stripethree

The first time I submitted my offer on this house, the bank came back and said ‘give us your highest and best’. Pretty typical on a foreclosure with multiple offers.

The second time, with the same offer submitted, they accepted the other buyer’s offer. Apparently it was just a hair better. Two days later though, that buyer changed their mind and pulled their offer.

So my same offer was submitted for a third time.

This morning, it was accepted. =)

I’m still somewhere between disbelief and pure elation. It will probably stay that way until I sign my life away.

I put an offer in on a house today. A ridiculous house. I think I’ve looked at oh, 50 or so thus far. Most of them were to figure out what I liked, and well, given all the discussion and feedback from those outings, my real estate agent found one that I really liked.

Now, we wait.

Well, actually, now we go eat steak. Yum.

So Thursday night someone decided it would be a good idea to pull a U-turn in the front yard of the house, hit the GTI on the rear bumper, and taking off down the street. Yeah, seriously, a hit in run, in my front yard. Here’s a mix of pics the night it happened and the next morning.

Here’s the path the car took through the yard.

Then there’s where the GTI was parked and how much it was moved when it got hit.

Now, we were home when this happened and heard something odd, but it certainly didn’t sound like a car accident. I happened to look out the kitchen window and caught a glimpse of a white car driving off the side of the lawn and taking off down the street. This seemed a bit odd, so I went out side, realized the GTI was not in the same spot I parked it in, and that there was a explosion of cactus right at the end of the carport. Then the astonishment of what actually happened began.

It’s really eye opening to realize how close this car came to the house. Now, seeing the GTI moved about 6 feet, I was expecting to see some serious damage. Lucky for me, it seems it was hit on the edge of the bumper; really, another 6 inches, and it would not have been hit at all. The rear bumper is a bit tweaked, but the car drives fine. I’m amazed at the lack of damage to be honest.

Since we didn’t see anything, the police can’t and aren’t going to do much. I got a report number, that’s about it. The car only has liability coverage on it and in Arizona that means covering only bodily injury, not property damage, on uninsured motorist claims. So basically, I’m on the hook for repairs, which sucks. At least it’s not much, and since the bumper on the car is still firmly attached I probably won’t bother messing with it. I promptly called Progressive back and found out how cheap it was to get collision on the GTI, so it’s now got full coverage. It may not be worth much, but I’d prefer to get something in return if someone comes along and totals it, especially since it is certainly worth more than the $8 a month it costs to have it covered.

One the bright side, the huge pot of chili we were cooking that night came out awesome. We have a good five pounds of it left and it is sooooo delicious. Thanks for the recipe Mom!

The Wings are up 2-0 in the series clinching game so my attention is there.

- Maryland trip was great, got to see lots of family and friends and of course, more crazy stories courtesy of CPD
- I passed the CISSP! Such a relief, and I’m going to take a break from the studying thing for a while. Between the CEH and the CISSP, I’m a bit burned out in that department
- The cats and Peanut continue to get along well and we’re working on making Peanut more comfortable by addressing his anxiety
- Everything with the house is awesome. We’re definitely settled and living the good life. It’s getting hot and the A/C is crankin’. Summer’s
- Work, well, is work. We’ll see if the budget gets cut, and by how much, and if I have to find something else, again. Yes, I’m a bit frustrated.

Despite everything going on I feel bored, if that’s the right word. Things have become routine and it probably didn’t help that I have spent so much time on the certification stuff at home, which was basically an extension of work. Again, bored might not be the right word, but I do want to mix things up – get cracking on the car projects that have sat for a while, get back into the groove of learning something new on the programming front since I’m not doing that everyday anymore, get back into taking pics on a regular basis… something. Maybe all three.

Here, as promised, is the pictorial tour of the house now that I have unpacked, arranged, and decorated so that it looks like, well, a house someone actually lives in instead a field of boxes. Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

We start at the most important part, which no doubt has to deal with food.

Perhaps the most missed possession of mine, it has been cleaned, reassembled, and put back into action. The journey was a bit harsh and it’s not as prime a piece as it once was, but it sure as hell still cooks well, and that’s what matters most.

The next photos are of the kitchen, before and after.

No big changes, just made room for the wire shelves on the floor between the stove and the cabinet. This was necessary as the entire kitchen has only one drawer and the pantry (not pictured) is in an odd place and I’m sure how much I’ll use it. I also realized quickly that the shelf above the stove was not secure to the wall brackets, the wood piece was simply sitting on the brackets, so that was fixed also.

On to the master bedroom.

I wanted to keep things simple, and Summer and I found the shelves you see in the second picture and thought they’d be a nice addition. This lead to a few interesting discoveries about the house’s construction. First, the drywall flakes like mad when driving a screw into it, even by hand. Second, on any outside wall, about a half inch under the drywall, there is some material that I couldn’t drive a screw or nail into, or drill into. I have no idea what it is, but I thought better to leave it alone. As a result, the shelves proved to be well, a challenge to hang and it wasn’t helped by the fact that they aren’t that well designed. They look great now that they are up though.

Full bathroom, before and after.

Instead of spending money on more curtains, we came up with the idea of cutting a spare opaque shower curtain to fit the window and hung it with a tension rod in the window. The bottom half of the window glass is opaque, but that wasn’t enough for me. When walking up to the window in the backyard I could almost read large labels of anything on the window ledge through the window. Not that I expect to have people walking up to the window when I’m in the shower, but if they do, no show for them.

Next we have the smallest bedroom, which will be the office.

As you enter you are met with the Maryland wall.

Then there’s the now full bookshelf.

Not pictured is the black table I have in the center of the room directly under the light. I painted the light housing white again, as colorful as it once was, and removed the fan blades. The fan, even at low speeds, seemed ready to pull itself right out of the ceiling when turned on, and my limited investigation of the problem didn’t yield any straightforward solution. So for now, no fan. The blades are also repainted for if and when I want to throw them up there again.

Next we have the second bedroom aka the pink carpet room aka the cat room.

Outside on the hallway wall, there is some lovely automotive decor and a closet across from it which houses some… not quite as lovely automotive decor.

The closet was perfect for all the extra car parts and tools, so why not?

Now on the main room, the living/dining area, as it is called, before and after.

Different views yes, so to orient you I will point out that the TV and stand is on the same wall as the door at the far end of the ‘before’ picture.

Here are some shots looking into the dining room where you can see the curtains and such.

The window is about 14 feet long and it took three pairs of normal size curtains to fit the width.
The vertical blinds that were previously present had been beaten up a bit (the previous tenant had three young children and a dog in the house) and wouldn’t open or close well at all. When closed, they didn’t do well at blocking the incoming light and it got noticeably hot if you stood near the window for a few minutes during midday. The curtains worked out quite well though, as Target had some inexpensive options. I didn’t want to spend a lot because I knew the cats might poke holes in them, and they have. One will be walking on the window sill behind the curtains and the other will feel the need to attack the silhouette. I never said they were the brightest kids, but I think the curtains will hold up well enough and long enough for me to get my money’s worth.

Here’s a closer shot of the dining area slash alcohol corner.

Why ‘alcohol corner’? I don’t have fine china to put in this built in shelf for which I do not know the appropriate name and I’m not in the market for expensive dishware. Thus, it will house my shot glasses, wine glasses, other glassware, and whatever liquor bottles will fit, since the shelves are not adjustable or particularly tall. Then of course, for a touch of class (maybe that’s pushing it), there’s the wine rack, which isn’t quite full. Yet.

Also in the dining room is the arrangement of black and white photos that I used to have in my bedroom at the Columbia apartments and another view of the kitchen.

I like having this back again since, for those that don’t know, I shot (except for my portrait) each of these in black and white and printed them by hand in the darkroom. I’m already planning another, similar wall at the other end of the window, though it is very likely I won’t be printing those prints by hand. The other view of the kitchen completes the tour.

I don’t have any other big plans really. The backyard needs some cleaning up after the previous tenants dog and there’s a couple odds and ends to fix, but I’m really not planning any big furniture additions, any paint, or any other big changes.

I got the keys to the house today.

More pics are here with more coming after I finish moving in.

Yes, moving is getting old (this will be the third time this year), but I’m convinced that this is really worth it, and I won’t be moving again for at least a year. It’s not that there is anything all that wrong with the place now besides it being somewhat small, my only real complaint is the construction noise that starts across the street at, on a good day, 6:00am. Not fun. I’d been cruising the good old Craigslist and realizing that I could rent a house or town home for not much more than I was paying for this 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. So I responded to some ads, posted an ‘in search of’ ad of my own, and off I went.

I got a three bedroom, one and a half bath house in the north/central part of the city; actually a bit southeast of where I am now. It’s pretty nice, the third bedroom is small and will make a perfect office so I can stop killing my back sitting on the futon or the dining room chairs while I work. There’s a nice backyard also and while I probably won’t do much with it, it’s nice to have. I can do nothing more than have a space for the grill and be perfectly happy with it. The place also has carports, enough for two cars actually, and plenty of room to wash ‘em up. The inside is nice as well, it’s all one floor, the layout is nice, and there’s plenty of space. What else can I say? I’m stoked and can’t wait for mid-November.