Housing Part 4

Well, thank you for all the housing advice.  We agreed the majority of people and decided to switch from our custom built house to the colby #1 - house A.  They did drop the price from 360K to 355K which increased our incentives to almost 18K.  Not as good as the people buying from scratch but still okay.  The two homes across the street from us sold this summer for 500K so that is going to help us maintain home value.

Things we are excited about...

1- The really large, spacious kitchen

2-  Very open floor plan

3- 0.8 mile walk to the front door of the elementary school
4- community playground and swimming pool
5- Neighbors with small kids

Things we are NOT excited about...

1- Total waste of space in the master bedroom closets (they are the size of a bedroom) -- should have been made into an extra bathroom.  This really, really annoys me but there is nothing we can do about it.

2- This is minor but it would have been nice to pick out more upgraded bathroom flooring and lighting throughout the house -- not a big deal at all really

3- fairly small lot (it is all usable space though and will be plenty big for kids to run and play)

Overall, we feel very good about the decision we made.  I would really have nothing on the NOT excited list if it weren't for the lack of bathroom/wasted space issue.  We think it will be a great neighborhood and great house.

I took a few photos of it tonight.  I will update them as the house is finished.

Our street

Standing in the kitchen looking at Victor in the family room

Back of the house.  This does not show the entire yard.

Kitchen in early stages

Now we just need to sell the WI home!  Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

Curious George

Erik loves reading.  One book he likes is Curious George.  This weekend Victor and Erik went to a Broadway-style curious George production.  Erik liked it a lot.  He said he clapped his hands the whole time, really liked the "meatball machine", and got to see the "movie" twice (before and after the intermission).  He also seemed to enjoy special one-on-one time with his Dad. 

Here are a couple of photos...

Housing Part 3

We made a verbal offer today on Colby #1 (house A) for 349,000 (asking price 360,000).   We have not heard back from the builder but are hopeful they will at least come down to 355,000 or so. If they do we will probably renegotiate down to 352,000 plus one upgrade we want added to the house.

The builder we had planned on going with continues to be gracious and is allowing us to stay under contract with them until Monday.  If the builder for Colby #1 is unwilling to negotiate we will likely threaten and follow through on building with their competitor.

We are nervous/excited/anxious and hopeful that we made the right decision.  I will feel good about things if we can get the house between 350K and 355K.  We will see.

Waukesha house --- one very interested couple went through this weekend.  They spent over an hour in the house but have not followed up so apparently they are not interested.  Err!!  Another couple went through yesterday -- no follow up.  We are planning on dropping the price another 5K tomorrow.  We really need to close on the house no later than late October so we can use our equity (whats left of it) for a down payment on the Maryland house.

It is very painful to be losing money on our Waukesha home but on the upside the house we put a verbal offer in would have cost us somewhere between 400,000 and 450,000 3-4 years ago so we are losing money in one place and gaining it in another.

Stress Relief

Certainly the housing situation will be worked out but it has been disrupting my sleep this week.  Err!!  Thankfully, this cute girl (and her cute brother of course) help keep things in perspective.

Housing Part 2

Well, Victor, the kids, and I spent a good part of the day in Southern Maryland.  We looked at two spec homes (built by the competing builder) and an existing home.

These homes were in two different neighborhoods.  I am going to explain the differences in the neighborhoods below...

1)  Wildewood...

-slightly older but still all new homes
- community pool
-nice playgrounds
-smaller lots (1/4 acre)
-walking distance (about a mile) to a brand new elementary school
-townhomes, duplexes, and single family homes are all part of the community

2) Mrytle Point...

-newer community still starting phases of development
-bigger lots (1/3 acre) with a lot more wooded/private lots
-no community pool or playground now (although it is planned to add these in the next 3-4 years which doesn't matter now but will if you try to resell your house)
-NO townhomes or duplexes
-elementary school is about 5 miles away-- older school
-very beautiful community -- looks nicer than Wildewood
-more expensive homes will be built in this neighborhood than the other one which may help resale value

Onto comparing the homes we looked at....


A)  Colby #1

Builder:  Stanley Martin

Neighborhood:  Wildewood

Features:  Kick ass kitchen (everything you would ever want in a kitchen -- you will drool), very nice family room, nice layout on main level, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

Missing Features:  Office, extra bathroom upstairs so kids don't share one bathroom getting ready in the morning (when older), basement is unfinished, little to no upgrades in the house except for the kitchen

Square feet:  Not exactly sure but around 3000

Price: 359,000

Incentives:  12,000 off of original price (already accounted for above); will be ready by end of October; 3% toward closing

Concerns:
1--the builder is currently offering new builders in wildewood (starting from scratch) 25,000 worth of incentives  (finished basement, free fireplace, 2000 back);  if we make an offer we would put it in around 345k or 350k but they are a large company and not likely to budge a lot.
2-- We think Wildewood would be a nice place to live especially with small kids but are nervous that people will prefer homes in Myrtle point if we try to sell in 5-10 years (and the playground and pool there would be done by then)


B) Colby #2

Builder:  Stanley Martin

Neighborhood:  Mrytle Point


Features:  Kick ass kitchen (everything you would ever want in a kitchen -- you will drool), very nice family room, nice layout on main level, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms; nicer ceramic tile in master bath, nicer lighting package, nice front porch, upgraded carpet

Missing Features:  Office,  basement is unfinished



Square feet: 3100

Price: 385,000

Incentives:  10,000 off of original price (already accounted for above); will be ready by end of September; 10,000 toward closing


Concerns:
1- Price
2-  Not sure we want to be in a neighborhood that won't have access to pools or playgrounds for 2-3+ years
3- Must drive kids to elementary school
4-  On the main road of the neighborhood; still pretty quiet

3) Existing Home - previously built


Builder:  can't remember at the moment-- they are out of business;  House is new.  Was built in 2008.

Neighborhood:  Mrytle Point


Features: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, finished basement, lots of hardwood through out house, nice porch

Missing Features:really sucky lay out on the main floor; small undesirable kitchen


Square feet: 3500 (including basement)

Price: 340,000

Incentives:  Price -- they have dropped it by $45,000


Concerns:
1-Lot-->  it is a flag lot that means it shares a driveway with another house (when you sit on your front porch you look directly into the backyard of your neighbor)
2-  absolutely NO storage room (every inch of the basement is finished!)
3- kitchen
4-- lot; most of the lot is flat and usable but on one side of the house the lot is very, very sloped (hard to walk on at all)

D)  Building Our Originally Planned House



Builder: Curtis Homes

Neighborhood:  Mrytle Point


Features: 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms,  really nice kitchen; very similar floor plan to the Colby (which we love), closed off kids playroom on main floor (instead of useless "sitting" room), Office upstairs; lots of hardwood on main level; nice ceramic tile in bathrooms upstairs; really nice wooded and private lot

Missing Features: basement is not finished; it is on a private drive -- this is nice because it is very quiet (only 5 houses on the road which is attached to a cul-de-sac) however it is not maintained by the city so snow removal and road maintenance is required by the home owners


Square feet:2800-2900

Price: 394,000

Incentives: 10,000 toward closing;  10,000 of in design center (already accounted for); picked everything out ourselves; nicer homes in neighborhood (new homes range in price from 375K-425Kor so)

Concerns:  price (if we go this route we will likely take 10000 of upgrades out to drop the price) top end of our budget for sure especially after losing so much on our WI home; waiting--wouldn't expect getting into the house until Christmas which is a long 3 months of commuting 3 hours a day for Victor


We are leaning strongly towards a particular house. I am not going to tell you which one but would love it if you would leave a comment and tell us if you would pick A, B, C, or D based on my descriptions.  Sorry there are not any photos.  We need to make this decision SOON so speak up now!

Thanks for your input!

Housing

As most of you know we are planning on moving to southern Maryland sometime this fall.  This has been a long process.  Victor was first offered the job (verbally) in March.  We spent a few days meeting the people he would be working with and exploring the area.  We decided we would be okay moving there and by the end of April had communicated that to his future department.

In May we started actively looking at houses in southern Maryland.  After touring about 15 homes and not finding anything we really liked we decided that we would build a house again.

Building a house is (or I should say--was) not much more expensive and then we can pick out what we want so it seemed to be the way to go.  We picked a neighborhood and a builder and finalized the building plans by the end of May. 

We needed to sell our house in WI so we got that ready and listed it around June 1st.  (Thank you Dad and Colin for all your help.)

During June and July nothing happened -- not in the building process, selling process, or final job offer process.  Very frustrating.

Two weeks ago Victor was given an official offer.  We are still in the process of negotiating salary but it is almost complete. 

Our tenants moved out of our house in WI on August first so we are now able to be more aggressive during the sale process (they were not real compliant with showings) and have dropped our price by $10,000.  We will likely be dropping it another $5,000 soon.  We have had more interest and our real estate agent thinks we are close to finding a buyer.  Hopefully.  Even if we don't drop the price any further we are going to lose $50,000 at a minimum -- likely closer to $75,000.  Very painful. Terrible really-- hopefully it will be a once in a lifetime experience.  

In Maryland-- the job offer is moving closer to being finalized and we anticipate Victor starting his job there somewhere around October 1st.   The house building is still going nowhere.  They are still waiting for the building permit.  What?!  How does that take 3 months?  So at this point the earliest they will dig a hole in the ground is September 1st (likely later) which means the house wouldn't be done until January 1st at the earliest.  Not so great.  3 months of commuting  1 1/2-2 hours each way will not work. 

In addition to the house building process being completely stalled the house prices have continued to drop. This is good except it means the price we locked in at is too high!  If we have to sell the house again in 3-5 years we will likely be in a situation where we are going to lose money again.  It would be difficult to absorb this twice.

So what do we do?  Well, I have been looking for other housing options.  There is not a ton of homes available in the area.  I did find one that looks promising though.  It is in the same neighborhood we are going to build in.  It is only 2 years old, has a finished basement, and is $55,000 less than what we were going to spend.  It is a short sale which could slow down the process but it seems like a super good deal.  The sellers have dropped the price of their house by $45,000 since January (and still haven't sold it).  We are going to look at it on Wednesday.  The interior is not beautiful and I do not like the kitchen lay out at all but I can overlook things like that for $55,000 I think!

This is all causing me a bit of anxiety and I have a few specific prayer requests....


1--  We sell our house in Waukesha quickly!  Preferably in the next 2-3 weeks.  In addition to dropping the price we have also offered the agent that sells it an extra $1000 if we get an offer before the end of the month.

2--  We will have clear direction regarding whether or not to put an offer in on the cheaper house.  We would likely need to put an offer in without a contingency regardless of whether or not we sell our house.  We need a place to live regardless of whether of not we sell our house but it will be much easier to come up with a 20% down payment after selling our house!  We are going to look at this house on Wednesday!

3-- That the builder will let us out of our contract without fighting us.  We have only given them $1000 and we know we would lose that (we are okay with that) but we hope they don't try to fight us harder.  I informed the builder of our thought process this morning and have not heard anything back from them.

4-- That we make the the right decisions and have peace about it!


Thanks for letting me pass some of my stress onto you -- hopefully I will sleep better tonight.

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

We have been taking Erik to a gymnastics class once a week off and on during the past year.  I think he has probably been to 20-30 classes total.  This summer I signed him up for a class on Friday (instead of Saturday) so Lainey has been going with us.

Lainey of course thinks she is a class participant too.  She loves the huge trampoline that the kids jump on.  The teacher, whose name is also Elaina, really seems to like her as well.

As soon as we get to the building Lainey sits down to take off her shoes and then runs to the door trying to reach the handle and signing please, please, please frantically because she wants to go in the studio.

Erik likes gym class too but in general he is less exuberant about things.  They both have the same favorite activity though -- the rings.  Here are some photos....

Blurry because it was on my phone and he was swinging back and forth.

Lainey is braver than most of the 2 year old kids in the class -- she even knows to drop after I count to three.  Funny girl!

This class is expensive but I really love it and think it is good activity for the kids.  I am fairly certain there is nothing similar to it in southern Maryland.  It will be missed when we move.

First Official Haircut

We took Lainey to get her first official haircut yesterday.  If you recall she got her hair buzzed at 5 months of age.  Her hair has grown back in nicely now but she really had a mullet -- long hair in the back with short sides.  Now is it trimmed into a nice bob -- although her bangs are still long because I am going to grow them out for her.

She did really well -- no tears.  She did stand up in the middle of it so after that I held her while she ate a lollipop and Mr. Le finished her hair cut.

What a brave girl!

This makes me laugh!

We sure do love you baby girl!

Add caption

What do you think of my new 'do?

Notable Quotes

Overheard while Erik was talking to himself in the bathroom, "Wow! There sure is a lot of air coming from the back of my butt."

You may not find this funny but it makes me laugh out loud every time I think about it.  He was very serious about it.  So so funny!

 

A Lainey-style tantrum

Lainey has been fairly crabby for a week now which I think is because she is trying to get her 8th tooth.  I thought since she has been throwing quite a few fits it was important to capture one on camera. 

I want your phone

No?  That is not fair!

Please?!

Still no!  Okay, now I am really sad!

For a tantrum it sure is cute!

14 Months Old

Hi Sweet Lainey!

You are 14 months old today!  I can't believe how big you are now.  This summer you have changed from a baby to a toddler.  You are so much fun and so full of personality.  Just seeing you in the morning makes me smile.  We love you!


Here is what you are up to now....

Sleeping...

You are a good sleeper.  You take two naps a day.  The morning one is usually around 9:30 and is about 45 minutes.  In the afternoon you usually sleep from 1:00-2:30 or so.  At night you sleep from 7:30 until 6:30 or so.  You get up about once a week in the middle of the night.  If you do wake up we don't always go in but if we do you usually just want a 1-2 minute snuggle and then go back to bed.  If we don't get you to bed early enough you get fussy and will often point to your bed and sign please indicating you just really want to sleep.  So cute!  You sleep with a baby doll under each arm.  You also like to bring a book to bed with you.  You still have your "plug" but we are planning on throwing them all away on August 20th!  The doctor wants them gone by your 15 month appointment. We plan to comply!  It will be painful though so I hope you are able to adjust quickly.

Eating...

You are a really good eater now - not picky at all.  Some days you eat more than me and other days you eat almost nothing.  Fairly normal for a 1 year old I think. You have a sweet tooth already-- 2nd child syndrome!  If we are eating dessert you insist on having some too!

Drinking...

For milk you are drinking Rice Milk.  I don't know what is best but that is what you are on now.  We bought some coconut milk and almond milk this week so we will try those too and maybe just give you a little of multiple types of milk.  I am nervous about the almond milk because of Erik's tree nut allergy but he tried your rice milk and hated it so I don't think he will get anywhere near your milk again.  I just weaned you completely this week.  You seemed ready to make the transition finally.  I was ready to be done too but always love nursing my babies!

Personality....

You are full of it!!  You are such a joyful, spunky little girl.  You love to climb everything -- the couch, chairs, slides, onto the kid table, etc.  Very dangerous!  You like to play chase.  You love Erik!!  He is your favorite.  The second you hear him over the monitor you run to the stairs and climb them as fast as you possibly can to get into his room. When you see him you shriek with delight!  So cute!

You are an affectionate little girl.  You like to be held and are quick to give us hugs and kisses.  You love your baby dolls are very tender and gentle with them.  I often find you rocking your babies cradle and singing to them. Music is your other favorite thing.  The second you hear music you start dancing and clapping.  You even clap along to the radio when you are riding in the car.

If you want something you make that very clear!  If we can't or won't give it to you you get quite upset and will bat at us and push us away.  You often put your head on the floor or into a pillow and cry when you are mad/sad.

You still have little to no stranger anxiety.  You will go to almost any woman willingly-- especially people in their 50's and 60's.  This makes grandma-type people very happy.  You were very upset when I left you in the gym nursery one day but I think you may have been hungry.  I don't know for sure because I haven't left you there since.  You do fine with the church nursery though.  You are not very willing to go to strange men although your strong preference for mommy over daddy is waning a bit.  You do not like to be left alone anywhere so if I leave the room you often follow behind me - often crying.  Poor thing!  If someone else if holding you or playing with you though you usually are fine when I leave.

Lainey with Sean's grandma at Sean's birthday party.  

One other funny thing you do that makes me smile is try to jump.  You bend your knees and try so hard to get off the ground but can't.  You get to tag along to Erik's gymnastics class.  You love it.  Since Erik is still 2 I participate in the class as well.  You think you are a full member.  When we get to the gymnastics studio you point to the door and frantically sign please because you want to go in.  You try to climb the ladders and like running on the trampoline.  Your favorite thing though is the rings!  You stand over by the ring station pointing up and signing please.   You know just what to do too!  You hang on all by yourself while I swing you back and forth (I even let you go because you are so good at it).  When I count to three I tell you to let go and you usually do.  I catch you and then drop you onto the mat.  You just smile and giggle.  Most of the 2 years are not as brave as you!  Erik loves the rings too -- he is a monkey on them.  I don't have any pictures but will try to get some next week.  That is the last class you will get to join Erik for because when he turns three I won't go in with him  anymore which means you won't either.  You are going to be very sad!  Poor girl.

You add so much joy to our family!  We love you so much!

Grandma Kay's Visit

Grandma Kay came to visit.  Lainey is not sure what to think about self-portraits.

We went to the playground.

98 degrees out.

Silly photos

Thanks for coming.

Parenting (an almost) 3 year old

Making cookies with mommy in his "baking dress."

Making playdough with grandma Kay.

This cutie pie has been trying my patience recently.  He is almost 3 and acting like it.  He is full of opinions and spends a large portion of the day challenging me.  It is exhausting.   It can be about anything -- small and large.  I really don't know what to do about it. I have put a large portion of his toys in time out, him in time out, given him extra room time, offered rewards for cooperation, given him 2 choices to avoid conflict/give him a sense of control, and actually swatted his butt once or twice.  I would prefer to avoid the latter and would admit that is not something I want to incorporate into our discipline routinely.  He does get a warning beforehand and discussion afterward but it is still not something I feel good about.

I am hoping this challenging behavior is short lived.  In between the not-so-nice-episodes he is still my sweet, tender-hearted boy.   I am hoping to see more of that boy soon.

Other parents of 3+ year old kids -- how long did this phase last and what did you do to correct the not-so-nice behavior?

Melted

This baby girl melts my heart.

Nighty night!

mister hunter

 

binocs and glowstick

searching for cake and ice cream

dinosaur hunter