Sheep Guarding Llama

We are waiting to hear about the offer than we put in on the house next door last night.  We didn’t hear anything this morning until lunch time when, while I was at home having just arrived, our agent called to let us know that we were currently one of two offers in on the house and that offers are only being entertained until eleven in the morning tomorrow.  So one way or another we will know if we got the house at that point.

While we were discussing the house, there were people outside looking at the house as well.  Demand is suddenly picking up now that we are trying to buy it ourselves.  Our only hope is that the other people don’t have good financing, aren’t prepared to wait through a foreclosure sale process or just don’t put in an offer as good as ours is.  We did up our offer to our “best offer” and can only hope for the best from here.  Nothing more to be done until we find out about it tomorrow.

Finding out that we are competing for the house certainly took some of the wind out of our sales.  There is a very good chance that someone will outbid us.  We are not making an extremely good offer and with other offers on the table ours is probably not going to be high enough.  The house has been there for months and months without an offer.  It is awful that we missed being the first one in by a few hours.  Again, I’m not happy with how long it takes to do things in Texas.  But we are treating this as a business decision.  We worked out the numbers that make sense for us and if we can’t get the house for that price, we don’t get it.  It’s that simple.

So now we wait.  It isn’t that long, at least.  And the people that I met looking at the house today seemed really nice.  But I doubt that they have enough time to get an offer in before the decision is made tomorrow.

After work I went over to La Cima for happy hour.  They have a guitar player playing in the lounge today and they wanted to wrangle up people to check it out.  It was really nice.  They normally have live piano in the restaurant but nothing in the lounge.  Having live guitar is a nice addition.  Hopefully they keep this up.

On my way home I swung by Ruchi Palace on Trinity Mills to pick up dinner.  Both Dominica and I were craving it after having it two nights ago.

We didn’t do too much tonight.  Ate dinner, hung out with Liesl, went to bed early.  We are all pretty tired.  I took the trash out and put it by the curb.  After our pick up tomorrow we should be finally caught up for the first time after having moved in to the new house.  We generated so much trash in the move that we are just now catching up with us putting out the maximum amount every week.

My early morning call was canceled for tomorrow so it is a normal work day morning for me.

Today was Liesl’s second day of “home school pre-school.”  Dominica has a ton of activities planned out and has been posting pictures to Flickr of Liesl’s progress.  Liesl is enjoying it too.  It is interactive time and she enjoys learning.  I ask her, when I get home, if she had fun at school today and she says “yes”.

The first thing that happened today, after getting into the office in Las Colinas, was that we got the news from our bank in New York that our loan was approved and we now have everything that we need in order to be able to put in an offer on the house next door that we are interested in picking up as an investment property.  It has been two days of continuous work trying to get that all lined up but we appear to finally have all of our ducks in a row so that we can now attempt to put in an offer today.

This morning Dominica has started doing “school” with Liesl.  We are attempting to home school our little girl and we are trying to get started with it.  She is definitely at the age where she can be doing some structured learning activities every day.  So yesterday Dominica went out shopping and stocked up on “school supplies” for Liesl.  Dominica has some curriculum books for pre-“pre-schoolers” that start at around age two so she is using those to come up with a learning path for Liesl.

Today Liesl was working on two different projects.  The first is a sorting task where she takes lots of brightly coloured little pom-poms and has to sort them into colour-matched plastic containers.  She thought that that was very cool.  To a lesser degree she also enjoyed stringing beads.  I’m not sure how the beads are done or what the educational goal is with those, Dominica is writing about this in her own blog as well.

At lunch I drove back home so that Dominica and I could discuss the house and the offer that we want to put in on it.  Dominica heated up leftovers from dinner last night for us to eat and Liesl showed me how she could sort pom-poms. She is already very good at it and knows exactly what to do.

We got a chance to discuss the house next door situation and, with all of the relevant information now available, we made our decision and called our real estate agent in order to put in our initial offer on the house.  How exciting.  The offer is “in” to our agent but won’t actually make it to the sellers until tomorrow.  As we said before, everything takes a really, really long time in Texas.  If this was New York the whole process would be done by mid-afternoon.  Here in Texas the seller doesn’t even know that we’ve been working on this for several days and have put in an offer until tomorrow.  Such a bizarre way to do things.

Dominica finally got back into blogging today.  It has been about two years since she last blogged.  Maybe having another little one on the way made her think more about it or maybe it is because Liesl is starting her homeschooling now.

There are more people looking at the house next door today.  That’s not good.  There has been a pickup of traffic over there.  We get really nervous about this as we are not confident that our agent communicates effectively with the bank and that the bank might take another offer not even knowing that we had put one in earlier.  I absolutely hate the lack of communications that goes on here compared to back home in New York.  Everyone would have already spoken and everyone would be on the same page.

Doing real estate in Texas reminds me of reading books about the seventeenth century when ships would set sail from a port and until arriving in the next port would have no access to news, updates, mail, etc.  So all kinds of bad things could happen.  Like the ship’s orders could change, the alliances between the ship’s parent nation and other nations could change, the captain could be fired, and on and on.  A sailor might be attacked by a ship that they think is from a friendly nation but that ship hasn’t been to port as recently and things that they are from a waring nation.  All because they are waiting for the news to sync up.

That’s what is going on here.  We’ve put in an offer but someone putting in an offer after us could, in theory, have the offer get put in, negotiated and accepted all before the seller even finds out that we had put in an earlier offer.  It is seriously frustrating to even think about.

Tonight is pasta night at La Cima.  Dominica and Liesl were all set to go with us but Liesl took her nap several hours later than usual so that might cause problems.  We are hoping that they can still make it – possibly just for a shorter period of time.  They might be able to show up, eat and run which actually is easier to do when you have Liesl than needing to stay for an extended period of time where she gets restless.

I uploaded a number of pictures that Dominica took on her DroidX of Liesl doing her first day of school.  You can check them out on Flickr.  I also uploaded two very short videos that I took of Liesl using my iPod.  I bought a new app yesterday called “8mm Camera” that makes the iPod take videos in an 8mm film style.  It is cute.  It has filters for things like 20s and 70s style and does a pretty good job of making things actually look like old home movies, I think.  It’s cute.

Just before I was going to leave work to go to the club Dominica pinged me to tell me that the paperwork for the offer on the house was done.  So I ran over to the real estate brokerage as quickly as I could, signed all of the papers and we got them submitted.  Now we just wait.

Then it was off to the club.  Watson beat me there but only by a minute.  We were there for probably half of an hour before Tara, Souder and Jen joined us.  Then Grey just a little bit later and Dominica and Liesl joined us once we had already ordered food – which works out pretty well as it means that Liesl has to sit still for a much shorter period of time.

We had a really nice time at dinner.  Then we went home and Liesl could not fall asleep.  Dominica and I were very tired and just waiting for Liesl to get to a point where we could put her to bed so that we could go to bed.

I slept in a lot this morning.  This happened because, miraculously, Liesl did not wake up.  Normally she is my little alarm clock always getting me up some time between seven and eight in the morning.  Today I woke up on my own at nine thirty and she was still asleep!  So I jumped out of bed and worked from home for forty-five minutes or so while I got ready and then ran into the office.  No traffic with which to contend when you go in this late which is nice.

This morning was spent talking to my bank in New York to see if they would be able to provide some of the financing for the house that we want to buy.  They were unsure but didn’t see it as being out of the question and they hope to have an answer for us in a day or two.

At lunch I picked up Souder and we went over to La Cima for the buffet which looked really good today – Mahi Mahi for a nice change.  We did a short lunch and I was back in the office on the early side.

I talked to my mortgage broker and we worked out some plans this afternoon.  It sounds like the mortgage won’t be too much of a problem as long as the bank in New York is okay with the other loan.  This is our first time intentionally purchasing an investment property so things work differently than we are used to and there is a learning curve, again.  Even though this is our fourth time buying a house, we still have a lot to learn.  It is funny that we have now bought and sold more houses than our real estate agent has!  Sort of funny, anyway.  I never thought of myself as a real estate person so I am surprised by myself attempting to invest in real estate.  It does make for an interesting change over traditional securities investing.

Work was pretty slow today which was great as it gave me time to get the financing all lined up and taken care of.  By the end of the day, around six, we got our official pre-approval on the mortgage so we are legally all set to proceed with an offer.  We don’t want to do that, though, until we have our other components lined up so this is just a first step and not a final one.  We are hopeful that the rest of the loan will get approved tomorrow.

After work I came home and Grey came over as he is in town from Denver for a few days and we all went out to dinner at Ruchi Palace which is very near our new home.  This is our first time going to Ruchi Palace and our first time getting Indian in Carrollton so we were excited to get to try it out.  They have dosa too, which is very cool.

Dinner was quite good.  They were slow and the food took forever but everything was fresh made for us and delicious.  The dosa was not as good as we used to get in South Brunswick, New Jersey which we really miss but it was good and we will be going back to get it often, I am sure.  Dominica was so desperate to get Indian that she ordered two dinners for herself in addition to the appetizers that we got!  She didn’t even get much past the first half of the first entree.  So we had a lot to bring home.  The curry that she got was some of the best that I had ever tried so I’m sure that we will be back here a lot and the price was pretty reasonable.

After dinner Souder came over to the house and he, Grey and I hung out until almost one in the morning.  We are all getting together for pasta night at La Cima tomorrow as well.

Liesl did not let me sleep in this morning so I was up at eight and took a little bit of time to listen to “Pirate Hunter”, a biography on the legendary Captain Kidd.  It is decently interesting.  There is a lot of stuff from the era of which I was not aware at all.  The book really helps to paint a picture of the colonies in the late seventeenth century which, as Americans, I feel that we learn very little about and is, in many ways, a very foreign world to us even though so much of the history took place right here beneath our feet.

I was looking at Zillow today and discovered that the house next to ours has dropped considerably in price.  I talked to Dominica about it and we seriously need to consider if that house would make a good investment or not.  Owning the house directly next to our own would be a very big deal.  There is value in that house that exists for us but does not exist for someone else – such as having the ability to control our own neighbours, make sure that the frontage is consistent between the houses, etc.  The ground on the east side of that house is owned by us and it is our responsibility to protect the foundation of that house by watering the foundation which is a weird circumstance in Texas.

So we decided that it would make sense for us to look seriously into possibly buying the neighbouring house.  It is extremely utilitarian to have another house right next door.  We could use that space for all kinds of different things.  Our hope is to rent it, obviously, in the short term.  In the long term it could remain a rental property or it could be an “in law” home in case my dad decides to move down to Texas (we know that Dominica’s parents, when they move to Texas, are not going to move next door to any of us and especially not next to those of us up in Dallas with the fewest grandkids) down the road.

So we called our real estate agent and set up a showing of the house.  Can’t hurt to look.  We have had our doubts as to whether or not the house is any good as we can’t really get very close to it due to it being all locked up and fenced off – there are literally just two windows exposed to the street and the entire rest of the house is fenced off so it is extremely private.

It was late afternoon by the time that we managed to get over to see the house for ourselves.  Once we did get there, the whole fifteen feet of walking that it required, we discovered that inside of the privacy fence was a very attractive patio area that would be absolutely perfect for a little cafe table and chairs.  It would be an awesome place to go for breakfast.  The living areas of the house are enclosed in an amazing amount of glass – the house that we always thought of as being so immensely private is actually enclosed in the fence because it is so dramatically exposed to the outside!

Inside the house seemed very spacious.  The house is built from the same components as our house but assembled in a completely different manner.  Instead of being a long channel of a house in a U shape with an atrium in the middle this house is very open without the atrium.  The house feels extremely open and quite a bit more modern than our much more 70s styled home.  Not so much our style as we really like our quirky house but this one is far, far nicer than we had imagined and it will be an amazing home for someone.  I can’t believe that it has been unable to sell for so long.  We have concerns about the foundation but there is nothing obvious at this point.

Overall, from what we could see, the house needs very little work.  It appears to be in overall great shape.  It has its issues, as all houses, especially foreclosures, do, but they are generally pretty minor from what we can see.  There is a wall that we would like to change, the kitchen cabinetry is a disaster and needs to be completely replaced, the kitchen floor is serviceable but could seriously use some updating and, of course, lots of paint needs to be applied liberally everywhere.  But no super large expenses or show-stopping items from what we could see.  We are surprisingly impressed and can’t figure out why this house has not sold already.

The yard is far nicer than we had anticipated too.  It is well maintained and far, far better than our own yard.  Now we can see what a yard in our area should look like.  What is really interesting is that this house has two independent back yards.  The main one that wraps around the kitchen and living rooms and then a tiny one that goes only behind the master bedroom suite.  Very strange but pretty neat.

So we are seriously considering the house.  It seems like potentially a really good idea.

This evening Brian and Nicki came up to look at the house too.  Nicki is really interested in renting the house from us so we wanted her to get a good look at it to see what she thought before we really considered moving forward on it at all.  She really liked it, though, so it is very possible that we will be able to get it.  The plan is to talk to the bank tomorrow and see what can be done.

Before heading off to bed we discovered that someone had stepped in dog poo and that there was a huge mess on the floor.  I spent over an hour down on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor trying to get it clean.  By the time that I was done the floor was probably cleaner than before it was made such a mess.  It kept me from going to bed as early as I had hoped, though.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day as we look into our finances and see what can be done.  We are hopeful that we might even be able to make an offer on the house tomorrow but that is moving very quickly.  It is going to be an exciting week for us for sure.  And a tough one.  Big financial decisions are both exciting and exhausting.

I got up at eight this morning.  Dominica and Liesl were up just minutes after me.  Liesl immediately demanded breakfast (S’mores Poptarts) and to watch Blues’ Clues which she has started getting into since having been in Frankfort for Christmas.

My first project this morning was to do some additional carpet cleaning in the living room where, no matter how hard we try, there seem to be an unlimited number of lingering floor stains from the previous home owners.

Souder’s schedule got thrown off this morning so he is not coming over to work on the wiring.  Dominica settled into the living room to play some Sims this morning.  I worked on light stuff like SGL, some forum posts, installing Xen Cloud Platform to test it out, etc.

Liesl manage to talk on the phone for the first time today.  Sure she had held the phone, maybe said a few words, listened to people before but today was the first time that she immediately took the phone from Dominica, said “Hello grandpa” and told him about the drink of water that she had just got and that she had to go watch more of Blues Clues.  She wasn’t shy and immediately just talked on the phone at an appropriate volume.  A major breakthrough!

Liesl decided that today was a day off from playing and that she was going to watch Blues Clues all day.  She doesn’t often watch very much television anymore so her taking a day to really spend in from of the television doesn’t seem so bad.  She likes to spend time on her own just playing in our bedroom with her shows on from Netflix.  It is amazing how good she is at entertaining herself.  We sometimes forget about her for hours at a time because she goes off somewhere and just plays quietly with her Little People, her plastic animals or some other toy.  She is so funny.  During the day when Dominica is in the living room Liesl will often go into our bedroom and in the evenings when we often like to watch shows in our bedroom (on the only television in the house) Liesl likes to go into the living room to play quietly on her own and just stops in every hour or so to check in on us.  Just to make sure that we haven’t left or something, I guess.

Overall today was a productive day.  The house is looking better and better.  There is a long way to go but we are slowly marching forward.

I took a little bit of time while Liesl was sleeping to play Oblivion.  I only got to play for about an hour but it was enough time for me to knock out one dungeon at least.  I’m getting a bit burnt out on the game.  It just keeps going on and on and, thus far, the storylines in the Shivering Isles are not very engaging.  It makes it harder to make consistent progress through this part of the game.

Dominica decided, much like Liesl, that today was a video game day and she spent the day addicted to playing The Sims 3.  She is really far into the game at this point.

This evening, before going to bed, Dominica and I watched some of Michael Palin’s “New Europe” from the BBC.  It is the television show made in conjunction with the book that I just finished reading this morning.  It is not as good as Rick Steve’s Europe or anything like that but it is interesting and gives a good view of lots of parts of Europe that I know very little about.

This morning, after finishing “New Europe”, I began reading / listening to the biography of Captain Kidd which, thus far, has proven to be really interesting.