It's Official!

The keys to the house

So we got the keys yesterday!  Everything went through and the house is officially ours!

Yesterday I started measuring to figure out how much paint we'll need.  If anyone was watching, they'd probably have gotten a good laugh as I wrestled with the tape measure.  :)

Today I'm going to the house to measure and scrub down the cabinets because we're starting with them first.  I also will start taping some stuff. 

We still haven't quite decided on the color...  I realized that we can't change the color of the kitchen because it's one whole wall with the rest of the dining and living and hallway! ... So I guess I'm stuck with the mocha...well actually compared to some of the paint chips I brought back from Home Depot on Wednesday, it's actually more of a taupe.  And from looking at various pictures online, I think it's best we stick with that darker brown... I can probably bring in more color around the window and maybe above the cabinets or at the breakfast bar...  I'd like to stay away from brown and blue...maybe orange and brown?...there are are a lot of kitchens with brown and white...and all our appliances will be white...

Where I plan to have a kitchen window herb garden
Need to set up some shelves
Also will add color to kitchen with "window treatments"

After scrubbing down the cabinets today, we'll start taking off the doors and hardware and start sanding it down.  The flat surfaces seem easy enough, I'm worried about the cabinet molding (?).  I guess we'd do that by hand?  We'll go get the paint tonight and tomorrow is marked for painting.

While the cat's away in Fullerton,...

the Eddie stays busy in the IE...

Lots of papers for Eddie to sign...but still not quite done...

Eddie went to the escrow office in Upland after school today to sign papers, unfortunately we still have to bring the cashier's check to the office.  He did get some paperwork from the housing association I've been bugging him to find out about.  Apparently there are two different club houses and we belong to both ANNNND we have access to the lake...wherever that is...

After going to the escrow office, Eddie met with the sellers to learn how to work the sprinklers (which are all working yay!), the pool light (which should not be stopped on a colored light, but on clear), the fountains of water over the pool (which are operated by something about the pump and valves), and some tips about the house... (ie the hallway bathroom needs a new toilet, the paint was bought at Home Depot, the decorating was done by an interior designer!).  The sprinklers are manually controlled; they used to be on automatic timers, but when the pool was put in, the backhoe damaged the wiring.  He said that the neighbors to the right are cool, and he didn't know much about the neighbors on the corner with kids.  I would like to have some sort of party with all the neighbors over after we move in.  The seller even said something about a white dishwasher at their new house that we could have (to match the white stove, microwave, and soon to be refrigerator).

Escrow

Ooooops...

So I guess we're already in escrow.  :)  We've been in escrow for the past almost month!

Eddie was talking back and forth with the seller about the house.  She's upset because she wanted the sale to be done by this week.  Their house insurance expires tomorrow and Eddie's doesn't start til we close.  If anything happens to the a/c or whatever after tomorrow, there's no insurance to take care of it.  And we can't close if we're missing anything as vital as an a/c...which would then have the deal falling through.  So cross your fingers! 

Emma's going to be spending the weekend acting as guard dog.  :)

Then Eddie wants to have the house fumigated, so I guess she's coming home on Monday?

Newest Updates

Monday we went to the Wisteria house to add the smoke detectors the appraiser was looking for.  Apparently the carpet pulling back from the tile was not a concern.  Neither was the lack of a gate around the pool nor the holey firewall and damaged firedoor.  Eddie's parents and Reilynn also came along to see the place.  When we got there Linda had been sweeping the floors, watering the plants and the (now green) pool, and other such maintenance kinda things. 

Tuesday the a/c was put in by the seller, who was appalled and embarrassed to the point of tears (according to Linda) that we had seen the house in such disrepair.  I guess they wanted to clean the house up before we went through it again and started all the final loan paperwork.  So they're staying at the house from Wed-Fri to clean.  They mentioned to Linda that we might want to stay over the weekend at the house to make sure no one steals the a/c again.  Eddie asked if I wanted to leave Emma there.  Which I said was fine as long as there's a lock on the fence and that they okayed her being there, because I don't want her to bite the seller who was going back to pick up any last stuff! 

Empty Now

More pictures from Wisteria Ct. (from the day of the inspection), though none from the yard...which was a little sad because of how overgrown it has become!

I kinda wish I had taken more pictures of all the little things (the fire door that needed to be fixed, the cabinet coming away from the wall, the tile that needs to be replaced, the missing threshold, the hole in the firewall, the too high cement, the missing roof tile, the loose interior sprinkler, the wood rot, the water pouring out from the air gap, the holes in the wall, etc.).  Ah well, at least now I know for future home inspections/buying.

House Inspection

1. One roof tile has fallen off, but the rest of the roof looks sound
2. Leak in a some tubing (can't remember if it was for the sprinklers or pool)
3. Concrete is too high at one point on the patio, covering the drainage thing (I read about this on the HGTV Common Problems Found During Home Inspections article).  The guy said that we have to see if there is enough grading that the water runs off rather than collects there...
4. Some of the wood on the patio looks like it should be replaced, but Don said that it looked structurally sound.
5. Wooden fence is shaky, one part - facing the street - is very loose
6. Some wood rot at the front window sill on the outside
7. Vines growing up to the roof should be removed - not a safety hazard, but can damage the tiles and such on the roof
8. The doorbell doesn't work
9. The electric panel is labeled and looks good.
10. I know where the gas shut off is, and the tv and telephone panels (not sure what's in there though)
11. In the garage, the self-closing fire door has to be replaced because it's damaged
12. The wall that is adjacent to the house in the garage (which is supposed to be fire retardant) also needs to be fixed because there is a hole cut into the wall, thus negating the fire proof-ness of the wall.  
13. Was talking to the realtor, so I didn't remember to ask Don about the water heater life.
14. The heater does need a new filter
15. There is a panel in the garage that controls (?) the interior sprinklers - Don suggested calling the fire department to check it out or to get the name from them about someone who did
16. In the kitchen the gas was not hooked up to the stove and so he didn't check it
17. The air gap (that funny knob thing on the sink) has a blocked tube to the garbage disposal, and should be replaced.
18. There is a loose interior sprinkler that probaly just has to be screwed back in
19. There are some cracks in the plates inside the fireplace, but nothing major
20. There should be fire retardant calk around where the gas comes out for the fire place
21. The joining between the carpet and tile in the green bedroom and from the entry way to the hall may need to be addressed (this from the realtor who says it's a safety hazard)
22. The toilet in the bathroom is loose
23. There's a missing bottom track for the closet in the pink bedroom.
24. There's a ding in one bedroom door that has been patched up
25. The toilet in the master bath needs a new flap (otherwise the toilet was running)
26. Don suggested sealing between the bathtub and the linoleum in the master bath
27. One sink seemed to be draining slower than the other in the master bath
28. Some window screens should be replaced, with the screens torn and a couple frames redone
29. All the lights and sockets work  I learned that the sockets that are upside down are connected to a switch. 

All of this work will have to be done by us, as the contract is that the house is being sold as is. 

The next step is for the appraiser to come through. 

I guess something tricky about these as is houses is that the house isn't really ours, but we have to do the fixes before we can buy it with an FHA.


In less formal house fixing stuff, the planters need to be weeded and the plants need to be watered.  Two cute little palm trees look like they're dying/dead.

The pink bedroom will be repainted.

I want to repaint the cabinets in the kitchen something much lighter...it's a dark brown right now.

The mocha walls are okay I guess, but I wouldn't mind going with something else. 

The carpets may have to be replaced, some of it looks pretty dirty.  But at least it doesn't smell like some of the houses we've been to where they've had dogs and they let their dogs do whatever they want in the house!

Facts and Figures from Listingbook.com