Moving Right Along

The home appraisal from the bank is complete and we're good to go on our home loan!  We did not anticipate any difficulties there, but still; nice to have that ticked off the list.  Now it's time to start recruiting friends to help us move.  We are also thinking of having the lot surveyed so that we will know exactly where our property line is.

Good Things Come in Threes

Things as they stand so far:

1. The house has passed septic and radon inspection.
2. The sellers have agreed to fix the electrical wiring mistakes caught by the home inspector prior to closing.
3. The sellers have also agreed to a slightly earlier closing date of July 13th, which gives us a whole extra weekend to move!

Huzzah!  Now we're just waiting on the bank appraisal, basically.

Home Inspection

Today was a very long day for us.  Our meeting with the home inspector was scheduled for 11 am.  However, as of 9 o'clock we still had not received a copy of the ratified contract that the listing agent assured us had been ratified last Friday.  Oh, and did I mention that the house was still listed online as actively "for sale"?  Not the sort of things that inspire confidence.  Our realtor tried to assure us that she would get to the bottom of it and that all would be well.  We knew that would likely be the case, but deep down, we were a little concerned that things were going to go pear-shaped thanks to the sellers' realtor.  Which, as N pointed out, would have been stupid since there was a legally binding contract in place. 

The contract arrived via email as we were en route to the house for the rescheduled 11:30 meeting.  Once there, we waited for 20-30 minutes: no inspector and no realtor.  Our realtor is nearly always late so this was no surprise, but no home inspector?  Not good.  So we called our realtor, and she was concerned for a bit until we all realized that perhaps someone should check the house next door...  which is also for sale.  Lo and behold, there he was!  The poor guy hadn't double-checked the address; he turned the corner and there was a house for sale.  He assumed we were running late and started the inspection on the wrong house, which he was actually able to complete since the back door was unlocked (he thought our agent had unlocked it for him).  Thankfully, he thought it was pretty funny and was in good spirits for our inspection.  Nice guy!  We had to go through the backyard first, as the realty system that provides codes for the lockboxes was down so our realtor had to wait on the phone a good ten minutes before we could get into the house.

Overall, the inspection results were good.  Major findings as follows:

• Older roof that will likely need replacing in 5-10 years.  No surprise there - we knew that already.
• Ancient air compressor that is probably on its last legs and could go any time, but is running quite well for now.  We knew this was old but didn't realize quite how old it is, and it is an expensive thing to replace.  This is why home warranties exist.
• Sloppy caulking on the flash (I think he said flash?) at the chimney - it's ugly but it's working great.  Might need to be redone when the roof is replaced.
• Windows all appear to have 8-10 years of life in them yet; nothing is leaking but some of the exterior windows should be caulked.
• Solid plumbing, particularly for the recent kitchen/bathroom remodel.
• Aforementioned remodel involved some questionable wiring decisions that need to be remedied.  Namely, the dishwasher and the oven are sharing a circuit, which is a no-no.  Plus, the master bathroom is sharing a circuit with the kitchen, which is also unacceptable.  These are easy to fix and according to state law, the seller has to fix them before closing.  The inspector is also willing to peek at it after it gets fixed to make sure it's done properly.
• We can't use antibacterial soap since the house is on septic and you need to let the bacteria do their job.  OK, so this isn't an official home inspection finding, but he told us about it since we're new to septic.  We don't like antibacterial soap anyway (messes with the skin's natural pH barrier), but this is good to know.  The inspector was full of useful tidbits like this.
• The attic could use slightly more heavy-duty insulation for efficiency's sake, though it's not bad the way it is.  On a related note, that attic actually has a fair bit of storage space - yay!
• Furnace is only a few years old and is in excellent working condition.
• Fireplace and chimney look great, and it would be cheap to swap it from a gas fireplace to a wood-burning fireplace if we wanted to do so.
• If we want to have chickens in a few years, the inspector is raising Rhode Island Reds for sale.  Again, not official "inspection material", but he is an avid gardener (and chicken farmer) and got all excited when we found out we want to grow some of our own food.  So we also got his two cents about where to put the garden because hey, why not? 

I am entertained at the notion that since the house next door is also under contract (twice the size and 1.5 times the price of ours), we will not be the only new kids on the block.

Then it was time for a lunch break at the best bakery in Warrenton.  We will only be ten minutes from this place, which is both a wonderful thing and a potentially bad thing.  We may have been eyeballing the 5 lb bag of coffee beans for sale.  Old Town Warrenton is so cute!   On the way out of town we discovered that the listing agent had finally changed the status on the house from "active" to "sale pending",  or as I like to call it, "my house - no touchy!"  Then on to a meeting with our mortgage guy.  This involved lots and lots of paperwork, many pages of which detailed my student loans in excruciating fashion.  All in all, it was relatively painless and he is a pleasant fellow.

Not the way I would choose to spend my only day off, but it needed to be done.  Home appraisal should be done in about two weeks' time and we should close in about four weeks.  We are too tired to be appropriately jubilant.

Gooooool!

The sellers said yes to our counteroffer - we're buying a house!

Home/radon/septic inspection is set for Monday.  Settlement sometime next month (still a bit up in the air).

Huzzah!

So far, so good

The sellers have responded to our offer with a fairly reasonable counteroffer. It is still a trifle more than we would like to pay, so we are checking with the listing agent to see if he thinks the sellers would be amenable to a counteroffer. Let the negotiations commence!

Sleep-Deprived

Had a dream that in response to our offer, the sellers countered with a higher asking price on the house.

Dear brain: I'm pretty sure that's not how that works.  Please keep your anxiety to yourself.

Surprise, Surprise

After the minor debacle regarding our rescinded bid on the house in Marshall, we decided to take a couple of weeks off from house-hunting to clear our heads.  This was conveniently facilitated by a a trip out-of-town for a weekend.  We decided to stop looking so hard for a house, since we weren't really finding much.  Nick would keep tabs on online sites periodically and let me know if he found anything good, and we'd see if the market heated up, but no big deal.

And then our realtor found a whole bunch of interesting listings.  So last Sunday we got in the car at 10 am and spent the next ten hours driving to and from various properties.  I do not endorse this method.  We were tired and grumpy when we got home.  However, it may have worked out well for us.  Here's the rundown:

• House #23, Hamilton: A brick-and-siding rambler foreclosure in a very cute little town east of Purcellville (look it up).  Nice quiet neighborhood with simple, well-kept homes in a variety of sizes.  Front of the house in need of curb appeal but the next-door-neighbor's home was an excellent example of how stair railings and flowerbeds could spruce the place up.  Nice big fenced backyard, detached two-car garage.  Small-ish but doable eat-in kitchen.  Decent hardwood floors, brick fireplace.  Three small bedrooms all clustered in one corner of the house (a layout I am picky about if it feels like they are all on top of each other).  Giant partially finished basement with a home-built bar that ate Cincinnati.  I'm thinking these people may have had the entire town population over for Redskins games.  No joke.  One teensy bathroom upstairs (with all the bedrooms) and one really nice bathroom downstairs with the TV room and bar.  Meh.  If we were going to move all the way to Hamilton, it wouldn't be for this house.
• House #24, Purcellville: A 111-year old farmhouse that we were kind of excited to see.  Cute little neighborhood.  The house was about what you would expect from an old farmhouse, in ways both good and bad.  Nice front porch.   Beautiful wide-planked pine flooring; a room with fireplace at the back (was probably the kitchen back in the day but is now a living room) with high ceiling and wood beams.  Nice, spacious bathrooms.  A large and sunny backyard.  But this sort of house also comes with quirks: no central air (not a deal-breaker because as former New Englanders we're used to that); low ceilings upstairs and seriously uneven floors to the degree that I started feeling a trifle queasy.  Small eat-in dining room with a kitchen lacking in countertop/cabinet space.  The large bathrooms were outdated and there was no master bath.  In short, full of character but perhaps too big a project for us at our current level of time and finances.
• House #25, Purcellville: We knew this house was going to be too small (2 bed/1ba cottage) but it looked so cute in photographs that we wanted to see it anyway.  It's adorable, but it's a one-person house.  Hardwood floors (again), a kitchen that is small but very efficient in its usage of space.  A mud room with good extra kitchen storage.  Bathroom cute and crammed full of cabinets.  But we realized that our hutch/buffet would not actually fit in the combined living/dining room if we wanted to also have a dining table, so that was out.
• House #26, Warrenton:Foreclosure in a subdivision.  Not far from the Warrenton house mentioned in this post.  Probably built by the same people, as the layout was similar but scaled down (to 4 bed/2.5 bath)   Good space, small backyard but nice deck.  Kitchen small with laminate countertops and not-very-well-hung cabinets.  Carpeted sitting room/dining room, which always make me twitch.  Why would you carpet a dining room floor?  It's not just me who spills things.  Plus, this one was beige.  Give me one glass of red wine and that carpet is toast!  Family room with a hideous braided carpet and a weird built-in that I think was maybe for DVD storage but was way too deep and looked odd.  Nice half bath on the first floor.  Four good-sized bedrooms upstairs with two bathrooms.  Giant unfinished basement that had already been framed out.  Needs paint and floor replacement.  Also needs some work on curb appeal.  Location is OK - bit more of a walk to Old Town Warrenton but still doable.  A definite maybe.
• House #27, Warrenton: Brick rambler 3 bed /2 ba northeast of town that our realtor was all excited about.  The photos did not impress with regards to the exterior, but the kitchen looked quite nice online so we figured we'd take a look since we were going to be there anyway.  Quiet cul-de-sac in a pretty nice neighborhood.  Exterior has these ugly dark brown window shutters that make the place look dated as all get-out, and the front walkway and landscaping need love.  Large backyard but about half of it is woods leading to a small creek running through the back of the property.  Soil doesn't look very garden-friendly at the moment (red clay - felt like tennis!)  The inside was another story altogether.  Nice hardwood floors everywhere except the family room.  Medium-sized open room at the front of the house that needs to be assigned as something because it's kind of just open space.  Gorgeous kitchen.  Let me say that again.  GORGEOUS.  KITCHEN.  Redone within the past two years.  All new stainless steel appliances (although I am not stuck on stainless steel).  Recessed fridge.  Beautiful white well-made cabinetry (gliding drawers) and butcher block countertops.  Giant sink.  Space for two barstools.  Separate pantry and laundry behind kitchen doors.  Plus, these people have the kitchen set up to show so it looked amazing.  Kitchen opens into a family room with brick fireplace and two skylights (which look like something out of Star Trek - it's hilarious); this room opens into a walled in sunporch (sunporch!).  The sunporch and kitchen have the same flooring, a large black-and-white tile that I did not like in photographs but actually like quite a lot in person.  Small but adequate dining room with a large window opening on the backyard.  Recently redone large hall bath with small black-and-white tile and a nice, crisp look to it.  Three medium-sized bedrooms at one end (but not crowded).  Master is a little bigger, with a slightly larger closet and a small (but lovely) master bath that has a very deep tub.  Has a pedestal sink, though.  This strikes me as odd because there is no storage space in this bathroom as-is, so why wouldn't you want a vanity with cabinets?  If this were my house I'd replace that ASAP.  In comparison to the previous house, this one is move-in ready and needs work almost exclusively on its exterior (barring some paint and the aforementioned vanity).  We would rather spend our time outside than inside...
• House #28, The Plains: Historic farmhouse on 3 acres.  On a mildly busy road caddy-corner from a cattle auction place.  The big grassy lot next door is for sale and zoned commercial.  This house has lots of promise but suffice it to say that it needs lots of work.  If we had an extra $100-150K lying around we could make it gorgeous.
• House #29, Manassas: It turns out that when you are a professional landscaper, your home's landscaping is amazing.  This rambler had beautiful landscaping, a mix of ornamentals and fruits and veggies.  Wooden floors that were nice but really, really creaky.  Good living room.  Eat-in-kitchen with room for a large table.  Corian countertops and an overall decent kitchen.  Three bedrooms and one bath (beautiful remodeled with tile) to share on the first floor.  Large basement with a TV room, an office, another bedroom, and another very nice bathroom.  Possibly doable, but having effectively all occupants and all guests stuck using the same bathroom (lovely though it is) is not desirable, and there is no room to add a half-bath without doing massive construction work.  Enormous and beautiful backyard with a water feature.  Interesting, but could be tough.  However, if we ever have the money to hire a landscaper, I am hiring that lady.
• House #30, Manassas: A foreclosure in one of Manassas's more elegant neighborhoods.  Large backyard and lovely roses in the front.  Our realtor warned us that the real estate agent managing the place had a reputation for bringing wretched foreclosures to market, but even so, we were not prepared for the horrible smell that assaulted our nostrils.  Either some sort of pipe had burst in the basement, everyone in the neighborhood has been relieving themselves in the house, or there's a dead body in the basement.  I got two feet inside, turned around and left.
• House #31, Woodbridge: Cute little (crowded) subdivision of adorable houses.  Decent kitchen.  Nice (small) living room.  Not enough bedroom space and absolutely no yard to speak of.  Also too expensive for its size.

That was a pleasantly surprising day.  After acclimating ourselves to the idea of having to wait potentially all summer to find a place, we found house #27 in Warrenton to be really up our alley.  It had only been on the market about 3 days when we went to see it, but we really, really liked it!  So last night we put in an offer.  Crazy!  We should be hearing back by Thursday morning.  Fingers crossed!