Cool Photos

I'm posting some of my photos that are from the last two trips to Italy. Have fun looking! I hope to go back again sometime in the next five years or so.



Beautiful Italy

I Know....

I know it's been a very long time since I've said a word. What can I say? Sorry.

Well, we decided to keep the house and rent it out. The new Narrows Bridge will be complete in the next year or so and we're banking on the fact that better traffic flow could help prices in that area.

When we went to refinance the house (the loan we took over from the buyers was at a very high interest rate) we found out that there was a hidden feature that took us by surprise. Turns out the original loan the couple had negotiated included a pre-payment penalty! The amount was almost $5,000! Aww shucks! Now, even if we had decided to sell it, we probably would have made only a couple of thousand dollars. Not much considering all the work. Not a good deal in my book. So we bit the bullet, paid the penalty and refinanced the house. The savings in the house payment ends up making the decision a good one in the long term. We hope to keep it for a few years and then sell it.

We got it rented this last week and all is good to go. The house looks beautiful and the new renters are very happy with how it looks.

Thanks for sticking close during the renovation process. It was a wild 12 weeks of rehabbing! The big question for me is: would I do this again? I've mulled it around for a while and determined that I would, but only with a few stipulations. 1) I would not do it while I was working; I'd have to take at least a month off. 2) I would try to stick to the project management portion of the job and leave more of the actual work to others. (I'm getting too old for this). However, maybe if I weren't working a 40+ hour week job, this wouldn't be such a big deal.

Now I can turn my blog back into other issues to write about: life, kids, travel, cool photos I've taken, and other nice and fun things that occupy my time.

See you all soon!

Kitchen

Before












After

Almost There!

BEFORE



AFTER







As you can see things look much better than they did 1 month ago. We put a sign up in the yard and an ad starts today. We still have a window to fix and I'm checking into getting a realtor out to do an official market analysis as well. It's possible we'll just list it depending on the analysis. We want to try by owner for a few weeks though.

We'll put a big post out and flyers here sometime next week and I'll boost the ad with a picture as well.

Please pray that we sell this thing quickly. The market has softened a lot in the last 2 months. We would like to think that we'll have favor from the Lord and we won't have to sit on this house for too long.

Hey, It's Not So Bad

Saturday was a good day. A very good day.

James agreed to accompany me to the house and help me out. We noticed that all the rest of the garbage was gone! Ike, our landscaper was hard at work when we arrived. His crew had all the grass removed from the entire front, back and side yards. The sod was there all ready to lay in the front yard and the back was nearly ready for hydroseeding that will be sprayed on Monday. I'm excited to see the results.

The weather was good, so I put the second coat on the front door. Dark Blue. It makes the front look so much better. I have a nice brushed stainless kickplate that will decorate the bottom of the door. I'll get that on sometime here in the next couple of days and it will really spruce up the front and add the needed curb appeal.

James and I painted the front window washing deck and facia boards and the porch stair railing as well. It really perked it up. We also got all of the smoke detectors in and some trim painted too. A good day's work in all.

I met with Miles, the electrician to see if he had any updates on the electrical problems too. He had good news. The breaker box does not need to be replaced after all. After taking it apart some more he found that it was an uncommon double box setup. We don't need a new incoming breaker, a new panel, or wiring of any sort! So I don't have to shell out another $600 - $1000 for that. I believe in miracles!

So, Saturday was a good day. A very good day.