Home Sweet Home

Erin just went to sleep and Jared is working the Atlantis Mission so I finally find a second to post some photos. I know most of you don’t care what my upstairs bathroom looks like, but this is our family portal so if I don’t get detailed I’ll have mothers after me. All the boxs are gone, but the walls are still bare (and blue, ugh). The fun part is just starting.
All right here are the photos for all you nagging people :)

I know the façade of the house is Ugo! For all you land arch’s out there, send your ideas this way! Do the Tuscan firs stay or go? We are going plant shopping this week.

Entryway

Dining Room

Living Room

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

The wall paper has got to go!

Master Closet

Em's New Business Office

View from office

no back neighbors, community greenspace

Upstairs Bath

Family Game Room

Erin’s room looks like the guest room but with another window, she was sleeping when I was taking photos.

Backyard






Street

The Story...

We finally took the leap and purchased our first home on Aug 25th. I always said I would never, EVER do three things when I purchased a house:1.) live in suburbia 2.) live in a flood plain or by the water (21 feet elevation, the whole city is a flood plain) 3.) I would never live where a homeowners association restricted my pink flamingo and gnome usage. I managed to fail to meet the criteria on all three. But after a year of searching we found the best possible scenario for our family. The buying process went smoothly until the week of closing when things got a little hairy.

We first looked at the house back in April and then put in an offer in mid June. The owners were in the process of building a house and the week they accepted our offer they cancelled the house they were building; hence, they were homeless. We had our apartment contracted until Aug 31 so we agreed on a two-month closing to give them time to find a house.

We purchased the house because it has some character. We looked at over 30 houses and probably about seven floor plans. But moreover we purchased it because the owner was completely anal and the house was in very good structural condition, which is hard to find around here. It is still odd to me, but housing is practically a disposable commodity down here. The humid weather, blazing temperatures, and tropical storms create a prime condition for mold and general material deterioration. And frankly, its quick-build suburbia, houses are not built to last and people come to Houston to work, there a large turnover. Anyway the inspector told us this house was one of the best taken care of houses he had inspected in a long time and that was our buying point.

We were set to close on Friday morning at 9 am, giving us all day Friday and Saturday to move before the flight window for the shuttle opened on Sunday. Everything had gone smoothly…..and then the downward spiral began.

We received a notice from the sellers that they were taking the weekend after the closing to move out. They fabricated up some story and stated that we said that they could have three days after closing to move out, even though it was never mentioned and never executed in the contract. After they threatened to not sell the house (with some colorful language added) we settled on the terms they could have all day Friday and until 10 am Saturday to move out.

This put us in an awkward position, since we would be closing on the house and they would continue to reside in it for 24 hours and we would carry the liability if anything would happen (a.k.a they decide to burn the house down).

We did our final walk through the morning of the closing and the owner got very nasty with us, that we were “stealing” his house. As we did the walk through we found several contract breaches and decided to let them slide after his comment about possibly punching large holes in the wall. Frankly ,our goal at this point was not to piss him off as he seemed a bit shifty. The closing went well and the frustration just turned to bizarre.

I arrived at the house at 10am Saturday and let out a sigh of relief that all walls were still intact. I walked up to the front door of MY HOUSE only to find the sellers had hired a skin-head moving crew to move their spa (complete with KKK tattoos, shaved heads and wife beaters, it just seemed so stereotypical). After the skin-heads left, our posse moving crew pretty much helped the sellers load up because it was after 1 pm and they still had major items to move. Its was a bit touch and go, but we finally thought it was over….

And here’s the kicker, we went to rewire a 220V (which the seller was bound to do. And he did, but then ripped it out because he was mad). We found out he had stolen the breakers out of the fuse box. Who steals a breaker? How childish are we (this is why we were being very patient with him, so he did not go postal on us). I asked him if I could have my breakers back and he smiled and said to go to Lowe's. Someone looked at 5 different hardware stores and could find them nowhere. That was my limit - he stole my pool table, he breached the contract, but after a day of moving in 95 degree weather and rain I wanted to do laundry and I was ready to fight.

I called his wife (ironically she was the nicest woman) and about an hour later he was standing on my front door step with his head hung low reluctantly handing over the breakers. He looked like a beaten kid that stole something from a candy store and his mom was making him apologize and return the item.

And on top of that they did not mow their yard for over a month. The thing was a jungle, it was almost waist deep on Erin. I contemplated bailing it, but then I thought the homeowners association would frown upon round bales :)

I can’t say the seller was a horrible guy, no one really has their best face forward with the buying/selling process, it becomes an emotional trying time, especially for people like him that think the world is out to get him.

The first week in our new house was a little turbulent with the insurance company loosing the check from the title company and not telling us we had no insurance for the first week. Besides the drug paraphernalia I found in the flowers beds and the random motion lights that we can’t find a switch for life is adjusting back to normal and we are slowly settling in. Lowe’s has become our new hangout spot, it becomes almost a nightly adventure (and a pricey one for that matter).

Erin loves the house, more than anything I love the space. If you have not looked at our site for a while, flip back a few pages for photos of Erin. She is growing and talking up a storm.

And you all of you Northern folk, come down and visit. Or if you are ever in Houston you are more than welcome to crash at our house (as long as we know you and your not some random person reading this). I will start posting more regularly again.

Until next time...