Journal Entries
The House-Hunting Saga - pt 3
Posted Jun 20, 2001
So, our dear friend Nancy was bitten by the Earthling Dream. Her apartment complex was sold and the new owners chose not to renew any leases. Needless to say, she wanted out and she wanted out quickly.
So, she spoke to one of the people that she works with. He had recently bought a house and she wanted to get the name and phone number of his realtor. She set up a meeting with this realtor and asked us to come along. (Basically just to keep her from buying the first place she saw.)
That's how we met Ren.
Ren took Nancy to see six condos that day. Many were nice, some were odd, but the thing that impressed us most was that he seemed pretty in tune to her wants and desires. If she said a place was too small, it was immediately taken off the list. When she found things she liked, he jotted down a note, but didn't pressure her into buying a place because she liked the carpet, or the windows, or any other insignificant part. This was something new and different for us: a no-pressure realtor. And we liked this alot.
So, after the day of looking at places with Ren and Nancy, we informed him that if he was able to help her and make her happy, we'd like to work with him. Naturally, this was something that he was happy to do.
At the time of this writing, Nancy is a week away from signing on her condo. (An apartment that is owned rather than rented.) And we are now working with Ren.
***
Our boss came into work one day, almost a montha go now and told me that the house next to him was up for sale. He wanted to take a look at it because its basement had been converted into an apartment and he was thinking of doing the same thing to his. Of course, he didn't feel comfortable enough with either the neighbor or the neighbor's realtor to just say that and walk in. He needed a cover story.
I was to be his cover story. He set up an appointment and the two of us drove over one day on our lunch. To tell the absolute truth, I wasn't expecting anything much. We'd walk in, he'd look at how the basement was set up, and we'd leave. Fate never quite works the way we expect it to.
The house turned out to be beautiful. It was brick and about 50 years old, but in absolutely wonderful condition, other than a cracked window or two. In short, I fell in love as soon as we walked in the front door. So, after getting back from lunch and telling Erik all about it, we decided to set up our own showing with Ren.
Erik fell in love too. It was everything that we were looking for. There was enough work in terms of painting and remodeling to keep us busy, but it was finished enough that only some of the work had to be done before we moved in. We decided to put in a bid on it.
We were the first people to put in an offer and the sellers seemed genuinely interested in selling it to us - at least at first. We wanted to take possession at the end of July. That way, we would not have to break our lease at our current apartment, but we would have plenty of time to move in. They asked to bump the date up to the beginning of July. this would mean that we would have to break our lease a full month early and incur a break-lease fee. Not good news to us.
The house continued to beckon, however, so we set ourselves an impossible task: close in two weeks, a week before the end of June. This meant that everything - inspections, approvals, appraisals, etc - had less than two weeks to be done. But we were willing to try. After all, this wasthe house we wanted to be The House.
That's when the trouble started. Not with us, but with them. Rather than allowing us to take possession on the 24th - which gave us nearly a week to do all the work necessary and move our volumes of stuff in - they wanted us to take possession on the 30th. At 4pm. Naturally, this isn't enough time for us to move in. We kept trying to get them to either push the deadline back, or help us pay our rent so that we could take all of July to move. They just wouldn't budge.
Finally, we had to just walk away. they, of course, tried to get us to come back. (After all, they wanted to be out by the end of June so that they didn't have two mortgages to pay.) But they just weren't willing to help us out.
So, the house that I thought was The House wasn't The House after all. And we're back to looking. There are several new candidates for The House, however, and I feel confident that we shall find it soon. The Earthling Dream is alive and well.
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Latest reply: Jun 20, 2001
Games 6 and 7 En Route to Perfection
Posted Jun 12, 2001
June 7, the Colorado Avalanche were a team possessed by one thought: If we don't win this game, not only is it the last game of the season but Ray Borque will never get to win his last game. Naturally, this was a great motivator.
At the beginning of the game, the Avs looked sluggish, almost as if they were giving into fate. The New Jersey Devils made several good attacks on the goal, but Patrick Roy, the winningest goalie of all times, was able to stop them all. The only puck to cross his goal line was disallowed because Scott Gomez of the Devils had kicked it over (something not allowed byt he National Hockey League). And then the miracle happened.
From the blue line, defenseman Adam Foote scored a goal.
This was the catalyst that the Avs were waiting for. Suddenly, that catapulted into action. Determined not to let the Devils have the Stanley Cup for the second time in as many years, the Avs played on to a 4-0 victory, assuring a Game 7 and the chance for them to win the Cup at home.
Saturday, June 9, must have dawned brighter than usualy for the Avs. The game started and they were on fire. The Devils, though, were not going to give up without a fight. Out-shooting the Avs in all three periods of play, they showed continued drive to win.
Unfortunately for them, their drive was for naught. With a 3-1 victory, the Avs clenched the series and claimed Lord Stanley's Cup for themselves.
Patrick Roy, after a wonderful season and an excellent series, won the Conn Smythe trophy for Most Valuable Player during the playoffs. Teammates all agreed that he deserved this honor. This was the third time he had won it - yet another record for the man who has now won more games and had more playoff shutouts than any other goalie ever.
In what was perhaps the most touching moment of an emotional season for the Avalanche, team captain Joe Sakic handed the Cup to Ray Borque. (Note: Generally the captain hoists the Cup for the first skate around the ice.) Eyes welling with well-deserved tears of joy. Borque hoisted the Cup above his head, then brought it down to kiss the sterling silver. This was the first time in a 22 year career that he had won the Cup and was able to touch it.
Congratulations, Ray.
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Latest reply: Jun 12, 2001
The House-Hunting Saga - pt 2
Posted Jun 8, 2001
So, the decision had been made. The great Earthling Dream was going to come true. It should be simple, right? Find the house, contact a lender and we would be on our way to bliss. Sadly, it never quite works out the way you think it should.
Being a happy child of the Internet age, I started my search on the web. Real estate sites abounded, some with good information some with not-so-good information. I found one that gave me the ability to search all of the available houses here in Denver.
During the first week, I probably fell in love no less than four times a day. I realized, in the deepest, darkest, most hidden even from me part of my heart that I needed to down a little and think this thing through.
The first thing that was going to present an issue was money. How much did we make and - knowing that - how much house could we afford? Once again, I turned to the computer and found calcilators galore that all told me different numbers and all claimed to be correct. This was, needless to say, confusing in the extreme. More specific help was needed.
This forced my hand. I called a realtor for the first time. This was a huge step for us, because it moved the whole affair from the theoretical to the practical. The realtor, a very nice lady named Cathy who was just starting out, put us in contact with her prefered lender, Ed. They did all they could at first to make us comfortable. That was until we went to look at houses.
Now, I am horrible at looking at houses. I can find parts of each house that I love desperately and don't want to give up the chance of. The first day that we went out, Cathy showed us six houses. And they were all very nice. The one that sticks out best in my mind, however was the one we refered to as The Clairemont House. (No terribly dramatic reason, I fear. It was just on Clairemont Drive.)
The Clairemont House had just been remodelled inside and out. Its shining wood floors and fresh paint seduced us. big windows and a beautiful fireplace lured us into a false sense of security. And we made the mistake of saying that we liked it.
I say mistake, because Cathy was then off and running, deciding that - even though we had told her it would be at least 3 months before we could really afford that house and we were just looking to get an idea of the neighborhoods that we liked - we had to move now and buy this house. Looking back, if we found the Clairemnt House today, we probably would have put in an offer. Then, however, it would ahve been disasterous.
We explained that to Cathy each time she called. (Once every half hour that night.) We explained it to Ed when Cathy had him call us. (Only twice that night.) Neither of them wanted to understand that we simply were not ready.
Needless to say, this first experience left us with a bad taste in our mouths. I didn't look at houses on the web for quite some time afterwards and Erik flat out refused to deal with realtors in general. This was all to change just a month ago when our friend decided to look for a condo.
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Latest reply: Jun 8, 2001
The House-Hunting Saga - pt 1
Posted Jun 6, 2001
Its known - to the ego-centric Americans at least - as the American Dream. There is little doubt in my mind that it is also the English Dream, the Australian Dream, the Egyptian Dream, etc. So, for the purposes of universal understanding, I'll just call it the Earthling Dream.
It began for me when I was young. Throughout my childhood, even though my family moved many times, we always had a certain control over our living space: we had pets, we could remodel or paint, we could plant what we wanted outside. Responsibilities naturally came with this - mowing the lawn, weeding, fixing the plumbing - but they were worth it for one simple reason: it was our *home*.
Since leaving for college many more years ago than I like to think, I have done without that freedom. In college proper we were not allowed to make any permanent changes to the dorm walls (to the point that thumb tacks were not allowed because they would leave holes) or to keep pets that "could not survive at least 24 hours submerged under water". Needless to say, this cramped my style.
Then we moved into an apartment just off campus. Sadly, although holes in the walls were allowed there, the other restrictions were just as strenuous. Keep the TV turned down, no visitors and don't even think about a pet of any kind.
Hope sprung briefly to life when we moved to Denver. Surely now we would be able to find a place to live with less draconian pet and remodeling policies. Perhaps we could even purchase our own place. (Ah, dream of my heart!) This, of course was not to be. Sadly, we found that apartment policies world wide - or at least through out the state of Colorado - were fairly universal on these points. Besides, the jobs that we managed to find were just barely enough to keep us from starving.
New jobs with substantial raises had us searching again for new living quarters just two years later. This search led us to the place we currently live: a nice, quiet apartment complex with many of the same problems of any other, but comfortable enough that the restrictions didn't bind as much.
Until recently, that is. Now, I have put my foot down. I will have my dream: a home of my own where animals frolic and no wall is an unimaginative white - unless it looks really good that way. And this dream - like so many others - is proving to be more work than I could ever have imagined. Is it worth it? Of course! And you, my friends, will be given the chance to see exactly how worth it my dream is.
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Latest reply: Jun 6, 2001
Blah....
Posted May 17, 2001
Ever had a day when everything seems to go against you and you just don't seem to have the energy to care? If so, what did you do to make it better? I just can't seem to today... 
G7
Discuss this Journal entry [25]
Latest reply: May 17, 2001
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