Madness In My Method

Still no house yet.

( Adventures In House Hunting )

I have another long list of homes to view tomorrow. I wish I could force myself to discard more of them without having to go out and see them, but because I'm really wanting a lot of square footage, and I'm limited on price, it means I'm having to picture a lot more of the potential of a house versus the current state of the house. This unfortunately means that there are many houses I can't outright discard because the description says "as is," "needs TLC," or "handyman special," or because the pictures present a home with exposed slab and a few holes in the walls. Two of the houses on the list for tomorrow have no pictures at all, but I've found the pictures aren't always as helpful as they could be. Flooring, wall work, painting, bleaching a bathroom, stripping and re-staining cabinetry - those things I can do and happily if I can get most everything else on my wish list. Plus, I would have a grand sense of it really being mine after doing such work.

I am hoping that I find something soon, because I am starting to get worn out from looking.

Waiting for news about the house offer, and one of the houses I really wanted to see but it was above my price range dropped in price YESTERDAY to firmly within my price range. And unlike the house I've put an offer in on, this one wouldn't require any fixing up in order for me to move in. I can still go see this second house, and if I really want I can back out of my other offer, but it's just so frustrating that it would drop in price right while I'm in the middle of my waiting game for the other house. Grrrrr.

I finally hit a price point at which I can qualify for a conventional loan without having to bug my parents for a co-sign! I will still go FHA if I can, as it's cheaper, but the conventional loan opens up my options of housing just a tiny bit more.

( How this helps, but not significantly? )

I saw 16 houses today. There were 21 on my list, but I was only expecting to see 5-7 today. The plan was originally to see more small groups of houses during the course of the week. Instead, the agent and I were reeling to go, so we went. Seeing houses that have no A/C while running around in 100+ heat is no bueno, but we did it.

I have house images crawling out of my eyeballs.

There are so many thoughts and emotions flooding my system right now. It doesn't help that I'm PMSing.

This is me.

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The bank accepted the other offer for the house. That's probably best, because apparently the house has foundation issues, something that I don't want to deal with whatsoever.

The realtor is rearing to go and look at more houses with me. I'm definitely ready for a house, but right now with these heightened emotions going on, I'm too likely to make a bad decision. I'm thinking about taking a couple weeks off from house hunting just to give me time to get my head on straight.

I'm not in any HUGE rush. I could use the extra time to add more to my savings. I've already starting training myself to go home for lunch, eat more leftovers and sandwiches, and not spend so much money going out. I'm not 100% successful, but I'm not one to go cold-turkey on things either. Remember, I don't believe in going ON diets, but instead just making small changes to my current diet. The same holds true for my spending habits.

I know that moving out now will significantly hinder my finances. I've wanted a house since my teens when I first started buying dishes for my own place even though I was still living with my parents. I never wanted to rent, ever, so the fact that I'm still renting now annoys me. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic and I'm worried I'm going to start getting more and more bitchy as a result. I don't want to do that to my friends. I feel like I'm in a race for time without meaning to be.

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We didn't get our bonus checks at work this month because of low sales. I'm so frustrated at a couple of the techs. I know we didn't have a lot of calls last month, but I also know when certain techs aren't doing the job the way that they are supposed to be doing it in order to try and encourage sales. I don't budget for a bonus check, but I was hoping to get one to help cover the cost of the dining table I bought. It's not like I'm hurting for money because of not getting the bonus, but it does suck that I didn't get it.

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Speaking of job, I mentioned before my work frustrations. Yeah, that's not helping my mood one bit. I feel a bit like I'm in a downward spiral right now. I'm searching for the rope so that I can decide if I want to hang myself or use it to crawl back up. Haven't decided yet. (That's a joke.)

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I may be emotional, but I'm a natural survivor. I really don't know how to give up. The answer to, "Are you going to be okay?" is always, "I have to be." It may take a little time, but I'll get there.

I *finally* got around to finishing the paint job in my bathroom. We've been in this house for three years now, and I managed to get the entire bedroom, closet, and bath painted during the extra month we had before moving in. I never finished up the bathroom cabinets and baseboard, though. Well, I managed to get the cabinet walls and baseboard painted last night, along with the cabinet holding the sink. Tonight I'll paint the cabinet and drawer fronts, as it's a different color and I only bought one paint brush.

That will officially conclude the painting job I started 3 years ago. The walls need touch-up, as I made the mistake of using water-based paint in a bathroom, so the paint is literally melting down the walls and looks suitably creepy at this point. Eileen noted that it would have made for a very interesting effect if the background was black instead of white. Seeing the melty outlines in black instead of white would have been even more creepy, but worth keeping and not requiring touch-up.

In the meantime, I have Mr. Miyagi's voice in my head - "Remember, 'paint the fence'?"

Or in this case, paint the cabinets. Man, my wrists hurts.

I'm nervous. So I hiccup. I HATE that I get the hiccups when I'm nervous.

I've been hiccuping off and on for the past 3 days now.

It's annoying, because my brain is nonchalant, but apparently the rest of my body is nervous.

I'm gathering all of my paperwork to take tomorrow for official mortgage processing. Seriously, my brain is not stressed at all about this. But, hiccup!

The house is a torn up mess while our water lines are (mostly) re-piped. My toilet is still in my shower and I believe that at some point my sink and cabinet will be removed from the wall. Last night I reserved the ability to walk into K&E's bedroom for restroom needs, and luckily never used it. Tonight I have uncovered the door to Narnia that separates my bedroom from T&J's hallway. They have full flush capability tonight, so that makes the better choice in case of need.

I'm much more comfortable with moves because I have control over my things. This? This is driving up the freaking wall (for as long as we still have them). The inspection is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon - hopefully we'll have hot water again by then. In the meantime, I'm showering at my parents' place in the morning before my dentist appointment.

Well, at least it's better than 2:30 or 3:30 like last night.

And at least this time I have the thunderstorms that are rolling through to mostly blame. I was pretty soundly asleep until then. I still decided to go ahead and take a Benadryl as a knock-off sleeping pill. Even if I sleep in till 1pm, I know my brain and body needs it. I'm thoroughly exhausted and I can see where it's affecting my periphery thinking and energy levels.

My goal for tomorrow later today is to finish the painting of my bathroom cabinets and baseboard. You know, that project that I started during the first month that we owned the house approximately a year and a half ago? I'm tired of looking at the blue tape that is STILL on the floor and opening the cabinets and drawers without the handles that were taken off many moons ago.

Up for grabs either later this weekend or starting next weekend is to see exactly how fast I could actually come up with a design for our bar. If you've visited, then you know that our bar section of the kitchen is just a counter with scattered alcohols, glasses and sundry. The cabinets above were threatening to come down in a spectacular way until I emptied it of its contents, and by all accounts that's not a half bad idea (just subtract out the whole "spectacular" part of that equation and we're good). So, like I did with the building of the bookcase for a friend, my goal is to measure out the space, create a design in Excel (a great substitute for graph paper - although I am tempted to grab the graph notepad out for old times' sake), create a 3-D version of the design in Google Sketch-Up, and then build.

Now, unlike that bookcase, I don't plan on spending a year and a half on the project. Fall is starting up which makes for perfect weather to do wood working out in the garage. I'm a pansy, and too hot or too cold puts a stop to that pretty quickly. I'll be pestering the crap out of Tom to remind me how not to chop off a finger with the circular saw. I really wish I had more experience with the wood-working tools so I didn't have to keep bugging him, but my chosen projects seem to be few and far between.

Reminder to Self:
Take BEFORE pictures of the bar, this time, dumbass