People Trying to Help

We closed on the house, which wound up taking all day. The reason it took so long was that the woman at the title company took it upon herself to “correct mistakes” that she thought that she had found in the financing paperwork. This caused a cascade of issues that added four hours to the time needed to close, and required a personal visit from the President of the mortgage broker’s company to fix. As a result of her mistake, it added $200 to the closing costs, which I refused to pay, so the finance company was forced to eat it.

My original plan was to spend a couple of weeks getting the place ready to move in, then we would spend another couple of weeks actually moving. There was a lot that needed to happen before we started moving in. I had to:

• Change the locks. I don’t care if it’s a brand new house, I always change the locks so I can be sure that I know who has keys to my place.
• I bought commercial concrete paint and sealant. It takes three days to apply and another three days to cure, but gives you a very professional looking, durable, slip resistant floor that won’t absorb things spilled on it, such as motor oil. It wasn’t cheap. Enough to do a three car garage cost about a thousand bucks. The floor looks great, though. I paid it because you only get one chance to seal a new floor.
• I had to install four televisions on the wall, six ceiling fans, and replace 12 light fixtures. The light fixtures that came with the house were the cheap ones because I didn’t like the choices that they had, so I bought my own. The lighting looks great.
• I installed a whole home sound system, the home network, added some power receptacles in the garage where my workbench will be, because I wasn’t willing to pay the $140 per extra outlet that the contractor charges to add them. I added 4 outlets for about $100.
• I paid movers to move the furniture, and a locksmith specializing in safes moved the gun safe. We moved everything else. The movers took care of every single piece of furniture that my wife didn’t place off limits because the pieces were fragile or very valuable. For example, I have an antique AM radio that uses tubes. It used to belong to my grandfather, and my dad listened to the old radio programs on it as a child. I won’t plug it in, but it looks great in the man cave.

So that was the plan. The plan died when my wife’s family came over to help. They decided to do a lot of stuff while I was working, so it put things into overdrive. We wound up moving the entire household in only 8 days. Now I am sitting in my house, surrounded by dozens of boxes, trying to organize and put things away. I still have to get a plumber to come over and install the water softener, and I will need to spend a couple of weeks getting the old house ready to either rent or sell.

Normal blogging to resume today.

On a side note, my shower in this new house is pure indulgence. Three showerheads, it’s like showering in a car wash.