So, where did July go? In a haze of lots of stuff, to be honest. I'll explain someday but July was mostly about self care- taking care of myself. And, getting out and running in an agility trial. And, nearly buying a 90 year old house. That took up quite a bit of July, to be honest.
I'll tell you that story at least.... I haven't been well, and ended up off work from May 25th, until summer holidays started. (that's the long story I'll share someday) As part of my "thinking about life and getting my act together so I could feel better", I started to look around at houses. I have always, ALWAYS wanted to own my own place, but with student loan payments for another 8 months or so, and University now, I didn't think I could make it happen. So, what did I do? I went and looked at a house. I liked enough to go a second time. Then, I went to the bank to just see if I could get pre-approval for a mortgage. And, I did. So, I saw the house again and really liked it. So, I put in an offer and we negotiated in the span of a day. Two days later, I got a life changing house inspection done on the house. Not really a surprise because of the price, the house hadn't been properly maintained and had several issues, including an OLD furnace from 1959, and heating duct work that hadn't been updated. So, that means the upstairs had no direct heat source, just a hope that passive heat (the concept that heat rises) would keep a person toasty warm on a windy, -40 night. But, the biggest issue was the problem of no eaves troughs on the house. Due to that and improper grading towards the house, the foundation on the one side of the house started to rot and needs to be replaced within the next year or so. In order to do that, the house would have to be jacked up off the foundation, a structural engineer would have to be involved and men would have to work in a crawl space comprised of wood and dirt to fix it. Beginning cost estimate of $20,000 for that repair alone. So, at that point, I said, thank you NO and walked away. Sadly, this means to that the house is basically not saleable at the price it's listed at. So, the current owners have a HUGE dilemma- stay in the house the way it is or basically bulldoze and start over as the repairs are not worth it on this particular house. They would never recover their cost and have already lost big on it. (They bought at a bad time when the housing market had gone crazy and paid WAY too much with no home inspection so they didn't know any of this. I gave them a copy of the report as I wasn't interested in causing them any more problems, I figured they've got enough stress at the moment). So, the dogs and I are staying still at the moment. And, I'm saving my pennies to have a better down payment for a better house requiring less work. (Which will likely be a 90 year old character home again, just with a structurally sound foundation I hope!).
Anyway, enough of that, just an update, Moose is STILL here. I can't figure out why as he's such a great puppy but he's had 1 application that didn't work out. :( Poor Moosey; he's a lovely little dog who will make someone a GREAT dog! Anyway, I will update his petfinder stuff. But in the meantime, some pics of him mainly napping. :) So cute!
The quality of these aren't great; I was using my iPhone which apparently does MUCH better outdoors than inside. Anyway, Moose "helping" me change the sheets on the bed last night. Or rather, keep the blankets from moving on me, hehe.
Where's Moose? Hiding in the blankey, hoping I don't disturb him again!
Moose and Murph during a play session break yesterday. Murph has been under the weather too (I'll tell that story on Friday, I hope, after she's been back the vet AGAIN) but yesterday she was pretty perky and wanted to wrestle with Moose. They are funny when she's not cranky!
Moose enjoying a "leave foster mama alone, she's trying to read and work on her thesis for the first time in WEEKS" bone. It worked until Spike swiped it. Poor Moose. Someone needs to save him from this nuthouse!
3 comments:
Good to see you back! I actually googled your website this morning, wondering if perhaps my blogroll had inadvertantly kicked it out, it had been so long since I'd been notified of a new post.
Hopefully, you are feeling better now, and Murph too.
As for Moose, may he find his forever home soon. Meanwhile, he can keep entertaining us with his antics and his not-so-helpful bedmaking.
Yes, welcome back. We missed you.
Glad you were able to get good information about the house you wanted to buy. It's certainly less painful to walk away from a money pit than to be stranded in a place you can't afford to fix (although I'm sure the pups are a pretty good heat source).
Although you know me as Honey's person from Something Wagging This Way Comes, in my day job I'm a nonprofit housing counselor and educator. I have another blog for first time home buyers: http://www.handsonhomebuyer.com. Maybe you'll find something helpful there and will forgive me for hijacking your comments section. Just thought you might find it useful.
Now back to fun doggie bloggie reading.
I'm glad you're back! Sorry you and Murphy haven't been feeling very well. I hope you're both back to your happy, healthy selves again soon.
That's too bad that the house didn't work out, but at least you found the problem before getting stuck with it. I can tell you from experience remodeling an old house is not fun lol. Especially if you're living in it.
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