Cleared for closing

Yesterday we were cleared for closing.

YES!!!!!!!

Yikes, it’s been awhile

Sorry about the lack of posts! I don’t want to get into details, but Chris and I suffered a Major with a capital M setback. Luckily, it was a major setback that, thanks to my AMAZING team of mortgage people, real estate lawyers, and realtors (both buyer and seller), is actually more of a minor setback. We are getting the condo still – it’s just that instead of closing on Tuesday (YES this coming Tuesday), we’re closing sometime a little later. Hopefully not more than a week later, but still, later.

I can’t stress this enough. If you ever buy a house, surround yourself with INCREDIBLE people. We had tried to use our regular bank for the mortgage as well, and the guy there just didn’t sit right with me. He was slow, rude, and rather unprofessional. He was doing what he needed to do in the end, but we made the executive decision right then and there to axe him and fine someone else. No hard feelings – you just need to find someone who is loyal to you and will work hard FOR you.

In the meantime, now that the weather is getting consistently warmer (today is supposed to be 79 and SUNNY oh my goodness), I’m trying to get back into eating right. The past week has been spent eating nothing but cheese, and after spending a solid month being fairly vegan, my body is crying in agony.

Exhibit A

So we’re trying to eat more vegetables and actually plan our meals. We’ve been getting home from work at 5:30, 6:00, and then being all, so what do you want to have for dinner? By then I’m starving and in physical pain, so we’ve been eating crap, pretty much. A few days ago, Chris ate an entire bag of barbecue chips by himself in one sitting.

I’m trying to change this by literally looking at pictures on foodie blogs. I hate foodie blogs because they’re usually ridiculous and rarely vegetarian, but it’s the only thing that’s working. To be honest, I actually hate cooking with the flaming passion of a thousand suns. I tried to like it, but the trouble is, by the time I get around to cooking, I’m generally starving. Cooking while starving is miserable.

How do you get inspired to cook again? We’ve started planning our meals and shopping ahead of time, but I’m worried it won’t be enough. Also, how do you find recipes?

House update and some spring/summer stuff

The purchase and sales agreement has been signed and sent off to the bank. Now comes the nice 2.5 week waiting game until we know we can buy the place. House buying is so stupid – in my perfect world, you’d leaf through a house catalog, pick your favorite, get a loan super easily, and DONE.

Things that can still go wrong:

• The appraisal comes back at a way lower price than what we offered. It’s especially tricky since we are paying relatively close to the asking price. The contract is null and void if it’s appraised even one penny lower. This is made 100x more stressful because appraisers are still using comparable housing values from six months ago, and since then all market house prices have gone up.
• The bank decides  not to give us a loan.

I can’t believe I’m using words like “appraisal” and “comparable housing values” in this blog. Ugh.

In other news we’ve been fluctuating between midsummer and early cold nasty wet spring weather. Yesterday it was 79F and sunny. Right now it’s 42 and raining. AWESOME. We took advantage of the day yesterday to pick dandelions to make dandelion wine and also go to the beach.

I think we picked way too many dandelions, and I don’t have a big enough pot. Also I have no equipment in which to sterilize my stuff, and the brewing place is closed today, and all I have is a bottle of Everclear (for cleaning purposes, people, come on!).

The beach was fun. It was so ridiculously windy we got sand all over the place. I attempted and managed to spend a couple of hours playing my DS without too much sand woes – I just hid under a towel like a creep. Chris dug a giant hole in the sand until he hit clay with a guy we met named Brian. They then put a beach chair in the giant hole and took turns lounging in it.

It was fun. Today is all about laundry, cleaning, and trying to figure out what to do with the dandelions I have sitting in my freezer. Go Sunday!

Design Manifesto

Now that we’re (probably?) moving I am finally starting to think of what I like in terms of design, and of course, what I don’t like. It feels like with the explosion of Pinterest and Instagram and everything else, it’s easier than ever to snoop on people’s houses. I’m slowly realizing I don’t like what I see recently…

I am a fan of clean lines, simple colors, and good design, much like pretty much everyone else on the internet. But unlike everyone else, I’m also a fan of authenticity. I’m getting really exhausted looking at how everyone’s houses look like Dwell showrooms. I’m tired of hearing the words “curated” and “vignetted.” I’m tired of seeing bookcase WALLPAPER instead of real bookcases, or fake books. I’m tired of seeing the exact same tired style everywhere and everywhere.

Awhile back I got sort of fashion-exhausted. I had tried to wear “fashionable” stuff and it made me feel like either I was dressed as a transvestite or like I was wearing a costume. It took me ages to figure out what sort of style I like, but now that I have, I realize I feel cooler and more confident when I’m dressed like ME than when I’m wearing the latest fashion.

I’m starting to feel this same way about decorating. I HATE some of the latest trends, and trying to push myself to fit in those trends is just making me miserable. My apartment is never going to be  catalogue/magazine worthy. It’ll be me, though, and that’s more important.

So! A quick manifesto for my style to keep in mind when I’m faced with dumb Apartment Therapy pictures:

5. I will never “style” my nightstands. I also will never “style” my bookcases unless I arrange them practically and it happens to look nice too. Nightstands and bookcases for me are for practicality. And speaking of nightstands…

4. I will never trample over Chris’ style. I see tons of  style blogs talking about how they do stuff in spite of their husband/boyfriend’s wishes. “Oh, my dude liked this one better, but I picked this other one because his choice ended up being too blue/too large/too cluttered.” Chris has FANTASTIC design sense – he’s one of those people who is artistic effortlessly, and I trust him a lot when it comes to what looks good. I’m never going to arrange HIS nightstand for him for the sake of photos, just as I won’t arrange mine.

3. My home won’t ever be perfect, and that’s okay. I can’t afford to shop at Design Within Reach. Sometimes I shop at Ikea (okay, I shop at Ikea a LOT). Sometimes I have to find stuff at Goodwill. Sometimes I have to resort to nabbing stuff off the street. I am okay with scratches in wood, small rips in vinyl, and places where the finish rubbed off. Perfection is overrated.

2. What I like and what is “popular” are two completely different things. I HATE globes as decorations. I hate frame clusters. I hate terrariums. I hate leather/fur/animal ANYTHING, real OR fake. I hate shabby chic. I hate Persian/southwestern style rugs/textiles/anything. I hate logs stacked up in fireplaces, poufs, and the way Macs show up in every interior design photo. I love black and white, wood, and clean lines, but I also love video games, Twin Peaks, and skulls. Yes, I will display my Nine Inch Nails poster, and my Team Fortress posters, and yes, you’ll see xbox controllers laying around my room.

1. Home is for living in. This ties back to number five.  I have a ton of hobbies, like painting, video games, drawing, and reading. Chris also has tons of hobbies, like piano, guitar, and servers. We’re going to accumulate STUFF, and that’s okay. Giant rooms empty except for a dining table are luxuries only rich people can have, and my personality MUST and will show though no matter where I live. This is good, and I embrace this.

What do you think of the fact that everyone’s houses look exactly the same? Do you have any design rules?

Baffled

It completely and utterly baffles me how fashion bloggers and interior design bloggers will buy an item for $800 that they LOOOOOOOOOOVE<3<3<3 and then sell it a year later like “meh.” It was $800. $800!!!!!!!!!!!! OR MORE. Sometimes WAY more! What is going on with the world I don’t even

House update

I have been quiet about the place lately! We put in an offer exactly once week ago, and since then, the offer has been accepted, the home inspection has been performed (and it went perfectly!), a tree’s worth of paperwork has been passed around, and tomorrow we’re submitting the official loan application. I feel like I’m up to my ears in paperwork, and I don’t even really have to deal with it because Chris is handling EVERYTHING. In return for him taking care of that scary manly math stuff, I’m doing laundry and dishes like a good wife-type (no we are not married and yes I am being very sarcastic).

I’m getting excited but not too excited because while at first it seemed like we were on top of everything, now it feels like we’re being so slow. All the paperwork is due on Monday and we have to sign the purchase agreement on Wednesday, and we don’t even HAVE the purchase agreement yet, and before we sign it, it has to go to our lawyer to review.

In other words, IT IS SCARY DOING ADULT STUFF.

We got the condo budget though, so that’s a load off. Turns out the budget is perfect. Now the only thing left after submitting all our paperwork tomorrow is 1) getting the loan and 2) doing the appraisal. I hope the appraisal isn’t TOO much lower than our offered price.

If (when?!) we get the place it’ll all be worth it. Chris took this picture during the home inspection. We will have the Greatest View on this side of the Charles River.

Living room planning

Moving or not, our living room needs work. We’re using an Ikea Klippan loveseat that I bought in college for $50 from my friend and my then-boyfriend broke five minutes after I handed over the money. WIN. So, the back right leg is broken and collapses constantly, usually when I have guests over, causing the entire sofa to sag into the back wall. Also it’s tiny. And the slipcover constantly slides around. And it’s ugly.

So we need a new couch for sure, and probably some extra seating because I have a crappy piece of crap armchair right now that probably will be trashed if we move.

THE BEANBAG CHAIR. My family has had a beanbag chair since I can remember.  Chris hates them but they are my favorite things in existence. I’m so glad that they make them for adults now in all sorts of colors and materials, and that they even come in materials other than vinyl. I know the rest of the “design” world is embracing the pouf, but those look uncomfortable. Beanbags are for LOUNGING, my friends.

As for sofas, we’re considering a few options, which we’ll purchase with our sizable tax return.

The ubiquitous Ikea Karlstad of course, in sivik dark gray with different legs.

The Avec Sofa from CB2. The tufting! So beautiful, but holy crap expensive.

And then, the most expensive of all:

We’ve wanted the Petrie from Crate & Barrel for about ten billion years, in medium grey. It’s lovely, right? I totally love clean lines with tufting. I know these days it’s all about the thrifted chair/sofa but sometimes the stuff people are designing new is fabulous!

And of course I still have a ton more to think about, especially where we’ll be in a few months! It’s still fun to start dreaming and planning though.

Today we are putting in an offer

We went last night to look at two more places. Let me first start out by saying we’re being extremely choosy about the places we’re even looking at. We’ve been poring through scores of house postings, filtering by price, square footage, etc, and then tossing away anything that’s ugly, doesn’t have a dishwasher, is small, or feels wrong. Then, we go to see the ones that we honestly think we could really love based on pictures, amenities, and so on. We’re not going to see places willy-nilly.

The first place didn’t feel right. By all standards it was perfectly beautiful, a third floor penthouse overlooking the neighborhood, a nice yard, a patio area, plenty of space, huge closets, TWO bathrooms (!!), a spacious kitchen, a skylight… it was all there. But it felt wrong. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that. An older couple was viewing it at the same time we were, and seemed much more into it, and to that I say good luck to them. We just didn’t like it. It was TOO quaint, TOO cute, TOO modernly renovated, TOO … perfect. It lacked character, hip neighbors, and an interesting neighborhood. There were no flaws, no interesting bits of history. Everything old had been removed and replaced by the modern equivalent.

So that one was out. We moved onto the next one, which by any standards except ours was worse than this last one.

No parking, no yard. Wonky kitchen, terrible paint colors. Newer (built in 1920 instead of the late 1800s). Yet far more character. Beautiful original baseboards, gorgeous architecture, the perfect view of a dog park across the street, two minutes away from stores, restaurants, and the hub of the neighborhood. Awesome condo association. Totally cute, plenty of storage space, HUGE (huge!), lots of sunlight – SO many windows. It was incredible. We loved it.

Today we are making an aggressive offer on the place.

Funny how so many things could go wrong now. The inspection could fail, the bank could decide not to pay because of who knows why (not enough money in the condo association pool, for example), they could decide not to accept our offer, someone could make an asking price offer an hour before we send ours in… who knows. Home buying is the most stressful experience I’ve ever been through – more stressful than moving to Boston from Austin, even. I hope that it will all be worth it in the end…

Pictures to come!

House Hunting Act 1

Act 1 started and ended very fast.

Last night we went to look at the place I mentioned in the last post. We were terrified of dead bodies in the walls, but there were no dead bodies. Unfortunately, the building was more than 50% renters, and so we were houseblocked by the bank because banks don’t want to invest in a condo if the building is mostly renters. I’m not 100% sure why but apparently it has to do with the fact that renters burn buildings down. Or something.

So, back to square one. We’re widening our search to Union Square in Somerville, and are looking at 3 places on Friday …

In the meantime, have some spring!

Buying a house

Today at about 2 o’clock Chris and I were preapproved for a mortgage. Yes, we are buying a house/condo here in Cambridge.

I know it’s ridiculous to not post for months and then be like oh hey I’m going to Maine go me and then be like oh guess what I’m buying a house. I hope I am not turning into a snobby rich person. I swear I’m not making buckets of money, especially not when compared to the rest of Cambridge, but we’re in good enough shape right now that we can take out an enormous loan and indebt ourselves to the bank forever. Go us!

I really want to document this process because it’s our first home and it’s all special or something. Since I have a blog I figured I’d do it here.

Step one was preapproval. Step two is looking at at least one place tomorrow. The place looks extremely promising, to tell the truth.

Pros:

• Amazingly huge – 1200 square feet! With a liveable basement!
• Incredible area! Probably the coolest area of Cambridge and a walkable score of 98 (no I am not joking). If you live in Cambridge or know it, you’re welcome to guess the neighborhood, but I won’t divulge until we know we don’t want it.
• DISHWASHER.
• Off street parking spot!

Cons:

• It’s been on the market for something like 51 days. I can’t imagine what sorts of horrors have kept it on the market for this long, given that it’s so cheap and huge. It’s probably got dead bodies in the walls.
• No yard. Not even enough space for a little garden. Maybe I can plant one tomato plant. Maybe.
• Probably no dogs. The condo policy is “pets negotiable” which probably means “cats are fine but no dogs unless the dog is mute.” Not a dealbreaker though – I’d love to get a dog but I have an adorable puppy niece and nephew anyway, and plus Augustus the Cat is pretty much a dog, to be honest.

Wish me luck!