My First Place

This blog has moved!

2008-08-13T13:28:00.001-04:00

My First Place columns can now be found on the new statesville.com:

http://www2.statesville.com/content/list/lifestyles/home/columnists/norman/

Back to summer

2008-06-16T12:46:00.003-04:00

We've made it a full year in our first house, and just like my grass, my blog posting seems to have died.

It was looking green and promising through early May. Then spring forgot to visit and summer beat my poor seedlings into a brown fuzz.

Speaking of droughts, the City of Statesville has lost its collective mind. Yes, Statesville may pull water from two sources, preventing drama when the Catawba River inevitably runs low. Why should we conserve? We have a backup - the Yadkin River.

What an awful way to think. I'm sure we would hate it if our neighbors up river decided they were going to be water gluttons at our expense. Sure, Charlotte should have planned better. Sure, there are always going to be people who insist that running their sprinklers in the middle of a heat-wave afternoon is their prerogative. But why should the city utilities encourage it?

It would be a lot easier to practice water conservation before it becomes necessity.

Foreclosure epidemic a blessing in disguise

2008-05-19T10:04:00.000-04:00

A single word strikes fear in the hearts of home owners and sellers across the country.

Foreclosure.

It was a blessing for us. Brad and I bought our home from a list of foreclosed properties on the Housing and Urban Development Web site. Our real estate agent said it came with “instant equity.”

For the first-time homebuyer, that sounded great.

But as house after house on our block empties and for sale signs linger for months, we worry about that equity.

Self-doubt set in as we wondered if we had made the right decision to buy.

We’re in a good spot.

We bought our house when lenders were more likely to give loans to those without down payments and with less established credit histories.

Despite advice to the contrary, we opted for a 30-year fixed mortgage rather than an adjustable rate mortgage.

Then we did something I think many people have a hard time doing: We purposely bought a house for less than we could afford.

Then the bubble burst.

We may have to stay in our home longer than expected. We may not see that magical “instant equity” touted in closing.

But there is a reason a home is considered a long-term investment.

Accepting that changed my entire attitude.

Instead of dreaming of a vegetable garden and flower beds when we move into our more permanent house, I’m brainstorming how to arrange our current yard. I’m taking time to meet the neighbors and wave at passers-by. I’m thinking of how the office can be a nursery and how we can add shelving to the garage.

It’s reassuring to know that we have a home in a small town that has opened its arms to us.

The foreclosure epidemic has forced this transplant to sink roots deep into Statesville’s soil.

Sunshine and sizzling meat

2008-05-05T16:27:00.002-04:00

Months of saving have come to fruition at the Norman house.

I'm a little worried about my meat consumption now that we have our own propane grill. It is way too easy to just grill up a chicken leg or chunk of dead cow.

We've had it for only three days and I've already experimented with zucchini (success) and portobello burgers (yum), too.

The best part of it all? I put the thing together all by my hard-headed self.

Wildlife

2008-04-30T08:39:00.001-04:00

It's not often you have to watch for wildlife when mowing your yard.

I pushed our lawn mower along the side of our garage yesterday afternoon and a small critter stopped me in my tracks. I just thank God I was paying even half attention or I would have chugged along completely unaware.

This little guy was just hanging out along the wall. He didn't move when I got close to him, and he only tried to fly when I got a bucket and some gloves to move him to a safer location out of our tall grass.

Where did he come from? There are no trees in our yard, at least not large enough to support a bird nest. I thought perhaps he fell from a nest in the garage gutter, but I didn't see any twigs and the like.

Once I was finished mowing the yard I returned the baby back to the side of the garage and called Animal Control for help. They referred me to a woman who rehabilitates and releases wildlife, but she wasn't home.

I went for a run and when I got back the little guy was gone. Our neighbor's children were in their yard being dive-bombed by a mama-bird. They said the little guy made it to their bushes.

Good. Mama will take care of him. He's in better hands than my own.

Spring-ananza II

2008-04-07T17:15:00.002-04:00

Now that's some nice looking grass! You may see red clay, but that little green fuzz is the beginning of something greener for our yard.

See my little sprouts?

Spring-ananza photos

2008-04-07T14:26:00.004-04:00

I keep promising photos, so here they are:

I went to town on some shrubbery. The first photo is of a small cherry bush I planted on the corner of the garage. The flowers were so beautiful, but the photo made it look like it would be more of a bush than a tree.

Either way, it's on my side of the garage, so I see it every time I pull in. (Oh, I also put a few perennials in old pots - you can see one of them in the bottom of the photo).

Bumps recommended we get a Yoshino cherry tree for the south facing yard. I found one for a good price, so in the south yard it went! She said they make beautiful canopies. Let's hope ours produces some leaves and I'll be happy!

Then I attacked the utility boxes. They are hideous and stick out even more because they are at eye-level from the street. I got some edging strips that don't require digging, then filled it in with pine mulch.

The flowers are perennials (notice my theme - I'd rather they come back each year than have to get more annuals). The shrubs closest and farthest from the street are lilac bushes, and the middle is a forsythia bush.

Then we attacked the dangerous rock piles used for drainage in the back yard. I attempted to spread out the rocks last fall but stopped when I saw two Black Widow spiders lurking around.

With a borrowed shovel in hand and a helpful husband, we spread out the rocks to form an edge along our back slope. It still retains soil, but instead of two large piles it is now almost like a babbling brook.

The big black spot is where I had to fill in the hole left over from the pile. Once grass grows there it'll be a little extra piece of yard!

Yard work!

2008-03-31T07:40:00.003-04:00

At spring's first hint of mild weather I sprinted to the home improvement store for gardening supplies.

Having no clue how to plant grass, I was motivated by the germinating seedlings on the north-side of the yard. I will not mow red dirt this summer.

After two trips to the store our yard started to take shape. Six Leyland Cypresses line the ridge of our back bank, and will hopefully provide a natural privacy screen in a few years. I also got a new hose attachment, more grass seed (it says it's drought resistant - we'll see), a container, mulch, potting soil and flowers.

The most instant gratification is on our front porch. I was scared to plant an azalea bush in the yard (after all, shrubbery is very permanent in my mind), so I planted it in a large container. I then put phlox and some other light purple flower in the bed lining the porch.

I still have a list of things, but the weather turned on me.

I want to get Brad a grill so we have a reason to go out on the patio. I also want to get a forsythia bush to hide the utility boxes in our front yard. The biggest to-do are trees. I want shade trees: one on the south and at least one on the west (back). Bumps recommended a certain kind of cherry tree, and I've also been looking at magnolias.

I'll post photos soon.

Just say no to shopping bags

2008-03-17T12:47:00.001-04:00

That’s my new mantra heading into the spring.

Recent stories describe the insane quantities of plastic bags consumers use and how they are almost impossible to get rid of (according to the Environmental Protection Agency, plastic bags can take 1,000 years to decompose).

So even if you reuse the mountains of bags as trash can liners or to dispose of cat waste as we do, they still end up in a hole where they’ll live well after I’m gone.

This week I jumped on the canvas bag bandwagon.

The only stores in Statesville where I’ve seen the canvas bags are Wal-Mart on Highway 21 and Bi-Lo on East Broad Street. They hang by the registers and are fairly reasonable (Wal-Mart’s are $1 each).

The bags have a square base and easily hold what three plastic bags would hold. A full-cart shopping trip last weekend resulted in five canvas bags – the same trip would have resulted in at least 10 plastic bags.

The bags also have a much longer handle, making it easier to throw a few on your shoulders with your purse. That is especially nice when you’re carrying groceries alone and don’t want to make multiple trips or cut off circulation to your fingers.

Even though stores sell them, it is obvious that the retail world is not ready for canvas bags.

The first bags I purchased were scanned by the cashier and tucked neatly in a plastic bag without hesitation. When I asked to use the bags, she looked puzzled.

I now go through self-checkouts. It’s not to avoid the cashiers, but so the cashiers can avoid me. Having worked at a Wal-Mart to pay my way through college, I remember an items-per-minute statistic kept for each cashier. It takes longer to prepare each bag, meaning less items scanned. I don’t want my canvas bags to skew a cashier’s stats.

At some stores I refuse a bag altogether. One cashier yelled down the row of registers to the door greeter, “HEY! This girl doesn’t want a bag. She paid for this stuff!” A bookstore in Charlotte asked repeatedly if I wanted a bag for two small books, and a drugstore cashier was stumped when I refused a bag for a greeting card and photos.

But despite the quizzical looks, just saying no is easier than it first seemed. Keep canvas bags in your trunk, and politely refuse bags when you don’t need them.

If not for an environmental perspective, try them out of your hatred of picking up groceries after your plastic bag rips open.

He finally got his French doors

2008-03-03T09:06:00.002-05:00

Brad and I enjoy home improvement shows - especially the house flipping ones. It seemed they all did the same thing: Travertine, granite countertops, hardwood floors and French doors.

No, no, no, and yes. Well, sort of.

Our refrigerator is about to die. Since it looks as if it were born in the '70s, we decided to replace it rather than try to have it repaired.

The store we bought it from had a very nice deal: 18 months no interest, free delivery and free haul away/recycling.

They deliver our new French door fridge on Wednesday. The freezer is on the bottom as a drawer, and the refrigerator doors open out like the French doors from the flip shows. I can actually fit a baking sheet or casserole dish in my new fridge!

This will come in handy during the Brad Norman March Challenge.

Got my mind on my lawn

2008-02-21T16:38:00.002-05:00

After the mud crystal aeration and relatively strange wet weather, I pulled out last year's fescue from the garage and went to town on our dirt yard.

One bag covered patches on half the yard. As I went to bed that night I smiled when I heard rain falling.

I know it's a little early to plant grass. Wait, I don't know that. I don't know anything about grass.

But I'll update if my stab in the dark is successful.

Ready and waiting

2008-02-11T14:44:00.000-05:00

Last week's mild weather made me ready for spring.

Here's my wishlist:

Tree(s). If I can just have one, it will go in the large gulley washed out in our front yard. If I could get more than one, it may be Christmas at the Norman house.
Grass. I have a bag of drought-resistant Fescue and some fertilizer I intended to spread last fall.
Color. I planted a few perennials in the porch flower bed to hide a white PVC pipe, and I'm hoping these renew this spring. If not, I'd like to do some potted plants on the porch steps, or maybe on the sidewalk. If I get really crazy I might plant something new on the back slope, too.
Rocking chairs. I would really like to get two rocking chairs on the front porch, and perhaps spray paint them black.

Mud crystals?

2008-01-21T11:35:00.000-05:00

The strangest thing happened to our yard after this week's snow.

I looked out our back window as the snow melted and saw what looked like loose top soil had been thrown around our yard.

I've never seen anything like it so I bundled up and went for a closer look. The photos above are what I found.

My guess is that the water soaked into our hard-as-nails red dirt yard, then froze. The ice had nowhere to go but up, so our yard is now laced with strange mud crystals.

Good news for us though. Now perhaps we won't have to aerate when we sow grass seed this spring.

Perfect timing?

2008-01-13T07:54:00.000-05:00

I read somewhere that the days of 100 percent home financing are over. The days of forgoing the down payment are over.

I'm glad we got in the real estate game before the door closed. We would be years away from a home if we would have needed a down payment.

On another note I'm a little worried about our neighborhood. The for sale signs posted when we bought the house last summer are the same for sale signs posted halfway through winter. We don't expect to be here for more than a couple years, and the apparent selling freeze doesn't fare well with me.

Of course I'm a very firm believer in the idea that the path makes itself clear to you. The path to this house did. We were just going to "look" at houses, then this house was added to the MLS the day we set up visits. We moved in just before our lease ended. Now the door of opportunity closes behind us.

I'm not very worried about selling this house. When it's time, I think we'll know.

Our first winter

2007-12-26T18:37:00.000-05:00

Our house has two levels so I knew it would take a lot to heat it. I didn't expect the heat to stay on most of the time.

We have the thermostat set to 65 while we're gone and 68 when we're home. That means it's comfortable upstairs, but chilly downstairs.

Brad gripes that we should turn the heat up more, but I keep thinking about how hot it gets upstairs and how much energy it takes to get the downstairs up to snuff.

Plus I think it may be a little drafty down there. I noticed a little hint of daylight sneaking around the side of our front door near the floor where it doesn't quite touch the weather stripping. I'm hoping a quick trip to the home improvement store for some extra stripping will do the trick.

There is also a really random draft coming from under one of our kitchen cabinets. It's a spacer cabinet beside the oven, and I can't for the life of me figure out why there's a draft. I stuffed an old towel in the cabinet and it seems to have taken care of the cold air, although I wonder if there is a bigger problem there. If we ever save up enough to replace the countertops I'll investigate deeper.

We got our first winter utility bill in the mail the other day and I was very pleasantly surprised. Remember I had a miniature stroke when I found out how much we had to deposit to have the utilities turned on, a figure that was supposedly double the average utility bill from the previous owner. The deposit was $500! That means their power and water/sewer averaged $250 a month. Our highest bill to date is $135.

Either they ran the heat with the door open, or the system for determining deposits is flawed.

The good news in all this? When the summer rolls around and its time for our deposit to credit back to us, we won't have to pay a utility bill for almost six months!

P.S. Here's a photo of our now crippled tree. I hit up an after-Christmas sale for a new one (bigger, fatter and multicolored - awesome).

Cable gets a facelift

2007-12-05T12:19:00.000-05:00

I turned on the TV this morning to a pleasant surprise.

Time Warner Cable announced that it would push their digital cable programming onto Statesville's Adelphia shell today. I forgot.

What a pleasant surprise.

We received a packet in the mail late last week with details on the changes. There are a few things I've already noticed, for those of you with Statesville cable:

HD channels have moved. Instead of the 700s, HD channels are now in the 600s. This is important to note if you have DVR and record your broadcast shows. Unless you reset your series recordings, you won't get "Private Practice" or "Kid Nation" tonight.
There are more channels. My soul smiled a little this morning when I was able to flip between Discovery Health and Bravo.
The menu looks better. Instead of some pre-1990, first generation PC looking menu, this one is sleek and silver.

Some things I haven't noticed yet but hope are changes I'll see:

The commercials say Time Warner is the home of free HD programming. Under the Adelphia shell I was paying $5 a month for the HD tier, which was just the broadcast channels, ESPN and a couple Discovery channels. I've already been told that Statesville is not the home of free HD programming, but I hope that with this upgrade we can get in on that action. I'm concerned that we won't because why would a business give up money?
The mailing we received said we would have more HD channels, namely TBS and TNT. I didn't see them in my channel menu this morning, but I'll be sure to check the new channel listings in the mailer when I get home.

Most of all, I hope the new upgrade will keep my cable box from going on the fritz every couple weeks. Sometimes it forgets to download channel guides and sometimes it looks a lot like satellite TV during a bad thunderstorm.

Our first Christmas

2007-11-25T11:43:00.000-05:00

I get giddy around Thanksgiving.

Not only do I get to pig out on all my favorite foods, but it means I am officially able to shop and decorate for the holidays.

I put up our pre-lit tree on Thursday morning before we headed down to visit family in Huntersville and Charlotte. I knocked out all but two family members on my gift list during Black Friday.

We returned to a disaster area.

The cats apparently tried to climb the tree while we were gone. It was pitifully draped over the bookshelf in our living room, a trail of fake pine needles running from the crime scene around the corner in the kitchen and into the laundry room. Obviously they were spooked by the falling tree and high-tailed it to their easiest hiding place.

We think they were both in on it, too. They both wanted to greet us after our day away, but meekly ducked under tables and chairs until they were sure we weren't going to yell at them.

So for Rocky and Smalls I have the most appropriate Christmas gift of all: lumps of coal in their stockings.

Sidewalks?

2007-11-19T18:35:00.000-05:00

I went running around my neighborhood and noticed a few peculiarities.

Sidewalks are on one side of the road. Sometimes there are patches of no sidewalk at all. It goes from one side to the other.

It's really strange. Almost as if the neighborhood were built in pieces that didn't quite connect.

I was excited when I found out there was no homeowners' association. Now I'm starting to wonder. Is it better to have an association that will generally get on your nerves and enact silly rules like matching mailboxes, or is it better to live really close to your neighbors without a way to keep stragglers in tow?

I'm still undecided about it. This is my first experience in the suburbs, and this country girl has a lot to get used to.

Lady bugs?

2007-11-14T17:46:00.000-05:00

My cats are going crazy over little bugs crawling on my ceiling.

Lady bugs!

They are cute, and I'm pretty sure they are harmless, but how did they get in?

Just in case you're wondering why there are cat photos on the right, the top one is of Smalls staring at the ceiling. The bottom one is Rocky trying to jump up the wall to get a lady bug.

I'm stumped, but entertained.

Hello, winter

2007-11-11T21:13:00.000-05:00

Did anyone notice that it got colder outside?

We milked the weather for as long as possible. Now the potted plants have new homes inside and the heat is on.

And once again I'm worried about our utility bill. Heating was the reason the previous owner had such outrageous bills, which subsequently drove up our utility deposit.

Until that dastardly bill makes it to our mailbox, I'm wrapping up all the winterizing tips I can think of. Namely, I've checked the windows for drafts and I've reversed our ceilings fans to pull air up rather than blow it down. I'm sure there are plenty of other things I should do, but I will wait until my HVAC dad visits again.

In the meantime I leave the oven door open after cooking, I open the blinds to get the greenhouse effects at sunrise and sunset and I keep the heat down and the clothes up.

P.S. I overheard a group of adults bashing recycling at the App State football game yesterday. Even if you don't think global warming is mankind's fault, there is no reason to be ignorantly wasteful. That includes energy usage and recyclables. Why throw something in a huge pile no one wants to live near when you can use it again to make something else? I'm going to wrap it up now because I'm getting riled up again.

My favorite season

2007-10-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Rain in all the wrong places

2007-10-26T19:29:00.000-04:00

Cheers to rain!

With that said, the 24-hour sky dripping has created a handful of nuisances.

Garage door freak out

Our garage door is on the fritz. As soon as the rain began, the door's safety mechanism decided it wouldn't allow the door to shut remotely. I tinkered with the laser pointer at the bottom of the door, hoping to eventually get the green safety light to stay solid to no avail.

There is nothing blocking the ray in the doorway. My only thought is that maybe the relatively high moisture from the rain created some fogging on the inside of the lens, tricking it into thinking there was something that could die as the door fell.

Arachnophobia

While moving a pile of rocks from the bottom of our back bank I found a nasty tunneling spider (what is the real name for that sucker?) and a Black Widow. As I watched the water flow down our yard I wished it would drown them so I could finish the job.

I guess we need more rain for that. And I guess I need to find a way to get them out of my rock pile so I can move it.

Front porch drip

On the way down our roof, somehow a portion of the rain makes it under some shingles on our front porch and drips through the overhang onto the front steps. I don't think it is affecting the structure of our roof, only the last foot or two. I think it may be that the shingles aren't properly tucked together in the groove that separates the angle of the porch roof and the angle of the garage roof.

We rarely enter from the front porch, but now that our garage door is being a pain it is more evident that we should probably take care of the leak.

Where oh where did my water go?

2007-10-18T15:23:00.000-04:00

The grass is the least of my worries.

Now I'm more concerned with the thought of showering with gallons of Wally World water or not showering at all. It's a desert outside and people still insist on watering their grass.

I asked the husband the other day why he thought people would sneak out to water their yards in neighborhoods with mandatory restrictions. His response: They're selfish.

They may have invested thousands in keeping their lawn bright green and plush, but when you have to brush your teeth with Diet Pepsi you probably won't care how green your yard is. (OK it probably won't get that bad, but my mind does wander.)

I've never seen a drought get this bad. I have a lot of questions.

Do houses with well water contribute to the water shortage?

What exactly is water rationing?

Is it going to turn into absolute anarchy as people fight for the last gallons? Will they rush the stores like the year of the Furby?

As I drove to work today I watched a crew power washing a sign in front of Kmart. I wonder if they used drinking water for that?

What happens when it's all gone?

Go team!

2007-10-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's football season. But I have a different team I'm pulling for.

I'm pulling for nearly a dozen homes for sale in our neighborhood. Before we bought our house I thought "comps" were free things media staff received to get into things for free. Now I know "comps" are a sneaky way our neighbors have a hand in our home equity.

There are two houses for sale directly across the street from our home. Both were in bad shape, but maybe if I make my front yard nice enough it will be like a 12th man to get top dollar for them.

Why do I care?

I want my neighbors to sell for a lot, and quickly. DOMs (days on the market) can tell you a lot about a housing market. Namely, how easy is it to sell the house. If it sits for sale for months, that's way worse than it selling within a week or two.

I understand our neighborhood is in its first depression. Most of the homes were built since 2000, and I think many of the homes for sale in the last year were due to foreclosures, which I assume is due to adjustable rate mortgages whose rates jumped after an introductory period.

It's a lot of assuming, but I think things will only go up from here. New construction is planned (although I don't know if that's a good idea considering how many for sale signs I've seen in the city on my daily commute).

Another assumption is that most of these homes are starter homes and the families are outgrowing them. It's about their time to move up and out.

More power to them. That will be us in a year (maybe more).

So to all of you with signs in your front yard, I'm rooting for you. When you win, we all win.

High five, Statesville!

2007-10-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

If I forget to shut the garage door on the way to work I have a built-in insurance plan: my husband doesn't leave for work until several hours later. I admit it, I forget.

Today the mighty husband faltered. At first I didn't believe it. I thought I had opened the door by my remote and just forgotten in the 30 seconds between the corner and the garage (believe me, it's possible). I would have continued to believe that I forgot I opened the door until indisputable evidence presented itself: the postman left a package on the door from our garage inside our house. He could have only gotten in there if the door was open.

Holy moly! I'm not picking on the husband because I obviously have a memory made of chocolate pudding. After a small "hurray!" for not being forgetful this time, I quickly surveyed our worldly belongings.

Lawn mower? Still there. Weed eater? Check.

Pegboard full of super awesome power tools? Present.

Broken TV we keep forgetting to take to the recycling center? Yep.

That is awesome. I forgot to lock the front door the other night and nothing bad happened. We forgot to shut the garage and left home for more than four hours and nothing bad happened.

I'm not saying we are getting lazy about our home security, but after the crime scares I hear so often in the newsroom, it's nice to know that Statesville just may be a place where you can keep your door unlocked.

I love our little cookie-cutter community. Neighbors wave. They cook out. They play in the street. They give me a great taste of Statesville.

And they don't snoop through open garages.

Save the water

2007-10-01T16:03:00.000-04:00

It seems we're drying up. My grass sounds like Pop Rocks under my feet and it's all we hear about on the news (just imagine how much MORE you'll hear about an issue when you work in news).

Always striving to do my part, I vowed to cut down water usage.

Instead of running a shower just to shave my legs (it's getting to be pants weather, which means this practice is almost out of season), I decided to stop up the tub and keep the stubble water. I then decided instead of going to the gym I ran a gallon pitcher up and down the stairs, transporting the stubble water to the outside flower beds surrounding my newly-planted perennials and mums.

After more than a dozen rounds I felt pretty proud.

Now I'm way too conscious of my water usage.

There were some things I already did that also conserved water.

I don't run dishwashers or washing machines until I have full loads to wash. I don't shower daily (before you run screaming from my stubbly-legged stench, realize people with super-thick hair shouldn't wash it daily for risk of drying it out). I don't water my lawn and I don't wash my car with a hose.

But I took it a step further.

I now turn off the water when brushing my teeth (For me this is huge. I hate seeing spit in the sink).

I toss all the discarded water on the parched flowers (think of the girl from "Signs" with all the nearly empty cups laying around the house and you have a good image of what our living room looks like on any given day).

I stopped trying to rinse every chunk from our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.

And there you have it! I at least think I'm doing my part in times of drought, and it really wasn't that painful. Well, unless you have to rub my legs. That would be painful...

Photos

2007-09-25T17:32:00.000-04:00

The excellence that is pegboard. I think I should hang another sheet...

After tackling most of the grass growing in our front bushes, I invested in a few Asters to disguise the sewer pipe jutting out of our flowerbed. The Asters were pretty much my only option when I went to the home improvement store. I was looking for a flowering perennial and these fit.

Notice the non-scalloped brick? I think it's much cleaner than the humps sticking up before. PLUS I actually buried them a little so they don't fall over when we mow!

Becoming a pro

2007-09-17T11:29:00.000-04:00

I now know why Tim "the Toolman" Allen was the character he was on the sitcom "Home Improvement."

There is just something about revving up a drill that makes you want to build things.

ARGH-argh-argh.

My first drill conquest was to put holes in a steel entry door so we could hang blinds. Seeing the bit bore its way through solid metal made me think to myself, "alright, I can get used to this."

I immediately took a tour of the house seeing what else I could bore into.

The unsuspecting victim? Our garage.

We have a piecemeal tool box full of various starter sets. When Brad and I combined our tools, we suddenly had too many screwdrivers and not enough drawer space.

Add to that a blossoming tool community gathered by awesome family well-wishers, and the need for order took over. I remembered my grandfather's wood shop and how he had each tool outline on pegboard over his workspace.

The home improvement store was very helpful. Why they don't put pegboard accessories with the actual pegboard is beyond me, but I eventually found what I needed. The employees even cut wood down for anchors.

It was cheap, too!

I spread out my ingredients for the first She-ra with powertools project and realize I'm missing critical parts. Namely, long screws to go through the wood, drywall and into the studs AND something to tell me where the studs were.

My tapping for hollow sounds method failed me in the past, and I didn't want to brave Highway 21 traffic again to go back to the store for a studfinder.

Lucky for me whoever attached the walls to the foundation left marks where each stud was. After some simple measuring and geometry I had the general idea of where to drill.

But what to do about my short screws?

Powertools to the rescue!

The drill came with bits to make holes up to an inch wide. I chose the bit that was slightly larger than the head of my screws and made an indention about halfway through in each place I wanted a screw.

Full of myself for being so clever, the rest of the project went like a breeze.

I was hanging tools with the 42-piece accessory kit when Brad pulled into the garage. He had been trying to call my cell phone (which was inside), and when I never answered he made a trip home to check on me.

After finding me perfectly healthy and glowing with powertool radiance, he studied my work and said:

"Good job. So should I expect that you'll do more projects around the house without telling me?"

Probably. I am a pro now.

Scalloped or not scalloped?

2007-08-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

Our front yard is cheesy. We have a large red clay washout where erosion has slowly taken our yard down the drain. We also have bushes camouflaged by overgrown grass and falling brick edgers.

Fresh off weed mutilation with our new trimmer, I decided to take on the foul bushes that line our front porch.

I raked the wood chips aside to get a clear shot at the pesky grass (how is it grass grows where you don't want it, but not in the yard where we need it?). I pulled and pulled. I thought I was making good progress.

That is, until I stood up from my little patch to find that I was only about one-third of the way through. Angry at the flower bed, I yanked up all the scalloped brick edgers and banished them to the garage. But what to do with them after that?

Hmm...

I really don't mind brick. In fact I planned to buy actual bricks and do a double line of bricks like I saw in one of the fancy decorators' magazines. That plan was derailed when I realized how heavy such a small load would burden my compact car.

The scalloped edge was what was bugging me. I have nothing against other yards that use scalloped brick edging, but it's too close to stone doilies for me.

But the clean bottom edge seemed right up my alley. Flipping them upside down was the solution.

I started digging a little trench for my new-to-me edgers. And that's where the entry ends. The weeding was started, but not finished. The edgers were partially installed, but not finished.

Perhaps if the mood strikes, when I look at the front yard in a few days and say, "ech, it looks cheesy," then I will continue my decheesing. Until then, I need some tea and a cold shower.

Our first utility bill

2007-08-23T08:04:00.000-04:00

I remember almost having a stroke when I visited the City Offices about two months ago.

In order to connect our water, sewer and electricity, we were required to pay a deposit based on the residence's prior utility usage. We dropped nearly half a mortgage payment just to get it all connected.

The thought of high deposits didn't bother me. We came from a history of renting, and almost anything you do is subject to deposits in the renting world. What really scared me was the idea that each month, we would face similarly outrageous utility bills.

We received our first bill in the mail yesterday.

Covering a little over a month, I was fully expecting a $250 bill. I even budgeted $400 just in case.

It wasn't that bad. Our water and sewer was around $30, and our electric was around $100. Definitely manageable, and definitely near what we were spending when we were renters. Crisis averted.

So that got me wondering if it was our lifestyle that kept us from high utility bills, or if some of the crisis-averting measures we put into place could be credited. What were my measures?

Fluorescent bulbs: The bulk discount warehouses have big packs of the compact fluorescents. Although these warehouses don't exist in Statesville, I stopped in Hickory just before we moved. The bulbs put out the same wattage as incandescents, but use 25 percent of the electricity to do it. That means a 100 watt fluorescent puts out what looks like 100 watts, but only uses 25 watts. Once you replace all the bulbs in your house (they come in varying wattages), you can really start to see the savings.

Heating and cooling: My dad is an HVAC repairman, so during our housewarming cookout he gave our system a checkup. He showed me how to keep the outside unit's coils clean and free of debris so it wouldn't have to work as hard. Then we installed a digital thermostat. The thermostat lets us control what times throughout the day we want the unit to work harder. There are four key times: when you wake up, when you leave, when you return and when you go to sleep. Although I would like to say the new thermostat had an affect on the current utility bill, we won't know for sure until the next bill because it was installed two weeks after the bill ending date.

Weatherproofing: I inspected all the windows and doors for proper weatherstripping. I noticed two areas for concern: where the previous dog tenant chewed through the weatherstripping on the door from the interior to the garage, and small drafts from the front windows. I got a tube of window caulk and a replacement weatherstrip from the home improvement store, and easily took care of both. Next on my list is to check the amount of insulation in the attic.

Ceiling fans: Speaking of drafts, we leave our ceiling fans running on low constantly. The air flow helps the heating and air system work less, and running the ceiling fan takes almost no energy. We can also use less air conditioning in the summer with the fans running. For instance we keep our home around 75 in the summer, but with fans it feels closer to 70.

Window treatments: As much as I love sunlight, during the summer it wreaks havoc on the inside temperature. I installed faux wood blinds (it was a hard decision since I try to avoid all things vinyl) on all our windows and patio door to cut down on midday sun. In the winter we will let the sun in to help us warm the house.

Front-loading washer and dryer: Not only do they look cool and you can stack them to make a small laundry room feel double the size, but front-loaders have an added bonus of saving water. I've read that the traditional top-loading machine can use 30 gallons of water in a wash cycle. Front-loaders use around six. If that's true, imagine how many loads of laundry you do in a week or a month. Now imagine that the same water usage can be translated into sewer usage, and the difference is huge.

Our first utility bill puts me more at ease about our consumption, and makes me happy to know that maybe we're doing something right for our environment. Plus we won't be in the poor house after each bill is due!

Thermostats

2007-08-12T11:31:00.000-04:00

Our house was built in 2004. Our thermostat looked like something from the '80s. I figured that was the reason why I had to set it to 80 degrees just to get a comfortable temperature and maintain it.

So when I asked my dad, a heating and air man, if he would help me install a new digital thermostat, he walked me through basic AC maintenance.

First we cleaned the coils on the outside unit. We removed grass, dirt and dead bugs that were clogging the air flow from the fan. We then went inside to tackle the thermostat.

The reason for the high setting was simpler than I thought: it was TV's fault. When we arranged the furniture in our living room, we naturally put the TV closest to the cable outlet, which just happened to be directly under the thermostat. My dad had me hold my hand at the wall behind the TV and feel the hot air coming from it. That hot air was tricking our thermostat into thinking it was much hotter than it really was.

We moved the TV about three feet to get it out of the thermostat's way, then worked on the digital thermostat. The wiring in the house works with any thermostat, as long as you get one that corresponds with your type of heating and air. He said ours was a heat pump with auxillary/emergency heat coils in the attic.

The thermostat is very exciting. It comes with three different four-stage schedules to save energy. You can set your schedule for weekdays, then one for Saturday and one for Sunday. Instead of maintaining a constant temperature while you're gone, this new thermostat will get the house exactly where you want it at a certain time each day.

Although it was a little intimidating to tackle such a technical project, I would recommend other homeowners consider installing programmable digital thermostats. I just happen to be lucky to have an electrician for a dad.

Backyard after photos

2007-08-06T11:10:00.000-04:00

The back yard is a little tricky. Now that the weeds have been knocked down I can see that the hill is, well, ugly. I thought a small retaining wall (about 3 feet high) would add some contouring and extra space in the corner, but I'll have to check on what it would do to the area's drainage.

Surprise! We had a couple trees in all the overgrowth. We also need to put something on that hill to give us some privacy from our neighbors. Not that I have anything against them, but I'd rather look at a myrtle than someone's back porch.

Yard 'before' photos

2007-07-24T14:41:00.001-04:00

Notice the lack of grass in the flat areas and overabundance on the slopes. There are actually about six trees in that mess.

Yard woes

2007-07-23T14:03:00.000-04:00

Let's face it: our yard stinks. It stinks so badly that Brad almost passed on the house because of the dirt yard.

Numerous advisers tell us to wait until fall to do major yardwork because of the harsh Southern summers. That's well and good, but who can have a housewarming cookout on a red clay surface?

Yikes!

Brad's grandmother was kind enough to help us get a lawn mower, so at least what little grass we have is under control. In fact, the clippings make the yard look a little more green than dirt.
His grandmother is a gardener at heart, and also offered to help us with our unruly embankments. She is bringing her friend and "yard man" to take down the overgrown weeds on the back slope.

On the side and back of our yard are steep slopes that head to each neighbor's yard (remember how I said the entire community looks like a slash-and-build?). Well, grading is out because it would cause erosion problems. You can't mow it because it's so steep.

The slope begins in our front yard and gets up to about 4 feet in the corner, then the back slope is about 5-6 feet high across the entire back perimeter. During that downpour last week I studied where the water goes. It's set up well now, so I don't want to tamper much.

We are juggling a few options, including a retaining wall for at least part of the slope, a water feature, tiered flower beds and/or junipers or cypresses.

I'll upload photos soon so you can see the "before" Brad's grandmother and "after" her.

Buyer's remorse?

2007-07-18T17:20:00.000-04:00

Today I came home and cried.

Is something wrong with the house? No.

My tears are out of fear.

Having worked in Statesville long before we moved here, I knew the city wasn't perfect. Like every other city in America, this one has violence. But never has it struck so close to home.

The brutal (and fatal) beating of Terry Turner on the corner of Front and Center streets was two blocks away from our office. A group of thugs attacked him around 11 p.m. last Thursday night.

My husband was at work ... two blocks away from a senseless murder.

For as long as I've worked at the R&L I've been told to have an escort when I leave the building, especially at night. As if a dimly-lit parking lot weren't scary enough, two blocks away on a street corner a man was attacked by a large group of thugs.

I read the follow-up stories hoping the investigation found some sort of motivation behind the attack. I'm hoping Turner somehow provoked the group. Anything that would exclude Brad from dangers like that.

I also read several archived stories on the murders of James and Delet Powell and Don and Sue Barker as part of an online special section. Their friends kept saying what wonderful, kind people they were.

I can't say that about myself, but I know for sure I can say it about Brad.

So as I drove home I thought about it all. How he walks out to his car late each night in what I now consider a dangerous neighborhood; I imagined him being attacked for no reason; I imagined my life completely falling apart; and I imagined the outrage of his friends and family that such a wonderful man died for no reason.

We've lived in Statesville for less than a month and already I do not feel safe.

Feeling completely helpless, I did the only thing I could do: I cried.

Before & After Photos

2007-07-14T07:34:00.000-04:00

KITCHEN
Before: vinyl flooring and offwhite walls. Lots of grime, especially on base moulding.

After: laminate flooring, "Belgian Waffle" walls and lots of scrubbing.

DINING ROOM
Before: same as kitchen; vinyl floors and offwhite walls.

After: the "Belgian Waffle" really warms it up.

LIVING ROOM
Before: same offwhite walls, but nothing but concrete slab for floors. The same vinyl from the kitchen is at the foyer.

After: "Classic taupe" warms up the walls, laminate in the foyer, fresh paint on the door and berber carpet. I am definintely not a fan of the futon as a sofa. Once we can afford a real piece of furniture that bad boy is going in the office so it can double as a "mother-in-law's suite."

BRAD'S ROOM (Sports den)
Before: lots of dirty walls and only subflooring.

After: "Morning Breeze" covers the wear and tear. Same berber carpet as downstairs. (That corner is the reason I don't see my husband much).

The "wall art," well what can I say. He loves sports.

OFFICE (My scrapbooking room)
Before: The walls were in bad shape and once again, no flooring.

"Morning Breeze" and berber carpet. (The first person to tell me "Morning Breeze" looks like Carolina blue will be disowned).

MASTER BEDROOM (no after photo - still working on it)
Before: Blah walls and no carpet.

To-dos and wishlists

2007-07-13T08:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't officially made a to-do list, but I have two lists running in my head so I thought I would share.

There are only two things we need to do to the house: fix where the ex-dog chewed the door frame to pieces going to the garage and finish putting up wood blinds in the bedrooms. I figure a plywood replacement would do nicely for the door frame, and even though I abhor a certain discount store, it does have the best selection of blinds. I'm waiting on my dad and his handy tools to take care of the door, and just haven't mustered up the mental strength to go to that store I hate so much.

Then there is the wishlist. My home improvement store's Web site has a wishlist feature that lets you save the things you'd like, but can't buy.

I was doodling last night and added: a push lawn mower, a brush cutter, glass tile mosaics (for the bathrooms, that are now the only rooms with vinyl), retaining wall blocks (for the grand scheme in the back yard), and a beautiful new bathroom vanity/sink/mirror combo.

On a separate note, it's really fun to see Brad get so excited about home improvements. He watches the flipping shows on TV with me and likes to talk about what we'll do. Here I thought it would be a hobby of mine while he did, I don't know, something with sports. It's a nice surprise.

Caution: Wet Cat

2007-07-09T09:43:00.000-04:00

I learned a valuable lesson last night when finishing up the last of the trim paint: cats are curious and like to rub things.

One of our cats, Smalls, wanted to see what I was doing so he emerged from under the bedspread in Brad's room and sniffed my brush, the paint can and the trim. It seemed pretty harmless so I kept working.

It couldn't have been more than 2 minutes when I look over and he's licking his side furiously. That fool's entire side, from his shoulder to his big, fat belly, were painted white. Where he rubbed I will never know.

He received the second bath of his lifetime. (The first was a few days ago when he decided to jump up on a freshly-painted ledge).

So my lesson? Paint + cats = more work.

Hot water: time for a bath

2007-07-07T13:19:00.000-04:00

I got over my initial hesitation over touching the water heater after some helpful advice from friends and family.

First I checked the breaker box. No problems there. Then I found the reset button inside the heater. No results.

My last self-service option was to replace potentially busted heating elements. Brad and I drained the tank (and turned off the power). That was it! The top element had burned out.

I'm glad we never arranged for a plumber. I would have groaned over paying a pro to do what I could.

And on a separate note, I think the previous dog tenant left another bad surprise: fleas.

I had just sprayed the exterior of the house with a pest spray recommended by our Realtor, so a small pest on the floor caught my eye. It wasn't an ant, and when I tried to kill it the little thing jumped. The only thing I could think was it's a flea. That would explain why our cat Rocky is licking himself a lot more than usual.

So I guess Brad and I will enjoy our warm showers, and our cat babies will have to endure a flea treatment.

Cold showers?

2007-07-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

I promise it worked. For the first few days in our house, the water DID get hot.

Now, not at all.

What happened? I think this is beyond the realm of Google searches and do-it-yourselfing. I called a local plumber to investigate.

On a separate note, Brad's parents came up with lawn equipment yesterday so we were finally able to tame at least part of our yard. Steep banks are covered in overgrown grasses and weeds, and the "yard" has sparse grass and mostly hard clay that looks like a dry river bed.

Once fall rolls around we plan to get my dad up here with his grading equipment and till it up then smooth it out.

I guess it has to get ugly before it can be pretty, and ugly is here to stay for at least a couple months.

Just call me Handyman

2007-07-03T12:52:00.001-04:00

There is something fulfilling about fixing things without the help of a father, a husband or some other man willing to give time and advice to solve household problems. When I want to get things done, I Google.

That's right. When I couldn't figure out why our garage door button had to be pushed constantly until the door was fully closed, I Googled it. The answer? The safety mechanism near the floor was knocked loose and the system was merely being safe and not killing small children it thought may be in the way.

When I needed to get the foul odor out of our cement garage floor, I Googled that, too. It took three applications, but it finally worked.

When our dryer had a three-prong power cord and the outlet required a four-prong cord, I Googled how to connect the new plug. Works like a charm. (I stayed beside the dryer for an entire cycle just to be sure I wouldn't start a fire and burn down our first house within a week of closing.)

What's next on my Google-fest? Perhaps I'll find out how to fix the porch gutter's leak problem, or maybe how to adjust the toilet's ballcock so water isn't constantly draining from the tank.

P.S. "After" photos coming shortly. We're still unboxing everything.

So long, sensation

2007-07-03T12:46:00.000-04:00

I can hear my keys clicking away as I type this entry, but if only I could feel them.

I spent about 18 hours each day for five days painting. Painting around light fixtures, painting next to trim and popcorn ceilings, painting over patches I didn't seem to paint enough the first time.

The end result is great, but little did I know I would be arthritic and numb afterward.

The home improvement store carried lots of great tools to get the job done. I bought this trim tool (Brad says it looks like a machete) that is basically a straight-edge for painting around trim and ceilings. Then the blue painters tape made quick work of the fixtures.

As excited as I was to finally get to paint walls without forfeiting our security deposit, I have learned my lesson. It is better to take it one room at a time than to try to paint an entire house in less than a week.

Is this a test?

2007-07-02T12:28:00.000-04:00

I think the biggest lesson I've learned this week is that even with multiple contigency plans it is not possible to make plans when outside groups are involved.

The flooring people came in two crews: a laminate crew and a carpet crew. The carpet man (notice I didn't say crew this time - just the head guy showed up) came first with a helpful suggestion to get the dog odor out of the cement slab. As he started laying tack strips and I went to the store for the needed cleaner, the laminate crew showed up at least six men strong.

The laminate guys brought their own radio and I couldn't hear a thing but saws and Latino pop music until that evening. The laminate crew delayed the carpet guy from doing work downstairs since they took up the living room for their extra materials. He explained the situation to me and said he would have to come back the next day.

The next day came and the guy never showed up. I get a call saying he had a stroke! Now that is a good excuse to miss work.

So we expected to be painted by Wednesday morning for the flooring, floored for move-in on Thursday, and moved for apartment cleaning on Friday. Turns out we had to move everything into our garage so the flooring could be finished on Friday. I just finished the painting on Sunday, and we can now tackle the huge pile of wordly possessions cooking in our garage.

On a lighter note, the house is looking better every day. A fresh coat of paint and new flooring really does wonders.

Before photos

2007-07-02T08:45:00.000-04:00

KitchenLiving and dining room
Staircase
Master bedroom
Office
Second bedroom

Life as homeowners

2007-06-27T06:12:00.000-04:00

We closed yesterday in Charlotte. (On a side note, if I had to make that drive every day I would kill myself).

The attorney's office started late, the agent forgot/didn't bring the earnest deposit and Brad accidentally walked out with our signed packet. That meant we got on I-77 at Harris Boulevard and immediately got stuck in traffic, then had to crawl to exit 23 just to turn around and return the packet.

The idea of painting yesterday was completely shot.

I made it to the home improvement store at 8 p.m. to buy all the paints. The power and water was supposed to be turned on yesterday, but it appears only the power has. I called my dad just to be sure the water wasn't a pipe issue, since I'm a rookie in all this.

Be on the lookout! I plan to take 360-degree "before" photos of the entire house before we paint and flooring goes down.

Another surprise

2007-06-22T08:16:00.000-04:00

We hoped for Friday. Our backup plan was Monday. Our actual plan is Tuesday.

We have about eight hours to paint the entire house so the flooring people can do their work. We've chosen our paint colors and figured out how much we'll need of each.

Brad recruited help from his family to help us get it done, and a few coworkers offered to help.

Here is our gameplan:

TUESDAY
- Close in Charlotte
- Home improvement store for paint, supplies, odor-blocking primer, new door locks, cement cleaner and a new garage door opener (I don't see why we have to buy a new garage opener just because the previous owner didn't leave the remotes. What a waste of a perfectly functioning device. They should design them to be reprogrammed rather than replaced).
- Paint upstairs, then apply primer to subfloors (to get rid of pet odors).
- Paint downstairs and clean cement (our home is on a cement slab, so we plan to clean the garage and living room floor to get rid of, yet again, the pet odors).

WEDNESDAY
- Change out door locks and garage opener.
- Flooring installed.

THURSDAY
- Rent moving truck.
- Load and unload (it's amazing how three little words seem so small, yet will be our bane. Brad is convinced we will break our washer and dryer trying to get them down the steps from our second-floor apartment. I say we can strap it to an appliance dolly and be fine).
- Brad watches the NBA Draft (only if the heavy lifting is done and the cable guys get out there in time to hook it up).

Closing day runneth

2007-06-19T10:57:00.000-04:00

All the agents involved in the closing process probably want to take out restraining orders to keep me from harrassing them. The title search and insurance were due to the mortgage agent yesterday. They are late.

I can't do anything about the title search, but I can harrass our local insurance agent. She said she never received the appraisal information from the mortgage company. I immediately light a fire under the mortgage company.

Each side in this process insists they are staying on top of things, but why am I the middleman among them all?

Friday is now almost impossible for a closing date. I lost that precious weekend time and now I'm looking at eating into my vacation hours just to get the house up to speed. It could possibly get so close that our lease ends and we can't get into the house.

I'm trying not to stress out, but for a person that thrives on plans this situation reeks.

Closing day postponed?

2007-06-18T15:59:00.000-04:00

Noon came and went with no real fanfare. The lenders still need the title policy and insurance details in order to send our mortgage to the final approval and underwriting. Then they can send the "packet" to the sellers. It looks like that will happen tomorrow.

It wasn't a cakewalk today, either. The mortgage people say they haven't heard from the insurance people. Both sides claim they've left messages for the other. Somehow I become the middleman relaying information just to get these two parties to get together. Even with insurance settled, the title is floating around somewhere. It may be "due" today, but no one knows where it really is.

Our agent says if they can just get the "packet" to HUD as soon as possible then they may be flexible. 24 hours flexible? Maybe not. We'll see.

Right now I've scratched painting off my list of things to do this weekend since it looks like we just lost my only weekend before the lease ends.

Closing day cometh

2007-06-14T11:36:00.000-04:00

Apparently our agent has been working HUD as hard as I've been working the lender. After repeated phone calls to the Charlotte HUD office, he finally got an answer to our closing day question. If our mortgage company can send the "packet" to HUD by noon on Monday, June 18, then we can schedule our closing appointment for 1 p.m. on Friday, June 22.

What is a packet? I'm assuming the full tree's worth of paper I've heard in legends and campfire tales. The agent said the mortgage person would know what it meant. I e-mail our mortgage rep. They expect to have the appraisal on Friday, June 15, and the title search by Monday, June 18. There is a 24 hour turnaround on those two, so the earliest the mortgage company would be done with the mysterious "packet" would be Tuesday.

It looks like we may miss our mark. I've put in another email today to see whether, by some miracle, the title and/or appraisal were done early.

Until then, I think it's safe to assume we won't be closing on our target date. Instead we will probably close that following Monday, completely eliminating the only weekend available between now and our apartment lease end.

Rather than having the flooring installed on Monday or Tuesday, we may have to push it back a day or two to give me time to get the walls done. I really want to get the walls done first for two reasons: to prevent any 'oops' on our new flooring, and so we can get a layer of odor-killing primer on the subfloor to prevent the previous dog tenant from an unwelcome return.

Calling the city

2007-06-12T11:03:00.000-04:00

I've never understood how people are supposed to take care of business when the normal world works business hours. Someone is going to have to adjust to get things done! I, for instance, had to call the city offices at work.

I call the number listed on the city Web site's "newcomers guide." It has an odd ring and I question whether I dialed the right number. I finally get a person who asks if I can hold. Two minutes. It rings a few times, then silence. Two minutes. It rings! Silence for another 2 minutes. They must be busy at 10:45 a.m. on a Tuesday, I tell myself. Another two minute silence.

Finally! A person! She never gives me her name (I love to know the name of the people I am talking business with).

I tell Anonymous that we are buying a house in Statesville and need to get connected. She asks for the address, then if I currently have an account with the city. Nope.

Here's the lowdown. We will have to come to the city offices in person with proof of ownership and a deposit. Great, yet another reason to miss work.

The deposit
To calculate the deposit, she takes the two highest months of utility bills for that address and averages them together. She says the highest power bills topped $200 in the winter months, and the water/sewer topped out at almost $70. In order to have our utilities connected, we will either have to fork over $500.30 in a deposit (which would be applied to our bills after 12 months of on-time payments), find a co-signer who currently lives in Statesville (co-workers for us, but honestly who would ask their coworker to co-sign?) or get a letter of credit from our current utility provider (but you have to show that you paid on time for 12 months).

My next question: How soon can they connect? Anonymous says one business day after we come in. Excellent, but we want to close on a Friday and paint that weekend. The next business day would be a Monday. That's where the proof of ownership comes in. Anonymous says they accept a purchase agreement, as long as it has our name and the house address on it.

Sold!

Now I have to talk to our utility company about a letter of credit...

Getting connected

2007-06-12T10:16:00.000-04:00

Have you ever made a list of all the people and businesses that have your address? Beyond the idea that The Man is keeping tabs on you and sending you those ridiculous coupon books to waste space in your mailbox, I realize after being a serial mover that I have to keep track of all the people who need our new address.

So as I get mail this month, I organize it by whether I want them to keep track of me. The "yes" pile has our magazine subscriptions, utility bills, bank statements, and various charitable organizations. For each piece of mail we receive there are probably at least five online statements/bills. Being a good steward of the Earth, I sign up for any online billing I can to save paper (and the transportation costs of delivery). And so the list grew.

I looked at my list this weekend and felt satisfied I had covered everything. I was far from correct.

Of course I had a list for our apartment address, but we're about to buy a house. I need to get in touch with all the people that will make it run.

I am having a hard time finding anything I need on the Web. The sites refer me to phone numbers to call, but wouldn't it be much more convenient to just post the information online? I guess not.

My first call was to the city offices. Statesville handles its own water, sewer, trash and power, so I assumed this would be the place to start.

Bye bye escrow

2007-06-11T10:05:00.000-04:00

The house is in need of carpet, and our agent recommended a flooring company he's worked with on investments. So on Thursday we met the agent and the flooring guy at our house to look at samples and take real measurements.

Our agent gave us a rough estimate of what the flooring guy thought it would cost to do both the needed carpet and wanted laminate. The repair escrow was set at $2,400 and the estimate put carpet at $1,200. We might as well do the laminate flooring before we move in and use the rest of the escrow money to cover at least part of the cost. The flooring guy said the laminate would add $1,600 to the cost. Brad and I talked it over and decided we could swing the additional $400.

We look through the samples and choose a light berber carpet for the entire house (well, except bathrooms and the laminate area). We also chose a laminate option that closely matched the current kitchen cabinets.

The flooring guy takes measurements and looks disturbed. When our agent gave him rough measurements, he says, the agent didn't tell him the living room area. That would take the cost of carpet from $1,200 to $1,900. (Brad said the omission was too "convenient" and wondered if it was a scam on the part of the agent and the flooring guy).

Lucky for us, I planned to add $1,000 to our repair escrow to pay for the laminate, so the new flooring quote was very close to what I thought it would cost in the first place. We OKd the flooring guy to order our carpet and laminate, then went on our merry way.

+++

I got a call from our agent the next day with bad news. He had never handled a foreclosure with a repair escrow, and he was mistaken. The repair escrow isn't just free cash attached to the house, it is the amount HUD says they will add to the purchase price to cover the needed repairs if you choose to get an FHA-insured loan with a special program designed for renovations.

Bottom line: there is no money for carpet and laminate.

The agent said we had two options. The first would be to go to the mortgage company and ask them about our FHA loan options, which would then tack on the repair escrow amount to our loan. I have been on the mortgage company to get this house to closing ASAP, and this is just the thing that will ruin our plans, I told the agent.

That's when he made a generous offer. Since the mistake was on his part, he offered to eat the cost of the repair escrow from his commission. He didn't know how "legal" that was, and he said he would talk to the closing lawyers. Such a donation to our cause would cut his commission in half.

Something just doesn't seem kosher about the donation. Part of me says since I threw such a hissy fit over the earnest deposit fiasco that he feels he has to prove his loyalty to us. The other part says this agent is in business to make money, not give it away, and this is just a ploy to keep us on board until closing when he can stick us with his buddy's flooring bill.

Success = Strategy

2007-06-07T21:21:00.001-04:00

Being of limited funds and spending most of those limited funds buying our first home, the only way we can make this work is with proper planning and execution.

We met with the flooring man today to go through samples and find out exactly what it would cost us. The home comes with a repair escrow to cover the cost of replacing the carpet. This flooring guy is a business friend of our agent, who moonlights as a real estate investor.

The carpet alone would still leave about $800 in the escrow account, which would go toward our principal payment. But if we put up a little money we could get all the floors redone, which means new laminate flooring in the dining room and kitchen. What better time to replace the floors than before you move all your stuff in the space? We decided it was a worthwhile expense and gave the go-ahead to the floor man.

With an even tighter budget following that commitment, I sat down and created a plan for how to tackle the other improvements, then prioritized them as follows:

BEFORE MOVE-IN NEEDS

carpet
primer and paint
moving truck
new door locks and garage opener (The current keys can be used in any HUD foreclosure, so they aren't very secure).
air filters for HVAC intakes
utility connections

BEFORE MOVE-IN WANTS

laminate floors

AFTER MOVE-IN NEEDS

garage entry door casing (the prior dog tenant had trouble getting in so he tried to chew his way through the door jamb)
bedroom door (one has a small hole in it)
batteries for smoke detectors
caulking for plumbing fixtures (the master bath tub needs sealing at floor)
cement cleaner (for said previous dog tenant)

AFTER MOVE-IN WANTS

garage organization
living room furniture (couch and loveseat)
grass seed/sprinkler/hose
lawn mower
new refrigerator and electric range
new countertops
tile for bathroom floors
patio furniture
grill
pergola on patio
beadboard and new vanities for bathrooms
and as much more as imaginable

Knowing what we want and need, we can knock them out in increments. Obviously all the before-move needs will be budgeted for the next month. After that, we will take it in manageable chunks of time and money. For major purchases, we'll hold off a while until we can afford the investment.

I expect this list will last us about 18 months.

The mortgage process

2007-06-07T21:14:00.000-04:00

Apparently there are three stages to a mortgage approval.

The application process. For us, this was handled by the woman who said we could close within 14-21 days. She was also very helpful and answered all my questions. She checked our credit history and entered our financial information (pay stubs, bank statements, etc.). After sending us an approval letter she passed us along to step 2.
The processing process. It's a confusing and hectic time where everyone is waiting on the person before them to get moving. In this step, our mortgage processor said they would need at least 21 days, successfully freaking me out. In this step they add the purchase agreement to the mix and order an appraisal of the property. We were then passed along to step 3.
The underwriting and closing process. I mentioned when we wanted to close to this guy and he didn't even shudder. I don't know what to think of that yet. He verified our information and asked for a copy of our earnest deposit check and the contact information for our homeowner's insurance agent. He promised to contact me on Monday with our progress. I think I like this guy...

Hopefully, this guy will be as successful as he sounds and we will close on June 22. According to our agent, it will depend primarily on how much motivation the HUD lawyers have. If I poke my people and he pokes those people, maybe we can poke our way to closing faster.

The second snag

2007-06-06T11:28:00.000-04:00

In order to close before July, I check in with the loan processor every other day to see where we stand. Today I find out she never received the final purchase agreement, meaning she can't move the loan along. I faxed it two days ago! I even sent her an email saying I sent it on the same day!

I asked her how long she would need until we could close and she said at least 21 days from the day she gets the purchase agreement. Hold the phone! 21 days!?! When we applied for the loan we were told we could close in 14-21 days. Their response? They had no idea why the mortgage banker told us that.

Great.

I'm sick of dealing with a fax machine. I opted instead to scan all the documents and send them as email attachments. Better quality and instant verification of receipt. Why fax machines are still alive is beyond me.

I chose the mortgage company because of their offer and because of their attention to customer service. When I told the loan processor about the urgency of closing before July, she said if it were possible to close sooner she would make it happen.

I guess now we'll just wait and see. The clock is ticking and it's eating into our carpet and painting time.

HOPEFUL CLOSING DATE: June 22
CARPET, PAINT and MOVE DAYS AVAILABLE: 7 days

CURRENT EARLIEST POSSIBLE CLOSING DATE: June 27
CARPET, PAINT and MOVE DAYS AVAILABLE: 2 days

Photos from Measuring Day

2007-06-05T13:21:00.000-04:00

Here are "before" photos: before we put in flooring, before we paint and before we move in our stuff.

ABOVE: The living room has a small foyer before the stairs. The living room is separated from the dining room only by an arch and a 1-foot jut in the wall on each side.

BELOW: The kitchen is in great shape! The cabinets already have moulding on the top (something I had planned on adding for extra zing). The microhood and range were still nearly new. The refrigerator, however, is a different story. The agent said the prior owner probably took the newer fridge and replaced it with this older one when they were kicked out. On my list of to-do projects is to remove the floating wood piece in the center of some of the doors and replace them with glass, then paint the cabinets white.

BELOW: The dining room has a great light fixture and great sunlight. There is also a French door leading out to the back yard. I'm not a fan of the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and dining room, so we are looking into using our allotted repair escrow for needed carpet AND wanted laminate flooring.

A second look

2007-06-04T20:09:00.000-04:00

Since our agent recommended we get a termite inspection instead of a full home inspection, I looked up a few pest services on the Internet. Some of the more well-known national companies offer free pest inspections, then discounts if there is a problem. That sounds about like what we need: an inspection for no money.

I met the agent at our soon-to-be home equipped with a notebook and a measuring tape. I might as well take room and window measurements while I'm there. An hour and a half later, our inspector was still missing.

On foreclosures there is a sign-in sheet for everyone who goes in and out. The agent explained that the home inspector comes out once a month to be sure nothing has happened to the property while it is still without a new owner. There were also a few signatures from cleaners and agents showing the house. Then we saw that there had already been a termite treatment less than a month ago.

The agent and I were satisfied that we no longer needed the truant termite inspector, so we left. Nearly an hour later I received a call from the inspector. He had a legitimate excuse, and I didn't make a big fuss. I also didn't tell him we wouldn't need his services any longer. Hopefully he is busy enough that he won't notice.

As for the house itself, it was a lot bigger than I remembered on our first visit. After measuring each room, I made a mental floorplan of where each piece of furniture would go.

I also made a physical list of things to consider doing once we close the sale. The agent was very helpful as we walked through the house, pointing out things we could buy or do ourselves to make the place really shine.

My biggest concern is the evidence of a prior dog tenant. It chewed up the door to the garage, and the garage itself reeks of a dog that wasn't taken outside enough. There are also stains to the subfloor that are either from the dog or from a messy person. The agent suggested we get remnant paint from a home improvement store and paint the floor before carpet and laminate are installed. The paint, he said, will "seal in" the stains, keeping them from seeping up if something is spilled on the new carpet in the future.

A growing to-do list

2007-06-03T10:58:00.000-04:00

Our mortgage broker told us we could close within 14-21 days. Our lease ends on June 30. The house needs new flooring, which is covered by a repair escrow built into the home purchase.

I'm mapping out June and realize we have to close, install flooring, paint AND move in before the end of the month. If everything goes smoothly, we would close on June 22, paint that weekend, bring in flooring early that next week and move in before our lease ends with time for a post-moveout inspection of our apartment.

If we can't close until the end of the month, I don't know what we'll do. I think we could move all our stuff into the garage, then try to get the work done in stages. It won't be comfortable, but we may have to do it.

The agent says he asked HUD about moving up the closing date, but hasn't received a reply. I asked our mortgage broker, who also hasn't responded yet.

We're supposed to receive our signed sales contract from HUD soon, and the agent said he'd send it to the mortgage broker.

Until then, HUD suggests we get a home inspector for our own protection. The agent suggested that the house was in such good shape and was so new that we probably could save our money and just get a pest inspection. HUD performed an in-depth property analysis, which was posted on the Internet, which is very similar to an inspection. Since HUD homes are sold 'as is,' an inspection won't help price negotiations.

Taking the agent's advice, I called a local pest service and scheduled an appointment for Monday morning. I plan to bring a tape measure and graphing paper to take measurements while he works.

I hope there are no surprises with the pest inspection. The agent said since the home is on a concrete slab, there shouldn't be a termite problem. I guess we'll know after tomorrow.

The first snag

2007-05-31T20:00:00.000-04:00

I was on my way to Winston-Salem for a meeting when I got a call on my cell phone from the agent. We wrote the cashier's check to HUD, and apparently it needed to be made out to the agent or the escrow lawyer.

I need to find a way to meet the agent, exchange the check and get it back to HUD by the deadline, and I'm heading in the opposite direction of all these things. I tell them I'll leave the meeting early and meet them in Statesville to exchange the check.

As I head back to Statesville I call the agent. He says I just have to cancel the old check and have them print a new one, without him there (which means without the original check). I assumed he knew more about it than I did, but just to be sure I called my bank and asked them about cancellation fees and procedures. My receipt was neatly filed in a folder ... in Hickory. I was 30 minutes east of Statesville, and it was closing in on 4 p.m. My bank said I would need to go to the branch where the check was originally printed. Could I make it home and back to Statesville before 5 p.m.? It would be close, but I was going to try. Our home may be on the line.

I did make it to the bank. With receipt in hand at 4:50 p.m., I walked to a cashier and asked for a new check. She looked at me like I was stupid. Clearly, I need the original check. The receipt is nice, but without the original it will take 90 days to cancel the check. 90 days? I have less than an hour.

The bank saw my distress and tried to come up with a solution. Maybe the agent could go to a branch in Charlotte and they could call them to get a new check. I call the agent, tears swelling in my eyes.

Very calmly, the agent tells me it's OK, he'll just meet me in Statesville in the morning with the check.

Wait a minute. It doesn't have to be in by the deadline? Distress turned to anger. Anger turned to tears.

I thanked the bank for their help and walked out at 5:05 p.m.

Why didn't the agent tell me the correct payee when I made out the first check? Why didn't they tell me I didn't need to have the new check by today? All these questions left me angry and scared. Is this agent looking out for me? Aren't they supposed to the be experts here?

I met the agent at the bank the next morning and told him all my frustrations. He apologized, explained that HUD recently changed a lot of its paperwork and requirements, then went with me to the cashier for the correct check.

Although not completely appeased, I did believe him. But I don't think I'll be as trusting as I was before.

48 hours

2007-05-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

The agent met us at the library to fill out the paperwork. Since he works in Charlotte and we live in Hickory, we had to find a place to meet that wouldn't be inappropriate -- like work. (On a side note, it was my first time in the Iredell Public Library. It's nice!)

The paperwork was simple. We signed or initialed about five pages, including a contract authorizing the agent to be our agent.

The earnest deposit had to be a certified check, so we went to our bank and pulled out $1,000 (an amount determined by HUD). Money was tight, but scrimping until the next paycheck was an acceptable price to pay for our first home.

The agent took our money and our signatures and headed back to Charlotte. Well within the 48 hour deadline, we were feeling confident everything was going according to plan.

I started thinking about what we'd do first once it was ours.

Big news

2007-05-29T20:00:00.000-04:00

I woke up at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, much like I did on Christmas morning as a child. Don't government offices open insanely early? Maybe I can find out the bid results. The agent said he would let us know as soon as he knew about the bid, but I wasn't going to wait for him. I found the HUD bid results Web site for North Carolina on the Internet, so I logged on to check.

My heart sank.

It said the house was now open to public bidding. Did we not bid enough? There's no way we didn't bid enough. Can we afford to bid more? Is some investor going to swoop in and buy OUR house?

I had to get away from the computer, get my mind off the house. I went to the gym and took out my aggression on the treadmill. I couldn't get it off my mind.

There's no time to obsess about this house, I told myself. You have to get ready and go to work. Make yourself useful. Stop obsessing!

By the time I had the house off my mind, I was at work buried in my to-do list. That's when I got an e-mail from our mortgage broker about our underwriting approval (do I know what that means? no.). Snap. I was back in my obsession.

I checked the bid results site again.

A bid was accepted. The bid was for the same amount we bid. What are the chances someone else bid and won with the same number we submitted?

I called Brad repeatedly, trying to get him out of bed so I could tell him the news. But Brad is a heavy sleeper and he works a later shift, so voicemail was my best bet. After I told him, I started the phone tree.

Brad was in charge of e-mailing his side of the family. I called my parents, my aunts and my brother. Then I called our agent to be sure it was, in fact, our bid that won. Is that a little out of order? Probably. But obsession does funny things to an otherwise rational brain.

Lucky for us, it was our bid. We had 48 hours to submit our sales contract and an earnest deposit or it would be relisted to the public.

Telling the family

2007-05-28T20:00:00.000-04:00

We broke the news of our house bid to the family during a Memorial Day cookout during that extended weekend.

It came out of the blue for most of the family, especially since we had previously hinted at next summer for the big move. The news was well received, and we spent most of the cookout describing the house, the neighborhood and how we may not get it. The entire family formed a phone tree so we could spread the news as soon as we knew the next day.

Perhaps the most useful of the conversations that day was with Brad's uncle, who buys and rents out nice homes. He gave us advice on what to fix, and what will bring us the most bang for our buck when we decide to sell it.

Brad's parents were perhaps the most excited. Buying a house brings them one step closer to grandparenthood.

They all assured us we would win the bid, and as we left as I was even more excited and nervous about the bid.

A different process

2007-05-25T22:17:00.000-04:00

Since we have never purchased a home before, I don't know that much about how the foreclosure purchase process is different. I can tell you it's a hurry and wait process.

The first 10 days of a HUD listing is owner-occupant priority, which means they will sell to someone who will use the property for their primary residence before they'll sell it to an investor. The house we wanted would go public after Memorial Day, which was four days away. If we wanted it, we'd have to bid by Friday since the agent wouldn't be in the office on Memorial Day weekend.

It took an intense conversation to convince Brad that this was the one and we couldn't take our time making decisions. He worried that we were rushing into something, and maybe we were. But the house was in such good condition, hit the market right when we were looking, and was such a good price that I pushed hard for it.

We called our agent on Friday night and instructed him to submit our bid. We had no idea if anyone else submitted bids, and we had an extended holiday weekend to wait and hope it would be ours.

And the winner is

2007-05-25T12:42:00.000-04:00

I contacted the real estate agent listed on the Web site I'd browsed and set up an appointment to tour Hardwoods and Suburban. It took less than an hour, and the agent was sure to be a part of the discussion for each house. She also pointed out things we wouldn't have looked for, like stained paint being a sign of leaks.

After visiting the top two on our list, Brad and I talked about our options. Could we have toured more? Probably. But that little imp in my stomach seemed content.

During my Googlefest I had also looked into mortgage options (which is an entirely different conversation). When he heard what our actual mortgage payment would be per month, he was angry. I had told him it would be approximately the same per month as our rent, and it was.

Thing is, I didn't know much about taxes and insurance. We'd have to readjust our monthly budget, but we could definitely do it.

Although the idea of debt scares the life out of Brad, he begrudgingly agreed to move ahead on our choice.

We called the woman who toured the homes with us and told her we wanted to make a bid on the foreclosure.

And then the race began.

Ready to tour

2007-05-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

I made a little chart with the four homes at the top of my list and mapped out the pros and cons of each. Here's what I came up with:

House A (Big Porch)

(+) Nice curb appeal. The porch steps go straight to the sidewalk, and the porch itself wraps around two sides of the house. It's on a corner lot.
(+) Good shape. From the Internet photos, the house looked to be in good shape. The siding was crisp and clean, and the windows looked relatively new. Photos of the inside looked good as well.
(-) Bad view. I got directions and drove by the house to see the neighborhood and how it looked in person. It was then that I found out the beautiful porch overlooks the railroad tracks.
(-) Questionable neighborhood. As I drove down the road, it looked as if this was the nicest house in the neighborhood (something my house hunting Google searches told me not to do).

House B (the Colonial)

(+) Lots of space. The square footage alone attracted me to this property.
(+) Nice yard and curb appeal. This house looked good from the photos posted on the real estate site. The yard was larger than the others, and it was well manicured.
(+) Close to work. After mapping out where the house was, I found out I drive by it every day on my commute.
(-) On a busy street. Since I drive by it every day on the way to and from work, I realized the street may have too much traffic for me to handle on a daily basis.
(-) Needs lots of work. I did (once again) a Google search of the address and found an appraisal done by the sellers on the Internet. With it was more photos and a property report. It was in need of many repairs, including a new roof. I didn't want to get myself in too deeply.

House C (Hardwoods)

(+) Space. It didn't quite look like a two-story house, but it had two floors. It also offered a lot of square footage.
(+) Charm. It is an older house with lots of little details, like a clawfoot tub, architectural windows and restored hardwood floors. There are several beautiful old homes around it, some under renovation.
(-) Outdoor space. After finding the house, I found a very small driveway shared by neighbors. It would be hard to navigate our cars in and out of it. The driveway was also gravel. The yard was not manicured, and the back of the house looked more like a rural farmhouse than my mental picture.
(-) Neighborhood. The house is on a busy street near an industrial area.
(-) Appraisal to listing price. After (yep, you guessed it) Googling the home I found an Iredell County Web site with tax rates and appraisal cards. When I entered the address, I found that the tax value of the home was almost half the asking price. That made the imp in my belly kick me again.

House D (Suburban)

(+) Newer home. Of all the homes on my list, this was by far the newest.
(+) Cute neighborhood. Because it is what I call a slash-and-build, the neighborhood is full of equally cute, new homes.
(+) Great location. It is off a major thoroughfare, but close enough to shop and get to work in under 5 minutes.
(-) Slash-and-Build. The neighborhood has almost no trees. It looks as if a builder cleared a huge field and built houses on it. No trees means no privacy, and also no shade. The recent drought also took a toll on the yard, which was in desperate need of water and seeding.
(?) Foreclosure. When I first found out it was a foreclosure, I didn't know what to think. The vinyl flooring left much to be desired, and all the carpet had been removed. But HUD (The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which was selling the home) offered money in an escrow account to replace the carpet. What is escrow anyway? But other than a few simple fixes, the home was in great shape.

Narrowing down the options

2007-05-18T11:50:00.000-04:00

Brad's family is in Charlotte and mine is east of Greensboro. We wanted to be close enough to work to save on commuting, but close enough to Charlotte to visit family easily.

My first map search was in Mooresville and Troutman.

The few homes that met my mental picture were out of our price range. On the ride back from visiting our sister paper in Mooresville, I saw a billboard for new homes in Statesville. I visited their Web site as soon as I got home.

The homes were large and beautiful, exactly what my mental picture described. They were also in our price range.

I mentioned it to a few coworkers, and they asked if the builder had a good reputation. I said they did as far as I knew. Then that little imp in my stomach kicked me. I did a Google search and found a message board full of people who say they have bought homes from the same builder. A lot of the complaints seemed legit. Even if they were bogus claims, it was more than I wanted to risk so I scratched the builder off my list and started looking at "used" homes again.

Mooresville and Troutman were out, new construction was out. That left homes in Statesville.

House hunting

2007-05-16T11:32:00.000-04:00

With a healthy dose of motivation, where should I begin? (I could have said where do we begin, but my husband lets me take care of all the legwork. Since I almost need to be medicated for my excessive planning, it's healthier for our marriage if I just give him reports every now and then.)

I wanted to see what was available, where it was and what it looked like. I hopped from several real estate Web sites until I landed on a site that had a map function where you can draw where you want to live and it will tell you what's available.

The first time I went to the site, I had no restrictions. I looked at everything. Then I saw an estimated monthly payment tool on each property listing. Yikes! Better set a budget.

There are several online mortgage calculators that will tell you how much you can afford. None of them helped. Some went strictly on gross income. Mortgage companies usually won't allow a loan that takes more than 28 percent of your gross income. So if you make $1,000 a month before taxes, you can't afford a monthly payment of more than $280.

Instead of dealing with all those numbers, I thought I would go the simpler route: I would look for a house with an estimated monthly payment similar to what we pay in rent.

I had several mental pictures of what I wanted my first home to look like. Lots of windows, a small yard, a porch, and hopefully two stories. The real estate Web site didn't have searches for all those options, but at least I could look at photos.

Going beyond dreaming

2007-05-15T11:13:00.000-04:00

When I began working in Statesville, I had no idea how long I would be here. I was hired fresh out of college and I was distracted by my September wedding to Brad, a fellow AppState alum and now a member of the R&L sports staff.

But at the time he was working in Lenoir and we needed a place to live.

Hickory was the logical choice. It was a 30-minute commute for both of us. I looked for apartments, finally settling on the quaint Argyle Place apartments in northeast Hickory.

Brad was hired in Statesville later that year, and the Hickory commute suddenly made less sense. Once I moved from second shift to first, we couldn't carpool. The Hickory commute then made absolutely no sense.

But commuting wasn't my only reason to look for our first home. I've always wanted a place of my own. I come from a family of carpenters, so renting took a lot of fun out of living in a place.

After being married for a few months, the idea of some romantic job in a big city didn't seem so glamorous. I just wanted to settle down near our families. As all the pieces fell into place, I knew we needed to start our home hunt.