Thursday, August 13, 2009
Porch Night
We have landed in one of the most awesome neighborhoods! The house we purchased is in the downtown area. It was built in 1914. It's old, but also has a lot of character (which was a huge selling point for us) Little did we know at the time we bought the house that the neighborhood has Porch Night all summer long. It's a kick-back to the good ol' days when people knew their neighbors and everyone looked out for each other. Most of these older houses in the neighborhood have big front porches and someone several years ago got the idea to start the porch nights. What happens is starting with a potluck on Memorial day, we all get together and sign up for a week to host. Then one night a week for the whole summer, we get together at someone's house to catch up. The Host provides snacks, but that is not the focus of the evening. The focus is to catch up with the neighbors. We talk about whatever comes to mind, home improvements, golf, weather, camping......there seems to be an unwritten rule that religion and politics are not discussed. It has been an awesome opportunity to meet the neighborhood. I have met more of my neighbors in 4 months at this house than I did in 7 1/2 years at the old house. I have also met people that I would not normally hang out with. Since we are in all different ages and stages, our paths wouldn't naturally cross but this has given us an opportunity to do so. I love the neighborhood and feel so lucky to have stumbled upon this gem.
Reflection
We recently passed the 1 year mark of living in Iowa. It really hit me when we spent a week in Michigan in July. We no longer had a house to mess with (WOOHOO!) and we truly were going to visit friends and family and just relax. As we were driving home (to Iowa) I realized, we really live in Iowa now. It has been a year like none other. It is amazing to me how much can change in a year. We went from moving to an area that we knew nothing about to finding a new home town filled with friends and support that is out of this world. We went from owning a house that we thought we would never get rid of to owning a house in a great neighborhood. We found a church that has grown us in more ways than I can even articulate. (Prairie Lakes Church) I personally stepped out of my comfort zone and learned things about myself that I didn't know. I learned patience (ok still working on that one) and I learned to be creative in finding a solution and that I don't need everything I think I need. My faith has grown. And I hope I am a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, employee because of this last year.
A lot has happened
So it's been a while since I last updated the drama here. In hind sight, it seems not as dramatic, but during the moment, the drama seemed intolerable. Here's a quick recap of what has happened since I last wrote here. We did close on the house here in Iowa on the date we were suppose to close. It wasn't without a lot of work on our realtor's part (Karen Kayser) for which I am very thankful, but it also wasn't without still some unfinished stuff. The electrical work that the sellers agreed to fix was about 15% complete. They also just gave us a check to fix the toilet that needed new guts. So there we sat on the day we were suppose to leave for a week in Michigan to address issues with the other house trying to decide what to do. And oh did I mention the other realtor had left the day before for vacation and was in Florida and the sellers were an older couple who were in a nursing home? Anyway, it ended up a week later after we returned, we got the issue resolved. We spent the next 6 weeks working on the house ripping up carpeting, stripping wallpaper, repairing cracks in the plaster, painting, doing new flooring in the bedroom and dining room and finally moving in. I had some really great friends that I have met through this coffee group I have been attending that step up to the plate, no questions asked to help us move. That was the best gift I could ever have asked for and I will forever be truly grateful for them and their help during the very rainy last weekend in April.
Ok so now on to the Michigan house.........IT'S SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, I can say that excitedly now, but again it didn't happen without it's fair share of drama! We took the kid's spring break as an opportunity to go back to Michigan, do some painting in the bedrooms to neutralize the rooms and relist the house since Spring seems to be the best time to get the most traffic. We had made the hard decision to not relist with the same realtor. She was a friend of the family which I know everyone tells you don't list with a friend because it can get icky, but I really trusted her to get the job done. The problem was she treated me as a friend and when she complained to me about how bad the market was and she wasn't sure how long she was going to continue to sell because her husband had just recently gotten laid off from his job, it made me uncomfortable continuing the realtor/client relationship. I had talked to a potential new realtor on the phone prior to going to MI. She had been suggested by several friends, but in the end, I didn't think we would work well together. So first night back in town we went to my friend Maureen's St. Patrick's day party. It was a great opportunity to see some friends. While we were there, I talked to a few people telling them why we were in town and of course the subject of the house came up. Several people there suggested I talk to Michelle because she had sold houses for them and she did an awesome job for them. So having nothing to lose, on Monday I called her. She came over, we met and signed up to list with her. She is a big dog in the area and we decided we needed a big dog to get the job done. In December we left the market at 145,000. When we asked her what to list it for she said well 145k is a great place, but if you really want it sold quickly like you indicate you could list for 139k. We said let's do it and I think that shocked her a little. I don't think she thought we were that serious. So we listed for 139k which was 6,000 less than what we originally bought the house for 7 1/2 years ago, but we were tired of paying the mortgage every month. Oh yeah, we also were greeted to a couple of inches of water in our basement! We had never had water in our basement before and of course now we had to disclaim it on the listing. We spent the week pumping out water from our basement but left with the water contained to a small room under the porch. The hardest part was now in front of me. Now that we listed with another realtor, I had to make the call to the friend. It wasn't easy and I'll admit, I used Bill as a scape goat. She was obviously disappointed, but in retrospect, I don't think she would have had the experience and/or knowledge to get us through what was to come. So we came back to IA and immediately we were having traffic on the MI house. We were also continuing to have water in the basement every time it rained. They had had a very unusual winter in MI last winter with record amounts of snow then a little bit of a melt in December which made the frost line rise which gave the rain no place to go but into our basement. There were so many reports of people having water in their basement for the first time in years, some for like 20 and 30 years. It was absolutely crazy. It was even crazier to try to deal with it from 500 miles away. Thankfully I have the most AWESOME sister and brother-in-law who without question took care of the water for us until the house was sold. I will forever be greatful to them. It was a lot of work and we would not have been able to handle it without them. A week or two after the listing, we had a couple come thru the house and fell in love with it and were ready to write an offer until they went back into the basement and discovered the water in the small room under the porch. Michelle said they had dealt with water in the basement at a previous house and weren't willing to do it again. Even after offering to install another sump pump or something else to take care of the water, they still weren't interested. That was a major blow to the very fragile emotional state of both Bill and me. At this point mind you we are doing repairs to the new house to move in and dealing with the MI house that has water in the basement that we can't control. We started seriously talking about foreclosing. The subject had come up before over the course of the year, but this was the first time that we both were ready to consider it. It was a very down, ugly time. Michelle and I decided to get some quotes for fixing the water issue. She had heard of this dry basement system that was suppose to come with a guarantee to never have a wet basement again. I thought, ok if it's a couple of grand and someone wants the basement water addressed, it would be worth us paying to install it. So she got the quote and it came back as $8000 to install! Unbelievable! At the same time we had another couple come through the house, fall in love with it and make an offer contingent on us installing this system! We decided to counter offer the full price minus the cost of the dry basement system. The logic was that I really didn't want to deal with installing it and thought they could just do it. We all agreed and we were on our way for a early May closing. All was well on it's way until the appraiser came to inspect the property. Now it's important to note that a week earlier when he was originally suppose to appraise the house, the rain had stopped and the basement was dry. A week later when he actually showed up the rain had started again thus we had water in our basement again. Because of the water in the basement the appraiser indicated that the value of the house undeterminable because the water in the basement "significantly lowered" the value of the home. Are you kidding me?!?. The mortgage company would not finance their loan until the dry basement system was installed and would not agree to our agreement of just taking the 8k off the price of the house. That night the buyers went to the house to see the basement. They asked permission to plug in a dehumidifier because they were worried about mildew. I told the realtor sure, but it wouldn't help because the water was coming it at such a fast rate that we are continuing to wet-vac it up and it continues to come back at the same rate. My Brother-in-law had been at the house to wet-vac an hour or two prior to the buyer's arrival. Apparently they plugged in the dehumidifier and hooked it up to the sump pump which will come into play in a minute, and wet-vac'd for several hours. This was the first time they realized the water was coming in at such a significant amount although we had been up front and honest about it all along. They also made frames out of 2x4's and tarps and leaned them against the back of the house where there were no gutters. I think they were convinced that the problem was simply the lack of gutters and that they would be able to do it without installing the dry basement system and get the house for 8k less than the original offer. Well after 2 hours of dealing with the water and realizing that it was a bigger issue than they originally thought, they decided it was a bigger issue and weren't sure if they wanted to continue with the settled upon offer. They suggested keeping the price as we negoitated and then us also installing the 8k system. Are you kidding me! After a lot of drama and heated discussions between Bill and me. We decided to offer to pay 1/2. If they increase the sell price by 4k, we would foot the bill for the system. That is where it landed. Of course now we had to wait until the system was installed before we could close. The basement system people were of course out of this world busy so we couldn't get an appointment until the end of the month. Two days later, I got a call from my sister. I said hello and all I heard was my BIL screaming in the background. Apparently when the buyers were over there 2 nights before and decided the dehumidifier was worthless, they removed it and in process knocked something on the sump pump so that it ran into the basement instead of into the drain so for two days the basement was being pumped into the basement instead of down the drain. There was at least 6 inches of water in the basement! Additionally when he opened the basement window to put the hose out the window to drain the mess faster, he knocked over the tarp which apparently they had nailed to the siding and knocked a chunk of siding off! I called Michelle and asked her to tell the other realtor that they were not allowed on the property until after the closing that they were making a bigger mess for us and not being helpful at all. A few days later I got a call from Michelle telling me that the buyers realtor had called asking if the basement window could be put back in because the buyer had brought his mother over to show her the place and "just walked around the property" but noticed the window out and was concerned about vandals and wildlife getting in. I told Michelle at that point the only vandals I was worried about was the buyers and we were trying to air out the basement from the mess they made! Luckily there was no damage to the furnace or water heater which was our biggest concern. So long story short, the dry basement system got installed at the end of May, we closed in the beginning of June, not without more drama, but I have probably bored you enough at this point. We did have to pay $17,0000 to close and we have officially tapped all of our savings and are completely broke, but we still both have good jobs and we got rid of a huge headache and we didn't have to foreclose. Bill is still pretty angry about the whole thing and can't even really talk about it without his blood pressure rising. A very wise person I work with said to me that in 24 months all this drama will just be a blip on the radar. I can already see his wisdom just a few months down the road. We are starting to pay off some of the debt and we are already feeling better.
Ok so now on to the Michigan house.........IT'S SOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, I can say that excitedly now, but again it didn't happen without it's fair share of drama! We took the kid's spring break as an opportunity to go back to Michigan, do some painting in the bedrooms to neutralize the rooms and relist the house since Spring seems to be the best time to get the most traffic. We had made the hard decision to not relist with the same realtor. She was a friend of the family which I know everyone tells you don't list with a friend because it can get icky, but I really trusted her to get the job done. The problem was she treated me as a friend and when she complained to me about how bad the market was and she wasn't sure how long she was going to continue to sell because her husband had just recently gotten laid off from his job, it made me uncomfortable continuing the realtor/client relationship. I had talked to a potential new realtor on the phone prior to going to MI. She had been suggested by several friends, but in the end, I didn't think we would work well together. So first night back in town we went to my friend Maureen's St. Patrick's day party. It was a great opportunity to see some friends. While we were there, I talked to a few people telling them why we were in town and of course the subject of the house came up. Several people there suggested I talk to Michelle because she had sold houses for them and she did an awesome job for them. So having nothing to lose, on Monday I called her. She came over, we met and signed up to list with her. She is a big dog in the area and we decided we needed a big dog to get the job done. In December we left the market at 145,000. When we asked her what to list it for she said well 145k is a great place, but if you really want it sold quickly like you indicate you could list for 139k. We said let's do it and I think that shocked her a little. I don't think she thought we were that serious. So we listed for 139k which was 6,000 less than what we originally bought the house for 7 1/2 years ago, but we were tired of paying the mortgage every month. Oh yeah, we also were greeted to a couple of inches of water in our basement! We had never had water in our basement before and of course now we had to disclaim it on the listing. We spent the week pumping out water from our basement but left with the water contained to a small room under the porch. The hardest part was now in front of me. Now that we listed with another realtor, I had to make the call to the friend. It wasn't easy and I'll admit, I used Bill as a scape goat. She was obviously disappointed, but in retrospect, I don't think she would have had the experience and/or knowledge to get us through what was to come. So we came back to IA and immediately we were having traffic on the MI house. We were also continuing to have water in the basement every time it rained. They had had a very unusual winter in MI last winter with record amounts of snow then a little bit of a melt in December which made the frost line rise which gave the rain no place to go but into our basement. There were so many reports of people having water in their basement for the first time in years, some for like 20 and 30 years. It was absolutely crazy. It was even crazier to try to deal with it from 500 miles away. Thankfully I have the most AWESOME sister and brother-in-law who without question took care of the water for us until the house was sold. I will forever be greatful to them. It was a lot of work and we would not have been able to handle it without them. A week or two after the listing, we had a couple come thru the house and fell in love with it and were ready to write an offer until they went back into the basement and discovered the water in the small room under the porch. Michelle said they had dealt with water in the basement at a previous house and weren't willing to do it again. Even after offering to install another sump pump or something else to take care of the water, they still weren't interested. That was a major blow to the very fragile emotional state of both Bill and me. At this point mind you we are doing repairs to the new house to move in and dealing with the MI house that has water in the basement that we can't control. We started seriously talking about foreclosing. The subject had come up before over the course of the year, but this was the first time that we both were ready to consider it. It was a very down, ugly time. Michelle and I decided to get some quotes for fixing the water issue. She had heard of this dry basement system that was suppose to come with a guarantee to never have a wet basement again. I thought, ok if it's a couple of grand and someone wants the basement water addressed, it would be worth us paying to install it. So she got the quote and it came back as $8000 to install! Unbelievable! At the same time we had another couple come through the house, fall in love with it and make an offer contingent on us installing this system! We decided to counter offer the full price minus the cost of the dry basement system. The logic was that I really didn't want to deal with installing it and thought they could just do it. We all agreed and we were on our way for a early May closing. All was well on it's way until the appraiser came to inspect the property. Now it's important to note that a week earlier when he was originally suppose to appraise the house, the rain had stopped and the basement was dry. A week later when he actually showed up the rain had started again thus we had water in our basement again. Because of the water in the basement the appraiser indicated that the value of the house undeterminable because the water in the basement "significantly lowered" the value of the home. Are you kidding me?!?. The mortgage company would not finance their loan until the dry basement system was installed and would not agree to our agreement of just taking the 8k off the price of the house. That night the buyers went to the house to see the basement. They asked permission to plug in a dehumidifier because they were worried about mildew. I told the realtor sure, but it wouldn't help because the water was coming it at such a fast rate that we are continuing to wet-vac it up and it continues to come back at the same rate. My Brother-in-law had been at the house to wet-vac an hour or two prior to the buyer's arrival. Apparently they plugged in the dehumidifier and hooked it up to the sump pump which will come into play in a minute, and wet-vac'd for several hours. This was the first time they realized the water was coming in at such a significant amount although we had been up front and honest about it all along. They also made frames out of 2x4's and tarps and leaned them against the back of the house where there were no gutters. I think they were convinced that the problem was simply the lack of gutters and that they would be able to do it without installing the dry basement system and get the house for 8k less than the original offer. Well after 2 hours of dealing with the water and realizing that it was a bigger issue than they originally thought, they decided it was a bigger issue and weren't sure if they wanted to continue with the settled upon offer. They suggested keeping the price as we negoitated and then us also installing the 8k system. Are you kidding me! After a lot of drama and heated discussions between Bill and me. We decided to offer to pay 1/2. If they increase the sell price by 4k, we would foot the bill for the system. That is where it landed. Of course now we had to wait until the system was installed before we could close. The basement system people were of course out of this world busy so we couldn't get an appointment until the end of the month. Two days later, I got a call from my sister. I said hello and all I heard was my BIL screaming in the background. Apparently when the buyers were over there 2 nights before and decided the dehumidifier was worthless, they removed it and in process knocked something on the sump pump so that it ran into the basement instead of into the drain so for two days the basement was being pumped into the basement instead of down the drain. There was at least 6 inches of water in the basement! Additionally when he opened the basement window to put the hose out the window to drain the mess faster, he knocked over the tarp which apparently they had nailed to the siding and knocked a chunk of siding off! I called Michelle and asked her to tell the other realtor that they were not allowed on the property until after the closing that they were making a bigger mess for us and not being helpful at all. A few days later I got a call from Michelle telling me that the buyers realtor had called asking if the basement window could be put back in because the buyer had brought his mother over to show her the place and "just walked around the property" but noticed the window out and was concerned about vandals and wildlife getting in. I told Michelle at that point the only vandals I was worried about was the buyers and we were trying to air out the basement from the mess they made! Luckily there was no damage to the furnace or water heater which was our biggest concern. So long story short, the dry basement system got installed at the end of May, we closed in the beginning of June, not without more drama, but I have probably bored you enough at this point. We did have to pay $17,0000 to close and we have officially tapped all of our savings and are completely broke, but we still both have good jobs and we got rid of a huge headache and we didn't have to foreclose. Bill is still pretty angry about the whole thing and can't even really talk about it without his blood pressure rising. A very wise person I work with said to me that in 24 months all this drama will just be a blip on the radar. I can already see his wisdom just a few months down the road. We are starting to pay off some of the debt and we are already feeling better.
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