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

Tags: #FDDA, Dog Days of August, finding joy in today's world, Marilyn Armstrong