still renting but own

as i sit her on saturday morning in our apartment -- yes, the apartment with the loud neighbors -- i realize how much is sucks that we didn't start packing earlier. but, out of fear that we would be all ready to move and then something would happen to our new home, we didn't pack a thing. extremely stupid of us.

however, we do have a ton of boxes.

we had planned on spending last night new house, but that was changed. we are both working extremely hard at work and have found that our work/life balance is suffering a bit. me more so than dave. dave works late a lot because i work late. us missing one day of work this week for the closing, threw me into a tailspin at the office.

but i said i am not going to talk about work here...

so last night our plans were changed and we spent the night here at the apartment. when i woke up i was like "damn! i don't want to be here anymore!" really. who would want to be in a cramped one bedroom first floor apartment when they own a beautiful townhome a couple miles away? the only good thing about this morning was our neighbors must have slept in, moved or gotten notice from the apartment complex that people had complained about them. but seriously. i am ready to move.

but before we move in we have to get some things done in the home. the first on the list being new carpet upstairs (2nd floor) where the bedrooms are. we think that the carpet there now could be the original carpet that they put in when they built the town home 20 years ago. so today dave and i have appointment with two carpet places to look at and price out the project.

before moving in we have to get the air ducts cleaned too. the previous owners had buff the cat. dave is allergic to buff. so we have the air duct cleaning people coming out to the house in a week. after the air ducts are cleaned, we then have to coordinate the carpet cleaners to come in and professionally clean the finished basement where there is carpet that we are not replacing.

so my goal is that after all these primary steps are completed, we will move. heck, as soon as the air ducts are cleaned i am ready to move. even if that means we live on the main level for a couple of weeks (which is all wood floor) until the bedrooms are re-carpeted! it isn't like we own any furniture for the main level yet (living room, dining room, kitchen).

then we have a ton of painting to do. initially we were going to do all the painting and other minor things while we were still living here in the apartment. i don't know about dave, but i am ready to go and don't care if we are painting around the minimal furniture that we currently own.

then comes dave's favorite part - buying new furniture. we are going to do this slowly and over the course of some time, but i have to tell you dave and i have visited every furniture store in a 10 mile radius of where we live. dave has sat on every sectional sofa. multiple times. and we still haven't made a decision yet.

well, i better go get ready for the day of carpet shopping. wow. i just felt really old. i mean i went to bed early so i could get a good nights sleep to be ready for carpet shopping. ugh.

happy home improving,
doreen

march 26 - closing day

well, i have to say first that i am sorry for the length of time between posts. if you knew (1) how nuts it has been for both of us at work and (2) how stressful this whole situation has been you would understand. also dave asked that i not "speak of the house" because, well, we could jinx things.

i promise to go back and write some posts that explain the last two months with more detail. but the end has come. today, dave and i went to closing on our first home. the home that was once known as buff's place is now OUR place. and it feels soooo good!


of course today wasn't without its adventures. it all started at 3:45am when our obnoxious neighbors upstairs alarm went off and woke us up. the alarm is new -- it both beeps loudly and bangs against whatever the heck they have up there. you have to understand that since these neighbors have moved in, we have not had a good nights sleep...it is either the alarm (before the banging alarm, they had one that would buzz for 15 minutes before someone would turn it off!!), or them playing guitar hero full blast on their surround sound until 2am, or them vacuuming at 2am, or them walking loudly -- which we can't figure out because combined, the two people upstairs probably weigh all of 100lbs!!!! we hate them....so our morning started off with us realizing again how great things are going to be once we close on our first home.

we hit dunkin donuts...and then headed over to office depot to get pens. we wanted to have special pens for the closing. seriously. dave's idea. we purchased pens (after looking for 10 minutes and debating the different options) and then started driving to buff's place for our final walk through. as we were making the turn, coffee in hand, some idiot driver rear-ended us. coffee went all over (me and the car). i got out of the car ready to fight, when this lady gets out of her mini-van and says she slipped on the wet roads and didn't realize how slippery it was. no damage to our car, more damage to her car, coffee spilled. we continued on our way.


i can't make this stuff up.


we arrived at the townhome, all excited and just wanting to make sure that all appliances were still there (we had done a longer walk through a couple of days earlier). everything was there. and we headed off to breakfast with marge.


at 12:45pm we were at the title office ready to close on our first home. it was crazy. i couldn't believe that we had made it to this point. i mean, we started really looking in january and we had seen some interesting places and already had our hearts broken with area 51, and the other day the settlement processor (??) told dave that "sometimes when people come to the table, something happens and everyone takes their barbie's back and goes home"...meaning, we could still lose the house at the table.


but we were excited. and ready. and when the seller's walked in, we started to realize this was really going to happen. and they were nice. we spoke to them about the community, the orioles, and neighbors...and how much we enjoyed visiting with their cat - buff - when we would come to the house. they told us buff was happy in his new home, but seriously the cat ruled!

so the paperwork started...signatures, explanations, more signatures -- oh, by the way we didn't use the pens that we purchase earlier that morning..lol... -- more signatures, and conversation. when it was all said and done, it was 1:55pm when closing was over and we were the proud owners of our first home!!!


first thing we did was stop at a the wine store to buy a bottle of sparkling wine. then we stopped a the local store that sold t-shirts with our new town's name on it (yay!!). then we headed up to our new home.


check out pictures here


when we arrived, i got on the phone and lined up air duct cleaners, appointments with people to replace the carpet upstairs, and then dave and i just stretched out on the wood floors and listened to the quiet. there was no one stomping around above us. there was no vacuuming. there was no noise. it was just silence. and it was our new home.

now the fun begins.


unfortunately we are in the apartment tonight. we have a lot of things that we want to get done on the house before we officially move in, but we plan on staying at the house this weekend (air mattress, tv, folding chairs) to just experience the feeling of being in our new home. but i wanted to update this quickly, even though i am exhausted (remember we have been up since 3:45am). there will be more posts in the coming weeks. there is a lot to be done on the house (carpet, painting, buying furniture, oh and moving!!) so more stories to tell. and i promise that i will give you some of the back-story on how we got to purchasing our first home.


committed for 30 years,
doreen

st.david's day

good morning everyone.



i am oot for work but didn't want to miss reposting one of my favorite stories. for those of you who have already forgotten, this sunday is march 1st....which is st. david's day.



so happy st. david's day to everyone!

in case you missed the story about 2007’s st. david’s day celebration, here is a recap…this story will never get old!:

thursday, monday, march 1, 2007: not sure how many of you are aware that march 1st is st. david's day. the history of the day is not that important (if you really want to know, wikipedia it!)...it is just another day for dave to celebrate being dave!

this year, we decided to celebrate st. david's day by having our three neighbors over for dinner. dave planned it -- he sent out invites (yes, really), put the menu together and handled all prep for the evening. my only marching orders were to get something for dessert. dave had mentioned that he was craving a cookie cake (you remember the ones you use to get at the mall for your birthday parties when you were a kid!?). so i found a place at the local mall that made them. i thought this is going to be the best st. david's day surprise ever!! little did i know.....
so i called mrs. field's cookie shop to place my order during lunch -- and the guy that answered did not speak very good english. so he suggested that i fax my order to him so he would have the correct information. being the crazy person that i am, drew a diagram and typed up the text for the cake -- i wanted it to read "happy st. david's day!" in blue and white....pretty simple.

about 10 minutes after i faxed the order to the shop, i got a call back from them saying that the fax machine was not working...and that i would have to place the order over the phone. he asked me to go slow and he would make sure that "he make the cake pretty for me". so i proceeded to spell out the order:

"h as in 'hat'....a as in 'apple'...p as in 'paul'....p as in 'paul'....y as in 'yellow'....s as in 'sam'...t as in 'tom'....period....d as in 'dog'...a as in 'apple'...v as in 'victor'....." you get the picture.

after spelling out the entire cake "happy st. david's day!" like that, he read it back to me the same way i spelled it out. he told me the cake would be ready by 6 and we hung up.

(i know this story is long....but trust me, it is worth it!!)

after work, i went to the mall to pick up the cake. when i walked in, my new friend (the gentleman i spoke to on the phone earlier) was there, all excited to give me my cake. he opens the cookie cake box and asks "did i do good? did i make pretty for you?"....now remember, i spelled out exactly what i wanted on the cake...and i guess that is what he gave me!!!!!

best, doreen :)

sorry

it has been awhile since i last posted. sorry. things got a little nuts with buff's place, and we didn't want to jinx anything by talking about it...especially since things were crazy starting with the inspection (which did not go as we had hoped it would).

that being said, i promise to post updates on everything once march 26th arrives (or dave grants me permission to talk about the fun we have been having).

until then, he has issued a "gag order". sorry.


ok. that is enough of my random thoughts. i just wanted to say "whats up" and let you know i didn't forget about you or the fact that we are trying to buy a house...trust me, i will make it worth the wait.

happy monday (ugh).
doreen

inspection day

i sat down to write the long back-story blog posting this sunday...and well, got sleepy. these past couple of weeks have worn dave and i down. we also went out of town this past weekend - quick trip to kentucky (to see a basketball game) and then ohio (to see friends) then back -- all in three days. oh yeah, and we drove.

anyway, i will finish the blog this weekend (sorry to disappoint you emily!). this weekend will be the first weekend we have nothing to do. so i can get caught up on my blogging.

and i am sure that i will have more to report after today. dave and his father will be attending the 1pm home inspection on buff's place. fingers crossed, it will go well and everything will be just peachy. but you never do know.

after today, we just wait...for closing...which is set for march 26...which seems so far away...but that is how we wanted it...because we have a lease on our apartment...that ends in may...are the "..." annoying you yet?? dave thinks he will be using the apartment as his "boys den" after we move...rriigghhtt...

happy hump day,
doreen

p.s. congrats to christine and johnny on the birth of their baby girl this past weekend! we can't wait to meet the little angel!

quickly

late yesterday afternoon, we got buff's place! there is so much more to the story, which i will share when i have some time to sit down and write this weekend. but we are both excited, nervous, and exhausted.

and for those of you that think this is now the "shortest blog ever" because we found our home...well, you really don't know me very well then. :)

happy icy road wednesday,
doreen

early morning thoughts

i realized last night that one of my favorite things about blogging back when i was doing this for my wedding was having my webmaster/editor call me and laugh at me whenever i sent her my current update. anita also served as my filter in many cases -- like right now...if anita were still my webmaster, i would think twice before send this to her to post, probably would have chosen not to waste every ones time. but i am on my own now (evil smile), and here i am at 4:21am writing a random blog for a couple of reasons:

1. i got up extra early to write an article for work...that isn't going so well because
2. i think that the local international airport was using a different runway last night and we had planes and possibly helicopters flying over our apartment complex starting at 2am (or it could have been the ambien i took that was making me hallucinate...or maybe it was aliens...either way, they were loud!)...and
3. we have new neighbors that just moved in upstairs that have no clue how to live in a shared community (like an apartment) because they were planning guitar hero loudly until after midnight...and now i think they are vacuuming again (it is 4:24am people!!!).
4. and of course there is still the fact that we are waiting for our agent to get back to us about buff's place.

quick update on that (because that is why i am here, to vent about house hunting...not the fact that i am over renting with college students or stupid people).

so friday we put in our offer on buff's place. we didn't hear back from the seller's agent until sunday morning with a "non-counteroffer" -- my definition of a non-counter offer is when the seller comes back with the asking price and no help towards closing or the very generous offer of upping the asking price and offering some pennies towards closing. we countered their non-counteroffer by slightly increasing our original offer.

buff's place held an open house on sunday, and afterwards the selling agent came back with a counter-counteroffer, with which we waited until yesterday to counter back to them with "we are not going any higher than we already have".

we gave them until today (tuesday) around noon to get back to us.

probably not getting this house. bummed but just want to move on already. this process sucks and i can't imagine another three months of looking for homes.

wait...it is silent in the apartment...kind of spooky. i think i am going to go play wii bowling at top volume and see how the kids upstairs like it (or maybe i should start writing that article for work...hmmm...).

happy hunting,

doreen

there is more to the story, but here is where we are at

i started to write back blogs explaining how we got to today -- which i promise i will do -- but today has been pretty crazy for us. actually this week has been such a roller coaster.

here is a quick summary and update on where we are at:

• total houses we have seen since january 3rd: 15
• number of offers made: 2
• number of homes we own: 0

we sit here on the couch after spending part of our day going to open houses in the area, trying to keep our mind off our current situation. on thursday evening after touring buff's place for a second time, we went back to our real estate agents office to put together an offer. the price had dropped since our initial tour and we felt that our offer was strong enough to at the very least start a conversation.

after leaving her office after 10:30pm, we got cold feet because we were still hopeful that something would change regarding area 51, a home that we made an offer on a week earlier and really loved. we asked our agent to let us sleep on things, and on friday afternoon after many conversations and analyzing everything (and hearing back from area 51's listing agent that the deal was done and we were out) we decided that we were ready to make an offer on buff's place.

friday night was miserable. we both just kind of sat around and over thought everything. saturday morning when we woke up we were even more stressed, waiting to hear from our agent and see where we stood. at this time we also noticed that buff's place was planning on having an open house this weekend (today - sunday) and realized that they may make us wait until after the open house to see what offers they might get.

saturday evening our agent called to let us know that the buyers wanted a couple more hours to think about the offer, and that we should expect to hear something on sunday morning. so after another sleepless night, we wake to just waiting around to see what happens. we were planning on spending today out with our agent looking at listings (before we decided to make an offer on buff's place) but of course, we canceled our outing while we waited. dave and i didn't want to get distracted while we waited to see if this amazing home would be ours.

a little information about buff's place:

• brick front interior unit townhome in a small community in a great school district
• 3 bedrooms with ceiling fans and vaulted ceilings
• 2 1/2 bathrooms (master bathroom, guest full bathroom, 1/2 bathroom in the basement)
• eat in kitchen
• separate dining room
• wood floors throughout the main level
• finished walkout basement family room with new carpet

sunday early afternoon dave got a call from our agent, marge (i had decided to make a coffee run for myself and drive around to just clear my head). the listing agent had presented our offer and the owners would only accept the listing price on the house, and no assistance with closing...or they would take a higher offer and minimal assistance with closing. basically, they weren't willing to negotiate. and, the seller was unwilling to make any updates if the inspection came back with "red flags", specifically radon (something that evidently is pretty common...scary).

about 10 minutes ago we spoke to our agent and made a counter-offer. we split the difference which is as high we are willing to go. this past week has been so frustrating...buyers market my butt!

that's it for now! i will work to update the back story to all this later, but right now i really need a bourbon & coke...double.

happy hunting,

doreen

intro to house hunting with doreen and dave

i have spent the day trying to figure out how to start this. so much pressure to make this as much fun as the wedding blog (seriously, i am losing it). i can only hope that this "adventure" ends as well as the wedding adventure did.

so here we are. i know one person is reading this (what's up kenzie!), so i guess i will get started with how we got to this point in our lives.

dave and i spent our one year anniversary meeting our new real estate agent - marge. we loved her as soon as we met her, and we started our adventure that same day. we have been following the real estate market online (realtor.com & zillow.com have become addictive), and we were ready to put all that we had learned to practice with finally looking at homes. we were so naive.

this is our house hunting story...good and bad...funny and depressing...crazy and boring. take it or leave it. i am not making you read this, you choose to waste your time reading my run on sentences and listening to me freak out about the process that hgtv and tlc make look like such a happy experience. they are crazy. i have yet to see people on house hunters, my first home, property virgins, etc. break down in tear or scream at their husbands because of something as trivial as counter tops in a kitchen or the age of a roof.

it is also important to note the following:

• i will not be talking about work or my employer. i love what i do and who i work for. yes, everyone has bad days and i am sure that i am a little more stressed out because of the career i have chosen. oh well.
• i will control my language. promise. it will be hard and it will allow me to break out my thesaurus for creative ways to express myself, but maybe i will learn something in the process.
• please leave my grammar alone. i write as i speak. this isn't for a grade, soliciting a donor or trying to win the pulitzer prize. just pretend that we are having a phone conversation or chatting online, ok?
• dave will not be posting on this site. yes, the site is named "the adventures of doreen and dave" but dave has no interest in this blog or any blog. proof is that i am still waiting for him to write our honeymoon blog -- waiting for 375 days to be exact.
• in place of addresses, names and other items that could hurt me or others, dave and i have created nicknames for things. you will see us talk about homes with names like "yellow ghetto", "area 51" or "old marianne". we want to protect the innocent from my insanity and my need to vent online to others.

now i can get started. sorry for my bitter tone, but this post is coming on the eve of...well...i don't want to ruin the surprise....i am a little late in getting this story started, we are actually already deep in the process of our search, but i will get you caught up quickly so you can be here with us real-time when everything either falls apart or we find our first home...

happy hunting,

doreen

coming soon

hello friends and others!
i am working on my first post for this site...all about our adventure of purchasing our first home.
happy weekend!
doreen