Flooring

So, now that we have closed the work has started on repair the house. My friend Nate and I went out the night of closing and began pulling out the old carpeting. We bought filter masks and gloves to keep from inhaling too much of the dust. And there was a lot of it.

After three hours or so, we completely removed all of the carpet and padding from the house. Jennifer came out and used a shop vacuum to get up the dust. She went out to the house again yesterday and scraped up the tile and tacking strips. Once the nails from the tacking strips are pulled, we will be ready to begin with laying new floors.

Closing

After several weeks of back and forth with out lender, we have finally closed on the house. Of course, since the house was unoccupied for so long and no one was taking care of it, we have plenty of work for us. The yard is completely overgrown -the neighbors have been leaving notes saying the property is a safety concern, the floors are even worse, the pool is completely green. It is all overwhelming.

FHA Required Repairs

So in previous posts I mentioned some of the items that need to be addressed/repaired at the house. Well, we have heard back from the FHA inspector and the only thing that he noted requiring repair is the screen in the lanai. One section of screen is missing, as can be seen in the photo where the rubber strip around the screen is hanging down. He did not mention the floors, the AC unit, nothing. It just shows how silly the FHA requirements are.

So in order to close, we have to either pay a handyman to come out and fix it prior to closing or put twice the amount needed for the repair into escrow. If we have it repaired, the inspector has to come back out and note the repair was made. This is all kind of silly.

Since the FHA inspection, another section of the screen has become ripped during a heavy thunderstorm with hail as can be seen in the upper right of the photo, so now that needs to be repaired.

The truth is, that the banks and seller should be relieved that we are purchasing this house. The property is deteriorating everyday by being unoccupied and not maintained. Property values in this area are still falling and interest rates are climbing.

Angry Sellers and Diligent Inspectors

I am delaying posting all of these due to the time sensitive nature of them. They will probably all hit at once.

So, I mentioned in the last post that the flooring was and issue at the house we had inspected and that there was an area of wood rot in the baseboards. During our inspection, my wife spotted an area that appeared to be damp on the dining room baseboard. She knelt down next to it and ran her finger across it to see if it was wet. The area caved in immediately. So we asked the WDO inspector to pay particular attention to that area, since it could indicate termites.

The inspector used his pocket knife, or screw driver, I don't recall which exactly, to open the hole more and look inside. After finding that the moisture was coming from the floor, he separated the carpet from the tacks. This did not take much effort since the staples holding down the carpet were rusted out. He found where the moisture was coming in, and pointed it out to us. At no time during this process did we ask him to expand the hole in the baseboard or remove the carpeting, but I am not upset that he did. The carpet is ruined and in absolute need of replacement. The carpet would have easily come up on its own after some more time, due to the rust and rot. As a buyer, I want to know the condition of the property I am buying and by pulling back the carpet, we could determine the extent of the damage. After he was finished, the inspector replaced the carpet, though he did no fully push it under the baseboards. I came back later and shoved it back under before leaving the house with the general home inspector.

I got this call today from my Realtor. She tells me that the Seller's Realtor called her and the Seller was livid that the carpet was pulled back. He said that the concrete sub floor was exposed and that we had damaged the house. The truth is that the carpet did come off the sub-floor, but it was an effortless removal for the inspector. The real damage had already been done by the moisture. I think that this is probably a pressure tactic by the seller.

We know from public record that he is in the midst of foreclosure, that he is selling for much much less than he owes, and from observation that he is a total slob. He has left debris around the house, trash in the yard, and attic. The yard has not been maintained. The house has not been maintained. His Realtor advised him to mow the yard, or it likely would not pass FHA inspection. He did, but ran over everything in his path with the mower, including the aforementioned trash. He has been reluctant to sign any paperwork and refused to fill out the owners disclosure. Our Realtor mentioned that he said if the house did not sell on this contract, he would turn the keys over to the bank.

At this point, I think that he is probably feeling pressured and is looking for a way to put the pressure onto us. Why is he concerned with the carpet if he is walking? Anyone that would consider buying the house would have to replace the flooring anyway. Ahh, the joys of home buying.

Home Offer

Our lease ends at the end of August. We have been renting since we moved down to Tampa from Virginia. Given the great mortgage rates that we have seen over the past couple of months, Jennifer and I decided that it would not hurt to look. Plus, it has been frustrating renting. There are a lot of repairs and improvements that we would make to a home that we owned, but can not justify doing to a rental house and landlords always take the path of least expense, even if it is aesthetically hideous.

After reviewing our finances we decided that the best option for us is the FHA loan. Which it seems would be a great program. The buyer of our Virginia house used FHA to purchase the home. The only drawback was that the FHA inspector found "deficiencies", which were very minor in nature, but absolutely had to be repaired before the bank would provide financing, which meant that Jennifer and I had to hire out repairs remotely instead of putting money into escrow to cover the costs.
So why is this relevant?
We found a home that we are interested in and made an offer. It is a short sale, which brings its own basket of hassles. We finally got approval from the seller's banks (yes there are two) for our offer price. We put into the contract that we would have inspections within 10 days of contract execution, which ended on June 14. The problem was, that the water was not turned on at the home, so we requested the water be turned on and started scheduling inspections after the water was on, which put our inspections on the Friday before the contractual end of inspection period. This is where the FHA program comes into play. During the inspection we discovered the typical problems you would see in a decade old house, but one issue which was an eye catcher was an area of wood rot in the dining room base boards.

Upon seeing the wood rot, my immediate fear was that there were termites. When the WDO inspector looked at the area, small insects came crawling out. I thought my fear was confirmed. It turned out that they were just ants. The problem turned out to be moisture getting into the house from the outside, where water was accumulating near the base of the wall and getting inside through settling cracks in the cinder block walls. It is a relatively simple fix on the walls, dig the dirt up around the base of the wall and apply concrete sealant, then apply sealant inside as well. The landscape must also be modified to keep water from pooling, but this can be addressed with a day of shoveling to create a slope away from the house and installing a flower bed around the house where water can seep into the soil instead of running on the surface and pooling. I am worried that the FHA inspector will see this and think the same thing that I did at first and stop financing.

A few other problems that came out during inspection were:

1. Rotten boards under the shingles in two places within the garage. I will have to hire a roofer to make the repairs. Our Realtor has scheduled someone to come out and provide us with an estimate.
2. The AC is not working efficiently and the intake is full of mold. We will have to have the inside air handler serviced and the whole thing cleaned.
   
3. Minor items i.e. missing shower head, burned out light bulbs, etc.
4. Floors. We knew going in that we would have to replace the carpeting. The house was actually a rental for a short time, probably so that the owner could stay above water. The renters trashed the carpeting.

We have had to go back to the seller the request an extension on the inspection period, so that we can discover what these repairs will cost us. So, for the next few weeks, Jennifer and I will be on pins and needles while we wair for repair estimates and the FHA inspector.

Egmont Key

Egmont Key is an island located south of Pinellas County, Florida, across from Ft. Desoto Park. The island is only accessible by boat and has only one resident; the Park Ranger.

At one time, the island was the location of Ft. Dade and at one time had a small military town located there. Today, all that remains of the town is the brick roads and concrete sidewalks. This makes for an eerie walk. The beaches around the island are pristine, with wild sea grass and natural dunes, which are getting more difficult to find elsewhere around the state. The island also has many many gopher tortoises, you will be sure to see one. The beaches are not nearly as crowded as the Ft. Desoto beaches. This place is a must for anyone visiting the Tampa Bay Area. This is how Florida once was.

There are no fees to enter the park, but unless you have a boat or a friend with one, you will need to take the ferry. The ferry is 20 dollars per person, and leaves from Ft. Desoto. Entrance to Ft. Desoto is free but there is a toll (less than a dollar) to drive down the road going to the park.

Definately check it out.

The Tilted Kilt

Located on Dale Mabry in Tampa.

Jennifer and I frequently visit O'Brien's Irish Pub on Dale Mabry. We like the atmosphere, the drink selection, and the food is decent. Our only complaint is that they allow smoking, which in most cases is a mild nuisance, but at times, it can become overwhelming. So, when we found out that a new Irish Pub is opening on Dale Mabry, we were excited. Unfortunately, we were not impressed.

When we walked into the Pub, we were greeted by four women at the hostess station wearing short plaid skirts, a short white button up shirt with all but one or two buttons undone, and plaid bras. OK, so this is like the Irish Pub version of Hooters.

We took our seats and the server took our order. She made it difficult to talk to her face as she leaned forward over the table falling out of her shirt. The place has a very large bar, limericks written all around the room (which were very amusing), posters, signs, and other Irish paraphernalia hung around the room. All of the paraphernalia seemed unauthentic, a kind of a cheesy reproduction of what one would expect to find in an Irish Pub. The place seemed like a grotesque hybrid between Disney World and Hooters. They did have a huge selection of beers on tap and by the bottle.

So, what about the food?

Not worth the money. We frequently order the fish and chips at O'Brien's and decided to order it at the Tilted Kilt. We also ordered the chicken tenders as a backup, since you can't screw those up. The Fish and Chips looked like frozen fish sticks and fries from the grocery store. The pub ran out of tarter sauce and offered a replacement. We declined. The chicken was the standard heavily fried chicken tenders. We ordered a side of honey mustard and ranch for dipping. Not surprisingly, when we got the bill, they charged us for an extra side of ranch, despite the absence of tarter sauce. Oh well, we won't be eating here again.

So, if your looking for food, avoid this place. If you are looking for a bar, they have a large selection of drinks, but they are not cheap.

Continental Airlines - Tampa to Miami

I should start by stating that I prefer Southwest Airlines. They are what I consider the Gold Standard for airlines. They have friendly staff, reasonable pricing, and are easy to work with when changing flight times, destinations, etc. So, any other airline that I travel with has a high standard to meet.
On this particular trip, I was flying from Tampa to Miami to do some work that had to be done between 10pm on Sunday and 6am on Monday. Given the late hours and knowing that I would be traveling home extremely tired, I was looking for the quickest way into and out of Miami. I did not want to drive to Fort Lauderdale from Miami, while I was sleep deprived. So, Southwest was out of the question. Continental turned out to have the lowest fair.
The trip from Tampa was on a Beechcraft 1900. This is a very small passenger plane, with a capacity of 19 passengers. My first thought after sitting down on the flight was: Where is the cockpit door? It is so strange not to see these giant doors bolted shut at the front of the plane. While the crew was climbing into the cockpit, I inadvertently became nervous. I should start out by saying that I do not think that age is the primary determining factor, or even within the top three determining factors, on ability to operate an aircraft. But these guys were young. They could not have been more than 25 years old. They looked like they would be more in character operating a jet ski on spring break than a passenger plane. I could not help but feel a sense of envy towards and excitement for the two pilots. It was obvious that they were excited about flying and they felt like they were living their dream.
One great thing about an aircraft without bolted cockpit doors, is that you can watch the pilots and see the same view that the pilots have during the flight. The guys flying this plane were professionals. They were extremely focused on the task at hand and courteous, even if annoyingly excited, to the passengers when boarding and exiting.
Some small annoyances during the flight, which could be big annoyances if the flight were longer than the 1 hour gate-to-gate travel time, was the lack of a beverage service and the way the plane felt. Every slight bit of turbulence seemed exaggerated.

Blog Theme Change

I have been posting to this blog, only intermittantly. After reading an article in the Tampa Tribune, which gave advice on creating an effective travel blog, I decided that what was needed was a blog theme. Instead of writing about updates on what Jennifer and I are doing, which admittedly, only a very few people care about, that the theme should be more about a select topic. Also, the article spoke to the importance of expressing your opinion and that opinions make blogs interesting. I have been involved with technical writing for so long, that I hope that I can still express an opinion. :) So, with that in mind, I realized that a travel blog makes sense. So, the theme of this blog is: Travel - my work requires that I travel several times per month. Dining - When traveling , I always eat out. Plus Jennifer and I always enjoy trying new restaurants. Hotels - see travel. Random - Because I am. Of couse, since this blog is named after my wife and I, I think that I should include her opinion on any of the things that we experience together.
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Bread!

Have you seen the commercials on television promoting high fructose corn syrup? It amazes me that the food industry is now lobbying the public for acceptance of HFCS. Although, from what I have read, the jury is still out on the affects of HFCS on the body (Mayo Clinic , Wikipedia) what is apparent is that too much consumption of sugar does lead to health problems; obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes ... What is also disturbing to me is the amount of sugar, usually HFCS, that is added to foods that we eat, often times without us knowing about it. I did a quick survey of our groceries and discovered HFCS in our yogurt, bread, ketchup, and mustard. I can understand people's interest in organic diets. It is nice to know exactly what you are putting into your body.
So, after finding out that some of our bread is made with HFCS, I tried to make homemade bread with very little success. I started with wheat bread, which was probably a mistake, since it takes a lot more time than white. The first loaf came out like a rock. I don't think I let it rise long enough in the pan before loading it in the oven. After a few failures, Jennifer and I went and bought a bread machine (see picture). This little thing is amazing. You can not only make bread for sandwhiches, you can use it to prepare dough for pizza, bagels, naan, and all sorts of cool stuff. I am going to try to never buy bread again!
Next I'll try homemade ketchup. I wonder if there is a ketchup machine.