Moving is a Dirty Word

Motivational photo:  This is the patio door at the new house.  This door is one of the reasons I decided to buy that house instead of the house next store that had essentially the same floor plan.  I took it last Sunday, during my final walk-through before closing on June 30th.  This is the only photo in this long post.

Uber-busy getting ready for the move on July 7th - no time to relax and enjoy the weekend. OY -- too tired to go into all the details of how I got from Offer to Purchase to actual closing, and now the actual move. I have not worked so hard for such long stretches since installing sod here many years ago, when I was much younger and had a lot more energy and stamina!  I HATE PACKING!

After nearly 24 years, I am leaving Maison Newton, turning it over to a nice and eager young couple (the young lady is the daughter of a high school friend, and I've known her since she was born).   They will be moving in the weekend of July 12th. 

I can't believe how much stuff I have. And I've been regularly giving things to charity and family members for years -- furniture, clothing, dishes, knick-knacks, books. Geez - where did all of this stuff come from?  I have been relentlessly tossing items into the trash or putting them into a donate pile, but it's tough parting with some things.  In March I donated 7 boxes of books to a fund raiser by a local bar (laywers') association, and I did that with a large lump in my throat.  But now I have to ruthlessly downsize a library collected since the 1970's, so I am keeping only my favorite novels and nonfiction books.  I could open my own library.  I still have to sort through three more bookcases upstairs.  Every time I toss a book or add it to the donate pile, I feel like I am losing a part of myself.  Books have been my friends since I was old enough to read.
 
Yesterday morning (4th of July) before 8 a.m., I hiked the mile to the new house, lugging a large bag with me, to hang curtains on the picture window in the living room and the first bedroom. The sun was glaring in both windows Thursday evening when my friends, Barb and Tim, brought me and a large load of boxes and garage items over to the new house. We loaded up here at Maison Newton and then unloaded things to the new garage and house.  Let me tell you, Barb and Tim are machines when it comes to loading and unloading boxes and stuff.  I was panting and managing only to put in one box for every three of theirs!  When we were finished unpacking, in an unbelievable short amount of time, we took a tour of the new house.  Barb had seen the outside, but had not been inside. Tim had seen neither outside nor inside. 

This morning I walked into the living room to prepare to put up the curtains, and I see what at first glance appear to be brownish-black specs on the cream colored carpet. Spots that I had not seen the evening before, with the light of the western sun glaring in.  I looked more closely, thinking to myself what the hell? I didn't see anything like this last night. What IS that?  And then, I saw them.  HOLY HATHOR! BUGS!

First instinct when I see a bug is to run in the opposite direction. I HATE BUGS! They give me the creeps. But I found my courage, because there was no one else to fall back on; I had to go back into the living room and deal with those - BUGS! I got a closer look at them. Some kind of long-bodied flying insect. Crawling all over the carpet. Newly hatched? OHMYGODDESS.

I had seen no bugs the evening before, and we were in and out of that room several times putting boxes in one corner, admiring the view out of the picture window (with heat pouring in from the setting Sun), checking out the new front door and peep-hole, the mailbox and the front porch light.

I had no vacuum at the new house yet. So, no way to suck up the bucks quickly and efficiently.  But I had brought over a fresh roll of toilet paper (just in case, you know; sometimes people don't leave toilet paper in the bathrooms when they move out). So down on my hands and knees I went and, one by one, I squished them in between my fingers wrapped in toilet paper. It took me about 45 minutes to get all that I could see crawling around. Some had graduated to flying, but I got them too. All were flushed down the toilet.

Eeeeeuuuuuwwwwwwwww!

Let me tell you, this is NOT the way one wants to start one's day. And such a lovely day, too. Sunny, warm, a little bit of a breeze, just a wee bit too humid for me. Just a few degrees difference in the dew point makes a big difference in my stamina and how well I can breathe. I am a LOT slower than I used to be, and wouldn't you know it, my left hip was hurting, too (the humidity). But I made it back home and on the way did my errands, too. And squashed probably 100 bugs for extra exercise.

On the walk back home, I stopped at the Pick 'n Save and picked up a large can of Raid flying insect spray that can be used indoors and outdoors. It will go back to the new house with me on Sunday, along with my Mighty Mite vacuum. And that carpeting is being ripped out and the hardwood floors underneath will be refinished!  I won't be able to afford refinishing the floors right away, but I don't care what they look like. No more carpeting anywhere in the house, only area rugs.  I know it is silly to equate those bugs with the carpeting, but there it is, it's stuck in my brain, so the carpeting goes. 

I did take time to celebrate July 4th. I picked up some treats for myself for supper and breakfast/lunch tomorrow:  Beer Bratwurst sausages! Potato Chips! Gourmet Chocolate Chunk Cookies! Fresh Botilla rolls!  I started packing up the kitchen.  Why do I have three sets of dishware???

And the Winner Is....

Two houses in contention, but I can only buy one...

4002
 

3982

And the winner is -- 3982.  I am closing on its purchase on Monday - finally!  It took a ridiculously long amount of time to get to this point.

I really really liked 4002, but in the end, I was swayed by the list of recent improvements that the owners of 3982 had undertaken: new siding on house and garage; new concrete patio in back yard; new privacy fence to screen patio; new furnace and AC unit in 2013; beautifully refinished hardwood floors in the bedrooms; newer architectural style shingle roofs on house and garage; new vinyl plank flooring in the kitchen/dinette in a luscious dark cherrywood tone (that clashes horribly with the oak finished cabinets); newly remodeled main floor bathroom; updated kitchen; new front and rear exterior doors; new windows; new sliding patio door with steps down to the backyard (not shown on any of the listing photos, but if you look in through the picture window above you can see straight back through the living room to the patio doors in the dinette). 

I still have tweaks of panic now and then that I bought the wrong house (4002 has many appealing aspects), but to back out now would be disastrous for the young couple buying my house, and the young couple selling me their house, and the people who are selling my sellers their house!  Just cannot do it.  My rational side tells me that I will have little to worry about for years to come in buying 3982, other than installing a new water heater in a couple of years and decommissioning the old chimney.  Oh, and the brick veneer across the front of the house needs to be "re-tied" to the studs in some places and the stone cap on the brick half wall underneath the bedroom windows needs to be reset.

So, I will live right next store to 4002 and be witness to see what the lucky person(s) who eventually move in do around the place; it is under contract but has been pending for months.  I believe the buyers cannot sell their house, or more likely, cannot sell their house for the money they need to afford to buy 4002. 

So, shortly I will be embarking on the next phase of my life -- that of living in a much smaller house and yards.  My hands are itching to get at it.  As you can see, 3982 doesn't have much curb appeal, and there is lots of painting and minor remodelling to do inside.  What a thing to take on nearly at my 63rd birthday.  Geez, Jan! 

Shopping for a New House: House 5

Hola darlings.

Spring has, at last, sprung at Maison Newton and I've been so busy the past several weekends doing yard work, OY!  This is one of the reasons I wanted to downsize to a smaller house and smaller yard than what I have now. I love my yards and my gardens, but they are, quite frankly, too much for me to handle on my own at this point in my life.  My plan was for Mr. Don to be here with me during our Golden Years to help with the necessary.  He loved puttering around in the gardens, too.  But it did not come to pass.   

So - on to House 5.  If you take a look at the prior posts, you will see my adventures with Houses 4, 3, 2 and 1. 

House 5 went on the market on or about May 1st.  When I opened up the browser early one morning, still half asleep, sipping my instant coffee before doing the trudge back upstairs to get ready for work, my eyes widened and I instantly became fully awake when I saw A NEW LISTING!

The house is 3982 S. 74.  In fact, next store, directly to the north of 4002 S. 74 (House 4).  I had finally viewed 4002 on May 2nd, and so admired what it had to offer and its potential, I was ready to put in an offer to buy it.  BUT -- I wanted to see 3982 before reaching a final decision.  I was itching to pull the trigger on a house at this point. I had had enough of looking at houses and dickering with sellers.  I wanted to settle on a place and BUY IT. 

There she is - 3982.  This is a typical basic ranch style house for our area: three small bedrooms, one bath, one living room, one kitchen with dining area.  Full 11 course concrete block basement as large as the square footage above.  Stone or brick facade on front of house, aluminum or vinyl siding on the rest of the house.  Ranch-style windows (narrow and short) in bedrooms.  Separate garage built at the back of the lot.  They were put up in our area by the thousands during the 1950-1960's.  This particular house was built in - 1955.  4002 and 4029 were built the following year, in 1956, but have the exact same floor plan, with minor variations in bedroom configurations, and identical square footage on the main living area. 

Here is what 3928 did not have: 4002's lovely bay window with crank-out windows on either end to provide cross-ventilation with the dinette window (that had two narrow windows on either side of a large picture window that could be opened), and a curved front sidewalk with a beautiful decorative flowering tree, expertly trimmed shrub linking the public sidewalk area to the house walk-way, and the driveway-side lot line adorned with climbing roses at either end of the house;  OR 4029's cute and smartly-designed front garden area, sharp decorative paint job with cool colors, decorative shutters, and decorative metal thing hung between the two front bedroom windows to provide the final finishing touch.

All can be fixed, of course, but still...

OF COURSE 3982 sellers' schedule and mine did not coordinate.  I had hoped to see 3982 the same evening I saw 4002, but alas, it did not come about.  I was not able to view 3982 until the evening of Friday, May 6th. Four long days of waiting, tick tick tick, and having ants in my pants the entire time...

The property listing for 3982 made a point of noting that the following items were new: (1) furnace; (2) air-conditioning unit; (3) remodeled main floor bathroom, with new bath tub; (4) siding on house AND garage; (5) exterior doors (front door, side door that exits at driveway and -- PATIO DOOR!!!!!)  The Patio Door is extremely important because that meant these owners took the time and expense to replace the 1950's style picture window in the dinette area looking out over the backyard with a brand new (mini-blinds inside) sliding patio door, with new steps, down to a (6)  beautifully finished concrete patio and (7) fully privacy-fenced backyard.  Let's see, did I miss anything? Oh yeah, (8) a new high-end laminate floor installed in the kitchen/dinette area in a rich deep red mahogany-like color that I fell in love with instantly upon seeing it in person.  This flooring was NOT shown in any of the listing photographs, BTW.  Neither was the patio door. 

Shopping for A New House: House 3

The small brick ranch on Allerton was Plan C that got bumped up to Plan B when the house that was potentially Plan B (4002 S. 74) was not able to be viewed.  But I was feeling uncertain about Allerton and kept looking.  I checked the listings every day to see if anything new had come on the market.

This little brick house, with a family room addition added later at the back, was built in 1939 and is situated on a huge lot.  I wanted to see it because I've walked past this house five or six days a week for nearly 24 years now.  I always thought it looked like a little fair tale cottage and admired its classic lines.

Oh, I know I know.  Crazy.  It was the exact opposite of what I wanted -- a smaller lot, a move-in ready house!  Oy!  But this house tugged at my heart strings.

The house was foreclosed, unfortunately.  The young couple that had lived there were gone.  Fourth of July decorations still hang from the coverless roof frame over the patio on the west side of the house, looking forlorn.  The property is now owned by a bank, and banks could care less about maintaining foreclosed property.  This house is on the market for $146,900:

Yes, that is grass growing out of wood gutters that I would think are original to the house.  Nobody has wood gutters anymore - but this house does.

The brickwork is in excellent shape, did not appear to be any mortar missing or step cracks.  Original woodwork is intact in the original part of the house (except for a disastrous kitchen remodel), but the varnish is crackled and bubbled, the wood dried out.  The house needs a new roof.  The windows, so pretty from a distance, up close have rotting frames and are single paned glass.  It would take extensive repairs to replace the original window framing, repair the rot, and provide storm/screen over-windows to protect the original divided light windows that dress the front of the house.  The wood floors on the first floor are intact, but need refinishing.  All of the rooms in the main part of the house are small, except for the kitchen, which is a bit disjointed.  The best updating was done in the small main floor bathroom.

There is a garage built out of concrete block.  It too needs a new roof and its wood frame holding the garage door is rotting from the ground up.  Because of the family room addition that was put on the back of the house, the garage is less than 2 feet away from the back wall of the house!  I don't think a regular size compact car would fit in that garage.  Better to tear it down and build a new one further away from the house; the lot is plenty large!

Above, side view of the house showing the one story family room addition at the back of the house, and the little amount of space left between the addition and the concrete block garage.  I do not think a modern-day car would fit into that garage, LOL.  But, there is plenty of space on the lot to build a 2 to 3 car garage.

The family room - no framing around the windows and no insulation tucked in (or foam sprayed to seal cracks to keep out cold damp air, snow and rain), so cold air was leaking into the house all winter long; the house felt very damp and very cold.  Here is a picture of the family room from the listing:

The carpet is "inset" into the floor; it is thick, good quality carpeting, and filthy.  The rest of the floor is laminate.  I puzzled as to why until I realized that the people who used to live there used the side door (not seen in this photo, on the left) as the main entrance into the house, and the laminate was their answer to having an easy-to-clean floor.  The area is open to the kitchen, up two steps.  Part of the back wall of the house in its original brick is exposed to this room and it adds a lot of charm.  You can see the rot around the inside of the uncased windows.  Oh my.

Shopping for a New House: House 2

Hola darlings!

Well, since writing about House 1, it came to pass that the seller and I were not able to arrive at a mutually acceptable purchase price, and so I let my Offer expire.  We were $2,900 a part, but neither of us was willing to budge another inch.  I know I had budget considerations, and I suppose the seller did too.  Sigh.

On to... House 2. 

House 2 was actually the first house I looked at, because it has the best location vis a vis the places I need to get to on foot:  the Pick 'n Save supermarket, Walgreens, and two bus routes -- a mere 3 blocks away, moving me 6 blocks closer (and NO hill to climb while lugging groceries) than I am right now. 

Location alone put this house #1 on my list.  I met my buyer broker, Laurie, there, for the first time and we hit it off immediately.

This is a small house, no way around that; giving up space (that I don't need), and I've always wanted another brick house.  My first house, purchased in 1986, was a quasi-Tudor style brick 2 bedroom with Spanish plaster, all original woodwork and hardwood floors, built during the Art Deco era, and I loved that house!  But the area the house was located in was headed toward decline, unfortunately.  I sold the house for a profit in 1989 and built Maison Newton, where I've been ever since.  Until now...

House #2 is a cute, but small, all brick ranch, built in 1956.  Solid as they come, and well cared for.  The brickwork is solid, no step cracks at all, no need for tuckpoint repairs.  Three car garage with a summer-room, a small concrete patio out back, concrete drive in not bad condition.  A generator, too, in case electric power ever goes out.  There is no sidewalk on the lot along the roadside; the lawn runs to a shallow culvert and then the blacktop road starts.  Big yard, bigger than I want, but also giving me a clean slate to maybe do the garden of my dreams, as my vision about that has changed so much over the years.  The rear of the property abuts part of a commercial property, the Mad Dog Saloon, LOL!  I've been there several times during it various incarnations over the past 23 plus years I've lived in at Maison Newton.  The property line is delineated by a very tall solid wood fence.  Commercial doesn't bother me.  The road House #2 fronts on is lined with single family homes and it's all very rural feeling, just feet away from 76th Street, one of the city's main drags!  Amazingly quiet, too.

Roof, windows and furnace all newer.  Not a thing has to be done to the exterior of the home, other than creating some curb appeal.  My gardner's hands are already itching.  By the way, 978 days today (and counting down) to retirement! 

The interior is small, 1,012 square feet.  There are three small bedrooms, one small bath, made even smaller by some floor to ceiling cabinets that were installed for additional storage, a small kitchen that has the worst floor plan I've ever seen and is also cut in half but a ceiling-hung display cabinet!  What on earth?  My 56" wide round dining table will NOT fit into the current dinette space -- a card table and 4 card chairs barely fit into the present space!  Well, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Above photo shows the entry into the front room (living room).  The living room is 11 x 15.  Small.

This is the other side of the front room (living room).  To the left of the sofa is the entry to the bedroom/bathroom hallway and the entry to the kitchen/dinette.  There is a hardwood floor underneath the carpeting per the listing description.  Because of the two large windows, the room is flooded with light.  But, as you can see, it is small.  The furniture I have was purchased for larger rooms. That is an issue.

Hold on to your hats, the kitchen is next:

From the front room walking toward the rear of the home where the kitchen is located.  On the left is the hallway housing the entries to 3 bedrooms and 1 full bath.  The kitchen wall you are looking at is on the east.  There is a tall and spacious pantry cabinet unit, three above-stove or fridge cabinets, the cabinet that the microwave is placed upon, and the fridge.  You can see some of the door to the back hallway on the far right, behind the fridge. You can also see the end of a cabinet jutting out into the room.  That cabinet area, I guess it's a sort of peninsula, cuts the kitchen in half.  Above it is a glass encased cabinet hanging from the ceiling that, right now, contains some stemware.  More about that later.

Another view of the pantry cabinet, microwave cabinet and fridge (from the southwest end of the kitchen).  This view shows you some of the glass-encased ceiling-hung display cabinet that cuts the room in half:

While I'm not crazy about the cabinets, they are in great shape and, as you will see, there is an abundance of cabinet storage in this space.  New hardware would help, I think, and probably a paint job to all white is in their future.  My intention is to re-use the existing cabinets to reconfigure the kitchen into a more functional lay-out, opening up enough space for my 56" round table and four chairs.

So, here is the dinette space.  This photo shows another section of that ceiling-hung glass encased display cabinet, as well as the paneled-over back of an older electric stove.  If you look to your left, you can see where the cord from the electric range is snaked through to the electric outlet underneath the top end cabinet.  That stove must be VERY old, it does not appear to have a three-prong heavy-duty plug requiring a separate electrical circuit!  The window overlooks the driveway and a side of the house next store.  Not a nice view.

As you can see, a card table and four chairs were placed to give an idea of what the dinette would look like.  My table would definitely not fit into this space.  I thought, when I first saw this, that perhaps a built-in banquette and small table, but then, I'd have to give up my beautiful dinette table and chairs, and I don't want to do that!  Not to mention the cost of having a banquette installed (or buying one).  I soon nixed that idea, though, after seeing the rest of the kitchen:

This is the view toward the rear of the house as one walks into the kitchen from the front/living room. To the left of this wall, out of view, is a step-down to a tiny back hallway with a door that opens to the backyard, and opposite that door is the staircase to the basement.  Directly across from the kitchen opening to the back hall landing is a step up to the half-bath, consisting of a small toilet and sink and some rather unique blue laminate countertop.  I'll show you that in a moment.  The kitchen wall we're looking at is along the south of the house.  On the right you can see the "peninsula" sticking out into the room, cutting it in half, and above it, a small part of the ceiling-hung display cabinet.  Facing us is an antique dishwasher on the left, an old front-loading washing machine underneath the window, and a dryer on the right.  I believe they all work. The countertop is faux butcher-block laminate.  It is not a continuous run of countertop, as you can see, it looks like some was added later.  Was the kitchen sink originally under THAT window?  Or did the owners have new plumbling run for the dishwasher and washing machine?  My buyer-broker said she thought the laminate was probably from the 1970's. 

Dryer covered with butcher-block laminate.  Because of the vent there, I thought perhaps this may have been the original location of the stove? But then, it also looks like a cold air return, which doesn't make any sense at all to have it in the middle of the wall...

The sink is on the south wall of the kitchen, view overlooks the driveway.  To the right, you can see the very old electric stove and its plug, and also a good view of the overhead glass display cabinet that cuts the room in half.  That overhead cabinet would be removed.  Electric stove and cabinet on the right next to it would be relocated.  Washer, dryer and antique dish washer would all be removed.  Fridge, cabinet and pantry cabinet would be relocated.  Cha ching, cha ching, cha ching!!!

Here the half-bath (powder room) off the back hall.  I'm not sure that it is 2 feet deep!  But, because if its existence, this house is advertised as bath and a half!  Ridiculous!  This powder room backs up to the plumbing in the full bath.  I would totally junk this space and add much-needed space to the full bath on the other side of the back wall.  There is a "rec" room area, including a bar, in the basement, and a bath could be added down there if some future owner wished it.  For myself, I don't live in my basement.  I live above grade. One larger bathroom for just me to use is fine.

Here you can see the back end of the house (faces south) and the large three-car garage with summer room.  It's a big lot, mostly grass.  There are two Norway maples planted far too close together on the east lot line closer to the back of the house -- you can see part of their branches on the left end of the photo.  The tree nearest the house will have to be cut down.  Makes me cry, but that is the reality.  I KNOW what those trees will be like 10 years from now, should I live that long. 

This is the only photo of the full bath.  Fortunately, it does NOT have a glass block window.  I hate glass block windows, egads!  What is that finish on the walls?  Wallpaper, you might ask?  Nope.  It's a marble look plastic laminate sheathing of some kind, that was screwed to the walls.  It complete surrounds the inside of the bathtub (hidden by the curtains on the right side of this photograph).  From what I figure, directly behind the sink/vanity and toilet is the back-hall "powder room", which I intend to junk if I am successful at buying this house.  The tub has old fashioned style glass shower doors installed, those would be removed   The tub, itself, looks dingy and dirty, probably needs to be replaced.  The faux-marble panels would also be removed, as would the 1950's era mirror/medicine cabinet on the wall at the left of the photograph.  It is flanked on either side by fluorescent lights.  The mirrors actually open out to create a tripod of mirrors. Maybe I could sell it on e-Bay???

The price was recently dropped on this property from $149,900 to $144,500.  So I'm putting an offer in, with a final price range in mind, and we'll see what happens. 

Fingers crossed, darlings!

Shopping for a New House: House 1

Scrreeeeeeccccchhhhhh!  The sound of smoking brakes as Jan's plans for Maison Newton do a 180 and - I'VE SOLD MAISON NEWTON.

OHMYGODDESS.

The house was NOT on the market. I got an offer out of the blue and, well, here I am. Desperately looking for a new place to live.

I had planned on downsizing - at age 65.  I'm still 2 1/2 years away from that.

Let me tell you, darlings, after the horrid experience I had with certain listing brokers in 2009 when I listed Maison Newton for sale, I was really really gun shy about ever using a broker again.  My sale - no broker involved. It's totally private.  Totally fell into my lap from -- probably the Goddess Hera (a mother goddess of family and the hearth in the most ancient times) had a hand in this.  Maybe a not to subtle kick in the butt from the Goddess that it-was-time.  Sooooo, thank you, Hera. I think.

Here is the house I'm putting in an offer for (not at the list price of $169,900, which is too high considering what else is on the market in the immediate area).  A one level Milwaukee style ranch, partial brick with siding.  Kitchen and bath totally redone. All floors natural hardwood refinished, not a speck of carpeting anywhere.  Tile in the bathroom and kitchen/dinette.  It is not a large house -- 1073 square feet, three bedrooms (no pics of them published here but they all have redone closets with good space) and one bathroom (small, but beautiful, shower over tub). No lower level rec room or separate laundry/furnace room or bath/half-bath. It's an open basement, clean clean clean.  Potential for future build-out is there:

The front.

 

The front from an angle.

Back yard patio view.
 

Back yard rear view of house. I would put in a patio door where the
large window is to the right (dinette window).

 

Living room view from the entrance.
 

Bathroom totally redone.  New vanity (check out that hardware), mirror,
light fixture, and on the opposite side, fully tiled shower over tub with glass
doors and a 6 inch wide strip of glass accent tile.  Tile floor.  Quartz countertop.
All in neutral tones.
 

Bathroom view 2, showing tub/shower.

Kitchen - totally redone.  Maple cabinets, check out the drawer pulls,
stainless steel appliances, tile floor. Back lighting on top of cabinets.

Dinette area, view toward kitchen.

View of dinette area toward rear door and stairway to basement. Yes, I
think that window wall on the right is begging for a patio door that
would open to the backyard.  The back door opens to the driveway.
 

It's a lovely house. About 500 square feet smaller than Maison Newton but then, I don't need all of this space, just me rambling around here now that Mr. Don has passed.  The yard gives me enough space for beautiful flower beds, but is much more manageable to mow (front and back).  There is a generous 2.5 car garage, bigger than the 2 car standard I have now.  The curved patio area is new within the past year.  There is a nice sized Norway maple which will grow huge and shade the entire yard unless I stay on top of it and have it pruned out once a year.  There are only 3 entry streets into the subdivision.  There is no through traffic, only local residents, so despite being 2 blocks away from busy South 76th Street and my Walgreens, Pick 'n Save and bus stop that takes me downtown (about half a mile to the south), it is peaceful and quite here.

Fingers crossed!  I electronically signed the offer papers this evening when I got home from the office.  My buyer broker is not feeling well, so I don't know if she was able to submit the offer this evening.

I do have a Plan B, and even a Plan C, if necessary, but Plan C -- oh my!