A Little Down Time

It feels good to have several things completed. I'm sort of sitting back and enjoying what is done, so far. I've been busy doing other things for a while. Really enjoying the fall weather. I finished my GriefShare class and also got caught up in the election. Jill and I are heading out west for a week vacation. Once I get back I'll have a few more projects to do over the winter.

Oh Happy Day -- The Roofers are Here!

I woke up this morning with voices all around the house. Watson was on guard duty...puffy tail and ridge down his back. We were under attack as far as he was concerned. It was my roofers -- finally. This is October 17th and I have been trying to get the new roof put on since mid-July. There were lots of excuses. The hurricanes - Katrina and Rita - depleted the supplier's stocks of roofing supplies. Also we have had such a rainy year (tell me about it) that they were falling so far behind. Cost of roofing supplies is going up about 10% a month so this has been an expensive delay.

When the remnants of Ike came through a few weeks ago I found a few more small leaks. I'm sure that they will be replacing some sheathing but most of the wood looks good. This is a 23 year old house so it should be OK for the most part. There was a huge debate about what caused the roof damage. The roofers all claimed it was hail damage while the insurance company claimed that the last roofers did a bad job. I think it is a combination of both. This was part of the delay because the insurance company sent adjusters here twice to look at the roof which took a couple weeks.

Watson is being very brave - I feel well protected. From the top of the steps he can see the door (in case they try to get in) and some windows where there is lots of activity. He is calming down as the day goes on.

This should take a couple days to finish and we should have dry weather.

Late Update: Wow...they worked about eleven hours and got it all done. New roof looks good. They got everything cleaned up and most everything is back almost to where it belongs. I'll need to go out and reorganize a little tomorrow but that is fine. They charged me the same as the estimate that they gave me back in early July plus $40 for a little sheathing that they had to replace where my bad leak was. I'm pretty happy to have it finally done. Watson is too...he finaly conked out about 4 PM. He did as much worrying as he could. We actually had a little rain but not enough to cause a problem.

A measure of progress

Here are some pictures from the downstairs project. Not totally finished yet but substantially done....still some painting and organizing to do. Watson likes it.

One Project Finished

On Tuesday the last of the flooring project was finished. It all looks good and I'm happy to have something finally completed. And...the roofers are supposed to be coming by next Thursday...we shall see. I also have a painter coming to look at a couple paint jobs...I don't want to paint the stairwell or where the new carpet is laid. I've repainted just about everything else that needs it....except for Jill's old dark purple room.

Progress, at last

The carpet installers are here and everything is going great! And I've actually had a visit from the roofers!!! And its not raining! And the termites are dying! And Watson has not come unhinged!

The Bug Man Cometh

I've had a couple visits from my local bug man. He tells me that I'm the third house on the block that he is treating for termites...and that is just him. I got a crash course on termite lore...the queen can live for 30 years and she lays an egg every 15 seconds. One nest can infest anyplace within 400 feet. The ones in the nest can't feed themselves and depend on the workers to bring them food.

I'm a little lucky that they didn't do too much damage. It looks like I'll have to replace a 3' by 4' chuck of drywall. There might be some damage behind that but probably not much from what I can see.

They put five feeding and monitoring stations in the house and 24 around the outside of the house. The little bastards are getting a feast of termite chow...except this has a special ingredient that causes them to die when their exoskeleton refuses to molt. YES!!! The workers take the termite chow back to the nest and feed it to all the others including the queen so in a couple months the entire nest is dead. If there is more than one nest the workers carry it back to wherever they come from so this can eliminate all of the nests attacking the house. The bug guys will monitor the stations for two years to be sure they are all gone.

I was amazed at how little they are. I've been looking for something as big or bigger than an ant but these guys are tiny. For something so small they can do a bunch of damage.

I went and alerted my neighbors so they can be looking. The little creeps got into the house through a tiny crack between the footing and the floating slab of the basement/garage floor. My one neighbor's house is built just like mine so I suspect he has the little visitors too.

Watson isn't happy with the bug men coming in the house and he is sure I'm going to get in big trouble for punching a hole in the wall. He keeps looking at the hole and then back at me like "You are really gonna get it...just wait". When the roofers come he will need to go over to Jill's for the day because he won't be able to handle that at all.

The joys of home ownership. Yeah, right.

The American Dream is supposed to include owning your own home. I'm beginning to think that living in a tepee out on the plains was maybe the way we should have gone. I'm sure there were problems with that too.

My roofers have not yet made an appearance. Somebody told me we don't have enough immigrants here in Jefferson City to get the job done. When they show up they won't be speaking English. Oh good. At least the weather has been cooperating, mostly. They say they will be here in about a week.

I'm getting new carpet and vinyl laid in the downstairs rooms but I don't want the carpet guy to show up when the roofers are here so things are starting to back up.

I'm trying to get all the painting and wallpaper stripping done downstairs before the carpet guy comes. This way I can step in the paint bucket and not mess up the new carpet.

The wallpaper stripping has been just awful. I'd try to make a joke here but I'm not finding any of it funny. The flowered wallpaper had to come down but when it did, so did must of the paper facing on the drywall. So I trotted over to my local Lowes store and talked to the "expert" there who told me that I needed to "skim" the wall with joint compound "mud" and then put a coat of primer on it before I tried to paint it. OK -- so I get my "mud" and start putting it on the wall and it reacted to the paper and I got bubbles and ripples in the wall. So -- we go from bad to worse. Next, I sand most of that off -- once it dries -- and try again and the same thing happens. Then I find out that I need to put a special primer on the drywall paper BEFORE I put the skim coat on. Great....so I got that and, after sanding again, I put the first coat of the primer on and the paper starts to bubble up again...but once it dries the bubbles go away and it has a hard shell finish. I put a second coat on today and now I need to wait seven days and it will get rock hard and ready for the "mud".

As long as I had the joint compound out I started to fill in some of the dings and dents in the walls. That went OK until I started to fill in some small holes at the foot of the stairs. That's where I'm always bumping the wall so I'm used to seeing some marks on the wall....but these were different and kept getting bigger as I tried to fill them. OH JOY OF JOYS...I have termites. I thought of going and sticking my head in the oven but it is electric.

I called the pest control guy and he is coming out tomorrow to do my free inspection. I poked around and it looks like they are coming into the house up through the floor between the poured slab concrete floor and the concrete footing for the wall. I've always looked for termites outside the house thinking I would see any evidence along the walls or the footing -- I didn't think to look inside in the garage along the concrete footing and that is how they are getting in. They say that in Missouri, it isn't so much a question of whether your house has termites as when...so it looks like I'll be fighting that now.

On top of this, my property deed showed up in the mail for the house lot out in New Mexico. Maybe a tepee out there is the answer.

Wow -- Things I Didn't Know About August 12

In the picture...I'm the short one.

As I approach my "Big Six-O" birthday I am discovering that I am somewhat uninformed about all the semi-amazing things that happened on August 12th.

I know that I share my birthday with George Hamilton III, Cantinflas and the Olsen twins (Wow) as well as both of my insurance agents.

I didn't know that...

Cecil B. DeMille was born on August 12, 1881.

Both Porter Wagoner (1927) and Buck Owens (1929) were born on August 12th.

Cleopatra committed suicide on August 12, 30 BC

The last Quagga died in Amsterdam in 1883 on August 12th. The (now extinct) Quagga was a horse-like animal that looks like a Zebra from the front and looks like an Ass from the back. (The Quagga and George Bush have something in common.)

Czarovich or Tsarovich (whatever) Alexei Nikolaevich, only son of Czar Nicholas II of Russia, was born August 12, 1904. He was later made a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Speaking of saints....there are at least two saints with feast days on August 12th!

Saint Euplus - who was beheaded in the days of Emperor Diocletian - is one of two patron saints of the city of Catania in Sicily (Pretty good Futbol team). He has to share with St. Agatha.

Saint Herculanus of Brescia -- don't know anything about him except he was a Bishop and he is in the the painting by Perugino of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. He is the one that is reading a book.....So he went to see Mary and Jesus and brought a book? He doesn't seem to be the patron saint of anything. No wonder.

So True, Jon, So True

Joie passed away a year ago today...July 30. It has been an especially tough week but we are getting through it. Jill and I spent the day together and stayed busy. The "So True" in the title is what Joie would have said except she would have used a fake Brooklyn accent.

It has been a hard twelve months for both Jill and me and the next twelve may be hard as well. I have a feeling that I'm coming out of the woods, so to speak, but I've felt that way before....it takes time. In a way it is like that cartoon of the guy pushing the rock up the mountain...you make some progress but fall back sometimes. I think that eventually the rock will get smaller, the mountain will get lower, or the guy will get stronger.

Lately I've become a disciple of Jon Arbuckle, as you can tell. Jill turned me on to Jon's pearls of wisdom. I never thought of him as a philosopher. It is uncanny how he seems to hit the nail on the head just in time to match my mood...sort of on a parallel track (scary, really scary, isn't it?). He is much better on his own without Garfield.

But -- Watson and I are a far cry from Jon and Garfield. Watson is just as demanding and he is a very "robust" cat as Oksana would possibly say. But lately he has lost some weight because I put him on a diet and he now has a waist and you can find his ribs. He also is much more playful now. Some of that I think is due to the several months that he had Iris in the house. He rediscovered how to play and now that he has lost a pound he is enjoying it more. He drags his Barbie doll out of his toy basket and slaps her around and than lays on her. I think Barbie needs a lawyer. It is strange that both Watson and Purro have been enticed by that same Barbie doll.

I'm going through the house trying to get rid of stuff as I attempt to "downsize" but I keep finding little time bombs. I found a large container filled with Jill's old Cabbage Patch dolls and some other stuffed animals and dolls. I thought Joie had gotten rid of that stuff but she put it away in a storage closet. Jill went through some of that stuff today.....a few got saved but Eric, the much-loved Cabbage Patch doll, is too far gone to save.

For a while I stopped looking at family vacation videos and some family pictures thinking that it was making things harder for me. I was also just way too busy for a few months as I was trying to get my land in New Mexico. I got out the video of our trip to British Columbia this past week and really enjoyed looking at it again. I probably need to see that stuff from time to time since we had such good times and they bring back good memories.

All Hat & No Cattle

Well, par'ners. I got me my little piece of sagebrush, finally. Consider this an invite to come out to the ranch for a round-up onct I git settled. Unfortunately most of the livestock is not the herding kind so it might be a little stressful for all concerned. You won't be needing a lariat but some good tough gloves might be good. They also have a tendency to eat each other so we sort of have to keep 'em separated.

There's always plenty to do around the ranch. The skies are not cloudy all day, 'cept during the monsoon season, that is....which is right now. Down the hill there's the local casino and the Indian ruins. Coronado was sort of an unwelcome guest way back when. The old mission is up the road about 45 minutes and that is one pretty drive. The bosque is always green if you get too much sand, cactus and sagebrush and I know of a couple wineries down there that are pretty good. My Indian neighbors are all friendly, especially at the casino. Bernalillo is growing up but is still very much a sleepy old river valley farm town. Knowing a little Spanish would be good but 17th or 18th century Spanish might be even better.

For right now I'm just going to sit on the ranch and not do anything for maybe a year and a half. I'm just not ready to move forward with moving. The house plan can wait. I'm still a little unsure about it but it is mostly what I want. The real estate market should improve by then, as well. I notified the builder and the banker but I haven't heard anything back yet.

Seeking Closure

My new closing date is Thursday but the bank thought they could send the money by wire on Tuesday if we have the right dollar amount. Ha Ha Ha Ha! (excuse me) The title company must send me the updated dollar amount but I didn't have anything yet on Monday night. Tuesday morning I reminded them that I needed the dollar figures and they said they would send them that morning. Right.... So I contacted them again later in the afternoon to see where the numbers were and -- surprise, surprise -- somebody didn't send them like they were supposed to...but they would send them right away. The e-mail finally came in four minutes before my bank closed. Some of the paperwork was titled lot #16 instead of #17 but that got fixed. What does it take to close on this lot? Now it is Wednesday and it seems that everything has sort of fallen into place -- the money transfer has been sent and all the paperwork has been signed and sent....well in advance of Thursday's closing. Getting the property closing over with will make things easier. I don't have any reservations on buying the lot but I'm still in a quandary on the house design....size and cost.


I got the word from my insurance company last week that they won't pay anything for my new roof. My agent got pissed and called them and now I have another visit scheduled for a claims adjuster but this time they want my roofer to be here to hash things out. I'm looking forward to a fist fight in my front yard. I just need to just get it done. The cost of roofing materials has gone up 30% since the first of the year and the longer I wait the more costly it gets. If the insurance still won't pay anything I'll probably go with Lowes and put it on my account. They say thay can't do it until September because stockpiles of material are depleted due to Katrina and other disasters that the roofing suppliers weren't prepared for.

I had a real estate agent come by last Saturday to look at the house and give me suggestions on what I need to do. My fix-up budget is pretty much consumed by the new roof and my portion of the new A/C unit I just put in. She didn't have any big ticket fixes.....mostly get rid of wall paper and repaint...also declutter and organize the basement and garage. She didn't have any good news either but she seemed hopeful and she knows the local market. She will be back on Friday with a detailed market analysis. I'm working on a few things and I have the storage unit available to store some things so I can make room while I make the improvements downstairs.

I talked to my financial guy today, too. I'm consolidating some stuff so I don't have accounts all over creation and monthly statements from multiple sources that pile up. He takes a rational and objective look at things and I like his approach to how things need to work. He doesn't panic the way I do with some of the financial stuff.

I'm coming up on the one-year mark for Joanne's passing and I'm surprising myself that I'm still pretty much emotionally exhausted. I'm not very far along dealing with my feelings. That is probably why I'm having some difficulty making decisions...or final decisions. I make decisions right and left and then do it all over again the next day. I am not ready to decide on the house...new one or old one. I have a lot of things that I can't get rid of yet. I have a doll collection and about 150 Santa Clauses along with bunches of other similar high-quality stuff that I can't move to NM but I can't yet part with. Pretty much regardless of what information and advice I get from the real estate agent, and now supported by advice from my financial guy, I'm going to hold off on the new house for a year or so. Even if the money isn't an issue, I don't have the emotional energy to rush into the new house construction project and devote attention to that as well as repair and update the old house for resale and downsizing....all in a little more than six months. Even after it is ready to sell the house might be on the market for several months. I have no good reason to rush into this....my building lot will still be there one or two years from now.

Brass Tacks

On Monday I got the elevation drawings for the house plan and also an e-mail from the builder with preliminary cost estimates. The numbers were way outside of any ballpark I was in. It took me about 45 minutes before I could even respond and then it was to apologize for wasting every one's time. She came back with lower numbers and we went back and forth all day. I came up a long way and she came down a long way but we were still too far apart on that house. So now it gets down to some serious cutting. I suggested on Monday night that we part as friends rather than butt heads on this and she said she would try some more numbers over night. I agreed to do the same.

On Tuesday we weren't talking much. I got the closing papers from the title company and the closing costs were only $81.00 which was good news. I also got a pep talk phone call from the mortgage banker (at the urging of the builder I found out) and we went over some of the details of the construction loan. It was reassuring that I can qualify for a huge loan but that isn't my plan. So we are still looking at numbers, probably on a slightly smaller house with fewer bells and whistles. I never wanted a luxury house and that is what those first numbers represented so cutting some of the fluff is easy. I still need walls and a roof and the basics and I still want quality but not something that is pretentious. The builder really enjoys putting in the luxury stuff...that is what makes her day. She wants to do a finished product with nothing left to do. I'm looking for a nice house but with things that I can do to it. I need to have some projects to look forward to.

We will get there eventually. I'm going ahead with the closing on the lot this week. I know this is going to work itself out and I know that this is what I want to do if at all possible.

Wednesday I got the banking portion of the closing started and faxed the paperwork. I'm surprised at how long it takes to "wire" money. I thought technology was farther along than this but I guess there are safeguards and I'm glad that they don't just ship money around willy-nilly. They don't, right?

Apparently, because I'm dealing with multiple Federal Reserve districts just to get the money collected into one account and then two districts to send it on to the title company I'm looking at possibly seven days. We had to file another extension to postpone the closing until Thursday of next week. Seems like everyone is POed but too damn bad. I want to slow this whole parade down a little anyway.

Attack of the Flip-Flopper

Alas. I must admit that I am a Flip-Flopper. I'm trying to keep it under control but I look at the house plans and decide one thing one day and then go back to the plans the next day and change it back the way it was. That wouldn't be so bad except we are under the gun racing a deadline and flip-flopping causes extra work.

It is hard to be 1,000 miles away from the action in the house design process. It takes a couple days for the plans to reach me when Max makes changes. I got the second version yesterday and I already have changes that I e-mailed but it will be next week sometime before I see the next drawings. He is working on the elevation drawings but we are also re-hashing some of the interior spaces and features.

Max and Betty know what they are doing and I am really impressed with what I've seen so far. Sometimes we have misunderstandings because we are not using the same vocabulary or the same knowledge base. I didn't know that there were free-standing, drop-in and slide-in stoves. I knew there were stove tops and regular stoves. I also didn't realize stoves normally were only 30 inches wide...until I went and looked for 36 inch stoves. What I've been calling a 'basin' sink for the bathroom is apparently a 'vessel' sink but Betty thought I was talking about a 'pedestal' sink. I think we will have similar problems with the driveway but the building code calls for an "all weather" driveway but doesn't define the term. Is that pavement, gravel, asphalt or what?

I think we have too many choices sometimes. If we had fewer choices there would be fewer "flip-floppers"

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Sometimes I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I'm learning how to live without air conditioning in mid-Missouri humidity and heat. Watson, on the other hand is not accepting this new lifestyle so I had to go buy him his own fan that he lays in front of during the hottest part of the day. I have rediscovered my shorts that I put away some time ago and haven't worn in a couple years. We are sleeping in the basement on the futon and doing OK. I have a TV there and I'm closer to the beer. My air conditioner unit is waiting to be fixed after the fatal lightning strike. Apparently I'm on the schedule and they are getting the unit and needed parts. The insurance company said they would pay half, minus my deduct able, but that's fine since it was old. They sent me a check....lets just do it!

NEWS FLASH: My air conditioner arrives tomorrow at 7:30 AM!!!!

It is an entirely different story on the roof problem. I'm getting ready to go to war with the same insurance company. I had three roofers come out and all three said I had hail damage. The insurance adjuster comes out and spends twenty minutes on the roof and doesn't see any hail damage...but he says I have defective shingles and I need to try to get the manufacturer (GAF) to pay for the roof...right. He also told me I could climb up on the roof with a caulk gun and try to find where water was leaking in and squirt some caulk into the leaking places. Even if I wanted to do that or even if that was an appropriate fix, he spray painted stuff on my roof so now I have a leaky roof with the adjuster's spray painted crypto-graffiti on the roof. What an A-hole. I've had the same insurance company for 30 years and no claims until this month and then, coincidentally, I have two claims. About half the people in a radius of a mile have had new roofs put on because of hail damage....but mine is due to defective shingles. I put a new roof on the house just six yeaers ago.

Also, (TaDa!!) the local water company came out today and exchanged my water meter for a new one. That is great. I've been hoping they would come into the 21st century sooner or later. Since we have lived here in Jefferson City we have always read our own meter and then sent in a little usage tag and our payment for the amount used based on the chart they gave us. The meter is in a hole in the front yard so every month Joie or I would go out, lift the lid, and and peer down the hole on our hands and knees and try to read the numbers on the meter. Neither rain nor hail nor snow nor dark of night was supposed to delay our trek to the meter hole....right. We ended up estimating it most winters and then in the spring and early summer the hole filled up with water and we couldn't even see the meter so we had to guess at the usage and the bill. We played catch-up or had to slow down the rest of the year when we could actually see the meter after wiping off the mud. So now we will get a bill in the mail with the actual usage and the billing amount printed right on it. Wow!

Preliminary plans

Wow. I got the preliminary plans this morning and I'm impressed. Seeing the ideas and likes/dislikes that I shared with the builder and designer rendered on a floor plan aligned on the property in the way I want it is exciting. It turned out to be different from what I had visualized but as I went over it today it seemed very logical and looks like a very workable plan. I was expecting kind of a re-make of some of the other plans I'd seen but this is different. Sorry I can't show it but it is way too big to scan.

The lot is aligned north and south with the good views on the east and trending toward the north side. The house is aligned diagonally from the northwest to the southeast with outdoor space and glass oriented toward the views.

From the street, only the garage, a bedroom window and the entry courtyard and portal are really visible. There is a courtyard in the front and a larger one in the back. There are three covered patios or portals.

They managed to get almost all of what I wanted into a package of 1,740 square feet. I sent back a bunch of questions and comments this evening so I should hear back in a little while.

Design stage

Things are moving along. I had my first conference call with the builder and the designer this morning. They were pretty well on board with what I want to do. I previously sent them a bunch of pictures and a pdf slide-show of things I like and dislike. Sometimes it seems my "dislike" list is longer than my "like" list and I have to watch what I say because I step on some toes. It looks like I might have the preliminary house plan drawing by this weekend. That is fast but they said I pretty much designed it myself based on what I sent them.

The basic design will be a L-shaped house with open access to the covered portal on the view side from the master bedroom, great room and dining room/nook. There won't be a formal dining room. The garage will buffer the house from the road and also shield the rear portal. Views will be to the rear/east (Sandia Mountain, Rio Grande, Bernalillo and Placitas) and to the north (Ortiz mountains, river valley and Sangre de Christos in the far distance....maybe the Jemez mountains depending on how it is angled). The main entrance will face the west and have a small portal. There will be an enclosed courtyard for Watson. Heated size will be about 1,750 sq. ft. which is about 100 square feet bigger than what I have upstairs in my house now. That is plenty big enough for one person and a cat. There will be a master bedroom and bath, a dedicated guest bedroom and another bedroom that will serve as an office but with room for my futon for additional sleeping space. The second bathroom will have a door from the guest room and from the hall. There will be one fireplace but it will be on the smallish size. The garage will have two bays and will face west so the driveway will come from the street and turn right into the garage.

I also made some progress on the dead air conditioner. The weather has been so nice that I haven't missed it much but it will be getting warmer in a day or so. The insurance company started a claim and the heating/AC company came out to measure and collect information needed for a solid estimate. Apparently Federal regulations are dictating a change in what we can have as air conditioners. By 2010 the current standard AC coolant models won't be available and we will have to go with a different type of coolant chemical that, of course, won't work in our air conditioners. They will still sell the old coolant until 2020 and I guess they think the older units will have all died out by then. Well, mine is 22 years old and was going strong until lightening hit it. You can buy the newer style AC unit now at an increased cost over the old stander type. This reminds me of the crazy TV digital thing that we are going through now.

Also, I'm starting to get some bid estimates for my new roof. It isn't going to be pretty. Some of the plywood will have to be replaced. Ugh! I hope it isn't raining when they do it.

Watson seems to be taking it all in stride. Little does he know.

I can't get out of here fast enough

My excitement about the new building lot and prospects of building a new home have been tempered by the knowledge that my existing house needs a new roof and probably replacement of the plywood sheathing in a couple places. I knew that was going to have to happen pretty quick and I have a contractor I'm trying to get involved with it to see what has to be done. That will run maybe $4-$5000, maybe less.

Today the air conditioner wasn't working. I have noticed that it hasn't been very cool in the house for a couple days -- but it is hot and humid outside and I just made the best of it. Today I noticed that the outside unit wasn't working at all and I had a service guy look at it. He says I got hit by lightening and it destroyed the outside unit. Replacement cost will run about $3,300. In this case, my insurance ought to cover the expense, minus the deductable.

I already had tree trimmers here this month to take down some leftover ice storm damaged limbs.

LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!

5429 Chopin Road 87144

The purchase agreement is finalized. I'm waiting to hear about a closing date. I am happy with the price -- and location. The lot configuration is a little problematic because it is 80' x 272' (+/-) and with setbacks it is a little narrow. We will turn the house so it faces west and not the street (south).

A lot of things must fall into place in short order. There is some urgency because New Mexico is changing its environmental rules on September 1st and I will need a more expensive septic system if I delay after that date...twice the price of current standard septic systems. I don't know if I can make that deadline because of all the work that has to be done and permits granted. I've never built a house in a city so there is another layer of approvals and permits. The state has to approve the septic system.

I went to the local library and got a book on septic systems and wells. It was the only one I found and it is dated 1992 so it might not have anything on the advanced septic systems. I also didn't know that there were so many different ways to drill a well. Since I have some trees on the lot that might be good news for the well. That area is so fractured and faulted that there could be anything below the surface. There is a section in the book on how to select a qualified "water witch"....that's the guy that walks around with a twig that somehow knows where the water is. OK...I guess when all else fails. Apparently the driller guys show up and say "Where do you want us to drill the well?".....They drill, they don't necessarily find.

Here we go again

I finally got the final counter offer this morning...the one I was going to agree to. But I just felt like I needed to make a few more phone calls on other lots for price comparisons. These 1/2 acre lots came in at wildly different asking prices with different levels of utility service and some where the agent had no idea of utilities. Prices were as high as $90,000!!

That made me feel pretty good based on what I'm going to pay...except for one conversation I had with an agent who, luckily, mentioned the block number for his lot was #136. I know that the paperwork on my lot also shows block #136 and I also know where his lot is and it isn't in the same block as mine. Since everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, I decided to research a little more...something was not right. I found a unit/block map on the Rio Rancho web site and it shows my block number as #135....not #136. Since this is part of the legal description it is a problem if the block number is wrong since (a) you might buy the wrong lot, and (b) the seller probably doesn't own that lot in the first place. So I called Donna, my agent, and told her what I found. None of the subdivision plat maps we have seen are sufficiently legible to read the block number. Donna called the seller's agent who said she would check or have somebody check. About six hours later I hear from Donna that she had to call the other agent again and that agent discovered, while on the phone, that she made a mistake and recorded the wrong block number...so now all of the faxed paperwork is wrong and we have to do it again, hopefully with the right block number. So now it will be tomorrow before it is finished.




My eventual address will be 5429 Chopin Road...two doors down from the corner of Chopin and McCartney. Aren't we musical!

Meanwhile, the bane of my existence, Capital One, sent me a replacement credit card for one of the closed accounts that originally caused my credit records to be so mixed up and me to be deceased on all three credit bureau reports. This is a closed account....and this card has a totally new account number from any of the others so it looks like I have a fourth account with them. Irate letter to follow!

Late Update -- Signed Sealed and Delivered. Faxed back at about 10:30 PM so it next goes from my agent to the seller's agent and then it's done.

Decisions, Decisions

Hmmm...we are at an impasse on the counter offer situation...and we are still $5,500 apart. I looked at other properties for sale and the asking prices are higher than what they countered with. Also Donna looked at median prices and this lot sits right at or slightly below the median price for a half acre.....plus it has utility service and is in the location I want and has great views and is close to a school. Downside is it needs a well ($10,000 to $15,000) and it needs a septic system ($3,500 minimum) and is on a dirt/gravel road.

I asked for an extension on the decision date on their last offer so I can think on it. The dirt road isn't an issue since that is common in rural parts of the city and I'm maybe 600 feet from pavement...which is good.

I'm probably being grumpy because I feel they reneged on something I was told when I first talked with them. Their explanation is reasonable but I'm still pissed.

But on the other hand...I expected to have to pay $75k for a lot and have to get a lot loan at 9% interest and sit on it for a while. Instead, this is a lot I can pay "cash" for out of my home equity LOC and pay only 5% and cover the balance when my house sells and get a tax benefit. (Duh?)

Update -- still dickering on price

Well, we are in the offer-counter offer stage. Apparently a cash purchase offer is pretty unusual because I can't find anyone who knows what closing costs would be on a cash sale. It shouldn't be much...the title company handles the closing. So that is my task for today...find out what closing costs would be so I don't forget that when making these counter offers. Apart from title insurance and recording fees and maybe a survey -- I don't know what else to consider.

Update -- Offer made

Things have straightened out considerably over the past week. I got to Albuquerque on Tuesday afternoon and contacted a RE agent to schedule a time to look at a place called Niklas Ridge. I met with her and looked at several lots. The lots look good and the price was right. Most utilities are in but I'd need a well and septic tank. I tramped all over the lots but didn't see anything that looked bad or that would cause a problem.


On Thursday morning I met with my mortgage banker and we went through the loan application process. Everything is fine with the credit report. The loan process is complicated because I'm buying a lot, building a house and then paying it off over time. That is three loan sequences. If for some reason I'd need a bridge loan because my current house doesn't sell that would add another layer. Since the housing industry is in a mess it could take longer or be more complicated than before when you only had to have a pulse. My mortgage person said try to do a cash price offer and use my home equity line of credit. There are benefits to that...low interest, likely a lower seller price and tax benefits.

Thursday afternoon I met Betty the builder (no relation to Bob) and we went up and looked at the lots. She liked them as much as I did. She also said go with a cash offer from the home equity account. She is a friend to the developer and thinks that might make a difference in price, too, since he wants her to build in his development. We talked about possible floor plans and an offer price. She agreed to make the offer for the cash sale on my behalf.

The only potential problem is the lot dimensions. It is 1/2 acre but only has 80 ft. frontage....narrow and deep. The house foot print might have to be elongated and turned somewhat to fit. It has great views of the mountains and city lights so we would also want to consider that in the alignment.

Today, Saturday, the paperwork was completed and I wrote a check for earnest money. The offer will be faxed tonight and we will wait for a reply.

Fingers and toes crossed.

What a mess

This is a rant...although I have toned it down a little from the original version. I am absolutely amazed that anything works in this country sometimes. Feel free to pass over this unless you embrace the blissful notion that your credit records are in good hands.

On May 27 I learned that I am deceased as far as the credit bureaus are concerned. This is all based on the incompetence of Capital One's credit card operation. Joanne and I had a joint credit card account and when Joie died last July I didn't think that I needed to cancel joint credit card accounts, especially accounts that I don't use that often.

I used the card to purchase Christmas presents over the Internet and in January I was notified by Capital One that my card had been "compromised" and that they were cancelling that account and opening a new account for me. To make a very long story much shorter, essentially they made several piecemeal changes to my credit records that resulted in the cardholder being listed as deceased and the card records transferred solely under my name. Plus they left the old account number listed as active with an unpaid balance. I received a new card in the mail but it was never authorized for use in spite of repeated attempts. The card for the new account was refused each time I tried to use it.

I called Capital One and spent a good part of the day on the phone making many calls and talking to various ladies in India who had no understanding of anything I was talking about. After several frustrating days I spoke to the recovery department and it became clear that there was a problem with the account because Joanne was deceased and that they were unwilling or unable to correct the problem. They wanted me to call back and talk to the ladies in India again. So, I finally ended up telling them all where they could put the card. This was in February.

Not the end of the story, however.

Fast forward to May....I'm trying to apply for a mortgage loan and now the credit bureaus are reporting that I'm deceased -- thanks to Capital One. My mortgage approval process has come to a screeching halt.

It took several days on the phone to get Capital One to recognize their mistake and have them notify all three credit bureaus of the errors and make corrections -- but, somehow, it is my responsibility to confirm that each bureau makes the corrections. By the way, in this latest episode I got to talk to the ladies in India again (what a treat).

UPDATE!
June 4 -- Nine days of fighting with Capital One and three credit bureaus ...they finally figured out that I'm not deceased and started correcting their records. So now I can begin to move forward again.

New Home Ideas

I have prepared a slideshow in Powerpoint of some of the ideas and features I'd like to consider in the new house. (Scribd and IPaper must both be working for this slideshow to work)

Home Ideas show-pdf - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Home Ideas show-pdf

This is a preliminary "wishlist" -- still a long way to go.

A New Journey

I've always thought that the journey was one of the best parts of any vacation. I like the process of going and researching the trip almost as much as the final destination. I think that is one reason I enjoy train travel and road trips -- the process of traveling is enjoyable.

Among other things, this blog is going to be an attempt to record the process of building a home in New Mexico and relocating from Missouri. This will also keep my travel blog focused on travel and not my relocation.

Travel blog: http://ken-across-america.blogspot.com/

Bernalillo - Enchanted Hills - Rio Rancho

The general area that I am looking at is Sandoval County (see map below). This is generally in northern New Mexico, actually in Rio Rancho but near the town of Bernalillo. Bernalillo is the county seat of Sandoval County -- about 15 miles north of Albuquerque. Highway 550 goes west toward the Jemez Mountains (and fishing). Interstate 25 goes south to Albuquerque and north toward Santa Fe (and fishing). Highway 528 goes south to Corrales and Rio Rancho. The Rail Runner Express commuter train has two stops in Bernalillo and runs parallel to the interstate from Belen, south of Albuquerque, up to Santa Fe (by 2009).

Rail Runner Express