewhere else. Less than a minute later, I was offered free delivery, meaning the delivery charge we paid for would be comped. Deal!

I will gladly spend an extra two weeks with the gingham and flowers (covered by brown microsuede, of course) in order to have any extra $110 in my bank account.

Now, it will be a different story if the couches take ANY longer than that!

So much for the summer!

I cannot believe May is already gone! I have so many updates to post, please bear with me.

1. Running Update: I injured my knee after my awesome four mile run at the beginning of May and have been sidelined ever since! Every week I start off hopeful that I will get to run again, but then a short run with the puppy in the backyard has me limping... Maybe THIS is the week!

2. Rowing?!: Although I have not been able to run, I joined my work's corporate rowing team and am rowing every Wednesday until late July. I am so excited for this adventure! I had always wanted to try rowing, and now I actually get to do it for half the summer.

3. Puppy: Big Boss has been a joy to have in our house. He is a fantastic little pup and is learning fast. There have been a few hiccups along the way with his training, but he's getting there. And, he definitely is the sweetest pup around!

4. House updates: We have started purchasing furniture! Soon, I will blog about our bathroom re-caulking project that turned into a month-long saga rather than a weekend DIY. I also have to share a post about cutting down an unsightly dying tree in our front yard. I just need to take some after photos to share with you, otherwise the afters are not all that exciting.

Our first big update is coming up this weekend: the kitchen! Stay tuned for a few posts about the before, during and after of this mini-remodel. New cabinets are being delivered as I type! After the kitchen, we are tackling the dining room, then the living room, and finally adding a patio to our backyard.

We hope to be fully done by Labor Day weekend so we can throw a housewarming/wedding anniversary party and get to enjoy our house with our close friends.

Friendly Neighbors!

On Saturday, we headed to Ikea to buy this. It is going in our Master Bedroom to help hold E's clothes.

On Sunday, I spent all afternoon building the wardrobe. While I built it, E was unpacking our bathroom things and kicking the empty boxes down the stairs onto a heap.

Right after I finished, I heard the doorbell ring. I ran down the stairs to find a wall of empty boxes blocking my way to the front door. So, in the interest of time, I kicked them and they scattered all over the room into random piles and on-top of furniture. I opened the door breathless, in sweats and with no make-up. And there stood our next door neighbor in a suit and pearls.

She came in, and I was mortified! Our house looks like hoarders live there. With a pile of coats that covers the entire couch in the living room, extra furniture placed precariously where it doesn't go, and a random 3-D puzzle of the Black Pearl on the mantle. We are pure class!

Bless her heart, she brought us a basil plant (E already set it up, watered it and claimed it as his new pet) and a folder filled with delivery and take-out menus from the area, with special notes on places that only offer take-out. It is such an awesome and thoughtful gift. I will definitely file it away for future use. And now we have to invite them over once the house looks livable. Just so they don't think they have hoarders for neighbors.

And while we are in the topic of friendly neighbors, I got to talking with our neighbor from across the street. They have a puggle and I told her about our new pug, and she went into her garage and gave me a free crate! It is the perfect size and in awesome shape. Just needs a hose-down and a doggie bed.

I think we lucked out! We'll be sure to keep mowing our grass and tending our yard so our neighbors don't think we're the sorry people.

Growing into the house

Slowly, things are beginning to fall into place. The amount of boxes is diminishing, or maybe it is the same amount but my husband keeps hiding them in the basement. The amount of time we spend looking for an item is decreasing. And we have mastered the art of the recycling bin. Soon, we'll have a fully furnished home with no visible cardboard. That's the dream.

This weekend we had our first adventure into adding something special to our home. We went to meet this guy.

His name is yet to be determined. But he is a six-week-old black pug. We get to take him home in three weeks, once he's had his shots and all his papers come in. He is the runt of the litter. And his little mouth is curved into a smile. He'll join his big brother Mojito (a hairless guinea pig) in filling our house with love.

Who needs furniture when you have a perfect pup?

Kidding. Furniture is coming and, hopefully, the pup will be somewhat housebroken before we give him the chance to pee on the new couches!

After one week...

It's been a pretty pleasant first week in our house. Lots of unpacking and organizing and cleaning. Lots of shopping for house stuff. Lots of figuring out ways to get places.

We love our house. Mostly because it is all ours (and the bank's). However, we do not love moving and leaving behind some key items.

Tip for movers: take your plunger!

We (I) clogged the toilet on Sunday morning. No plunger. Left it in our old apartment. Crap!

Thankfully, we live just two minutes from a hardware store. The problem was fixed by a $1.69 plunger.

Shiny and New!

Whoa it's been busy! We moved last weekend and for the most part, all of our furniture is currently made out of boxes. We have gotten some semblance of real rooms in the Family Room and Master Bedroom, which are about 60% complete.

The Master Bedroom is missing a new bed (the current one is E's college bed), drapes, artwork and another dresser/wardrobe. And the Family Room is missing a dinette, sheers, and the artwork. We are waiting for our nice fat tax refund to buy all the new furniture, so I expect our house to sport the air of college-chic for a couple more months.

Even in progress, we LOVE our bedroom. We got some fantastic Dwell bedding for a steal on RueLaLa, and paired it with some pillowcases (hidden in the pic below) and some toss pillows from Target. Then I added a wall mural I bought on Etsy for some drama. I can't wait to finish the room with the new furniture and drapes. It will be our own little relaxing cove.

Oh, and we bought a new stove! Here she is right before we installed it. I was too hungry and forgot to take pics after it was set-up. We bought it from Daniel's Discount Appliance in South Park for about 20% under what it was listed for elsewhere.

Our first house fixes

We spent a busy weekend painting the new house and making a few small fixes.

First up: Mastering the Caulk
People often don't realize how easy it is to fix window trim and baseboards with a little bit of caulk. In a lot of older houses, the wood trim likes to separate from the wall, creating an ugly gap. A tube of caulk is just $3-4. It is also super easy to work with. Just make sure to buy paintable caulk if using it on trims and baseboards.

Before:

After:

Next: Painting
We painted our Family Room and our Master Bedroom, the two rooms we will use the most right away. We still have to do some touch-ups and we have to paint the trim in the FR. But both rooms are ready for us to move in!

FR Before:

FR After:

Bedroom Before:

Bedroom After:

Finally: Testing the New Lawn Mower

Our ILs gave us a nice lawn mower as a house-warming gift. Here is my husband taking it for a test run (note his shorts and boots).

And here is what our lawn looks like now since he decided not to finish the job. Our neighbors love us already!

Paints: Valspar Spa Pool, Olympic Applesauce Cake (matched into Valspar), Olympic Delicate White (for ceiling).

We own a home!

The day finally came. We closed on our house yesterday. It is a little unbelievable that we are homeowners now.

I could hardly sleep on Sunday from the nerves and excitement. What if I forgot the checks? What if I didn't have my ID? What if the sellers trashed the house? All fears were unfounded. Of course.

We arrived at our house for the walk-through and did a quick scan of the house. Everything was in order and looked fine. We noticed how big the basement is, how old the kitchen is, and how nice the fireplace looks. We also noticed how dirty the house was left, how many things were not fixed to our standards, and how stained the caulk in the new bathroom was. It was wonderful to be in our house, but anxiety crept in as the list of fixes and projects grew exponentially.

We locked the house with our new keys and headed to the closing. A quick 30-minutes of signing, verifying names, numbers and addresses, and we were ready to roll. It was scary how easy the process to become official homeowners was. And how our mortgage will be paid off in 2040!!!

We then headed back to the house to make sure everything was locked up. And we baptized the house. By peeing in the toilet for the first time. Mazeltov!

No worries, we flushed.

Next up: home renovations!

So close...

Our closing got delayed. Sigh.

We had signed to close on March 31st originally. Then, the sellers asked to close on March 26 to allow them to use the funds to close on their new house. We accepted, but didn't sign anything new. We went ahead as if closing was the 26 and set up our insurance this way.

A few days ago I get a call from our REA. He says the sellers thought we were still closing on the 31st. Huh?

Turns out the seller's REA never informed them that we had agreed to this. So they planned their move for the 27 and couldn't close without having vacated first.

We are now closing on the 29. It is just three days, but we lose a weekend in between. Still... we are so close.

Done and Done.

The appraisal came in...

...at $500 more than we are paying. And, there were no repairs needed for the FHA loan.

And... five minutes later we received our Loan Confirmation Letter. Which means...

...we are definitely officially buying a house!

Off to design change of address postcards!

Waiting for the appraisal...

... and waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

The appraisal is also the FHA Inspection, where they can bring up any other safety concerns they may have like hand rails, uneven pavement, chipping paint, etc. This is the last big hurdle for our purchase and, although we don't envision any issues, we are anxious to see the report.

Fingers crossed that it goes smoothly!

The roof, the roof, the roof is...

... in great condition!

As of this evening, we will be under contract. Out of the contingency stage and officially moving forward with the purchase. Woo-hoo!

I do want to give some more background on "roofgate", since I didn't know the full story when I wrote the previous blog post. Bear with me.

We are buying a house from a young couple that has lived there for only three years. They have to move by April 15, or else he will lose his job. This basically gives them 5 weeks to buy a house and move before our closing. They want to wait to be under contract before putting an offer in on a house.

Since they are in a hurry, they didn't want to delay the contingency any longer. They had just had the roof inspected three years ago and were confident that it is in sound condition.

Unfortunately, we didn't find out until almost 5 pm on Friday that they were not extending, and our inspector could not get to the house until Monday morning. We worried that this wasn't good enough and we would be forced to buy the house without having the roof inspected. Around 7 pm on Friday, we heard that they agreed to extend it until Monday at midnight, giving us enough time to get an inspector there and extra time for the snow to melt off the roof.

I have no clue what we would have done if the snow hadn't melted enough by now. We probably would have lost the house. No need to worry about that anymore, thank goodness!

When you buy a house during the snow storm...

Major Update: We got an extension until Monday at midnight! Our inspector was not able to see the roof on Saturday, but will be there first thing Monday morning to inspect it.

When your offer gets accepted, you have 15 days of contingency to get the house inspected and get the sellers to agree to make repairs. Sometimes, a seller will extend the contingency for an extra inspection or some additional negotiating time. That is not our case, and it might turn into a problem.

As I mentioned in Inspection- Part 1, our inspector was not able to check the roof of our house because it was covered with two-feet of snow. Unfortunately, although the sellers agreed to fix all of the issues found during the inspection, save for replacing the interior door from the kitchen to the garage (we were reaching with that one), they did not agree to extend the contingency period. This means that we don't have additional time to have an inspector check the roof. We have to decide by tomorrow whether to take the house without a proper roof inspection.

what our house looks like now

Yes, the roof is only 10 years old.

Yes, the inspector found no evidence of roof damage when he inspected it from the inside.

Yes, the sellers will fix any issues that arise from the snowmageddon snows.

Yes, our REA thinks the roof looks great.

But, can we really buy a house without having a professional give us the thumbs up?

Unfortunately we only have 12 hours to make that decision.

The Inspection- Part 2

This morning, our REA met a chimney inspector at the house to see what the damage was to the chimney. I was nervous thinking it would be upwards of $2,000 and end up being a deal-breaker. After just 15 minutes of looking at the fireplace, the chimney sweep determined that all the fireplace and chimney needed was a good cleaning and some mortar repointing. Total cost: $285. W00T!

We decided we are asking the sellers to:
-Make the repairs to the chimney & fireplace
-Have a plumber check the small gas leak (this was in the inspection report but was not mentioned to us during the inspection)
-Have a plumber replace the flexible copper gas line to the dryer
-Have a plumber check and reseal the bathtub fixtures
-Replace the door to the garage with a fire-rater door
-Have an HVAC repairman check the issues with the furnace (this should still be under warranty)

Our REA thinks these repairs will cost the sellers about $750-800 total. Not too bad!

Now lets hope the snow melts and allows our inspector to go back to look at the roof. And that, when the snow melts, it doesn't cause any leaks or cracks.

The Inspection - Part 1

This past Saturday was our home inspection. We woke up bright and early and headed out of our still-not-plowed street with our last shred of courage. Worst case scenarios danced in our heads as we pulled in to the flat and snow-cleared street (yay suburbs!).

We arrived late, as has become the norm when E & I travel together, and missed the pest inspector. Thankfully, he gave the house a thumbs up. No evidence or damage from pests. We were in the clear!

Basement

We headed to the basement to meet our inspector, Brian, and get the low-down of the electric, water heater, furnace and laundry area. Everything in the basement looked good. There was a tiny bit of dampness on the far corner of the basement, which Brian said would not be a problem at all when finishing the basement.

There was also a cubby hidden by a wood panel that was created by a basement window that got covered with the first-floor addition. Did that make sense? The owners had a piece of cardboard lining it. Brian recommended that we replace that cardboard with blue board, which is mold resistant.

There was a water stain inside the furnace, which Brian said was a small concern. It meant that the seal on the pump was not perfect, but it could be easily fixed by resealing it. He also mentioned that the gas pipe for the dryer was installed incorrectly with a flexible copper pipe. This type of gas line is not up to code, so it needs to be replaced with hard piping with a flexible extension.

First Floor

We then headed to the first floor and the garage. Brian noticed that the door leading to the garage is a hollow interior door, rather than a fire-grade door. To be up to code (and get an occupancy permit) the door needs to be replaced. There was a bit of water damage in the outside wall of the garage, which he was not concerned about. He also mentioned that the siding around the doors to the yard need to be sealed a little better to prevent water damage.

In the living room, Brian found that the fireplace had some mortar that was cracked or missing. He explained that if it is cracked all the way through, we can have hot ambers leak into the frame of our house and catch it on fire. Scary! He suggested we have the chimney cleaned and inspected by a professional who can let us know the condition of the fireplace. This, to us, was kind of a bigger issue. We'll have to see the full report from the inspector to see what he recommends.

Second Floor

Up in the second floor, we took a look at the bedrooms, attic, closets and bathroom. Brian found that two of the power outlets in the master bedroom were not grounded, but were perfectly safe for two-pronged power cables. He also found that some of the bathtub fixtures were a bit leaky and needed to be resealed, while the sink had a slow drain that could use some Drano.

Outside

Snowmageddon made it impossible to take a good look at the driveway and walkways, and cause Brian to be unable to inspect the roof. He did assure us that he had not seen anything inside that would indicate roof damage, and the roof is just 10 years old, but he plans to come back to inspect the roof and walkways once the snow has melted.

Brian took a look at all the windows, which are new; the AC, which is also new; and the outside of the house. He noticed a small crack in the brick facade, which is non-threatening, but he did recommend that we get it resealed to prevent water from finding its way to the inside of the house.

Overall

Overall, we thought it went pretty well. We expect the sellers to be relatively reasonable about making all of the small fixes. Most just require some caulk and some sealing. We hope that the new door leading to the garage will not be an issue, or that we at least will get an allowance to fix it.

Our only big concern is the fireplace and chimney. Do we go ahead and pay for a chimney inspection? Will the sellers even agree to fix any issues with it? Will the sellers at least agree to have it cleaned?

E and I are willing to find a middle ground with the chimney, but we just hope the sellers are willing to cover the smaller fixes as well.

House #28: The One (Part 2)

Here are the details on the house. Soon to be our house (fingers crossed).

Location: South Park

Stats: Colonial, two-story, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1st floor FR, 1/4 acre

Pros: Nice size, good bedroom sizes, new bathroom, first floor family room, clean dry basement, long wide driveway, garage, large flat yard, next to South Park, flat road, quiet street, hardwood floors, new windows, new furnace, new HWT, updated roof and electric.

Cons: Only one bathroom, does not come with a stove.

This house is great! The layout is nice and open with large rooms and big windows. Everything is in good condition with no updates needed to move in. The house has plenty of room for us to expand, but it is exactly what we need now. We could not do any improvements for 5 years and still have plenty of house to go around.

The location is ideal: a quiet street close to main roads and next to a park. Since our street sits accross from a park, the area will likely never turn into a commercial artery or a run-down neighborhood. Plus, it is a dead-end street in what was originally built as a custom-home plan (in the 50's). The schools are all relatively new and in a fantastic school district. We can't wait to have little ones to send to the schools.

Verdict: Love it!

Major conclusion: We found it!

I think all along we were looking for a house that did not need major cosmetic updates (like The Ranch did) but that had potential for an addition or for building extra space (like The Colonial). We are excited to add square-footage to the home by finishing the basement or expanding the addition in the next few years. We plan to add a bathroom to the first floor, and possibly a powder room in the basement, eventually moving E's home office down from the third bedroom.

Shortly after moving we want to add some extra cabinets to the kitchen, maybe even creating a breakfast bar in there; and we want to add a small patio to the back yard using some paving stones. Eventually we will build a large deck after we decide the fate of the addition.

Let's hope the inspection goes well this weekend, that the appraisal goes as planned, and that we don't have any snags with the loan process. Fingers crossed that it is all smooth sailing. Thank goodness we made it before we hit 30 houses!

House #28

Sorry I have not posted this, but it all happened really fast and we were scared it wasn't actually real. Or that we would jinx ourselves. We are still scared we'll jinx it, but we are too excited to hold the news in any longer.

We bought a house!

E and I went to see a house last Tuesday. We knew it had potential. It was the right price, with the right size yard, everything we wanted, and in one of our top neighborhoods. We didn't want to wait until the weekend to see it (good thing too because of the snow!) and, since it was the only good house on our listings, we figured it would free up our weekend to see it during the week.


We arrived at 4:30 pm on a Tuesday after a relatively easy drive. E was in a good mood, which usually helps things, and I was excited knowing the house had potential. We spent about 30 minutes in the house and talked about all the pros, and a few of the (oh so insignificant) cons. As soon as we got in the car, E turned to me and said:

"We should put in an offer. How much?"

THUD. He is usually gun-shy and methodical. Needing to think things through for a while. He was so sure of this. It amazed me.

On the way home we chatted about the neighborhood. How much we liked it, how the schools were new and the streets flat, how we loved that the house was right next to a park and in a quiet street. By the time we hit the next street light, we were texting our REA to put in an offer. And we knew we had to move fast.

That evening, after discussing the price we were offering, we signed the papers for our first offer. The offer was presented the next day, and we waited an excruciating 24 hours to hear a response.

We got a counter. It was only $500 over our original offer, but required us to put more money towards closing costs. It was a difficult decision, deciding how much of our savings we were willing to part with at closing, but we knew we had to do it. We accepted the counter offer and have never been so sure of something in our lives. Well, other than when we got married.

The closing is set for March 31st, and we will take all of April to move in. The inspection is this weekend, then we have to go through the loan process and appraisal before we can pop the champagne. But for now, we got ourselves a house!

(House stats coming in Part 2)

We interrupt this program...

I know it's been a while, but I have a good excuse: we've been traveling! We spent a lovely Christmas in Bel Air, Maryland with E's family where we ate too much yummy food, received practical (and somewhat strange) gifts, and were the hit of the family when we gifted E's parents with motion sensor stainless-steel trashcans (Costco FTW). A day after returning, we jetted off to Las Vegas to help our friends with an event they run every January. We spent almost a week in Vegas at the Flamingo enjoying great company, rowdy drunks, slinging stale beer and battling a case of food poisoning.
Note: Thanks to the food poisoning, I got a jump-start in losing my post-wedding weight.


We returned to the frozen tundra of Pittsburgh tired, jet-lagged and excited to be home for a long stretch. As for New Year's resolutions, I want to blog more. Even if no one reads it. E doesn't make resolutions, or he doesn't tell me.

Last night, we went to a friend's house-warming party. We were pleasantly surprised at how lovely his home was. A nice 3.5 or 4 bedroom (depends), 1.5 bath house with a semi-open layout and plenty of extra space for expansion. When we heard what he paid we almost fainted! Granted, his house is not in an area we would ever consider buying. I am just a teensy bit overly obsessed with school districts to buy in the city. But it was nice to see that our friend had gotten pretty much everything he wanted in a house, whereas E & I always seem to have at least one thing about each house we see that we don't like.


As we left the party, I asked E about our houses. Immediately he answered that he wanted to see more, so I went back to our listings this morning. That's when I found out "our" house had been sold. We were surprised it sold because we were "watching" the house, yet no call ever came asking us to put a competing offer in. After initial shock and sadness, it made me realize that the house selling meant we could take our time and look for the PERFECT house without feeling tied back to a lingering listing. There are five houses we are hoping to see next weekend, and hopefully none of them will be sold from under us.

Indecision

This past Sunday, E & I decided to venture out again to look at houses. We were looking at one new listing, and two repeats. We were having a hard time deciding between two houses and needed to look at them again and talk the options out.

The new listing was a great renovated Cape Cod in Pleasant Hills. Three bedrooms, 2.5 baths. The only drawback was a small yard (small only by our standards). We are keeping this one on the list.

After long looks at both of our repeats, we spent the rest of the day mulling about the pros and cons of each house, each neighborhood, each commute, etc. E liked both houses and felt that it was my decision which one to go for. I was still conflicted. One house is smaller but move-in ready. The other house is larger but needs upgrades (mostly cosmetic). By the end of the day, we had decided to put in an offer. At the end we feel that if the offer is not accepted, then we have another great house to look into, and perhaps that is the way it is meant to go.

The Chore List Adventure

A few weeks ago, I started getting self conscious about the fact that out house was never quite clean. I wondered how people managed to work full time and keep a clean house. Surely they don't have lives, don't enjoy themselves and have no friends, right?

Then, I discovered a little tool (thanks to the all-powerful Google) called a weekly chore chart. Apparently a clean house does not require a full scrubbing daily, but simply a little work each day. With this new tool, I put together an N & E customized chore list. I have four chores per day, including washing the dishes and kitchen counters, and sorting our mail daily. It really breaks down to doing two extra chores each day.

On Mondays, I have to dust the furniture and do any laundry left over from the weekend, Tuesdays I pick up clutter and vacuum, Wednesdays I clean the bathroom, and so on. For the most part, this adds less than an hour of work each day. Our house looks great, our surfaces are clean, the clutter is gone, and the bathroom tiles are staying white.

I have been slacking with my chores this week and I can already tell the difference. Thankfully I was smart enough to schedule a "rest day" for Sundays, which has really just become my "catch up day" for this week. My greatest measure of success? E came home this week and said:

"Lately, I have loved coming home. It is so relaxing here."

Removing the clutter and the dust does make the dwelling more peaceful.