Friday, September 24, 02004
The walkthrough went through without much excitement. The dishwasher was not working in addition to the fridge, but since they gave me such a big allowance for the fridge, I could also get a new dishwasher and still have some money left over, so I didn't raise a big stink about it.
Minor excitement at closing was that the settlement company forgot to include the home inspection and broken fridge credits, so the cashiers check I had made out turned out being too much, so they had to write me a check for the difference. Hurrah.
Then I went back to the house, and found out the reason the fridge and dishwasher weren't working was because the circuit breaker had tripped, I flipped it back, and they both started working. The fridge had been off long enough though that it has a really bad fishy smell whenever the door's opened, so I'm going to have to replace it anyway. I'm going to have an electrician come in and check out the circuit as well.
Then then I started relaxing and noticing all sorts of goofy annoying things, like the window shades weren't installed correctly, and one of the shades is missing the twisty rod thing for adjusting the shade angle, and some of the electrical panel were missing screws or were broken, and the extra bedroom I was planning on using as an office doesn't have a phone jack and the outdoor electrical outlet in the back porch doesn't shut and blah blah blah, blah blah and blah-de-blah-blah,
AND THEN I LOCKED MYSELF OUT OF THE HOUSE. Fifteen minutes a homeowner, and I'd already screwed it up. I was out on the porch wondering were I could put the composting equipment. I had closed the sliding glass door so it was only open two inches or so, but then the stupid security charley bar thing fell down and, well, did it's job, keeping the door from opening any further..
So there I am shoeless, with all my keys, including the car keys, and the cell phone sitting on the kitchen counter. DID I MENTION I HAD TAKEN OFF MY SHOES. So I jimmy the door a little, and the bar falls down even more. I look for a stick to try and open it, but I can't find any that will twist around towards the bar..
I decide I'm going to have to go knock on some doors and ask someone to call a locksmith for me. It's at this point my nextdoor neighbor comes home and is on his way over to greet me. We shake hands exchange names, I tell him I've managed to lock myself out. I suspect at some point he notices MY SORRY UNSHOD STATE, but if so he was gracious enough not to mention it.
He then goes to quite some trouble trying to hack into my house though the little one inch gap left through the sliding glass door. Crowbars, screwdrivers and wire hangers all make an appearance, but to no avail. Eventually in an act of pure genius he brings out an adjustable curtain rod, which he's able to fit that though the gap, bend it around the curve, and then use it to whack the charley bar up and out of the way. I am freed from my back porch prison. Hurrah !!
Turns out the neighbor runs the Edible Incredible bakery/candy store in Reston town center. The site seems to be down at the moment, but if his cakes as as good as a locksmithing abilities, they must be pretty damn tasty.
Sigh... Off to get my new library card and register to vote in Fairfax county. Aren't my Friday nights exciting !
Posted at 07:44 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
The walkthrough is in 75 minutes. The closing is in 165 minutes.
I don't know why I even bothered coming into the office today. I am useless. I just keep checking to see that the chahisers check hasn't suddenly gone missing from it's envelope during the last ten minutes since I last checked.
The closing is in McLean, and by the time it's finished, the Friday rush hour traffic will probably have kicked in, making it a pain to get back out to Reston, so I'll probably just go back to the apartment and take a nap until later tonight, and then start moving over some of my more fragile / unboxable junk.
The whole closing thing is turning out to be pretty anticlimatic.
Posted at 11:25 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Thursday, September 23, 02004
At Fort Jackson, forty percent reservists ordered have not shown up. Meanwhile Fort Dix is under lockdown, while Fort Carson is threatened soldiers who don't re-enlist with Iraqi deployment. But in Forst Campell, everything is just peachy keen:
"We have no need for a draft, the idea that this country has to use compulsion when we have so many volunteers," Rumsfeld said, responding to a question from one of several regional reporters during the brief news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Don F. Pratt Museum.
"Recruiting is going well. Retention is going well, and we have been increasing the size of our force," he said. "But most important, we have been taking a series of steps to better manage the force so that the burden of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the global war on terror is more evenly spread."
Posted at 01:29 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Wednesday, September 22, 02004
My hometown of Easton was flooded over last weekend. The power was out for up to three days for some people. Some shoppers were trapped in the neighborhood Giant supermarket because the roads out of Forks Township were closed.
At the Brake Shop and Auto Repair in the 200 block of Larry Holmes Drive, owner Brad Fleming was still inventorying the damage. Fleming said he and several employees had salvaged several pieces of equipment before the floodwaters got too high Saturday.
Several vehicles undergoing repairs at the shop were spared damage when employees placed them on lifts and left them raised in the air for the duration of the flood. About 3 feet of water poured into the building but came nowhere near the cars on the lifts.
In other homevalley news, Would-be robber chased from Texaco
A man tried to rob a Texaco station Tuesday morning with a silver pen and ran out of the store after the cashier threw cartons of cigarettes at him, a police report says.
Posted at 06:55 AM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Tuesday, September 21, 02004
I got a call from the realtor last night - the fridge in the new place has apparently died. The seller offered $1000 off the price of the house for me to go out and get my own. It looks like I can get my own for under $500, so I'm not that concerned. Hmmm. Now I'm waiting for the calls that the oven, washer and dryer have all mysteriously broken as well.
It should go without saying I'm going to go ass over tea kettle bonkers over getting the most energy efficient appliances whenever possible. That means the Energy Star site is bookmarked.
I'd really want a Sun Frost fridge, but they're apparently all custom jobs, shipped from the factory in California. Their nearest distributor is in Blacksburg, all the way on the other side of the state. It looks like some of the Frigidaire's are decent...
Posted at 02:41 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Monday, September 20, 02004
Sigh. So weekly totsplats weren't enough. Seems there's a market niche for folks who want to accidentily bury their kids with whatever crap their carting around in their personal dumptrucks.
Posted at 07:02 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
Sunday, September 19, 02004
In less than a week, barring only freak tornados ripping through Reston or any sort of closing shinnanegans I will own 20% of a house. I'm moving in sometime the week after that. Almost everything in the apartment is all packed up. I've already had to play (and for the most part lose) guess-the-box and unpack a jacket, since it's suddenly gotten a bit chilly, what it being the end of September and all.
I'm pretty much over being sad about leaving Arlington. That may be because of the singing drunk fratboys camped out under my window last night, or it may be because I spent a good part of today wandering around the Reston footpaths. I'm a thirty minute walk from the Reston Town center. I'm about fifteen minutes from the Reston UU church. Part of that involving hopping a stream and using a real blazed trail as opposed to paved footpath, so I doubt I'll be doing it in the winter or at night, or after big storms, but still, I can walk to church through the woods !
On a non-house note, remember Kerplunk ? I just used it as a verb in an e-mail, and I'm just now guessing my non-1970s-suburban audience probably has no clue what I'm talking about. Plus that kid's picture on the page cracks me up, and the review is pretty funny as well.
Posted at 09:07 PM EST [Link][Karma] [Comment]
