Rotten Neighbor

I am generally a pretty easy going guy.  On the scale of laid back to anal annie, I would rate myself surfer dude.  But the last few weeks have turned me into a teeth gritting, knuckle clenching, eye bulging lunatic.  

I found this website, Rotten Neighbor the other day and although I don’t think I am passive agressive enough to take it to this extent… I have just about had enough of my neighbors, and may have to add them to the list.

Rotten Neighbor

Rotten Neighbor

The first week or two of living camping here we couldn’t get over how amazingly quite this old building was. “The rehab must have been extremely thorough”, we thought out loud.  But then it hit us, BAM! like a ton of bricks on a creaking 100 year old floor, literally, every morning at 5am and every night at midnight.  We soon came to the realization that the first few weeks so were quite because there was no one around to make any noise.
 
The people above us must have been out of town, or had not yet moved in, the unit below us was empty, and to this day we have still not heard anything from the unit we share a wall with (I think it is a masonry wall, as it is technically a different building.)  But all that has now changed.

Those Who Are Above

The people above us, the early risers have the absolutely most hideously loud creaky floor… and a dog… and an overpowering urge to play with said dog at 5am EVERY MORNING.  So every single day for the past 4 weeks or so, I too have been up at 5am, listening to them play with their dog.

  • BAM CRREAKAAKA BAM CREAAK BAM…  
  • RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE….
  • SCRA-SCRA-SCRATCH CREEAK SCRA CREEEAK SCRATCH CRE-CREEAAAK
  • BOOOOOM POUND CREAK POUND CREAK POUND CREEEAAAAKAKAAK.

That is the dog frantically jumping around waiting for the ball to be thrown across the apartment upstairs then it rolls across the floor, the dog excitedly chasing after it and then slaming into some piece of furniture and the guy then going running across the floor after the dog to pick up the mess.  

I am not sure if they really know that they are being loud, maybe noone has told them, but you have to know that when you are living so closely with so many other people, that you need to be at least concious of your own noise AT 5AM.  You can’t go stomping around with high heels on a wood floor, or re-arranging furniture, or playing fetch with your dog AT 5AM.

Those Who Are Below

Then there are those who are below, the party animals.  These guys are forever having a giant party with smokers congregating out the back door, yelling and screaming over the blaring music, blowing smoke just below our bedroom window.  There are 2-3 roommates, and one of them is the most horrible guitar/singer wanna be’s ever heard, no joke, I heard a cat srcreetching right along with their singing one night at 2 am.

So the moral of the story is that we are caught right smack in the middle of these two noise machines providing the perfect buffer for the night owl’s noisy get togethers and the earlier risers morning romp with the dog.  Hooray, glad I could be of assistance… Maybe I will collect payment in the form of internet humiliation and revenge… Thanks to Rotten Neighbor.

Louvered Doors

I picked up some pretty nice looking louvered doors for the laundry/furnace room a few weekends ago on craigslist. They were a steal at $50 considering my home away from home, Home Depot sells much lower quality doors for around $100, and with this god-for-saken Illinois taxing scheme, it means I saved well over half the price. I actually went back and bought two more sets of doors from this guy for the bedroom closets, more on that later.

Washer Dryer and Louvered Doors

Washer Dryer and Louvered Doors

Louvered Doors

Louvered Doors

 

I decided I wanted to get them up there right away because they are the first thing you see when you walk into our place, and I have been wanting to cover the gaping hole in our wall that screams “I AM A WORK IN PROGRESS.” for the past few weeks because I knew it would have a dramatic effect on the feel of our little work and progress and would make me feel like I am getting somewhere.  Most of the projects I have been working on recently like caulking the shower and plumbing the sink are necessary but they don’t really do a whole lot for you visually so I was excited to get these up.

For right now we left them au natural if you will.  If you look closely enough you can even find the pencil marks from the factory.  Eventually we will probably stain them, we are just not sure what color we are going to do the on the floors; light or dark. And if worst comes to worst we paint them white to match the trim.  But I hate to cover up such beautiful wood! So for now they get to bask in all their glory as the center piece of our home.

Installation didn’t go off with out a hitch.  My biggest concern was that the doors were not going to open wide enough to allow room for our fancy new washer/dryer doors to swing open.  Of course my fears were not unfounded; BAM the washer door swings open right into the backside of the louvered door.  No biggie after some cursing and a half an hour later I made a few modification to the louvered door’s track, and voila, it makes it through; just barely, this ain’t government work.

Next up: covering up the gaping hole in the ceiling and wiring up the interior light fixture, so I can stuff all those wires back into the electrical box.  For now we keep our modern art masterpiece electrical, fire hazard, and switch the pantry light on and off very carefully.

New Appliances

It was a few weeks ago now, but we ended up spending a good 6 hours one Saturday at ABT a local appliance warehouse and picked up an very efficient refrigerator, front loading washer and dryer, as well as a convection gas range/oven.

We spent the first month here with an old refrigerator that was constantly running, had very limited storage space, and was just plain ugly.  Not to mention we didn’t even have gas to turn the stoveon, so getting new appliances really started to make this place feel like home, finally we can actually make some food sans George Forman.

I spent a good month and a half scouring craigslist looking for a suitable set of appliances, because recycling is extremely environmentally responsible, but unfortunately couldn’t find anything that fit the bill.  I spent the next two weeks researching the most energy efficient appliances on the Energy Star website before finally settling on our new appliances

The Energy Efficient Refrigerator

New Efficient Refrigerator

New Efficient Refrigerator

We had some very strict requirements for our refrigerator.  Our first priority was efficiency.  However because our building is a 1920’s rehab, we have a pretty tight kitchen and therefore strict dimensional requirements within, meaning we decided to look for a counter depth refrigerator with french doors to conserve space.  We also decided we wanted a bottom freezer model as they are the most efficient style. Cold air is more dense then warmer air and therefore wants to sink.  So when you put the coldest part of the refrigerator on the floor and open the door the cold doesn’t really have anywhere to go.  It also just makes sense; you are going to open the freezer door much less than the refrigerator, so why not put the part you access the most at eye level?

I started by reviewing information about Energy Efficient Refrigerators and then using the Energy Star Refrigerator Comparison Chart I made a list of the most efficient refrigerators I could actually afford and hit the store.

We just happened to stumble across an LG LFC21770SS on clearance.  Miraculously it was an incredible deal and fit the budget while meeting every single one of our needs right down to the last detail; counter depth, french door, bottom freezer, stainless steel sans door mounted ice dispenser, and most importantly it was in the upper 25% of the energy star rated refrigerators. SCORE!

Front Loading Washer

Washer and Dryer

Washer and Dryer

Next up was the washer & dryer combo, of which we knew needed to be front loading because once again being in a condo space was an issue and going vertical is where its at.  Again I started researching material on the Energy Star website. Using the Washer Comparison Chart reviewed the specs for all the front loading models and ultimately we decided upon a Frigidaire Affinity Series ATF8000FS.  

We decided to skip energy hogging features such as the steam cleaning feature and went with a no frills washer we thought would do on job well, and do it efficiently.  So far we are very pleased with the new front loaders.  They are so incredibly quiet!  

Lauren and I sat on the floor in front of the washer in awe as the first load moved through its cycles in absolute silence.  And for anyone who has never owned a front loading washer, you will be astonished how little water is used.  I thought something was wrong when the water turned off the first time… the clothes were barely wet!  But low and behold the clothes came out smelling and looking like new.

Overall I am extremely pumped about the new appliances.  I have been researching the real estate market in and around Chicago for the last 15 months.  The biggest thing I’ve taken away is that the majority of available real estate in Chicago is provided by developers and developers by nature are cheap.  As long as its maple, granite and stainless it doesn’t matter to them.  I have seen the same cheapy appliance packaged used in 90k condos, up through million dollar town houses, and I am confident I will have nicer appliances then a vast majority of available real estate in chicago.

The Hero

The Hero

Installing our front loading Washer/Dryer

Installing our front loading Washer/Dryer

Old Appliances Move OUT

The little old fridge, and tiny white stove, are finally out of here! I am so glad that I didn’t pay to have our old appliances taken away when we got the new ones delivered. I knew we would be able to get rid of them somehow.

Old Stove

Old Stove

Old Fridge

Old Fridge

I put them up on Craigslist Friday night, and had 10 responses within 15 minutes. If only fishing could be that fun! A very nice man who just moved here from Tanzania came and picked them up. I helped him get them down to his car, and he was so grateful. He had the biggest smile on his face, he was so excited to get them home, and get them into his house. I just wanted them out of mine, and I made a few bucks to boot. It was a win win situation for everyone. We no longer have to tip-toe around the old fridge just to squeeze into the second bedroom when looking for tools, and taking the stove out of the kitchen completely opened up the space, it feels like a new place.

Kitchen Stage 1

These are a bit old at this point.  These photos are from the week before our second closing, when Lauren and I came up to Lunt to install the “Kitchen”.   We don’t have as many good photos of this place before we started working on it, these may be our best shot.  Big thanks goes out to my lovely Lauren for the APE ( Awesome Photo Editing ) - onblueundercanvas.com.

Green House Effect Round-up 10-15-2008

Straw bale Construction via www.celebratebig.com

Straw bale Construction via www.celebratebig.com

For this week’s, Green House Effect Round-up, I am focusing on Straw Bale construction. I have been infatuated with this alternative constructiion technique after coming across The Staw House Blog a few weeks ago. Below are a few other resources I found interesting and/or helpful.

The Staw House Blog

Stonehouse Straw House

Strawbale.com

The Straw Bale House Plans Blog

Our Straw Bale

Straw Links

Straw Bale Construction on Wikipedia

Straw Bale Sourcebook on Greenbuilder.com

Sustainable, local building materials that can be recycled back into the earth, in conjunction with an incredibly efficient building envelope, with the ability to build a variety of naturally appealing visual styles makes for an extremely attractive construction material. What more could you ask for?

Running Water

Under the sink plumbing.

Under the sink plumbing.

So I am jumping the gun a bit, I haven’t even posted about the 4 closing we had and were botched, or that we finally, eventually, almost didn’t, but in the end did close.

I didn’t write about swapping lenders after the original appraisal because we didn’t have a kitchen and no one told us until the appraiser just walked out on us that it would be a problem. Nor did I right about the three nights in a row we stayed up at Lunt until 2:30 in the morning to install kitchen cabinets from Ikea. I didn’t write about moving out of Wells and the whirlwind weekend, my family over from Michigan to help us move, clean, paint, and install closet/pantry organizers so we would have a place to at least hang our cloths. Didn’t write about the 2 weeks illegally squatting, nor the phone call about the lawsuit,(phewuuu, good thing it wasn’t against us!), and I certainly didn’t write about attempting to shower in the rain on Chicago’s rainiest day in recorded history, as a desperate measure as we were trying to let the caulk dry in the shower.

However, after 3 weeks of living squatting and 2 weeks of living legally here I finally got around to installing the plumbing in the kitchen, if you can actually call it that… Either way its one step closer to being a kitchen now with the addition of running water! WHOOO! I went ahead and dry fit the pipes and everything seemed to fit just fine.  But of course as soon as I pull out the pvc cement and start gluing the it all together it decides to play hardball and doesn’t want to match up again.  Eventually I give it a bit of muscle and torque it all together which is not the best thing to do with plumbing.  Needless to say I have a very slow drip, only when the sink is completely full, nothing a little plumbers putty won’t fix. 

Drying dishes on the floor.

Drying dishes on the floor.

I digress, Its not that running water in a kitchen shouldn’t be a priority when you have been living in your first house for the past 3 weeks, its just that doing dishes in the bathroom and drying them in the middle of the living room floor doesn’t seem like that bad of a proposition in the grand scheme of things. I mean really we were trying to shower in the rain just a few days ago, what’s the rush to get a kitchen sink right? Now it’s just a matter of time before we actually get around to installing the garbage disposal…. eh, I’d rather get a dog, and have it act as dishwasher and garbage disposal.

Needless to say it does feel good to have that part of the condo back again. I suppose it wasn’t really the best workbench in the world. It will be nice being able to actually put a meal together without worrying about the plumbers putty becoming an accidental condiment and glooping onto my sandwich during lunch time.

AWWWHHHhhhh Perfect…… the flipping toilet just decided to randomly spill its guts out all over the floor, back to work!

The Contract

Over the 4th of July weekend, I was the best man in my best friends wedding.

I already had my hands full, planning one drunken night of debauchery, and two days of fun in the sun back home. I didn’t want to have to deal with all the new responsibilities of purchasing a house on top of it all. I now had to schedule an inspection, finalize financing, find a lawyer, figure out insurance, and negotiate a few outstanding issues the sellers had changed after I signed the contract! Something I thought was illegal, they changed the closing date, the mortgage contingency date, as well as a number of other pretty hefty contractual items, according to my lawyer this is not illegal, just another counter offer. Oh well you live and learn…

The Accepted Offer

So my original offer of 80% ltv was countered with an offer $1,500 lower than the original asking price, on top of asking for an increase to $5,000 earnest money up front payable immediately, this was Monday the 30th. Kinda a slap in the face if you ask me.

So I mulled it over and Tuesday afternoon decided to raise my offer $5,000, which was still $15,000 below the asking price. I was hoping they would take it because I was not going much higher. However I was hoping I had waited long enough to counter that they wouldn’t get to it until after the 4th of July weekend.

It was about 7:30pm and we were already half way home to Michigan. I was telling my girlfriend there was no way they would come down $15,000 immediately after they had dropped a mere $1,500 on the first counter. Sure enough just as I finished saying this I received a phone call from my realtor telling us they had accepted the offer!

First I thought it was a joke, as it was quite a change of heart on their part and I was completely astonished they accepted the offer. But But then I got a bit nervous, “Did I make a bad decision?” “Do they know something I don’t?” “Is the housing market falling faster than I though?” All these crazy thoughts started running through my head.

I am soon to be a new homeowner! Oh-no, bills, bills, and more bills, here they come.

The Counter Offer

Well They got back to us and its not what I was hoping for, but exactly as I expected.

The counter offer was a mere 1.5k less than the asking price, and to top it all off they want a full 5k in earnest money as apposed to the 1k which is traditional.  So, a decision has to be made, do we play ball, and do the back and forth game? Or do I go straight for the throat… make my final offer and say meet it or I move on…. What to do, what to do…

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