Firing It Up Again
Hi all - we will be the first to admit we have been pathetically poor at keeping this blog up since Christmas. I am going to make today our "re-start" date and get back on it. We have a ton of updates to talk about, but I'm not going to try to tackle it all at once....tonight I'll just hit on one big topic: our (pending) new house. Before I get into that, I'll quickly let you know that we are all doing well, looking forward to spring, and anxious to see you all soon. We think that having a house of our own will really give us the footing to start making more regular travel plans as well as planning for guest visits to Richmond! Now on to the house details....
After a 4+ month house search, we finally found something that really got us excited. Here's the shortened story of what has been happening: when we moved to Richmond, I think we both figured "smaller city, smaller prices", but that just hasn't been the case. In fact I think houses are more expensive here than in Mpls, and we thought Mpls was pricey! I think there are a few things contributing to this: first, there are plenty of people here making plenty of money...Capital One, Phillip Morris, Suntrust Bank, Circuit City, CarMax, and Genworth Financial are just a few examples of the companies with large presences here in the city. Definitely not as much as Mpls, but there are fewer than a million people here so the money is more concentrated. Second, we have been choosy - we are city people and we want to be in the most urban area while still getting the things (yard, garage, etc.) that we want. And there seem to be plenty of people who want the same things we want, so while there may be cheap housing in many areas around here, it's not in the areas we want.
Compounding all this is the fact that we want to use public schools, but the Richmond schools are not consistently good at all. There are just a few good public elementary districts, so price competition is further increased there.
We were looking in some of those areas and felt very priced out...like we would have to get the cheapest house on the block, still have a big mortgage payment, and a list of things we wanted to improve on the house without a nickle to spend on any of it. We were really close to offering on one of those kinds of places, when Terri called the principals at two of the good public schools, and they were very encouraging about our chances of getting into one (or both) of those schools from out of district. So this opened our search back up to some areas of town we had written off, one of which is Westover Hills. A real cool neighborhood, right near the James River that cuts through the city...a nice friendly feel, older houses, mature trees, young families, etc. But still very close to downtown and the more "happening" areas. There were 2 or 3 houses in Westover Hills that were new listings and seemed like good options. We saw them all on a Wednesday night last month, and decided the next day to make an offer on our favorite of the 3. After a weekend of haggling and back-and-forth, our offer was accepted on Monday night.
Here's a link to some pictures and virtual images of the place:
http://www.circlepix.com/tour.htm?id=507001&mls_tour=1
We're really excited about it. It's deceptive in that the curb appeal is not fantastic, a pretty basic brick cape cod...but the previous owners did a big addition project 2 years ago that added 800 square feet to the house, including a big, warm family room, a new kitchen, and a terrific master bedroom suite. Other big positives are:
- 2400 square feet (50% bigger than our condo on Mpls)
- Master BR with a couple of big closets (FINALLY, some closet space!) and its own bathroom
- not a huge yard, but still plenty of yard for Hank, and it's nicely fenced and planted
- a great new fully screened porch that was part of the addition
- truly move-in condition...there are some projects we want to do, but nothing we NEED to do...it's pretty much ready to move in and enjoy. And the addition was really done well.
- some interesting architectural aspects, like arched doorways, hardwood floors in great shape, and a cool staircase
- lots and lots of natural light. Our condo was very dark b/c it was surrounded by big buildings so that will be a great change
On the downside:
- no garage - project #1 for me!! also no off-street parking as of now
- some painting to do
- since it's so well-polished, we don't anticipate a big payoff when we sell. But for us it's worth having most of the things we want, every day, to live in.
Our inspections have gone well with the exception of some chimney/flue work that needs to be done. Good news is that the sellers are covering that expense, though we'll have to actually have the work done after we take possession. We've haggled back and forth on some of those details, but it came out ok for us and we're clear for a smooth closing now.
Speaking of which, we do our walk-through this Wednesday, and close Thursday morning. That's always a fun 3 hours! The sellers accommodated our quick closing date, but asked to keep possession for 3 days after closing, to bridge the gap until they can move into their new place. So we worked out a rent-back arrangement for them to stay in the house until Sunday (march 18th), when the place will officially be ours.
We're going to get some painting and other small projects done during the week of 3/19 before we move in. Then our big move in will happen on Tuesday 3/27 (when the big truck will bring all our stuff from the storage locker it's been sitting in for the past 4 months). After that, we'll pack up our apartment here and transport all this stuff over, and we'll be done with that part. I would guess that by April 1, we will be totally into the place on a permanent basis. Then we just have to get the unpacking done....
So....bottom line is 1) we are excited about finally moving forward on this, and 2) as of April, the door is open to all visitors!! One of the big reasons this is so relieving for us, is that we can finally officially extend open invites to you all to come stay with us. When you get here, we're going to have a great guest room and plenty of interesting things to do while you're here, so come on down! We're just 20 minutes from the airport. Did I mention that it is going to be 80 degrees here this week???
I think that is enough for now...like I said, I'll try to work this week to get our lives updated on this site....topics to come are: Terri's new job, Hank's new day care, new pictures, my upcoming las vegas trip, and of course I know you can't get enough stories about my motorcycle!
Take care everyone! Glad to be back on line!
Sam Terri and Hank
After a 4+ month house search, we finally found something that really got us excited. Here's the shortened story of what has been happening: when we moved to Richmond, I think we both figured "smaller city, smaller prices", but that just hasn't been the case. In fact I think houses are more expensive here than in Mpls, and we thought Mpls was pricey! I think there are a few things contributing to this: first, there are plenty of people here making plenty of money...Capital One, Phillip Morris, Suntrust Bank, Circuit City, CarMax, and Genworth Financial are just a few examples of the companies with large presences here in the city. Definitely not as much as Mpls, but there are fewer than a million people here so the money is more concentrated. Second, we have been choosy - we are city people and we want to be in the most urban area while still getting the things (yard, garage, etc.) that we want. And there seem to be plenty of people who want the same things we want, so while there may be cheap housing in many areas around here, it's not in the areas we want.
Compounding all this is the fact that we want to use public schools, but the Richmond schools are not consistently good at all. There are just a few good public elementary districts, so price competition is further increased there.
We were looking in some of those areas and felt very priced out...like we would have to get the cheapest house on the block, still have a big mortgage payment, and a list of things we wanted to improve on the house without a nickle to spend on any of it. We were really close to offering on one of those kinds of places, when Terri called the principals at two of the good public schools, and they were very encouraging about our chances of getting into one (or both) of those schools from out of district. So this opened our search back up to some areas of town we had written off, one of which is Westover Hills. A real cool neighborhood, right near the James River that cuts through the city...a nice friendly feel, older houses, mature trees, young families, etc. But still very close to downtown and the more "happening" areas. There were 2 or 3 houses in Westover Hills that were new listings and seemed like good options. We saw them all on a Wednesday night last month, and decided the next day to make an offer on our favorite of the 3. After a weekend of haggling and back-and-forth, our offer was accepted on Monday night.
Here's a link to some pictures and virtual images of the place:
http://www.circlepix.com/tour.htm?id=507001&mls_tour=1
We're really excited about it. It's deceptive in that the curb appeal is not fantastic, a pretty basic brick cape cod...but the previous owners did a big addition project 2 years ago that added 800 square feet to the house, including a big, warm family room, a new kitchen, and a terrific master bedroom suite. Other big positives are:
- 2400 square feet (50% bigger than our condo on Mpls)
- Master BR with a couple of big closets (FINALLY, some closet space!) and its own bathroom
- not a huge yard, but still plenty of yard for Hank, and it's nicely fenced and planted
- a great new fully screened porch that was part of the addition
- truly move-in condition...there are some projects we want to do, but nothing we NEED to do...it's pretty much ready to move in and enjoy. And the addition was really done well.
- some interesting architectural aspects, like arched doorways, hardwood floors in great shape, and a cool staircase
- lots and lots of natural light. Our condo was very dark b/c it was surrounded by big buildings so that will be a great change
On the downside:
- no garage - project #1 for me!! also no off-street parking as of now
- some painting to do
- since it's so well-polished, we don't anticipate a big payoff when we sell. But for us it's worth having most of the things we want, every day, to live in.
Our inspections have gone well with the exception of some chimney/flue work that needs to be done. Good news is that the sellers are covering that expense, though we'll have to actually have the work done after we take possession. We've haggled back and forth on some of those details, but it came out ok for us and we're clear for a smooth closing now.
Speaking of which, we do our walk-through this Wednesday, and close Thursday morning. That's always a fun 3 hours! The sellers accommodated our quick closing date, but asked to keep possession for 3 days after closing, to bridge the gap until they can move into their new place. So we worked out a rent-back arrangement for them to stay in the house until Sunday (march 18th), when the place will officially be ours.
We're going to get some painting and other small projects done during the week of 3/19 before we move in. Then our big move in will happen on Tuesday 3/27 (when the big truck will bring all our stuff from the storage locker it's been sitting in for the past 4 months). After that, we'll pack up our apartment here and transport all this stuff over, and we'll be done with that part. I would guess that by April 1, we will be totally into the place on a permanent basis. Then we just have to get the unpacking done....
So....bottom line is 1) we are excited about finally moving forward on this, and 2) as of April, the door is open to all visitors!! One of the big reasons this is so relieving for us, is that we can finally officially extend open invites to you all to come stay with us. When you get here, we're going to have a great guest room and plenty of interesting things to do while you're here, so come on down! We're just 20 minutes from the airport. Did I mention that it is going to be 80 degrees here this week???
I think that is enough for now...like I said, I'll try to work this week to get our lives updated on this site....topics to come are: Terri's new job, Hank's new day care, new pictures, my upcoming las vegas trip, and of course I know you can't get enough stories about my motorcycle!
Take care everyone! Glad to be back on line!
Sam Terri and Hank
posted by Sam at
7:16 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home