Chapter 3: Adventuures in homeownership-Week One-

Note: this is a re-post of my Livejournal entry, so if you read it there.. its the same story here.
--

Adventures in Homeownership-Week One

[Feb. 16th, 2008|09:19 am]

Today marks week one of living in N. Waterboro.I am slowly getting everything unpacked and put away, its been a pretty interesting first week here though, as we currently have no hot water or refrigerator. The hot water heater we have currently is running on Propane, we apparently did not check how much was in the tanks when we looked around before the closing, because we were out of propane. We called the propane people up, they came over Tuesday. It didn't take them long to see that the whole setup is illegal, between the tanks being closer than five feet from any sort of venting (Dryer duct) and the fact that the water heater was venting out that same dryer vent.) this in turn melted the vynil siding outside around the duct a little bit. The refrigerator story is that the house did not come with one. Our buyers agent, Justin was going to acquire the one his boss was getting rid of (fairly new, he got rid of it because he was remodeling the kitchen.) unfortunately the ball was dropped and given away to someone else. so after waiting a week for our agent to come through for us, we instead went over to Appliance Warehouse in Portland and bought a new one. they had a nice black fridge with a water dispenser and ice maker that was like %40 off list price! :) Its also Energy star compliant, so it'll be a tax deduction next year. Two weeks from now ill be receiving a bonus check from work, its pretty much spent already since we need to buy a new water heater (electric, since the cost to make the propane setup legal is going to go sky high) and also getting some roofing tar for the roof. Our new neighbors notified us that the tarps on the roof we knew about, have been up there since Patriots day last year (remember that god awful mofo of a rainstorm?) Theres always something going on, and the fun never ends i hear. all i can say, is that im glad that the first mortgage payment isn't till April. :)

Chapter 2: Finding a place and moving in

Amy's step-sister, Bethany, referred us to Justin Douglas at Reali Realty. He worked his ass off for us, and saved us all sorts of headache. He did all the foot work and phone calling and answered all our silly questions. He even did much of the work for the sellers because they didn't follow through on some of the things they were supposed to do. We looked all around to find an affordable house, all the while my landlord was getting antsy for us to sign another year's lease. We looked at crap hole after trash heap and the occasional tiny little house while trying to keep in an affordable price range. We were ready to sign the jerk's 1 year lease when a diamond in the rough popped up. It was a nice little ranch with a porch, overlooking a wooded lot with a brook running through the trees. It was, and still is, buried in snow, but the pictures - which the neighbors since confirmed - showed a well groomed yard with flowers everywhere. It has a paved driveway on a dirt road, central air and a shed. We had to fight and counter-offer three other people. We ended up paying a little more than we were first expecting, but it still wasn't bad. It was a foreclosure, and my Aunt and Uncle (referred to in my previous post) was the prior owner's neighbor. I got all kinds of insight on the house and its owner from them and our neighbors, who I must add, are all really nice people who've all introduced themselves. They were so welcoming that it was kind of strange, at least after living in Biddeford for a year where folks ignored each other.

We signed the mountain of paperwork - twice - to get our mortgage and told our landlord we were moving out. During our house purchase, Amy's financial advisor for college called and said she wasn't completely covered by FAFSA, after all and needed to be married, have a child or be in the military in order to be considered independant under the age of 24. We found out, while we were trying to buy a house, that we now owe $4000 - and would owe more if we didn't rectify the situation. We certainly weren't ready for a child, and she decided the military wasn't for her, so we got married. We've been together for 2 years already, and we are still having our ceremony in October, so we figured why not. I tried to keep it simple and private. Just us, our parents and the justice of the piece who would do it for free because she's a coworker and a good friend. I didn't want to involve too many people because it was a quick thing in the living room of our apartment. I didn't want there to be jealousy if some were invited and some weren't. Turns out my plan backfired and most everyone was upset we didn't invite them. Oh well, I guess I can't please everyone all the time.

Moving day came, and it turned out that we had to dodge snow storms, just like the last few moves I did. Somehow I seem to decide to move in January. After we signed our paperwork at New England Title (and waited an hour because someone dropped the ball on an attorney hadn't signed something), we headed to our new home, in a limo that Justin provided. It was a nice gesture, but we were under the impression we were going to have lunch with Justin, and didn't eat. We had a glass of wine each, and felt it. We had to ask the limo driver to stop at Lakeside Variety so we could grab some fast food. We bought him a coke and tossed him some money as a thank you. Folks were staring at us as we crawled out of the limo at a gas station. Who knows what they were thinking as I was dressed up, but with big green boots on because of the weather.

We got back to our new house, and unloaded our cars that we had left there before running in town to finalize the deal. We set up an old full-size mattress to sleep on in our new bedroom, and had lawn chairs set up in front of out 13" TV, which was sitting on an upside down bucket.

The next day, we got a bunch of friends and family to help. It was a convoy of 2 pickup trucks with trailers and a conversion van. We got almost everything except for one last van-load of stuff which had to wait a week in order to get because of more snow storms. When we returned, we found that my Dad and father-in-law, Carl, had cleared the driveway and paths for us, as the place hadn't been cleaned out in a while, and was literally up to our ass in snow. Moving turned out to be fun as we had my friends Danny and Kenny, Amy's sister Laura and her mom, my Dad, Amy's Dad and us. Oh, and Danny's girlfriend came by too. We couldn't get the couches in over the railing of the porch on the kitchen door side, so we teamed up and hiked them over the railing to the front porch. The front door was otherwise inaccessible because of a mountain of snow on the corner of the house (which may be there until July by the looks of it).

Kenny bought us some pizza and my Dad went home for his tractor to finish clearing us out. My friends hung out on my 2 couches, each with a busted leg, eating the pizza and joking. I took a few pictures and posted them on my Picasa Web Album. Later, I heard my Dad jack-knifed his trailer on the way home from clearing out my Uncle and Grandfather after my place. He wasn't happy.

So, now we're moved in and will be unpacking for years to come!

Chapter 1: Breaking this thing in...

Here's where I post my first line. I must've tried restarting my blog twenty times. You see, I used to have a blog going on LiveJournal where I posted my trials and tribulations of being out on my own for the first time. It was mostly to keep my folks in the loop, as they were with an empty nest and worrying about their son. That first blog was mostly about me having trouble with room mates and the usual apartment fare. I occasionally sit down and write a few long paragraphs about what's happened in the interem, since I last posted there, but there was too much to catch up on. I couldn't really continue where I left the last blog, anyway. The following few paragraphs is as brief and to the point as I can get, but hopefully enough to fill in a bit of background story on us.

The last chapter was about having a choice to grow up or get out. I chose get out as it was the only way I'd grow up. I moved into an apartment in Limerick with a friend who I went through high school with and spent 3 years of Target with, and who decided he wanted to move back home after a few months. Then my cousin moved in and was sent home because he couldn't afford it. While he was there and we were working at Target, my friend Mike introduced me to Amy at his graduation party. I proposed to her a year later.

After my cousin's departure, my third room mate moved in. He was an old firefighter friend of mine. I got him a job where I was then working for a company that ended up more recently going under after it bounced employees' paychecks. We struggled for a while to make ends meet, and decided that we had to go home. This was particularly tough for me as I vowed never to be one of those boomerang kids. I asked Amy to move into an apartment space my folks made for us in the basement of their home, and we moved in. Shortly after, my cousin and his parents fell upon hard times and also moved in with my folks. One of Amy's coworkers had an apartment in Biddeford to rent, so we took off running towards that adventure.

The place was wonderfully large and conveniently located 30 minutes or less to both of our employers. Biddeford has a wealth of restaurants and venues and we had friends living nearby. It was a perfect comprimise. The quiet family upstairs, however, turned out to have 3 children and an infant. Three of them with special needs. We spent a year there, until we went nuts from the noise above our heads, and decided to become home owners, where this story actually begins...