House III: The OutHouse

Tonight's assignment was to take some stuff to the storage facility, because we have too much crap.  I decided that Saturday night at the storage locker might bring with it some sketchy individuals, and I was right.  After I got there I loaded up a cart with all my boxes, and went to load it into the elevator.  Of course, the local guys had left their sofa in there, which slowed down the process.  As I'm trying to load up, I hear them a floor or two up shouting down at me to release the elevator.  I get my stuff on board, the doors close, I start up.  Turns out they're in between me and my destination floor, and when the doors open these two guys start in on me.

And then they see the dog.

Turns out a big, black, German Shepherd* is an effective deterrent to the average local loudmouth.  She didn't even stand up, just looked at them, and all of a sudden we were all best friends.  I went up to the next floor, unloaded my stuff, and they were long gone by the time I got back to the elevators.

Moral of the story: Bring more than just your mouth to a dogfight.

*My puppy is an absolute sweetheart, wouldn't hurt a fly (unless it was covered in peanut butter, then that sucker's in trouble), but I didn't tell these guys that.

Housed II: The Saga Continues

Went back to Target Location this week, found a few lots that we like. Made an offer on one of them which was (tentatively) accepted. The Legal Department has to decide if the seller is allowed to sell the property (apparently they have gotten involved in some Naughtiness). Talked to a couple of builders, found one we liked. The Wife picked out a house plan. Things are proceeding apace. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Housed!

We went up to Northeast Nowhere last week to buy a house. Most--if not both--of my Faithful Readers will remember my long-term plan to get the hell off the Gulf Coast because of the rampant stupidity* and hurricanes found there (plus, the humidity doesn't do my asthma any good). Well, we're ready for some major steps in that direction. So house-hunting we went.

We found a couple of acceptable places. House #1 was nearly perfect: beautiful floor plan, lake view like nobody's business, dock, detached boathouse. But, like all perfect things, it was freaking expensive. We were encouraged by the fact that it had been on the market for over 200 days with (or so we're told) ZERO offers placed. We tried a lowball offer (80% of asking price) expecting to be rejected, but to open negotiations. We wrote up a contract, sent it over, waited with crossed fingers for a response (I expected a near-full-price counteroffer). The next morning, we were told that not only was our offer rejected, but the house had been pulled off the market.

Wow. That's depressing.

Oh well; plan B time. House #2 was much more reasonable, well within our price range, and almost done with construction (it was built as a spec house). It seemed well-constructed and we had met the builder who seemed like a reasonable guy. He was asking about 10% more than the house was worth (based on comps) but we figured that was a negotiation tool. We offered 100% of comp price (10% less than he wanted) which we figured was pretty reasonable. He came back and told us that he was out of money, couldn't afford to finish the place unless we paid him everything he was asking, and wouldn't be able to make any adjustments to his plans.

We decided to look elsewhere.

Problem is there are no other properties in the area that meet our needs. We're just going to have to build our own.



*Yes, I know that stupidity happens everywhere. But I've been here for over 2 decades and I'm ready for a different kind of stupid.