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Moving, mortgages, and renovations


Cerina
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My parents accepted an offer that weekend they listed their house. Like it was done in 30 days for them. They were so tired out from just moving and selling and prepping to leave in thirty days and yet they still wanted to help me move if we bought this summer. I couldn't do that to them. They had that same amount of showings and were floored. This market is INSANE.

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Our realtor did say that she's already had some interest on putting in a early offer to avoid a bidding war. In my experience, that just starts the bidding war earlier. Our offer review deadline is Tuesday at noon because we would like to make a decision that night. But if someone puts in an offer this weekend, we've given our realtor our magic number and other details (no contingencies, close in 30 days or less, etc). But then she will turn around and call anyone who has shown interest and tell them we have an offer on the table and that they better put something together if they want to play.

Up to 13 showings scheduled for today. Found out from my neighbors that someone tried to climb our gate yesterday during a showing because they couldn't figure out how to unlatch the gate from the front. (Hint: its difficult for a reason.) Just go through the freaking house, stupid. Also found my back slider door unlocked at 9pm last night when I went back to check on the house. But no mud tracked in on new carpets, no turds left floating in the toilet. We have some interesting clientele in this area from different ethnic backgrounds, and they do not necessarily follow common American cultural norms and rules. They think their time is their time and can appear to be inconsiderate and pushy. And I hate saying that "out loud" but I know who is trying to buy my house. There is a major religious gathering place not far from where we live, so this area has many people who follow that religion and they enjoy the proximity. My first Girl Scout troop in the neighborhood was more ethnically diverse and it was a bit of a culture shock for me. Parents thought I was free babysitting for them and expected a lot, and gave nothing in return. I had to be firm on my boundaries.

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We are pending! Got my magic number and no contingencies, but with a 32-day close because of the weekend. A little obnoxious because they sent it at 1 AM and the offer expired at 1 PM, so clearly they were trying to avoid any other offers coming in. We also had an open house from 11-1 today so they were trying to get that canceled or avoid bidding against anyone who went to that. In the end, the other offers said they had planned on offering $50k less than my magic number so we decided let's take a sure thing. I feel good, and I don't think we left money on the table because even though there was tons of interest, they weren't willing to match or beat this other offer.

The realtor who ran the open house said he showed up 15 minutes early and there were people waiting already. It was a zoo.

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When we bought 8 years ago, it was a buyer's market, for sure. I remember there being so many houses available so we could afford to be picky, until all of a sudden things picked up and ours went pending and we lost 3 houses in a week and had to scramble for the one we ended up in. We had to sacrifice on a few things, like we wanted a 3 car garage and had to settle for 2 (and then it turned out that you couldn't actually fit 2 cars in it at the same time), and the yard was smaller than we really wanted but at least it was double our old yard. I really liked the house and Floorplan itself, though.

I got about half the boxes out of the garage and at least partially unpacked. I'm super frustrated with storage space, however. The old house has fabulous storage. Lots of big closets, and we added more storage because I like everything to have its place. Right now I'm struggling with stupid things like the fact that our master suite has 2 pocket doors, which means I can't use my hooks for the hat organizer or hanging the robes over the door. I think the hats are going to have to go in the linen closet because it has an actual door (as opposed to folding doors at our old house), and I will have to buy hooks to sink into the wall in the bathroom. I'm just having a hard time putting things away because some of our former storage solutions aren't working here because of things like doors and wall space.

Pictures: 2 views of my laundry room, without the washer and dryer. We installed all of that last year and took down the wire rack shelving that had been in there. I need something like this again.

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I got a pot pull out drawer from the Container Store because I too have limited storage. It's been handy. It's got stuff to keep them upright and I put in a lid one too. It freed up some space for me. I also had to edit some of the nonsense I only use once a year or less from my kitchen. HA.

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Pull out storage is going to be a necessity. Our new pantry is useless because it is super deep instead of wide. So thats the first one that we need to upgrade. Also going to get rid of a few pots that get infrequent use. I kept one stock pot because it came with an insert that was great for clams but I can buy another insert for the stock pot that we use more often for soup. It's our last Teflon pot so I should've gotten rid of it long ago.

I also appear to have misplaced a box of winter clothes for my daughter, and it's frustrating the heck out of me. Its getting colder and she needs some warmer shirts.

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Found the box of winter clothes, finally.

Latest usage idea: formal living room becomes the family room, move the TV and couches in there. Keep bookshelves and have them frame the TV, which is what we did in the old old house from our newlywed years. Family room gets a pool table, and we install a bar in the space where there is currently an awkward railing. Lots of storage in the bar for kitchen items. Big wine fridge where the kitchen desk currently is. Tear out the kitchen island because its a little too big for the space, and we will have the bar. Portable chef cart to go into formal dining room where the wine currently is.

Debating doing the wall bed in the bonus room. A sleeper sofa would be a better use for the space. I'm hoping we can find a comfortable one. Reclining would make my husband even happier. We currently have a loveseat recliner in there that was not very expensive and is getting worn already. That would also free up wall space for storage. The kids need access to their toys and games, and I don't think the storage closet under the stairs will fit everything in a manner that is easy to access. Most of the kids stuff was in a small walk-in closet before, plus some of that cubby storage. I would like to get rid of a dresser in my son's room so he can have a bookshelf instead.

I also spent some time today putting lesser used linens into space saver bags, like our guest comforter and pillows, and the summer quilts. It did free up a lot of space in the linen closets. Got the master closet organized as well so now I can see where else I can fit lesser used items.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got some Rev-A-Shelf installed in the pantry. Already a million times better.

Also made an executive decision to order some storage. I almost got exactly what we had before, but decided to start small and not do wall mounted. I'm getting frustrated by not being able to unpack because there's simply no place to put stuff. And the kids need access to their toys. So unfortunately it will take about a week to get here but better than nothing. For this weekend, we are going to unpack the office so that I know how much more storage I have in there, and move the family room stuff into the formal living so that we can make sure its actually going to fit before we order a pool table.

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So fun story - 

We're still not ready to fully finish out the kitchen. I refuse to store anything in the base cabinets that are there now because of the nastiness that's behind them, and Trevor already removed the wall cabinets. We're been busy finishing other projects for now, so the new kitchen cabinets keep being put off. We put some utility shelves in there for now to store food and dishes on until we get the new cabinets painted and installed. 

But then today the HEB (grocery store) around the corner put everything in the store 50% off because they're moving to a new building tomorrow. So I sent Trevor and Noah to see what they could get. They just spent $500ish on $1000ish in groceries - no meat, nothing frozen. It's 90% dry goods and non-perishables. 

The Good - our grocery spending will be minimal for MONTHS now

The Bad - we don't have anywhere to really put it yet as the kitchen is still very much under construction

The Ugly - they bought WAAAAAY more junk food than we ever really have in this house. We rarely buy it because of the price...and now we have junk food for MONTHS. 

Editing to add some pics of food and under construction kitchen 

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Things are insane in my area right now.

At least four major manufacturing plants or distribution centers have expanded or opened up within a half hour drive of here.  They're from like likes of Target, Toyota, and other big companies.  That's in addition to the new secondary FBI HQ at Redstone Arsenal, as well as the Space Force HQ that's coming in a few years.

The house across the street from me sold to an out of town investment company after two days on the market for $15K over the asking price.  I've been getting mail and calls about offers on mine, and we've never had any intent to move.  The county tax assessor's office now says the value of our place is about $60K over what we originally paid for it in 2007, and that's not even the market price.  Zillow estimates it to be double what we paid for it.

Part of me wants to cash in and upgrade, but there's literally no point since every other house in the area has skyrocketed as well.  

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21 minutes ago, D-Ray Kenobi said:

Things are insane in my area right now.

At least four major manufacturing plants or distribution centers have expanded or opened up within a half hour drive of here.  They're from like likes of Target, Toyota, and other big companies.  That's in addition to the new secondary FBI HQ at Redstone Arsenal, as well as the Space Force HQ that's coming in a few years.

The house across the street from me sold to an out of town investment company after two days on the market for $15K over the asking price.  I've been getting mail and calls about offers on mine, and we've never had any intent to move.  The county tax assessor's office now says the value of our place is about $60K over what we originally paid for it in 2007, and that's not even the market price.  Zillow estimates it to be double what we paid for it.

Part of me wants to cash in and upgrade, but there's literally no point since every other house in the area has skyrocketed as well.  

Are you still paying PMI on your mortgage? And you may want to make sure your insurance covers the full value still. 

Houses in my new neighborhood were selling for $100k over asking just a couple of months ago. The market has started to slow down a bit though. It's been a wild ride. 

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It's crazy because of those investors. I hate those ppl. I can't afford a single house I really like and because I'm contingent any offer I make is ignored. So I just look at Zillow and Trulia and dream and wish but I'm gonna wait for this market to cool before I make the move OR hopefully I can save up and have a big enough down payment that I can just move to the new house and then not need the money from the condo so I can fix it up will cute and sell it and put that money back into savings. You crazy if you think I want to rent it. HA! The horror stories about renters who haven't paid and then trash and steal the appliances before they move out scare the willies out of me.

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Old house closes on Friday! We are thinking about doing goofy things last minute like changing out smart switches (husband does not like the brand they installed here) and grabbing some carpet we left behind to finish a closet here. Sigh. The guy that lived here was a terrible electrician and just a bad planner. Like he left us carpet  to redo the hall closet that was cut appropriately but he had a safe bolted in to the floor and didn't get it out until after the carpet guys came and went. So there is weird old blue carpet in there while the rest of the house is neutral. And the under stairs closet had some carpet scraps in there that he said were big enough and surprise, they are not.

Oh, also that cabinet i ordered was not nearly as big as it seemed. I think we are back to wall bed with storage built in. My husband loves recliners and those are generally not compatible with sleeper sofas.

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On 11/2/2021 at 12:30 AM, Destiny Skywalker said:

Old house closes on Friday! We are thinking about doing goofy things last minute like changing out smart switches (husband does not like the brand they installed here) and grabbing some carpet we left behind to finish a closet here. Sigh. The guy that lived here was a terrible electrician and just a bad planner. Like he left us carpet  to redo the hall closet that was cut appropriately but he had a safe bolted in to the floor and didn't get it out until after the carpet guys came and went. So there is weird old blue carpet in there while the rest of the house is neutral. And the under stairs closet had some carpet scraps in there that he said were big enough and surprise, they are not.

Oh, also that cabinet i ordered was not nearly as big as it seemed. I think we are back to wall bed with storage built in. My husband loves recliners and those are generally not compatible with sleeper sofas.

What are smart switches?

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52 minutes ago, Metropolis said:

Light switches you can control with an app.

That's what I figured. 

Right now, a lot of smart home devices aren't that appealing.  I put a Nest in my old house and hated it.  I just want it to be 68 degrees all the time. 

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The smart switches are great because of their practicality. You can use them just like a regular switch. Or, because I have mine connected to my google home, your can turn the lights on or off with a command. It's also not bad security when you're not home. I have my garage lights on a timer from the switch so u don't have to remember to turn them on or off. I agree with Destiny's husband. I'd take those suckers with me even though they're not expensive.

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Really we swapped them out for another brand. Husband liked Wemo, I picked up some TP-link ones but new house had Wemo too so we swapped them. They were double the price of the TP Link. I get it, he wanted just one app. I think we are going to use them in the kids rooms to help them slowly wake up in the morning. Start low light at 7 AM and wake my son up on school days.

We had a Nest but uninstalled it for some fancy Lennox one when we got the heat pump and new furnace. So we could install that again at the new place. New place has some shitty Honeywell one that is difficult to use, at least in my opinion. We also had the Nest detectors. A fire alarm started beeping the other night so my husband was grumbling about wanting something hardwired again. I found some at Costco so might do not-smart ones.

Right now I miss the garage video camera but it was on a really ugly flood light. May just settle for the doorbell camera. We really like the smart home stuff but I'm pretty leery of Google and Amazon crap lately. Our Nest thermostat is old enough that I think it didn't listen to us like a new one would, because it was before Google bought them. I've turned off Alexa on all of our Fire tablets and have avoided buying most other Amazon smart home devices.

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16 hours ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

Really we swapped them out for another brand. Husband liked Wemo, I picked up some TP-link ones but new house had Wemo too so we swapped them. They were double the price of the TP Link. I get it, he wanted just one app. I think we are going to use them in the kids rooms to help them slowly wake up in the morning. Start low light at 7 AM and wake my son up on school days.

We had a Nest but uninstalled it for some fancy Lennox one when we got the heat pump and new furnace. So we could install that again at the new place. New place has some shitty Honeywell one that is difficult to use, at least in my opinion. We also had the Nest detectors. A fire alarm started beeping the other night so my husband was grumbling about wanting something hardwired again. I found some at Costco so might do not-smart ones.

Right now I miss the garage video camera but it was on a really ugly flood light. May just settle for the doorbell camera. We really like the smart home stuff but I'm pretty leery of Google and Amazon crap lately. Our Nest thermostat is old enough that I think it didn't listen to us like a new one would, because it was before Google bought them. I've turned off Alexa on all of our Fire tablets and have avoided buying most other Amazon smart home devices.

I just want a thermostat that is set at 68 all year.  I don't want to mess with it.

We live in a dark sky neighborhood.  We don't have streetlights and such.  It is kinda creepy but the sky is amazing at night.  I would like to invest in an infrared camera for the back of the house because we have a lot of wildlife, including bears, in the woods behind us.  Do you have any suggestions?

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On 10/26/2021 at 1:11 PM, Ms. Spam said:

It's crazy because of those investors. I hate those ppl. I can't afford a single house I really like and because I'm contingent any offer I make is ignored. 

I hope I'm wrong, but I really suspect the overall market is headed for another 2008 style crash.  There's no way that the continued pace of housing prices can be sustainable.

The outside investor angle is what really concerns me.  I know this is the same story from many other towns, but there's entire neighborhoods in Huntsville that now are basically owned by those oligarchies.  A group of investors buys out an industrial site, turns it into a yuppie mixed use playground, then buys up all of the housing nearby so the Whole Foods crowd can continue to patronize it and drive up property value.

I'm largely a centrist these days, but stuff like this makes me just want to entirely go to Socialism and make you all my comrades. 

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