Limited Choices in Housing

We have been very actively looking for homes recently. In such a small town, there are very limited choices. But here is what we are considering right now.

House A: Listed at $80k, we would hope to get it for $72k
This is a three bedroom ranch with a small one car attached garage and it sets on almost 2 lots. It is in the ideal spot in town where we would want to live. The downfall is that it does not have a basement and is fairly small. We could easily build a detached double car garage on the property. It has an office space in addition to the bedrooms. The bathroom is fairly nice and has been updated and it has an additional 1/2 bathroom. The laundry room is in a porch area in the garage. The lack of basement and overall less living space (particularly dining area and family room area) are the major downfalls of this home. We would probably either add on an put a basement under the addition or live here for a while and then use it as a rental property when we decide to move elsewhere.

Update: House A has been removed from our list. I have decided I can't deal with something that small where we wouldn't have much of a dining room or a whole lot of living area. I am okay with small bedrooms but we need our living space.

House B: Listed at $145k + $20k for 2 additional lots, we would hope to get all for $150k
This is a three bedroom split level on the outer edge of town with a big kitchen and two living areas. It has a 2 car garage and a large yard. This house would not require much work or updating. The biggest downfalls are that the location isn't as central as we would like and that we were wanting to decrease our monthly expenses by having a smaller mortgage payment.

House C: Listed at $40k, we would hope to get it for $35k or less
We have not seen the inside of this house yet but it is definitely a fixer-upper. It has been rented out for a while so is probably not in very good shape. The outside definitely needs some TLC but it is in a great part of town and sets on 2 lots. It does not have a garage. It has two bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs. The bathroom and laundry is on the main level. It has an outside entrance basement. We are considering either fixing this up to live in and build a detached garage or buying the property and at some point tearing down the house to rebuild. If we did end up building, we would probably initially rent the house out or fix it up enough to live in it.

Update: House C does not seem to be a possibility. It was smaller inside than I expected and has some problems I don't think we want to deal with. It would be a tear down and build thing and I just don't want to spend that much right now. I think we should buy something reasonable and live in it for 15 years until it's paid off and then build.

Brett and I are in major disagreement on what we want to do. I choose House B and we would live there probably until we need a house without stairs. Brett would rather live in a more central area of town and have a lower monthly payment. He wants to either remodel or build to create a house that works for us and is in the right location. We had discussed buying Houses A and C where we would live in A and rent C until we could build, then turn around and rent A. But saving up enough money to build while maintaining these two homes seems too expensive. His choice (assuming House C isn't bad structurally) is probably to buy House C and just fix it up so that it is a nice home. This way we have a low mortgage payment and we can use our savings to do some remodeling.

I guess we will wait and look at House C next weekend to see if that is even a possibility. All these decisions are stressing me out!

Moving On...

We will be living in Seneca two weeks from today. Brett accepted a job nearby in Sabetha which is about 15 minutes away. I have made arrangements to work my three days/week remotely for a while. And my mom is going to take Kyler at her daycare on those days. Although we have been house hunting there for a while, we haven't found anything that we want and is priced reasonably in town. So we are planning to live with my parents until we find a home. We will keep our apartment in KC until then to house our furniture and things we don't need.

I am pretty set on only buying a home in Seneca, south of the highway. This way we can go on walks and bike rides around town where lots of family and friends live. South of the highway is important for when Kyler is walking and riding his bike around town on his own and with friends. I don't want to worry about him having to cross the highway to get anywhere (and the pool, schools, parks, etc. are all south of the highway). Ideally, we would live close to my parents as they are in a very convenient location to the schools, park, and pool. And we need to have a large yard for the dogs and probably a deck.

Regarding my work situation, I would like to be employed with my company through the beginning of January. This is when I am fully vested in my 401(k). And it would be a good time to switch to Brett's company health insurance so that we don't have to worry about paying a deductible for just the couple final months of the year. Also, if I want to start finding work around Seneca, it will be a good time as businesses will be closing out their books for the year and people will start thinking about who will be preparing their tax returns. I am not sure what exactly I want to do but I do know that I want to work part time and hopefully sort of set my own hours.

This Week's Menu

Since we moved to an apartment and I have a tiny kitchen, I can't keep my pantry as stocked as I would like to. So I have been coming up with weekly menus and then I just go and buy the things I need for the week. It also saves quite a bit of money when it comes to perishable goods since I only get what we need for the week. Here is this week's menu:

Monday
Jalapeno popper sandwiches with taco salad (lettuce, taco meat, shredded cheese, tortilla strips, hot sauce/ranch/salsa) and fresh fruit (peaches and strawberries), banana cookies

Tuesday
Loaded mashed potato casserole with salad and fresh fruit

Wednesday
Lunch - Chicken nuggets with macaroni and cheese, fresh fruit
Dinner - Chicken pillows, corn on the cob, fresh fruit

Thursday
Tater tot casserole with fresh fruit

We will be away from home the rest of the weekend so I am off the hook for cooking those days.

DIY Play Kitchen

I am starting on a new project. It will probably take a while to get it done, but we have at least gotten started. It is a DIY play kitchen made from a used entertainment center. I found a bunch of examples online and just had to make one for Kyler. He is always in my pantry and tupperware storage areas so this will be a lot of fun for him.

I hope my kitchen looks similar to this one found here.

I found an entertainment center on Craigslist for $10 that should work out perfect. It is in good shape, it's not very heavy (made of the cheap particle board stuff and not solid oak - good for us since we'll hopefully be moving in 6 months or so), and it's just the right size. It has a series of shelves up one side which will eventually get a door and become the refrigerator. There is the open place for the TV which will become the sink and stove. And then there is storage underneath with two cabinet doors. The plan is for the side under the stove to become the oven.

We visited our local Habitat for Humanity Restore store and picked up a few additional items for the kitchen. I found a small square sink with faucet that we got for $12. It needs cleaned up but will provide much more of a "real" look than using a metal mixing bowl. I also bought some round wooden knobs to paint and use as oven knobs and a couple of pulls for the refrigerator/freezer doors ($6 total). I am going to use either old CDs/DVDs painted black for the burners or things like sour cream lids. I also got a couple pints of paint - one white and one light blue ($1 each) - to paint the appliances and cabinets.

This kitchen is very cool but too big and fancy for my skill level.

I still need to find some additional items - a pice of ply wood to put on the back of the space where the TV once was, an outdoor print to use as a window, some fabric to make curtains around the window, something to make a small chalkboard out of, an old phone, an old clock, some hooks for utensils, wood and hinges for the refrigerator door, and some tinted Plexiglas to make an oven door. I may even add a microwave in the top corner of the TV space but that will probably be a later addition. I also thought it might be fun to add a "real" tile backsplash - and it would be good practice. But that would be another later on project.

Oh, and we need some play dishes and food - there is some cool stuff out there. I will probably splurge and buy a pots and pans set and then just wait and buy used dishes and food. And I might steal some of Kyler's pantry space for my own pantry food since my kitchen is so tiny! He'll think that is cool.

I will try to post about what we did and how we did it as we get going. And eventually there will be some before and after pictures. I just hope it looks cute like the ones I've seen online, and not like an amateur did it! 

Food Matters

Last night I watched a documentary that is instant streaming on Netflix right now. It is called "Food Matters" and it was actually really good. The basic premise is that we are unhealthy as a society because we haven't given our bodies the appropriate nutrients. Many of us have vitamin deficiencies and if you really think about it you can see why. How many people (adults especially) follow the food pyramid guidelines and really get enough fruits and vegetables in our diets? Even those who do are eating produce from supermarkets where the food is not as fresh as it should be. The documentary says that a large percent of nutrients are lost due to the time it takes to ship the produce.

To keep our family healthy, I want to try to start doing better about getting all of our vitamins and minerals. I am hoping to do a better job of serving fruits and veggies with every meal and we will probably start taking multivitamins too. I generally try to make sure Kyler gets a fruit and vegetable with every meal but Brett and I are definitely lacking in that.

I would recommend watching this documentary if you get the chance. They make a good (and alarming) case for why this isn't a well-known thing. They also offer several potential remedies for things like depression, cancer, and heart disease that involve high doses of certain vitamins. I am a little skeptical in that I don't think this is a cure-all, although I do think the number of these diseases would be much less if we were all getting the nutrients we need. I also think there is a place for medicine and doctors but they are probably right in that we are over-using them and shouldn't be taking a pill (with adverse side effects) for everything. Instead, we should be treating our bodies better so that pill isn't even necessary. They didn't mention this in the documentary but I think the problem is more with people being lazy than the medical field prescribing pills and treatments to cover up the original problem.

Overall, this did open my mind a little to more holistic approaches to medicine. I agree that as a society we are over-medicating ourselves and that we don't maintain a healthy diet. If there are more natural and healthier ways to treat a problem, I would much rather take that route because there is little chance of them causing harm even if they don't work.

SOLD!

The house is officially no longer ours. We have until Saturday at 5:00 to be out. Brett cashed the check last night and we started moving into our new apartment today. The past few days were sort of a rollercoaster ride in terms of where we were moving to. We had found the apartment last Monday but then Brett asked his company if he would be put on a project in San Antonio and if so, could we move there? We waited all weekend until yesterday afternoon around the same time as the closing on the house and they couldn't make a definite decision so we are staying in KC for the near future.

Our apartment is about 15 minutes from our house, closer to Brett's office. Brett called and found the place and it is roomy. There is a bedroom and bathroom upstairs along with the kitchen, dining room, and living room. In the basement, there is a family room with a bar, lots of storage and laundry room, and another bedroom and bathroom. Kyler will go to another daycare. It is a Kinder Care and is a smaller facility than he is currently in. I am really excited for him to start there next week. The director and staff were very nice when I went in for a tour.

The next step is to find a house in my hometown. We are wanting a place in town, close to the schools so that our kids can ride their bikes around, walk to school, the park, Grandma and Papa's, etc. There isn't much on the market currently so we'll have to see if we can find something. Our current lease is 8 months and we can always renew in 7 month intervals if we need more time.

What Next?

We are scheduled to close on the house on May 31st and turn over the keys on June 4th. We are still not sure where we are headed after that. I have been looking for apartments for the past few weeks and we haven't found anything that matches exactly what we want. I think we are going to have to settle for something in between. We really want a place with two living areas (like a finished basement) and a garage. We need a place that allows pets and we have a budget of around $1,000. The kicker is that we are looking for a short-term lease (preferably 3-month but will make do with a 6-month). As I said, this has proven to be impossible. I have even contact a couple of apartment search professionals. No dice. So we are thinking of taking a townhome with a finished basement that has no garage and a 6-month lease. The cons are that there is no garage, the kitchen is tiny, and it isn't the nicest property. The pros are that is has a ton of space and it's pretty cheap for the amount of space.

There are a couple of reasons for the short term lease. First, our end goal in all this is to move to my hometown by the time Kyler starts school. We have about 4 years before then. However, there isn't much for housing on the market there and we want to buy a place that really fits our wants and needs rather than getting into something for a few years and then selling and buying all over again. So we are just waiting and watching for something we really like. After seeing the housing prices there (it is surprisingly high), we are now considering purchasing some land in town and building a new home. The second reason for the short term lease is that we are considering a move out of state prior to Kyler starting school. It is sort of our last chance to do something like this so we are keeping that option open. This would depend on Brett's employment opportunities.

So as you can see, we have no idea what's next. Heck, we don't even know for sure that the house sale is going to go through. Our crazy buyers scheduled another walk through tomorrow for some reason. It seems pretty strange to us and even to our realtor. So we plan to put down a deposit on a place but not sign a lease agreement or move until after closing. This will work out considering we have not started packing yet (I packed a box of toys, got rid of a bed, and sold a computer desk so far). I know, yikes!

House for Sale

I thought I would include a little update on how the house is doing on the market. We listed it around April 4th so it has been on the market a few weeks now. We have had quite a few showings mostly in the first week or so. It has slowed down but we are hoping the weather has something to do with that.

And we got an offer after it was on the market about a week. However, for being on the market such a short time the offer was much lower than our expectations. We did some negotiating but couldn't come to an agreement so we moved on. Then today we got a call from our realtor saying they came back with another offer. It was still on the low side so we came down a little more on our end. We could probably come to an agreement if we had to but we are afraid because of how much negotiating they are doing now, they are going to try to get a lot out of us after the inspection. We're pretty sure there won't be anything big but we don't want to chance it because it looks bad if you turn down an offer after inspection. At this point we are ready to stop dealing with these buyers.

Update 4/22/11: We ended up going down a tiny bit more but including "as is" language. We don't know of anything wrong with the house and we don't want them to use anything in the inspection as a point of negotiation because we are at our bottom dollar now. So if after the inspection they do try to renegotiate we are just going to say no and let them cancel the contract. It isn't ideal to have a cancelled contract but at least we will have had the house inspected and know what to expect from our next offer if that is the case. The showings keep coming (because we aren't technically under contract until all signatures are in). We had one this afternoon and another in the morning. I will be glad to be done with showings if we do close on this offer! Now we just need to start looking for a new place to live. Anyone know of any townhomes or apartments with fenced in yards? We are hoping to stay between our current location and around Corporate Woods/Metcalf.


Update 4/25/11: Our inspection was this afternoon. While we had to be out of the house for over three hours, Kyler and I checked out some apartments and town homes in the area. I found a town house that I really like but the shortest lease option is 6 months so I don't think we're going to take it. I am really nervous about the inspection even though we don't know of anything major that would be wrong. I just think these people are going to try to have us do stuff or decrease the price again and we are going to have to cancel the contract. I guess whatever happens will happen and we will just keep on keep truckin'.


Update 3/4/11: Well we finally settled all the negotiations. We ended up giving in on another $1,000. Our rationale is that we will make up that money in 2-3 months living in an apartment and have a lower monthly mortgage/rent payment. Plus it means no more showings or negotiations. So now we close on the 31st and have to be out June 4th at 5:00 - exactly one month from today. I've continued researching apartment options and we are now focusing on places that have very short term (1 month) leases. We are toying with the idea of now moving out of state for a few years before settling in Seneca when Kyler starts school. So depending on employment opportunities that may arise, we might be moving again very soon.

Updating the Kitchen - After

Okay, here are the long awaited "after" pictures of our kitchen.

Scroll to a previous blog post for the "before" shots.

We are planning on buying a microwave that actually matches the other appliances.

Here's what we did:

- Took down wallpaper and painted

- Replaced laminate countertop

- Replaced porcelain sink with a composite granite

- Replaced faucet and cabinet hardware with "oil rubbed bronze" finish

- New tile backsplash with accent pieces

- Repainted cabinets

So we now have a "for sale" sign in the yard and our house will be posted on the MLS tomorrow. Hopefully we have some showings and interested buyers soon!

What a week (or so) this has been!

We have been CRAZY busy lately. It is really no fun at all. Both Brett and I are extremely busy with work. Every day is a struggle to try to decide who has time to watch Kyler in the evenings after day care. Then that person will be further behind for work or will have to stay up late working.

Beyond that, we are working to get our house on the market. We finally got our kitchen done. I'll post some "after" pictures when I get it all cleaned up and put back together tomorrow. Now we are working on some last minute things like staining/painting trim and putting some things back together. We still have a lot of cleaning to do - mainly the garage. All of this is very difficult to get done since someone has to watch Kyler at all times. He is down to taking one nap some days and when he is up, you can't take your eye off him or he will be opening drawers or cruising toward an outlet or the stairs. Plus, when there are small construction projects going on around the house there aren't many baby proof areas. And on top of that, I have had to work most Saturdays.

So to help ease our stress, we enrolled Kyler into full time day care. Now I have been working on one of my days "off" and cleaning/working on the house the other day. This weekend we even had to ship Kyler off to a babysitter on Saturday. We were feeling like neglectful parents after not really seeing him for 6 days straight. The good thing is that he loves it and our crazy busy time should be coming to an end in the next week or so.

Yesterday things got even worse. I was on my way to work and as I was waiting on a light to get on the interstate I looked down and saw that traffic was pretty much at a stand still. They are doing road work and had all but one lane closed. So I had to sit in traffic even on a Saturday. (I had to heading home from work at 9:30 pm on a Friday night as well.) As I am sitting in traffic, I see a cop behind me with his lights on. He was pulling me over because my tags were expired "back in March" (a.k.a 48 hours ago). Turns out this is a misdemeanor charge and I have to go to court. All because we are too busy to even realize we needed to pay auto tags and taxes. Ugh!

Luckily, my personality is such that I can pretty much laugh it off and let the stress roll off my shoulders at times. Tonight we needed a couple of supplies but waited too long and everything but the dreaded Wal-Marts was closed. We decided to go there (we NEVER shop there). I feel like we were warned, it started lightning and sprinkling as we went in, we got there and they didn't even have 3/4 of what we needed, and then we heard it hailing as we were inside (while both our vehicles were sitting outdoors). We decided to put back the one thing they did have and buy it elsewhere in the morning. That should tell you how much we don't like to support Wal-Mart. :)