Thursday, April 7, 2011
Early Pictures
Posted the floor plan yesterday. Probably should post a few pics to go with it. More to come when I have time.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Floor Plan
I don't think I ever posted this.
The area in the top left corner is actually a deck, which will soon (hopefully) be turned into a screened porch. Out to the left of that will be the new deck.
The area in the top left corner is actually a deck, which will soon (hopefully) be turned into a screened porch. Out to the left of that will be the new deck.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
We Have Internet
The cable guy came yesterday. I had arranged to go ahead and get internet turned on prior to activating phone and TV. Internet isn't truly required at this stage either except for the fact that my nephew Jeff is coming up later this week to configure all the network stuff. It will be easier to test everything with Internet working.
When the cable guy came to understand the scope of what he had to do he looked bummed. And I don't blame him. It was not going to be an easy install. At one point he said he had to return to his previous job to get a tool he left there. I figured he was probably headed back to the office to resign!
But he returned and dutifully crawled through the mud under the deck to get it done. He did sorta' take the easy way out by splicing into a cable that had already been run from under the deck to the mechanical room. We'll see how that works out. So far it works okay.
One more little thing checked off the list.
When the cable guy came to understand the scope of what he had to do he looked bummed. And I don't blame him. It was not going to be an easy install. At one point he said he had to return to his previous job to get a tool he left there. I figured he was probably headed back to the office to resign!
But he returned and dutifully crawled through the mud under the deck to get it done. He did sorta' take the easy way out by splicing into a cable that had already been run from under the deck to the mechanical room. We'll see how that works out. So far it works okay.
One more little thing checked off the list.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Meanwhile, there is a Technology Side...
Haven't talked about this much yet. In parallel with all of the thinking and changes relating to the physical properties of the house we (or in this case I) have also been wrangling with what to do from a technology point of view. There are two primary concerns:
These two benign and normal sounding factors produce a nearly endless array of choices and technological challenges.
Take television. What is television these days? There are shows, movies, documentaries or educational programming, sports, and news. How is this media delivered?
Todays reality is that you need some combination both paradigms, and each of these two methodologies requires different infrastructure to pull off effectively. They each have different nuances to getting the most out of them, etc. As it stands right now it's necessary to build out the infrastructure on both fronts and then add hardware to integrate it all together. Further, even within something as straight forward as broadcast content there are several choices, each with their own pros and cons. And what is the best appliance for watching (or possibly even recording) internet content? There are a surprising array of choices. None an obvious winner on all fronts. Combine that with the fact that we hardly ever want to watch the same things, we (as mentioned above) need to be able to deliver any of this content to any of several screens in the house, in high definition, 5.1 surround (at least in a couple of places), with an ability to watch what we want when we want. And we need to a simple way to control all of this hardware. Wives aren't interested in patch bays, source select buttons, etc. And frankly neither am I for this application. We need to be able to pick up a remote in any room of the house and put what we want on the nearest screen with a couple of button pushes.
On to computers. We have several, plus iPhones and iPads, and who knows what the future holds on this front. Suffice to say we need robust networking throughout the house. We need access from anywhere. The house is big enough that one wireless router isn't going to cut it. We need to integrate a few of them. There are different speeds and formats one needs to be compatible with. And I like to provide separate wireless access for guests and their equipment (so that doubles virtually everything). Backing up of data on all machines is crucial. No excuse anymore for losing data when a hard drive goes belly up. Need a central storage location for items that may commonly be used on multiple computers such as music and video libraries, accounting software, photos, etc. Need a music and video delivery infrastructure. And all of this, at least where it crosses the moving line into entertainment, needs to be integrated with the A/V and remote control infrastructure.
All of this stuff is quite doable, especially since I have access to people who know a lot about it. The challenge is in the decisions pertaining to the best way to go about it. It's easy to say, "just run this wire there and you're all set." But in an existing house you can't always do that, so other creative solutions are needed. It all needs to be implemented in a way that's simple enough to be robust, but still flexible. And you need to be able to get in and make changes as technology and preferences change.
Had enough yet? There's more, but I'll spare you for now.
- We both like to watch TV. Just not the same things. I like sports. She likes....well, let's just say she likes a lot of shows that I suspect many of my friend's wives like. We need the ability to watch any of a few sources on any or all TV's in the house. And it needs to be easy.
- We both use computers a lot. We need ready access from wherever we are in the house, or even immediately outside the house. These computer systems need a robust backup architecture, etc.
These two benign and normal sounding factors produce a nearly endless array of choices and technological challenges.
Take television. What is television these days? There are shows, movies, documentaries or educational programming, sports, and news. How is this media delivered?
- Old School: Pay the cable or satellite provider to beam you content.
- Pros: Generally reliable delivery of content with a known standard of quality (personal tastes notwithstanding).
- Cons: Expensive, somewhat inflexible, requires additional hardware to be able to watch content at convenient times (more expense), have to "deal" with stupid companies (providers).
- New School: Get it on the internet.
- Pros: Watch what you want when you want it. Don't pay for anything you don't want.
- Cons: Can still get expensive if you watch a lot. Quality often not as good as broadcast. Reliability also not perfect. Can actually be harder to skip the commercials than with a DVR/broadcast system. Many shows (especially sports) still unavailable.
Todays reality is that you need some combination both paradigms, and each of these two methodologies requires different infrastructure to pull off effectively. They each have different nuances to getting the most out of them, etc. As it stands right now it's necessary to build out the infrastructure on both fronts and then add hardware to integrate it all together. Further, even within something as straight forward as broadcast content there are several choices, each with their own pros and cons. And what is the best appliance for watching (or possibly even recording) internet content? There are a surprising array of choices. None an obvious winner on all fronts. Combine that with the fact that we hardly ever want to watch the same things, we (as mentioned above) need to be able to deliver any of this content to any of several screens in the house, in high definition, 5.1 surround (at least in a couple of places), with an ability to watch what we want when we want. And we need to a simple way to control all of this hardware. Wives aren't interested in patch bays, source select buttons, etc. And frankly neither am I for this application. We need to be able to pick up a remote in any room of the house and put what we want on the nearest screen with a couple of button pushes.
On to computers. We have several, plus iPhones and iPads, and who knows what the future holds on this front. Suffice to say we need robust networking throughout the house. We need access from anywhere. The house is big enough that one wireless router isn't going to cut it. We need to integrate a few of them. There are different speeds and formats one needs to be compatible with. And I like to provide separate wireless access for guests and their equipment (so that doubles virtually everything). Backing up of data on all machines is crucial. No excuse anymore for losing data when a hard drive goes belly up. Need a central storage location for items that may commonly be used on multiple computers such as music and video libraries, accounting software, photos, etc. Need a music and video delivery infrastructure. And all of this, at least where it crosses the moving line into entertainment, needs to be integrated with the A/V and remote control infrastructure.
All of this stuff is quite doable, especially since I have access to people who know a lot about it. The challenge is in the decisions pertaining to the best way to go about it. It's easy to say, "just run this wire there and you're all set." But in an existing house you can't always do that, so other creative solutions are needed. It all needs to be implemented in a way that's simple enough to be robust, but still flexible. And you need to be able to get in and make changes as technology and preferences change.
Had enough yet? There's more, but I'll spare you for now.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Now for the Hard Part
We own another house. Now what? Now we have to make all of the changes we want. This has been in the background from the minute we started seriously considering this house last year -- we knew we'd need to make changes to it to get it where we want it, and felt we could afford to make most of them based on getting it at a low price. Once we had a closing date we turned up the heat on sorting out some of these issues, but alas we never got to any decisions about anything. Access to the house was difficult and inconvenient, which slowed things down. Liane was, as is often the case, consumed by her work at the school, and I had some big distractions/projects going on as well. Well, that stuff doesn't matter anymore (as if it ever did). We simply have to make decisions about floor surfaces, wall colors, bathroom remodeling, screened porch, countertops, new door openings, lighting, bar in the basement, and other less major ones. Several of these, particularly the bathroom and porch each require many difficult decisions before they can get moving. It's daunting.
While most people complain about the hassles of dealing with contractors and workers many of them actually enjoy the decision making part. It's an opportunity to "play house" in a way. They like to go and look at materials and dream about what they can do.I don't.
I have somewhat picky (and unusual) taste and I recognize the difficulty in picking out many disparate materials that are to come together to make something really nice looking -- elegant, but contemporary without being trendy. It's a lot of pressure to get it right. These changes we're making (most of them anyway) are for all practical purposes permanent, and they are EXPENSIVE.
I've already looked at so many pieces of wood and granite I'm about to lose my mind. And that's just for the kitchen. We've only just begun to get started on the bathroom. We're still trying to nail the layout. Haven't even gotten to materials yet. And the porch? We're miles from having all that nailed down. Other things mentioned above haven't even gotten off the ground yet.
We know a good interior designer that we trust, but she's preoccupied with something else right now and not really available. We're just slogging through on our own for the time being.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
A Few Reflections on Closing
I've purchased several houses before so I've become pretty familiar with the process. Up until now the most noteworthy part of it for me has always been the ridiculously bureaucratic assortment of documents that must be signed and initialed. It gets so absurd; you have to sign documents to verify you've signed other documents. One time I remember having to sign off on paying something like $25 for an attorney to draw up a document that I had to sign (that's two docs and two signatures) proclaiming that I was not the David A. Stewart who lives in Fort Wayne and had (evidently) defaulted on some other credit obligations. Really? You guys can't figure that out? You need me to sign some bogus paper, and this makes it so? And I'm supposed to trust you with MY mortgage?
Several of the documents are many pages long. Of course you have to initial each page, and then sign the last one. Attorneys are paid untold dollars to draw all this stuff up, and I'm sure it's all generally valid and legally binding, but EVERYONE knows that NOBODY who is signing reads all that crap. It would take hours to close if one were to try. And while nobody tangibly pressures you to sign without reading, everyone is there and sort of waiting to get it done. At one point the lady presiding over it said, when Liane questioned something, "I'd never have you sign anything illegal." Oh...okay. Whatever. It's an accepted practice. Even if one did read it all...so much of it is incomprehensible legal gibberish it's practically meaningless to any normal person. I've always wondered how much of that stuff would truly hold up in court if it were seriously challenged.
By the time everyone gets to the closing all parties are so worn down from the process there is very little resistance or thinking about things. Just show me where to sign and let's get the hell out of here and get on with our lives.
Prior to Closing -- there had already been a variety of little things that happened. I've already mentioned the confusion over the papers (loan application) I was supposed to sign and get back to the lender. One of those included a document that was already filled out for me (nice) making some declarations about my identity: who I am and who I am not type of stuff. One of the references was for a David Q. Stewart. They had already checked that this was not me, but in fact this one is me. In the past I've used bogus middle initials in my name just to see what sort of nonsense direct marketing crap my be directed towards me by various entities. The Q in that case stood for Quicken. A number of years ago I signed up for a Quicken credit card because they had some promotion that got us a good deal on our Hawaii trip (if memory serves). You wouldn't believe all the mail I got for the next few years with Q as my middle initial. People don't normally give out credit cards without your social security number so I'm pretty sure they would have had mine. But apparently the geniuses at Chase just assumed this wasn't me -- probably because of the Q. Whatever, they'll never know the difference, and I didn't want to go through all the gyrations with the papers again so I just signed it and moved on. There are no skeletons there. I paid the bills and eventually stopped using the card. It's obviously on my credit report. Why would they just assume it isn't me?
A few days before closing my agent sent me a document to sign establishing that if there is a dispute between buyer and seller that amounted to less than $3500 we'd agree to use arbitration to settle it. Okay, not really a big deal I guess, and it probably does make sense, but it just comes in an e-mail. So, I have to print it out, sign it, scan it back in and send back. The sellers, as it turned out, signed it at the closing....so....why couldn't my part wait until closing? Why did I have to go to the trouble to do it beforehand?
In the mid-morning of closing day I got an e-mail from our loan officer that she would not be able to be at the closing, and to feel free to call her if something came up. What? Again, probably not that big of a deal, but as I recall this date was set in part because she was open and available. And it was set more than a month ago. Normally I'm pretty nonchalant about this stuff, but my gut told me we were just being blown off. With as much business as I do with Chase, and considering I went with them in spite of hearing some bad horror stories about trying to do mortgages through them, it seemed pretty bogus to me. My response...
A little while later I got an e-mail from her declaring her other appointment had been rescheduled and so she was coming after all. Ding! -- correct answer. In hindsight we didn't need her at all. She drove all that way and pretty much just sat through it. Had she not been there I'm sure there would have been a problem though.
At Closing -- Pretty typical. We went to a title office in downtown Columbia City. The word "downtown" in reference to the center of Columbia City, while technically correct, sort of cracks me up. There is corn, then a couple of blocks of commerce, then the town square. You can practically see the corn from the square. This factor alone begs the question, "WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE?" If you had told me 30 years ago I would end up living in a town where there are as many tractors as cars I probably would have slit my wrists.
Anyway...as usual, tons of papers were signed. That pretty much went as described above, with only two memorable papers to me.
Here's the part where it gets weird -- Those who have followed closely know that this house was a short sale. Without going through the details of that again it basically means that the owners were in default on their loan. And worse, I had also been told at one point that they were getting divorced, and then maybe back together (this was confirmed by their agent after the closing). We had also been told they were no longer in town, which turned out not to be true at all. They still live in Columbia City. Not sure what's real and what isn't but it's clearly not a good situation for them. Add to that we are paying some tens of thousands of dollars less than what some would argue the house is worth. I've heard figures for what they paid for it. If true they did pay dramatically more than we are. There also had been an offer on it many months before that fell through at the last minute, and that offer really was tens of thousands of dollars more, but....I just don't see it. I don't see how this house could be worth those kinds of numbers. In as much as our offer came in just after the foreclosure process had been initiated, which means they got no other relevant offers, I'm inclined to think that what we are paying is pretty close to what it's worth. A good deal, sure, but anything is worth about what it can be sold for, by definition. Also, it appraised for a number close to what we're paying, though I don't think that means much. Appraisers are often lazy and not that thorough. I'd love to see what it would have appraised for had the appraiser not known the purchase price.
Anyway...we all arrived at about the same time. It was immediately apparent that the wife was uncomfortable, unhappy, and didn't want to be there. (It's always the woman, eh?) She was cordial enough, but she was suffering. This was probably her/their dream house. It had been so carefully decorated. We don't necessarily like all the choices, but it's clear they were thoughtfully made. The husband, to his credit, put on a great game face and was really trying to be upbeat about it. I thanked him right away for getting all those signatures. (That really was something to pull off.) He later offered to answer any questions we might have about the house. We thought of a couple of basic ones and he did answer well. He offered up some details about the external gas line, and a couple of other minor things. Just seemed like a really nice guy. The woman, however, was just not digging it at all. She almost broke down a couple of times. She courageously tried to hold it together, and maybe even feigned a slight smile a couple of times, but she was hurting.
This is the human side of these deals. Real estate can be a brutal business. Yeah, a short sale seems like a great idea going in. Get a good deal on something as significant as a home. But they don't tell you of all the hassles, how long and cumbersome everything is, and....they sure don't do anything to prepare you for dealing with your conscience as you rip someone's dream away and pay a fraction of the price they paid for it. That's just an ugly situation, and anyone with any compassion would have to feel bad. Sure, none of it is our fault. I get that. Had we not stepped in the situation would have even been worse for them, but it's still hard. I imagine myself in those same circumstances and I really feel for them. I had thought about this beforehand so it didn't come as a complete shock to me, but it still made for an uncomfortable 90 minutes.
Avoid telling someone their baby is ugly -- At one point while we were waiting for something else, the discussion turned to us. When are we moving, what is the status of the porch, contractors, etc? As I answered these questions I started to go into a bit more detail, mainly relating to the fact that we probably can't move in for a while (due to all the work we want to have done)...and then thankfully my good judgement took over. It occurred to me that I didn't want to make them feel worse by telling them all the things about their house we hate and are going to undo. No need for that.
It was on the tail end of all of this, at the point where they handed over the keys and garage remotes, that he told me one of the garage remotes had been lost in a car accident. "Lost in a car accident?" I thought to myself. Not worth dwelling on. Hopefully we can buy one. Just get me out of here. Actually, get them out of here before this woman completely looses it.
Glad to have it all done, even though it isn't done at all. But I'll never get the images of that poor woman out of my mind. And that's the price of a good deal.
Several of the documents are many pages long. Of course you have to initial each page, and then sign the last one. Attorneys are paid untold dollars to draw all this stuff up, and I'm sure it's all generally valid and legally binding, but EVERYONE knows that NOBODY who is signing reads all that crap. It would take hours to close if one were to try. And while nobody tangibly pressures you to sign without reading, everyone is there and sort of waiting to get it done. At one point the lady presiding over it said, when Liane questioned something, "I'd never have you sign anything illegal." Oh...okay. Whatever. It's an accepted practice. Even if one did read it all...so much of it is incomprehensible legal gibberish it's practically meaningless to any normal person. I've always wondered how much of that stuff would truly hold up in court if it were seriously challenged.
By the time everyone gets to the closing all parties are so worn down from the process there is very little resistance or thinking about things. Just show me where to sign and let's get the hell out of here and get on with our lives.
Prior to Closing -- there had already been a variety of little things that happened. I've already mentioned the confusion over the papers (loan application) I was supposed to sign and get back to the lender. One of those included a document that was already filled out for me (nice) making some declarations about my identity: who I am and who I am not type of stuff. One of the references was for a David Q. Stewart. They had already checked that this was not me, but in fact this one is me. In the past I've used bogus middle initials in my name just to see what sort of nonsense direct marketing crap my be directed towards me by various entities. The Q in that case stood for Quicken. A number of years ago I signed up for a Quicken credit card because they had some promotion that got us a good deal on our Hawaii trip (if memory serves). You wouldn't believe all the mail I got for the next few years with Q as my middle initial. People don't normally give out credit cards without your social security number so I'm pretty sure they would have had mine. But apparently the geniuses at Chase just assumed this wasn't me -- probably because of the Q. Whatever, they'll never know the difference, and I didn't want to go through all the gyrations with the papers again so I just signed it and moved on. There are no skeletons there. I paid the bills and eventually stopped using the card. It's obviously on my credit report. Why would they just assume it isn't me?
A few days before closing my agent sent me a document to sign establishing that if there is a dispute between buyer and seller that amounted to less than $3500 we'd agree to use arbitration to settle it. Okay, not really a big deal I guess, and it probably does make sense, but it just comes in an e-mail. So, I have to print it out, sign it, scan it back in and send back. The sellers, as it turned out, signed it at the closing....so....why couldn't my part wait until closing? Why did I have to go to the trouble to do it beforehand?
In the mid-morning of closing day I got an e-mail from our loan officer that she would not be able to be at the closing, and to feel free to call her if something came up. What? Again, probably not that big of a deal, but as I recall this date was set in part because she was open and available. And it was set more than a month ago. Normally I'm pretty nonchalant about this stuff, but my gut told me we were just being blown off. With as much business as I do with Chase, and considering I went with them in spite of hearing some bad horror stories about trying to do mortgages through them, it seemed pretty bogus to me. My response...
Well, that's disappointing. I haven't actually had time to thoroughly look through it yet, and I'm not sure I'll be able to before we get there. We've both really been in a whirlwind this week -- to the point that in hindsight I wish we would have pushed the date back a week or two. Sounds like it's not the best time for you either.
I'm sure we can call if there is an issue.
Thanks,
David
A little while later I got an e-mail from her declaring her other appointment had been rescheduled and so she was coming after all. Ding! -- correct answer. In hindsight we didn't need her at all. She drove all that way and pretty much just sat through it. Had she not been there I'm sure there would have been a problem though.
At Closing -- Pretty typical. We went to a title office in downtown Columbia City. The word "downtown" in reference to the center of Columbia City, while technically correct, sort of cracks me up. There is corn, then a couple of blocks of commerce, then the town square. You can practically see the corn from the square. This factor alone begs the question, "WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE?" If you had told me 30 years ago I would end up living in a town where there are as many tractors as cars I probably would have slit my wrists.
Anyway...as usual, tons of papers were signed. That pretty much went as described above, with only two memorable papers to me.
- I had to sign a paper describing the various forms of my name: David Stewart, David A. Stewart, Dave Stewart, and Dave A. Stewart. I had to sign it at the top (David A. Stewart) and then four more times at the bottom to provide an example of what each of those signatures might look like. The fact that I have never in my life used Dave A. Stewart seemed to not be relevant. Accordingly that signature really looked weird. So much ass covering in this stuff.
- I signed a paper that among other things declared that my loan percentage would not change. By the very definition of a fixed rate loan I would assume this to be obvious, but it was a point of one of the papers. What was odd was that nowhere on this paper did it actually specify the loan percentage in question. Just that whatever it was, it would not be changing. Well, how would you know? Jeez. And they pay....no...I pay attorneys to draw this stuff up.
Here's the part where it gets weird -- Those who have followed closely know that this house was a short sale. Without going through the details of that again it basically means that the owners were in default on their loan. And worse, I had also been told at one point that they were getting divorced, and then maybe back together (this was confirmed by their agent after the closing). We had also been told they were no longer in town, which turned out not to be true at all. They still live in Columbia City. Not sure what's real and what isn't but it's clearly not a good situation for them. Add to that we are paying some tens of thousands of dollars less than what some would argue the house is worth. I've heard figures for what they paid for it. If true they did pay dramatically more than we are. There also had been an offer on it many months before that fell through at the last minute, and that offer really was tens of thousands of dollars more, but....I just don't see it. I don't see how this house could be worth those kinds of numbers. In as much as our offer came in just after the foreclosure process had been initiated, which means they got no other relevant offers, I'm inclined to think that what we are paying is pretty close to what it's worth. A good deal, sure, but anything is worth about what it can be sold for, by definition. Also, it appraised for a number close to what we're paying, though I don't think that means much. Appraisers are often lazy and not that thorough. I'd love to see what it would have appraised for had the appraiser not known the purchase price.
Anyway...we all arrived at about the same time. It was immediately apparent that the wife was uncomfortable, unhappy, and didn't want to be there. (It's always the woman, eh?) She was cordial enough, but she was suffering. This was probably her/their dream house. It had been so carefully decorated. We don't necessarily like all the choices, but it's clear they were thoughtfully made. The husband, to his credit, put on a great game face and was really trying to be upbeat about it. I thanked him right away for getting all those signatures. (That really was something to pull off.) He later offered to answer any questions we might have about the house. We thought of a couple of basic ones and he did answer well. He offered up some details about the external gas line, and a couple of other minor things. Just seemed like a really nice guy. The woman, however, was just not digging it at all. She almost broke down a couple of times. She courageously tried to hold it together, and maybe even feigned a slight smile a couple of times, but she was hurting.
This is the human side of these deals. Real estate can be a brutal business. Yeah, a short sale seems like a great idea going in. Get a good deal on something as significant as a home. But they don't tell you of all the hassles, how long and cumbersome everything is, and....they sure don't do anything to prepare you for dealing with your conscience as you rip someone's dream away and pay a fraction of the price they paid for it. That's just an ugly situation, and anyone with any compassion would have to feel bad. Sure, none of it is our fault. I get that. Had we not stepped in the situation would have even been worse for them, but it's still hard. I imagine myself in those same circumstances and I really feel for them. I had thought about this beforehand so it didn't come as a complete shock to me, but it still made for an uncomfortable 90 minutes.
Avoid telling someone their baby is ugly -- At one point while we were waiting for something else, the discussion turned to us. When are we moving, what is the status of the porch, contractors, etc? As I answered these questions I started to go into a bit more detail, mainly relating to the fact that we probably can't move in for a while (due to all the work we want to have done)...and then thankfully my good judgement took over. It occurred to me that I didn't want to make them feel worse by telling them all the things about their house we hate and are going to undo. No need for that.
It was on the tail end of all of this, at the point where they handed over the keys and garage remotes, that he told me one of the garage remotes had been lost in a car accident. "Lost in a car accident?" I thought to myself. Not worth dwelling on. Hopefully we can buy one. Just get me out of here. Actually, get them out of here before this woman completely looses it.
Glad to have it all done, even though it isn't done at all. But I'll never get the images of that poor woman out of my mind. And that's the price of a good deal.
Friday, March 25, 2011
It's Done
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Cha-Ching!
Chase bank is funny, in kind of a cool way. Faron (cool name) was very smooth and helpful getting the wire going. But she also dug in and looked at the accounts I have with them. Her intention -- at least as stated -- was to make sure I am really in the best type of accounts and taking advantage of everything I can. My initial thought was, "Oh man, what are they going to try to sell me?!" (Isn't it interesting how circumspect we've become about things like this?) But it wasn't like that it all. She was genuinely helpful and didn't really try to sell me anything. The closest she came was advising me to use their free auto bill pay features. It probably is much less hassle and expense for them to do all of that electronically, but there isn't much of a downside to me either after the initial setup. She volunteered to do all of that and show us how it all works. Pretty cool really.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
T Minus Two
Two days until close. We're pretty well on track with most of the stuff we have control over. I'm still skittish about the circumstances with the porch and getting that permit, but I just don't think we're going to have the time and resources to bring that situation to 100% certainty before Friday. Additionally it's starting to look like the roof integration is going to be such a problem that we won't be able to build it as large as we wanted to anyway. We have 48 hours to figure out what we can, and neither one of us has time to do it.
Even though Liane gets out of school at 3:15 (officially) she is so consumed with so many things to do she almost never leaves before 4:00, and even then she drags home a pile of work to do. Perhaps the idiots I see on the TV yammering on about how few hours teachers work would like to come over and help grade papers. That would be rhetoric reserved for another blog, but we must remember that the major point of this move, the big reason we are spending all this money to move further away from town into an (only) incrementally better house is to cut down her long drive time to work, which is especially daunting at 6:00 AM on winter mornings with snow and ice covered roads.
Rant over.
Even though Liane gets out of school at 3:15 (officially) she is so consumed with so many things to do she almost never leaves before 4:00, and even then she drags home a pile of work to do. Perhaps the idiots I see on the TV yammering on about how few hours teachers work would like to come over and help grade papers. That would be rhetoric reserved for another blog, but we must remember that the major point of this move, the big reason we are spending all this money to move further away from town into an (only) incrementally better house is to cut down her long drive time to work, which is especially daunting at 6:00 AM on winter mornings with snow and ice covered roads.
Rant over.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Complete Transaction
A transaction isn't complete until the customer says it is.
A few weeks ago our mortgage lender sent us some paperwork to sign. About two weeks later I got a call asking if we were going to sign the papers in the package they sent. "What package?" I asked. And from there confusion reigned until the person in charge remembered personally giving the package to Liane. When I dug into in with her we finally figured out she had given me the contents of the package, but somewhere the fact that I needed to sign those forms and get them back got lost in translation.
No real damage was done in this case, but I told the lady that if I don't respond to something within a day or two she should assume something is wrong and follow up immediately.
At work we deal all the time with customers who claim, "I did not receive my shipment." Usually we find someone else has it, or in some cases an industrious Fed-Ex driver manages to leave it hidden well enough that even the resident doesn't find it. Interesting to see it happen from the other side.
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