It's official. We are in contract. They accepted our offer. We are on our way to becoming homeowners. We still can't believe it. I spent most of the day on cloud 9. Things going wrong at work? OK! No problem! I wonder how long this high will last. Here's a link to a virtual tour of the house.
We're starting to put together many lists. Things we have to do (schedule meetings, give landlord notice, move money to get the down payment liquid, schedule a move, pack, etc.), things we want to do before moving into the house (refinish floors, buy a refrigerator, paint, etc.), and updating our estimated costs template (mortgage costs, renovation costs, closing costs.) I think that the next 30 days are going to fly by.
Today is a good day to buy a house. Laura and Alex put in an offer and got their offer accepted today on a house in Cincinnati. Pretty funny coincidence. We knew that they were househunting last weekend, but we didn't know that they had made an offer. They didn't know we made one either.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
We Won the Lottery!
Just kidding! Though we feel like we won the lottery. We went to see another house this past weekend and made an offer today. They countered on some of the terms (10 days instead of 14, etc.), but it looks like we are probably going to accept because nothing in the counter mentioned anything about changing the price. Yikes! We're not quite homeowners yet, but it does feel good to not be rejected- again.
We are definitely in the shocked, OMG-what-did-we-just-do phase. We didn't think that we would get accepted or even countered. Though we have started offering closer to the asking price versus some of our previous verbal offers were way below asking. There's still a lot that could go wrong, but so far, so good. We're hoping that the interest rate remains the same or lowers for us.
The house is a 2 bedroom 1 bath fixer. Most of the fixes are cosmetic- removing wall paper, refinishing the hardwood floors, and painting. But we will be renovating the kitchen and probably the bathroom at some point. The kitchen is currently useable, but we'll probably want to update it relatively soon. We have to buy a refrigerator, but that's pretty much the only appliance we will need to buy right away. The bathroom they just updated, but I almost wish that they hadn't because they used the cheapest materials and I want to update it sooner rather than later. We need to replace the furnace as well. Those are probably the biggest costs that we will have when we move in. Wish us luck!
We are definitely in the shocked, OMG-what-did-we-just-do phase. We didn't think that we would get accepted or even countered. Though we have started offering closer to the asking price versus some of our previous verbal offers were way below asking. There's still a lot that could go wrong, but so far, so good. We're hoping that the interest rate remains the same or lowers for us.
The house is a 2 bedroom 1 bath fixer. Most of the fixes are cosmetic- removing wall paper, refinishing the hardwood floors, and painting. But we will be renovating the kitchen and probably the bathroom at some point. The kitchen is currently useable, but we'll probably want to update it relatively soon. We have to buy a refrigerator, but that's pretty much the only appliance we will need to buy right away. The bathroom they just updated, but I almost wish that they hadn't because they used the cheapest materials and I want to update it sooner rather than later. We need to replace the furnace as well. Those are probably the biggest costs that we will have when we move in. Wish us luck!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Still Homeless
We didn't get the house. Apparently one of the other offers decided to offer over asking. We offered asking. It's disappointing, but that's just how it goes. My coworker was telling me that he made 9 offers before he got one accepted in LA. Crazy. Guess that means that we just get to save more money.
Monday, July 23, 2007
The Suspense is Killing Me!
So we went house hunting yesterday. We found a few houses that we were interested in. We actually made our frst official offer tonight. This house is in Alameda and is near one of the best schools in Alameda. It's a bedroom 1.5 bath with a big deck off the back. The biggest drawback is that it is on a busy street. The noise is not really that bad and they have double-paned windows on the only bedroom facing the street. We wouldn't really need to do too many renovations and it has an extra "room" in the basement with a half bath. Most of the places we have seen only have 1 bath and we would need to do a lot of extra renovations. I'm really nervous. We were told when we saw the house yesterday that they already received an offer from someone on Friday that had just lost a bidding war on another house. We found out today that they received another offer today, so the seller has 3 offers on a house that went on the market less than a week ago.
This is the first time that a buyer has ever written a letter about themselves and it sounded like the owner is a single mom with daughter who is moving out of California. Since she wrote a letter about her experience living in the house, I wrote one about us. I basically told her that we just got married in October and that we have lived in our apartment for over 5 years (longer than she's owned her home.) If this works, I'll let you know. So we left a message with the selling agent that we would send the preapproval letter tomorrow morning and send a deposit check. She confirmed that she received our offer and asked that we send in the preapproval letter and check in the morning. I'm taking that as good news because if our offer was too low, they would have said, "Don't bother," right? We think that the other offers might be higher, but I'm hoping the fact that we don't have a contingency to sell a current house will help our offer. I guess you never know around here. If we get this house, it will be a small miracle. Guess we'll find out in the next 48 hours.
I have so much nervous energy! I was talking to my coworker and he said that the house hunting is the fun part. He said that selling the house is the worst because you are just waiting for someone else to make an offer. Well, the owner of the house we just made an offer on doesn't seem to have too much trouble... 3 offers in less than 4 days. Please pray for us and cross your fingers! And if you know of a woman who lives in Alameda with her daughter who is moving out of state, please put in a good word for us!
This is the first time that a buyer has ever written a letter about themselves and it sounded like the owner is a single mom with daughter who is moving out of California. Since she wrote a letter about her experience living in the house, I wrote one about us. I basically told her that we just got married in October and that we have lived in our apartment for over 5 years (longer than she's owned her home.) If this works, I'll let you know. So we left a message with the selling agent that we would send the preapproval letter tomorrow morning and send a deposit check. She confirmed that she received our offer and asked that we send in the preapproval letter and check in the morning. I'm taking that as good news because if our offer was too low, they would have said, "Don't bother," right? We think that the other offers might be higher, but I'm hoping the fact that we don't have a contingency to sell a current house will help our offer. I guess you never know around here. If we get this house, it will be a small miracle. Guess we'll find out in the next 48 hours.
I have so much nervous energy! I was talking to my coworker and he said that the house hunting is the fun part. He said that selling the house is the worst because you are just waiting for someone else to make an offer. Well, the owner of the house we just made an offer on doesn't seem to have too much trouble... 3 offers in less than 4 days. Please pray for us and cross your fingers! And if you know of a woman who lives in Alameda with her daughter who is moving out of state, please put in a good word for us!
Friday, July 20, 2007
More Important Things than Work
So work lately has been a drag. I've been working at night and I worked last weekend. I'm not working this weekend. I'm on strike. Don't know what we're doing this weekend, but I'm not working!
So we have been watching HGTV everyday for the past few months because our Tivo hard drive died. We have even talked about applying to be on one of the shows when we finally buy a house. Well, imagine my surprise when I started watching "Get it Together" and I recognize one of the people on the show. I used to work with this guy named Dylan at GlobalNetXchange and he and his wife were getting their house renovated on TV. What a small world. I'll have to see if I can find his contact information...
Happy belated birthday to Dad. (It was yesterday.) Their anniversary is om Monday, so I guess my parents will be celebrating this weekend. Speaking of anniversaries, we've been thinking about how to celebrate our first anniversary in October. I think that we will be traveling, but where? We're toying with the idea of going on a cruise to Mexico. We'll see.
I just heard that my grandmother had surgery today. Some of you may know that my grandmother has cancer and has been in chemo since February. She's been doing really well, so we thought that the worst was over. Because she was doing well, they decided to try and remove more of the cancer, but when they openned her up, they saw that the cancer had spread to her liver. They are going to give her more chemo, but it looks like they can't get rid of it and it won't prolong her life. Since my grandparents moved to LA last year, I've had the chance to visit my grandmother at least 5 times this year. I'm really glad that I have had the extra time to spend with her. I'll probably be going to LA a few more times this year. Please pray for grandma to enjoy the rest of her time and that she still doesn't have any side effects to the new chemotherapy. It just reminds me that there are so many more important things than work.
So we have been watching HGTV everyday for the past few months because our Tivo hard drive died. We have even talked about applying to be on one of the shows when we finally buy a house. Well, imagine my surprise when I started watching "Get it Together" and I recognize one of the people on the show. I used to work with this guy named Dylan at GlobalNetXchange and he and his wife were getting their house renovated on TV. What a small world. I'll have to see if I can find his contact information...
Happy belated birthday to Dad. (It was yesterday.) Their anniversary is om Monday, so I guess my parents will be celebrating this weekend. Speaking of anniversaries, we've been thinking about how to celebrate our first anniversary in October. I think that we will be traveling, but where? We're toying with the idea of going on a cruise to Mexico. We'll see.
I just heard that my grandmother had surgery today. Some of you may know that my grandmother has cancer and has been in chemo since February. She's been doing really well, so we thought that the worst was over. Because she was doing well, they decided to try and remove more of the cancer, but when they openned her up, they saw that the cancer had spread to her liver. They are going to give her more chemo, but it looks like they can't get rid of it and it won't prolong her life. Since my grandparents moved to LA last year, I've had the chance to visit my grandmother at least 5 times this year. I'm really glad that I have had the extra time to spend with her. I'll probably be going to LA a few more times this year. Please pray for grandma to enjoy the rest of her time and that she still doesn't have any side effects to the new chemotherapy. It just reminds me that there are so many more important things than work.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Bowling for Dollars
So I am totally excited to use the new polling function in Blogger. I know, I'm a geek. I haven't decided what I want to poll on yet, but as a market researcher, it's kind of fun.
This weekend, we went bowling at Sea Bowl with some friends. It was fun, but my bowling is terribly inconsistent. In my first game, I had 3 strikes. Unfortunately, every time I got a strike, I got a gutter ball (and a second ball that wasn't much better) which gave me a score of 81. How do you have 3 strikes and only a score of 81? A lot of gutter balls, that's how. My second game I had only 2 strikes, but I managed to not gutter all my other frames, so I ended with a 88. Edwin got the high score of the night with 153.
Today, we had brunch at Ella's with Mike, Michelle, Chris, and Corinne. It was fun catching up with our newlywed friends. Good food, good friends, what more can you ask for? Maybe a longer weekend? This weekend went by too fast. Probably because I also spent it working on both days. I try my best not to work at all on the weekend, so when I have to work both days, I get a little cranky. I think that I will be ending work a little early this week to reward myself.
Not too much to report on the housing front. It's actually been kind of quiet lately. Not too many houses coming onto the market. So we are kind of just waiting. We've seen a couple of houses, but nothing too interesting, so we're just saving our pennies for that down payment...
This weekend, we went bowling at Sea Bowl with some friends. It was fun, but my bowling is terribly inconsistent. In my first game, I had 3 strikes. Unfortunately, every time I got a strike, I got a gutter ball (and a second ball that wasn't much better) which gave me a score of 81. How do you have 3 strikes and only a score of 81? A lot of gutter balls, that's how. My second game I had only 2 strikes, but I managed to not gutter all my other frames, so I ended with a 88. Edwin got the high score of the night with 153.
Today, we had brunch at Ella's with Mike, Michelle, Chris, and Corinne. It was fun catching up with our newlywed friends. Good food, good friends, what more can you ask for? Maybe a longer weekend? This weekend went by too fast. Probably because I also spent it working on both days. I try my best not to work at all on the weekend, so when I have to work both days, I get a little cranky. I think that I will be ending work a little early this week to reward myself.
Not too much to report on the housing front. It's actually been kind of quiet lately. Not too many houses coming onto the market. So we are kind of just waiting. We've seen a couple of houses, but nothing too interesting, so we're just saving our pennies for that down payment...
Friday, July 13, 2007
Perfectly Portland
So I am in Portland right now for work. Work this week is sucking, but being in Portland is making things a lot better. We came out here last year with the Banerjees and the Schneiders for vacation. I kept seeing the areas that we visited and it made me nostalgic. My flight was delayed an hour and I got a seat in the back of the plane in the middle seat. (I always request the front of the plane by the window.) Our crackerjack travel agents didn't provide my membership numbers for my car or hotel (even though it's on file.) I guess I shouldn't complain since they "forgot" to purchase my plane ticket on a previous trip which caused me to receive "extra" security screening since I was purchasing my ticket the same day. I can't believe that there are people out there who still use travel agents.
Anyway, even they can't ruin my experience out here in Portland. When I arrived at the Marriot, they put me on the 19th floor (it's a 20 floor building) and gave me access to the concierge floor. I think that they must have confused me with someone with status or something. I went up to the concierge floor to print out my boarding ticket for the next day and it was so nice. They had out desserts and water bottles with a view overlooking downtown Portland. Very nice. For dinner, I asked the front desk for sushi recommendations and they pointed me to a place around the block. It was the best sushi that I have had since I ate at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. I loved it. It's called Koji. When I walked in, I got seated at the sushi bar.
I was sitting by myself and I noticed that there were 3 other people seated around me who were eating by themselves. It reminded me of grade school when you never wanted to sit alone in the cafeteria. I wonder when we decide that it's OK to eat by ourselves. I didn't bring any reading material and though I usually talk on the phone when I am eating alone, I was just happy to relax and ponder my thoughts as I sat by myself. I ordered the Deluxe Assorted Sushi and the quality was just phenomenal for the price. The fish was so fresh and tasty. I wanted more when I finished. I wish that they were in CA, but alas, they are only in OR and Seattle. My bill was $24 and I gave them a $6 tip because I was so happy. (I figured I am expensing it anyway, so why not reward someone else when I can?) I'm thinking about coming back to pick up some food for lunch tomorrow before my flight...
After dinner, I decided to walk a block to the Pioneer Square which is essentially downtown Portland. I sat in the public open space and just people watched for a while. The weather is a nice and warm 80 degrees and it was still light out at 8:30PM and there were people everywhere. It made me think about impressions of a city. You know- when you visit a city, it evokes emotions about how you feel about that city. There's usually nothing specific- just a lot of little things that add to your overall experience. For instance, Portland will always be one of the cities that I can go back to. I will always enjoy being in Portland. It's just so pleasant. You can walk around, the weather is nice, the views are great and hilly, and the people are so friendly. (I am visiting 2 clients here and they both independently offered to pick me up from the airport. Who does that?) I feel that way about Chicago, Boston, parts of Italy, Seattle- these are just places I love to visit. I think that most people know how I feel about NYC- fun to visit, but dirty and too expensive. LA is too spread out. Atlanta is too hot. Portland is just great. I kept remembering little things like how I was chasing Maika up and down the escalators by the rental car counters, walking into the Nordstroms and buying the shoes I wore during the wedding (tax free!), walking by the Rite-Aid where Kaori and Jamie bought Pooh-San (a stuffed Winne-the-Pooh since they forgot to bring Usachan- Maika's stuffed rabbit that she sleeps with every night), driving by the Four Points hotel where we stayed, and the Jessica McClintock store that Matilde and I went to go shopping for bridesmaid dresses. (Binh, you're just going to say I told you so because you always told me how great it is.)
Alrighty, got to get to bed, but before I go, I gotta give a shout out to Kathy- Happy Birthday, girlfriend. So when you take a break from chasing Owen to read this, I was thinking of you even though we haven't talked/emailed in a while.
Anyway, even they can't ruin my experience out here in Portland. When I arrived at the Marriot, they put me on the 19th floor (it's a 20 floor building) and gave me access to the concierge floor. I think that they must have confused me with someone with status or something. I went up to the concierge floor to print out my boarding ticket for the next day and it was so nice. They had out desserts and water bottles with a view overlooking downtown Portland. Very nice. For dinner, I asked the front desk for sushi recommendations and they pointed me to a place around the block. It was the best sushi that I have had since I ate at the Tsukiji market in Tokyo. I loved it. It's called Koji. When I walked in, I got seated at the sushi bar.
I was sitting by myself and I noticed that there were 3 other people seated around me who were eating by themselves. It reminded me of grade school when you never wanted to sit alone in the cafeteria. I wonder when we decide that it's OK to eat by ourselves. I didn't bring any reading material and though I usually talk on the phone when I am eating alone, I was just happy to relax and ponder my thoughts as I sat by myself. I ordered the Deluxe Assorted Sushi and the quality was just phenomenal for the price. The fish was so fresh and tasty. I wanted more when I finished. I wish that they were in CA, but alas, they are only in OR and Seattle. My bill was $24 and I gave them a $6 tip because I was so happy. (I figured I am expensing it anyway, so why not reward someone else when I can?) I'm thinking about coming back to pick up some food for lunch tomorrow before my flight...
After dinner, I decided to walk a block to the Pioneer Square which is essentially downtown Portland. I sat in the public open space and just people watched for a while. The weather is a nice and warm 80 degrees and it was still light out at 8:30PM and there were people everywhere. It made me think about impressions of a city. You know- when you visit a city, it evokes emotions about how you feel about that city. There's usually nothing specific- just a lot of little things that add to your overall experience. For instance, Portland will always be one of the cities that I can go back to. I will always enjoy being in Portland. It's just so pleasant. You can walk around, the weather is nice, the views are great and hilly, and the people are so friendly. (I am visiting 2 clients here and they both independently offered to pick me up from the airport. Who does that?) I feel that way about Chicago, Boston, parts of Italy, Seattle- these are just places I love to visit. I think that most people know how I feel about NYC- fun to visit, but dirty and too expensive. LA is too spread out. Atlanta is too hot. Portland is just great. I kept remembering little things like how I was chasing Maika up and down the escalators by the rental car counters, walking into the Nordstroms and buying the shoes I wore during the wedding (tax free!), walking by the Rite-Aid where Kaori and Jamie bought Pooh-San (a stuffed Winne-the-Pooh since they forgot to bring Usachan- Maika's stuffed rabbit that she sleeps with every night), driving by the Four Points hotel where we stayed, and the Jessica McClintock store that Matilde and I went to go shopping for bridesmaid dresses. (Binh, you're just going to say I told you so because you always told me how great it is.)
Alrighty, got to get to bed, but before I go, I gotta give a shout out to Kathy- Happy Birthday, girlfriend. So when you take a break from chasing Owen to read this, I was thinking of you even though we haven't talked/emailed in a while.
Monday, July 09, 2007
More Adventures in LA
So we were in LA this past extended weekend. We spent most of the time with family and eating. A lot. We also got to see what it was like for an afternoon with triplets running around on the playground. One of Edwin's friends from high school, Keith, has triplets and we accompanied him to the park with the 3 almost 3-year-olds. We were just flomoxed. Lori, Nicole, and Jeff run in all different directions, so we don't know how Keith and his wife keep their sanity. God bless them! Here's a photo of Keith and his kids in the park on the top left. We also go to see Char and Tom with their cute kids, Annette and William.
I also took my parents to Santa Monica to walk around. I can't believe that it has already been 9 years since I was working there. I had a hard time remembering where stuff was. I wonder if I had had a blog at that time, would it have helped? Probably not. Here are pics from the pier. 
We also stopped at Universal Studios. We thought about going in until we saw the price tag- $70! I remember thinking that $35 was expensive. Since we had already been there (20 years ago...) we decided not to visit again. Geez- for a family of 4, that would be $280. No wonder people don't go anymore!
We also stopped at Universal Studios. We thought about going in until we saw the price tag- $70! I remember thinking that $35 was expensive. Since we had already been there (20 years ago...) we decided not to visit again. Geez- for a family of 4, that would be $280. No wonder people don't go anymore!
So Laura called me yesterday with news that Hannah said that she was getting married. I asked who she was getting married to and Hannah replied, "Uncle Edwin!" Ha ha! Good luck! It took me 8 years to get him to marry me, so if she gets started on him right now, she should be 11 by the time he's ready. She said that I was invited and I told her I would definitely be there! Now why does she want to get married? She wants a little sister. I guess having a little brother wasn't enough. It is now 7:30 and I am still at work. Am I working hard you ask? No. I am baby-sitting an antiquated system that takes hours to request a report. Seriously, it looks like it was programmed in the 70s. If our clients only knew that these "sophisticated" systems are held together by glue and duct tape. Anyhow, no news on the housing front. There haven't been that many houses coming onto the market in the past 2 weeks, but we're hoping that it was just the holidays that slowed it down.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Happy 4th of July in LA
So we're leaving for LA tomorrow for an extended weekend. Since our last foray into the Bay Area housing market, we are taking a short break. It wasn't really a decision to not look, but there hasn't really been anything we were interested in seeing in the past week and since we are leaving for the holiday, we won't be looking at anything for probably another week at least.
I started organizing some of the photos that we have so if you want to look at a few of the archives, I have added some pics from our travels since Feb. It's been a while since we took the pics off the camera. It's so easy with digital now that we don't even really bother to print photos anymore. I keep thinking that we should print some of the photos from the wedding and start organizing photo albums. I can't believe that it has already been 8 months since the wedding!
I started organizing some of the photos that we have so if you want to look at a few of the archives, I have added some pics from our travels since Feb. It's been a while since we took the pics off the camera. It's so easy with digital now that we don't even really bother to print photos anymore. I keep thinking that we should print some of the photos from the wedding and start organizing photo albums. I can't believe that it has already been 8 months since the wedding!
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