It's been a long week again. I'm just hoping to make it through the next few. I put on a good face outside, but the constant tension wears on me. I'm naturally a conflict avoider, career in law notwithstanding. I like to do transactional law, because it entails getting two people who want to work together to the table and finding a way to make it happen and memorialize the deal. Negotiation I enjoy, too, but litigation is not my thing. H is much more emotional and prone to much more extreme highs and lows, to put it kindly. I've had to try very hard to keep myself in check as we've tried to finalize details of the parenting plan. I'd hoped to go to court on Monday to get it approved, but it looks like that won't happen.
On the positive side, I got the signed contract back in writing on the house I am buying, so that's proceeding well. It looks like our prime buyers on the current house don't want to back out, so we'll just lose that money, but that's life. You make a contract, you live with it for better or worse.
In the evening, I played a nice game of Ticket to Ride with S and J. It's one of the better games for our family. I thought I had it sewn up, but S pulled out a couple of great routes at the end and won, 102-100, and J didn't play a bad game, either. I love playing games of all kinds, so it's nice to have kids who are getting old enough that playing with them is fun for the game's sake, and not just because I'm spending time with them.
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Saturday, July 16, 2011
More house craziness
Considering my existing house is under contract, things have sure been crazy. People seem to be ignoring the "option pending" and coming to see it in droves. For that, I do credit H's hard work, plus the insane amount of time spent by our friends Darin and Kelly and Laura helping us stage the house.
Anyway, because we have a better offer in writing as a backup, we were hoping to persuade our original buyers that the house wasn't as great as they thought. We told them we will not be fixing or replacing anything based on inspections and encouraged them to come back to see for themselves. H had the house not look as good as before. Apparently, though, they weren't convinced. Meanwhile, the backup buyers came yet again yesterday to see the house and reiterate how much they want it. And, no fewer than three other buyers came yesterday, including a last-minute call at 7:00 for a second showing by another serious buyer as I was settling in with the kids to watch a movie. A change of plans and a quick trip to Baskin Robbins followed. Good thing I went swimming yesterday morning. Crazy.
H is actually going to call the prime buyers today and give them a sob story about how she is divorcing and needs the extra money and try to convince them to let her close with the other buyers. She wanted to break the contract, but I told her (1) our integrity is not for sale, and (2) I don't want to get sued. It's gotten too stressful for me. Money is nice, but I also just want to close this chapter of life, and I need to close on this house in time in order to close on my new place.
Wendy, it makes me want to barf. ;-)
Anyway, because we have a better offer in writing as a backup, we were hoping to persuade our original buyers that the house wasn't as great as they thought. We told them we will not be fixing or replacing anything based on inspections and encouraged them to come back to see for themselves. H had the house not look as good as before. Apparently, though, they weren't convinced. Meanwhile, the backup buyers came yet again yesterday to see the house and reiterate how much they want it. And, no fewer than three other buyers came yesterday, including a last-minute call at 7:00 for a second showing by another serious buyer as I was settling in with the kids to watch a movie. A change of plans and a quick trip to Baskin Robbins followed. Good thing I went swimming yesterday morning. Crazy.
H is actually going to call the prime buyers today and give them a sob story about how she is divorcing and needs the extra money and try to convince them to let her close with the other buyers. She wanted to break the contract, but I told her (1) our integrity is not for sale, and (2) I don't want to get sued. It's gotten too stressful for me. Money is nice, but I also just want to close this chapter of life, and I need to close on this house in time in order to close on my new place.
Wendy, it makes me want to barf. ;-)
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Success
The weekend in Texas was somewhat stressful, but ultimately successful. We arrived late Friday night and picked up our rental car. We decided to add a navigation system, which proved very helpful, as we ran into an accident and had to detour before we reached the hotel. The rest of the trip, it continued to prove its worth--some of the residential areas we were looking at seem to have been designed to contain a minotaur.
Saturday morning, we started fairly early with a list of 15 homes and the Realtor assigned to us by the relocation company. She was a Vermonter, but had lived in TX for 25 years, so she had an interesting accent: Yankee with a hint of Southern. We started off with some of the houses that were the highest on our list. The first few either had strange layouts or didn't show as well in person as in the photos. Another looked great until we kicked the siding in back and it crumbled like sawdust. After that lipstick-on-a-pig special, we took a break for lunch, having found one house we could live with, but nothing that thrilled us.
After lunch, things immediately picked up. We toured a house we hadn't considered as much because of its excessively large size, but it didn't feel as excessive in person, and it was quite nice. Then, we stumbled upon The One. It was a home that we'd almost eliminated from our list. I think we'd taken it off and later put it back on as a remote possibility.
Unlike some of the other homes, this one showed better in person than in the pictures. It had a nice layout, a fabulous, updated kitchen, a warm family room with rich wood paneling and a gas fireplace, dental crown molding, and an upstairs game room. It also had enough bedrooms for everyone and seems to have decent mechanicals. More importantly, H and I both just felt good about it, like this was a home we should make an offer on. We saw several other nice homes after that and identified a backup house in case things fall through, but nothing to compare with that house.
On Sunday, we drove through a couple of nearby cities we had wanted to see, but we didn't need to tour any more homes. We drove through the neighborhood, past the schools, and went to church at what would be our new congregation. We weren't ward-shopping, but it seems like a decent ward. We'll be pretty close to the church and closer to an LDS temple than we are now in Utah.
On Monday morning, we saw the house again, then we made an offer, they countered, and we settled on a price 1k less than we paid for the house we are in now, plus they are throwing in the pool table. We celebrated with a lunch of some excellent Texas BBQ brisket and turkey, headed home, and picked up the two kids who were staying with Grandma and Grandpa. (With so many houses to see in such a short time, that turned out to be a huge help--thanks again, Mom and Dad!)
I just faxed back the final paperwork and we expect to have the sellers sign it today. After that, pending a clean bill of health from the home inspection, we'll be moving into our new home at the end of next month.
Saturday morning, we started fairly early with a list of 15 homes and the Realtor assigned to us by the relocation company. She was a Vermonter, but had lived in TX for 25 years, so she had an interesting accent: Yankee with a hint of Southern. We started off with some of the houses that were the highest on our list. The first few either had strange layouts or didn't show as well in person as in the photos. Another looked great until we kicked the siding in back and it crumbled like sawdust. After that lipstick-on-a-pig special, we took a break for lunch, having found one house we could live with, but nothing that thrilled us.
After lunch, things immediately picked up. We toured a house we hadn't considered as much because of its excessively large size, but it didn't feel as excessive in person, and it was quite nice. Then, we stumbled upon The One. It was a home that we'd almost eliminated from our list. I think we'd taken it off and later put it back on as a remote possibility.
Unlike some of the other homes, this one showed better in person than in the pictures. It had a nice layout, a fabulous, updated kitchen, a warm family room with rich wood paneling and a gas fireplace, dental crown molding, and an upstairs game room. It also had enough bedrooms for everyone and seems to have decent mechanicals. More importantly, H and I both just felt good about it, like this was a home we should make an offer on. We saw several other nice homes after that and identified a backup house in case things fall through, but nothing to compare with that house.
On Sunday, we drove through a couple of nearby cities we had wanted to see, but we didn't need to tour any more homes. We drove through the neighborhood, past the schools, and went to church at what would be our new congregation. We weren't ward-shopping, but it seems like a decent ward. We'll be pretty close to the church and closer to an LDS temple than we are now in Utah.
On Monday morning, we saw the house again, then we made an offer, they countered, and we settled on a price 1k less than we paid for the house we are in now, plus they are throwing in the pool table. We celebrated with a lunch of some excellent Texas BBQ brisket and turkey, headed home, and picked up the two kids who were staying with Grandma and Grandpa. (With so many houses to see in such a short time, that turned out to be a huge help--thanks again, Mom and Dad!)
I just faxed back the final paperwork and we expect to have the sellers sign it today. After that, pending a clean bill of health from the home inspection, we'll be moving into our new home at the end of next month.
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