Pink Trees: Part 3: In This Together

Cydny called and said it's time to start looking.  We pulled up some houses online that we thought looked interesting, and she pulled some up too.  Blow #1 - all the really good looking ones were priced that low because they were Foreclosures or Short Sales.  We didn't have the time or energy to go through that process.  It could be really long, and often unsuccessful.  She filtered out most of the ones we had pulled up.  The selection was getting slim.  (I just went searching for my folder of flyers I had, and realize that I still hate looking back on all this!)


On a Tuesday, while the kids were at school, we went out with Cydny to look at houses.  I took the stack of papers, and made notes on them.  Here are some of my notes:


"Blue"  The interior of this house was blue.  All rooms painted in shades of blue.  All blue carpet.
"Purple"  This one had a lot of purple carpet, and about 4 different types of floorings... wood, laminate and tile.
"Italian Restaurant"  Featuring fake tile and no yard.
"Small"
"/" ... due to zero lot line
"Road Noise"
"Potential"
"X" ... on corner of 2 busy streets
"Smoke"
"Power Lines"  At least one of the houses that resided near to power lines was pretty nice.  Cydny and Mike had to let me know that it wouldn't be a good move.  I didn't think it was that big a deal, but they were probably right.


We were kinda laughing at our poor luck, a little bit.  It was getting a bit scary though.  Although our little house was so small, at least it was already fixed up and in a good location.  But, oh yeah, it was sold.


Sunday.  We left the kids with someone (sorry, I can't remember who helped us that day... but I think it was Susan).  We 'upped' the price range a little bit to get some new options, and counted on the poor sellers' market to work in our favor for negotiations.  More powerlines, but we saw a couple decent ones this time.  Gave us a little hope.    


Then an open house... Wow... This looks good...  Besides needing a new shake roof, this place was good.  It was priced to sell quickly as the owner had to move back East.  It was on a nice culdesac and backed up to a greenbelt.  Make an OFFER NOW.  So we did.  There was already one other offer on it, so the owner had to choose.  Cydny wrote up a really nice cover letter to tell them how nice our little family was and the youngest boy still sucks his thumb, so cute... etc...
We hoped and prayed.  Although we were praying that if it's the right place, we'd get it, I think we meant "Please let us have it, please let us have it!"  We could deal with needing a roof.  Monday, we got the word.  We did NOT get it.  Oh great.  Now what?  There's nothing else out there!


You know why we didn't get that house?  Because God already had chosen a better one, and we'd see it the next day.  We scrounged around online and found a couple more.  I think we went out on Tuesday again.  Drove down one street and didn't even stop in.  Then we drove up the road a ways, following the directions to this last one.  We turned down this really well maintained street with all the beautiful pink trees in bloom.  I was thinking we would just pass through this nice area before we hit the scud property, as usual.  Not so.  Looks neat and clean on the outside.  Culdesac.  Quiet.  Let's go in and see what's wrong with it.  Staged.  Clean.  Neutral colors.  Large kitchen.  Tri-level.  Moose mural in kids' room.  Large cement patio and landscaped back yard.  Good roof.  Good paint.  Ummmmmmm... why is this priced like this?  (It was AT our price point).  There has GOT to be something wrong with it, but we couldn't see anything.  Cydny called the other realtor over the phone and told him we would make an offer.  We went home and tried not to get our hopes up...

Another Apop song... this one has become Josh's favorite song.

...to be continued... 
(I'll try to get to the last installment more quickly.  I just don't want to make these too long or no one will read them ;)

Black Pawn

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Pink Trees: Part 2: Faceless Fear

Paranoia (Haunted Club Mix)

Apoptygma Berzerk

One day you'll realize that you were wrong 

You'll regret that all this happened 

Some day you'll realize that you were wrong 

To be left with Paranoia, as your only friend...

Your mind is full of enemies, the room is full of energies

That want to take control

They're all around you, and you're all alone

Your mind is full of enemies, the room is full of energies

Haunting your soul

They're all around you, and you're on your own

I'm a little fuzzy on the length of time the house was on the market, but I think it was just about 6 weeks.  Pretty good in a bad market.  During that time, amidst the stress of showings, I would take some time here and there to go driving around.  I'd look up houses on the MLS, and drive by some of them to see where they were.  I pinpointed a general area that I thought would be good, and seemed to have a few options.  Since most houses were on the market for a long time, there wasn't any real rush.  I didn't think we'd have any trouble finding something in our price range.

Our house sold!  We got just as much as we needed to make our move.  We had 6 weeks lead time until closing. This was great.  Then I opened my email the next day.  There was a note from my mortgage broker, saying something to the effect of, "Congratulations!  Cydny told me the house sold!  Based on your sale price of $xxx,xxx, and wanting to purchase in the $xxx,xxx range, your new payment would be..." $OHCRAPWHATHAPPENED???

The panic I felt that moment is burned into my memory.  As my heart goes into full panic mode - shaking, sweating, etc. I quickly sent an email back to her telling her that this number is $800/mo higher than what we had talked about before!  Was there a mistake?  We just SOLD our HOUSE.

I can't recall if she called me back or if I called her, but burned in again is me standing in the boys' room talking to her on the phone and hearing, "I'm SO sorry, I can't believe I did this.  Your last loan was an interest only loan, and I forgot to uncheck that box when quoting your new loan.  I have never done this before in my whole career."  We went back and forth a little about how this is a HUGE amount.  We've got kids in private school, we don't have this kind of flexibility and now we've just sold our house.  I was a disaster.  Didn't even want to tell Mike, but obviously I had to.  He was livid.

Poor, poor, Cydny.  The most professional realtor ever.  I never knew that realtors had to be counselors too!  I called her up and told her what was going on, she listened as I freaked out (embarrassingly - I was even crying on the phone.  I don't cry often.  Almost never.  Couldn't help it.)  She was very understanding and sympathetic.  She encouraged me that we would be able to find something we like in our new price range.  She told me that the MB (who shall remain nameless) was also crying on the phone and wishing she could just GIVE us money to make up for the mistake, etc.

End result was that Cydny would print up some listings and bring them over and we could see that there were still options.  I contacted another mortgage broker, a dad from our kids' school and asked if he would run numbers for us, and explained to him what happened.

Over the next couple days, Mike was angry, I was upset and full of anxiety.  We had tried to be so careful not to make any mistakes, and had moved forward on this whole deal based on a bad quote from day 1.  Now, we were in a position that we might have to settle for 'just a house that we can afford', and if we were going to do that, we would have stayed in the one we had!  Alas, that was no longer an option.  It was already sold.

The last 2 houses we'd bought were ones that we refer to as having 'potential'.  We liked them, but they needed some updating, work here, work there, etc.  We were really trying to avoid potential in this move.  We didn't have the time or money to put into it right now.

One last heart attack during this week.  The inspection was set for Friday.  Since we've never sold a house in the conventional manner before, I didn't know what to expect for the inspection.  I thought it was all techy stuff done by the inspector.  I get a call at work from Cydny, and she somewhat frantically asks me, "Rebecca! Did you forget the inspection today?"  "What?  No!  Why?"  She responds, "The house is a mess!  The buyers are there and it's a mess!"  "What?  I didn't know the buyers would be there!  We raced out this morning and were running late.  There are some dishes in the kitchen and stuff, but it shouldn't be THAT bad."  I'm in full panic mode again. I called Mike, he totally stepped up and called Cydny, and told her not to call me with any more bad news.  Call him now.  My wife can't handle it.  :)  They call me back a little later and she had talked to the other realtor and they were all fine, no big deal, etc.  OK.  Heart rate can go back to normal sometime today.

...to be continued...

Black Pawn
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Pink Trees: Part 1

The trees turned pink a few weeks back, and caused me to realize that it has already been a year since we moved into this house.  Some people move a lot.  Some people like change.  Not me.  When we moved into the last house, we said, "We're never moving again."  I really didn't want to.  I liked the idea of the kids living in the same house as they grew up.  It was a little small, but we would add on.  Right?


The kids got bigger and the dog doubled, and the house shrank.  With only one living space, everyone was literally tripping over each other.  So, we started checking into add on ideas. Turned out, to do it right would be too expensive, and to do it cheaply, it would look like what Mike and I would refer to as an 'ass-factory' (AF for short).


Since historically we do not make the best decisions whenever finances are involved, we really decided that we'd be careful and pray for God's will.  We'd only move if we could be financially responsible about it.  (What does that even mean?!)  First call was to the mortgage broker.  She advised us as to what we could afford for the payment amount we could do.  She told us how much we'd need to put down, and then could figure out what to sell the house for etc.  She referred us to an expert realtor for Woodinville.  At the end of all that and looking up some houses on the MLS to see what our options might be, we were like "Wow, we can do pretty well here!"  We would have no problem getting a bigger house in a nice 'hood just a little farther north of Woodinville, for very close to the same payment we currently had!


Enter Cydny, our realtor.  We were still trying to stay non-committal about the whole thing so we wouldn't rush and be stupid.  She came over to look at our house, and went through each room and told us exactly what to do to prep it for sale... down to the interior paint color.  "Crisp Khaki" from Benjamin Moore.  This was in December 2009 - when the housing market was still swirling in the toilet.


We started packing anything we didn't need to have out.  We started on cleaning up the yard (1/3 acre of overgrowth, old fencing material, dog poop and mud), filled a 1800Junk truck, took several trips to the dump ourselves and to donate stuff.  Mike did most of the work.  He laid new bark over lots of the yard after hours and hours of raking.
Inside, he spent a lot of time painting.  The stupid paint required about 3 coats for good coverage, and there were lots of windows in that area to paint around.  He did all the trim too.  We replaced the carpet, put new linoleum and toilet in the bathroom (Steve helped get the toilet working on Christmas Day).  Phew... TONS of work, but eventually it was done.  Cydny came over and staged the house (sometime in January, I think).  It looked pretty good!  Unfortunately, in "computer crash horror 2010", I lost any other pictures I took of the interior.

Now it was listed!  Since the market was low, it was listed for less than it would have been a couple years previously.  We were not concerned with making profit, just getting what we needed to be able to move.


Enter hell.  3 kids, 2 dogs and a cat in a staged house that can't SMELL like dog (Febreze was my friend), animals couldn't go upstairs on new carpet (EVER), and anytime there was a showing, we had to clear out.  Pets too.  Talk about stress!  Especially when Cydny called during the day about a same day showing, and I had to leave work to get it ready ASAP.  I totally burned through my whole entire 'good smelling' candle during that time.


I don't deal with stress well, and this was a very stressful scenario for me.  I really did want God's will though, and was praying that IF we were to move, that the house would sell for what we needed.  We had really tried to cover all our bases and do our research and be smart about it, while praying for God's will, and going step by step.  At this point, it would have really sucked if it didn't sell and we had to move back in.  At least we'd have new carpet and paint though...


Now we wait.
...to be continued...

Enter At Your Own Risk

I'm calling myself Black Pawn for my blog.  It's the name of a song by one of my favorite bands, Apoptygma Berzerk.  It sounds cool and I like the song.  You say, "Who's that?  I've never heard of them."  I reply, "Yeah, I know.  They're way more famous-er in Europe."

My blog is named The Frayed Ends of Sanity, after a Metallica song.  The name of the song feels descriptive of how life on the earth often feels, as we live in exile, waiting for our future paradise with Christ.

I have been sitting on this blog idea for quite awhile now.  I've wanted to do it, but then thought it would be narcissistic, but still wanted to do it... blah blah...  So, I'm going with it.  Take it or leave it.  I finally figured out that it's something I want to do as a form of thinking aloud.  

Hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining.  I hope to express the human-ness of life in light of the hope of things to come.

Anyway, there's more to come...

Black Pawn
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(A few lyrics of Frayed Ends of Sanity by Metallica)

Never hunger / Never prosper / I have fallen prey to failure

Struggle within / Triggered again / Now the candle burns at both ends

Twisting under schizophrenia / Falling deep into dementia

Old habits reappear / Fighting the fear with fear / Growing conspiracy / Myself is after me

Frayed ends of sanity / Hear them calling / Frayed ends of sanity / Hear them calling / Hear them calling me

Double, double toil and trouble...

...Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

There's a few things that get really old.  Day to day stuff that will never end.  Laundry, cleaning, dishes, paying bills, etc.  No matter how organized you are, those things are still there.  Sometimes I just sit around feeling all defeated and whatnot.  It just seems so lame to do the same stuff every day.  Why bother?  It will just come back again... as I dig through the baskets of clean laundry for school uniforms, and field questions of "When should I expect clean underwear again?"

Here's the thing.  I can't stand chaos.  That goes for a mess around me or too much noise, etc.  I do refuse to work myself to death to make sure it's never there.  I mean, there's other things to do in life (besides paid work, there is napping and Facebook), and although it bugs me that the dining room table is covered with bills and crayons and whatever else, it seems I prefer to be short tempered and irritable than to deal with it.  BECAUSE, whenever I clean it up, it lasts about 30 mins before people pile their crap all around again.

I was just talking to a friend about this today.  We agree that we don't bother with fancy, expensive furniture and "accoutra-mah" because it will cease to exist with any dignity.  In a house with kids and dogs, stuff is going to be messy, dirty and thrown around.  I refuse to stress EVEN MORE trying to make everyone not touch anything.  That would be worse.  As I mentioned before, I have other things to do.  Can we leave the pillows on the couch for 5 minutes, at least?  We are looking at getting some laminate floors put in our house soon, so we got some samples.  After we figured out what type we wanted, we got out a steak knife and took to scratching them... they have to be tough in this house!

So, what's my point?  At the risk of sounding like I'm complaining, I'm really not.  I'm quite content.  I just don't want to feel sick of the daily grind.  I'm trying to put in perspective that this life IS about toil and trouble.  Life is work.  Philippians 2:14 says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."   Thankfully, salvation is free through Jesus.  If I had to work for that, I'd give up even before I failed miserably.

Are we not thankful for the provisions that have been given to us?  I am.  Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."  This applies to the most basic and menial tasks.

So, now it's time to teach my kids to do all the work around here :)