Crazy busy, I mean crazy, crazy busy!!

This week has been super busy with one thing and another.  

As with most things in life everything happens at once.  When I booked our trip to Britain, I said it'll be "sod's law" and we'll end up selling the house and having to buy another one all at the same time.

Well; we have an offer on the house.  We went back and forward with that at the beginning of the week.  We ended up accepting the offer, BUT the buyers still have theirs to sell.  Where it is at it shouldn't be a problem, but who knows?

Meanwhile we have no where to go and are going on vacation in a week or so's time.  Fast forward until today and I have narrowed down my selection of houses to ONE; BUT and there always is a but they want way more for it than it's worth and there is a bit of work to do on it.  So we are going for another look today (Friday) and we'll go from there.

The closing date for our house is October 31st, so only 60 days which isn't long when you go away on vacation in between hands!!

I also committed to send 10 knitting kits up North for a women's/girl's group, so have been busy putting them together.  Finally got that done, as they will be starting the Fall session soon, will do a post tomorrow on those.

Then we to get ready to go on vacation, plus I want to see all the grand children, they are heading up on Sunday with parents for a get together, so that will be 10 adults, 5 kids and a baby.

The home inspection is being done on Monday, so need to get the house tidied up for that.  Small children are like little tornado's and it's amazing where their sticky hand prints end up!

I still have photos to sort through and print out to take with us.  Still have a few things to buy to take with us.  Did get all paperwork sorted to take with us and got cash converted over. 

I know there are a hundred and one other things to do; I need to make a list😉

I restrained myself quite well I think!!

On Thursday we went to the new home builders to pick out the finishes on the new home.  I should mention I know I haven't shown you plans, photo's etc of the new house; I am waiting until we have firmed up on it.

Our appointment was for three hours we were finished in under two hours.  We have been there and done that twice before so now know how this process all works.  As most of their standard items are really nice we had very few upgrades.  We also stuck to pretty neutral colours, as we can jazz things up with accessories; things that can be replaced at very little cost.

Below is the colour of the kitchen cabinets; we have chosen a slightly different door profile.  The granite is for the kitchen and directly underneath of it is the floor tiles for the kitchen, breakfast area, powder room and entrance hallway.  Plus the ensuite bathroom, with matching wall tiles for the shower and around the tub in the ensuite bathroom.  To the right is the sample of the hardwood floor which is going on the main floor and the stairs to the basement.  The two bedrooms will be carpeted in a beige colour.

 The light was terrible in the showroom, but this is the exact same kitchen and handles we have chosen.  Also those are the exact same appliances we are getting as well.

Here is a list of upgraded things we are having to pay for:

Pots and Pan drawers in kitchen: $400
Hinged corner cupboard door: $400
Matching panel for breakfast bar (matches kitchen, instead of drywall) $1085
Jetted Tub: $1100
Vac Pan for central vac in kitchen: $145
Upgraded linoleum in basement bathroom: $175
Extra socket in bedroom: $110
3 x electrical boxes behind all bathroom lights @ $50 each = $150

We are getting a quote on tiling the ceiling in the ensuite shower.  Quotes also for granite counter tops on the vanities in the powder room and ensuite bathroom.  Also we may pay $350 for a rough in for the water softener.

So I think overall the total may come closer to $7,000 rather than the $5,000 I had budgeted.  However I am very happy with my choices of upgrades and here is why.

Pots and Pans drawer in kitchen, if you already have one you know why you would never do without them, they are great.  A hinged corner door gives you more access to a corner cupboard.  Matching panel for the breakfast bar, just finishes it off and makes it more custom looking.  Jetted tub, well that's a personal preference and I love it.

We will get a central vac at some point and the vac pan in the kitchen is great, had one in the last new house and used it.   It's also a heck of a lot easier to install when they are putting in the kitchen rather than later on.  In the bathroom in the basement for the builder to put in a ceramic tile floor it would have cost us close to $1000 which is ridiculous.  I do not like linoleum flooring; and the builders standard was not to my liking, so we went up one level and found one I could live with and at $175 it was a heck of a lot cheaper than the tile.  Down the road we can upgrade that bathroom if we so desire.

Dh is an electrician so he has a hissy fit at what builders charge for electrical upgrades, so we only get what is absolutely necessary.  The extra socket in the bedroom is high up the wall so we can install the tv on a bracket, we are getting the tv cable outlet at the same height.  The three electrical boxes behind the vanity lights in the bathroom are an extra as they don't normally put the boxes in.  So if we change the lights down the road this is an easier way of doing them.  By the way the boxes cost less than $3 each and will take the electricians all of a couple of minutes to install them.

A tiled ceiling in the shower is an extra but it's worth while and easier to do with the rest of the tiling.  The vanities all come with laminate counter tops, but I would prefer to have the granite ones as I know if I don't do it now it will never get done.

We are up in the air about the water softener as when asked we were told the water is semi-hard whatever that means.  When we were looking at resale houses in the same subdivision, some people had water softeners some people didn't.  We are heading to the GTA Home Show at the International Centre tomorrow to look into them, as I don't know enough about them to make an educated decision.

We have a water softener and UV light here, but we are on well water and it is as hard as heck the water.  If anyone is an expert with water softener's please educate me.  So we are not sure if we should get the rough-in for the water softener or not at this point.  Obviously we will buy our own water softener and install it ourselves if we go down that path.

So there you are another job more or less finished!!

Sharing some more news......

So after spending the last few months going through open houses and even having Sarah show us some houses one afternoon we have decided to buy a brand spanking new home directly from the builder.  Sarah took the news very well, as we were very worried about telling her, as she doesn't earn any commission when we buy direct from the builder ourselves.

The reason we are going down the new home route is that we couldn't find anything we were totally happy with.  Each one had an issue, some were minor, some weren't.  So we bit the bullet and despite the fact that we swore we were never going through the new build saga again, we are.

This builder is different in the way he does things and is totally hands on.  The finishes are very high quality and are to our liking.  We haven't gone firm on it yet, as we can't until we have a firm offer on our house, but we have an appointment next week to go through what we do want and any extras we want to add.

When we finalized the price on Friday night, we even got to pick out the brick of the house, as it is all framed and windows are in etc.  I will admit it is all going way faster than we anticipated and today (Saturday) we are having to go out and figure out what appliances I want to put in the kitchen as they need the specifications so they will fit in the kitchen.

It is my 50th birthday next month and dh keeps bugging me about what I would like.  I don't want anything, but that's not good enough.  So I told him I want top of the line appliances in this house and this will do for my birthday.  I am very happy with that.  I am looking at the Frigidaire Professional Series of appliances in stainless steel in the kitchen and the Maytag Maxima series in white for the washer and dryer.  If anyone has any experience with either of these brands please share.

I will talk more and more about this as the months go on, but so far it's early days.  I will share pictures and house plans etc, in the following weeks.  Please say a few prayers that the folk who have the offer on our house sell theirs soon.

Where did the weekend go too?

It was over in a flash and I have to admit with barely a minute to relax.

It started on Saturday morning at 5:30am when I got up to get myself ready to go to a garage sale.  Our township, was having a garage sale and I had booked a table inside back in February for $10.  Turned out to be a lovely day weather wise but cool, so I am glad I paid the extra $5.  There were 50 vendors and it was a great morning.  I came back with very little and made $69, but more important got rid of crap treasures that had been laying around!!  What I have left is being donated to a church garage sale next week, so it's a win, win situation.

I got home around 1pm, had a bite to eat then popped into town to spend my $69 on gas/petrol for the car and my gas containers for the lawn tractor.  Cost $80 but with Canadian Tire having a 10 x the CDN Tire $ I got $2.50 back in CDN Tire money.

Came back home and then dh took me into town to get some grocery shopping and run a couple other errands.  As we were heading home dd was on the phone as they had seen a house and were wanting to put an offer in, but could we (mainly her dad though) come down and give it the once over to  make sure they weren't making a mistake.  So after unpacking the groceries we set off at 4:15pm to go to Pickering.  Luckily the traffic was light and we got there by 5:30 pm. 

It was 7pm by the time we left the house.  I sat and talked to the real estate agent after looking around the place, while dh, dd and son-in-law, looked at the house in great detail.  We had something to eat on the way home in Schomberg, at a great little place called Cross Roads Fish and Chips (serves a lot more than fish and chips) which is on Hwy 9 at the main lights.  So it was 9pm when we finally got home.

I sat down had a glass of wine, which I know is very strange for me as I normally don't drink, but I saw a bottle of Jacob's Creek Moscato on sale in the LCBO and it is fizzy and is sweet, my kind of drink!!!  My head just hit the bed and I was out for a count, but it had been a full and productive day.

Sunday I had a lay-in and didn't get up until 7:30 am which is late for me.  Then I basically spent the whole day out in the garden, most of it cutting the grass.  I am now pleased to say all the grass has been cut at least the once.  That first cut especially in the field and on Kamikaze Hill is hard going as it had gotten so long.  I want to concentrate on weeding and prepping the veggie patch this week, if the weather holds out.

So there you go a crazy busy weekend, oh and dd and son-in-law bought the house and got it for under asking price..................only because it needs a bit of work doing on it.................but to hear their excitement in their voices is such a blessing and a joy.

Buying a house.........

Don't panic its not me, no one in their right mind would buy this place in the state it is in............mind you we bought it, so I guess there are fools out there!!!  Actually I love our house and when we do get it all renovated it will be even more gorgeous.

Dd and son-in-law are house hunting at the moment, as they are getting kicked out of their condo in August.  They hadn't planned on buying a house until next Spring but as they say "things happen!!"

Now the only reason I am even mentioning this is they are running into one bidding war after another and it's proving to be a very eye opening experience. 

What the houses look like on MLS and what they are actually like in person is night and day it seems.  We went with them to look at a couple of houses last Saturday.  The first one was a lovely older home (1979) detached and was on sale for $379,900.  It was perfect for them, although it did need new windows upstairs and a couple of other things.  It went on the market on Friday night, by Saturday night it had four offers in, including one from dd and son-in-law and sold for $390,000 with no conditions.  YOU DO NOT BUY A 1979 WITHOUT A HOME INSPECTION!!!!!    Dd offer was not the one that won that one.

The second house we visited was a semi on for $349,900 and around 15 years old.  It was a house that the real estate agent was selling.  It too had just gone on the market and had been staged/cleaned up.  It was still filthy to my mind.  It needed new carpets right the way through, the layout was all wrong and basically it was horrible, and son-in-law agreed with me.  However it was in THE location the kids wanted to be in.  The real estate agent wasn't taking offers until the Tuesday, and she got SIX offers and it sold for $380,000!!!

They have made appointments to see various other houses only for them to sell before they get to see them.  As I said before a lot of houses look good on paper but are a nightmare in person.  They saw two houses the other night that looked really good on paper.  The first one stunk of smoke (no offence to any smokers out there, but don't smoke in your house if you want to sell it.) As dd pointed out, all the carpets would have had to be replaced and the whole thing decorated and aired out as it smelled that bad.  The place was cluttered and the back yard was all deck, plus there were other things wrong with it.  However on paper it looked good?

The other one's owners had done bits of renovations here and there and had not finished things which made for more work, all what you couldn't see on paper, so again not for them.

They are looking at another three today, so fingers crossed they see something that will work for them.

I have never had the "pleasure" of participating in a bidding war on a house, but it's becoming quite common and someone was telling dd that in certain parts of Toronto that the listing house on a is nothing to go by.  They currently live in the Yonge and 401 area of Toronto and a bungalow came up for sale for $400,000 it was sold for over 1 million dollars and the buyers are tearing it down and building a mansion on the lot!!!!  It boggles the mind how people can afford to do that.

Buying and selling houses have changed so much over the years and people expect to see more and more staging, multi media presentations.  My boss just sold his house and the "bound book," that was used to sell his house was stunning.  It wasn't a colour leaflet it was an actual book with stunning photos and information about the area the house was located. 

Gone are the days when you take a few photos, and hoover and dust the house and hope it will sell.  The houses that sell look like model homes, all the clutter removed, decorated neutrally and ready just to move into.  Because at the end of the day when a potential buyer walks into a house, it's those first few seconds that count the most, as unless they fall in love with it right away you've lost them.

I'm glad it's not me selling a house that's for sure!! I only pray and hope dd and son-in-law find something soon.  As long as they find something by the middle of June they will be fine, so plenty of time yet.