New Blog Address

Well hopefully this will be the last change. I have a new address and new software for this blog. I am now hosing it myself, at my own new domain. The new address is

http://christopher-stone.com

Home buyers class

Well today we are heading to Portland for out 2 day long class on buying out first home. Wonder if they will teach us a trick for dealing with the frustration of waiting 5 months lol. We got a hotel in Portland so we don't have to drive down 2 days in a row. Kinda like a mini vaca.


-- Post From My iPhone

Should have seen this coming.

Well like the title said...i should have seen this coming, it was all going so smoothly. Yesterday morning we received a call from the realtor who said that someone in this whole process found out that there is another problem with the title on the house. I don't remember the details but its something to do with a parcel of land from 40 yrs ago. As it stands now its doubtful that we will close on the date i posted. Who knows when it will be now, and I am starting to wonder if this isn't just a sign and we should walk away, I keep trying to tell myself that the best things are worth waiting for. It just depends on how long we have to wait.

Who knows what will happen now but I will keep this updated when I know more.

Another blog.

I have been doing some looking around and searching other websites for other bloggers like me. I am just looking for more people doing home improvements to see how they are doing them, maybe get some ideas/tips and so on. One I ran accross is Build my first home which is on the same ideas as mine. He has tons of pics of each phase of construction he is doing. If anyone is interested its worth checking out.

G.ho.st

I was sent a referrals link to this service which is an online virtual computer. Weird concept but most are when they are new. This thing lets you emulate a desktop, some programs and a web browser. Most of the programs are link and things to other services online but this integrates it into your virtual computer. For example I added my user name and pass for Google Docs, and they showed up in a folder so I could edit them directly. I am still playing with it and if I notice anything more interesting I will be sure to post it. If you are interested in checking it out click the link below. By doing the referral below we both (i believe) will get an extra 5gig of space.

Get G.ho.st

Finally!!!!!

Well this is an exciting post and with it there will be more to come. We finally have a closing date kinda. Let me explain. The bank came back and set a closing date of Sept. 4th, however we still have the appraisal to do which may take a little while so we signed the papers and said we wanna do the 10th. So it shouldn't be a problem to do it on the 10th. We are starting to get things lined up for repairs on the furnace ASAP, along with picking out colors for the bedroom which will be the first room we tackle. We are also pricing out materials for the bedroom and deciding on which route we want to go in terms of flooring, windows, etc. Yesterday we got a lot done while browsing Home Depot. We are going to go with carpet for the bedroom, the colors will be a light blue called Blue Reflection and a darker blue called China Pattern. Both are BEHR paint which we are going to be using. From what I have heard BEHR is a good paint that you have to go light on and it enough.

I will be posing more details as we figure more out and after we start the work I will post pics of the furnace and links to other stuff. Until next post.

MagicJack

So yesterday I went out and bought a MagicJack to use as our land line when we move into our new house. The setup was a breeze and within a few minutes I had a dial tone and was able to make and receive calls. I did some more testing this morning and the clarity was very good for the price just around $30 and about 20 per year for unlimited calls and long distance. The only down side so far is that since its VOIP or Voice Over IP it does have a pretty good lag on it but for the price it is a worth while trade off if you want a land line as a backup. I would not recommend it if you wanted to use your land line as a primary phone, but if you have a cell phone and want the convince of a land line once and a while it is a great solution.

As for the house situation, we are waiting to take our first time home buyers class at the end of the month. We are assuming the bank is waiting to set a closing date till after that class. Until then it seems to be a waiting game. Heather has been pricing out supplies to re-do the bedroom as our first room when we get in there. I may go to Home Depot to get some color swatches so we can go over colors tonight. If anyone has yet to see the pics of the house click Here to see them. Until next time.

Heating Quotes

So today we had a second person look at the plumbing and heating in the house. He is going to give us a quote so we can compare with our first and see if they are in the same ballpark. The first quote we are hoping is detailed enough for our bank, and hopefully it will get the ball rolling on the next step of this house.

In preparation for the house we have been getting some cheap materials from Heathers family which will get us started. Some stuff we have and are getting are paint, tiles, tools and insulation that is used under vinyl siding.

On another note, today was just a slow day. I ended up going to Auburn and to the AT&T Store to get a new Sim card. I have been having some signal problems in Waterville. I am hoping they will clear up in the next few days.

Finally Some Updates

Well alot has happened in the recent week. For starters the selling bank for our house came back and signed the agreement on our price for the house. This is the thing we have been waiting to finalize for like 4 months, ever since we submitted our bid April 1st.

I am in the process of getting a quote for our bank for the furnace repairs which will be part of our loan. Once I have this, then the bank can start the appraisal process which will lead to the new closing date soon. At least that's the theory. The new closing date will be at least after September 1st because Heather and I have to take a class on firs time home buyers for the new type of loan we are doing. So cross your fingers for a September closing and move-in to the new house.

As far as wedding announcements go. We pretty much decided on a reception place which hopefully will be the Waterville Country Club with the Waterville Legion as the backup. The reason I say this is because the Country Club will not book us until January. We may put a deposit on the Legion just encase. So far we have the Chapel, reception, some colors, guest list, and a few other odds and ends done. Still alot to do. Heather will also be looking at dresses in the upcoming weeks.

Another thing is my dad is adding wedding favors to his site MaineGoodies, check out http://www.mainegoodies.com and I believe at the top of the page is wedding favors.

Its been too long.

Well its been way to long since I last blogged. I need to get in the habit of doing this more often. Its just that lately there has not been a whole lot to blog about especially in respect to the house. However the other day we heard that the reason the bank has not signed any papers is due to the fact that there is a problem with the title. What that is we don't yet know, or how long it will take to figure out. That being said, it sounds like they are agreeing to our price. If they haven't said no and are working on the title one could argue that they have agreed.

On another note, I bought myself a new toy a little while ago. The iPhone 3gs, for anyone who has played with an iPhone or has one it is awesome. The 3gs is no exception it is better than ever. With this new phone comes a new phone number (I didn't want to wait for a day or so for my old number to switch over ;) )

On top of that, I received my Google Voice invite, which means my new number is (for now) 1-207-518-8048 if I ever get a home phone, this number will ring both my cell and the home phone. If you want to learn anything more about it check out http://voice.google.com also you can send txt's to that number too.

I will put a "Call me" button on the side of my blog which will (when clicked) call your phone, and then connect you to me. Its pretty cool but I am still learning about it. Give me a call and we can try it out :)

That's about it for now. Hope to blog more soon.

Humm...

Well the bank is still making us do stupid stuff, they have not given us an answer on weather or not they will give us the money off to fix the furnace. We have extended the contract till the end of the month. Hopefully that will be enough time. 

This is starting to get frustrating and we both just want to be in our house. :(

House

Well the house is going slow. We found out during an inspection that the furnace needs to be replaced, along with most of the piping due to the fact that it was not winterized as they said it was. We have 2 quotes so far. The first is what it will actually cost to fix, the second is from Houles which we knew would be expensive but gave us a worst case figure and one to bring to the bank. The bank took a week to get back to us and said basically they did not want to pay it and said to get a second quote. That will take place tomorrow morning. We are hoping the bank will give us at least half of the quote which should be sufficient to do the repairs.

Been a long process so far but hopefully everything will fall into place soon.

blueberry hill

I know it's been a while since I last posted but I will update you all soon. Today heather and I are at blueberry hill it's a spot outside Oakland that overlooks the Belgrade lakes region. It's a great spot and we are grilling and relaxing I hope to post more later tonight

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Alot going on.

Well I haven't posted in a while and there are alot of updates going on as of now. For starters we are under contract on the house as of Wednesday. However not to get all your hopes up we have found some major problems with the house and are considering options at the moment.

We had a heating/plumbing guy look at the house on Thursday. The result of that inspection is that easily put, the entire heating system needs to be replaced. The house was not winterized as we had previously thought, while doing the inspection a few pipes were leaking water (not a great sign) as well as the furnace appears to be falling apart from the inside out. A few of the pipes just fell apart when touched. There are also some busted pipes in the upstairs baseboard. Our initial estimate on fixing it all is $8,000. Which some may not need to be done right away. We were planing on leaving the upstairs alone for the time being which means it wouldn't need to be done right away. The upside to all this is that if we were to buy and fix the heating, our oil would (theoretically) be alot less then not doing it, just because of a newer and more efficient furnace. Also there is a tax credit for installing a new one (need more details on if the one quoted would qualify). 

So all in all there are alot of pros/cons to weigh. We have until the 20th to make up our mind if we want to stay in contract or back out as a result of this. We are considering re submitting a bid and starting from scratch on the price of the house. We are continuing to look around and we will see how it goes. 

House Update

Well today we went into the house again and did a few more measurements. We learned that the contract that we signed had to be sent to California to be signed and then returned. So assuming they mailed it, it would be at least 6-7 days minimum to get back to us. Its been a little over a week now I believe which means that it should be any day now.

We found a few breaks in the baseboard heating after we inspected it. The electricity is turned on but shut off at the breakers the realator did not want us to turn it on without an inspector present just incase anything something happened when we did. The water is supose to be on but is shut off also in the house, most likly due to the baseboard breaks and or any other busted pipes which we should find out about during the inspection.

Today we are having a friend from work over as well as Holly (Heather's Friend) to have a BBQ and chill. We have been starting to pack and and slowly get the stuff we dont use daily into boxes and packing them up in a corner of the apartment. We should have the house within about a month, then we will have another month to move and get settled in. I have a vacation June 18th through the 25th I think so I would like to be moved in by then.

Thats about it for now...

(Click to make bigger)

Enjoy this pic, Old Orchard Beach at Sunrise. Out of all the pics we took this was by far the best one. We were so tired at this point we actually left like 20min before the sun actually came up, we had been standing in the cold wind for a little over an hour and being tired and freezing we decided to call this close enough to watching the sunrise. Let me know what you think.

You all will never guess what we saw while driving in the Portland area. We were driving down I think it was Commercial Ave in the Old Port and out of no where we hear screeching tires and this guy coming toward us veers to turn and just runs into a guard rail. We were like no way, then a cop behind us turned on his lights. We are thinking wow bad luck for him. Then as we are just slowly driving away I turn my head and see him getting out and starts running from the cop....I am like no way (again, lol). We are going slow so we see all this within a matter of seconds. The guy doesn't get far and just as we are almost out of sight 5 more cops come out of nowhere all lights on from every side street around. They were everywhere. The cops actually get this guy to the ground, we turned around thinking maybe the cops wanted a wittiness. We waited to talk to them until they had the guy in the cop car and everything settled down. The cop said "So, all you witnessed was the accident?" Which leads me to believe my earlier thought that they were already looking for him when he crashed, hence the fact that 5 cops came out within seconds. Really it was so quick that the first cop couldn't have even had time to radio in where he was or what was going on, and how many cops cant handle a simple accident. If anyone hears about this in the news please let me know.

On the Road!

This is my first blog on the road. Heather and I are driving to Cape Elizabeth to chill in the car for the night and watch the sunrise. This was a pretty random idea I had this morning. We both have tomorrow off and figured we would do something different. I will post some pictures when we get home, hopefully they will be good ones. :) Until then....

Random updates

Ok, so the bank has not signed the contract yet. However, there was a page we forgot to initial. That isn't bad news tho. They are already working on the house. From what we have heard they have turned on the electricity and are working on the water. We have an inspection scheduled for Tuesday if they have finished by then. I am assuming we will be under contract next week sometime.

Now for something besides the house. Today Heather and I are off to a wedding in Waterville. Its around 3:00 altho I will not be staying long, I have been pretty sick the last few days. Yesterday I was running a fever at work, but I held in there :). I have litterly had to drag myself through the last few days to keep from crashing. I am just looking forward to my vacation in June, A whole week off.

On another note, Heather has informed all her brides mades about the wedding, so that's one detail that's done. I have found someone to be the DJ, so that's another detail done. We are not sure where we are going to have it at the moment. I don't think it will be at the house. I will keep everyone informed as to where it will be.

That's all for now, till my next update. :)

Update

Well today was the day we were suppose to be under contract on the new house. However, the paperwork from the bank did not arrive at the realtor. So, we had to fill out a new bid with the details that we had already agreed on. The next step is for them to send the bid back signed, then we sign and its at that point we will officially be under contract.

After we are under contract with the house, the next step is getting an inspector to check out the house. We will have 5 or 10 days (I don't remember exactly) after the bank says that all the utilities are up and running to get our inspection done. This is the last step that will really determine if we are really going to take the house. Hopefully there will not be any major problems that we are not aware of.

Well, that's where we are at right now. More updates to come.

Good News!

Well after waiting for what seems like forever, we finally heard back from the bank...and not to bore you with the details it looks like we are getting the house. After a few back and forth counter offers, over a few minor details. We will be under contract as of Monday.

What happens then is that the bank will bring someone in to make sure all the utilities are all in working order. After that we will have an inspection done and its at that point we will actually know if we are gonna take the house. A few things depend on the inspection. So, for now its good news and I will keep everyone up to date as we progress through all this. If all goes well the new closing date will be June 5th I believe.

No word yet...

We are still waiting to hear something from the bank. I don't understand why its taking so long for this last detail. They were very quick to counter our offers the first and second time.

On another note, the wedding date has changed... It is now May 15th, 2010 or (5/15/10). So re-mark it in your calendars :)

When we hear anything on either subjects I will post it asap.

Update

OK, So as promised this is an update on the house. As of now, we are waiting to hear back from the bank for the last time over one last detail, basically I am pretty sure we are getting the house. The closing date will be near the end of May which is one month before our lease runs out at our apartment so we will most likely end up paying for the last month here and have a month to move our stuff slowly. Which is a good thing because the last few times I have moved it as been rushed over a day or two. I updated the pictures of the house when I went in a second time, so there are a few more, the address is here.

I am expecting to hear back from the bank early next week. At that point the bank has agreed to get all the utilities up and working. After that we have 10 days to get our general inspection done. We will see if everything is working to our satisfaction.

Thanks to my mom and dad, we already have a washer and dryer for when we move in which is awesome! We will be buying a fridge fairly soon after we move in, so if anyone knows of a free or cheap on please let me know :) I will update you all as soon as we hear back from the bank.

Its looking up!

Well to start this, the bank countered our offer...and the good news its within reason. We re-countered just for good measure but its looking up as of now. We have bank meetings tomorrow, a second viewing setup for myself and a guy I know who does heating and plumbing to give us an idea of the condition of the furnace and plumbing situation.

I am off to bed but will finish this update sometime soon.

And it goes on...

Well our realtor was going to place our bid yesterday however we received a call from her saying that she talked to the selling realtor and he mentioned that there may be some busted pipes. Not sure if that's pluming or heating. If this is the case, it will probably have to be fixed before we close on the house due to the loan.

Our bid is low enough that we hope we can put some money into the house right off. There are many projects to fix up in the house, but the structure of the house is pretty solid which we both like. Anything beyond that we should be able to deal with over time.

Today however we heard back from the bank which, come to find out, has 2 other offers on it already (didn't know that earlier) and the bank said to come back with the best offer from each person, so we talked and upped our offer a little. I am hoping to hear back sometime next week.

I am crossing my fingers and trying not to get discouraged. I know we will find something eventually and it will be the right one. I just hope it comes sooner than later.

New House

well since I had the day off today, I looked around on realtor.com and found a few potentials. One of which we ended up placing a bid on today. I uploaded the pics I took of it to picasaweb. Check it out and let me know what you guys think. We are hoping to hear back by early next week.

Its very spacious with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, on .34 acres.
It has a very large living room with hard wood floors, and tons of windows.

Disapointing...

So, we heard back from the bank today and unfortunately they countered our offer with one that is kinda unreasonable for a foreclosure. So, the search continues for now while we also waiting and hoping the bank will lower the price.

There is one duplex in Vassalboro which is not even on the market yet. I am going to give the guy a call tomorrow and see where exactly it is and probably drive by and give it a look. Either way we will find something eventualy, keep your fingers crossed for us. :)

Waiting

Well we are still waiting to hear back from the bank as to if they will accept our offer, hopefully it will be next week.

As for the wedding we went to strictly formal the other day and started to figure out colors. So far we think we have decided on a hunter green for me and my best men. Heather is thinking about a two tone peach for the women, not a big fan of peach but I may be ok with it.

Coming togeather

Our original thoughts were that after we placed the bid it would take roughly a week to hear back from the bank but from what we were told today we could hear back very soon. Most likely tomorrow, which will be awesome. I will try to stay up to date with all the news. :)

Getting Ready

Well today was the day we meet with the bank. We got a pre-approval letter which we are giving to the realtor later today to make an official bid on the house. Hopefully before too long we will be living there. :)

We also drove by a few more houses just to keep our eyes open on other possibilities. The two we looked at had more problems than benefits. We are going to keep our eyes open but hopefully the one in Winslow will work out as we are planning.

Possible New House

wanted to throw out a pic of the house Heather and I are looking at currently. Its on .7 acres of land in Winslow.

Engaged!

I proposed to Heather Thursday night! For anyone who wants the details it was in a candle lit bubble bath after a nice massage. The ring was put on a piece of cheese cake. We have now set a date of May 23, 2010 (5/23/10). I am sure there will be tons to do so I will try to keep this updated with all the news.

Also on top of the wedding we are planing on buying a house. We are going to make an offer on a house in Winslow on Monday or Tuesday. So I am sure there will be more posts to come.