Archive for the ‘Home Ownership’ Category

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Back, but not quite home.

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

We left NY at about 9:30 last night and by 2:30am we were back here.¬† I did wind up falling asleep in the car for the last hour of the trip but that’s out of character for me, so it caught me off guard.¬† I don’t typically fall asleep in cars but I guess with Bella all cozy on my lap so she could look out the window, plus the both of us being wrapped up in my jacket just to get warm – it was bound to happen at some point.

The trip up was OK, we walked into an uncomfortable situation between my father and sister that I’d rather not get into.¬† Sunday was a “down” day, I headed over to my aunts to spend some time with her and on Monday my father and I headed to the bank so I could collect the loan.¬† Seeing a check with that many zero’s was definitely a nice birthday gift.¬† With the interest rate I’m going to pay back about $4,000 on top of the loan itself but since the course of the loan is 60 months, that really won’t matter too much.

So once that was taken care of we headed back to the house and relaxed until about 7 when my aunt called us and we all headed out to dinner at Bertucci’s for my birthday, Sean treated everyone to dinner which looked like a big selling point to my father, so I have to say that worked out nicely.¬† I didn’t “clean up” the way I have in the past but more than enough money to get us back home and me to purchase a few things from the salon my grandmother owns.¬† I also picked up a new purse, Gucci has that kind of a hold on me.¬† And the Dolce & Gabbana sun glasses to replace my now defunct Chanels make me more than content.

We came back here to find house guests, and since it’s raining we’ve still got our suitcases in the car.¬† Sean should be getting in touch with his brother soon about this upcoming weekend.¬† Hopefully once things calm down a bit they’ll be easier to deal with when we’re settled into our new place.¬† I really don’t care much about anything anymore, so being in this funk my only real concern is moving out and just starting a new life.¬† Work means crap to me, people have always meant shit to me, and getting out of a very uncomfortable living situation is a big goal for me right now.

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Wow Factor

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

Now that everything is falling into place, I’m starting to get a little nervous.¬† Yes, impatience was getting the best of me but now it’s the whole “wow” factor of finally being a home owner and knowing that everything that could possibly happen is just going to be from us and without any major outside influence the way it’s been.

I’m already writing up a list in regards to things we’re going to have to purchase once we get out there.¬† I know we’re going to need cleaning supplies, I believe the first room that’s really going to get any attention is the bathroom.¬† Having toilet paper and shower supplies is a big first priority for us.¬† We also figure that since we’ll be doing modifications around the house that we’ll rent the rug doctor the day before we’re coming back to Delaware to get our stuff.¬† This way, if we keep the carpet, we can get rid of the dust and anything else that was on it before we move our things in there.¬† It’ll be easier to do when we know that there isn’t going to be any furniture in the house.

Another purchase is going to be the living room items.¬† We’ll obviously need a couch, possibly a recliner for Sean, and definitely some end tables and lighting just to pull the room together.¬† Then it’s odds and ends everywhere else, especially the kitchen.¬† For me, getting the bathroom done first is the priority, after that it’s just filling in the gaps.

I’m just hoping that our bed fits in the bedroom with enough room to spare.¬† I think it’s only 13×10.¬† Granted, right now we have it in a 10×10 room so hopefully there will be some ounce of improvement.¬† That is probably going to be one of the more “simple” rooms of the house.¬† There’s no point in overloading the room with things that we really don’t need.¬† So we’ll fit what we can in the closet and then we’ll see if there’s enough floor space left for a dresser.¬† I’d personally prefer having some kind of a platform bed so that we can use the storage underneath but I’m a storage and space-saving fanatic so I like to keep things as simple as possible.¬† Nothing wrong with that, right?

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Now things are rolling…

Monday, October 15th, 2007

The loan information still hasn’t gotten here but at least I now have a reason as to why.¬† The paperwork wasn’t even printed out until the 11th, and being as it’s the 15th I should expect to see it sometime over the course of the next few days.¬† Sean and I are heading up to NY this weekend so I can head to the branch up there with my father on Monday and by Tuesday the money will be available in my bank account.

After being redirected four times talking to Corporate, I was directed to a man who told me that I don’t even have to wait for the letter, I could have gone to the bank the second I was given the approval.¬† Knowing that I’ve waited two weeks to see some kind of silver lining, this was a bitter sweet moment for me.¬† So I called my father and let him know that we’ll be up there this weekend and I know that Sean, My Father and I are going out to dinner for my birthday on Monday evening.¬† My sister may tag along but we’re going to The Outback so who knows if she’ll find something on the menu there.¬† The certified check that I’m getting from HSBC will travel with me to WAMU, I’ll deposit the money and then by Tuesday I’ll be rolling in it.

Sean and I will then book a room in Ohio for possibly a one to two night stay until we can have the deed signed over to us and then we’ll stay there until the major modifications have been completed.¬† We’ll probably do some minor shopping so we can begin furnishing the place, I know from the get go that a few kitchen based items are important to us.¬† I’d like to at least have some pots and pans in the house, as well as plates so that we’re not eating out every night until we have the rest of our things out there.¬† We’ll get the cable reactivated, get the electric and everything else switched over into our name and then go from there.

It’s going to be a rough couple of weeks but that’s OK by us, we know that once all of the chaos has ended, we’ll be home owners and damn happy about it.¬† The loan is only going to be about $150 a month as far as paying it back is concerned.¬† I figure if we can spare about $300 we’ll be able to pay it back quicker.¬† It’s approved for 15.9%, which is unfortunate but HSBC is known for higher rates and that’s just fine for me.

While we wanted to get out there before Halloween, moving in around the date is just as good for us.¬† Sean wants to go to some haunted house so I figure while we’re out there we can do that.¬† We’ll bring a few extra things with us when we go out there the first time, this way we’ll have some things to move in with that don’t need to be loaded on to the truck that his brother is driving down here for us.¬† Maybe the place will start looking like a home a lot sooner than we’d originally thought – who knows.

In any event, I guess I should get my ass in gear on some work, lord knows when I’ll have this kind of downtime over the course of the next few weeks.

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Keeping warm…and calm.

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

I’m freezing. I guess I got used to the warmer weather down here because I can’t stand the 55° that we’re in now. I just ran to the bedroom to pull one of my sweat shirts out of storage. I have all of my winter clothes vacuum packed at the moment. With the warm front in the area there’s been no real need behind my taking things out earlier than usual. I know that before we move I’m going to have to switch things around based on the cooler weather that’s normal this time of year. I like the cold, growing up in NY you get used to the cold. It’s just the fact of adjusting to warmer weather that’s kind of getting to me at the moment.

Guess I’ll be brewing that tea sooner than anticipated. I’ve been looking into a few different things for the house and I found the Bodum Assam 4-cup Tea Press at Target. I’m content with the standard tea bags at the moment but I think using a gadget specifically for tea brewing would be a pretty handy thing to have around. I love coffee, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes you don’t want a heavy caffeine, you want something light and tasty and I think that’s why I go with green tea more than standard. It helps to regulate you, I’ll tell you that from the get go, but there’s also a warm and calming effect with it. That with random lavender accents around the house will really keep me calm, I’ll say that much.

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Winding Down

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

It’s getting pretty cold outside. According to my little Weather dude it’s a cool 57°F outside.. It’s supposed to get down to the upper 40’s tonight and I just can’t wait for it. I have my green tea and my blanket all ready to go for when I curl up and watch a movie later on with Sean. We’re not sure what we’re going to watch yet but he’s got a few hundred to choose from so I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out.

Right now he’s watching “The Office”, I personally can’t stand the show but he seems to get a kick out of it so that’s just great for him. I’ve been doing some poking around on Amazon so I can start updating my Wishlist before we move. There are alot of things that we’re interested in purchasing and in some instances, it’s cheaper to get it on Amazon – even with the shipping. But knowing that we’re spending over $50, the shipping is free anyway so that mixed with the no sales tax, it’s like we took the drive up to Dover to do the real shopping anyway – heh.

I have some emails to go through. Guess I should get my butt in gear.

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Random Chatter

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

It’s a little after 4am and there’s a storm rolling in.¬† It’s the second one in the last 24 hours but I’m unsure of whether or not this one is going to bring in any rain with it.¬† There’s a lot of booming going on out the window, and there’s also a nice cool breeze coming along with it so I’m certainly not complaining.¬† If Bella could speak, however, I’m sure she’d be crying about it.¬† With the ear infection she’s already a little on the clingy side, when you add thunder on top of that it can only mean that it’s going to amplify over time.

Sean is waiting on some money to clear in his bank account so he can bring his car in to the mechanic.¬† Once his compressor is taken care of, we’ll continue the patient wait for my paperwork to get here so we can take the trip up to New York.¬† I’m hoping to be able to accomplish this trip over this following weekend but I’m not going to hold my breath.¬† There’s obviously some kind of a reason as to why nothing has showed up for me, I just hope that it doesn’t delay itself for too much longer because we’re itching to get out of here and get into our own place.¬† While we do have the money to get out there and at least put a down payment on the place, the bulk of the loan money was going to cover moving costs.¬† What’s the point of owning the place if there’s no way of affording to get our shit out there, you know?

I sent Sean on a download spree yesterday.¬† I’m now overloaded with games to keep me entertained during the drive up to NY.¬† I already tested my battery out and without a network connection I’m good on about 4 hours of battery life while playing the games.¬† After we have the loan in my bank account I’m going to have him send his car back into the mechanic so that we can get the cigarette lighter fixed, this way there’s some extra power in the car for when his iPod and my laptop begin to die during the 8 hour drive out to Ohio.

There’s a lot of heat coming off my computer at the moment so I think it’s time to shut things down for the night.¬† I also don’t like being on direct AC power with a lightening storm hanging over head.¬† I don’t have a surge protector out here and there’s no way in hell I’m losing my laptop because of a few electrical shorts.

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Unreal

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Unfortunately I had no choice but to bring Bella to the filthy vet. After three hours of waiting (almost too patiently) we were finally in the exam room. Ten minutes later the tech showed up and just kind of looked into her ear. The Vet showed up a few moments later. Bella has a pretty nasty ear infection that requires a lot of cleaning and even more ointment. I have to clean her ears out with a special solution twice a day and following each of those cleanings I need to pump a few drops of the antibiotic ointment into them. The vet said that her ears had a few months worth of caked on wax which made no sense to me considering I clean her ears but she told me that I don’t go deep enough into her ear canal which may explain why the infection formed in the first case. The moisture in her ear from after her bath probably didn’t dry very well so that sat on the wax and then the rest is history. Either way I’m going to have to invest in longer qTips so I can get down into her ear canal and I’m going to now have to make it a point to clean much deeper into her ears. She gets a bath once a week (the same time-period on cleaning her ears out) and it’s hard enough getting her to sit still for it, hopefully it’ll be easy for me to accomplish once she gets used to it.

In other news, thanks to the flea/tick bath she had a few days ago, on top of adding a second ointment to her for the month she’s really cut down on the itching. I really wish I could find out where this started. I partly believe it was from the groomer, but she was a bit itchy before she’d left the house that morning. I just don’t know if it’s based on the fact that she had some matting on her side that was bothering her. Either way all seems to be clear there.

The letter didn’t show up today, I’m going to give it a few more days. If there’s nothing here by Thursday I’m going to be making a phonecall to HSBC and requesting that the forms be faxed to me because I’m personally sick of waiting. A letter showed up yesterday but it wasn’t mine so that annoyed me. And I also received a check yesterday from some affiliate program that I signed up to months ago. I had no idea that anyone had even used my referral for anything. When it comes to referrals, I am still patiently waiting for six more people to be a valid signup through the notebooks4free account. I’m six away from $1800, and that would help me out as far as moving expenses are concerned. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come in when I’m supposed to get it. Or whatever they (points up) have in store for me.

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Doot, doot, doot?

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Okay, so I’m running out of titles – sue me.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. I didn’t go up to New York because the paperwork still hasn’t shown up so there was really no point in my going up there. Hopefully it’ll be here this week and then I can start getting things in order. So instead of enjoying 10 hours in a car (back and forth) I used my time wisely. I did a lot of cleaning, quite a bit of cooking and Bella got a bath. I found a few ticks on her, not sure why they were there considering she gets her monthly strips of Frontline so I gave her a bath and killed what I could. I saw no need in bombing the house because they were ticks and not fleas. I reloaded on the Frontline for next month and I invested in a Flea/Tick shampoo that supposedly lasts for 10 days. Knowing that she gets a bath once a week – I figure she’ll be covered. I never had this problem before I came down here, and it sucks but it’s taken care of, so I guess that’s all that matters.

Sean and I just got back from the store a little while ago. I found myself kind of floating around the housewares isle in Walmart making a mental list of everything I didn’t add to my Bookmarks list. I did find something on HSN last night that I fully intend to purchase though. Knowing that we’ll be living in a storm heavy zone, having the proper supplies is a big deal for me. I was flipping through channels and came across the Hunter LampLighter™ Auxiliary Light 2-pack. You take the light bulb out of a side lamp in whatever room you figure you’ll frequently be in, screw this thing into the slot for the bulb, and then put the light bulb back on the track, there are even holes on the side where you can get the lampshade clasp back on. It charges the AAA batteries and if your power goes out, within 3 seconds this thing kicks in and you have like 6 LCD lights along the rim that instantly turn themselves on. You can chose how many lights you want to run though. If you leave only two lights in there you get 16 hours of light (which can be turned on and off whenever you please) but if you keep in all six you get like 8 hours. I figure this, plus a first aid kit, canned goods and the battery-less flashlights would be a damn good safety plan heh.

Sean got lost in the electronics section but that’s really no surprise. He found a TV that he’d like to own and I found a cheapy computer that will more than likely be put in the kitchen – depending on whether or not there’s any room for it. I know you’re thinking “WTF Do you need one for?” but when you’ve got a 17″ LCD monitor and a massive archive of recipes and other things, it’s kind of worth it. I doubt I’ll buy it but the $400 price tag was pretty decent. Maybe I’ll get it as a gift for someone around Christmas, I know my fathers computer is on the verge of death and he’s been using a CRT for as long as I can remember. Upgrades are nice – eh?

I changed the color scheme a bit but the house itself is going to be mint-chocolate, so to speak. Minty to pale greens on the walls, tan tones for the furniture and dark wood floors when we get around to replacing them. We also intend to build a deck on the side of the house because there’s just a stoop that leads to the grass, kind of pointless. So I figure a nice screened-in area will be enough to keep me happy. Sean’s going to have his office, the rest if the house is kind of “ours” and this will be my area to just kick back and relax. I figure something that’s maybe 10×10 would be more than large enough to put a little bistro set and a nice lounger on to keep me happy. A potted plant in the corner just for kicks, and indoor/outdoor carpet so I’m not standing on wood and then I’m basically covered.

I just hope we’ll be able to accomplish everything before Christmas, Spring at the absolute latest.

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Shopping Spree

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

My “to buy” list is gradually getting longer.¬† I’m not buying a lot of big things that there isn’t going to be any room for.¬† I’m looking more into household items that one would really need.¬† Organization is a big thing for me, so I’m looking into a lot of different shelving units and boxes that will help us to utilize 8-foot ceilings with ease.¬† That seems kind of small, I know, but when you’re building up – instead of out – you’re really saving on floor space.

In my mind I have everything worked out.¬† I know how the kitchen is going to look when I’m done with it, same goes for the bedroom, office, living room and bathroom.¬† I know my color scheme, and even poked around colourlovers.com for a few different pallet ideas.¬† I came across this one, which is kind of close to what I’m looking to do.¬† But instead of the white shades, I may take the more pale-tan route.¬† I’m going with very neutral colors.¬† Being as this place is going to be a little bit on the small side, I don’t want dark colors on the wall that are going to make me feel as though I’m living in a cage.¬† Very light and airy with plenty of comfortable furniture is going to be more than enough to make me a happy person – especially when you can find a couch high enough off the ground to be used for extra storage underneath.

I’m loading up on the under-the-bed storage solutions.¬† Limited closet space isn’t going to stop me, that’s for sure.¬† A few of them will be used in the living room to go under the couch so I have storage for books and what not.¬† The office, that closet will more than likely be used for more office-storage solutions than anything.¬† We do have a lot of things in the office and even though a few things aren’t coming with us – there’s a lot of containers that could really be stacked up and organized in the closet.

I figure down the road these containers are going to help us out as well.¬† Having everything already “packed up” so to speak, will benefit us when we’re looking to move into something larger once the budget allows.¬† I’m sure you’re thinking “What’s the point of buying the first place if you’re already planning to move?”¬† We’re buying this place knowing that it’s going to be a temporary solution.¬† We never planned on being there for more than 2 years, which is why we’re not going crazy with a lot of modifications and just rebuilding the place in general.¬† We’re going to make due with what we have and then work on getting our “dream home” later on down the road.¬† This second move down the road will be our permanent residence, not just the one getting us out of Delaware for the least amount of money possible.

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Where the heck is it?

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

PPPSean took a walk down to the mailbox a few moments ago and the entire time that he was gone I was waiting very patiently for him to get back. It has nothing to do with an attachment issue so scratch that right out of your head. I was hoping to hear from HSBC and there are only a few days left before we go up to New York and I absolutely need that paperwork to show up as soon as possible. If it isn’t here by Friday then, minus visiting family, there really is no reason for me to head up there because my main purpose was for the loan.

If this doesn’t come through in time, I may wind up taking the route of payday loans because there’s not really any other option if we’re going to get on track with fixing his car, as well as getting up to New York after the paperwork shows up. So we’re paying back about $1000 either way, it’d just be on a different loan.

During my budget planning I was also looking into Mortgage Loans because there’s a few homes for sale in the area that are brand new manufactured homes in the $30,000 range. They haven’t even been lived in, they’re still actually moving in a lot of the siding and what not. We saw a few pictures, and they really are pretty sweet looking. My only issue is that they’re Ritz-Craft and I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about them. However, the one I found was about 2,000 sqft and I think that’s more than enough to keep myself active. Sean can be locked away in his 20×15 office and I can scatter around the rest of the house going full speed ahead with decorating and painting heh. Besides, later on down the road if we happen to run into a snag we can always Refinance and go from there – right?

I just hope that the mailman has a special letter for me this afternoon. :waits patiently:

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Approved.

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

I was approved for the loan, but that doesn’t mean that life has been made any easier.¬† In order to get the loan I need to be in person at the bank, which is fine, but the cosigner needs to be there as well.¬† My problem is that my cosigner lives in NY, so this means we’ll be taking a trip up there sometime over the course of the next week.¬† However, we’re also dealing with a broken car – so how are we getting up there?¬† On Monday we’re calling a car rental place and then taking the trip up.¬† I figure if we leave on Thursday or Friday, we can take the drive home for Sunday/Monday.¬† It’s a lot of driving to do but at the same time, there’s no real choice.

Once we get back, with money in hand we’ll get his car fixed because he refuses to look into an auto loan.¬† My issue is the fact of putting $1,000 into a car that probably won’t even MAKE it to Ohio if it’s fixed, so what’s the point?¬† I know for the initial trip we’re renting another car, this way his car only needs to make the one trip and then after we settle in we’ll work from there.¬† It just seems like a lot of extra steps but we also know that insurance is a bit different out there as well, so buying a car out here is going to more than likely cost us more in the long run.¬† His brother is only paying like $90 a month on two cars, and he’s got full coverage.

Everything is cheaper out there I guess.

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Anticipating the future

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

I’m waiting to hear from HSBC in regards to the loan.¬† It’s a pretty substantial amount of money so I want to assume it’s going to take a few days before I hear anything.¬† As of right now we have everything planned out.¬† Sean’s credit cards will be paid off within 24-hours of the check clearing, a trip to Ohio will be quickly planned and after a trip north to purchase a new car – we’ll be heading out to look into our available options.¬† My bookmarks list has grown quite a bit over the last few days and based on that list alone, about $2,000 is going straight to furnishing the place.¬† That doesn’t seem like a lot but I’m not only a smart shopper, I’m a cheap one too.

I don’t need a lot of useless items to throw around in the house, we have more than enough coming with us in order to fill the house up.¬† The larger purchases include a new TV, a vacuum and probably new flooring depending on how old the carpet is in this place.¬† The list is mainly limited to Best Buy, Walmart, Kmart and Target.¬† Depending on the condition of the couch – a trip to IKEA or any store in the area is going to be another “big” purchase for us, but nothing that will break the budget.¬† We know from the get-go that we’ll be paying taxes on the loan so that’s really not a big deal.¬† I just have the list all taken care of, now it’s just getting the money that’s holding us back.¬† It’s not easy to get tens of thousands of dollars thrown into your bank account over night, and I’m not exactly working for a corporation where I can take out an advance on my salary in order to make that happen so being as the only option is a loan – I want to think I made the right choice.¬† I just checked my email and saw that a notification for me is going to show up within the next 7-10 days.

Things on the family front seem OK.¬† My grandfather is undergoing his cancer treatment, my aunt seems to be recovering nicely from her treatment and knowing that it’s in the family on both sides, it’s had me in an “ehh…” kind of a mood for the past few weeks.¬† My grandmother (father’s side) died when I was about 8 years old of lung, bone and breast cancer it kind of just hit her breast and shifted its way into every other organ.¬† I haven’t gotten a mammogram in years and now it’s just starting to hit me, hopefully with this loan some much-needed self-insurance is going to come through as well.¬† From the tooth issues to the fact that I’m a high risk for cancer, my attention span has been close to ‘shit’ lately.

I called up the groomer this afternoon, she’s scheduled for an appointment on Friday morning.¬† I figure getting her shaved now will give her enough time to have a decent amount of hair on her before Winter.¬† From there I can keep her trimmed up until Spring.¬† I don’t really like the idea of going six months and may wind up doing it around Christmas and keeping a jacket on her, but for now I’m itching to get it done because she had a brutally hot summer to deal with and I felt horrible that I couldn’t spare the funds, or the time, to get her done.¬† I kept her trimmed up by myself but there’s just a lot of hair on her.¬† I don’t know how the larger dogs that are covered in thick long hair can be even remotely comfortable in the heat.¬† She’s only like 17 pounds and has thin hair and can barely stand it.¬† She plops out next to the AC vent on the floor in the kitchen and rolling around on ice-cubes are her only real relief.¬† Meanwhile, Sean is always freezing in the bedroom and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more content dog when she’s in here sprawled out on a nice cool bed…heh.

It’s knocking on 4:30, and knowing I need to crash by midnight tomorrow – I’m going to take a nap and then wake up to get some work done.¬† This should be fun.

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Halo 3, Loans, Sickness and Stress

Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

Sean’s birthday was this past Friday, I gave him a gift certificate to EB Games because tonight was the launch of Halo 3.¬† He’s been playing Halo 2 for the past four years or so and the anticipation, plus the hype, surrounding Halo 3¬†was bound to spark his interest.¬† Me, being the good girlfriend that I am,¬†decided to give him a $150 gift card so he could get the limited edition version that game in some helmet with a few other disks.¬† I figure since it’s the last installment, it’s something he really wanted, and it isn’t worth waiting in line for hours just to pick up a single game – the $130 limited edition would be more than worth it.

I was expecting him to be gone for a while, he left at 11:30 for the Midnight launch but found out earlier this week that the Halo 2 launch had a pretty large turn out, so much so that the parking lot was full and the line stretched from EB Games to Superfresh.¬† This is about 1,000 or so feet, so I assumed this time that he’d be gone for a while, so I curled up in bed and started reading my new book.¬† He walked in the door at 12:15 and I’m sitting here thinking “Oh shit, what happened?”.¬† He had this large box in his hand and literally jumped for joy, he was #50 on a line of 100 pre-order people, the non-preorder line was quite long so he’s happy that he’s already completely paid for the game.¬† He walked in with the voucher and his photo ID and the rest was history.¬† Now he’s playing in the office, and I’m on Karen’s computer in the kitchen because my laptops in the office and walking in front of him isn’t an option right now.

On the loan front, instead of Sean and I co-borrowing, I’ve gotten in touch with my father and he’s willing to co-sign on a loan for me.¬†¬†I didn’t want to ask him, but with the amount of money we’re looking to take out, having someone with a 760+ credit score is the only option.¬† I’m in the 680-700 range, Sean probably doesn’t even rank based on his credit history so maybe going with my father on the loan will get us the money we need to get out of here.¬† So tomorrow I’ll be making a phone call for all of the information and going from there.¬† Hopefully this is the route that works, if not – we’re completely tapped for ideas.¬† Staying in Delaware would be great but it’s just too expensive.¬† I refuse to live in Pennsylvania and New York (while it would be the best option for me) isn’t the best option for my wallet.¬† An apartment anywhere on the Island is going to cost more money than we can spare if we’re paying back a loan.¬† And knowing the Island the way that I do, anything “affordable” is usually in the worst of area’s so it’s not even worth it at this point.

It’s not that we don’t HAVE the money that we need in order to get out of here.¬† It’s just the matter of extra expenses showing up.¬† We could easily put our savings into getting his car fixed, or even getting a new one, but that would wipe out the account either way and then we’d be back to square one.¬† Having the extra money via a loan is the only option right now.

I’m not sure if it’s the fact that the loan situation is getting to me, the fact that my period is coming to an end or just the weather in general but I’ve been under the weather for the past few weeks and it’s getting harder and harder to shake it.¬† Frequent headaches have had me in bed for longer than I’d like to be, I’m lucky I can even sit up straight right now considering the throbbing.¬†¬†I’ve put myself back on antibiotics because my tooth has been acting up and a dentist won’t touch me until the swelling goes down, another reason for the money crunch right now.¬† You go out of your way to eat better, lose some more weight than you currently were, and that one freaking piece of broccoli can rip a soft tooth in half.¬† The nerve is exposed, so I’ve been having trouble chewing, it’s just the swelling that’s stopping me from getting any work done.

Bella seems as though she’s feeling a little better, I’m scheduling an appointment for Thursday to get her groomed.¬† She’s starting to get a little matted down on her ears, I’ve done a good job on keeping her brushed out so that they don’t form around her legs, but trying to get anywhere near her face with a scissor is like pulling teeth.¬† I’ll have the groomer take care of it.¬† I figure if I get it done now,¬†she’s covered for Winter until the next time she has to go back.¬† And if it gets too cold, she’s got a jacket so there’s no big deal.

I get picked on for having clothes for the dog, but it’s not like she’s running around the house in a little tshirt that says “Princess” on it or something.¬† I have a standard heavy jacket that just snaps on for Winter.¬† Vets and animal lovers across the globe have said that if it’s too cold for you, it’s too cold for your dog.¬† So yea, in 40 degree weather, she’s not exactly freezing, but when it drops down to like 15, as predicted in Ohio, she’s going to need one.

In any event, it’s pushing 1am and that means it’s time to get my ass to bed.

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Posted in Bella, Boyfriend, Daily, Home Ownership, Stressed | 1 Comment »

Funk-tastic.

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

I’ve been in a funk for the last couple of weeks. From the server issues to the PMDD and the fact that I’m just not feeling very well in general, I’ve been spending a lot of time in bed. It’s not that I’m not getting any work done, I’ve just switched myself back to my laptop for a little while. Go figure, I drop $180 on a second monitor and I don’t even bother to use the desktop anymore. The original monitor is acting up a little bit, it’s making a buzzing sound that is strange to hear out of an LCD. If it happens to die on me, oh well. I’m under warranty for another couple of months and I have to go up to NY in the near future anyway so I can just walk into Microcenter and get a replacement.

With all of the time I’ve spent in bed, I’ve been going through a lot of things in preparation for the upcoming move. Getting rid of paperwork and other things that really don’t need to make the move with us, and would really just add to the excess of clutter we currently have. I’ve also been building up a large bookmarks folder for the things that I’m going to need to purchase before or directly after we move in. A coffee maker, for me, is the most important thing considering I can’t really function without coffee, I’ve also been looking into a lot of housewares so that we can move in and be able to LIVE once we get the house cleaned out from the previous owners.

Vision BeddingKnowing that there’s going to be one room in the house that’s all mine, I’ve been looking into a lot of things for the bedroom, I want a room where I can kick back and relax – I’ve even looked into Teen Bedding because there are a lot of funky designs out there that would keep me very happy. The one to the left was one of the first ones I looked into. It’s got a really cool vector design, and they print bedding for up to a king sized duvet cover, which I think is pretty cool. There’s also the option of sending in your own images and having them blown up. So essentially I could take my favorite desktop image and have it turned into a throw blanket to snuggle up with in the living room on those cold Ohio nights.

There are a lot of options available, even dog beds with personalized pictures. I’m not sure if I would take that route though, Bella already stares herself down in the mirror, attempting to get behind the mirror to sniff things out, I could only imagine what she’d try to do if she was looking at a bed with her face on it, heh.

Sean and I have a lot of packing to accomplish, I really sat down and looked at everything going on in the office and kind of went to hide back in the much-cleaner bedroom.¬† You don’t realize how much stuff you can accumulate until you have to pack it all up.

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Posted in Bella, Boyfriend, Daily, Home Ownership | Comments Closed

Too many options available…

Sunday, September 16th, 2007

It’s been a pretty hectic weekend, on top of the extra four house-guests, I’ve been ass-deep in trying to get a proper back-up of the servers so I can work on moving them to another company. The one I’m with isn’t cooperating, the second – I’m waiting on a few emails. I’ve also managed to go through all of the emails I’ve received based on the downtime, it’s not easy to say that the company you’ve put a lot of money, and trust in, is a complete piece of shit to those who are wondering about what’s going on behind the scenes.

We didn’t get the house, we put in our bid too late. Instead of a mortgage we’re just going to get a personal loan and then work on apartment living in Ohio. I also thought of it in regards to the fact that I’ve never been there before so putting so much effort into a mortgage while owning a house I’m unhappy in, really wouldn’t be worth it. We were looking into areas close to Sean’s brother, turns out that all of the apartments in his area, as well as many others, are turning into section 8, and knowing full well that I don’t want to be the only person in the building paying for something out of pocket, while the rest are living off the government, I figured we’d look into a few other options.

After talking to his brother, we found out that there is a place available in his complex. It wasn’t listed online because it’s a very family-oriented so word-of-mouth is the only option to getting into this place. An upside for us is the fact that his brother is in really good with the manager of the complex so that will more than likely help us out as far as getting in is concerned. Our big thing right now is how we’re going to actually GET there.

We were thinking uHaul and I just recently found out we can add a full dolly to the back of the uHaul so we can take his car with us, this is the $500 option if we’re going to get the 17′ truck. It supports 2-3 bedrooms worth of stuff, so I figure that since it’s the bedroom and the office – we should be ok.

The other option were PODS. We get a 16′ POD put at the front of the house, load it in and then have THEM ship it to Ohio for us. This way the only thing we have to do is drive our car out there and then wait for the POD to show up. This is the $1500 option.

I know that for most people this would be those, “Duh? Use the uHaul!” option, but Sean isn’t too comfortable driving a large truck to begin with, so adding the car behind it would just make things worse and it IS an 8 hour drive. We factored in that moving costs are going to be in the $1000 range, but $1500?

I’m sure we’ll figure something out. We’re going out there sometime within the next few weeks to look around. If we find that the one in his brothers complex is good enough for our needs, we’ll take it – come back here, and then figure out the actual truck/moving option sometime within the 8 hour drive.

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I think I’m moving…

Monday, September 10th, 2007

I guess I’m moving to Ohio. We found a house in Boardman (or something like that) it’s in the $120k range, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2000 sq ft and it’s on a little over an acre of land. The house was completely remodeled and it includes everything we were looking for. Hardwood floors, spacious rooms, large patio (even has a built in gas grill) there’s also more than enough land to expand so in the future we can put in a pool and the kitchen does need a little bit of updating but that’s based on the fact that it doesn’t really match the rest of the house. I’m sure it did back in the 50’s but oh well.

My Dream Kitchen Knowing that I’d like to remodel the kitchen, to my personal standards, I did some poking around the Internet and found the absolute perfect setup, I’m not big on the vent in the middle but I’m sure that could be done differently depending on who’s actually going to build it for me. I measured things out and in order to do a kitchen this large, I would have to lose some space in another room but considering I see no point in a “family room” that needs to be 20×20, I figure knocking it back to about 20×10 would be more than fair. All you really need is a TV and a bit comfy couch, you know?

There aren’t any views of the bathroom, I’m getting in touch with the Realtor to request more pictures. Sean and I are going to pool our money together so we can get his car looked at and we’ll then take a trip over to Ohio and do a walk through, he’d also like to visit his brother and luckily, the house is about 10 minutes away from where his brother lives so I assume there’s going to be some frequent house guests. Especially with the addition of a pool, and a larger kitchen for me to do quite a bit of cooking in.

The lot to the back of the house is massive, we’d also have to get a shed or something so that we can pick up a lawnmower because at this point in time, I really don’t trust hiring anyone to do the work for us. I’d rather go out there with the lawnmower thanks to the morons we’ve got working in this complex. They barely touch the lawn, what’s the point in having to pay these people if they don’t do any work?

There are still a lot of things to work out, on top of the actual purchase we’re going to have to work on just how we’re going to move out there as well. Up until this past Saturday a smaller uHaul could suffice for all of our things, now that we’ve got the new bed – we’re going to need to invest in something much larger. At least we know that we’ll have the help when we get out there.

I’m just not sure if I’m ready to pick up and move again, especially with Cancer ripping it’s way through my family at the moment, not sure if being 4-hours further away from Glen Cove would be a good idea but I’m sure there’s a reason behind me finding the house, lets just hope the loan comes through on it.

Our monthly budget is going to be about $1700-$2200 in bills. Sean and I are going to have to average, and/or maintain, approximately $3500-$4000 a month in order to live. It’s $990 on the mortgage, then there’s gas, electric, water, sewer and other things to factor in. Then there’s the car insurance, and an emergency fund that’ll have to be shoved into savings from time to time. I just hope we can handle it, I really do.

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