Wishin'... and Hopin'... and Thinkin'...

Jeez - again with those random songs, eh?


MY B!



Tonight, McStudly and I are going house-shopping again. Sometimes I think it would just be easier if you could walk through a store with little mini-models of all of the houses sitting on the shelves like dollhouses - built to scale and made to look exactly like the real thing.

But since it's not, our gas tank is suffering, and we are growing weary.



We had finally found two places that we love love love!!! But since we couldn't decide on one of them, between the two of us, we agreed to keep looking, convinced that we'd find a place we would both be happy with and able to call home.


So here we go again - wish us luck, and pray for patience for our tour guide/Realtor, Sheena.



PS. I'm convinced that Realtors are much more then house-salesmen. They are also tour guides (hence the above statement), marriage counselors, optimists, and very good at pointing out the potential in a home to first-time home buyers (AND we're lucky because our realtor has a built in smell-o-meter that's able to detect the slightest hint of anything, not matter how many glade plug-ins they put in a house). No wonder not just anyone can do it! When McStudly and I start back and forth about a place, she just starts laughing... and it totally takes the tension out of the mix - and I can see why she laughs... we sound ridiculous!



Asta Pasta!

;-)

Sataaaaan is Under my Feeet...

Sorry 'bout the title there - old school church song flashback. WHOA!!



Okay - but really, don't ever live on bare concrete floors. You may think you're "going green (as McStudly phrases it), butI can tell you from experience - it's SO not fun!!


Here's the story:


Last Thursday, we had an appointment for some people to FINALLY come fix the whole mess in the living room of our house (we are renters, for those of you that are newer). It's been jsut months and months of pulling hair and breaking legs to get things squared away - okay so we haven't broken anyone's legs but we've REALLY felt like doing it at times!!



So FINALLY we get a call saying that someone is coming out to take care of everything - blah blah blah - end of story is FINALLY in sight!! Or so we thought...



The day fell on one of McStudly's few days off, so I was at work while the whole thing was happening. A guy arrives and in broken English tells McStudly that he's "here to replace dee carpet, man" (okay - that was very mean of me... but I won't apoligize yet, becuase it probably won't be the last time I make a comment of that nature in this blog - not to mention it was just a HUGE exaggeration from what actually happened).



So McStudly's liek "Ok great. Come on in!" They start moving stuff around, and he informs my wonderful hubby that they are actually replacing the carpet in the WHOLE house, not just in the living room (which our landlord was pushing for - hence the lack of red flags popping up). SO That's when I get the call to come and take our pup over to Mom's house for the day, to play with look and be out of the way, since there was no where else to keep him while they worked.



Fast forward about an hour.... and I pull up to the house.



McStudly's on the phone sounding not-too-happy. And I step inside to see the progress... JUST in time to see them sliding our couch (YES sliding) along the wooden deck out back!!! They are putting it BACK In the house on top of BARE CEMENT FLOORS!!!


Not ONLY was I like SUPER angry becuase they were actively RUINING my not-so-cheap couch, but they are putting our furniture back in... they aren't even finished!! What, is it lunchtime or something?? Come on people!! Did I SAY you could take a lunch?! (just kidding on that last part... I really was wondering what was going on and WY they were sliding my couch accross a rough wooden deck).



So I step back outside as Kyle gets off the phone. "They're at the wrong house."



Umm... What?!



"They said they're at the wrong house. They've pulled out all of the carpet, and now they have to leave because this isn't the right house for their job today. I've already called the company and tried to figure things out, but I don't really know what's going on, so I need you to call."



How in the WORLD?! No worries... calm down Sarah - they'll jsut be sending the right people over soon and it'll be fine.


*deep breaths*



So I call like EVERYONE and apparently, Seńor read the paper wrong and was taking the carpet out of the WRONG flipping house!!! AND the company didn't even have us on their list for work today. Oh boy the questions just keep PILING up!!


So the landlord is calling the management company, and I'm calling the carpet company...




COME TO FIND OUT - the management company had decided NOT to replace our carpet AFTER finding out it was an expensive carpet, though they had already told us they would replace it. BULL SNOT!!!


AND


It would take several days to even get the carpet IN from Friggin GEORGIA!! My landlord's husband was LIVID!! "They need to drive their[butts] down there RIGHT now and pick it up, then!" Whoa dude... just... whoa.



It all turns out to be a "blessing in disguise" (if I could sound ANY more cliche) becuase if Seńor hadn't read the paper wrong (which by the way the address was COMPLETELY different than ours, no clue HOW that happened...) then we wouldn't be getting new carpet, and the nastiness from the leakage would just be growing and growing and growing. (Lovely thought, isn't it).




SOOOO... that leads me to the hopeful END of the long and drawn-out/painful-as-crud story!!



Today we are getting NEW CARPET!! WOOHOOOOO!!!!! Kyle and I have lived in a house that is COMPELTELY in disaray for 5 days, and it's finally coming to an END!! WOOT WOOT!!


I will get home today and my house will smell of new carpet and love.


Okay - so maybe the love part will be added later, but still - new carpet is a good smell! and a MUCH better smell then musty-grossness, that is a FACT!!







Peace, love, and clean-carpet to all!


:-*

Redneck Tank Top

Please... Please God... Please tell me this was a joke.





Words cannot even begin to describe what I'm thinking right now...



.

On the prowl

So we're going to look at some houses tomorrow night. I'm super excited!

Our realtor sent us lots of listings today,and Kyle and I went through them being SUPER picky, AND open-minded at the same time.


We know what we want, but we also know that it will take a bit of elbow grease to get any house looking like "us".



So - here we go. Off into the land of house-shopping, and hopefully we'll come back with some great stuff!!




Wish us luck, and MUCH sanity as we learn to navigate through the tunnelling maze of real estate (thank GOODNESS for Sheena - our "tour guide", if you will!!).




~Love y'all!

Zzzzzzz...

I WISH!! I SO want to sleep... I REALLY DO!!! But I just can't!

What's going ON?!?!

This is miserable. For 4 nights straight now, I jsut can't sleep! Even to the point where I was sick yesterday and yet NOTHING! I'd go back to bed and STILL just toss and turn. You KNOW it's bad when you sit at work, just daydreaming about sleeping...

Anybody got some "home remedies" for sleep? I am SO not wanting to take anything like Tylenol PM to make me drowsy, but maybe some sort of tea, or something... any ideas?

'Cause something's gotta give.... and so far it looks like it will be my Sanity that gives way, rather then my lack of sleep!

Cardboard Testimonies

What would your cardboard say?

.

Oh give me a home...

But let's leave the Buffalo in New York, shall we?


McStudly and I are going to buy a house (we're probably at 85% sure, right now - is that normal?). So...



HELP!!!


Whew... we have NO clue what we're doing. I mean - where do you start? What do you do first, and what do you have to know? How much money do you need IN pocket? What about VA Loans - how do they work, and how do you get them? How do you know what types of places to look at? What's important to make note of in the houses when you see them? What should I avoid? Who's the best mortgage company? What if something goes wrong right after we buy it? What if the housing market gets even worse, and we're stuck? What if we get hit by a horrible storm and the house is levelled? How much does home owners' insurance typically cost each month? What about taxes - how does that work? How do you do the whole escrow thing, adn how much do you have to put away each month? Does it work liek a bill - where they send you something every month and you send it back with a check? After buying the house - how do you afford to FURNISH the house? What about painting... should you do it before you move in? Are we too young to buy right now? What if someone loses a job - how do you keep paying for it? What if the oven, fridge, and dryer break the week after you move in - do you have to pay to fix it? How do you convince sellers to pay closing costs? How much money is typical for a good EMD? What is acceptable and unacceptable to ask for form the sellers when making an offer - I mean... can I ask them to leave their bedroom set, or is that tacky - but it's really nice!!


SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!



Okay - so I'm NOT really freaking out nearly as much as it seems, but I am a woman, and every possibility and every question IS running through my mind right now. PLUS - you've got Hotpants McStudly, over here, who's worse than I am, and want's to weigh the pros and cons, all the while really focussing more on the cons. ha ha... boy are we funny!!



So - I've said all of that really just to say this: Got any advice?






PS - the agent we're going to use is awesome, so I'm sure she'll answer questions when we finally get to sit down with her, but I'm inpatient, and this girl needs answers, people!! I want to feel liek a real estate genius, and I don't want ANY surprises when stuff starts rolling. Help a sister/first-time-home-buyer out!