Focus on the rewards man!

Yeah, that new house looks like it would draw lots of people wishing to dance naked. ;)

Good News Update
 

Good vibes sometimes work in ways you don't really expect, but they do indeed work. Witness the new La Casa de Elspode, a short acre slice of heaven located in a mature (original plat in the 1930's) Raytown, Missouri neighborhood two blocks from 350 Highway.

As the Greenwood owners balked at our contingency offer, we continued to pack and begin painting on our current abode. At the same time, we kept on looking for appropriate residences to meet our needs.

Last week, I picked up a FSBO publication on a local grocery store rack. I brought it home to Mrs Elspode, who quickly focused on the below property, as I had while looking it over in the store parking lot as I waited for my son to come out of the video store.

Monday, we went to an open house. Tuesday, we called the owner and arranged for a meeting this morning so we could make an offer. Minimal wrangling was conducted, and our offer of $165k with owner paying closing costs was accepted!

I will, of course, get some site photos to share with you all later on, but I wanted you to see the Google Earth shot of this magnificent property. The lady who lives there has been a big time gardener for many years, with the result that the place comes with pecan and walnut trees, a large grape arbor, blueberry bushes inside of a wire birdproofing construct, a pair of apple trees, and gooseberry and blackberry bushes to boot. An enormous, blooming, heavily perfumed Mimosa tree joins pine, maple and other deciduous trees to provide copious shade around the yard perimeter. The front yard is small, shaded, and entirely "naturalized", planted heavily with Columbine and gladiolus.

The original house was built in 1939, with a large addition built on top of it in 1972. There is an attached two car garage with central stairs leading up to a dormer loft above, which is in turn accessible through the Master Bedroom. Two full baths, a woodburning fireplace, nearly innumerable closets and another complete unfinished dormer space are also upstairs. There is a covered front porch with porch swing, a small concrete back patio, and the large asphalt turnaround that used to be for getting your car into the original basement garage.

The clincher, of course, was the separate huge barn/garage...with a full studio apartment as its upstairs, ready for my son to move into.

There is still a chance that someone will come in within the next five days and top our offer, but we think that we're in. This means that, in about a week, I will be asking for your prayerful and energetic assistance in selling our current house, which will need to happen quickly once we've moved out.

Time and again, my experiences with all of you here on The Cellar have proven beyond doubt that the power of Group Will and positive thoughts reap mighty dividends. I thank you all for your contributions in our efforts to change not only our home, but our entire lives in the process.

Hey, nice layout! The existing nuts and fruits are a big plus as well. Congrats man, you guys deserve every good thing that comes your way.

Looks beautiful! Glad the extra studio apartment works out well for your son. Enjoy those fruit trees.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you Elspode!

Sweet! The good vibes are still pouring forth from Northern Va.

I'm sure this deal will close just fine, and the sale of you old place will go smoothly. I LOVE the barn/apartment.

Congrats. Nice land.

:celebrat:

Wow, looks and sounds great! Good luck :)

Actually, I had the boyz down in sat imagery do a little "fixin" with the property line records as a little housewarming present. Seems the surveyor forgot to include a "water feature" in the original so we "took care of that."

I'm sure the neighbor won't mind checking with you whenever he wants to take a swim in your new pool from now on. :-)

Thanks, Beestie! I'm also told that one of the neighbors has their own natural gas well, so if you could arrange that transfer, I'd be 'bout set!

Link to FSBO Online Listing for New Place
 

Only two pics, but two more than I had...

http://www.fsbo-kc.com/Listing.asp?on=3941#

That is one great looking house, els! Good for you guys!

I got dibbs on the room in the barn loft.

You're gonna have to room with my kid...

Signed the Contract Today and Took Some Pics
 

Okay...I guess it is ours...or at least, the owner is definitely going to sell it to us. Onward to the mortage company!

We are shooting for a July 21st closing. In the meantime, http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePh...9265727&page=1I took today. I hope the panorama shots I put together help lend a sense of perspective to the size and beauty of the place.

Whee! Congrats Elspode, the place looks amazing!

Congratulations!

YAY!!! Congrats 'spode

woot!!!!

My heartiest congratulations to you and yours!!!!

Party at Splodes new Place !!!!

Congrats !!!!

Holy moly - all that for 165k?? Property is freakin expensive here, so I am always amazed to see how much you can get for your money "down south"!

I'm getting a sign in and password page from that link?? :(

Try this, then select the house album.

Or this...

Same same , Splode :(

We have nearly the cheapest housing costs in the USA, at least, for a city the size of KC. Frankly, I don't understand how people who live elsewhere can afford to live at all. I'm guessing most people make a hell of a lot more money than we do here.

Some of you guys can see them, and some of you can't? That doesn't even make sense. Frigging Kodak.

I couldnt see them except on the slideshow, that worked and didnt ask me for a password or anything.


WOW - its gorgeous splode, I am considerably impressed

"or this" link worked. Looks like lots of steady yardwork ahead.:D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elspodepics/

I'm too tired to do the captions again, but I probably should have been using Flickr all along.

Els - it's insane up here. Here is a link to the house directly across the street from us that just sold for the full asking price.

http://www.sitkarealty.com/ForSaleDetail.asp?Profile=72

If you go to the very last page and look at the last picture, you are looking at our house! :) it's a tad embarrasing since we haven't painted the exterior yet.. eep

Good lord (the price, I mean, not the condition of your paint).

So yours is the two story white number? It must be comforting to know that your house is worth $600k... :right:

wow, els! Excellent digs! Nice job!

I can't get a run down shack in a neighborhood of crack dealers in Los Angeles/Orange County for less than $400,000

There's pretty good money in crack, eh?

Time to buy a riding lawnmower!


I love it when you don't get what you want, and it turns out you get something even better.

I am really happy that things worked out even better than hoped, congratulations!! Sweet yard!! I hope the weather is nice for moving day. Good luck selling your current place.

Closing day approacheth. Friday is the scheduled day. There has been much last minute foderol from the prospective mortage underwriters (lots of documentation of income sources, primarily...no, I didn't tell them about the prostitution ring or the meth lab :yelgreedy ). We had things rather thoroughly planned around being able to have the PODS container delivered on Friday or Saturday, but alas...can't get it dropped until Monday.

We have a contract for deed on our existing place, and at the price we needed to get, but the term of the contract is six months (secured by promissory note, of course), so it might be Spring before we can contract on the room addition we'll need. Before we move in, now have to forage up enough money to purchase and install a dishwasher in the new house...it is the one thing my wife won't move in without, and the one thing the place doesn't have. Sigh. Should be trivial compared to everything else we've been doing, though. Anyone ever installed one on their own...in a house that never had one before, I mean? All advice earnestly accepted.

We're about done with the major inside painting, and will be starting on the new tile soon here in the old place. That, and moving out, will discharge our final obligations under the terms of the contract for deed. I'll be glad to get started emptying this place out and filling up the new one. My son is eagerly looking forward to his new digs as well. Should be *much* nicer for him, being in a structure of his own and out of the suburban ghetto fourplex.

I can't tell if things are happening too quickly or not quickly enough.

I have extensive kitchen remodeling and dishwasher installation experience. I also used to plan and sell kitchen cabinets. The biggest problem with dishwashers is dealing with a "built-up" floor, where a second floor is installed that doesn't go under the cabinet but meets the bottom of the cabinet.

The newest dishwashers can now accomodate built-up floors with adjustable feet. But a few years ago, I had to lift the countertop to get the dishwasher in. It is especially bad when you have a secondary floor of thick ceramic tile. Last month I installed a new dishwasher and could only do it because the design accomodated the thick built-up floor. In this case, I would not be able to lift up the ceramic countertop without breaking it.

There are three connections: intake water, waste water, and electricity.

Spend the extra $10 and buy a flexible intake hose for dishwashers. It's almost impossible to correctly cut and bend copper tubing while on your belly reaching under the dishwasher.

RS, if they made stuff that was dehydrated or inflatable, and cost ten times as much, that is what I would use. No brainer on the flex for intake water for me. That's good info on the adjustable feet thing, too. Something I never would have thought of, but which is highly possible in this heavily modified home I am buying.

My biggest concern is getting the output water and power to the dishwasher, really. We're going to have to sacrifice some cabinet space to install one at all, and the cabinet I'm going to install in is on an "L" peninsula from the water/drain/power location. Tricky for a non-builder like myself.

It sounds like you are asking for trouble. The waste pumps can push water about 6 feet into a drain pipe. Do you have a basement to get underneath do to that work? I would seriously consider finding a location next to the sink.

Listen to him Els.

Also, maybe a pro install deal from the local big box hardware store, Lowe's Sears etc...sometimes the install is free with a large enough purchase.

I've done two in our house here and I won't do the next one. I'll hire it out. Big ass pain in the neck head knuckles etc. and get a good mop and some towels too.

didn't you once reveal your lack of plumbing skills/experience? If this is your first project, you'll definitely get some experience, but you may wind up only increasing your cursing skills. Plumbing + electricity + finish carpentry +++ all thehassles of a new home anyway...is this a battle to pick or pass?

me agan withanother edit...What about a rollup/external unit?

I'm definitely listening. My construction skills are well below par, I'd guess. Hell, I can't even paint real well, if my current project is any indication. Then again, it is a lot harder with people and furniture still in the house...especially when trying to paint the entire upstairs.

Portable DW won't cut it. Takes up too much floor space, and the kitchen, while okay, isn't exactly spacious, either. No, we truly bought a great yard with a nice house on it, not the other way around.

That's a terrific plan. Good for you.

Just, be careful of remodeling projects. Over 22 years, I've owned 5 houses in two metro areas and I was a commissioned salesman at a home remodeling retail store for 4 years. I've done projects and gotten my hands dirty.

Go with Best Practices. Don't go against the grain.

Specifically, if you can not connect a 6' rubber drain hose to standard plumbing already in your home, do it differently. You don't want to invite serious problems. Listen to BigV, he's on target.

Huh? I'm sure you meant to say something here, but I missed the translation. If you can't do it the right way, um.. what?

I understood Rock Steady to mean "If installing the diswasher in your preferred location will prevent a proper hookup, then try a different location that will work better."

I can't help with the putting the dishwasher, but I did want to mention the Sears clearance centers. Basically, they are scratch and dent stores. If you don't mind a nick or scratch, you can get a good discount. I don't know your zipcode to look if there is a store near you. I know someone who got great deals by shopping there. If you go to sears.com, at the bottom is the store locator. Make sure you un-check All Sears Stores and check Sears Appliance Outlet Stores.

Good luck with the install, whatever you decide to do.

We bought all scratch-and-dent appliances. All damage is to the back or side where you can't even see it. And you get standard service warranties like on undamaged appliances.

Congradulations! I know moving is probably one of my least favorite things, so good luck with it. Good vibes are on the way! :D

We looked at Sears Clearance Center here in KC for a new fridge awhile back. We weren't terribly impressed with those prices, although there were some stellar deals on other appliances. In fact, we ended up buying a model at Home Depot which was *identical* in every way except for nameplate (Hotpoint versus Kenmore, and both actually made by GE) for $20.00 more than at Sears Clearance...with no damage at all.

The bar for our lives keeps getting raised on a nearly daily basis. Yesterday, it was word that our closing was being moved off to Monday, a spectacularly bad day for me in terms of my job. Today, my wife was informed that she has drop foot, cause unknown, and she is at the neurologist's office as we speak. For those who don't know, drop foot is the inability of the muscles that allow you to point your toes up to...well, point your toes up. This causes you to drag your foot, and to trip a lot. In my wife's case, to trip and *fall* a lot.

Keep the vibes coming. We clearly still need them.

I'm sorry to hear that about your wife..hope she gets to feeling better soon

She's done with the neurologist visit now. He says it could be cancer...or the fact that she's been crossing her legs a lot since she's lost 130# from the gastic bypass surgery. He's betting heavily on the latter, but testing for the former just to be sure.

I would characterize the visit as encouraging. He says it should pass in a few weeks if she just keeps from crossing her legs. Electromyelograms were all negative for significant nerve injury of any sort. No herniated disc problem, joint damage, stuff like that. She feels a bit better about things now as she's relatively sure that she is not cancerous, and so am I.:jig:

Glad to hear the good news. Still sending good vibes your way...

woohoo!! I have heard of the leg crossing thing myself. I doesn't sound unreasonable.

btw, congrats to MrsEls on the 130# loss. My hat's off to you. I could follow your example. wtg!

All these moving in things are temporary, Els. Just keep your head the way you always do and things will work out.

Still sending those vibes from across the Atlantic ...

We will take possession of the new house sometime tomorrow afternoon. Now the *real* work begins!

Cool, don't let the ghosts and gremlins that live in the old place bug you. It's just a last ditch effort to get you to stay. After all, you've provided considerable entertainment over the years. ;)

No worries. Well, none much. I've lived in this house since 1969, with the exception of the periods from 1976-80 and 1985-1990, and there is much here.

I patched a hole in the door the other day that was made by my mother throwing an ashtray at my asshole stepfather. As we've painted and cleaned and packed, vestiges of the people and events that have made this house a home have passed by my sight and through my mind, evoking many memories, both good and not so good. I've seen layers of wallpaper that date back to my aunt and uncle's ownership of the place, and that made me think of the sad death of their hellbound young son Steven from drugs and general misuse of his young and handsome body. I removed the little wood blocks from a bedroom door frame that were used to brace the child gate back when my son was a toddler. I patched holes made when we hung a pullup bar in the kitchen doorway so my sister could practice her gymnastics when she was a child.

There are probably too many such things to even try to list, or even contemplate at length. I think I've put them mostly to rest, but unpacking in the new place will stir even more such memories as items long since tucked away resurface and are again stored.

The energies of this home and the people who have lived here will come with us to the new place, because they live in my spirit, not in this assemblage of wood and concrete. I hope they like the new place, too.