So.....we are in the process of closing on our record breaking 3 week closing. (They want to be in on Aug 12th).
Inspection - Done - all came out okay and we can fix the four things they want for $25 bucks (Thanks Bob!!)
Appraisal - Done- Have not heard anything yet so hopefully that means good
Termite inspection - Stupid bug shelters - Here is the story
When we bought the house 4 years ago, a man named John P inspected our house and commented on his form that "OLD termite shelters had been found on the S.W wall of the N. Crawl space." His recommendation was "No treatment needed" because there was "Evidence that treatment had been given by holes drilled in floor on front stoop".
Our realtor made no big deal out of it and neither did we - No bugs found -the inspector said you're good to go.
Flash forward to yesterday. A gentleman came to inspect our house and found 'Termite Shelters" on the South West Floor joist in our crawl space. No bugs were found, just 'evidence' that bugs were there, and 'evidence of damage'. NO big deal right? That is the same thing the last guy found. Well, this guy is recommending treatment to the tune of $1600. And....it's the same guy who owns the same company who inspected four years ago!!!!
What floors me is that when we re-did our kitchen and knocked a wall out, the sub floor was pretty badly damaged and so we replaced it all. Now we have new joists and sub floor. The stuff before - the stuff he inspected and was damage 4 years ago which he did not write in his report - is now all nice and new.
Bob and I have been down there looking and all we can find is one shelter that is about 1.5 inches long. (He marked on his sheet the entire wall area had shelters) Now don't get me wrong, if there are termites there, we need to pay to have it cleaned up. I am not trying to get out of that. What upsets me is that a few months ago a house was bought in a neighboring town and it passed home inspection and termite inspection. A month or so later Termites were found and the house had to be knocked down because of the damage. Needless to say there are a lot of lawsuits going on for that one and everyone is worried and now recommending treatment.
We don't think this is going to scare the buyers away, but you never know! UGGGh It's amazing how powerful the inspectors pen can be just by what he writes....he can stop this deal dead in it's track by a careless lack of explanation. So.....if you bought your house, and had old shelters when you bought it, get down there and knock them off now so you don't forget before you sell it. FRUSTRATION!!!!!!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Chim-chim-a-nee
That was an attempt at the Mary Poppins show where they are all climbing on the roof and singing and dancing. That's where Bob and I were this weekend, on the roof, but we were not dancing. We bought chicken wire and fixed the screen that surrounds our chimney to keep animals out. Both of us are afraid of heights, so to be standing on the roof, on a ladder propped up by two boards and supported on the low side by Bob was a bit scary for me. But we got it done and checked it off our list of home repairs. Only two more to go.
We bought all the supplies to mount the outlet flush in the wall, but it is going to require that we crawl (or shimmy) in our crawl space to run a wire up a wall and to the new location. Not looking forward to that, but the new owners wont let us drop the box into the crawlspace like we asked.....so....we'll be crawling with the bugs next weekend. Oh joy.
On a bright side I realized that it will only cost us $25 in materials to fix everything they wanted. Granted, we had to risk our lives on the roof, and get over the arachnophobia of our crawlspace, but at least it's cheap.
I could not find the pictures to post of the kitchen like I said in my last post, so here are some pictures of our painted paneled room. We should have done this much sooner than we did.
Homeowners tip: You can paint paneling, you don't need to sand it, just use a primer.
The stripes below are from a brush to fill in the grooves, then we used the roller to cover the rest.
We did this project over a week. Painted one wall each night when we got home from work. Used some extra paint in the process, but it worked out pretty well.
I was going for an accent wall, and did not like the green once it was on the wall, so we changed.
Decided on Cayenne instead of hunter green.
We really should have done this earlier.....very dramatic change in the room for a cheap cost.
We bought all the supplies to mount the outlet flush in the wall, but it is going to require that we crawl (or shimmy) in our crawl space to run a wire up a wall and to the new location. Not looking forward to that, but the new owners wont let us drop the box into the crawlspace like we asked.....so....we'll be crawling with the bugs next weekend. Oh joy.
On a bright side I realized that it will only cost us $25 in materials to fix everything they wanted. Granted, we had to risk our lives on the roof, and get over the arachnophobia of our crawlspace, but at least it's cheap.
I could not find the pictures to post of the kitchen like I said in my last post, so here are some pictures of our painted paneled room. We should have done this much sooner than we did.
Homeowners tip: You can paint paneling, you don't need to sand it, just use a primer.
The stripes below are from a brush to fill in the grooves, then we used the roller to cover the rest.
We did this project over a week. Painted one wall each night when we got home from work. Used some extra paint in the process, but it worked out pretty well.
I was going for an accent wall, and did not like the green once it was on the wall, so we changed.
Decided on Cayenne instead of hunter green.
We really should have done this earlier.....very dramatic change in the room for a cheap cost.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Ms. Fix It
Lets play a game.
Can you guess what this is a picture of?
(No, not the paperclip....the thing next to it. )
I'll give you 3 guesses
a.) part of my sneaker that fell off
b.) a moon rock from Mars
c.) the reason that for the last 3.5 years I have had sucky hot water pressure at my kitchen sink and have hated washing my dishes with a wimpy stream of sorta hot water coming out of the faucet!
I am guessing you already figured by my tone that the answer is c.
Here is how I found my mystery piece of plastic. We had our home inspection done and the first 3 of the 4 items turned out to be easy fixes. They were the following:
1. Replace missing screen around chimney - how often does one go up on the roof and notice that there is a 6 inch hole on one side of the screen? Not very often, but Bob and I will be up there this weekend securing some chicken wire around that hole.
2. Electrical outlets in dinning room are reverse polarity - Hmmm..that's odd....found out this is not really a big deal unless you are plugging in a surge protector and super complex electrical items. Thanks to that great WWW we confirmed it was just a mater of switching some wires. Black goes to copper and Red goes to silver on the outlet....too bad all our wires are black...that will just take a bit more time.
3. Low hot water pressure in kitchen sink , so low that the sprayer would not turn on. - This is something that I have learned to live with. We redid the kitchen 3.5 years ago (I'll post those pictures next) and ever since, the flow of hot water sucked from that faucet. I remember the first month I hated the fact that my soap would not suds because the stream of hot water would not create any bubbles. I just learned to live with it. It was a brand new faucet so we thought it was some big piping thing and would cost lots of money to fix. Today it took me one alan wrench, a pair of robogrips, and 3 minuets to fix it. 3 FREAKING MINUTES AND I DEALT WITH THIS FOR 3.5 YEARS!! Come on! We are Mr. and Mrs. home improvement why on earth did we not think of this before now! We've laid tiled floors, grouted showers, laid wood floors,seated toilets and even sweated some of the main copper pluming in our guest bathroom. And we didn't think to take the facet apart and see if something was blocking it? Okay, i am over it, thanks for listening.
4. Electrical box in lower level needs to be flush mounted to the wall. - This is the one that might prove difficult. We used to have a bar downstairs and removed it. There is an electrical box coming out of the floor by the wall that used to be inside the bar cabinet. We are hoping they will let us drop it down into the crawl space and secure it there. Otherwise we are going to have to cut a hole in the paneled/plastered wall, re route the wire through a different spot on the floor and probably call a profe$$ional to do it. We are waiting on the call back to just drop the box.
I just got done washing dishes....I had hot water pressure...life is good.
Can you guess what this is a picture of?
(No, not the paperclip....the thing next to it. )
I'll give you 3 guesses
a.) part of my sneaker that fell off
b.) a moon rock from Mars
c.) the reason that for the last 3.5 years I have had sucky hot water pressure at my kitchen sink and have hated washing my dishes with a wimpy stream of sorta hot water coming out of the faucet!
I am guessing you already figured by my tone that the answer is c.
Here is how I found my mystery piece of plastic. We had our home inspection done and the first 3 of the 4 items turned out to be easy fixes. They were the following:
1. Replace missing screen around chimney - how often does one go up on the roof and notice that there is a 6 inch hole on one side of the screen? Not very often, but Bob and I will be up there this weekend securing some chicken wire around that hole.
2. Electrical outlets in dinning room are reverse polarity - Hmmm..that's odd....found out this is not really a big deal unless you are plugging in a surge protector and super complex electrical items. Thanks to that great WWW we confirmed it was just a mater of switching some wires. Black goes to copper and Red goes to silver on the outlet....too bad all our wires are black...that will just take a bit more time.
3. Low hot water pressure in kitchen sink , so low that the sprayer would not turn on. - This is something that I have learned to live with. We redid the kitchen 3.5 years ago (I'll post those pictures next) and ever since, the flow of hot water sucked from that faucet. I remember the first month I hated the fact that my soap would not suds because the stream of hot water would not create any bubbles. I just learned to live with it. It was a brand new faucet so we thought it was some big piping thing and would cost lots of money to fix. Today it took me one alan wrench, a pair of robogrips, and 3 minuets to fix it. 3 FREAKING MINUTES AND I DEALT WITH THIS FOR 3.5 YEARS!! Come on! We are Mr. and Mrs. home improvement why on earth did we not think of this before now! We've laid tiled floors, grouted showers, laid wood floors,seated toilets and even sweated some of the main copper pluming in our guest bathroom. And we didn't think to take the facet apart and see if something was blocking it? Okay, i am over it, thanks for listening.
4. Electrical box in lower level needs to be flush mounted to the wall. - This is the one that might prove difficult. We used to have a bar downstairs and removed it. There is an electrical box coming out of the floor by the wall that used to be inside the bar cabinet. We are hoping they will let us drop it down into the crawl space and secure it there. Otherwise we are going to have to cut a hole in the paneled/plastered wall, re route the wire through a different spot on the floor and probably call a profe$$ional to do it. We are waiting on the call back to just drop the box.
I just got done washing dishes....I had hot water pressure...life is good.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Stretching
Can you put your left ear to your left shoulder?
Watch this while you try.....:)
(I found out my camera takes videos but these are not very good quality, and we found out you can't rotate them like you can pictures, but Kevin and Kristy need to watch this....It's too bad you don't have sound....)
I think we have a new activity this Thanksgiving...
Watch this while you try.....:)
(I found out my camera takes videos but these are not very good quality, and we found out you can't rotate them like you can pictures, but Kevin and Kristy need to watch this....It's too bad you don't have sound....)
I think we have a new activity this Thanksgiving...
Sorry for the kink in your neck now...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
100 push ups
So, my brother was trying this program where after 6 weeks you can do 100 pushups in a row. hundredpushups.com . Bob and I started on Tuesday and my shoulders are sore today....I am a wuss! The program does looks pretty easy so I'll keep trying.
Three days a week (MWF) with a day of rest between each session
Do 4 sets of push ups each day
# of pushups depends on your level after the first test
I remember my days of playing volleyball at Bradley and how strong I was then.....I forgot how nice it was to be able to lift things and not really strain over it. If this program works out, I'll be strong by the time we move and have to be lifting and moving around all our boxes....I'll keep you updated.
p.s. that was the first time I used a link....hope it works
Three days a week (MWF) with a day of rest between each session
Do 4 sets of push ups each day
# of pushups depends on your level after the first test
I remember my days of playing volleyball at Bradley and how strong I was then.....I forgot how nice it was to be able to lift things and not really strain over it. If this program works out, I'll be strong by the time we move and have to be lifting and moving around all our boxes....I'll keep you updated.
p.s. that was the first time I used a link....hope it works
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Reminiscing...part 1
We are moving out of our house after 5 years. My parents were here last weekend and reminded us of all the things we have done to this place. We put in a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and laughs to improving our home. So......at Lisa's request, here come some pictures.
Here is a painting project in our spare room. It used to be our computer/den. Imagine two engineers trying to measure and tape off the grid, and agree. I had my way, but we ended up doing it Bob's way and it worked out okay.....:)
(We were not done painting the door white...that's why it looks bad in the picture.
We have also learned a lot through different projects.
1. Peeling paint on the ceiling does not mean old paint......it could mean water damage from the upstairs bathroom.
2. We suck at drywalling. (especially when your house is made with some funky dimension of plaster board, not the standard 1/4 inch drywall.)
3. You can cover a bad drywall job with textured paint on your ceiling but it sucks!! (We bought the kind you mix into paint and then 'easily roll on with a roller'. They lie....don't bother trying it. )
I'll keep posting more of our fun remodel jobs...stay tuned
Here is a painting project in our spare room. It used to be our computer/den. Imagine two engineers trying to measure and tape off the grid, and agree. I had my way, but we ended up doing it Bob's way and it worked out okay.....:)
(We were not done painting the door white...that's why it looks bad in the picture.
We have also learned a lot through different projects.
1. Peeling paint on the ceiling does not mean old paint......it could mean water damage from the upstairs bathroom.
2. We suck at drywalling. (especially when your house is made with some funky dimension of plaster board, not the standard 1/4 inch drywall.)
3. You can cover a bad drywall job with textured paint on your ceiling but it sucks!! (We bought the kind you mix into paint and then 'easily roll on with a roller'. They lie....don't bother trying it. )
I'll keep posting more of our fun remodel jobs...stay tuned
Monday, July 21, 2008
Let's make a deal
It's funny how everyone plays that game when buying a house. Why can't it be like a store.....Here is the price, pick out what you like and then come and pay what is on the price tag. But I know when I am on the other end, I am going to want to wheel and deel as well.
Anyway....as of 9:30 last night....it's a deal! (As long as the moving company can move us out by Aug 12th). We also need to find a furnished place to stay for up to 6 weeks. The details will work themselves out, I am just greatful to have the thing sold.
God's hand has definitly been involved in this one. We prayed that doors would be open and shut and we would know where we were supposed to go and that definitly happened. (Although Jennifer and I probably really prefered one of those doors stayed open:>) The other big one was why our house was on the market as long as it was. (I know the market is slow right now, and I am biased toward my house, but...) We have had it listed since March and every realtor that came through (over 20 showings) commented that it was a great house and there was little that could be done to improve it. (I watched a lot of HGTV when I was traveling to Tifton and knew 'How to Sell your House', 'Designed to Sell', and all the other how-to shows on staging, decorating, painting, etc for when your house was on the market) Well as it turns out, guess who bought our house? It's a new pastor and his wife that are moving in to town. Perhaps God was saving it for them.
Either way, now it will be a whirlwind of details that need to come together to get us out by the 12th, but I have faith....:)
Anyway....as of 9:30 last night....it's a deal! (As long as the moving company can move us out by Aug 12th). We also need to find a furnished place to stay for up to 6 weeks. The details will work themselves out, I am just greatful to have the thing sold.
God's hand has definitly been involved in this one. We prayed that doors would be open and shut and we would know where we were supposed to go and that definitly happened. (Although Jennifer and I probably really prefered one of those doors stayed open:>) The other big one was why our house was on the market as long as it was. (I know the market is slow right now, and I am biased toward my house, but...) We have had it listed since March and every realtor that came through (over 20 showings) commented that it was a great house and there was little that could be done to improve it. (I watched a lot of HGTV when I was traveling to Tifton and knew 'How to Sell your House', 'Designed to Sell', and all the other how-to shows on staging, decorating, painting, etc for when your house was on the market) Well as it turns out, guess who bought our house? It's a new pastor and his wife that are moving in to town. Perhaps God was saving it for them.
Either way, now it will be a whirlwind of details that need to come together to get us out by the 12th, but I have faith....:)
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