We did not get the house. Apparently someone offered the price very close to the asking price, which was way more than we offered. Even though we did not have much invested in it emotionally, I am surprised to feel a tad disappointed.
Anyway, onwards we proceed to things that were meant for us!
We went to the real estate agent’s yesterday to draw up the offer for the first house we liked. Before that, we decided to have a second look at the property to see if we felt the same way about it. The boys had not seen it before and the first thing they saw when they got there was the swing on the porch. They sat there and later when we went into the house, Cameron asked to see the sandpit and pretty soon, the two boys were running through the back yard. It was so lovely to see because we have been deprived of a back yard for years now. The place I live has one but it is on an incline so they don’t spend much time in the yard. The snow and rain has made the water and slush collect at the bottom and it is like a marsh.
My thoughts on this place that it is a lot smaller than we had thought and I can forsee that as the boys grow up, we would soon be running out of space. 3,900 square feet sounds big but a lot of the space goes to the basement, which is just one big room and bathroom. It has two fireplaces, very nice.
We have not submitted the offer yet because there will be an open house today and we wanted to present the offer after the open house was over. We were a little cautious about the listing agent waving our offer to the potential buyers to start a buying war. As it is such a hot property and location, there is already a cash offer on the house and ours will be the second. By law, they are not allowed to reveal what the other party is offering, so we had to think about what our best offer would be and then lay all our cards on the table.
As there are not much activity happening with the other house yet, we will proceed only after we have heard from this one. This is probably the more ethical thing to do. If it is meant to be our home, it will be ours. We are going to leave it all in God’s hands. Both homes are great and either way, we win.
Update: After the open house, they received another 3 offers. This is going to be interesting!
One of our cell group friends, invited us to their place for brunch after church one Sunday. The man of the house, B, is a doctor with the US Navy and he was in charge whole operation of sending US navy ships to aid Haiti during the recent earthquake - he and his family are the most humble people we know. His wife made an effort to make sure we were all ok, invited us over many times and showed us great hospitality. She home schools her kids and is a great inspiration to us as a family. I had to share this because it gives you the background on what is about to happen.
So here we were, seated around her kitchen island. Cameron brought his toy over to their house to share with the kids and the husband asked C a few questions:
These were his toys. C had only brought one with him.
B: So what’s his name?
C: Starfy.
B: He hasn’t got a mouth. How does he talk?
C: (looks at him for a minute) Um…he doesn’t talk. He’s just a toy.
And walks off!
It was really comical to watch our dear friend’s expression and he was nodding his head, saying, “Yeah! OK!”
We saw a few more houses today and we decided to make an offer - not to one but TWO houses! I have seen them doing this on HGTV before and our agent suggested this as we did not want to lose out on the other house just in case our preferred one came back to us with a counter offer that was too high.
This house is in a really nice neighbourhood and there are many good things that are going for it. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! It is near the Metro and has a free shuttle bus that takes us to the Metro. It has a Safeway, some restaurants in this community, with two swimming pools, a clubhouse. The community is HUGE, about 1,000 or more houses/apartments and condos. It is smaller than the previous house, but cosy.
I took the photos out of the homesdatabase.com website because I did not want to reveal the address.
We liked it because it had a usable back yard, a sandpit and some other bits and pieces as they already had two young kids. The biggest attraction for me is the porch…it is absolutely gorgeous. There was a swing attached from the roof as you enter the door. Dining room was a little too small though but we can live with it.
Although we both preferred the giant house previously visited, we know that the property here will have a better resale factor. Its school zone is Richard Montgomery which happens to be ranked the 1 school in the Challenge Index of all schools in MD and the top 32nd school in the whole of the USA of all the 1426 high schools according to Newsweek. King Farm, the area we are looking at, has a main road running through it. On one side of the road, the houses in that area has been zoned under RM cluster. On the other, is the worst rated school in MD. A house can be just across from the other and the price difference is $100K! Schools determine what you pay for property here.
The big house.
The kitchen with brand new appliances. In America, they leave the fridges, washing machines, dryers and dishwashers behind. There are two stainless steel ovens, a microwave and a fridge with an ice dispenser. We both love how there is a skylight in the kitchen and big living area.
I know I keep going on about how easy it is to shop here but I have never experienced customer service like this before in any country. In October of last year, I bought a Kitchen Aid toaster. It cost $30 more than any other toaster on the shelf and I was debating whether to get it or not. After all, there is nothing “connoisseurish” about making toast! A lady came by and said to me, “Get the Kitchen Aid! I bought one for my daughter when she got married and I have one. It is solid and lasted me for years!” I was sold. Oh how easily influenced am I!
So imagine my surprise and disappointment when a few days ago, Matt reported that it was broken and was not working. I thought gloomily that I had to buy another one, as you would in Singapore or Malaysia or even Australia. I am never the type of person who sends off warranty cards to register a product after I have bought it. I had also thrown away my receipts - too much junk in the house already - so there was no way I could get it returned.
Anyway, I just tried customer service and explained to the lady on the phone that I didn’t have any of my records. She just asked me for the serial number of the product and worked out it was within a year of my purchase. Next, she said, “We will send you a new one by Fedex and inside is a return label. Please send back your old toaster in the box and use the label (so that it is free of charge) I don’t even have to leave the house!
Wow. I was like, absolutely stoked. America, you rock!
There is a new house for sale and it is a mid century home! It is not far from the boys’ school and definitely closer to the city. However, it only has one car garage, and I wanted a two car garage so Matt and I could have a space to potter around.
About a month ago, Matt’s work ran a Career Training course for spouses to help them find a job and to connect with possible employers. I have been to one where they ran the Myer Briggs test and the lady had a hard time trying to figure out what type I was. She came up with three types for me, not because she is inexperienced, in fact, she is very good at what she does. She couldn’t figure me out because I had such a contrast of roles in my past and she was trying to make sure I was best fitted for the right sort of roles in the future. She had to organise 2 meetings for me because she wanted to understand me better so the next one is next week.
What type am I? I am a highly adaptive person, a fire fighter, can be counted to get things done. However, I tend to start things and not finish them. Studying does not come naturally to me and I am more hands on. I wish I did this test 20 years ago, then I would have not studied accounting and gone for something more appropriate! So far it is looking like I might be running a business from home as I have some skills which allow me to do so, like setting up a photography studio in the house. However, I am not keen because in Singapore, I hated the aspect of dealing with impossible kids and complaining parents. In Singapore, I used to take photos of pregnant women in the nude because it was niche market we tapped into and we were both mothers ourselves, making the clients feel more comfortable around us. However, I believe this is common here so I won’t be able to have an edge over my competitors. So we will discuss more to find out what other skills I can use to work from home.
Elena ran the workshop with 20 people in it and then organised to meet each of us individually to talk about our careers and what we can do. I really appreciate this because it is so helpful to meet other spouses in the same sort of situation. I found out that some of them brought their maids from Bolivia and Ecuador which makes it so much easier for them to look for work. I fantasize about bringing Sarmi over still but then, the boys would have someone pick up after them for the rest of their childhood lives. They are now learning to do some chores around the house which they never did before.
I have been wasting too much time on the computer lately and have forced myself to concentrate on things around the house that need to be done, like finishing up the quilt for my cousin’s baby and also working on an antique secretary I bought from craiglist. We have never seen a secretary in all our travels before so I am quite fascinated by it. It has a drop lid which becomes a desk.
It is quite dinged up as you can see from the photos. It was a steal for $100. These babies usually cost $600-$2000 depending on the condition, second hand. The drop lid had no support so when you opened it, it fell completely downwards, the key was missing to the glass shelf and as a result, the door kept swinging open.
It has certain seen better days. I was going to read up on the internet how to fix it and paint it. I know some people think it is a sacrilege to paint over wood, especially when it looks like it is mahogany. This was not hardwood because as soon as I started sanding it with my Dewalt orbital sander, it left marks on the wood. Also, as I sanded it by hand, it revealed itself to be a lighter colour. Pine perhaps?
So I took it apart, ordered the replacement brass parts from Canada from this super cool store called Lee Valley
My trusty tools. Very basic.
First, I filled up the cracks and holes. That was not easy! The instructions said to use it above 40 deg F (about 4 C) and my garage was below freezing. I had to take it into the kitchen to work on it and it was so hard to squeeze the wood filler out.
Then I used oil based primer. I swear I will never use oil based primer again. They say that it lasts longer but boy it stinks and it is near impossible to clean. I use paint thinner to clean and it is so poisonous. Also, we can’t just pour the leftovers into the drain, no siree, here, you have to take it to a hazardous waste plant to dispose of it. Where it is, I have no idea but it sits in a can at the moment. Water based primer for me next time! Cameron helped me apply it with a roller brush and he had respiratory problems afterwards. He was wheezing very badly which made me kick myself in the butt. I had to take him to a doctor and she gave him an inhaler. I allowed him to help because with all this cold weather, the boys have not been doing very much except play computer games. Matt and I wanted to involve them in something that we did and I thought introducing the boys to tools and woodworking was something cool. (Funnily, Matt was outside, trying to smoke his Texan style ribs in his new grill, with James helping along.)
Matt had to shovel almost 10 inches of snow off our deck so he could set up the BBQ grill there.
Back to the secretary, I have managed to pull apart everything, except for this drawer unit. Man, it is a bitch to sand and prime! I have hit a big snag and will have to go back to Home Depot to buy spray primer. My fingers ache from trying to reach the difficult spots!
That is as far as I have gotten. Stay tuned!
We went to see more homes and as my regular agent has gone to Florida for holidays, her partner is helping out. She is very nice and she has been to Penang before! We saw a house yesterday and it ticks most of the boxes - except that it does not have a back yard that is usable. There is a conservation of trees right behind us which we are not allowed to cut down and then a road. However, the place is GREAT for entertaining. It is one street away from our cell group leaders who have become quite dear friends of ours now. We were grappling with whether we should put an offer for it and I was to go see it again tomorrow but we cancelled as we felt no peace about it. The negatives - it is a HUGE house, 6000 square feet, with 2 kitchens and 2 laundry areas. Basically, the basement is self contained, so if someone wanted to rent our basement, they could. Our problem was “What do we do with so much space?” Also this place, although near to the boys’ school, adds 30 mins of travel time for Matt. He would have to buy a second car to get to the train station. You can see the property here:
James came back from school and he told me that a kid in his class taught him how to “get more girls to like him.” I leaned back in my chair, expecting something cute.
Instead, it was sobering.
“Ben says that you have got to be a little bit bad for the girls to like you,” he starts.
“How?”
“Well, you got to let the girls catch you being mean - not too mean but you know, like saying stuff like, ‘Yo, yo yo, who’s your mother?’” And here, he did a little sign with his hands, I don’t even know what you call it. He extended his thumb and little finger but kept all his other fingers in. (You know, the ones that you see the rappers do in music videos)
“Girls like it when you treat them bad. That is why Ben has three girls chasing him at recess, trying to kiss him.” (He had also reported last week that he was trying to get away from girls who were trying to kiss him - which I thought was hilarious)
