We were in Florida for a conference of Carolyn’s last week. She gave what I thought was a kick-ass close reading of a French novel I’d never heard of. Unfortunately, the audience was the same size as the panel itself (not including the moderator!)
It was sunny and in the 80’s. I went walking along a nice, paved rail-trail. I soo wish I’d thought to bring my roller blades. We went to Cedar Key. A small key on the north-west coast of Florida that time forgot (or at least that developers have overlooked). I got to see my mom and one of her new(ish) vehicles. It was a good time.
Now that that bit of info (Carolyn is pregnant) is out there, I can talk about it. I was playing with gizoogle because I was updating my home page to include searches. Gizoogle’s just another dialectizer, but more closely coupled to Google’s searching.
While adding Gizoogle, I tested it with the phrase “something fun” and came across http://www.kneebouncers.com. I’m (mildly) embarrassed to say how much fun I had there. I imagined my child on my lap slapping at the keyboard and watching the guitar play, or the drums. The only problem really, is that I think I mainly enjoyed the novelty. Like even a premium Disney film, I think it might not be quite as entertaining the 16th time.
Carolyn and I have news that we’ve been starting to share. What’s most interesting about this process is people’s reactions to it seem very personal, and certainly all over the map.
The news is that we’re pregnant. Well, Carolyn’s pregnant. I’m just cranky, gaining weight and nauseated (nauseating?).
The reactions, as I’ve mentioned, have been all over the map. As an artifact of who was home when, we told Carolyn’s parents first. They were excited. Effusive. Carolyn’s mom talked about how much she enjoyed being pregnant!
Well, after much back and forth, we have an agreement to buy the house. It should be a happy occasion, and truthfully, it mostly is. But I’m still a bit pissy about $250.00. That’s right. We’ve come to an agreement on approximately $150,000, and I’m pissy about $250.00. Let me break it down for you.
First, the seller is an old lady. A recent widow who’s lived in that house since 1973. We knew up front that her kids were going to be involved to help her with the sale. That’s what kids are for (among other things, I hear).
Well, as I said we would, we made an offer on the house — 512 28th Ave today. And we received a counter offer this evening.
The asking price was $155K. We offered $145K, and asked for a late closing date (so we don’t have to pay a rent and mortgage the same month), and every appliance in the place (even the snowblower!). We got a counter offer — everything but the snow blower, $149,500, but an extra $3000 in that goes into escrow with her agent (we already included $1000 in what my mom called “ernest money” to show that we’re serious about the offer). She also cut down the time we have for inspections, etc… but not by so much it’s not doable. We’re going to have 3 inspections done: whole house, radon and termite. I don’t think I need to be there for the radon and pest inspection. I just need to be sure to schedule the whole house inspection for when I (or even better, Carolyn and I) can attend. I remember with fondness the whole house inspection done for the house in Charlottesville. I learned quite a bit about the house at that time. I’m looking forward to this part of it.
We re-visited house #1 today — 512 28th Ave (I took another huge batch of pictures this trip). We’re going to make an offer tomorrow. I’m scared. I don’t remember being this scared about Gateway circle, but I don’t remember emotions much anyway. I’m not exactly sure why I’m scared. I guess it’s just financial. I’m worried about failing to make payments, or having the C’ville house go un-rented and having to pay two mortgages when it feels like we’re stretched paying just our rent right now.
Well, we finally engaged a real estate agent. We met with her (and an associated mortgage person) on Thursday, and put together a list of houses to see which we did, today.
We saw a total of 5. Of those five, it breaks down like this:
#1 Nice, everything we need, more on it later.
#2 Funky. Old. Sideways-looking. Awesome neighborhood. Awesome hardwood floors. Semi-renovated. Too expensive. Sucky closets. Only heat in basement was wood stove.
I got two surprises in my gas bill today. The first really pisses me off. The second confuses me. 
The first is that they “estimated” my gas usage. Though if they used anything as advanced as mathematics in estimating my gas usage, it would surprise me. Somehow, they thought that during the shortest (and albeit coldest) month of the year, I would manage to use 3.7 TIMES my average monthly usage; That the gas I used in February would some how be approximately half of ALL of the gas that I used from July up until February. My highest “Actual” reading is right around 4K cubic feet. They “estimate” that during the past 28 days, I used 14K cubic feet. And, if for some reason I can’t/don’t pay their ridiculous estimate, they’ll tack on a late payment charge of 1.5% per month – that’s 18% per year. That’s more than 3 TIMES my mortgage rate, for a “loan” that amounts to nothing but accounting shenanigans on their part.
I really didn’t expect this. We were going to a few open houses. That was all. We were going to see a few places to get a feel for the neighborhoods as well as what our money would buy. Who knows, maybe even find that exact gem of a house we are looking for.
We saw a large and rambly 4 bedroom rancher from the 50’s. The only significant updates since then were some new appliances (the old ones were still in the garage) and a new roof. The hallways were only a couple inches wider than my shoulders. What could have been a beautiful courtyard was covered in concrete. Still, the asking price was over $200K.
I don’t know why I take these quizzes really. 
Does it matter to me to know who my inner rock star is? Or how well I stack up against my peers in my successful distinction between there, they’re and their? Still, I saw a quiz that asked which (witch? 😉 religion was right for me, and I took it.
I am amused to announce that I’m a Satanist. I wonder if there’s a checkbox for that on PSU’s equal opportunity employment form somewhere. This amused me particularly since I don’t believe in the Judeao-Christian God I was indoctrinated to believe in. That I don’t believe in God per se, I similarly give little credence to the existence of His somehow both lesser and yet still equal counterpart, Satan.
