FolkWolf.Net: Category personal

How not to buy a house.

Matt Rose — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:53:48 -0400

Do not buy the first house you see
Don't get into a bidding war
Don't buy a house without the following conditions
House Inspection
Financing
Give yourself lots of closing time

We broke all those rules. Yet we still ended up with a fantastic house. The story starts almost three weeks ago, when Liz was looking at MLS on a lazy saturday and said, "we should go look at this open house tomorrow", we thought about it, and 2 pm rolled around the next day and we discussed it some more, and we were both a little uneasy about seeing the house: Liz; "It's a big deal, it just weirds me out a bit" Me: "I'm just afraid we're gonna want to buy it" Liz: "No, we won't, it won't have a backyard, or a basement, it'll be terrible, besides it's a huge investment, we won't just buy the first thing we see" Me: "Like our car, or our dog..." Needless to say, a half hour later we found ourselves asking: "So, how do you buy a house?" We got the name of a realtor from our parents, who had just bought a house the same weekend we got married. We met with the realtor at the house a couple of days later, and she said... "This house is so hot we're going to need oven mitts, you better think about how much you want this house, because if you want, we're going to have to go all in, and make an offer with *no* conditions, no house inspection, no financing conditions, you're going to have to make an offer that doesn't just compete on price, but makes it easier for the seller to sell to you than any other offer" So Liz and I thought about it overnight, and decided we wanted to go all in. We arranged for a house inspection on a house we didn't have an agreement to buy, and we met with our wonderful financial advisor, who jumped through all the hoops, and even possibly bent a few rules to make sure that we could ensure that financing was in place, before even putting an offer on the house. The seller started accepting offers at 7pm the next saturday evening, so we met saturday afternoon and discussed offers. We decided to on two numbers. If there were no other bidders, we were going to go under the asking price, and if there were other bidders, we were going to go with an offer that was significantly over the asking price, with no conditions, and a closing date of two weeks. We were hoping that would be no other offers that night. A few hours later, I got a text message (as a sidenote, we did an amazing amount of communication over text messages. The last time I had a celphone was before the days of SMS, so this whole text messaging thing was a weird novelty), saying that there was at least one, and probably three other offers on the house. OK, big offer. We all trooped down to the realtors office at 6:30, and filled out the offer sheet, since we were all kind of mad at being made to spend our saturday night at a realtors office, we made the offer close at 7:45. The seller didn't make it 'til 7:15, so we presented our offer, and the other three bidders presented their offer, and we spent a very tense 15 minutes, and when the seller's agent came in at 7:30 and said that our offer had been accepted, the looks on our faces must have been something to see, because the seller's agent said "Don't look so shocked!" So monday, I went looking around at Insurance. The House Inspector had said that the 60A incoming circuit would be a problem getting insurance. I still can't figure out why, as the less electricity coming into the house, the less chance of fire, but there you go. And I discovered that when you say your house is over 50 yrs old, getting insurance is much more involved of a process that takes running back and forth between me, the broker, and the insurance inderwriter. That was dealt with by Wednesday of last week, and then, it was pretty quiet for a week. A week of painful waiting. Both Liz and I like things to be 100% assured, and for a week, things were almost 100% sure, but not a done deal yet, so neither Liz nor I slept very well that week. On Tuesday, we met with the banker and signed a few more papers, and she went over the mortgage. Thursday, we went to the Lawyer's office and signed our names what seemed like thousands of times (a whole bunch of documents, three copies of each, with each page initialed by both Liz and I) And ta-da! Friday afternoon, Liz went and picked up the keys. Today.... Moving. Ugh. I hate moving.

Looking to buy a PC

Matt Rose — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:27:52 -0400

I've decided to re-join the dark side, and get another PC with (ewww) windows. Problem is, the last PC I bought was probably about 8 years ago, and I have no idea what I'm looking for anymore. Basically I want it to play games, but I'm not looking for a hardcore gaming machine.

I'm asking the lazyweb where to buy a PC in Ottawa, I went to Best Buy, and they didn't have anything compelling there, and I went to Future Shop, but I couldn't get a sales-guys attention, even though I was standing around in the computer aisle playing halo for at least 10 minutes...

My little corner of NV

Matt Rose — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:19:00 -0400

For those of you who are curious about what I'm saying when I talk about my Storage Space in NV, here's a sattelite view of what I'm talking about

View Larger Map

Somalia's beaches

Matt Rose — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:25:00 -0400

I bought my mom a book on the world's most dangerous places. Because she's been to most of them. So I was entertained by [this article] in Foreign Policy magazine entitled Top Tourist Spots Americans Can�t Visit

I spent every friday (Muslim Holy day) at the beaches in Somalia when I lived there in the 80s.

Mogadishu�s Beaches

Location: Somalia�s east coast

Why you should go: The beaches that separate Mogadishu from the Indian Ocean rank among the most beautiful stretches of sand in the world, say many of the very few Western travelers who ever venture there. Coral reefs teeming with fish are easily accessible from the shore (although tourists pursuing aquatic leisure should leave all valuables at home in case their boat is hijacked by pirates). Back in Mogadishu, visitors can find virtually anything in the city�s outdoor markets�except peace of mind. A 2004 Economist article noted that hand grenades go for a mere $10, and other popular items include antiaircraft guns and mortars.

Why you can�t: Because a good day in Somalia is the worst day of your life almost anywhere else. The constant state of anarchy, lawlessness, and piracy is usually enough to deter most folks from traveling to Somalia, the world�s third most failed state, according to the 2007 Failed States Index. Michael Sailor of intrepid travel agency Abercrombie & Kent perhaps puts it best when he says that Somalia is �not exactly a top-of-mind recognition for a travel destination.� The U.S. government does not maintain any consular presence in Mogadishu, so an American in trouble is likely to stay there. Most troubling is the fact that with little recognized, governing authority in Somalia, simply identifying which of the seemingly endless string of warlords and criminals has just kidnapped you is an important first step in negotiating your release. Still, the water is lovely.

New to my blog: Poetry interpretation

Matt Rose — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:57:00 -0400

Jane Hirshfield upon hearing the news about the vandalism of Robert Frost's cabin in the woods, and the unusual sentence given the vandals, posted the poem in question. I think it's past copyright now, so I repost it here.

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I haven't read it since high-school, and I read it entirely differently now than I did then. For me, back in high school about being different, choosing "The road less traveled"

Re-reading it now, it seems almost wistful. The subject of the poem is reflecting on the one choice, that seemed almost inconsequential at the time. At the time, he thought " Oh, I kept the first for another day!" Then in the very next line he says " Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

We all make potentially life-altering choices each day, and each one, no matter how minor it seems at the time, can have drastic effects on not only your life, but the lives of all the people you effect.

The final lines of the poem I read entirely differently now, with the first line of the final stanza setting an entirely different tone.

blogging from my iPod

Matt Rose — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:04:00 -0500

blogging from my new ipod touch. Mer and Colin's wedding was very nice

13 years later

Matt Rose — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 19:14:38 -0400

When I got my first apartment with Einoch, we ended up running a sort of shelter for the little siblings of some of our friends. This is a picture of Jocelyn, Jill, Einoch and I who all ran into each other at Einoch's B-day

Einoch the Unhappy Hippie

Matt Rose — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:18:00 -0500

This picture cracks me up, I think einoch looks so sad because he worries all his ultra-hip emo friends now have proof that he's a dirty hippy

Andrew Vincent is a golden god.

Matt Rose — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:36:00 -0500

Here's the proof.

I Just saw this ad on TV.

If you like his song, you should go check out his website, or buy a CD

Best. Rider. Ever.

Matt Rose — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:10:00 -0400

And I mean that in both senses.

I've been in a band (never one that could get away with a rider), and I've done sound crew and stage crew stuff since I was a teenager. In that capacity, I saw a lot of riders. None were as funny or as informative as this one.

I've always felt Road Managers lived between a rock and a hard place. Their entire livelihood depends on how someone else "feels" on a particular day. All they can do is have everything set up so that the performer has the best environment possible. Which means they have to be the most demanding motherfuckers. This manager obviously is comfortable with the fact, and has fun with it.

Favourite quotes:

1 X KORG 2000 DIGITAL RACK TUNER. Digital in the sense that it works via an electronically generated number system, not digital because it only works if someone holds it together with their fingers.

For the sidefills, can we have two great big enormous things please, of a type that might be venerated as gods by the inhabitants of Easter Island, capable of reaching volumes that could provide the power for a Monster Truck Rally.

Can I just sat that we like to keep it as clear as possible, especially at the front? My insurance doesn't cover me for allowing Rockstarts to fall off the front of the stage. [ ... ] This way, Iggy can run around in his customary manner, like a crazed running-around-type-thing, and we can all relax in a haze of self-satisfied panic.

NO YAMAHAS and NO BLEEDING DIGITAL or I will chop it into a hundred pieces, and each of those pieces I will chop into a hundred pieces ... so that's like, er ... tenty hundred? Anyway, then I will douse them in petrol and burn them. In accordance wuth local and national guidelines on the burning of bits of shit mixer, of course.