My offer on my first house just got accepted...

Ha. I bought that book when I got my first house back in '87 and I still refer to it often.


And congrats, IJAG. Great market to buy.

 

Best thing I did in my current place...

Your garage is for your car. Not stuff that you will not use. Be sure you can park your car in your garage.

 

It's a cartoon version of a twerp I know... the one we discussed on the phone...

 

Congrats, IJAG!

Nothing like the crazy emotions of home-buying.

 

They stick ours in the monthly water bill . . . along with the "mandatory" cable payment (whether you want cable or not). We will be able to opt out of paying cable in 2013 (15 years and more than $7,000 after I switched to DirecTV and never used their cable service).

 

Mandatory cable payment? How do they get away with that?

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Garage? On a Craftsman?

Surely you jest.

I have a "parking pad" that's MAYBE an inch wider than my car.

 

The water bill was what surprised me when I moved here--80 - 90 bucks a month about 4X what I paid previously.

And do you own a lawnmower? Or are you just going to pay some young buck to cut your lawn?

 

Planned community built in 1987, incorporated in 1996 and built out soon after that. In the initial deal --- successive 10-year terms in perpetuity --- developer promised a "bulk" of subscribers (14,000 or so) to the cable provider and was given a lower (bulk) rate. You buy a house in the community, you sign papers saying you'll pay for cable service.

Not really a big deal at the time. Upscale community pays $40 or so a month for cable. But that was before satellite and internet came along.

Fast forward to 2004. Lawsuit was filed to terminate the service agreement. Cable company countersued. Settlement reached gives homeowners the option of picking another cable company (or not paying for cable at all) after Dec. 31, 2013.

 

If I ever end up in Atlanta, that's the first place I'm going to visit. It'll also be the first restaurant where I'll be bowing down to the propietor.

 

Congrats on your acquisition. You bought at a very good time and I am very happy for you.

I am at the other end of the spectrum. I bought a modest condo five years ago just as the bubble was getting ready to burst and it is now worth 60% of what I paid for it. I get uneasy every time I think about it.

 

Since we're on the subject of homes . . . .


how the hell do you do any planting in a yard with very little topsoil? Wife wants a hole dug about 18 inches and filled with garden soil for some plants.

I dig about 5-6 inches and . . . clang. Rocks. And more rocks. 30 minutes and two blistered hands later, we get one honeysuckle shrub planted. Attempt at planting second shrub is met with even more unforgiving rocks. "No mas," I say. Actually, I said, "больше нет.'' But the meaning was clear. I can't plant this thing with a simple shovel. So how do you do it? Should I start pricing jackhammers?