Closing confussion

The current owners of the house had requested a closing date of August 21. We were told that they chose a closing date before we could move in to be nice to us, so that we could lock in a better rate for our mortgage. Fine, no problem, they are going to rent the house back from us for the remaining weeks that they need to stay in the house while they close on their new house. Not a big deal to us.

This week we got notification from our Realtor that now they want to push the closing date up by 2 weeks, mind you they had picked the original closing date with a 45 day escrow. Apparently they didn't really do their homework on whether or not they could hold on to their old house and still purchase their new house, something they had insisted that they could do. They made a point initially that they didn't need to sell their current house in order to buy their new house. They went so far as to say that if no one went up the $5,000 ($4,500 in our case) that they simply weren't going to sell their house and would rent it out instead.

Well, as they say only time will tell, right? Turns out that this week they found out that in order to close on their new house they need to either close on their current house earlier than they thought necessary or have a lease in hand for their current house. Unless they meet one of those conditions apparently they will be unable to close on their new house.

We went ahead and quickly found out what it would cost us to be able to close 2 weeks earlier and sent them our "demands" at the end of the week. Now all we have to do is wait to see if they are willing to "pay" to close early or not. Of course this means we get to sit here waiting to hear what they want to do, well at least we are still waiting for the results of our appraisal which happened last Monday too. Hopefully in the next few days we will hear about the appraisal as well as the closing date, if we don't hear soon about the closing date we are just going to assume the old date is the one we are sticking to. After all, we have things that we need to do and can't wait until the last second to find out if we need to liquidate assets that we are not currently working on liquidating.

Electrical - wow

During our inspection we learned that although there were three pronged outlets throughout the house the ones in the original structure were not actually grounded. This led us to request that GFCIs be put in the areas required by law as well as asking them to ground the outlets throughout the house. When the handyman showed up to give the current owners an estimate on the work to be done they were told the whole house would need to be rewired in order for the outlets to be grounded. This would include ripping open the walls which would be very costly as the tile in the kitchen and bathroom are vintage (original to the house from 1948) and therefore we could not simply replace the tiles that are damaged, but would have to retile everything. He quoted a reasonable price for the GFCI outlets, however without the outlets first being grounded they won't work the way they are intended. All this being said there was a little good news for us, there is a grounded outlet in the living room behind where their TV currently lives and the West wall of the North bedroom is also grounded.

Once we get in the house I can take a better look at the electrical myself and see if I can ground the outlets myself or if that is just not in the cards for us, this will depend on a number of things like what kind of wiring we have in the house. I'm hoping that we can find a way to ground the outlets without having to rip open the walls, because that would take us some time to be able to do. If that is the only way then we would hold off on at least the kitchen and bathroom until we are ready to remodel them since that would mean having to retile anyhow.

Lighting idea for the staircase in the backyard

I have always thought that sun jars were really quite attractive to look at in their simple understated elegance, but honestly couldn't figure out what to do with just one since they are too expensive for me to justify buying more than one sun jar. Then the other day my husband found a Do-It-Yourself tutorial on making your own sun jars for a fraction of the cost of store bought sun jars. http://lifehacker.com/5315357/create-your-own-sun-jar-lifehacker-edition/gallery/


This tutorial got me thinking about where or how I might want to use multiple sun jars at the new house. Then it dawned on me that the new house has a staircase in the back yard leading up to the back door. The door is attached to the laundry room and the staircase itself is just outside the kitchen and breakfast nook areas. I was thinking that putting a sun jar on each of the steps might be a nice way to light the path to the door. One great thing about sun jars is that they turn themselves on when it gets dark out and they turn off either when it gets light out or they run out off juice (they are solar powered - they store energy from the sun). The only issue I still have to determine the solution to is that I will need to secure them to the stairs since we have a little one running around. I am thinking that some museum wax, gel or putty might do the trick to secure the sun jars to the steps but I will have to try to figure out what will hold the glass to the cement steps most securely. Otherwise maybe some heavy duty outdoor strength double-sided tape might work.

First purchases for the new house

Yesterday we walked out to an Estate Sale just up the road from our house where I found this great old Pyrex measuring cup for the new kitchen (my old one had a chip in the spout area that we have been afraid of cutting ourselves on). To make it even better I only paid $1 for it.





Then we walked out to our local Farmer's Market and in the flea market-like section we found this great old mirror covered in seashells. Some of the shells are a little broken and it is in far from perfect condition, but I love that about this mirror. I think it gives it a certain vintage feel that will probably make it look great in the main bathroom of the new house since that bathroom has the old original tile and cabinets. I thought it was a great find too for only $10, I honestly thought it would have been about $30 so when I saw that the tag said $10 we knew it was meant to be.



This is a picture of the bathroom that I am planning to put the old seashell mirror in. The mirror will go on the wall where the picture of the rose with the hooks below it is currently hanging. I have yet to decide what else would really add to the room. I guess I will either figure it out after we get settled into the new house or I'll know when I find something else I really love that goes with the vintage beach look that this mirror will help add to this bathroom.

We are buying our first home

I thought it might be fun to blog about our first home. This way all of our friends and family scattered all over the place can watch and see what is happening with our new home, besides I thought it might be fun to chronicle the adventures involved in purchasing our first home as well as getting settled in and decorating the house.

We found our house the other week and went into escrow a few days after we put in our offer (we were 1 of 3 offers). Last Wednesday afternoon we had our house inspection and it went fairly well, there were only minor things found which were mostly due to the age of the house. The house was built in 1948. The master suite was added on to the house in 2003 and the whole roof was re-shingled in 2003.

The house is considerably larger than the one we are currently renting so I know that I will have some purchases as well as just decorating cut out for me in the future. Of course I will do a little at a time, starting with furniture that we are missing. We will have a dining room as well as a breakfast nook, while we have only had 1 dining area in the past so another dining table and some more chairs will be needed. Eventually I will most likely replace some of the current lighting as well, it's all very nice but simply does not go with our furniture or our personal style. We will also need to add a daybed or bed(s) to the 3rd bedroom to make room for company to sleep when they visit (other than the sleeper sofa we currently have). I'm sure over time I will realize that there are many other little things we are deficient in, like another bookcase. What can a say 2 geeks and a little geeklet in one house, there never seem to be enough bookshelves in the house.

Anyhow, here is a picture of the backyard of our beautiful new home, well provided that the appraisal goes well and nothing weird happens at closing. I will post other pictures as I discuss the various rooms and how I am considering decorating them.