Trudging Along

In the last installment, we were in the middle of arguing about the appraisal as we were seeking a refinance. What a joke that was. I talked and/or emailed with the lender at least six times, spent countless hours finding comps and researching adjustments to bring the prices in line, and came to the conclusion that the appraiser only looked at the HUD sales, since out of four HUD homes sold within a 15-mile radius in the last 12 months, one was our house and three were his comps.After all that effort, one of the seven people we had contact with at the lender made a throwaway comment that "we'd use the selling price anyway".

Wait. Back the truck up. What?

Appraisal Angst

We've waited our six months since purchase and are now trying to get a cash out refinance to replace the funds used for purchase, consolidate some of our debt, and of course get some of the projects completed that need to be done. All was going along fine, until the appraisal came back.

Water Woes

After waiting several weeks, we finally came to the conclusion that the well people just weren't going to bother checking out our well to give us a quote on getting it back into working condition. I know there's Down South time, but this was way beyond even that. S talked to them twice about it and they said they'd go out; they called him once but didn't leave a message on his voice mail. We made the decision about a month ago to just go with city water -- and still haven't heard anything from the well people.

The List

The notebook in which I wrote down what needs to be done in the house is getting a little beat-up, so I thought it might be helpful to type it out here. Plus then I can double check what needs to be done/bought, sizes, etc., even if I don't have the notebook with me. This is unprioritized and ranks from vital to purely cosmetic. All of the windows need window treatments, so if there's just a measurement, that's why. Measurements are width x height unless otherwise noted.

The Never-Ending Project List

The first thing we did, other than cleaning up all the dead bugs that had accumulated over the 2-3 years the house was empty (ew!) was to replace the front door. Even though the door that was there was actually in decent shape, it was about 2" too small for the frame all the way around, and the big gap at the bottom is the main reason there were so many bugs. (We're really lucky, honestly, that we didn't get rodents or a snake. I guess since there was no food or water, there was nothing to really attract them.)

....But We Found One

After we bought the house, our first step was to get it insured. Fortunately that was pretty easy, and not too terribly expensive. (The replacement value is rather low at the moment, for various reasons; once we get some work done and other things figured out, we'll see about raising it.) The entire bill for a year was $459, plus a $25 membership fee. For budgeting we'll just figure $500 a year for now, and probably $750 in the future. Next step was to get an alarm system installed -- even though Walnut Grove is a pretty safe area, and several people are watching the house (the neighbor across the street is the grandson of the original owner/builder of the house, and the neighbor on the side is kin of some sort), we've moved some of our things down there and would rather be safe than sorry. Fortunately the house was already wired for ADT, so installation (they had to upgrade the unit and add some sensors) was only $49.99. Monthly service is around $46 -- higher than I expected, but every other place was as much or more. *sigh* So, another $500 a year for that expense. Of course, before they could install the alarm system, we had to get the electrical service started. Fortunately that will be fairly low cost, since we aren't there all that often, but it is $22.55 per month just to have electricity, even if we don't use any. (It's a co-op, and of course the only game in town. The rates seem extremely low, however, once we do start using it.) Estimate for a normal year (until we establish a true normal) is $350/year.

We Weren't Looking For A House....

My husband and I are working on paying off various credit card, student loan, personal, and real estate debts that have added up over the years to quite a significant amount. We're in the middle of a five-year payoff plan for most of the non-real-estate debt, and looking forward to having a little more flex in our monthly income-to-expense ratio. (We do have a longer plan to pay extra on the rest of the debt and get it cleared sooner rather than later, but on a slightly less aggressive scale than we're currently pursuing.)