Fandango’s Dog Days of August #12
So, Fandango would like to know what is “something that brings me joy.” Brings me joy? Well, I was briefly very happy that our appraisal came back at $10.000 more that what we needed and learned at the same time, that houses like ours are in high demand. You coulda fooled me!
These houses were all built by a single builder and he was minimally competent. At best. For example, he put a piece of our house on the neighbor’s land and it had to be later addressed by a property swap. Why did he do it? He didn’t believe in measurement. There was a big rock on the right side of the property, so he couldn’t put the house there. He could have moved the house forward on the property … or deeper on the property, but that would have been too complicated. So he moved it to the left and a quarter of it was then on someone else’s land. He also dug the well in the middle of the front sidewalk. But let’s not be fussy.
Most of them are on this road, but there are a few nearby. They aren’t beautiful to look at and in fact look rather like a big breadboxes. But they are easy to live in, easy to maintain. Big enough — and easy to redesign, exterior and interior. They have no style at all, so whatever you want them to look like, that’s what they look like. Modern or colonial or eclectic. Anything goes. Most of the single family homes in the area are much older than this one. They are more elegant to look at, but they have all the issues of 200-year old houses including seepage, crumbling foundations … and a design where absolutely nothing is anything resembling a standard size. This may not sound like a big deal until you try to buy new windows or doors. Or anything, really.
So that was a good thing. But we still don’t have the paperwork OR the money. Nonetheless, the guys were here early this morning and built the new boiler. Tomorrow morning, they will be here to remove the old boiler and install the new one. So, by tomorrow night, we’ll have a new boiler. I’ve put down the downpayment and the August payment, but by September, I sure do hope this refi is won and done.
The problem is largely that no one is in his or her own office. Not only the company with whom we are working (Mutual of Omaha, who really ARE familiar with the process). Not the appraisers. Not the underwriters. No two people are in the same office space at the same time, so everything take at least twice as long and my agent took his family on vacation last week. I took it personally. He should have stayed home and taken care of my refinance.
I’m told not to worry because as long as we get this done by the end of the month, we’re good. I sure hope so. So that’s the good part.
The bad part? Everything else. I’m good with Kamala Harris, though I really wanted Elizabeth Warren, but I get it. Biden was under a lot of pressure to pick a Black woman and that’s not unreasonable, but I still like Warren better. But I’m not unhappy with Kamala and the combination of Biden-Harris is pretty good. He’s a softie and she’s an attack dog. That could work out well. Also, I’m really looking forward to Pence V. Harris. That could be … well … something special.
And tucked in the back of my mind is the hope that in the end, Trump will be out on his big, fat butt and we will have our country back.
Categories: Architecture, Blackstone Valley, Economics, Fandango's One Word Challenge, House and home, You can't make this stuff up
“…the hope that in the end, Trump will be out on his big, fat butt and we will have our country back.” That would fill me with joy!
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What’s there to be happy about??
WARM weather! I know there are complaints about humidity, etc. But I LOVE warm weather. My favorite season. Wish I could spend more time outside but it’s not to healthy, I guess. I still want to get out on the back porch to read and listen to our Siriusly Sinatra radio station. Gotta to do it before the temps fall and I regret another case of procrastination. I also need to work on my Samoan tan.
The other stuff? Let them eat Cake!
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It’s supposed to be 107 degrees here tomorrow. That is too damn hot.
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Yes, 107 is too damn hot. Cue up Peggy Lee and “Fever”.
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I like the birds and the bees.
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I laughed so at your description of how those houses were built. My little neighborhood must have had the same builder. Imagine my chagrin the other morning when I looked out my window and discovered Roto Rooter and gas company trucks parked in front of my house and a backhoe sitting on my side lot, getting ready to start digging. We did not call Roto Rooter; the next-door neighbor did. It turned out the neighbor’s sewer line runs under our side property, and the line needed to be dug up ASAP because sh*t was backing up into the neighbor’s house. I could have been THAT adjacent owner who would insist on having the line moved back onto the neighbor’s property where it belonged (and I would have been within my legal rights to do so), but I didn’t. I just asked for assurances that the neighbor will take care of repairing the lawn in that area, which is being attended to. Meanwhile, I currently have what looks like a grave sitting next to my driveway until the dirt compresses enough for re-seeding – not a sight I’m enjoying every time I go out to my car. The good news, however, is that I finally had an amicable conversation with a neighbor I haven’t been too sure of, having only nodded at each other once or twice, and now I can relax knowing I have good neighbors on both sides.
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So many things in this house were done to save a few pennies … really pennies … that resulted in endless issues — ESPECIALLY wiring. Yet they built an extra fieldstone fireplace in the downstairs den, which would have cost a fortune to build. Some of the choices were baffling. This is a 2-1/2 acre lot, so there was more than adequate room to just move the house forward towards the road, which would have also shortened the driveway and flattened the property out. But instead, we have this weird looking property with an angle cut out so we aren’t on the neighbor’s land.
We don’t have gas and with the number of gas explosions in Massachusetts in the past couple of years, I can’t say I regret it. Actually, when this place was built, the only heat was ELECTRIC. In Massachusetts?? Seriously? Someone before us installed an oil burner or we probably wouldn’t have bought the place. And now, it’s round 2 for oil burning.
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Glad to hear that the boiler will be in and ready for the bad weather, Marilyn.
Leslie
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They are downstairs finishing it up. I made them turn it around. They had it installed really stupidly so that you couldn’t reach or see the dials and we would have had to do a humongous amount of work so they could service it. This would have made sense if there weren’t sufficient room down there, but there’s MORE than enough room. And Owen told them yesterday to swing it around 90 degrees. I guess they thought he wasn’t serious. Contractors. Bah.
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You’re right about those contractors….
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The last sentence of your post…..yes, please.
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Amen!!
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