So. I thought about it. Talked it over with Mom and Dad. Decided that it would be damned stupid to miss out on a house like this one if I waited to hear from the bank and then discovered that someone else had stepped in to buy it.

I talked to my realtor, who said that I could sign a contract with a clause that if financing fell through, the deal was off (which is normal, evidently. Evidently, people don’t even go to their banks first. They sign the contracts first) and that if I really liked it (I do) I should go ahead and give the nice old lady an offer.

So… I’m going to meet him tomorrow and sign the contract. And then we will see.

Before I called him, I read over my list of things to look for in a house. Here’s the list, with comments:

–stone or brick OR log construction OR a combination of stone/log No. But it does have a stone foundation.

–hardwood floors, NO CARPET There’s hardwood floors under the carpet that is in the living room and dining room. It’s really… interesting carpet. I might have to save a piece of it and make it into a rug.

–preferably at least 50 years old The house is probably close to 100 years old.

–at least two bedrooms (three would be great, or a small den or something that could be converted into an office.) There are four bedrooms, plus a parlor, a living room, a formal dining room, and a ‘breakfast room’ that is as big as the kitchen.

–one bathroom is fine, but one and a half is better The house has two full bathrooms. One of them is original with a clawfooted tub. The other one has a pink toilet. (I kid you not.) I can live with the green tile in the bathroom, but the pink toilet… ugh.

–two story check

–garage, not attached the garage is… well, more of a storage ‘barn’ thingy. The neighbor, however has bushes at least thirty feet high surrounding his house on all sides. That could be… interesting. (I kind of like them, though.)

–largish kitchen (depending on layout, a small kitchen will do if there’s room for a table) nice large kitchen. A hulking gas stove. A utility room off the kitchen that would be a great walk-in pantry.

–a living room and dining room that aren’t attached yes. plus the ‘breakfast room.’

–washer/dryer hookup not on the first floor, or in a laundry room, or in the basement well, that can be changed. I would put the washer and dryer in the basement, and use the current utility room as a walk-in pantry (see above.)

–a yard, preferably acreage, preferably with woods and and a creek. And mature trees mature trees. No acreage, but a really large front yard and a large enough back yard. I’m still surprised it’s only .33 of an acre.

–forced heat, gas is nice forced hot water heat. With radiators, even. With a gas furnace in the basement and an almost-new hot water heater, too.

–air conditioning not a priority, I could always add that later window air conditioners.

–city water not a priority if the property has a good well/cistern combination a well, a cistern, and city water.

–NOT in a subdivision (This is actually a big priority.) yes.

–not on a main road yes.

–long driveway actually, yes.

Wow. I’m impressed.

We just got back from seeing the house in Georgetown. Mom, Dad, me, and my realtor went this time.

As far as Dad could tell, the house was built between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. There are two porches–one a big front porch and a smaller side porch that leads to the kitchen. There is a huge front yard, a big back yard (deceptive, because it said it was on .33 of an acre, and it felt like at least an acre), mature trees, a well, a cistern (it’s on city water, though), forced hot water heat, window air conditioners, a small and very dry basement, four bedrooms, a parlor, a living room, a formal dining room, two bathrooms (one has plumbing issues), a large kitchen, a large room that now serves as an entry way, original woodwork–unpainted, pocket doors, transom windows, a bay window, a leaning garage…

Um.

Lovely, lovely wood floors throughout. A cool staircase. Enough room for all my stuff, plus a lot more room left over. Room for Mabel. Eeek.

I will definitely have to think about this one. Very seriously.

I don’t usually sleep well on nights that there’s a full moon. Not because I turn into a wolf or anything; I just think it’s too light outside. Or something.

I did not sleep at all last night. Dropped off after 5am after finishing two books, and slept until 8am. Ugh.

In all that spare time, I mentally rearranged the Cape Cod’s kitchen/dining/living room, trying to fit in my dining room set. (I didn’t really succeed. I can fit in the table and the china cabinet, but not the hutch.) If I do end up getting that house, I might have to give up the dining room set. We’ll see. (And I am so getting rid of the chairs anyway. I hate those chairs.)

I had just gotten to the point where I removed some of the cabinet doors and replaced them with old windows (I don’t have any old windows, but I guess that’s beside the point) as the doors. They didn’t look all that bad. Oh, and I rekeyed the house (in my dreams, this is) and managed to fit my real kitchen table in the laundry room.

Somehow or another, I also managed to figure out where to put most of my stuff upstairs. But since I forgot to check and make sure the upstairs was actually wired for electricity (something that might explain the cheap-o price, actually) I definitely have to go back.

I also dreamed–sometime–that there was a body between the wall-that-goes-nowhere in the laundry room. (There’s a closet in the laundry room. Beside the closet is a built up wall that has no discernable purpose. I thought maybe it was to make the closet deeper, but it doesn’t. My realtor suggested that maybe that’s where the old pump for the well went, something I know nothing about.)

So I did some research last night about types of insulation (it has blown-in insulation, which is evidently good) and discovered that I can get a free quote from Sears for heating and cooling systems.

Oh, that reminds me: Since there’s no ductwork in this house, it would have to be built in. I had this great idea to hide the ductwork behind a freestanding floor to ceiling bookcase while lying awake last night. I just got the premier copy of Cottage Living and two or three of the houses inside had these really cool bookcases. They can’t be hard to make. Really.

So anyway, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get a ballpark figure as to how much installing one would cost.

And I also discovered that the number I have is my pre-qualification number, which makes sense. Pre-approval will hopefully come on the tail end of that, and we can go on from there. I read up a bit on buying houses, and now I am armed with a bit more information.

And now I’m really tired, and I don’t know how long I can stay awake on three hours of sleep. Ugh.

Well, we’re back… (and I had half an entry written when this computer decided to freeze, so grrrr.)

Mom, Bekah, Jess, and I met my realtor and viewed two houses, both of which are in Ripley.

The first one, billed as a ‘restored historic house’, had a nice sized yard and a nice dog (although I stepped in dog poop.) Next door was a huge abandoned mansion, which looked quite haunted. (Bekah wanted to go inside.)

The house was… large enough. It has a dining room, two upstairs bedrooms, a bathroom on the second floor (none on the first floor) that connects to both bedrooms, built-in closets and bookcases that framed an inoperable fireplace, a damp basement, and other nice features (including original windows.)

However, when the owners ‘restored’ the house, they decided to go the weasel way to hide the new electric wires, etc., and installed drop ceilings throughout every downstairs room. Like, the drop ceilings you see in offices. And there were many evidences of leaks. In fact, in the kitchen, they had pulled the ceiling panel aside to show where the ceiling itself had fallen in.

It’s not a bad house. I just think it needs a new roof (the roof has been patched) and a lot of work. So, probably no go for that one. Oh, and the entire house (save for the bedrooms and one utility-type room) was carpeted in thick, blue carpet. That would have to go too. Wood floors throughout, otherwise.

The second house is my little darling Cape Cod. And it’s just as darling inside as it is outside. There was evidence of termites or something on the top of the porch (I’m going to guess the whole top of the porch needs to be replaced) but otherwise, it looked pretty good to me.

The walls in the combo/kitchen dining room/living room (it’s all one big room) are painted dark red. The bedrooms are painted bright blue and bright purple, respectively. The bathroom’s painted dark brown and has tile. There are new Pergo floors, which are dark brown with a pattern, and really look great, imo. The carpet would definitely have to go. It’s beige, which really doesn’t go with the walls. If I had to put carpet in, I’d go with something else. Don’t know what, but something.

The interesting thing was that the lady realtor who is representing the house told me that the tenants had moved out, but all their stuff was still there. Well… yeah. Cell phones, dishes in the dishwasher, food in the fridge (with the electricity turned off, even… ugh) dirty clothes, TVs, etc. It was really weird. We surmised that they had been hauled off to jail.

The house also comes with a stripped out truck, the use of which is beyond me. (Okay, I’m kidding, it’s there, but obviously, wouldn’t stay.)

Anyway… It’s cute. I love the color scheme. The bedrooms are small, but large enough, I think. Room for a garden (it comes with one acre and has woods (very thick woods) behind it) and just about anything else I’d want. Room for Mabel too. Maybe not room for my dining room set, but we’ll see.

It even has indigenous lizards! (Skinks, actually. We found a dead one in one of those flypaper mouse traps.)

So my big question was upstairs. Since it’s a Cape Cod, the upstairs slopes, and I wasn’t sure if my stuff would fit up there. The ‘master bedroom’ (the entire upstairs, in truth) is 10′ x 30′, so I knew I would have enough room for all my stuff (I’d have a combo studio/office/bedroom if Bekah moves in with me) but I wasn’t sure about the walls. Well, they are just under four feet tall, which, in truth, I could work with. And, in the listing, it said the ‘master bedroom’ was carpeted, but it’s not. It has wood floors, painted white. (It actually looks original, but I’m not sure.) Very nice wood floors, in truth. I could so work with that.

In truth, it tops my list (still) right now. So we’ll see.

Um… so anyway, we’re going to look at another house tomorrow, in Georgetown. So hope and pray this works out, everyone!

I cashed in my change, which brought my total money-I-could-spend-at-the-auction to $100. (I had a lot of change.) I had to come home early, though, because I think I was bordering on having heatstroke. It’s hot outside.

Ended up with… 2 nice old wooden chairs, a quilt, and four handblown floats. And what feels like mild sunburn on my face, even though I was under the tent most of the time. Dad is still there. I would have stayed, but I just couldn’t take the heat anymore.

Met the guy who bought the house (this is my Dream House, remember) and he seems like a nice guy. Hopefully he will do the house justice.

I feel better this morning, although I had weird dreams all night long and didn’t really sleep well. Part of this could very well be from watching Secret Window last night with Bekah (while knitting a blue and white ribbed scarf, so I wasn’t shirking all my duties.)

Thoughts on the movie: I don’t know. Maybe because of the knitting I didn’t get as in to it as I should have, because I saw the ‘twist’ coming a mile away. Well, I already knew it, in fact, but still. Maybe I’m just not in the mood for ’scary’ movies.

The scarf is washable merino wool and a wool/acrylic mix. It’s so soft! It’s going to be a heavy, thinner scarf. It should end up looking quite nice.

And I think I need to felt the hat again, because it didn’t shrink all that much. Or maybe I need to do it by hand, because our washing machine has a hot/cold setting, but not a hot/warm or hot/hot setting. At the moment, it’s drying on the little dining room table, pretending it’s a hat with a brim.

And my realtor couldn’t get the house in Georgetown for Sunday afternoon, so we’re going to see it Monday evening, and Dad can come too. I think Bekah and I are going to see the two houses in Ripley on Sunday, if he can arrange it. The one is already arranged. So I will report.

I have to go wash my hair and get dressed before we leave for the auction. Will update with what I didn’t buy later.

Now I feel dumb… sff.net email seems to be acting up lately, because I’ve not received important emails and people haven’t received important emails from me. Some go through just fine. The emails I sent to AntiqueWeek did not. So I bothered the editor, only to find out that they have a policy not to do auction coverage for repeat auctioneers more than once a year. Which makes sense, and should have been the question I asked in the first place.

Chalk one up for inexperience, there. I will learn eventually, I suppose. *sigh*

And in truth, I really don’t feel like going to the auction because I don’t have any money to spend. And then, there’s this.

In other news, I am going to try to felt the hat I’m knitting at the moment. So we’ll see how that works out. I’ve never felted anything before. (Yet, of course.)

“But that is the nature of demons, Josiah. They offer the impossible; whatever is right beyond our reach.”



Or not in our reach at all.

Malachi to Josiah, in Scarecrows.

Sent the pertinent paperwork to the lady at the bank, so hopefully they have everything they need now. I figured too much information was better than not enough.

So, now all I have to do is wait. And wait. And wait. And wait…

Oh, that’s right. I said I wasn’t going to obsess about this, didn’t I?

Well. Had dinner at a friend of the family’s house tonight with everyone, so that was nice. Got to eat cherry pie made from scratch (I even helped make the pie crust, so I guess I don’t really suck badly at it, I’m just inexperienced.) I have a piece for tomorrow saved in the fridge, so that will be nice as well.

This weekend’s going to be busy. Saturday’s the auction, and Sunday we get to go house-viewing (well, two houses.) It looks like I should get most of Monday to work on SCR, knit, and do whatever while I’m waiting for the bank’s decision. (I’m trying not to think about that too obsessively, in truth.)

Haven’t heard back from AntiqueWeek about covering the auction, but again, I don’t really need a lot of advanced notice. It is supposed to rain, though. Luckily, the auction will be under a tent. (I’m only bringing $20 to spend, because I need all my extra money for house downpayment.)

So. Other than that…

Miss Hildy is fine, for anyone who wondered. This morning, she entertained me by pretending to have her head stuck in a toilet paper tube–a pastime that never ceases to amaze her. She also seems to like the large flower pot I put in her aquarium, because she spends a lot of time rolling it back and forth at two a.m. so it will clang against the aquarium sides and wake me up.

Eventually, it would be nice not to have her in a cage at all, and just allow her to ‘roam’ inside the playpen. I think she would like it. But we’ll see. And also eventually I think I might like to have another hedgehog, but that might not be for a while.

Miss Mabel is also fine, and learning manners. She is very smart, too. And she’s very interested in cats. Unfortunately, they aren’t very interested in her.

SCR is moving forward slowly. I’m getting the feeling that I’ve lost the thread of the story, but I really have to reread the whole thing and see where I’m headed, I think. I have no idea of the wordcount.