Last Minute Buyer Shenannigans....

Our realtor called us this afternoon, day 14 of the 15 day escrow "perform or die" time limitation.

The buyers wanted a $5,000 price reduction due to asbestos in the 1942-era "popcorn" ceiling, and the "possibility of lead-based paint, both requiring remediation".

These items were fully covered in the home inspection report, and the disclosure, which they've had for quite some time now.

We damn near told them to take a hike, as we have no problem sitting here until spring. And if we do stay until spring, we'll probably get the ceilings scraped and refinished, and the house will go back on the market and sell for $550k, as long as the market doesn't tank.

Our realtor agreed it was definitely a cheap stunt to pull, especially considering they KNOW we aren't in any pressing need to move.

After he and my wife calmed me down a bit, we all agreed the best thing was to "Just Say NO!" to them, and if they pull out, no skin off our nose.

He called back a few minutes ago saying they accepted the "NO!", and things are still on.

Geez......some people's kids!

Termite "Inspection" Team Here This Morning

And it sounds more like they're the "Termite DEMOLITION Team".

Granted, I've never watched this being done, so I'm probably gonna get get called "STOOPID" by somebody, but these guys are checking for termite infestation by using a "probe" on a painter's pole, and banginging it against all the exposed wood they can see and reach.,

thump, thump, thump, thump,thump,thump for the last 35 minutes.

And once in a while you hear thump,thump,thump,thump, CRUNCH, thump, thump, thump.....

The "crunch" is not good because it means their "probe" just busted through what was left of a piece of wood that the termites have been feasting on.

So far they've found a couple of spots they're calling "dry rot", a couple of boards on the fascia for the garage, and the 4x4 holding the window A/C unit up.

Orkin was here two years ago and gave the place a clean bill of health, but then they didn't run around banging on stuff, either.

Hopefully this stuff won't be too expensive to repair.

Escrow Closes September 20th.....

Our realtor just called, and the official closing for the house is 20 September 2017.

This totally screws me for going to Supras In Vegas this year, as the event is the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd of September. I'd planned on leaving on the 20th, but now I have the wife, her car, and the dog to worry about getting moved. Her BFF was going to split the driving of her car with her, and I was going to head to Fort Collins right after the event, drop the Supra off, fly home, rest for a day, and then head back to Fort Collins in the Jeep with the dog.

Turns out I'd counted the days wrong, and thought it closed a week later, which would have made Supras In Vegas a bit difficult, but "doable".

Home Inspection Details and Repairs

The "minor leak" under the bathtub drain turned out to be a bit  more than the inspector found. Our plumber friend from across the street went under the house today, and found that the drain wasn't just leaking from the threaded connections, but had a hole corroded through it! He'd brought all the bits and pieces to replace the entire assembly, so it wasn't any big deal, but he said if the inspector had noticed the dirt in the crawlspace was wet, or even damp, they would have called for a "professional" cleanup crew to remove the dirt, and "sanitize" the area in addition to the repair of the corroded away parts.

And in Kommiefornia, "Remediation" means HAZMAT teams coming in, and a HUGE bill when they're done. They've shut down entire freeways for hours to clean up a couple of gallons of spilled fuel after an accident.

That's insane! It's drain water from a bathtub, for cryin' out loud, and unless we were washing off radiation contamination, or giving baths to Ebola victims, it's just used, soapy water from taking a bath or shower.

He also replaced the entire vent assembly for the water heater, using double walled tubing made for the task, and added a discharge line to the safety blow-off valve at the top of the water heater, so now the water heater issues are not only repaired, but fully "up to code".

I replaced the outlet in the bathroom with a GFCI unit, and also the one near the kitchen sink. The one near the kitchen sink was just a regular duplex outlet and two switches, one for the disposal and one for some recessed lighting, BUT, in order to make it look nice, I not only had to replace the outlet, but also the switches, as NOBODY makes a wall plate that has the rectangular cutout for a GFCI and the two oval cutouts for the switches. So add the cost of a new switch ($20) and new wall plate ($8 for a new wood one) to the $18 for the GFCI outlet.

And I still have to recaulk the tub to the tile on the wall. I dug out all the old caulk last year and laid in some good stuff, but ran out before I had a really nice "above grade" bead. Well, the caulk shrank a bit, and left a couple of gaps that the inspector squawked about because water could get back there and "Promote MOLD and BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION!!!"

ZOMG! ARMEGEDDON!

Geez, after reading Old_NFO's post this morning, I really do wonder how so many of us managed to survive those unenlightened and barbaric days of old, before the nanny state insisted on so many "safety" regulations.....

As far as upgrading all the power to the garage, all I can say is "'Aint Gonna Happen"!

The inspector noted that none of the outlets were grounded, and well, DUH! There's only a hot and neutral running to the garage, so what do you expect? And considering when the house and garage were built, it wasn't required, and we're grandfathered in from requiring it to be brought up to code.

Again, I really have to wonder how many people were injured from two-wire, non-grounded (three pin) outlets over the years....

Weather In Fort Collins

As I've told my wife numerous times, she's going to get a whole different perspective on what REAL weather is once we're in Colorado.

This past Thursday, a violent but brief hailstorm pounded parts of the city. Out where the kids live, North West of the city, there was 2" hail, driven by high winds, causing quite a bit of damage.

The house the kids live in got clobbered. Three sides of the house look like this:

And the roof took a beating, too. I'm surprised they didn't have some broken windows.

The nice 1/8 acre garden they had looks like the not-so-jolly Green Giant came in and stomped on it.

AFAIK, my wife has never been through a real Midwestern-style thunderstorm, with high winds, driving rain, and large hail. Fort Collins is a bit protected, being in the Cache La Poudre valley, but it's still in open enough country to get really clobbered. The last time we were there in the summer, I notice really big anvil-heads to the East, and mentioned to my wife that somebody was really going to catch it. Sure enough, as we got in the car the EAS warnings came on the radio about severe storms in Weld County, with tornado warnings. Seeing the anvil-heads reminded me of growing up in Illinois, where we had weather like that several times per summer.

It's one thing to see the damage a storm like this can do, and another thing to be right in the middle of one, and not really being able to do much about it.

I hope whatever we buy has a basement!

House Inspection Complete

One minor issue. The bathtub drain has a slight leak, easily fixed, but not by me. I'm just too old anymore to crawl that far under the house and do anything other than string some cables!

We haven't received our copy of the report, which I had expected sometime today. The new "owners" came by with the inspector, and brought their realtor with them. They were all pumped up up getting their first house, and the guy's wife complimented us on how nice the house looked, and how happy they were that we accepted their offer. They'd been out bid three times on other houses they'd wanted to buy, so they appear to be completely serious about wanting to get this one.

After the report comes in, I'm sure they'll go back to our agent looking for some "compensation" for any issues that were found. Our agent has told us that he'll stand pretty firm on what's already been negotiated. They want the house ASAP, and we have no problem sitting here until spring, so it should be interesting to watch the rest of these proceedings finish....

Miscellaneous Moving Mumblings....

Been "working" in the garage to attempt to get things ready to go. It always seems that whatever I'm doing, the wife thinks I should be doing something else.

Always....

And of course, her constant litany of "Throw It Away" drones on and on and on and on....

So, do I "throw away" $2,000 worth of stuff to save $500 on moving it?

And by the time I go to replace the $2k of stuff I dumped to shut her up, the cost will have risen to $3k.

....SIGH....

And in the process of "decluttering" the house, she just dumped shit everywhere in the garage, with no rhyme or reason as to why things got stacked where they did.

Which means that to even get at my stuff, I've got to tear the whole freaking garage apart........AGAIN.

And she wonders why I have such a hard time getting started on these things......

New "Owners" Coming By Tonight

Technically, their BANK is the new owner, but we'll be nice and play along with them.

Our agent called and said they'd asked if they could come by to show their kids "Our New House", so he checked with us, and we don't have any objections.

The guy wanted to see the garage, which is packed floor-to-ceiling with boxes, and I think the gal wanted to have a closer look at the kitchen and the bedrooms.

We're investigating movers right now, and I can see the fights between the wife and myself brewing  in the distance.

She's going to scream bloody murder about all the "junk" I have in the garage, and how she's not going to pay to move it, and I'm going to insist it goes.

I've already dumped several thousand dollars worth of perfectly usable stuff, and I'm down to "If I dump it I'll have to replace it" items like antennas, antenna rotators, sections of heavy gauge mast, and a bunch of other stuff that simply isn't available any longer.

Since escrow won't be closing until the end of September, I've made the decision to leave from Las Vegas after the "Supras in Vegas" event and head for Colorado. It'll be a long drive, but I can always overnight somewhere if I have to.

Hey, I did L.A. to Fort Collins in one shot carrying two wimmens and all their stuff, so "just me" in the Supra from Vegas to FTC should be a piece of cake!

But I'm not looking forward to the Great Garage Pack And Move, at all....

Documents Signed, Should Be "In Escrow" Early This Week

And now the waiting begins.....


And the packing.


I'll start going through the garage this week to see what I'm going to keep, what I'm going to sell, and what my wife will insist I throw away.


The big thing to sort will be all the car parts I have for the Supra. I have gaskets, hoses, belts, water pumps, tune-up parts, brake and clutch master cylinders, clutch slave cylinders, and a ton of other stuff. That stuff can get packed away for shipment, except for the belts and hoses. If I drive the car I'll take those with me. If I ship the car I'll stow them inside.


Radio gear, both in the house and the garage, will get packed for shipment, except for my little Elecraft K2, power supply, SignaLink, and portable antenna. I'll want to take those with me so I can get on-the-air at our temporary dwelling. And I'll take a VHF/UHF handie-talkie or two. The Jeep has a Kenwood TM-D710 in it, and that should be fine for checking into local nets and making some new Ham Radio friends. The radio also has a GPS receiver connected to it, so I'll be "trackable" using any of the APRS applications out there.


And I'll take my camera, a couple of laptops, and a suitcase full of clothes, including my N3B parka!


With the 45 day escrow ( ! ) the buyers insisted on, it looks like we'll be here through September. Our realtor told us the buyers should have all their funding in place after 21 days, so we might be able to push them a bit faster than 45 days, but that remains to be seen.

Counteroffer Accepted. Papers Get Signed Tomorrow, Sunday

At this point I think I can say the house is "sold".

Still have the inspections to do, which should happen in the next 10 days or so. I don't expect the inspections to find anything, except for the termite inspection. They ALWAYS find some termite "damage" that has to be repaired.

They wanted, and got, a 45 day escrow. Not sure why they couldn't do it any faster, but I'll talk to our agent when he comes by Sunday.

Negotiations In Progress! **Updated**

Well.....DUH!

I just  found out from my wife that we did get an offer from the nice young couple that came by Tuesday at 1800 to look at the house.

They've offered us the asking price, but our agent told them we have multiple offers (true, but one "offer" was a joke), and their agent told ours that they'd be willing to go "into the $520k range", which means that they just hit our target price.

My wife was visiting one of her friends the last few days, and our agent sent her some paper work which she electronically signed, and returned to him, and now he and the other agent are going to hammer out a few fine points to get to the final price and what contingencies are and aren't covered.

These buyers seemed to be extremely serious, they have $50k cash for a down payment, both grew up in this area, and have been out bid on the last three houses they made offers on.

I don't know what they're going to come back with as a counter to our counter (see your 20 and raise you 50), but if it's at or above $515k, we'll accept it, and then the clock starts running out for us to get moved.

They were asking for a 45 day escrow, and our agent said he'd try and get them to agree to a 30 day escrow, but that was about the only thing he didn't like about their initial offer.

So, (fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed) the house might very well be "under contract" next week.


UPDATE 

 We just heard from our realtor that the other realtor is going over our counter offer, and we should know something Saturday.