Fun and Frolic With Long-Term Love

House update: Paperwork all signed and we are under contract. PunkRockAwesomesauce has Thursday off of work this coming week, so we scheduled the home inspection for then at 8 am. Our contractor friend is actually going there today to check out the foundation around the basement window we want changed into an egress window. He wants to be able to give me a ballpark figure, better than $2000-$5000. Lol I also asked him for a recommendation for an electrician, and I now have a number to call on Monday for that - many of the outlets in the house aren't grounded and we will probably have to drop wires for those. I want a quote for that too. :)
 
Congrats! How exciting.
 
Today was truly a good day. :)

I just got back from seeing Fantastic Beasts with PunkRock, my son, my oldest daughter and her boyfriend. The theater was full, so just my husband and I were on one side of the room, and the kids were on the other. (I say kids but they're all 25-27 years old!) I was really glad to be back in the magical world of Harry Potter, but without going into spoilerish details, I though the movie was shitty. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it was not good.

Um, but it was happy to be out with most of my family! DarkKnight was on call for work so he couldn't go, and my youngest didn't want to go for some reason.

What made the entire experience more fun was that the hour before leaving, we hadn't really decided to go, and instead played a game together called Lifeboat. It was SUCH a good time. It was new to most everyone, though we have owned it for a while. I hadn't played in quite a bit. But everyone immediately got into stealing provisions, throwing specific people overboard (mostly it was me going for a swim!) and jockeying for position in the boat. It was great, because most new players approach it cautiously and it usually takes the second game for them to get into rocking the boat. Not this group. Much shouting and outrage and gales of laughter was to be had. Then, all of a sudden, we need to end the game and race to the theater, and we arrive just as the previews were starting.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and amazing and DarkKnight did SUCH a good job on the cooking. My mother-in-law was friendly and talkative and it was so fucking weird. DarkKnight said he felt like she had missed him. Apparently after talking on the phone with him the other night, her and her husband immediately drove over to see the house we are buying. I was not surprised by this in the least.

I am sad my daughter is leaving tomorrow, and I wish PunkRock had another day off of work. I think I will be home all day because DarkKnight will still be on call, and my youngest has already asked to borrow my car for several hours to hang out with friends. I did a crap ton of packing this morning, but I figure I could use the time to do more tomorrow, so why not let her go? :)
 
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Yay! You got the house! I was catching up reading and hoping post after post that you'd get it. We have a '62 ranch, only partly updated in the '80's. Just love it. Congrats!
 
Today as been rather low key. My oldest daughter left for NY and my youngest is out with my car and her friends. PunkRock is at work, and DarkKnight and so are in the basement right now - he is packing up some of his classic Transformers toys, and ainam playing with the mama cat and her kittens.

Mostly I'm on Pinterest, checking out design ideas on the house. :) DarkKnight and ainare in agreement that since his bedroom and his office are separated by just a wall with two closets between, we are going to put a secret panel in the back of the bedroom closet and build out the other to make a passageway. He's excited to have a secret door, by even more so because I found some building plans and pictures to make the entrance from his office look like a Tardis from Dr. Who. I swear, he is such a huge nerd, as soon as I saw it, I thought it would be perfect for him! It makes me happy to be able to plan something fun for him in our new house together. <3 Of course, it isn't high on the priority list, but it is definitely a to-do!
 
Thanks Cindie, and you too, Mags! Yes, it is the 1950s ranch with the green kitchen. My Pinterest is now FULL of inspiration and ideas. :) It's rather a non-descript sort of ranch, but I am definitely looking forward to putting our own stamp on things. I love mid century modern and I am planning changes to the exterior to reflect that style. Of course I can't afford to do it all at once, but it's fun to plan out!

The house is in the same city we live now, but on the other side of town. It's on a short curved street that seems to be pretty private - there is zero reason for anyone to drive down it unless they live there. Because it curves, I can't imagine anyone getting up to any sort of speed there either.

The only negative that I can see about the outside is that we have no garage. The driveway can park two cars though, and it is short for when it comes time to dig out snow! Plenty of street parking too. Also, there is a lot of private, closed off space in the basement to store all my off-season supplies and decorations, and the tools and such the guys use. There are two super small storage sheds in the backyard - one that is tall and wide enough to put shovels, takes and other hand tools in - and the other is a chest just large enough to hold a hose and maybe some gardening implements. We have plenty of room to put in a bigger shed later though.

My contractor friend hasn't given me a specific estimate yet on the egress window, but he has said it will be closer to $2,000-$3,000 than the higher end of things. Apparently the window we chose is not situated near any water or gas lines, there's access and space to get an excavator into that part of the backyard, and the grading is good already. He needs a better picture of the window inside and he's going to go price out windows for me, so hopefully by the weekend he'll have a good quote for us. $2000 we can handle. Appliances are number one on our list, followed by the electrical work and then the egress window. We already know which appliances we want but we may scale down depending on how much the other two things come to cost. If the electric is too high, we may skip this house altogether! None of us are thinking that negatively though - the estimates we have seen online seem do-able.
 
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Here's the house. Isn't it just the cutest? :) It's 2200 square feet - it looks small but it isn't. :)

The main thing that would be a full stop for us now is the electrical. The panel is supposedly newer, 200 amps with breakers. So that doesn't sound like it needs an upgrade. The additions on the house - the sunporch, the garage and the basement - all have 3 prong outlets. However, I have no idea at this point if they are truly grounded. So those need tested. Hopefully they are good! The rest of the house is just full of 2 prong outlets, so all of those need to be upgraded and properly grounded. Good news there, I think, is that the electrical panel is in the basement, so dropping new wire doesn't actually mean tearing out drywall since the house is a ranch and the outlets are located along the floor. So that should save money. That said, DarkKnight also wants a quote for putting an overhead light in one bedroom, and PunkRock asked me to request the garbage disposal switch be relocated along the wall - right now it's on a cabinet and kind of awkward.

The internet has told me that prices range from $6600 to $12000 for a house rewiring but that range is so wide I have no idea where we would come in at. $12000 we would walk away. We just can't swing that in one go and we can find a house in our price range without having to pay that. $7000 we could make a case for it, but the egress window would be pushed back to April or May, prolly.

I am waiting for it to be 8 am to call and see if we can get an electrician to come out on Thursday, right after the inspection is scheduled to be done.
 
Is that 2200 feet including a finished basement? That is what our is, 1000 ft up, 1000 ft down. It looks like your sunporch used to be the garage?
 
Oh man.... ceiling lights in ALL the rooms is one of my must haves in future house. If the house doesn't have them, inset lights will have to be installed. I HATE having to rely on turning on a bunch of lamps in a room for lighting. HATE HATE HATE. lol.

So Excited to see the progress reports. All of this makes me want to hurry up and buy a house!
 
The 2200 does include the finished basement. The sunporch is a small room off the main kitchen. The garage has been turned into a den, but I plan to use it as my classroom, if I continue to teach science out of my home. That's the plan for now, anyway!

The ceiling lighting thing - it isn't really an issue as we are used to it. Our current rental's living room doesn't have an overhead light, but the switch is wired to a nearby outlet, so when we enter the room, we just flick the switch and the lamp we have plugged in pops on. The bedrooms in this new house seem to have all wired switches, except for one, which is the one DarkKnight is requesting an overhead be installed. Maybe it will be cheaper to do another wired switch - I don't think he would mind either.

This morning I have been doing a lot of reading about the deed & title to a house, which we know is going to be something we have to hash out. We've had some discussions but nothing has been agreed upon at this moment. The mortgage broker did ask me if I intended to be on the title. At this point, I am unsure as to what will be the best option. The mortgage note will ONLY be DarkKnight. Title in this case means ownership, and we need to really hash out how that will be handled with a real estate attorney. That will happen in January, but I am still reading things now to be prepared.

Joint Tenancy with Rights of Survivorship means that with all 3 of us on the title, we all officially own the house equally. If one should pass away, the other two just absorb the dead person's share. No will is required, the survivors just file a death certificate and things go on as normal. When the 2nd person passes, the last absorbs that share, and then when the last passes, then the house is dealt with in a will.

The down part of having JTWROS is that there may be tax consequences. By doing it that way, DarkKnight would be effectively gifting 1/3 of the value of the house to me, and 1/3 to PunkRock, and we might have tax complications from that. Also, PunkRock has two credit card charge offs that may turn into judgments in the next couple of months, and if that is the case, if he's on title, they could attach a lien on the house. We obviously don't want that to happen. The statute of limitations on these charge offs are March 2017, so after that he's all set we don't have to worry about him being sued. But, since we are closing at the end of January, adding him to title then could open a can of worms.

Apparently we can change the title at any time by amending it, and paying like $50-$100. So we may end up titling one way, and then changing it later, after time passes. However, it might make more sense for tax reasons to just leave DarkKnight as the sole owner on the title and just get a document drawn up that splits ownership the way we want it, elsewhere. However, that can have tax implications as well - PunkRock and I wouldn't be able to deduct any profits later if we sell our share, and we don't get the benefit of deducting payment interest, and creditors could accuse us of hiding assets.

So there's a lot to think about and structure, and in January we will really get this spelled out. After the first of the year, I will schedule that appointment.
 
Heard from the mortgage broker today - she is gathering together all the paperwork so she can do the official approval of the loan, now that we have a property attached to a contract. She said she'd send it electronically for DarkKnight to sign off on in the next couple of days.
 
Have you looked into a "family" trust? Wills have to go through probate and that can be a major difficulty for the heirs. It may also simplify taxes.

One poly article I read suggested incorporating your poly family, major purchases, like computers, go on the company tab for tax purposes (and sometimes discounts!)

You probably already know more about this than I, you are so thorough, but I just wanted to suggest.

Leetah
 
We looked back into creating an LLC waaaaay back a few years ago. It's definitely worth another read over. I think a trust might be something the real estate attorney suggests, but I guess we will have to see. I am open to all ideas, that's for sure.

I am anxious today as I have not heard anything back from the electrician. I left a message yesterday morning and then called again and didn't get an answer later that afternoon. I tried calling again and just got a machine. I messaged my friend who recommended him, and she said I should get used to contractors not calling back. She is probably right! Anyway, she said she talked to her husband and he is going to hunt the guy for me, as he is currently working a job with him. I told her it wasn't his responsibility, and I didn't expect that! He was still willing to do it though, because apparently this guy is very trustworthy, just in high demand at the moment.
 
I was awake super early this morning again, for no reason. Ugh.

Last night PunkRock and I had dinner out together at a Korean place in town. We hadn't been out in a bit and I wanted to try something new. He had mentioned this place before but we hadn't been able to visit prior. It was freaking amazeballs delicious. He had the bibimbap and I had the galbi. Yum! I was crazy horny for him but it was my night with DarkKnight. Anyway, when we got home we just talked about the new house and reconnected emotionally. We had sex that morning so I was ok not jumping his bones.

That said, I ended up not having sex with DarkKnight later, as he was in the process of getting sick when he came home from practice. THAT was frustrating. He and I haven't had sex since we were in NY! Well, I suppose that isn't fully true, as I did give him a nice blowjob while I was on my period. But he and I haven't done anything else in what feels like forever. We've talked about it too - we both have the desire but we seriously have been at cross-purposes time-wise lately. He is a miserable person when he is sick (no judgment because I am a crazy person when ill) so sex is probably off the table for even longer now. I know he wants me, poor guy - and poor me!

Things had actually gone cold for a few days with PunkRock prior to yesterday morning. We didn't have sex at all for a little while because my daughter and her boyfriend were here. So at least 5 days, I think. All I know is that I was totally ready yesterday! And once I have had sex - yeah, all day I was wanting more. I am thinking I am going to go slide into his sheets in a few minutes. He doesn't work today until 12:30, which is when my class starts.

Yes, today is my last astronomy class. Whoo hoo! I will still have quizzes to grade next week and I'm accepting makeup work until December 11. Then I will have to mail out transcripts. I seem to be all set for my Biology class in January. I raised the price, but the class is still full, and I actually am one student over. Deadline for paying the deposit is the 9th, so I can order the dissection specimens. I am not feeling motivated about teaching this again, but it's easy money, and I do enjoy the students. I have two students on a waiting list for Fall Chemistry classes, if I choose to keep teaching then. Gotta figure that out...

Edited to add more, rather than make an entire new post!

Things got shittier for my husband, so he ended up leaving work and coming up from the basement to go sleep off his sickness. Poor DarkKnight! He slept for a few hours and is now eating soup. Since he was feverish, I canceled my Astronomy class and sent all the notes to the kids electronically. I guess that is a good thing because a few minutes later I was up to my ass in alligators with house stuff!

The mortgage broker sent over the paperwork for the $5000 Maryland first time homebuyers deposit assistance. I had to print that off and fill out 14 pages. Thankfully, just as I was finishing up, DarkKnight came back downstairs for his soup, and he signed everything. So I am about to go drop that paperwork off. Then the electrician that was HIGHLY recommended to me called back and it turns out he is going to Canada for the next week or so, but he is available THIS AFTERNOON until 4:30. Well, that seems amazeballs since I am now free this afternoon. That said, I now can't seem to get in contact with the realtor to let us in the new house so that the electrician can get us a quote. I left the realtor a message on her work phone, her cell phone and through email. I'm like GAH! CALL ME BACK ALREADY! It's been about 45 minutes, so I guess I should chill but time is ticking away, and this electrician is waiting for me to get back to him. Fucking lovely! I guess I am going to chillax and take the paperwork to the mortgage broker and hopefully I will have a response by the time I am all through with that.
 
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House update:

The realtor called me just as soon as I posted, and I met up with the electrician and we went through the house together. The news was better than expected! All of the wiring is in excellent shape, the fuse box is more than adequate and all of the house additions - the sunporch, the garage & the basement - have outlets that are 3-prong, up to date and grounded. Everything in the house passes code right now except that the bathrooms and kitchen need GFCI outlets, which is a quick fix that both DarkKnight & PunkRock know how to swap out. The rest of the house has 2-prong outlets, but the wiring has just been wrapped inside - they are all grounded! So, again, it's just a matter of pulling out the old outlets and installing new ones - just dovetailing them into the existing wiring. None of the work requires a permit (which would have been a $180 charge itself).

So we don't need the electrician for any of that. We'll have to shell out for all the new outlets, but that is a small cost compared to re-wiring an entire house!

We are now waiting to get his quote emailed to us for some other things - we need a new outlet installed where the range is in the kitchen, as it is wired for an electric stove and we are getting a gas one; installing at least one wired smoke detector in the basement and on the main floor; and relocating the garbage disposal switch - which we aren't going to do immediately, as the electrician said the best time to do that would be when we put in new countertops.

Whoo hoo! I REALLY hope the actual home inspection is as lovely tomorrow morning. Ugh, 8 am. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the time is the worst thing about it! :)
 
Why would anyone go through the effort to re-wire the house and NOT change out the outlets? The basic 3 prong outlet runs about $0.50 each (bought in a 10 pack @ HD).
 
The whole house was set up like that in the 50s. I guess it was just the way things were done then? I dunno. I'm just happy it's something we can handle!
 
Ah - it was 1950's wiring with a ground added. Most of my 1950's wiring didn't have one. There was a ground from the box attached to a water pipe that didn't go into the ground until it went through the entire attic & garage first :rolleyes:. Lazyass contractors who do only exactly what they are told without knowing why, and therefore don't understand why something that doesn't follow the norm (all water pipes must go into the ground) might not work correctly.
 
We had the inspection today. $390. Money well spent - the guy took 4 hours to go through the house with PunkRock and I. We received the report a little after 4 pm. We talked it over together (we were at Quiznos) and then came home and I discussed things with DarkKnight. Tomorrow at 2 pm I will be taking to our realtor (she also received a copy of the report) to see how we want to proceed.

This report was SUCH a relief! The inspector was so very thorough - we not only got a 15 page document that he made notes on and checked stuff off on as he was going through the house, but an 18 page report with photos listing every single thing that the house needs done. Thankfully, none of it is major. The AC unit was the only thing he couldn't test, as it had been cold out previously. It did look good though. Every other major system was gold: the furnace, the hot water tank, the roof - it has architectural shingles and is only about 5-7 years old, the electric (he piggybacked and confirmed everything the electrician said, without me letting him know about where the defects were). Whew!

That said there are some serious but minor things that need to be addressed, and at this point we aren't sure which ones our lender will balk at and demand fixed prior to closing. Hopefully our realtor can guide us there. I do have a message from the loan officer telling me that she needs the check now to hire the appraiser to come this weekend or next week - again, I will handle that after the meeting with the realtor.

Let me see if I can remember some examples - we have 3-4 cracked windows that need replaced. The basement window sills are rotting and so those windows need replaced. The attic access window is complete shit and needs replaced. I think i mentioned earlier that the outlets in the kitchen and bathroom need to become GFI outlets - we can do that ourselves, but the lender will probably require those before we close. There are no smoke alarms or carbon monoxide detectors at all in the place. Oh, and the garage space that has been changed to a den, that I will use as a classroom for my business, has a separate heating/cooling unit and that doesn't work. FHA requires all interior rooms to have working heat/cool systems. Oh, and the basement staircase has balustrades that are too far apart. We don't have little kids, so we don't care, but the lender might.

So that is quite a list, but personally we could fix all that stuff ourselves. I think that's all going to be lender required things for the sellers to take care of.

There's more of course - the outside faucets for hoses need some sort of $4 attachment to prevent backflow, bushes need to be trimmed back, and there are some moisture concerns in the basement - not standing water, but some intrusion along one wall - that we already knew about. We think we traced it back to one outside rotting door threshold that has a small gap and I guess at some points water can enter and has entered and now this one wall in the basement has staining. Anyway, there were no big surprises and everything is stuff we can fix immediately ourselves or deal with over time. (Like, the bushes will be dealt with in the spring/summer when the weather cooperates!)

Today was a good day in that we still all feel great about the house.

This evening PunkRock and I took the kittens to the vet and they now have spay/neuter appointments next week and should be adoptable next weekend. Unfortunately, two of the babies have some strange hard nodules on their backs and so i need to take them in tomorrow to be evaluated. The clinic was like, wtf is this? Hopefully it isn't anything too terrible. It's Biscuit and Cheerio.

I need to do budgeting tomorrow so i will do that in the morning. My daughter says she is getting me an oil change tomorrow. I didn't ask her to, she just told me that she was. I asked her why and she said because she clearly has been using the car more than me. Which, actually is completely true. Lol So that will happen tomorrow.

Oh! My older daughter called me while I was at the cat clinic and she had just hit a deer with her car up in NY, asking me what she was supposed to do! She was ok, but she was shaken up. She had been coming to a stop at a stop sign so it was like at 20 mph. She hit and killed a doe. Banged up her bumper and took out her headlight. Luckily, a cop was behind her so she was already getting assistance. I told her to stop calling me first and instead phone her insurance company. Secretly though, I love that I am still her mommy and she always reaches out to me before anyone else in her life when she is upset. <3
 
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