One Year Moving Anniversary

A year ago today, we moved into this house. I certainly cannot say that we've made many (any?) of the improvements we intended to make. Other more pressing issues came up: plumbing issues, air conditioner repairs, additional attic insulation to prevent a second year of $500 gas bills in the winter.... Such things tend to take precedence over things like paint and light fixtures; that's life with an older home. But we really do love it here, and overall, we are very pleased with his Kindergarten, which was the whole point. Looking forward to at least 20 more wonderful years!

Currently feeling: homey

Closing Drama

Okay, as I alluded to earlier, there was much drama surrounding our closing. We thought all of the drama was over when our agent called to say that yes, we really would be closing on Thursday. Ha!

Thursday morning dawned, and I just knew it wasn't going to happen. I don't know if I was just tired of being disappointed or what, but I was not confident at all. And the longer the morning wore on, the more convinced I was. Closing was set for 3PM (I was wrong about that yesterday, thought it was 2). They lawyers had to have the papers by 2PM for us to be able to close at 3, and neither DH nor I were leaving until our agent had confirmed they had them.

10 AM came and went, Noon came and went, 1 PM came and went. Our agent called at 1:40 to say they had finally arrived. "We are on for 3 PM." Really? I'm still not feeling it. DH left work at 2 to come get me. We waited until 2:20 before leaving the house (it was closer than we originally thought), just to make sure someone wasn't going to call and cancel or delay. Even on the way there, I told my husband that something was still going to happen. The address is wrong, or the sale price is wrong, or a car accident, or *something.* We turned into the complex with about 10 minutes to spare, then realized we didn't have the actual address! Directions, yes, but there were 90-something townhouse-type offices, and we had no idea which one we needed. DH was on his phone with our agent getting the actual address when a call came in to my phone.

"Mrs. Gaston, this is Luke's daycare. Luke is running a really high fever. Our thermometer says it is 104! His whole body is shaking and he looks awful. We need you to come get him." THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING!! Technically, we're supposed to be there within 30 minutes if they need us to pick up our child. I explained that we were literally about to walk in the door to close on our house, and they decided they could keep him (in the office away from other kids) until we arrived. I really hoped it would be as simple as walk in, sign, and walk out. It was when we bought this house (once we finally got there), and the papers were ready, so it should be quick and simple, right?

You'd think I'd know better by now. Neither our agent nor the buyer was there yet. The buyer was about 5 minutes late, but they were very sympathetic to our circumstances. The buyer's agent talked to the lawyers so we could go ahead and sign our portion of the papers, the idea being that we could finish and be on our way and not have to wait for the buyer, who had numerous additional papers to sign. We could also start without our agent, who came in about 10 minutes later. By 3:40, we had signed everything we could, but they were "still working out some things on the HUD, the numbers just aren't adding up." I was ready to pitch a fit!! Finally I just had to go get Luke and hope they had it worked out by the time we got back.

Luke did look pretty bad when I got to daycare, but the assistant director was going on about how much better he looked (he'd slept about 30 minutes on a mat in the office). He was still pretty warm, but nothing approaching 104. With some children's ibuprofen on board, we headed back to the lawyer's office. He had half a cup of juice on the way, which was both good and bad: good that he was willing to drink something, bad that he only drank half (he's usually downed the whole thing in under 5 minutes). We arrived back at the lawyer's office right at 4:30. The room we were using to sign papers were directly across from the entrance. As we walked in, I could see DH, our agent, and the lawyer sitting at the table, and no one looked happy at all. Great.

The good news was that they had figured out the problem. The bad news was that no one could figure out what to do about it. I do know more of the details, but again, I'm going to be intentionally vague here. We still need to work out if and how much *we* will be affected, but I was so stressed about the whole thing between what the lawyer was telling us and Luke's condition, all I really heard was "blah blah... might have to rework the deal... blah blah... something about our taxes... blah blah... might not close today if we can't work it out with the county." No one, not even the lawyers who do this for a living, can figure out how the mistake happened and how it has gone unnoticed for so long. They did work it out so we could close that day. Now we just have to hope the county doesn't come after *us* for many thousands in "corrected" taxes over the last 9 years!! So the drama may not yet be over, but we did close. We walked out at 5:30 PM with the papers and the check to prove it (though we might need to save that check in case the county comes calling).

And for everyone wondering, Luke is fine. His fever is responding to medicine, there are no other symptoms, and he is acting mostly fine otherwise (a little tired, but that is to be expected), so the doctor said just to monitor the fever and keep him on Children's Motrin. Call if any other symptoms show up, and if the fever isn't gone by Monday to bring him in. But as of bedtime tonight (Saturday), his fever was under 99.5 with no meds, so he should be fine by Monday.

So, drama drama drama, but it's DONE!! We offically only own *one* house!
Currently feeling: ready for a quiet week

We did close

We're all exhausted from stress, and Luke is sick with a high fever, but we officially only own *one* house now. Most of you probably already knew that from Twitter, Facebook, or the neverending thread. More details later. Right now, it is way late (actually about 1:30 AM on 2/26, but I back-dated the entry to our actual closing date), and I'm going to bed.

Currently feeling: finally!!

The opposite of closed is.... angry

Yet again, we did not close on the old house today. As frustrating as that fact is all on its own, what truly makes me angry about the situation is the way it unfolded. As you know by now, today was to be our third attempt at closing. The first delay was at the request of the buyer, but it came several days before the closing date, so that was workable. The second time, it all came down after 9:30 PM the night before due to a piece of paperwork requested by the lender. It then had to be sent to the underwriter, so we were delayed by a few days.

Today, I thought we were in the clear. When the phone rang at 8:30 AM this morning, I thought that was it. No, it was just our agent letting us know that the buyer had done their run through this morning and everything was good as far as we (buyers and sellers) all knew. By Noon, no additional phone calls had come, and I had finally dared to believe that we would actually be closing at 2PM. Perhaps that was the problem.

We left at 12:30. I had had a terrible morning at work (two big (and already late) projects fall down and go boom), but I was ready to shake it off by signing the papers. At least something good would come out of my day. We stopped by Arby's for lunch (I had not been able to eat with my insane morning), since it was on the path between the house and the lawyer's office. We had just finished ordering when my phone rang. It was 12:40.

Today's story is that the underwriter is requesting an explanation of something (I'm being deliberately vague; we do know the issue). I have two HUGE issues with this. #1: Clearly, the underwriters had not yet completed the paperwork. Even if the buyer had been able to provide the requested documents immediately upon request (which was not possible) and the underwriters had instantly sent the papers to the lawyers, we *still* would not have been able to close at 2 PM, because the lawyers would not have had time to review the papers. (You may recall that closing on our new house was delayed by 2 hours for similar reasons.) #2: How is it that the underwriters did not know/realize that the existing documentation was unacceptable until 90 MINUTES prior to closing?! Either they did know and didn't speak up, or they didn't bother to check until the last minute. Neither is acceptable. In fact, it is completely unprofessional and disrespectful of everyone's time. What if we all punched a clock? What if our managers were not as understanding and flexible as they are? The process of buying/selling a house should not put your *job* at risk. (What do the lenders think would happen to the mortgage payments then!)

I cannot recall the last time I saw my husband flush red with anger from chin to hairline. It has been several years. I don't even want to imagine the color of my own face; something akin to "lobster," I imagine. A blood pressure check on either of us at that moment likely would have landed us in the hospital. I flatly told our agent that until she could personally confirm directly with the lawyer that the papers were in hand, in order, and ready to be signed, we would NOT be leaving work. If that means they end up having to wait for us to arrive, then that's what it means. We are tentatively scheduled for 2 PM tomorrow (gee, where have I heard that before).

I know I said it yesterday, but I made the mistake of believing 2 hours before it actually happened. Tomorrow, even if we walk in the door and sit down at the table with pen in hand, I absolutely will not believe it until we walk out the door with signed papers and a check.

Currently feeling: seriously ticked off

Unclosed

We didn't close on Thursday. Our agent called Wednesday night at 9:50 PM. We could not imagine who was calling so late, other than family, and they would only call so late if something was wrong, so my pulse was already elevated when I picked up. As the story goes, the buyer's lender called at 9PM the night before we were set to close to say that a receipt from the federal government (something about taxes) was insufficient proof of payment and that they required a copy of the canceled check. The receipt was submitted several days ago as proof of payment. She cannot control when the check is deposited or when the bank decides to process it. You asked her to show proof of payment and she did. If a receipt wasn't good enough, why didn't you say so several days ago when she submitted it?!! Why did you wait until less than 24 hours to go, and well after normal business hours in any US time zone, to speak up?

At the time (Wednesday night), we were told that the only thing holding it up was the canceled check. Once that was submitted, we would be ready to close. A copy of the check was submitted Friday morning. We were hopeful for a Monday closing. Instead, the lender (allegedly) said, "Okay, we can now send it to the underwriters. Not sure how long that will take. We do have other clients to take care of." Excuse me?! Either this is the most irresponsible lender on the planet who has no respect for anyone else's time and needs, or we're not getting the whole story (or the whole truth). At this point, I don't know or care which, I just want to close, preferably before the March mortgage payment is due!

Did I mention that we already had the utilities set to be turned off on Thursday? And that temps had the possibility of getting below freezing again, though things were expected to be warm over the weekend. We really don't want to go through the time and hassle (and extra fees) to have them turned back on, but we can't afford to risk the pipes bursting! Just such a royal PITA. Plus, if it gets pushed off into March, we'll be gone for a few days, making it that much harder to schedule and that much later into the month.

Our agent called this afternoon to say that closing is now scheduled for Wednesday at 2 PM. I'll believe it when I see it. At this point, I won't fully believe it until I walk out of the lawyer's office holding the papers that say we no longer own that house. Third time's the charm, right? (Knock wood.) Keep your fingers crossed, please.

Currently feeling: please let us close Wednesday

Old house under contract!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we have officially entered into a binding agreement to sell our old house, and if everything goes according to plan, we will be the proud owners of *only* one house come mid-February. It even falls under "almost too good to be true." Please continue to keep your fingers crossed, though, as things could still go wrong.

Currently feeling: cautiously optimistic

An offer we must refuse

I'm sure you can imagine my surprise yesterday when we received an offer on the old house via email. It was a little odd, though. Clearly, it had been filled out on the computer, which is fine, but they had left the price blank, and there was no signature page or reply by date (those are on the same sheet of paper), so we really didn't know what the offer was for. They also attached a pre-approval letter that showed them approved for quite a bit less than the list price, and rather less than we really want/need to get. We were intending to counter with something closer to what we want, but we couldn't until we got a complete offer package.

The official signed and complete offer came today. The offer is not even for the pre-approval amount, they're offering many thousand less! It's only about 80% of the list price. Not only is that less than what we owe, it also wouldn't cover any part of closing costs (which they asked for) or commission, which would all have to come out of our pockets. Not from our profits, of which there would be none (and we're prepared for that), but from our savings account. We're talking big bucks here.

We simply cannot accept. Knowing what they are pre-approved for, I'm not sure it's even worth countering. And to offer substantially less than that? They must be hoping we're desperate to sell, about to be foreclosed on, or something. We are not that desperate (yet). Give us about a year, and we'll reconsider, but right now, it would be foolish to take it. It's only been on the market about 10 days, and it is getting some traffic. We'll wait. And hope.

Currently feeling: hating this whole process

Anyone need a house?

We have a great 3-bedroom 2.5-bath starter house (finally!) officially on the market in metro Atlanta! Anyone interested?



Currently feeling: hoping for a quick sale

House warming gifts

We have received two wondeful house warming gifts since we moved in. I wanted to give a big public thank you to both of them.

First, we received this absolutely beautiful frame from our realtor Jayme. "I know you love your pictures." It is styled perfectly for our tastes and our home. I absolutely cannot wait to load it up with photos and get it hung.



Next, our "other realtor" Elizabeth, who saw my lament about moving on Twitter and helped us find Jayme in the first place. She sent these amazing cookies that are made by a local (to her) bakery in Arizona. Three each of 4 different flavors, and each cookie is about the size of my palm and over half an inch thick. Mm-mm-mm!!



I'm feeling more homey already.

Currently feeling: house-warmed

Survived the Move

Just wanted to pop by and say that we did survive the move. Our movers were exceptional! The move itself could not possibly have gone better.

Things since then, however, have not gone so well, but we're surviving. (Nothing earth-shattering or life threatening, just more frustrations.) If things ever calm down enough, I might have time to blog again. Not holding my breath, though. Maybe after Thanksgiving.

Currently feeling: just trying to keep going

The Ceiling is Falling

Previously on "As the Gastons' World Turns": We had the cable disconnected by the cable company twice in two days. That necessitated me working at Panera for 2 days rather than at home. I had gotten the Monday disconnect fixed Tuesday morning. DH was left to correct the Tuesday afternoon disconnect when he got home from work a little early. And now, our story continues....

DH called me at Panera around 3:30 Tuesday afternoon to say that our cable service had been restored. It was turned off in the system, not disconnected at the house, just as I suspected. I still had some work I needed to do, and Panera is between the current house and Luke's school. The new house is between Panera and Luke's school. So we made a plan. DH would load up the car with some packed boxes and drop them off at the new house. He would then pick up Luke and swing back by Panera to pick me up. We would go to dinner, come back for me to pick up my car, and head home. Sounds like a plan!

Except DH called me, seething, just after 4. "The ceiling in the basement bathroom has collapsed. Water is leaking from the Jack and Jill sink upstairs."

I can't make this stuff up, folks.

Smidgen of relevant background info: We had discovered on Monday that the county had turned the water on to the house, which was most efficient of them. DH had gone through the whole house checking each and every fixture to make sure they all worked. There was no sign of a leak or anything at that time. Now, less than 24 hours later, the ceiling had collapsed due to a leak, but there was no real flow of water coming from the ceiling, just a very small but steady drip every few seconds.

DH continued: "I'll call the plumber to see what to do now and when he can get here to look at it. Just wanted you to know. I'll call when I know something and we can figure out what to do about picking up Luke and dinner." I was completely numb. My brain just kept shouting "this cannot be happening!" The only consolation is that that sink had been repaired by the plumber the previous week, so most likely, all of the repairs for the damage would be covered by *them.* An inconvenience, surely, but not detrimental financially. My main fear was of exactly how much damage there was, which was a complete unknown at this point. I was also petrified that we would have to reschedule the move AGAIN! (Can you imagine having to reschedule disconnects with the cable company again? I may as well set up a permanent office at Panera!)

Here are some photos of the damage:


Is that a ceiling or a trap door?



Plumber arrived around 4:30, which was actually much quicker than we expected. Based on his inspection and subsequent discussion with his boss, this is what we theorize happened. During the repairs last week, a pipe broke off at the wall under the sinks of the Jack and Jill bathroom. We were having those pipes replaced due to rust, and that one had apparently rusted through to the point that it broke with only the slightest pressure applied during the repair. What should have happened is that the plumber should have stopped what he was doing and explained that they needed to go into the wall and replace the pipe at our expense. Yes, we would have been terribly unhappy about it, but we likely would have agreed. However, the plumber felt like he had broken it, so he should fix it, and at no cost to us. He cut a new length of pipe and soldered it to the pipe in the wall. Problem solved. Except there was a pinhole size gap in the solder, and once the water was turned back on by the county, it started to drip. Because the drip was small, however, it had not gotten to the point of showing up downstairs yet when DH had "made the rounds" Monday afternoon. It took an additional 24 hours of small but steady drips to collapse the ceiling.

Here's the good news (can you believe I just said that?!). #1: The water was dripping directly into the center of the shower in the basement bathroom, not onto the floor or down the walls, so there was no additional damage to the basement bathroom, just the walls and ceiling around the shower. #2: Due to the whole cable debacle, DH had gone in to work early, which had allowed for a trip to the new house on Tuesday that was not originally planned. Otherwise, it may have been Wednesday or Thursday before we discovered the problem. #3: Because the cable guy showed up early, DH was able to work the whole day Tuesday instead of just half a day. This meant that he could now take off all of Wednesday to meet the plumber at the new house to start the repairs. #4: Instead of having to go through the wall in the Jack and Jill bathroom, the pipe repair could now take place through the "convenient" new hole in the basement ceiling, so no additional demolition work would be required. #5: The manager was going to check on what to do about insurance covering the damage. We weren't sure if that meant he was checking to see how to go about handling it, or if that meant he was trying to see if they had to cover the damage. (Likely a bit of both.) However, from what DH overheard of the conversation with the manager, it sounded like the plumbing company would cover both the physical damage and the pipe repair to correct the problem.

So as bad as it was, it had all unfolded in about the best way possible. The plumber needed a special piece of equipment that he did not have with him. He would retrieve it Wednesday morning and meet DH at the house at 10 AM Wednesday morning.

[Quick aside: We ended up at Artuzzi's for dinner Tuesday night. They delivered my food and DH's food to the table, but no pizza for Luke. "Excuse me, he is supposed to have a cheese pizza." Yes, sir, but when we were removing the pizza from the oven, it slid off and hit the floor. We're making him another one right now. ::sigh:: Just the perfect end to the perfect day, no?]

There did end up being some negotiations Wednesday morning with the manager about who would cover what part of the repair. We finally agreed that we would pay for the cost of repairing the pipe that was leaking, since that is what should have happened in the first place. It was also a known fixed cost. The plumbing company would be responsible for the water damage, including any mold remediation and such. I still think they should have paid for all of it, but it was not worth the fight or the possible delay of the move (again). We were willing to pay for part of it just to have it over and done with as quickly as possible.

The water damage company arrived around noon with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos. They also checked every single spot that I was concerned about without us having to ask. DH was very impressed with their thoroughness. They removed all collapsed portions of the ceiling in the basement plus a little more to allow for good airflow up in there, hopefully to dry things out. They also took out the sheet rock around the shower that their moisture-checking thing said was too wet to be salvaged. They set up two huge dehumidifiers/heaters, one in each bathroom, and a fan in the basement that pointed straight up at the ceiling. They'll come back to check it on Friday (yes, the day we move), and we'll discuss any additional required measures (hopefully none) and when to have them come back and repair the walls/ceiling at that time. The water damage people finished up around 1:30, and the pipe repair was done by 2 (thanks to the basement ceiling access). Water to the house has been restored once again. Let's just hope it stays that way.

I am so ready to return to my boring life. Oh wait, I still have to move on Friday!! It's not over yet. Wish us *good* luck! At the rate we've been going lately, we're gonna need it.

P.S. The first person to say "what else can go wrong?" gets smacked!!

Currently feeling: trying so hard to hang in there

Cable cut-off deja vu

I feel like we're starting to turn into a "reality show." Every day is a new drama to contend with, some our own fault, some not. And I'm not even sure which category this one falls into.

As you all know by now, we were supposed to move last Friday, Nov 13. We did not. This change in plan necessitated phone calls to a couple of utilities to continue service at the current house until we do actually get to move on Friday, Nov 20. Now, we are not having the power, water, or gas cut off at the current house, but we were scheduled to have the phone and cable service disconnected. Remember, I work at home, so external communication capabilities are required.

MONDAY, 2 PM

Monday afternoon, just before 2 PM, the television suddenly froze. A message box popped up on the screen that said something to the effect of "One moment please, this channel is currently unavailable. If the problem persists, please contact [cable company]." About this time, I also heard the unmistakable "ding" of my work computer disconnecting from the secure network. No cable TV, no cable internet. They've been doing a *ton* of utility work lately, and it has been affecting both my cable and my phone service off and on for over a month now. Cable interruption usually takes one of two forms: either it's back in under 5 minutes, or it is out 30-60 minutes. I kept trying to reconnect every 10 minutes or so. After 2.5 hours, I finally call it in.

There is no widespread outage reported in my area. I ask to be press buttons until I am connected with someone in the television department. The have record of us pushing out the new connection at the new house, but it still shows us scheduled for disconnection of service that day (Monday). However, she swears up and down that no one has been sent to the house, so we should still have service. I find that hard to believe, but okay. She changes our disconnect date to Nov 23, so that should prevent them from actually doing the physical disconnect (that I still think has already happened, but she still says no it hasn't). She then transfers me to the internet department to see what they can see. They, too, report that no one has been sent to the house, so our service should still be active. "It must be a repair problem. We can have someone there tomorrow during an 11AM-2PM window."

So let me get this straight. #1: You are asking me to believe that even though your own system says service was scheduled to be terminated today (even though DH swears he had them change the cut-off date when they changed the new service date), just because your computer does not show the work as done, you are absolutely certain the disconnect did not happen? Rebuttal: I've issued enough work tickets in my time to know that just because the ticket does not show complete yet does NOT mean that the work hasn't been done. It just means that they have not yet had a chance to close the ticket in the system. #2: You are also asking me to believe that it is sheer coincidence that the day your computer says we are scheduled to have service terminated at the current house is the same day I have a mid-afternoon service failure at my house that will require a repair? Rebuttal: I will admit we have had rather a bad run of luck recently, and while not impossible, I find that theory highly improbable. Guess we'll see.

In the meantime, I am very limited in my job functionality because I cannot "see" any of the systems I need to do my job properly. We were also going to miss the semi-finals of Dancing With the Stars which, though not life altering, is rather frustrating! I actually went to Panera after dinner to download any of my email from that afternoon and handle any big problems that may have come up since my "loss of signal" at 2. When I got home at 9:30, I filled in hubby on all the details, including one I had neglected to mention earlier. Not only is our service out, it also will not allow us to access our DVR. We usually have access to recorded programs, even if the incoming signal is gone. This, to me, is a clear sign of a service issue. It *could* have been that our actual cable box was bad, but that wouldn't explain the lack of internet. DH decides to call again, just to see if the ticket was worked today and input in the system sometime after 4:30 and is *now* showing up on their screens. Nope, a 3rd person swears that the disconnect has not been worked, so it must be a repair issue. If you say so. I just hope that if the physical disconnect *has* been worked, whoever you are sending on Tuesday is not "just a repair guy" but can also reconnect us. If not, and we have to wait for another service call, I'm going to be really ticked.

[Side note: We ate dinner out, taking separate cars. I picked up Luke in my car and met DH at the restaurant. DH took Luke home in his car while I went to Panera. Only after I got home around 9:30 did I realize that I had Luke's kitty in my car! DH knew how upset I was and how much I needed to get some work done, so he didn't even call me when he realized it, he just put Luke to bed and promised to bring up Kitty as soon as I got home. I felt like a terrible mom! But all things considered, Luke handled the whole thing very well.]

TUESDAY MORNING

Tuesdays at work are very busy for me, but DH has taken off so much unexpected time off work of late, we came to a compromise. I would take Luke to school, then go to the McDonalds just up the street that advertises Wi-Fi. I would work there until about 9:30, then be home by 10 in case the cable fixer guy came early (unlikely, but if I didn't get home until 10:30, I was convinced I would have missed him, simply given our luck of late). DH would go into work an hour early and take a half day off, coming home to relieve me for the "cable watch" so I could go back to some Wi-Fi spot and continue working. Great plan, right? Except that McDonalds does not have *free* Wi-Fi! By the time I finally got connected enough and then read all the gobbledy-gook and realized they were charging (not a lot, but still!), I would have had to purchase a 2-hour block of time and only get to use 45 minutes of it. I packed up and went home. My co-workers were kind enough to supply me with phone numbers of some people I needed to contact, and I did the best I could while I was home feeling completely disconnected from the world.

Good thing I went home! At 10 AM sharp, the phone rang. It was the cable guy; he was sitting in my driveway. (Remember, our assigned service window was 11AM-2PM. Score one for me for being prepared!) He comes to the front door with several bits of testing equipment. I begin explaining the problem, including the part about having to move the move and the computer still saying we were supposed to be disconnected on Nov 16, but that 3 different people during 2 different calls have *sworn* it was not disconnected at the house. He turned and walked right back out the front door and looked across the street to where our cable connects to the pole outside. "It is physically disconnected. I can see it from here." [insert mental string of color metaphors here] "Let me go see if I can reconnect it without having to call a service crew with a cherry picker." The cable was connected a good 15-20 feet up the pole, and he only had a ladder. A big ladder, but still. I was *terrified* watching him go up there, but he did it, which I most sincerely appreciated. By the time he gave me the thumbs up, my television and internet were both working. I thanked him profusely, and he left. I called my husband, since it was only about 10:20 AM, hoping he hadn't left work yet. "The cable is back. Don't come home. Stay and work." Okay, he said, but since he came in early, he would be home a bit early, probably just after 3. Great! Problem solved.

Or so I thought.

TUESDAY, 1:45 PM

I've had my cable back for over 3 hours now. I am typing away on an email, trying to get it out before my 2PM conference call, with the television on in the background. Suddenly, the TV noise cuts out. At nearly the same instant, my work laptop boots me off the network. "It's like deja vu all over again." I am now steaming mad! I glance outside at the street, just to make sure it was not another physical disconnect, but I already have a suspicion as to what is going on. Even though she had changed the disconnect date in the computer to Nov 23, I was willing to bet money that the message had not been received by the service department, so they had cut off the actual service (not physically, but via computer), since the physical disconnect was done the previous day. Again, having worked in this type of job long enough, I have no doubt that when the guy issued the "complete" on the physical disconnect, it triggered some sort of work ticket/work queue to the service people to cut off the actual service, so even though the date was changed in the computer, the disconnect ticket completion notice trumped what was done Monday. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, so to speak.

The problem was, I had 15 minutes to be on a conference call, and as of 1:45 when I lost service, I had not yet received the spreadsheet I needed! I threw all of my stuff into a bag and raced to Panera, hoping to arrive in time to set up and download email before the call started. I also called my husband. I was practically spitting the words. "We have no cable television or internet." I thought they reconnected us this morning, he says. "THEY DID!! I bet they cut off our service in the computer once they were notified that the physical disconnect was done. I am leaving the house to go to Panera right now for my 2PM call. You call [cable company] when you get home." I dialed in to the conference bridge as soon as I parked the car, right at 2PM. By the time they got to my first project (3rd or 4th on the list), I was powered up and looking at the spreadsheet. DH called around 3:30 to report that my theory was correct and all service had been restored. Whew!



I cannot thank Panera enough for offering free Wi-Fi!! (And quite comfy chairs with mini-desks and near floor outlets.) They really saved me two days in a row. Funny how I used computers for a good 15 years (1983-1998) either before the internet existed (to the public) or without an internet connection at my dwelling and found computers both useful and fun. Even after I first got online, I really only had access at the college computer lab (no internet in the dorm back then), yet my dorm room computer was tremendously helpful. Since then, we've had a home internet connection for 10 years, and I now consider my laptop practically useless without an internet connection. My my, how things change.

Believe it or not, our trials and tribulations for Tuesday were not yet over, but that completes the cable debacle portion of the program. I'll save the next chapter in my tale of woe for a separate post.

Currently feeling: ready to work from home (not Panera)

Potty humor, but I'm not laughing

Oh yes, folks, there is yet more plumbing drama to document. When we last left our heroes, they were waiting to get the plumbing repairs completed so that they could apply to have the water turned back on at the new house. You may recall that the county turned off the water while we were waiting for our special order toilet to ship from Louisiana. Wednesday actually went pretty well with the repairs, but only 3 of the 4 toilets got installed Wednesday. The "special toilet" did arrive during mid-afternoon, but there just wasn't time to get to it. Since the water was already off, there was no great rush, so we told the plumber it was fine for him to go home and complete the work Thursday (he had been out most of the previous night on an emergency call).

Thursdays are simply crazy for me at work, so DH took half a day off and agreed to meet the plumber back at the house at 11:30. Everyone was on time, and the plumber set about unboxing the very large box that UPS had delivered the previous day. Then DH hears him call out, "we have a problem." As most of you probably know (though I did not until we started down this road), most toilets come with the bowl and tank as separate pieces. You can buy one-piece toilets, but that is not the standard configuration. I'm sure you can guess by now what I'm about to say.

There was only a bowl in the gigantic box, no tank. It had not occurred to my husband or the plumber to check the box that was delivered because it was easily large enough to hold both pieces. The sticker on the outside of the box said "1 of 1," so there was absolutely no reason to suspect anything was missing. When he texted me the news, all I could think was "tell me you are joking." But it was no joke, and I was not laughing. "They WILL overnight a tank at their expense, or there will be bloodshed" was my text response. DH set about calling the store and prepared to kick butt. I, on the other hand, reached the end of my strength and had a minor meltdown (at home, alone). I sat on the sofa and had a good cry for about 5 minutes. Loud boo-hoos, body racking sobs, the works. Then my work phone started ringing, and I had to be a big girl and get with it.

DH was smart to not keep me updated in real time for the rest of the story. I was upset and angry enough as it was. Had he kept me current on events as they unfolded, I likely would have snapped. Not finding the people on the phone to be very helpful (he could not get connected to someone in the actual plumbing department, despite several promises of "I'll transfer you"), DH went into the store himself. He ended up speaking with the original guy who helped us, though not the guy we actually placed the order with. When he pulled it up in the system, he says "oh, the tank is backordered." And you were going to tell us this precisely WHEN?!! They were ordered on Friday, they knew we were in a hurry, and we called Monday to make sure everything had shipped as promised. No one ever said a word about anything being backordered. "We don't know when they will come in. Do you want us to order a different toilet?" No, we can't wait several more days for that. Try again.

So he checks the part numbers. Turns out, there is a toilet in stock at the store that has the same tank part number. "You can buy that toilet, use the tank, then when your backordered tank comes in, you can return it." I THINK NOT!! That *may* have been a viable option if you had told us back on *Friday* that the tank for the one we wanted was backordered. But now, especially after we verified the shipping on Monday? Absolutely unacceptable!! DH looks at the guy very seriously and says, "No. I am not buying anything today. You will open the box and give me the tank I need. You do *not* want to have to speak to my wife about this."

They gave it to him.

The tank fit fine, and is now installed. Plumbing was finished late Thursday afternoon, complete with water upgrade certification. DH was first in line at the county water department Friday morning. "Service to your home will be restored sometime between Monday and Friday next week." Could you possibly be any less specific? But it's done, and supposedly, we will have water next week. And if the county doesn't get it turned back on by then, as promised, I think I might explode.

Are we there yet?

Currently feeling: absolutely frustrated

Moving the Move

Well, we will not be moving this coming Friday, Nov 13, as planned. Given all of the insane craziness of the last 2-3 weeks, that's probably not a bad thing in the long run. It's just frustrating, especially since it is largely our own fault. We did not get the water upgrades completed at the house in time to simply transfer the water service from the old owner to us. (I would like to point out that I was in charge of scheduling movers, DH was in charge of scheduling plumbing.) We (ahem) did not even get a plumbing assessment until last Friday, though we thought we had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done from our very thorough home inspection. Turns out, a few things were not mentioned, and there are several additional "recommended repairs" that it would be easier to go ahead and do while we are replacing the toilets (which we already knew was required).

The original plan was to have the assessment done Friday morning, purchase toilets Friday afternoon, have repairs done Saturday (no additional charge with this company for weekend work; part of why we went with them), and have water transferred on Monday. We wanted to be sure and transfer the water before it was cut off, since it can take "up to 5 business days" to turn it back on if it has been turned off. The kicker is that we didn't know exactly when the water would be shut off. We figured it was sometime around Wednesday of this week, give or take a day. The seller had agreed to Nov 7 in the contract, but he mentioned at closing that he had extended it into this week "sometime" to try and give us enough time to get everything changed out, which was very nice of him. Only he couldn't remember exactly when it was. But we (ahem) figured if we had the repairs done Saturday, we could take the certification over Monday and have service transferred by Tuesday at the latest. No problem. Except that one of the toilets had to be special ordered because the house is older and modern standard toilets are too big (deep) to fit in the master bath! And it is shipping from Louisiana (that's about 550 miles (890 km) away, for those unfamiliar with USA geography). It won't be here until Wednesday.

Great. Now we're racing the clock. Plumber has promised he can have all the work done Wednesday so we can go to the water department on Thursday. You can see where I'm going, can't you? When DH dropped by the house this afternoon to try and change out the shower heads, the water had already been cut off. If we'd had the repairs done Saturday, we might have made it. Instead, we have no idea when they will be able to turn it back on, even if we do go in first thing Thursday. It's possible we could have it back on by Friday, but Monday or Tuesday next week is more likely.

Now I don't know about you, but I don't really want to move into a house with no running water, especially not with a 5-year-old. That just seems like a very very bad plan. And knowing how government departments work in general, I highly doubt they will have the water back on in less than 1 business day. We could always go ahead with the move but still sleep at our current house, but do we really want to spend all weekend sleeping on the floor in an empty house? I don't. My parents were also supposed to come this weekend, but with everything else going on with their parents (see yesterday's post), they really need to chill for the weekend and relax, not come up here unpacking boxes. The logical course of action is to delay the move. It will also give us extra time to do all those little things (like ceiling fans and such at the new house) instead of having to bust our rumps to get done before Friday. We called the movers, and it was absolutely no problem to shift it out a week. "It happens all the time." So as much as I hate to put it off for another week, in other ways, I am relieved to have some of the pressure off. With everything else going on, I was really starting to feel like I was going to crack. New move date: November 20. See you there!

Currently feeling: bumped out, but not all that upset

When one house closes

It's done! We now officially own two homes! Um, yay? LOL That was never the plan, but there was just too much to do with closing only 30 days after finalizing the contract on the new house to get the current house on the market in the same 30 days. Had we known not having our current house listed would have caused the underwriters so much heartburn, we never would have waited! But no one said, "you know, the loan people will freak out if you don't have your current house listed yet." (If they had, we would have listed it.) No, they waited until just a couple of days before closing to let us know they were skittish. We'll put the current house on the market before Thanksgiving (and we sent them something that said so, in writing, *twice*).

The mortgage people were a pain for a large portion of the last two weeks. Once it left the hands of the local guy and went up to the "official" people at corporate, things went downhill. They were not the most organized with the paperwork, which amazes me since they pretty much handle paperwork for a living. I know our agent faxed them a copy of our contract 3 different times, including the day before closing. We had to re-fax some papers the day before, and sign and re-fax something (that they explicitly told me that very afternoon we did NOT need to resign) at 8:30 PM the night before closing.

Closing was supposed to be at 1 PM at the lawyer's office. They promised to have us the amount we needed for the cashier's check sometime in the 9-10 AM time frame the following morning, and they assured us the papers would be to the lawyer in plenty of time. At 10:45, we still didn't have the papers to the lawyer (for our 1 PM appointment!), nor did they have the final amount we needed, but they gave us an estimate. We ended up padding that number by an additional 10% or so, since they won't take cash or a personal check for the difference if you are short. And *then* they caused our actual closing appointment to be delayed by 2 hours because they could not get the papers to the lawyer in time to review it before our scheduled appointment (hint: 15 minutes is not enough time to review that volume of legal paperwork!!). They wanted to move it out to 4 PM, but that was unacceptable since we had to pick up Luke at school. We have not been happy with the loan people at all, and they will not get a good review from us on the survey they said was coming. I won't mention the name here, but you can contact me if you need/want to know. We were just very annoyed, to say the least.

Once we finally got to closing around 3:15 PM (the lawyer's 2 PM appointment ran over), everything went great. I think we were done in about 40 minutes, which still gave us enough time to pick up Luke. Not the best day, but it's all done, and we have the key to prove it!



Currently feeling: like we have one house too many

Full House

So hi there! Kinda went into silent mode for a bit, sorry about that. I have a good reason, though.



We bought a house! Yes, we bought a house. Yes, we'd only been looking for a couple of weeks. No, I'm not kidding. Why do people keep asking me that? LOL Ready for the full story? Well, you're going to get it anyway. It's my blog, and I'll blab if I want to. ;-)

Friday morning, I saw an update from the automatic internet search our realtor set up for us. Any time there is a new house that meets our criteria, or if one of the current houses changes status or price, we get an email with updates. Love it! It also allows you to categorize the listings (Like It, Possibility, Don't Like It) and leave notes about your thoughts on the property. When I read the description for the newly listed house, it was a definite possibility, but there were no pictures yet, so it was hard to say for sure. Our agent likes to view the listings before her clients do to see if there is anything to obviously make the house a "no" so she doesn't waste our time looking at houses that aren't suitable. Especially for this one with no pictures, she wanted to check it out first. She said she would swing by Friday afternoon, and if she thought it looked good, we could go see it over the weekend sometime. Works for me.

Imagine our surprise when the phone rang at 3:30 Friday afternoon with a call from our agent. "You have to come see this house. Right now, this afternoon, if you can. I think you're going to love it. They're also having an open house on Sunday, and I don't think it is going to last very long after that, so you'd better see it now." The house is super-close to Luke's school/daycare, so that actually worked out great; we just stopped by on our way to pick him up.

She wasn't kidding. It was a great house! Very nice white brick on the outside, larger on the inside (2400 sf) than it looks from the outside, plus a huge "partial" (1200 sf) basement. The kitchen has been completely redone, and all of the rooms have been recently painted. My only complaints are the somewhat out of date bathrooms and the lack of a garage, but otherwise, the house is wonderful. We debated over the weekend, we went to the open house on Sunday to see it again, and we made an offer Sunday night.

There was a bit of (unnecessary, IMO) drama with the back and forth, but in the end, we came to an agreement. The house checked out quite well with the inspector (even after all of the Atlanta flooding; both current house and new house are fine), and it has also been appraised for more than the sale price, so we should be good to go, barring any truly odd financial thing coming up (that I can't even imagine at this point). Closing is October 29, and we take possession 3 days later. We'll move in sometime in November (still working on that point).

When we agreed to clean up the current house and put it on the market the week after Luke's birthday party, that did *not* account for the many days spent, you know, buying a house! That definitely was not on the agenda and put a real crimp in our cleaning time. So we've put off listing the current house for another week. Yes, we bought a house before putting this one on the market, and no, purchasing the new house is not contingent on selling this house. Why does everyone keep asking that?! LOL But it will be up for sale soon enough, and if we're lucky, we'll get it sold before the end of the year. That would be nice. Keep your fingers crossed!

Currently feeling: on the move

Whiter shade of pale

Actually, it's more of an off-white, though various companies call it Mystique, Foxtrot, or Brandied Pear. Can you tell I am trying to match paint colors to my existing walls? We need to do some spackling and touch-up painting, but we do not have the original wall paint used by the previous owner (not sure it would still be usable, even if we did). The good news is that the entire house is painted the same color, so we only have to get one color right, not several. The bad news is that there are about a bazillion different shades of white/off-white. Can't we all just pick one, call it cream or beige, and be done with it? Sheesh!

We finally settled on Foxtrot, which just makes me giggle. I've been aware that the Foxtrot is a ballroom dance since I was a kid, but thanks to Dancing With the Stars, I now know what that dance looks like! I want to go around telling people "yes, our walls are painted with Foxtrot" so our house will seem more refined and glamorous. It is not an exact match, of course, and I'm trying not to be terribly frustrated. And after discussing it with my BB, it was mentioned that if it has been several years since the house was painted (at least 8, for sure), then even having the original color may not prevent spot touch-ups from showing due to both wear and fading. I spot tested a couple of places, and freaked out when it was so much lighter. It does seem to be darkening some as it dries. We'll see how it does. (BTW, I really like the Brandied Pear color (too "warm" to match the current walls), and I may well consider it for a paint color in the new house, assuming we ever find a new house, but that's a different post!)

Some other points to mention, before anyone tries to leave suggestions (which are much appreciated!). No, we can't just paint the wall that needs to be fixed. Nearly every wall has some sort of gouge or nick in it, so we would effectively have to paint the whole house, which A) would be a complete pain in the.... and B) we have a 2-story foyer where the stairs are, and of course the stair walls need patching in places, so we would have to hire someone for that, which is money we would like to avoid spending if at all possible. Yes, we could try to get a different color, but the tiny sample cans (which I think is really all the paint we need) only come in satin finish, and we need flat, which is only available in quart size (or larger) and costs $10 a pop. Cheaper than hiring someone to paint the whole house, yes, but still not cheap if we need 4-5 different colors to try and get it right. ::sigh:: Again, trying not to get frustrated. Hopefully, it will be passable when it dries. Wish us luck on the great paint adventure!

Currently feeling: painterly

The Twitter Genie

I have decided that Twitter is my new best friend. It's like having a genie; make a wish and someone will likely have the answer. Yesterday, out of frustration, I posted the following tweet: "Need to find a realtor. Hate cold-calling for stuff like this, but don't know what else to do. Moving sucks." Not language I typically use, I know. I was in a grumpy mood. I also decided that Thursday was the day to check out various Twitter tools for the first time, so that I could see any @ replies of people who I was not yet following. (I didn't realize until this week that even if someone did a direct @ reply to me, I wouldn't see it on the Twitter website if I wasn't following them!) I checked out Twhirl and TweetDeck, and decided on TweetDeck. Got it installed, opened it up, and there in my "mentions" column was someone I do not know from Arizona responding to my tweet and asked if I was looking to buy or sell my home. It was actually a little creepy.

I checked out her profile. @ECNewlin was from Arizona, so I didn't think she could help me, but I responded just to be polite, informing her that we were looking to do both, but in the Atlanta area. She offered to run our location and criteria through their relocation service and get a name of a local agent to help us. Um, okay. My husband wanted to know how this was better than cold calling, since we still have no idea if this person is any good. True, but to me it is better because A) this company is actively looking for our business, which I consider a good thing in a realtor, and B) well, quite frankly, because they're calling me and I don't have to call them. Call me lazy! I mean, the worst that could happen would be that I don't like the person I'm referred to, and I can move on.

Around 10:30, Amber from Century21 in Arizona called to ask me about our house and to inquire about my desires for an agent. I explained that we wanted someone who could represent us as both buyers and sellers (one person is just easier on us at the moment), and we definitely need someone familiar with this area. Amber said someone would contact me before the end of the day, and sure enough, a couple of hours later, my phone rang again with yet another number I did not recognize.

Jayme Gooding of Coldwell Banker (they are corporate sisters of Century21) was on the other end of the line. She was pleasant and cheerful, and *clearly* knew the area where we live. She said she even looked at some of the houses behind ours when she was looking to buy her own house. I enjoyed speaking with her on the phone, and we set up an initial meeting for Friday. DH and I both liked her immediately. We looked over the house, and I was terrified she would say that we needed $20,000 worth of "sprucing up" to be able to get a decent price for the house. Nope! She did agree that we should go ahead and replace the vinyl, but other than that and doing some general yard clean up (well, and major house cleaning, which A) we already knew, and B) is "free" because it will be DH and me doing it ourselves), she thinks we should hold off on any other expensive items and see what kind of feedback we get. She will do the research on the local comps and will call us next week to discuss pricing. We've set a target of listing the house the Monday after Luke's birthday party. That's about 3 weeks from now. It is going to be a lot of work, but I do think we can do it. Advanced apologies for what will likely be more than one "house freak out" post in the coming few weeks, and incessant house chatter on Twitter and Facebook.

So, wish granted! Due to a confluence of somewhat random events (grumpy mood, Twitter post, happening to install TweetDeck that same day otherwise I would not have seen the initial response to my complaint), we now have a realtor, and I didn't even have to call anyone. They called me! I wonder what I should wish for next? Perhaps I should complain about having a dead yard....

Currently feeling: wish granted!

A-(house)-hunting we will go

As you may have guessed from some of the other posts made recently, we are preparing to move. Not too far. In fact, we are hoping to stay in the same county (given that there are 159 of them in Georgia, that's a pretty small geographic area). We simply cannot send Luke to the local schools. The day he started Pre-K, I decided to take a really good look at them. We knew they were not good, but in case we are unable to sell this house in the next year, I was hoping they would be tolerable at least for him to attend Kindergarten. I thought I was going to hyperventilate or throw up upon reviewing the local elementary school's stats. I believe the phrase "over my dead body" came to mind. No no no no no!

Then the great private school hunt started, which was almost just as bad. First off, who the heck has an extra $18,000 a year?! Holey moley. And most of the "affordable ones" were very much too much religious for my tastes. I chatted with a friend who used to teach at one of the most prestigious private schools in the city, and her perspective really helped a lot. She pretty much confirmed all of my worst fears about those upper-crust schools and made me feel much better (and less guilty) about deciding against them. One of the biggest stand-outs was the knowledge that Luke would have been one of the poorest children at that school. Excuse me? We are NOT poor. We're not rich, IMO, and I'm not even sure I would classify us as well-off (depends on your perspective, I suppose), but not poor by any stretch of the imagination, and the last thing I want for my son is the warped perception that we are. (Well, I don't know, after taking another $18K out of our pockets every year for private school, we might be poor!) The more I read, the more uncomfortable I got, plus the insane amounts of money, and I just couldn't bring myself around to the idea that private school was a good choice for him.

I was freaking out pretty seriously by this point. Public schools rotten plus can't afford private school; combined with the stress of L's first day of school and taking Tigger to the vet to see if she could have her tube removed, and it was pretty ugly for a few hours. But, my wonderful and amazing friends all managed to talk me down from the ledge and give me some good tips, and several put me in touch with some of their friends who might be able to answer some of my questions about the local public schools.

So now we're back to the great public school hunt. There really are some good ones once I started looking, and some of the better ones are even in our county! We do have school choice, but there is no guarantee that you will get in to the school of your choice (since everyone else likely wants into those same schools, too). The simplest solution is to move into the district we want. It is something we have been meaning to do for over a year anyway. We were just getting ready to start preparing when I had the whole mishap with changing contracts at work and lost 3 months of pay. Trying to get everything reset and resettled with that took up most of the time we had, plus in all honesty, it fell down on the priority list a bit. We got caught up in our daily routine lives and forgot to look ahead, so now we're playing catch-up a bit. Naturally, there aren't a whole lot of houses for sale in the good school districts. I'm sure part of that is our timing. School just started, so anyone hoping to move over the summer may well have taken their house back off the market, plus anyone wanting to move into the district did so over the summer and likely picked up most of the then-available houses. Result: slim pickings in August. We might do better towards the spring, but that is going to seriously stress me out if we have to wait that long to start looking at houses. So we'll look now, see what we find, and hope we find something good before the spring madness starts. I'd really like to be moved in the next 6 months, if possible.

Then there is the whole nightmare process of trying to get this house ready to sell. Ha! It really is a mess, with stuff everywhere and flooring/carpet that needs replacing and new paint needed nearly everywhere and a practically dead yard in front and back. It's going to be an uphill battle, but the sooner we start, the better off we'll be. We now have a storage room that is well on its way to being full. We hope to have things better enough, inside at least, to have a realtor come take a look after Labor Day to see what our next steps should be. We also need to start getting our financials together to pre-qualify for a new mortgage to see if we can even afford to live in those districts. The house prices that we are starting to consider "reasonable" are quite scary, and running the preliminary numbers, I'm pretty sure we'll qualify for that amount (likely more, but we don't want to be mortgaged up to our eyeballs!). I know people do this everyday, and if they can do it, then surely we can do it. I'm still marvelling at *how* they all do it and stay sane, though. Are we having fun yet?

Currently feeling: tired of house stuff already