Construction Zone

Well, we've been here for a few weeks and are sort of settled in.  Because we are making some improvements, our house is basically a construction zone.  We are living in our master bedroom like a hotel suite...lol!  Luckily our master is a good size, 16 x 20, so there's plenty of room to live, even though there are still boxes everywhere.  Because of all the construction dust, we're even eating our meals on the card table in our room.



Master from East to West

Master from West to East (we moved the TV)

We had such a solid plan for renovations and moving into the house, but plans do not always work the way you plan them.  We closed on the house the end of January and planned to have renovations completed BEFORE we moved in March 1st.

This has been in our living room since we moved in

Tile removed from Kitchen and
 Kitchen Dining area

Laminate removed from Dining room




Bare subfloor

Underlayment

We removed and sold the carpet in most of the house, but we still had to deal with the tile in the kitchen and kitchen dining area, shown in picture titled underlayment and the laminate in the dining room.  We salvaged as much of the material as we could and sold it on craigslist.  Yes, as unbelieveable as it may seem craigslist even works out here in the middle of nowhere!

Larry chatting with the Bagster guy from WM

Since there is so much construction debris, we thought we needed a dumpster.  If you've ever priced dumpster rental, you know that it is super expensive. In our area, it costs about $800!!  Luckily, we found out about a service offered by Waste Management called BAGSTER that offered quite a savings.  You only pay for the debris you remove.  Basically, you buy the large bags at Home Depot or Lowes for about $30 each.  We needed two of them. Once they're full, you call Waste Management and they come pick up the bags.  It was $129 for the first bag and $109 for each additional bag.  With the $5 off coupon we found, it was $233...much better than $800!!



WM picks up the giant bag with their crane

Then the bag is placed  into the truck

Lid is opened and closed over the truck
to avoid flying debris

 We were quite amazed at how quick and easy the Bagster service was. I highly recommend it to anyone that has a landscaping or home improvement project.  If you under estimate the amount of debris you have (which is quite easy!) you can always go pick up an extra bag.

Max enjoying the glorious weather

Meanwhile, Max is settling in quite nicely.  He really likes his new school, and after 7 days, is on a well deserved 2 week spring vacation!

Stay tuned for further updates.  Once the kitchen and floors are complete, I'll do a comprehensive before and after post on the transformation.  So far, I must say, we are thrilled with the progress.

Cheers for now~
Marti

We Bought a House...Now What?

Max does the honors...we got the keys!

Well, now that the house is actually ours, the real work begins!  Although we absolutely LOVE~LOVE~LOVE this house, there are dozens of cosmetic changes we need to make!

Miles of Carpet...

The first order of business is the flooring.  Although the bank had installed all new carpeting and pads, it just wasn't for us.  Through the miracle of social networking, we found someone who was thrilled to take it off our hands and pay us a little money to boot!  I love the win-win of getting rid of something and transferring it to someone that is generally thrilled to have it!  Next step is getting hardwood floors and finding someone to install them!

 

 

Max exploring the kitchen cabinets

The kitchen has a great layout, but is in need of some updating.  Not loving the black grout and tiles accented with a duck hunting motif.  The cabinets will get a nice coat of paint/stain and we'll search for a contractor to install new counters and backsplash.

Dining Room

The light fixtures in the dining room as well as the eat in kitchen area are in need of some love.  I think I'll take on the project of taking them from outdated to fabulous...or at least outdated to unobtrusive...ha ha!  The dining room is unusual, so not exactly sure what we're going to do to make it our own, but we'll start with the brass lighting.

Master Bedroom..more miles of carpet here

Another area that needs attention is the master bedroom.  Buying a bank owned property is an unusual experience.  The previous owners took a lot of the finishings and fixtures with them.  There was some sort of mantle or surround around the fireplace, that was removed.  Although the bank added a fresh coat of paint to the entire house, you can tell there's just something missing here.  We've removed the brick hearth as the bricks were all loose anyway.  We'll be adding a new hearth with some sort of tile surround and mantle.  I think I'll also paint the ceiling fan white so it doesn't stand out so much.

These are the initial changes we're planning to tackle.  Stay tuned for further adventures!

Cheers~
Marti

We Just Bought a House!

Homeowners Again!

Today was the day....January 26, 2013.  We signed the final mounds of paperwork and are once again Homeowners in every sense of the word.  We now have a house, and payments and responsibilities that go with it.

Fernando, Max & Larry signing the docs!

Fernando from our Harmony Escrow came over to our house in San Diego this morning.  He brought with him a few hundred papers to review and sign.  Although it took about an hour, it was a painless, straightforward and very easy experience!  

A pleasant Surprise!

When we finished signing, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our lender, Navy Federal, had enclosed a certificate congratulating us on our new home purchase and to let us know we had a $200 Gift Card on the Way!

Now we wait for the loan to fund and the title to record.  We should be getting keys to our new house next week!!!

Details, Details, Details

Larry & Marti~Long Beach~1998  in our 100 year old bungalow

It's been over 10 years since we bought a house and although the process seems easier than last time, I had forgotten what a pain in the a$$ it is to buy a house!

Since we have a great relationship with our bank, Navy Federal, we went to them for our loan.  First slight glitch, the loan application referred to me as "Marth" Lindsey.  Geesh...I've done business with them for over 30 years, paid off 2 mortgages and they can't even get my name right?

Financing locked in, we put an offer on a new place in the West Antelope Valley.  Our offer was accepted and this is where the reams and reams of paperwork really began.  We had a packet of papers titled "Escrow Instructions" that was 20 pages of tiny point font...each needed to be reviewed and signed and/or initialed.

Larry signing the first of many batches of paperwork!

Yippee, now we can open escrow!  We received the escrow paperwork and the next little glitch was that my last name was misspelled on this set of documents.  I guess they just wanted to make sure we were paying attention!  Now with names correctly spelled, we needed to read and sign and/or initial the 64 page Escrow Package!

Meanwhile, our bank is asking for A LOT of stuff:  Please close your credit cards and get us zero balance letters.  How about statements from your investment accounts?  Wait, that's a screen print, how about an actual paper copy?  You're self employed, great...just need several years of tax returns and P&L statements from the business.  Wait...we don't like the information the way you presented it...can you give us the exact same info presented in this manner?  This is a drawn out process because the request is presented to us by the loan officer and papers go to the loan processor.  The credit committee or tax department or someone else needs to review the info and then the questions/answers are relayed back through the loan officer.  I feel like we have an entire brigade of people working behind the scenes for us!


OK...now for the silver lining!  We are buying a house that was foreclosed on.  This is not a short sale nor a foreclosure.  The term is a "REO" or Real Estate Owned Property for the bank.  All of the paperwork (hundreds of pages at this point) states that the property is "as-is".  When purchasing from an individual, this is just what it sounds like.  When you're buying from a bank, not really.

"As-is" Property in the West Antelope Valley

So far the bank has made the following improvements to the "as-is" property:

• Put on a new roof
• Installed a new Heating & Air Conditioning system
• Installed a new stainless steel dishwasher
• Installed a new stainless steel cook top
• Installed a new stainless steel trash compactor
• Installed a new stainless steel microwave
• Painted the interior and exterior of the house
• Installed new carpet throughout the 2700+ square foot house
• Inspected & Pumped the Septic System
• Inspected and mitigated (repaired) Termite Damage

The house has been inspected by numerous people and we have reports from all of them:  Real Estate Agent, Termite Guy, Well Company, Septic Guy, Home Appraiser, Certified Home Inspector.

Based on these reports, the bank has agreed to fix these additional items on the "as-is" house:

• Remove damaged cabinets from the garage
• Add stairs in the rear of house and repair stucco
• Replace electrical outlet and add cover
• Deliver a new load of Propane so the tank is full

Based on our experience so far, I would have to say that if you have to make a decision to buy a house from a person or a bank...buy a house from the bank!  They have no emotional attachments and realize that the property needs to meet certain criteria for the loan to fund.  There is no messing around...they just fix it.

I fully expect there to be more things to pop up before we close.  Although there are a lot of details and sooooo many papers to read, review and sign, the end result is a new home.  I have to admit that the thought of sorting through and packing up all of our belongings is a nightmare.  More on this later!

Cheers~
Marti

We're Taking the Plunge!

Our future house in the West Antelope Valley, CA

We're in escrow on this fabulous white house pictured above.....and everyone we know thinks we're nuts! 

View from our window in San Diego, CA

I need to take a few steps back for this all to make sense.  Currently we live in a fabulous house, on a quarter acre lot, with an amazing view, 5 minutes from downtown San Diego.  We have a giant picture window that looks over San Diego Bay to Coronado Island and to Mexico beyond.  We have a great yard with room for our trampoline & play structure with plenty of room for a large garden.  A small bay beach is right down the street.  Life is pretty good.

Max watering our yard, downtown San Diego in the back.

The main problem with our situation is that Larry, my husband, has been commuting to Kern County for the past few years.  Larry is a contractor whose role has morphed from mainly working from home to having to be on site with his customer....who happens to be 3-4 hours away.  In the past few years, he's gone from mostly being here with Max and me to traveling to a hotel in Bakersfield on Sunday...then driving to the oil fields an hour each way to work....returning exhausted on Thursday nights.  The separation simply isn't working for our family.

Max with his aide since KG, Alma, and pals Carlos & Caden.

The decision to move closer to Kern County wasn't an easy one.  We've been renting this amazing place for 8 years.  Our son, Max, has Down syndrome.  The services he receives at our neighborhood school are extraordinary.  Cabrillo is a small K-4 school with a few hundred kids...Max knows everyone and everyone knows Max.  He's in a regular class with the same kids he's been with since Kindergarten.  He has friends from school and connections made through the special needs community here in San Diego.  Like I said, life is good.

Max plays Miracle League baseball.

When you have a child with special needs, you're always looking towards the future.  Although life in San Diego is great, is it what's best for Max long term?  Although his school placement is ideal now, when he enters 5th grade, the situation will not be optimum.  What will Max do in High School and beyond?  When you start asking the BIG questions, your path leads in a different direction.

We need to set Max up for success long term.  We also need a better (hard to quantify better when you live in San Diego where we live) quality of life as a family.  The solution seemed to be moving towards Bakersfield.  The main problem with that is the air quality.  You simply do not move a medically fragile child to a place where he can't breathe the air.

So we spent a few months looking for someplace close enough for Larry to commute to work, but that had air you can breathe.  We looked in the Cuyama Valley, Lebec, Lockwood Valley,  Frazier Park and the West Antelope Valley.  Although they all had great attributes, the West Antelope Valley ended up being the best fit.

In the 'yard' with the Tehachapi Mountains in the background. 

We've looked at a lot of houses...some fabulous and some lacking.  We lost out on the house we thought was THE house, only to have the white house pictured at the top fall right into our plans.  Our plans to set Max up for the future...to have a nice place to live with enough acreage to grow some sort of 'low maintenance'  crop on the land. 

It looks like we found our solution.  Join us for future updates to our home, land, Max's life and our further adventures n the Antelope Valley!

Cheers~
Marti