The New House

It’s amazing what can happen in two month’s time... We closed on the new house a week ago. No, it’s not the house we wrote about in November. In fact, we were in contract one more time after that house before buying this one, but that’s a story for another time...

The good news is that we did buy a house. It’s near the first house, but in a different zip code. A little farther away from the folks, but very convenient for work. It has a 3-car garage, which was high on our wish list, and a cement tile roof, which is supposed to last a long time... We are thrilled and excited, and cannot wait to move in!

We have had painters and flooring people in, and unfortunately had to replace the furnace after only 5 days, but it will all be worth it in the end. We will move most of our stuff in tomorrow, except for what's heavy in the apartment that we’ll have the professionals take care of. But at least we have a house with a yard, somewhere that we can enjoy and relax in and have friends over. When are you coming for a visit?

House Purchase Update

Well, buying a house in the Sacramento market is definitely not as easy as it was back in Indiana! We are still in contract, but have had to deal with picky lenders and a lot of paperwork to make this happen. The good news is that it looks like we will close a little after Thanksgiving. The bad news, it’s only about 4 weeks later than we expected.

The inspections went well. There was about $4000 in damage, mostly to the exterior of the house, that the seller is paying. Overall, the house is in good shape structurally. The furnace, which is in the attic, needs to be replaced, but we will deal with that after we move in. It and the air conditioner unit both need to be replaced, but there are some great deals out there for new systems.

The only thing left is the financing, which has hit a few bumps. We have had a few lenders show interest, then turn us down at the last minute. That has caused our delays. We have a new lender who has signed off on the income requirements, but has asked for a new, independent appraisal. So we are waiting for the appraiser to do her/his job and report the results. Then it should be a couple weeks before we close. The seller was gracious enough to allow one extension, and now we have to ask for another. (The house was previously under contract and went through four extensions, then the buyer backed out, so he is understandably concerned about going through that again.) We are very confident that the appraisal will come back fine, so we know that we only need a little more time. Keep your fingers crossed!

House Buying

Well, it looks like we’ve bought a house!

We put in offers on four different properties, and considered offering on two others. One house had 14 offers, another had 5. One of the houses that we wanted to write an offer had already received 73 offers, but the bank wasn’t responding to any of them. One of the others was not hosting any showings - if you wanted to see the house, you had to submit an offer first. Who wants to put in an offer on a house that they’ve never seen????

Well, we found a house that was not a foreclosure or short-sale, and we managed to get in an offer before anyone else, and it was accepted! So now comes the inspections to see if this really is the house for us. It is in a great location and has the right layout for our lifestyle. We think it’s the right one, but will need to make sure!

Househunting

Househunting in Sacramento is an interesting process. You go and look at a bunch of homes, see one you like, write an offer with the help of a REALTOR, and submit it to the listing agent. By the time you drive home from the agent’s office, the house has already sold to someone else...

Our price range seems to be the one that everyone else is looking at too. It’s hard to tell whether we’ll find the house that is perfect (or even semi-perfect) for us, but we will keep looking!

The Crawdad

Steve G took the dogs out this morning for their walk after breakfast, and when he came back in he said, “Come look at the crawdad!” Thinking he had lost his marbles, I went outside to take a look.

Sure enough, there was a crawfish, about 4 inches long, wandering around the parking lot looking extremely lost. The dogs were sniffing it, and one of the stray cats around the apartment wanted to check it out too, but wouldn’t come near while the dogs were nearby.

I had to run to an appointment, so I pulled out of the parking spot trying hard not to avoid the poor thing. There aren’t any streams or ponds nearby, or else I would have taken it somewhere safe.

When I returned about an hour later, one of our neighbors was washing his car outside our apartment, and he was hitting the crawfish with the water from the hose. When I got out of my car, he asked me what it was. I told him, but I am fairly certain that he still wasn’t too sure that it was an alien creature from another planet. Then he sprayed the hose on it, sending it down the storm drain. Since the storm drain runs into one of the many creeks around the area, hopefully the little guy is now cavorting with some new playmates.

We still have no idea how he ended up in our parking lot.

Moving Day

Tomorrow is moving day! The truck arrives tomorrow morning, and we have professionals to load it for us. It’s a 26-foot UHaul truck that is supposed to hold a 3-4 bedroom house (well, not technically the house, just the contents). We have also reserved a 6-by-12 trailer to pull behind the truck if we need it. The last time the moving team looked at the house, he thought we should be able to get it all on to the truck. That’s what we’re hoping!

Once the truck is loaded, we will drive it across country. Our plan is to stop just west of St. Louis on the first day, then drive about 700 miles the next two days. The last day should only be about 400 miles, allowing us to get to Sacramento early enough to unload the truck and start unpacking! Our sister and brother-in-law have a big workshop building on their property that will hold some of our stuff that won&rrsquo;t fit into the apartment. We have tried hard to separate the storage stuff from the apartment stuff!

Steve G’s half-brother Rod and Rod’s half-sister Becky (let me know if I need to draw you a family tree) are driving out with us, two in the car and two in the truck. We are excited about the journey and the start to our new lives! Our next post will be from California.

Packing

There’s nothing scarier than to start packing for a move and discover how much crap you actually have. We got six boxes packed yesterday, mostly glass and ceramic pieces that were down in the basement. Some of these are “family” pieces, others are seasonal items that we use once or twice a year. Most of them are now packed up and ready for the move.

The good news is that there are probably six or seven boxes worth of other stuff that is in the garage, waiting for our big garage/moving sale on Saturday. We have committed that anything that doesn’t sell on Saturday will be taken to the Goodwill. We are absolutely not taking this stuff with us to California.

In other news, talking with the parents in California, it looks like they have already chosen our apartment and are prepared to co-sign the lease so that we can get the apartment that they looked at. See, there are two versions of each apartment, the standard and the upgrade. The upgrade has better cabinets and counters in the kitchen, higher-end appliances and light fixtures, etc. Of course, the upgrade also costs more per month. However, the folks looked at one upgrade unit that the company was offering for the standard price, but only if you signed on today. Hmmmm....

Well, I don’t know these people, so I won’t assume that there is something nefarious going on, but it does seem a little coincidental. At any rate, Dad was going over with a bunch of checks to put down the initial deposit and application fees. Yes, they are charging us two application fees because we are two single men. Please.

The good news is that we will have our new address soon, and can start working on setting up utilities and so on. We have reserved the truck/trailer rental for the big move, and we should be arriving in California before the end of the month. California, here we come!