Category Archives: real estate

Catching Up, Part 2

So, what else has been going on lately? Since I’m lazy, I’ll use bullet points.

  • On Friday we helped rustitobuck celebrate his birthday at a dinner that linnaeus put together. We ate at Claimjumper and the food wasn’t too bad. I’m pleased to say that it is possible to get moderate (i.e. sane) sized portions at Claimjumper if you order carefully.
  • We spent the weekend relaxing a bit and finally cleaning up the clutter from the picnic the prior weekend. On Sunday night we had dinner with roho and genet at a fabulous little Indian restaurant that just opened up within a few miles of us. I’m so glad to have expanded opportunities for food around here (and takaza loves their chicken tikka masla, so it’s a win for everyone!).
  • I’ve started using the MyPlate food and fitness diary over at Livestrong (which came recommended by the ever-useful Cool Tools blog). It’s an awesome free utility that lets you get all of your data in one place and even download it to a local spreadsheet. It’s interesting how just the act of tracking what you eat makes you more aware of your diet. I’m not “dieting” per se, just trying to eat better. This is an excellent tool for this.
  • We’ve got travel coming up! In September we’re going to be visiting Montreal. I’m having a lot of fun finding out about the area and making notes of possible places to visit, though as I’ve found on past trips while it’s nice to know some possibilities ahead of time, it’s even more fun to surrender to serendipity when it comes along. If we go to some of these places, great! If not, that’s OK too. We’ve got a group of 12 people coming from all over the country, and coordinating everyone is a bit of trick. We’re still working on who will cook what meals that we eat at the rental house, and putting the finishing touches on some reservations, but otherwise we’re just about good to go.
  • Speaking of vacation planning, the big trip for us right now is the Alaskan cruise that we’re planning for next May. I am pleasantly surprised to see that we definitely have thirteen people signed up, and at least four more who have expressed interest. The beauty of a trip like this is that it’s easily expandable. So hey, if you ever wanted to cruise from Anchorage, Alaska to Vancouver, British Columbus, with visits to Seward, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Seattle, we’d love to have you along for this trip! You can find more information over here.
  • In just a few minutes I’m off to meet with the representative of our home builder. It’s almost been a year since we moved in and our one-year home warranty is about to expire, so they’re going to come in for one last pass to take care of any maintenance issues, nail pops, etc. Dan and I went over the walls carefully last night (and poor Dan slipped on the stairs doing so – he’s OK, just a bit sore) and our walls are currently covered with an array of post-it notes marking any defects. Next up will be scheduling their guy to come in and repair all of them.

That’s all for now!

Moving, and Washer/Dryer for Sale!

I haven’t forgotten that I’m halfway through my Pacific Northwest trip report, but things have been a bit crazy over the last few days. You see, on Friday, we bought a new home. Hooray!

Even better: initially we had planned on painting the lower level (living room/dining room/breakfast area/kitchen), plus the three bedrooms upstairs. It was looking like it was going to be a long slog of work (although the assistance of genet and takaza‘s mom would have made things easier), but on Thursday we got a call from the painting contractor who had painted the place initially. He does painting jobs in the evenings as well and quoted us an excellent price to do the painting for us. His timing was fortuitous, since the amount of cash we were supposed to bring to the closing was a lot less than we had initially expected, so we actually have the reserves to pay someone to do the work. Sold! Plus, we get to keep our sanity intact.

We celebrated on Friday night with Genet and roho by setting up some folding chairs in the breakfast area, ordering some pizza, and enjoying a couple of beers. On Saturday, we dove into the projects we had planned: I replaced the kitchen faucet with something a little better suited for us and I installed a ceiling fan in the master bedroom while Dan and Lydia prepped the garage floor for coating. On Sunday, I did some fabric shopping with Dan’s mom and we picked out material for the curtains in the guest bedroom, then Lydia and Dan’s mom helped us put down an epoxy coating on the garage floor.

So now we’re into the home stretch before the big moving day on Saturday. Last night Dan and I moved all the boxes that we have packed down to the office, pretty much filling that room. Tonight I’ll be breaking down the shelving unit in the garage and we’ll be taking that and the chest freezer over to the new place. We’ve got some packing to do tonight as well – hopefully we can clear out a couple of closets and maybe a little more of the kitchen.

Oh yes, we also seem to have a washer and dryer that we don’t need – the washer is a GE Model #WCSR2090G5WW and the dryer is a GE Model #DBXR463GG7. These have never been used, and they retail for $850 together – we’ll be happy to sell them for $500 to whoever is interested.

Crazy Times in Dogtown

Work work work…yeah, it’s been that kind of week (and weekend).

Most of last week was spent wrapping up the latest Big Project at work – still some stuff to do on that but we’re very close to getting things into production by the end of the week. genet stopped by for dinner on Tuesday, which was a nice break in the routine and her company is always a pleasure.

Friday night we were joined by Genet and linnaeus (roho was stuck with workstuff) for dinner at Jimmy John’s. takaza, Genet, and Linnaeus went off to see Harry Potter and the Giant Wads of Money; I wasn’t really feeling it so I decided to chill out at home. It sounds like I probably made the correct choice 🙂

Saturday was Bingo Day! It was once again Dan’s employer’s Summer Picnic and once again we got drafted to run bingo. It went OK, and we gave out about $900 in gift cards as prizes. When we wrapped up there, we drove over to Trader Joe’s in Lake Zurich and splurged on a few things, then back home. For dinner, we decided to try Smokin’ T’s BBQ in Long Grove, which darkwolph had recommended a while back. The pulled pork was extremely tasty, the short ribs only so-so, and the sauces were a little underwhelming (though the Alabama White BBQ sauce was very tasty). We had a lovely walk through the area and enjoyed the sunset afterwards, then headed home.

Unfortunately, it appears that something Dan ate, either at the picnic or at the restaurant, caused something akin to food poisoning because he was up all night. I woke up on Saturday and saw that Dan was already up, which worried me. I came downstairs to find him in the middle of making me breakfast in bed, which was incredibly sweet of him. He finished making breakfast then headed off to bed himself. I came in to work and spent a few hours finishing up some testing that had to be done during the off-hours of production. I was home by noon, though. Later in the afternoon I went over to Remington Pointe in Volo and signed the papers to start the process of purchasing our new home.

The whole process has been too complicated to get into and to be honest it’s stressing me out a lot, but the upshot of it is that we are on to buy a new townhouse and close the sale on Friday, August 7. Moving day is slated for August 22. The new place is fabulous – a really nice place, backs up to woods, and not in a terribly crowded neighborhood like where we live now. I’ll feel better once we work out the details of the sale, but I definitely like this place better than the one we were originally going to purchase. The only drawback is a kitchen smaller than I would like, but the open floor plan makes up for it. It’s very beige right now, but I suspect we’re going to be applying some paint and changing that up a bit.

As for this week: besides the ongoing home purchasing trials, we’re going on a little trip on Thursday. Many of you already know the details, but shhhh! Don’t tell Linnaeus 😉 I’ll have a lot more to talk about when we get back.

Oy, What a Week

12 hours at work yesterday, 11 hours the day before, and working most of the day last Saturday. The best thing to say is that we’re just about done with the equipment testing and that I will not have to work this weekend. It’s mighty draining, though.

As you may have seen on Twitter, we got a call on Monday from our real estate agent. We’re supposed to close on the new place August 7th, but there’s a snag – the house appraised for about $20,000 less than the selling price, which means that the bank will only finance the appraised amount. Our lawyer is talking with their lawyer, and one of three things will happen: They’ll walk away from the deal (most likely, though we know the seller is relocating and in a rush), they’ll try to meet us in the middle (no luck there, since we don’t have that much cash on hand), or they’ll agree to the appraised amount (yeah, I doubt it). No word yet from the lawyers, but hopefully we’ll have something today. We’re already researching new properties to look at, and the good news is that we’ve got a place to live at least through November or December.

Oh, and just to add to the fun: yesterday morning while we were getting ready for work, takaza and I saw a quick brown flash along the baseboards – yep, we had a mouse in the house. One quick trip to Ace Hardware later and a few traps spread around, that is an ex-mouse. It is passed on, is no more, has ceased to be…well, you get the picture. I’m certain that was an isolated incident, but just in case we’re leaving a few traps down in case he had any buddies along with him.

Updata

Whoa, what a crazy week. Work has had me slammed all week, and it will probably be more of the same into next week. Still, it’s manageable, just doesn’t leave a lot of time for things like LiveJournal updates.

Waaay back on Friday we met up with daveqat, linnaeus, perro and darkwolph to see the Pride Edition of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. It was a fun show, though not one of their best overall. We still had a good time. Afterward we walked over to Big Jones for what turned out to be a really enjoyable dinner. We worked our way through their cocktails menu, and my shrimp and grits was fabulous (if this sounds weird, imagine the grits being served more like polenta). Dan’s country fried steak was tasty as well, up to Heaven on Seven standards.

Saturday was pretty low-key. I went in to work in the morning, then that afternoon we had Paul, roho and genet over for dinner. We grilled up some steaks, chatted a good bit, sampled some mighty fine beers, and played the new Boom Blox game. And Sunday? On Sunday we didn’t do anything – just stayed in and relaxed. That was nice.

This week has been busy on the housing front. The home inspection for the new place was on Tuesday, and everything looked pretty good. There are a couple of exterior GFCI outlets that need to be replaced, but we’ll have the seller take care of that prior to closing. I’ll be meeting with our mortgage broker today at lunch to sign off on paperwork and hopefully secure as good a rate as possible.

Last night we got the letter we’d been expecting, a Notice of Motion to the Court of Lake County setting a trial date for the foreclosure of the townhouse we’re living in. The good news is that this is just another step in a long process, and the bank won’t take over the property for at least another four or five months – we’ll be long gone by then. The other good news is that in lieu of refunding our security deposit, our landlord told us we don’t have to pay rent in August. This is awesome!

In the meantime, planning is still going ahead full steam for the Midwest FurFest Summer Picnic, which right now has about 100 RSVP’s. Yikes! We’ll definitely have free strip steak for everyone (and some chicken breasts for non-beef-eaters); I’m working with a local caterer to figure out what the sides and desserts will be. I’ll be posting the menu next week as soon as we get it locked down.

And finally, there’s Anthrocon looming large on the near horizon. I need to deal with some items on my to-do list for that this weekend, and make sure that everything is ready to go. One advantage to having done this for so many years is that I’ve got lots of notes about things that need to be done before the convention. That will definitely save my sanity (what little I have left). OK, back to the grind!

Bowling Movies and Real Estate Lust

Busy times before, and busy times ahead! It was a very full weekend, but we had a lot of fun.

On Friday, takaza and I met up with roho and genet for dinner at Las Vegas Diner in Antioch, then retired back to their place to watch The Big Lebowski (with white Russians in hand, naturally). It was my first time seeing it, and it was every bit of what I have come to expect from the Coen brothers. I enjoyed it, even if it seemed like half of the movie’s scenes could have been cut and left the main plotline intact. We also made a quick run to Wal Mart and picked up some nice lamps for our new bedroom set. I really should post some pictures of it now that we have everything in place.

We were slow to get started on Saturday, eventually leaving the house a little before 5 PM to drive around and look at rental house possibilities. We’re not unhappy with where we are now, but we know that we could do better if we must rent (and we agreed that we’re at least a year away from buying). We looked at some nice places in Wauconda, then on our way back stumbled across this jaw-dropper of a rental house. 4,000 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths with an in-ground pool on 6.5 acres in a very rural setting. Holy cats! Even stranger is the fact that it’s an $850,000 house that they’re willing to rent for $2,500 per month. I swear, if Dan and I could find a couple of suitable roommates, we’d jump on that sucker in a heartbeat.

On Sunday, Dan stayed home to deal with some workstuff while I hitched a ride with Roho and Genet down to colliedoc and hypersnazz‘s place for Straif’s belated birthday party. A good time was had by all, and I was very happy that the homemade caponata that I made was well received. Straif cooked up some tasty chicken katsu and teriyaki burgers, and Genet’s bourbon chocolate torte was simply sinful. We headed out on the early side so I got to spend some time with Dan before turning in.

Monday it was back to the grind at work. I spent the evening catching up on Midwest FurFest projects, answering e-mails and putting the finishing touches on some projects. Things are really coming together well, and I’ve got high hopes for this year.

Looking ahead this week, we’re getting together with linnaeus, Roho and Genet tomorrow to finally watch The Amazing Race season premiere. Rumor has it we might be hosting a lion this weekend, then on Sunday is an in-person Midwest FurFest staff meeting at the Westin. I may not have time to sleep, but at least I’ll be kept busy…

Townhouses, Beer, and Heroes!

In retrospect, we didn’t really do all that much last weekend. On Friday we stayed in and were couch potatoes for the evening.

Saturday, we hit the road. takaza wanted to check out a couple of townhouses under development, and I think we finally found a floor plan that is just perfect for us. The Wilmington floor plan in NeuHaven in Antioch would be fantastic – the “Optional Extended Kitchen” means that the kitchen, dining room, and great room are all one continuous space, and that fits our style of living and entertaining very well. The downstairs family room approximates Dan’s idea of a basement enough to keep him happy; we’d just need to install a bar and an entertainment center and we’d be good to go! The salesman was annoying and couldn’t wrap his head around “January, 2009” and kept trying to sell us on a unit for summer, 2008, but they’re still building and should have some models that match what we’re looking for when we are ready to buy. And hey, we’d be about a half mile from aureth‘s parents’ place 🙂

While we were out, we also stopped by Antioch Packing House and put in the order for steaks for the LAFF Softball picnic (20+ pounds of steak. And it’s not too late to put in your RSVP!). Then it was down to Wine Knows where they were doing their Oktoberfest beer tasting. Holy cow, that was a lot of beers! After trying a couple of interesting beers from Summit Brewing and Brewery Ommegang, I moved on to the next table, where they had the entire line of Unibroue beers available. I have to admit I got about halfway through before I had to surrender – most of those were 7% – 9% alcohol, and they weren’t being stingy with their pours! All of them were pretty tasty, though. The one real horror of the tasting was the Rodenbach Sour Ale, which may be true to its style, but was truly horrible to my taste. The runner-up was the Wells Banana Bread Ale; being a homebrewer, I’m afraid I associate the smell and taste of esters in my beer to be a sign that something has gone quite wrong with the fermentation.

After the tasting, I walked out with a four-pack of Brewery Ommegang’s Hennepin Farmhouse Saison (extremely tasty!), as well as a bottle of the Woop Woop shiraz and a very tasty and inexpensive Spanish tempranillo/cabernet blend. I was feeling a bit tipsy, so Dan drove us to get some food. My first choice, The Full Slab, was closed due to equipment issues, so we settled for Bill’s Pub North. Um, yeah. As my review says, we chose poorly. ‘Nuff said. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and snuggling 🙂

Sunday we did a bit of housecleaning, then dexcat came over and he and Dan talked MFF publications stuff. I was peripheral tot he conversation, but it sounds like Dex has a lot of great ideas and can really improve on our already pretty nifty con book, pocket program, and restaurant guide. I ran tot he grocery store, then made a tasty roast chicken. The rest of the evening was spent watching The Simpsons and a couple of other programs before heading to bed (not nearly early enough).

Oh, and tonight? Oh yeah, Heroes is back!

One more thing: As of today, I am no longer a contractor but a full time employee at $employer! W00t!

Appley Doux? Don’t Mind If I Do!

That was the weekend that was. On Friday, takaza and I went out after work for a quick trip to Sam’s Club to price out some shelves that he had his eye on so we could bring some order to our garage (and hopefully other areas of the house as well). We didn’t buy anything while we were there, but we had some better numbers to work with. On the way home, we decided to try one of the family restaurants in Grayslake, the Hillside Restaurant. While Dan’s meal was pretty blah, my Reuben was excellent, with some of the better corned beef that I’ve had in a while. Afterwards, we stopped by the Prairie Croissant Cafe and picked up some coffee beans (they get theirs from Metropolis Coffee in Chicago, my second-favorite roastery there 🙂

On Saturday, Dan had to go over to his mom’s place to hook up her new DVD recorder and show her how to use it. I struck off on my own and joined roho, genet, feren, lady_curmudgeon, and colliedoc for brunch at Las Vegas Restaurant in Antioch. Afterwards we walked around downtown a bit to fight off the inevitable food coma and we were joined by linnaeus. The lot of us headed north to Brightonwood Orchard, home of Aeppeltreow Winery. We sampled some of the new wines for 2007, but I wound up buying a bottle of the very tasty Appley Doux sweet sparkling cider and a bottle of Pommeaux apple dessert wine (fortified with apple eau de vie). Then it was over to the apple barn where we checked out some of the wonderful heirloom varieties. My favorite, Northern Spy, wasn’t in yet, but I picked up some Northern Greening and Gravenstein apples.

After returning from the orchard, Straif and I headed south and picked up Dan, then stopped at Garden Fresh to get some dinner fixins before returning to Antioch. Roho grilled up some delicious burgers and sausages from Antioch Packing House, then I went to work on the grill, test-grilling a couple of different things to see how they might work for the upcoming picnic. The verdicts:
Grilled Butternut Squash: Delicious, very potatoe-y when grilled. This begs the question, though, why not just grill potatoes, which are easier to deal with in quantity?
Grilled Honeydew Melon: The grilling didn’t really add much to the flavor. Maybe good for a garnish in a salad? Probably won’t pursue this for the picnic.
Grilled Honey Crisp Apples: Excellent! Nicely caramelized, very tasty. Might be a bit too expensive, though (there’s a reason the orchard nicknames them “Money Crisp” apples)
Grilled Nectarines: No verdict, since the coals were dying and I never succeeded in doing much more than warming the nectarines.

Sunday got a lot crazier than expected. First, we were surprised by a call from our landlord wanting to come in and change the furnace filter (read: “I want to come by and make sure you guys aren’t destroying my place.”) That’s cool, though – this was the first time he’s been out since we moved and, and I can understand his concern. Fortunately, we’re good tenants and he seemed happy with what he saw. We also talked about re-upping our lease and he seemed very amenable to that, so we’re covered for next year, it appears (thank heavens!). After he left, we drove back to Sam’s Club and bought the shelves we had looked at on Friday. We rearranged some of the stuff in the garage and put the shelves together, then Dan started replacing the various boxes on the shelves. Dan’s mom showed up to start work on a slipcover for our sofa, and I went to work in the kitchen making the aforementioned Apple Slab Pie. That sucker took seven pounds of apples and four pie crusts, but it came out well and I’m very happy with the results. In the midst of the chaos, luckytheevildog showed up and Dan helped him install a new hard drive on his computer. I whipped up dinner for everyone, a simple fettuccine with a modified pesto consisting of olive oil, garlic, fresh herbs (basil, oregano, and parsley), and Parmesan cheese. I cooked up some Italian sausages to serve on the side, and I was very happy with the results. The pie definitely passed muster; I’ll be posting the recipe in the next few days, since Dan’s mom wants a copy.

The alarm went off far too early this morning, and I’m dragging a bit now. Coming up this week…um, beats me. I know I have a lot of work to do for Midwest FurFest, though, so that will probably be my primary non-work focus. For now, though, I’m going in search of caffeine!

Friends, Flooding and Furniture

Ugh. It appears that both takaza and I were afflicted with insomnia last night, during different parts of the night. That make for slow canines this morning!

The weekend was quite entertaining, for all that it started inauspiciously. On Saturday morning I had to make another visit to my podiatrist (cut for those not interested in medical details)