we have heat

so today, dominion gas came out to turn on the gas. we were given the time frame of 12-4pm, so i woke up early this morning to be there on time. i took some more measurements to pass the time, but they didnt end up showing up until 2:30pm. i was freezing. at that point, i was heading out to sit in my car and let it run so i could stay warm when i saw the dominion truck sitting on the corner. i asked if they were looking for my house (as the guy was just sitting in the truck). he said yes and that he had knocked 10 minutes prior. hmm ... i was only 3 rooms away and hadn't heard him. anywho, he was very grateful for the newer furnace and water heater he found (he said an energy efficient one like the one in the house could be upwards $5,000). before he arrived, he was told the gas was already "on" just needed to be switched on - but that was incorrect. he had to go out to the street and turn it on, then come back into what my mom and i call the "hole" ( sort of a crawl space but not really where the furnace is housed). a little while later, everything was up and running and he graciously capped the gas line in the kitchen. we couldnt get the thermostat to change temperature, so right now it's heating at 68° haha. it will be a little toasty until we figure out why its not working. anywho, next step in the process is water. everything is 'winterized' at the moment.

currently, the movers are here (my childhood home) delivering my mom's new living room set and some bunk beds she ordered. conveniently, i'll be able to use our old set in tremont, plus a few other things i picked out from around our house. my mom is a big collector and finds "deals" everywhere. while most of the time i see it as clutter, i will actually benefit greatly which is weird to say. for anyone who might interested, attached are two pictures of our old living room set aka my "new" set for tremont. they'll be delivering the living room set, a bedroom set, dresser and my desk to my new home on monday morning. :)

new kitchen - could it be so?

so i think its safe to say we're going to be redoing the kitchen. my mom and i are working on finishing up another rental property in willoughby – still lots to do including redoing the kitchen. with the new tremont property, i think it was more wishful thinking on my part that we could redo the kitchen ("dream big" as I like to tell my mom). anywho, she's been looking online for people selling their cabinetry as it will be a lot cheaper then buying brand new. she first found a set of cabinets (i believe for $850) to use at the rental in wlby. i havent seen how they're configured in a kitchen, but she told me there will likely be left-overs we could use in tremont. currently, there is just a collection of cabinets scattered on the porch of the wlby rental for storage purposes. well, we came across another couple wanting to redo their kitchen. my mom went out to look at their kitchen wednesday night, and ended up buying a huge u-shaped kitchen cabinetry set plus a pretty new refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and microwave. needless to say, either sets of cabinetry could probably accomodate the two kitchens ... the question is which we'll use for tremont. she got a great deal too ... the entire kitchen for $900 + another $900 for appliances. she said if you bought it new, it would be a $10k kitchen - I say that's a steal. we won't see them until mid march but that will only give more time to plan it out. other then cabinetry, my new tremont home is in need of new appliances so we'll see where the new buys end up. because we all love visuals - i thought i'd attach a picture of the "U-shaped" kitchen. Sadly, I don't have pictures of the first set of cabinets. Also to give you an idea, this is what we're starting with (to the right)... who ever thought blue cabinets would be a good design choice?

we have power!

so on lunch yesterday, i met my mom at the title place - Landcastle Titles - to sign the final paperwork for the house. Once the bank signs the paperwork, the title will be transferred which she expected to be today. Then i guess they mail you a book with the paperwork in it - but we have copies of it all. My mom met with our realtor yesterday in the morning also – did a final walk thru and had the electric turned on. He also gave her another house key - that makes two that we have. He said he would install the new exterior door knobs my mom had bought at a later time, so we'll have to schedule that sometime. Gas is being turned on on Saturday as well as furniture delivery. Lots to do ... but still so exciting!

closing

so nothing new new to report, but i got the word yesterday that the water bill and title were received, and we're scheduled to close on time (which is today!). my mom picked up some new door knobs for the exterior doors and is meeting with the realtor this morning to have them installed. she also called to have the gas + electric turned on (phew! its freezing in there!). we'll be finishing up final paperwork today, then the fun part begins. my mom's new living room set is arriving saturday so we're going to have the movers take the old set (and whatever else we decide) to tremont. it's about $80 extra. not sure what i want to take just yet, but i'll have to decide soon. needless to say, i'm pretty excited! :)

i love good deals

so since my last update ... i found a dining room table for super cheap!

i saw a listing on sunday for a counter height pub table + 6 chairs for $95! 1 chair alone would cost that! the top might need refinished (but my mom has done that before) and she said we can easily paint it espresso if i want it darker (obvi). it has a built in leaf and expands to be 5' x 5' and can easily host 8 people, i'm kind of excited. my mom also told me if i want to take our old living room set, i can. she had mentioned to my sister she might be able to have it, but my sister doesn't take care of anything. i think that should cover most of the big things. also, on sunday, when dropping off the table at one of our rentals (storage for the time being), i noticed my mom had a few chandeliers. score! i had looked at some in home depot with adam on friday, its crazy how expensive they are. things could just be working out in my favor. i don't have pictures at the moment, but i will get there.

as of friday, we have a dually signed contract. just waiting on the title transfer and cleared water bill. we are moving along. :)

so the dining room table was a no-go ... the couple decided to sell it to the wife's coworker for more money. sad, oh well. there will be others.

so we met with the realtor last night to fill out paperwork. we stopped by the house to take measurements (for furniture purposes) and remove the padlock. he pointed out the locks and deadbolts on each door, mentioned there were only a certain amount of skeleton keys out there (the house is old - built in 1890) and either the doors need replaced or we need new locks. he said there are some antique stores around west 25th and lorain that would have door knobs from that era. after we finished up at the house, we drove over to lincoln park pub to get down to the paperwork portion. i found out there was an 11th offer that came in on the house yesterday for $60k+ on the house which exceeds our offer. definitely feeling good, and hoping its an indicator of what can be made from selling the house. anywho, he bought my mom and i both a drink ( i found out we both like miller lite, haha) and ordered appetizers. he's kind of a character. after chatting and chowing down, we walked through each part of the contract. my mom is very familiar with real estate contracts having other properties herself, but being a n00b i was curious and wanted to read everything thru.

so from my understanding, what comes next: the bank signs the paperwork, then requests a clear title for the house to be transferred to my mom and i. then the funds will be transferred. they also have requested the water bill balance to be paid off by the bank. apparentally that stays with the title/owner of the house, as opposed to things like gas and electric. after this is completed, we'll do a final walk thru on or before 2/23. at that point, if there are concerns of ours - we have the option to request repairs from the bank, negotiate a lower offer or walk. assuming all goes well (and everything stays on time), we should close on the house on 2/23. then the renovating + painting begins. :)

compulsive planning

tonight we are meeting with the realtor to sign the paperwork... it will be official. i'm hoping to take measurements to get an idea for furniture and window treatments.

those that know me, know i have a compulsive nature to plan and organize. what i did at work today: went online to www.homefurnish.com and made a 15 page document of common household items as to plan for what i might need. this way i can also prioritize items as i know its going to get costly.

hopefully (time permitting), after the paperwork is completed, we'll be meeting with a couple in lakewood who are selling their dining room table. They're moving out of state. Its not perfect, some scratches and blemishes but my mom assures me we can work with it to make them less noticeable. The couple says a few place mats will easily cover them (I guess thats reassuring). i think its the perfect size for a large dinner party ... and comes at a great price, $250.00. You cant beat that for a dining room set that expands to 8'! It would also be a great arts & crafts table. I'm crossing my fingers there are no surprises.

how i got here.

Today I am starting a blog about my transition from living with the ‘rents in Willoughby, Ohio to becoming an independent young professional living in the Cleveland neighborhood of Tremont. I’ve been thinking about moving out for a long time. It’s been more of a financial struggle up to this point. Not suggesting it won't be at this current time. So let's back track a bit, how did I get here?

Well ... My mom and I have been pretty obsessively looking at real estate for a number of months now. It’s part of my morning routine to look up new house listings (whether its a sale, pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, auction, or rental property). You could say its right in line with my addiction to HGTV and home remodeling programs. My parents have 3 rental properties currently, so real estate is not a new concept for them. I've been looking at both renting and potentially buying. My mom thinks it worth more of an investment to purchase a home in which I could be her tenant rather than pay to rent out a small space... so that's what we planned to do. I have always wanted to live in a house with lots of character – apartments don’t provide much for me and outdoor space is pretty important.

What I like about Tremont is that there is a sense of community and its very walkable. There is a whole strip of bars and restaurants, and its a popular spot for young professionals. Its a blend of new and old, you will find many houses built in the 1800s ($60k-$90k) sitting directly next to new developments ($300k+). It is also known as the little city of churches as so many preside in the community, I want to say around 20 or so. I miss interacting with strangers and new people as I did in college. I hope I have the opportunity to make new friends in the city. It’s also only 5 minutes from Ohio City and 10 minutes from downtown and Lakewood. I am hoping this departure will be quite the learning experience for me (that’s kind of guaranteed) and will help me figure out the next step in my life. I will be living here for at least 2 years, then we will see where my life takes me. However, it comes at the perfect timing. I am ready for a change, and this is a big one.

Over this past weekend, my mom and I went to look at a single family home - 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom in Tremont. We found out the previous owners were a family. The parents had gotten divorced and the mother and children had already moved out. (Explains the one bright pink bedroom). They had taken out a 170k loan and hadn’t made payments in 4 years. Sad story. It went into foreclosure and was repossessed by the bank. Well for those of you who know little about real estate, foreclosed homes usually come with an incredibly affordable (cheap!) price tag. It had only been listed for 4 days at this point. Before going to see the property, we had to get in contact with the realtor to get a code for the padlock to see the house. After speaking with him, we realized we had to get moving as there were already 6 offers on the house so we left right away ... this being Saturday morning (1/29).

The home offered everything I had been looking for ... Off street parking, outdoor living space, deck, dining area, lots of windows & natural light, lots of storage, washer/dryer hook-up, good location (I can see Lincoln park from my house!). Bonuses: whirlpool tub, sky lights, porch and front yard, air conditioning, 3 bedrooms. It needed new siding, cosmetic work mostly, eventually a new roof. But for the price, it would have been silly not to pass up on the place – theres so much potential. After crunching numbers with the realtor, my mom eventually agreed on a number and submitted her offer Sunday evening. The realtor had told us the bank wanted to make a decision the previous Friday so he expected a quick decision the following week. Tuesday, we heard the news. Our offer was accepted... Which leads me to now.

I’m moving to Tremont in the Spring. The sale is expected to close on February 23rd, then after the inspection, purchasing appliances, painting, cleaning and other work inside is finished ... It’ll be time. It will be costly especially at first as I don’t have anything to furnish the place. I’m actually going to look at a dining room set this evening, after signing the paperwork. I have to admit there are some fears ... Safety a big one. Being lonely secondly. But mostly, I’m ecstatic. I need this. I’m ready for change and a new challenge. Here goes nothing...

The rest of this blog will be dedicated to documenting the renovations, furnishing, decorating, and general frustrations and learning experiences with living on my own. I am most definitely a n00b – you should stick around, that should be entertaining enough in itself. I hope one day I'll have a run-in with Michael Symon seeing that Lolita is located in tremont. One can only dream.