(no subject)
I promise, I'm usually not a complainer, so I apologize my posts have been so whiney lately. I plan to start posting normal/fun stuff soon. Finish my Rolling Love recap and probably do a Just You recap as I'm rediscovering my love for twdramas lately. But that being said, I thought I should update everyone on our never-ending house saga. ;)
So the plumbing seems to be fixed for good. We still haven't decided if we want to pay the camera guy to come back one last time. He charges an insane amount, just for the mileage. I might try to see if there are any other plumbing/camera inspectors and see if they charge a little less. But we've had a couple other snaffoos.
So property taxes around here are paid in arrears and due in April & October. So April 30th, half of 2013's taxes were due, October 30th, the 2nd half will be. I've heard stories about mortgage/escrow companies missing things so May 2nd or 3rd, I went online to make sure everything had processed well. And it appeared they had, except for a small note in red text that there were past-due taxes from a previous period. So I called and learned the property taxes were never paid last October. The tax certificate was sold in December and there was a lien on the house that the title company missed. Talk about a goof on their part! Fortunately they were able to obtain the funding from HUD and get that paid off but in the confusion our mortgage company tried to pay the delinquent taxes, too. It's complicated but somehow the county deposited both and applied them to the payments due this year. So 2013 taxes are now fully paid but the escrow company thinks they will still have an October payment to make and are concerned over the escrow being too low and wanting to raise our monthly payment by several hundred dollars. So I have to call them and get that sorted out now. Yay me! ;)
Plus we had a foundation specialist come look at our basement - apparently the foundation is bigger than the house so the entire back of the house is resting about 2 feet in on the slab, not the footing. It's a unique problem that our inspector had pointed out but all he said was "it causes rain to pool against the back of the house, you'll want to seal the outside so water seepage can't occur." This foundation specialist had never seen anything like it & couldn't believe our inspector didn't flag it as a potential concern. In fact, his company was so concerned over our special situation that they aren't willing to get involved. At all. So we have to get an engineer to come inspect (the specialist isn't a licensed engineer and his engineer that he consulted with is out of state) and give us a written report and depending on how that goes, we may have to pursue things further. HUD homes are sold as is so there's nothing we can do there. But the inspector is something else. We sent a letter a few weeks ago informing him of what happened with the basement specialist saying we wanted our money back. My theory was if we didn't have a leg to stand on, we'd hear back from them promptly denying our request or requesting to come inspect again. And that if we did have a valid concern, we might get a check immediately with them hoping to brush the whole thing under a rug. Instead we have heard nothing - at all - so I'm not sure what that means. We just need to get that inspector out asap.
On a personal news front, Hubby and I attended a Susan Barton Dyslexia seminar. It was fascinating! We learned so much but also confirmed that Munchkin is much more severely dyslexic than we had hoped. Apparently, the earlier they catch it, the more severe it usually is. Most kids are able to fake their way through school till about 3rd grade so the fact we caught her's in Kindergarten is an indication how severe it is. We are also frustrated now at Munchkin's lack of progress is school. She is starting 4th grade next year. And her reading level is mid-1st-grade. She started 3rd grade at beginning-1st-grade level so she progressed about half a grades worth in one school year. The Barton Dyslexia curriculum promises pretty steady improvement but it is expensive. $200-$300 per level and there are 12 levels, although from what I understand most people don't pursue past level 4. That's all they need to give them the tools to be able to progress further on their own. My in-laws think we should try to get the school to buy the curriculum but I don't know how much of a chance we have with that. I'd also like to work on Munchkin's math so I'm thinking we may just pony up the cash and start teaching her at home over the summer and see how much improvement we get before school starts.
Oh - my biggest and best news is - I got a kitty!! I am such a huge cat person but haven't had one in years. I had the fattest, sweetest cat back when Hubby and I first got married. But when we moved out west I had to give him away and it broke my heart to do. Now that we have a permanent house, we've promised Munchkin a dog and I get a kitty. We're still looking for a puppy for her - we're thinking golden retriever or black lab or some such. Something that doesn't require too big a yard or love to run all the time, that would also be gentle with Munchkin as she loves dogs but is also timid around them, and wouldn't try to eat my cat. ;) Shelters are expensive, too! I was astounded when we started looking and they are wanting $80-$200 per dog, plus we'd still have to get them spayed/neutered and shots. But a friend of my boss had a cat with kittens so we got one for free last Wednesday.
Everyone, meet Cali! (Short for calico. And I googled it and she's not a calico, she's a Torbie, but we don't care. lol) She's about 10 weeks old and the prettiest kitty on the planet. ;)
I absolutely adore her. She spent 2 hours last night, napping on the back of the couch with her front half draped around my neck, purring every now and then as she stirred. And the best part is Hubby is smitten, too. He's always been reluctant about getting a cat and he gets frustrated when she doesn't want to play or cuddle when he wants (which is why he is more of a dog person). But he just loves how pretty she is, how cute she is and how she purrs ALL THE TIME :D - he's even brought her in our bedroom to sleep on our bed and his biggest rule before the cat came home was our bedroom had to be offlimits. Wow! lol She follows me everywhere - sleeping under the desk when I'm on the computer, on the couch when I am reading or watching tv, crawling under the blankets and sheets to sleep against my knees at night. (I'm always afraid she's going to suffocate herself! lol)
So the plumbing seems to be fixed for good. We still haven't decided if we want to pay the camera guy to come back one last time. He charges an insane amount, just for the mileage. I might try to see if there are any other plumbing/camera inspectors and see if they charge a little less. But we've had a couple other snaffoos.
So property taxes around here are paid in arrears and due in April & October. So April 30th, half of 2013's taxes were due, October 30th, the 2nd half will be. I've heard stories about mortgage/escrow companies missing things so May 2nd or 3rd, I went online to make sure everything had processed well. And it appeared they had, except for a small note in red text that there were past-due taxes from a previous period. So I called and learned the property taxes were never paid last October. The tax certificate was sold in December and there was a lien on the house that the title company missed. Talk about a goof on their part! Fortunately they were able to obtain the funding from HUD and get that paid off but in the confusion our mortgage company tried to pay the delinquent taxes, too. It's complicated but somehow the county deposited both and applied them to the payments due this year. So 2013 taxes are now fully paid but the escrow company thinks they will still have an October payment to make and are concerned over the escrow being too low and wanting to raise our monthly payment by several hundred dollars. So I have to call them and get that sorted out now. Yay me! ;)
Plus we had a foundation specialist come look at our basement - apparently the foundation is bigger than the house so the entire back of the house is resting about 2 feet in on the slab, not the footing. It's a unique problem that our inspector had pointed out but all he said was "it causes rain to pool against the back of the house, you'll want to seal the outside so water seepage can't occur." This foundation specialist had never seen anything like it & couldn't believe our inspector didn't flag it as a potential concern. In fact, his company was so concerned over our special situation that they aren't willing to get involved. At all. So we have to get an engineer to come inspect (the specialist isn't a licensed engineer and his engineer that he consulted with is out of state) and give us a written report and depending on how that goes, we may have to pursue things further. HUD homes are sold as is so there's nothing we can do there. But the inspector is something else. We sent a letter a few weeks ago informing him of what happened with the basement specialist saying we wanted our money back. My theory was if we didn't have a leg to stand on, we'd hear back from them promptly denying our request or requesting to come inspect again. And that if we did have a valid concern, we might get a check immediately with them hoping to brush the whole thing under a rug. Instead we have heard nothing - at all - so I'm not sure what that means. We just need to get that inspector out asap.
On a personal news front, Hubby and I attended a Susan Barton Dyslexia seminar. It was fascinating! We learned so much but also confirmed that Munchkin is much more severely dyslexic than we had hoped. Apparently, the earlier they catch it, the more severe it usually is. Most kids are able to fake their way through school till about 3rd grade so the fact we caught her's in Kindergarten is an indication how severe it is. We are also frustrated now at Munchkin's lack of progress is school. She is starting 4th grade next year. And her reading level is mid-1st-grade. She started 3rd grade at beginning-1st-grade level so she progressed about half a grades worth in one school year. The Barton Dyslexia curriculum promises pretty steady improvement but it is expensive. $200-$300 per level and there are 12 levels, although from what I understand most people don't pursue past level 4. That's all they need to give them the tools to be able to progress further on their own. My in-laws think we should try to get the school to buy the curriculum but I don't know how much of a chance we have with that. I'd also like to work on Munchkin's math so I'm thinking we may just pony up the cash and start teaching her at home over the summer and see how much improvement we get before school starts.
Oh - my biggest and best news is - I got a kitty!! I am such a huge cat person but haven't had one in years. I had the fattest, sweetest cat back when Hubby and I first got married. But when we moved out west I had to give him away and it broke my heart to do. Now that we have a permanent house, we've promised Munchkin a dog and I get a kitty. We're still looking for a puppy for her - we're thinking golden retriever or black lab or some such. Something that doesn't require too big a yard or love to run all the time, that would also be gentle with Munchkin as she loves dogs but is also timid around them, and wouldn't try to eat my cat. ;) Shelters are expensive, too! I was astounded when we started looking and they are wanting $80-$200 per dog, plus we'd still have to get them spayed/neutered and shots. But a friend of my boss had a cat with kittens so we got one for free last Wednesday.
Everyone, meet Cali! (Short for calico. And I googled it and she's not a calico, she's a Torbie, but we don't care. lol) She's about 10 weeks old and the prettiest kitty on the planet. ;)
I absolutely adore her. She spent 2 hours last night, napping on the back of the couch with her front half draped around my neck, purring every now and then as she stirred. And the best part is Hubby is smitten, too. He's always been reluctant about getting a cat and he gets frustrated when she doesn't want to play or cuddle when he wants (which is why he is more of a dog person). But he just loves how pretty she is, how cute she is and how she purrs ALL THE TIME :D - he's even brought her in our bedroom to sleep on our bed and his biggest rule before the cat came home was our bedroom had to be offlimits. Wow! lol She follows me everywhere - sleeping under the desk when I'm on the computer, on the couch when I am reading or watching tv, crawling under the blankets and sheets to sleep against my knees at night. (I'm always afraid she's going to suffocate herself! lol)