Different reply for different stuff.

Guess who bought tickets to see Bjork!?!?!

ME.

Got two tickets for Feb 25th!! I'll be bringing the bestie, and I'm going to figure out airfare and hotel stuff tomorrow. I was really worried that they would be sold out, I am SO glad that this is possible.

I work a day shift on Thurs and have Friday off, so I'll drive down to Delilah's place that night, and we'll take an early flight the next day. That gives us a good half day in NYC, and most of Saturday. Then, BJORK!!!!!! And we'll come home Sunday.

This is something that we both have been dreaming about doing for the last almost ten years. The experience would just not be the same without her since we've both been in love with Bjork for such a long time. I don't even know how I'm going to react to seeing her in person. I know I'm going to cry, I can guarantee it.

What am I supposed to wear to a Bjork concert? I have no idea.

Man, it's still sinking in. I can't believe this is happening.

-----

On a less cool note, I'm watching the news, and they said a sex offender is moving to the city. Then, they said "He will live in the area of Street X and Avenue Y." Omg... that is the corner that we live on.

We already have a drug dealer that lives across the street, and now we're getting a sex offender too. I googled the story, and it says that he was homeless for a long time but has now taken up residence on our block. He has several convictions of videotaping his assaults on teenage girls.

I know that you can't choose your neighbors, but this makes me question if we should renew our lease in July. We have every intention on staying here for a while because it's so convenient for both of us and the rent is reasonable, but there's bad people in this part of town. I get told I look like I'm 18 all the time... maybe I'm being too paranoid?

Thank you, honestly, for clearing that up. It wasn't clear to me from the OP whether you were irritated because his girlfriend is clearly way overbearing, or because you thought that asking people to stop making the rape jokes and stuff was annoying. I also felt the need to expand what I meant based on other people's comments. But I see what you're saying, and I wasn't trying to put words in your mouth, so I hope it didn't come across that way.

Obviously.


The sex offender thing is tough. On one hand, I believe that people can change and deserve to have a second chance. If a sex offender moved to my neighborhood, i probably wouldn't move, but would be more vigilant of my surroundings and not walk home in the dark like I do now. I would probably look into what his offenses were and more importantly when they had taken place.

I'd be more worried about having a drug dealer across the street, but that is just my own opinion. That has the potential to become violent and I'd be more worried about having more strangers and shad characters driving through my neighborhood, than a sex offender who is likely to keep to himself due to the law and stigma.

I'm so glad you're seeing Bjork! That's so awesome! I know this sounds lame, but I went to see The Spice Girls a few years ago and definitely started, like, sobbing. It was SO thrilling! I'm happy for you!

There's a sex offender on our block as well. I know what you mean about feeling unsafe, but I also have problems with that law that states that they have to state themselves as such. How is anyone supposed to rebuild their life with that sort of law? I don't know, it's a slippery slope.

I would just say to remain vigilant. I know what you mean about looking like a potential victim, I'm tiny and very innocent and weak looking. Just make sure you're brushed up on your self-defense and look into your local city laws as far as carrying mace.

I guess in the unforgiving. Say what you mean & mean what you say.

It looks like I got some of the very last tickets for Bjork. The next morning I checked to see if there were any left, and it was sold out. I really think the stars are aligning for this.

I booked a hotel reservation last night. It's a three minute walk from the theater in downtown Manhattan. When I initially started my hotel search I was getting really discouraged, all the hotels seemed to be at least $250/night in that area. However, I searched and searched and finally found a cute little boutique with really good online reviews, and it ended up being $340 for two nights. We got a cute little room with two twin beds and it's within walking distance of Central Park, Rockefeller Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Natural History Museum, and a big shopping district. IT'S GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN.

I'll book flights either tonight or tomorrow. My estimate seems like it will be about right, the cost of tickets, hotel, and airfare is going to be right around $1,100, and I figure another $400 or so for food and museums and gas to get to the airport and subway fare, etc. But, it's totally going to be worth it. For both of us, it will be the experience of a lifetime, and that is priceless.

I'm a little worried about how things will be when I get home. There are 36 days between now and when we go, and the anticipation is intense. Then, we'll get there, it will be incredible and amazing and wonderful, and then I'll come home and have to go back to work, back to real life. It's going to be depressing, to say the least.

I lost two pounds since I last weighed myself about ten days ago. Woo hoo! I've also gone up with weight on the crunch machine to 20 pounds, aaw yeah. I'm looking forward to summer time so Vinnie and I can go to the beach and show off our hott bods.

Vinnie is so critical of his body. He has gained 20 pounds since we first met last year. I'm positive that a good majority of that is in muscle weight, because his arms and legs are very well defined and basically have no fat covering. He is a little bit bigger in the love handle area, but it's hardly noticeable. He'll slouch and stick his belly out and grab on to all the skin he can, and say "Look at how fat I am!" No matter what I say, no matter how hard I try to convince him that he's gained a lot of muscle, he still thinks he's tubby. Today at the gym, however, he was showing off his arms to me and said he could feel they were a lot bigger. He then asked if I could sneak on to the maternity ward and steal some stretch mark lotion for him.

I also sent in my cheek swab kit for becoming on the bone marrow donation registry. American Express made a donation to the registry and will cover the $100 cost of processing the kits for each new donor. Usually when you sign up, they suggest a donation of $100 to cover the cost, and I've wanted to get on the registry for a long time but wasn't sure about swinging the Ben, but now that this is going on, I didn't hesitate to join. Now I can boast that I am a blood, organ, and bone marrow donor. Woop woop. You should do it too.

I went grocery shopping tonight and spent way more than I thought I was going to. Cut up some delicious fresh veggies (mushrooms, carrots, leeks, potatoes, onion) and am going to make a beef pot roast tomorrow night. Food is expensive.

Back to work tomorrow through the weekend. Vinnie's boss has promised him a lot of things and then gone back on his word. He was hired as full-time, and within a few months was cut back to part time with seven days on, seven days off, and then was cut down even further to five days on, seven days off. Finally, a couple people quit, and he worked full time for all of a month, and yesterday his boss told him that he would be cut again, down to four nights a week. Vinnie is not happy with this at all. The money he'll no longer be making could cover a whole month heating bill.

Speaking of heating bills, it's finally feeling more like winter. Still barely any snow, but we've had -45 F wind chills the past couple days. That's more like it. Very refreshing. I finally had to put on some mittens. January 19th, The Day Mittens Were Donned. Only three months late.

I can't wait until I'm done with these miserable eye appointments. I seriously dread going there. I tried to tell the doctor that I wanted to stick with daily wear (because it would mean three less eye appointments with him) but he basically bullied me into doing continuous wear. First he called me a "bad girl" for being four weeks late making my one-week appointment. It's not my fault at all. They didn't have my lens so I had to wait five days for them to order it, and then it was the holidays, and this was the first I could get. Then when I told him that I wanted daily wear, he waved his hand at me and told me that I was going to make these appointments. I saw the doctor for all of five minutes. I was at the clinic for an hour, just waiting. He was 25 minutes late seeing me, and then I had to wait 20 minutes for the secretary to get out of another room. Now I'm forced to make these other appointments. A 24-hour one, a one-week one, and a one-month one, and THEN I can get my contacts. I feel like a pansy for being such a baby about it, but I HATE going there. Not to mention I know I'm being ripped off.

I've got about 30 mystery bruises on my body. No idea where they came from.

The past three days I've been asked (begged) to pull double shifts at work because they've had so many nurses call in sick. However, tonight, I got put on house call. Weird. I was glad to have the night off though. We had a friend come over last night and we were up late.

Vinnie ordered some new computer parts and put his computer together yesterday. He's offered to buy me a portable dishwasher too. Those things are expensive! If he wants to get to school in a year he needs to stop spending money. However, having a dishwasher would be so wonderful. I hate doing dishes more than anything, and Vinnie's got a weak gag reflex. We've been rinsing all our dishes but they still tend to pile up, and then I'm stuck doing dishes for at least an hour. Ugh. Quality of life would go way up if we didn't have to do dishes. (But they're so expensive...)

To end on a gross note, we got some potato chips last week, and I'm totally regretting it. I've got about a million new zits on my face, give or take. It's really gross, I feel super ugly and self conscious. I feel like I'm going through puberty all over again, all thanks to some chips. Ok, done complaining.

Is this optom part of a chain, or a private small business? If he's part of a chain I'd be writing a few letters/emails to higher up, and if it's just him I wouldn't be giving him any more of my money. (Or is there a reason why you absolutely can't go anywhere else that I've missed?) Being bullied into spending more money is totally unacceptable.

^It's a small business, there's nobody that I could complain to, unfortunately, otherwise believe me, I would. I could go to someone else, but then I would have to start the whole process over, and that would mean even more money. Next time I need contacts I am definitely going somewhere else.

Tonight I had my first patient death. I was working on hospice, so it wasn't unexpected, but I feel really bad about it.

Edit: Never mind all the mumbo jumbo. I am just sad.

Well, this is where I was this weekend.

I had Fri Sat and Sun off, and Vinnie and I were looking forward to spending some quality time together and doing a bunch of fun stuff.

Friday I felt absolutely fine during the day, went to the gym, had a great workout, and then had Subway for dinner. I went home, and within an hour, started feeling kind of gross, like the food wasn't settling with me. Within a couple hours after that, I was so violently ill with fluids pouring out either end of me (totally gross), I decided to camp out in the bathroom on the floor. I had the worst stomach pains I've ever had, and I had a fever of 103 with terrible chills.

Normally I don't get too worried about things, and I really, really did not want to go to the hospital about this. However, the abdominal pain was so bad, and I was losing fluid at such a rapid pace, that something just didn't feel right. At 3am I decided to go to the ER.

They immediately gave me three liters of fluids, pain medication, and nausea meds. Within a few hours of being there I felt better, but was still miserable and in the bathroom every twenty minutes. They took a stool sample and found that I was also losing blood.

The doc also said that with food poisoning, you don't develop an elevated white cell count and fever, so this bug had probably been in my system for several days. Even so, I'm never eating Subway ever again. He suggested I file for workers comp just to see if they would cover some of my expenses because I had been caring for GI patients in the past week.

Anyway, I was admitted to the floor at 6am on Friday morning, got a pain pump, IV antibiotics, and IV nausea medication. They also gave me IV potassium replacement because I had depleted mine. Even with lidocaine that stuff hurts going in. My hemoglobin dropped from 15 to 10.4 in 24 hours.

Poor Vinnie, I was so miserable and in a lot of pain and there was nothing he could do for me, he felt bad. He was a good boyfriend, though, and spent several hours with me every day while I was there.

I developed a horrible distended belly, too. I honestly looked about six months pregnant because there was so much gas in my gut that just wasn't going anywhere. I walked in the halls but it was so painful and I was so weak, it was a terrible time.

I was supposed to go home last night but I tried some blended chicken noodle soup and got really nauseous and spiked a fever again, so they held me until today, and I got home around 3pm tonight.

Still feeling pretty miserable, it hurts to walk and breathe deeply, but my body has kept stuff in for over a day now. The doctor only gave me two days off and I'm scheduled to work on Friday, but I think I'll be calling in sick. I need to be cleared by Occupational Health before I go back, so I'll schedule my meeting for Friday. Maybe I'll go back on Saturday, we will see.

Vinnie was so sweet, he cleaned up the place and got the couch ready for me, and tonight he's going to pick up some saltines and ginger ale for me to much on. I haven't had any solid food since Friday. I am totally wiped out.

On the plus side I'll probably lose a few pounds.

You got a Phenergan drip?! JEALOUS!

Oh gosh, I remember when I got a horrible case of food poisoning. It was the worst feeling ever. I hope you feel better soon!

Oh god. This is the one thing that makes me squick out about going into the healthcare field! I do not mind other people getting sick in front of me, on me, but I can't stand being sick myself! I feel infected just reading this hahaha.

Good thing you decided to go in!

Feel Better!!

My good friend just got food poisoning from Mcdonalds over the weekend and so did her hubby.

Oh my goodness, what an ordeal! I hope you'll feel better very soon.

Aaw thank you all for the nice replies. Made my face go

It's been a week since I've been out of the hospital and I'm still not 100%. I had my follow-up appointment today and it turns out all my cultures were negative, so it was a bad viral infection. I've been super exhausted so I had my blood levels drawn as well as a liver function check. Hopefully my hemoglobin is ok, when I left the hospital I was on the anemic side. My stomach still hurts, it's a weird feeling, like it's really dense. It's a thousand times better than it was, though.

They drew blood from my AC today and I got a wicked hematoma. Put some ice on that for a while but it's definitely tender.

So... I have some big news. Vinnie and I decided that we're going to buy a house. I've wanted to buy one for a while, and when we started looking around, we found that we could have a nice house with a mortgage that is less than our rent. We've been looking at houses every day and have several showings this week.

There was one place that we absolutely fell in love with. It's a multi-family home with one apartment on the bottom floor and one on top, just like the place we live in now. The whole building is for sale for $100,000 since it was foreclosed on. It's super nice, built in 1901, in really good condition, with a big fenced in yard and a two unit garage and off-street parking. The kitchens don't have any appliances but the rest of the place is beautiful. We looked at the house on our own and called for a tour, but someone had just signed for the house the day before. DARN IT. We got really excited with this pipe dream of being landlords and fixing up this beautiful house, and paying less for the entire building than we do now (and renting it out to have the rent money pay the mortgage). Oh well. We asked to be contacted if the contract fell through.

We have appointments for five houses this week. I'm super excited. I didn't think I would want to buy a house so soon, but I've realized I'm just throwing my money away by renting an apartment, and it makes sense to invest in a house so you could see your money again one day.

So yeah, that's the exciting news. We talked about how we would pay for stuff too. Right now I'm paying rent and Vinnie is paying utilities, but if we buy a house I would want us to have a joint account where we both contribute a certain percent of our paycheck (like 30% each month), so that we would be paying for everything together. That way, if anything bad should happen and our relationship ended, it would be easier to work things out and be more rational about dividing things up. Also, if something were to happen to him or me, both our names would be on the title and neither of us could get kicked out (namely, my parents couldn't kick him out). Obviously we don't foresee anything bad happening because we want to buy a house together, but we have to have that conversation.

Anyway, I might post some pictures if we really like a place.

Turns out what made me so sick was Rotavirus. It's been going around town, lots of people at the hospital have been getting sick. Ugh, I have honestly never been that sick in my life. It's been nearly two weeks and I'm still feeling very weak and tired.

There's a house that Vinnie and I really love. It's a 4 bedroom 1.5 bath house built in 1901. There's nothing wrong with the building structurally aside from a very small slope towards the fireplace which could easily be fixed with jacking up the beams in the basement. The lower level has been really well taken care of, original wood work, original stained glass, hardwood floors in good condition, a nice fireplace. The upper level has all original wood work but all the rooms have wood paneling. The kitchen and bathroom are pretty much from the 70s. It's a fixer upper but that is what we are looking for. It was originally listed for $75k nine months ago but nobody was looking. Price was dropped to $50k last October, and that's what it has stayed at.

We have a second showing tomorrow. There's a few things about the house that we're rather unsure of. The Realtor said something about a lien on the house. He made it sound like the family had mostly paid off the lien and was using the house profits to pay the rest, but to me, that means the county is still somehow involved with the property. We need to straighten that out. There's no way we would buy a property with someone else's lien on it.

Also, there is no natural gas hook up, so I'm assuming there's a fuel oil tank somewhere. I don't recall seeing one in the basement, so I have a bad feeling it's buried underground. There's no way we would buy a house with an underground fuel oil tank, either. If it spilled, clean up costs could be six figured.

We also have some questions about asbestos and what year the roof is from, but those aren't as big a deal to us as the other stuff.

If it turns out the lien is completely separate from the property and the fuel oil tank is either in the basement, or there isn't a tank at all, we will probably go ahead and buy the property. The lien could be a deal breaker, and if there's an underground tank, we would want the current owners to remove it before we bought it.

I'm also a little concerned about the Realtor that showed it to us. From what I understand, now that we've seen the house with him, he would be the one to represent us. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about, but he also seemed really eager to get the house off his hands. He also basically told us that we don't need a home inspection. That kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Also, some other Realtors we met with gave us hand outs about the properties with tax info, utility info, stuff like that. He wasn't even sure he had his business card on him. I feel like he's the kind of guy who would say anything just to sell us the house.

We've been spending most of our free time researching stuff and we have a big list of questions to ask tomorrow.

Edit to add: Today we had student nurses following us. A student was assigned to one of my patients, and we got to talking. She was interested in following a float pool nurse for her practicum experience (the last thing she does before she graduates). I told her that I love teaching, and she felt she had a good experience with me today, so she's going to write her instructor and see if she could follow me for her practicum, which would be 130 hours in July. I thought that was pretty neat.

The rest of this post is going to be super depressing.

Debbie Downer Valentine's Day

Today I worked a day shift. I got to work at 7am, got put on the hospice/oncology floor. I was told one of my patients was fairly intense, an 83 year old DNR whose wife was doing everything she could to sustain life (tubes coming out of everywhere), but that he was doing fine. When we peeked in on him, it looked like he was sleeping. I got in the room to do my assessment at 0730 and he was unresponsive. I suctioned, I increased O2, I tried stimulating a pain response, etc etc, but nothing I did helped. I notified the doc, the doc came in to see the patient soon thereafter and said we should transfer him to ICU. Within minutes of the doc leaving, the patient started to rapidly decline. We had started to pack his things, but he was doing so poorly, I decided that he should just stay here to pass. He wouldn't have made it to the Unit anyway, better to pass in his quiet, warm room than in the hallway. Myself and a student nurse were in there, so we just stopped being noisy, shut the door, and held his hands. His pulse dropped to the 30s and his respirations were slow and irregular. I said "It's ok, [his name]." Right then, he died.

It wasn't ten minutes between when the doc said to transfer to ICU and his passing. I really feel like he was ready to go. He didn't want any more treatment. He looked very peaceful when he passed, I am glad that he was able to do it with us and not have to deal with the commotion of being transferred.

The wife was absolutely irate. She had been by his side for a solid month and had just left that night to get some good rest. She wasn't mad at me, but she refused to talk to the doctor. I feel like the patient waited for his wife to be gone before he passed, maybe he just didn't want her around when it happened. Anyway, I feel like he was ready, and I'm glad it happened the way that it did.

Then, I had two patients who got their pathology results back and were positive for cancer. I sent another patient to a hospice facility, and I had two admits plus my other patients. We were understaffed and had nursing students, so it was a chaotic day.

I got home and watched some TV. Made a little Youtube video for Vinnie singing "you are my sunshine." Also baked some peanut butter cookies. Vinnie got home from work at 9pm. He saw his dad at work tonight and his dad basically told him "If you get a house in this town, you'll never leave, you'll never advance, you'll die here." His dad's biggest regret was building a house here because now they are tied to the area. That made Vinnie second guess our decision. That really bummed me out.

Logically speaking, Vinnie and I could have the house paid off in about eight years or less. If I want to advance my career or advance my degree or certifications, I will need more work experience. I can see myself working this same job for at least five more years. Vinnie still needs to finish up his degree as well. There's a very good nursing school in this town if I became interested in getting my Masters or working towards an NP. We could easily start off having kids in the place as long as we move before they reach elementary school age (it's a bad school district). That could easily be another ten years. If we want to move after that, hey, we already own the place so all profits for the house would go to us. To me, it just seems logical.

I have been feeling a little bit scared about the whole idea of buying a house, but I think that's natural. It's a big step. It roots us to this place for at least a few years. It brings our relationship to a different level too. Owning a house together is way different than renting an apartment together. That part doesn't scare me as much as the fact that neither of us really know what we want to do with our lives. I want to be a nurse for the rest of my life but I don't know if I want to advance. Vinnie hasn't decided what he wants to get his degree in, and he certainly doesn't want to work at a gym and a hotel for the rest of his life. Nobody lives in their first house forever, anyways.

I feel like this is the best time to buy a house. It makes far more sense than renting, and I feel like our relationship is strong enough and we communicate well enough to make this work out really well.

Sorry for all the rambling, but I was already in a crappy mood and Vinnie kind of bummed me out even more. We're talking about it now that he's at his other job and he's getting over the shock of what his dad said.

Vinnie didn't get me anything for Valentine's. He was only home for about an hour and a half then had to go to his other job. I don't really care that much about this holiday, but at least I got him a card and made cookies and played him a song.

Too long didn't read: Valentine's day: People die, I'm all alone, Vinnie bummed me out, and I'm exhausted.

I'll get over it.

Comments because I'm in the process of looking at real estate right now and had a deal on an older house that ended up not going through but I learned a lot by doing it.

There's a house that Vinnie and I really love. It's a 4 bedroom 1.5 bath house built in 1901. There's nothing wrong with the building structurally aside from a very small slope towards the fireplace which could easily be fixed with jacking up the beams in the basement.

Don't assume until a decent, licensed inspector has looked at it and possibly recommended that somebody in that field check it out. Foundation issues can be major and depending on what type of loan you're looking to get, the financing may not get approved if the condition of the property isn't up to certain standards. I was really enthusiastic about the super low priced houses until I actually got inside and found things out about them. This is a really low cost place to live but the insurance on an older home is amazingly higher than on something newer.

You're on the right path with the lein thing...that has to be taken care of but you know that already. The gas source is definitely something to check out and don't discount asbestos and roofing. A new roof is expensive and that's another thing that can kill financing. For the loan that we're getting you have to show that there are five to seven years of life left in the major aspects of the house, like the roof, otherwise they won't approve the financing. I know it can vary by location and everything, but that's where ours is. The house that we were originally going to buy needed a new roof and the seller refused to acknowledge. It also needed a new electrical panel which the seller also refused to do. At that point it didn't matter that the financing wouldn't have been approved; I wouldn't have bought a property with a bad electrical system and a bad roof.

Typically the realtor who shows you a property is who you are implying you'll work with, unless you had already had an agent, in which case he or she would have made an appointment to show you the property. A realtor telling you not to get a home inspection is a HUGE red flag and I would consider working with another agent. That's ridiculous. He stands to take home the full commission if he acts as both the sellers' and the buyers' agent, so yeah, he's anxious to sell it to you guys. The price has dropped significantly, so obviously there haven't been offers come in much, if at all. Around here commission is typically around six or seven percent total, so the two agents split that. This guy sounds like he's trying to push y'all into buying a property that he's already representing so that he can get some money...instead of actually caring about what's in YOUR best interest. Be careful.

Trout wrote:

There's a house that Vinnie and I really love. It's a 4 bedroom 1.5 bath house built in 1901. There's nothing wrong with the building structurally aside from a very small slope towards the fireplace which could easily be fixed with jacking up the beams in the basement. The lower level has been really well taken care of, original wood work, original stained glass, hardwood floors in good condition, a nice fireplace. The upper level has all original wood work but all the rooms have wood paneling. The kitchen and bathroom are pretty much from the 70s. It's a fixer upper but that is what we are looking for. It was originally listed for $75k nine months ago but nobody was looking. Price was dropped to $50k last October, and that's what it has stayed at.

Munkenstein is right. You need a home inspection to find out whether that slope truly can be easily fixed, or whether it's a big deal. While older homes often have slopes due to normal settling over the many years, it does sometimes indicate a serious structural problem.

Trout wrote:

We have a second showing tomorrow. There's a few things about the house that we're rather unsure of. The Realtor said something about a lien on the house. He made it sound like the family had mostly paid off the lien and was using the house profits to pay the rest, but to me, that means the county is still somehow involved with the property. We need to straighten that out. There's no way we would buy a property with someone else's lien on it.

Obviously you need more info on the lien, but in general the seller has to pay them off in order to sell. This can be done ahead of time if they have the money, or they can direct the closing attorney to pay it off out of their sale proceeds at the closing. One of the things a closing attorney does is obtain a Municipal Lien Certificate which shows what the city/town is owed on this property, and the attorney makes sure this amount is paid off at closing. The closing attorney also has a title examiner investigate the title on the property for any problems, including non-municipal liens, and these too must be satisfied by the seller at or prior to the closing. I'll assume this is not a short sale property; in those cases, we negotiate the release of the liens ahead of time. Your bank isn't going to give you the mortgage if there are liens on the house.

Trout wrote:

Also, there is no natural gas hook up, so I'm assuming there's a fuel oil tank somewhere. I don't recall seeing one in the basement, so I have a bad feeling it's buried underground. There's no way we would buy a house with an underground fuel oil tank, either. If it spilled, clean up costs could be six figured.

You'll be able to check for an oil tank at your second showing. Just look at the heating system and follow the oil line that leads from it to the oil tank. If it seems to disappear and no oil tank is in sight, you might have an underground tank. In my state sellers must disclose the presence of an underground tank in writing. If there is one, and you still want the house, make sure to write into your purchase offer that it is contingent on the seller having the tank removed by a licensed tank removal company before closing.

Trout wrote:

We also have some questions about asbestos and what year the roof is from, but those aren't as big a deal to us as the other stuff.

Obviously ask the agent to get this info from the seller, but a home inspection is an absolute must. A good home inspector can tell you whether there is asbestos. If there is, I suggest making your offer contingent on the seller agreeing to have a *licensed asbestos removal contractor* remove the asbestos before closing. The home inspector can estimate the age of the roof, etc. Munkenstein is right about the condition of the roof affecting the ability to obtain some kinds of financing. Currently the most common first-time buyer financing in the US is FHA mortgages. They will finance 96.5% of the purchase price, but they have some requirements such as a roof that still has some life left in it.

Trout wrote:

If it turns out the lien is completely separate from the property and the fuel oil tank is either in the basement, or there isn't a tank at all, we will probably go ahead and buy the property. The lien could be a deal breaker, and if there's an underground tank, we would want the current owners to remove it before we bought it.

If there's a lien, it's definitely not separate from the property. You may be able to tell for yourself by going on the Registry of Deeds website for your county and looking it up.

Trout wrote:

I'm also a little concerned about the Realtor that showed it to us. From what I understand, now that we've seen the house with him, he would be the one to represent us. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about, but he also seemed really eager to get the house off his hands. He also basically told us that we don't need a home inspection. That kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Also, some other Realtors we met with gave us hand outs about the properties with tax info, utility info, stuff like that. He wasn't even sure he had his business card on him. I feel like he's the kind of guy who would say anything just to sell us the house.

I'd be very concerned about any Realtor who says you don't need a home inspection. You should absolutely have a home inspection. It's the only way to find out the true condition of the house. Also do not hire any home inspector recommended by this agent, since you already have reason to mistrust him. He might have an inspector who will just say nice things about any house this guy is selling in order to get repeat business from him. Instead, ask friends and coworkers who have bought homes in recent years in your area for recommendations of good, thorough inspectors.
The agent doesn't sound good at all. Is he the listing agent for this property?

I'd advise extreme caution. Yes you MUST get a home inspection whether it is a new house or a 100 year old house. It's not required, of course, but you need it for your own protection. The fact that there is a lien on the house is a tip-off that the previous owner may have had insufficient funds to maintain it. An inspector uncovered issues in my son's brand new home five years ago and that was a 1.2 million dollar home. He at least had a warranty from the builder. You are unlikely to get one.

The slant really requires a registered engineer to evaluate. A 33% drop in price is not a good sign. I have no idea of the median price of homes in your area so you must evaluate if $50K or even $75K is anywhere near a median for your area.

The repairs indicated could be potentially expensive. Check to see if the heating plant is recent. (They usually can tell from the serial number on the unit.) A heating plant has a life expectancy of about 20-25 years (I'm on my third one in 37 years in a house I bought brand new.) A lot of old duct work in old houses was loaded with asbestos. Left alone, that may be OK, but it must be evaluated. My house was originally oil heat which I converted to gas when I replaced the first furnace. I had to have the original oil tank "neutralized" (I was grandfathered so I didn't have to dig it out) but a certified professional had to pump it out, take the oil/water mix to Baltimore (40 miles away) to have it processed and then my tank had to be filled with Oil-Rite...and absorbent and sand and sealed of at the feeds. Cost was $2000 but I do have an EPA certificate on it. Had I not been "grandfathered" I would have had to have it dug out at double that cost. My furnace replacement was $17,000, but that was for a top of the line unit with water heater (which have a 10-12 years life span and ca. $1000 to replace. I also had A/C in my upgrade which is almost a necessity here but probably optional where you are. I would say a minimum of $6K for a basic oil or gas furnace.

Frankly, having grown up in 100 year old houses, I'd stay far away from them even considering that I am quite handy myself. That low price has a real potential to be a money pit.

Unless you contracted the realtor to be a buyer's agent (which he cannot be if he is representing a seller) he is ONLY beholden to the seller. Even if you contacted him and some other realtor listed the house, both are seller's agents. Realtors who act as buyer's agents are extremely rare and can act as such only if there is a written contract to that effect. The lien will have to be resolved by the buyer, no mortgage company (particularly now) would ever write a mortgage for a house with a lien on it. You also should purchase title insurance to protect you should any undiscovered lien come up. It can be done at settlement, but make sure you have it in writing from the lien holder (not the attorney) that the lien is settled. The settlement attorney is supposed to ensure this.

Things you must know.

Date of wiring. Fuse or circuit breaker. Many old houses still have knob and tube wiring. Fuses are to be avoided. If it was rewired, was the wire all copper. Aluminum wire is to be avoided at all cost. My house is copper coated aluminum which isn't as bad, but as I make upgrades to the house I replace all the aluminum/copper clad wires. (Fortunately, I'm licensed to do this, but few people are.)

Condition of the foundation.

Age (and fuel) of water heater. Life span is about 10-15 years. $1000 typical replacement cost.

Do the drains work. (A friend bought an old house and there was so much calcium build up in the tub drain it took an hour to drain it. $$$$$

Date of last roofing job. (A roofing lasts 20-25 years depending on the quality of roofing material.) A new one is $3-4K.

Power available for upgrades. Is there 220 volts for electric stove/ clothes dryer. Houses in that era would have to have it added later. How much electric service is coming into the house. Modern houses have at least 200-300amp service. Many older ones have 60 Amp service. This is an expensive upgrade.

If any hint asbestos removal is needed and virtually all houses before 1950 had it...I even had some small amounts of asbestos in my floor tiles and that was done as recently as 1974. (The expert I engaged said just leave it and cover over it with new flooring...it's in the basement.)

I know you live in a cold climate, make sure the insulation is up to date (I'll bet it isn't...even my house was under-insulated with a 1973 build...heating oil was only $0.16/gal then.) Are the windows single pane with perhaps storm windows (pretty normal for old houses.) They are terribly inefficient. Even in my far warmer climate, I've had all of mine redone with thermopane and E glass.

Date of appliances if they come with the house. If you have to replace or buy new appliances are the openings standard sizes...because that's the only way they build them now. If you have to buy them, can you install new ones without major modifications.

Doing an old house can be rewarding, even fun...if you know what you are doing and particularly can do much of it yourself. If you have to pay someone to do it it can be frightfully expensive. My kitchen redo cost more than the asking price for that house (it actually cost more than I paid for this house) and while I spared no expense because I can afford it, but 15-25K is about rock bottom. Mine was $55K (new cabinets, new floor in marble, granite, new stove and fridge) and about $10K included for prep carpentry, new sliding glass door to deck and electrical.

You can PM me for some more specific questions. I don't mean to throw cold water on your dreams, but at some time or another, I've encountered almost every one of these pitfalls.

Jon

Myself and a student nurse were in there, so we just stopped being noisy, shut the door, and held his hands. ... I said "It's ok, [his name]." Right then, he died.

I really feel like he was ready to go. He didn't want any more treatment. He looked very peaceful when he passed, I am glad that he was able to do it with us and not have to deal with the commotion of being transferred.

You did good. My grandma passed in January after a sudden, short illness, and much like your patient, it seems she waited until there was no family around to see. The nurses were wonderful, and stayed until the end. While it must be terribly distressing to lose a patient, from a family perspective I'm glad you and your student nurse were with him, and treated him with the compassion and respect you did.

his dad basically told him "If you get a house in this town, you'll never leave, you'll never advance, you'll die here." His dad's biggest regret was building a house here because now they are tied to the area. That made Vinnie second guess our decision.

While building a house is different to buying a house, you're never stuck in an area just because you own property. Houses can be sold - either to upsize, downsize or straight out move. Just because Vinnie's dad felt tied to the town doesn't mean you are, ever.

it's exciting - and scary - making that big leap to buying a home. I know you and Vinnie are looking at staying together long-term, but when you go in to get all the paperwork done, make sure you have something drawn up (here we had a "tenants in common" clause) just in in case. N and I did that eight years ago when we bought our home, because we'd only been together a year or so and if anything had happened neither of us would get screwed over. Touch wood - it's not been needed!

Definitely get a home inspection, and find out more about the potential for asbestos, not just in the roof, but also in the walls, the insulation, the basement.

Good luck!

Really good advice, Jon. As a real estate agent I'm just going to add my 2 cents to a few points.

Chaconne wrote:

I would say a minimum of $6K for a basic oil or gas furnace.

Depends on the heating system. In a 100 yr old house with an oil-fired system I'm betting it's either old fashioned steam or hot water radiators. A large percentage of the housing stock in my market (I'm a real state agent in MA) is about this age. My own home is a 1897 New England Colonial with oil-fired steam heat. When I replaced my 8 yr old boiler 3 years ago it cost me $2700. But I didn't have to replace the burner or the oil tanks, just the boiler. Of course if there is asbestos costs are going wayyy up but I'd insist the seller have any asbestos professional remediated prior to closing.

Chaconne wrote:

Frankly, having grown up in 100 year old houses, I'd stay far away from them even considering that I am quite handy myself. That low price has a real potential to be a money pit.

Agree re that price range (though I don't know where Trout is, nor what the typical home prices are) but in my area if you rule out 100 yr old houses you're ruling out well over 50% of the housing stock. I'm a single mom and I've had a pretty good 12 years in my 115 yr old house. The kitchen was redone, as was the electrical, before I bought it, and since then I've done a roof, a family room addition, and new windows. We love it here.

Chaconne wrote:

Unless you contracted the realtor to be a buyer's agent (which he cannot be if he is representing a seller) he is ONLY beholden to the seller. Even if you contacted him and some other realtor listed the house, both are seller's agents. Realtors who act as buyer's agents are extremely rare and can act as such only if there is a written contract to that effect. The lien will have to be resolved by the buyer, no mortgage company (particularly now) would ever write a mortgage for a house with a lien on it.

Jon, I've worked in RE in the DC/MD area as well as here and agency is handled differently all over. Agency laws in MA changed a few years back and we are no longer always seller agents; if I bring the buyer to the table and it's not my listing, I'm a buyer's agent. If it is my listing I can be a disclosed dual agent with the seller's written permission (but I never do this). Also the lien will have to be resolved by the seller, not the buyer.

Chaconne wrote:

You also should purchase title insurance to protect you should any undiscovered lien come up. It can be done at settlement, but make sure you have it in writing from the lien holder (not the attorney) that the lien is settled. The settlement attorney is supposed to ensure this.

This. Fabulous advice. I make every buyer I work with buy title insurance. Best deal ever. You buy it once and it covers you for the entire ownership period. Never pass up title insurance, people. Never.

Chaconne wrote:

Age (and fuel) of water heater. Life span is about 10-15 years. $1000 typical replacement cost.

True. And manufacturer's warranty on most water heaters is 8 years.

Chaconne wrote:

Date of last roofing job. (A roofing lasts 20-25 years depending on the quality of roofing material.) A new one is $3-4K.

In my area a new roof on a house that age would be more like $6-8K, unless you are simply getting an overlay.

Wow, thank you all so much for the very thorough replies, it's extremely helpful. We had the second showing of the house today and got a lot of questions answered.

Munkenstein wrote:

This guy sounds like he's trying to push y'all into buying a property that he's already representing so that he can get some money...instead of actually caring about what's in YOUR best interest. Be careful.

Today I felt a lot better about the Realtor. I felt good about him the first time, but then as we developed questions about the house, I kind of got more suspicious. However, today he took the time to answer all our questions, and what he couldn't answer he will find out and call us tomorrow or the next day. We talked for an entire hour, and he showed us more details that we hadn't seen before (new copper pipes, old lines, some structural stuff, etc). I feel like he was being honest with us about everything, he told us what turned other potential buyers off and all the things that need fixing/updating. There was one offer made for the house for $30k, back when the house was $75k, and that was rejected. He believes that nobody else has made an offer due to a combination of the market, the location (West side of town, about ten minutes from downtown), and the fact that the decor is very outdated.

Tansey wrote:

You need a home inspection to find out whether that slope truly can be easily fixed, or whether it's a big deal. While older homes often have slopes due to normal settling over the many years, it does sometimes indicate a serious structural problem.

The slope is barely detectable. The only way we noticed it was because there was a slight gap between the baseboard and the flooring by the fireplace. The slope is towards the fireplace. The beams below that slope are all intact. My dad has done that kind of work before, and so has Vinnie's dad, so we could have plenty of help.

Tansey wrote:

Obviously you need more info on the lien, but in general the seller has to pay them off in order to sell. This can be done ahead of time if they have the money, or they can direct the closing attorney to pay it off out of their sale proceeds at the closing.

The woman who used to live there was the owner for something like 60 years. Towards the end of her life the family used home health care instead of a nursing home, hoping to keep her in her house. The expense from this really added up, and now the County wants to use the proceeds from the house to pay the lien. It sounds like the lien is for more than the family can afford, so the County is going to take all sale profits, but the house would be sold to us with a clean title. I definitely still want to look into this myself. We will for sure take your advice, Tansey.

Tansey wrote:

You'll be able to check for an oil tank at your second showing.

Fantastic news. The fuel oil tank is in the basement. It was in the old coal room, which is why I didn't see it the last time. That really would have been the deal-breaker.

Regarding the roof, it looks like it's in fantastic condition, and there's new-looking aluminum underneath the ledges. Realtor wasn't sure about the year it was last replaced, he is going to find out for us. I would honestly be surprised if it was more than ten years old.

Regarding the asbestos, all the pipes in the basement have been stripped of asbestos. He couldn't tell us for sure what the popcorn ceiling was made of, but he felt confident that it was the spray-on stuff.

Regarding insulation, the walls of the house still have their original insulation, which is wool. We looked in the attic crawl space too, and there is wool insulation underneath fiberglass insulation on the attic floor (second story ceiling). The ceiling of the attic wasn't insulated, but Vinnie said it appeared to have been sealed.

Tansey wrote:

You should absolutely have a home inspection. It's the only way to find out the true condition of the house.

We would definitely have a professional inspection. No doubt about that. If I understand correctly, we get the inspection after we make an offer, but before we sign? I'm a bit confused when it comes to where the inspection fits into the process.

Tansey wrote:

Is he the listing agent for this property?

Yes he is.

Chaconne wrote:

The fact that there is a lien on the house is a tip-off that the previous owner may have had insufficient funds to maintain it.

It's because the family wanted to keep the mom in her home for as long as possible, but the expense of health care added up quickly. When she died, the bill was enormous. Originally they listed the house at $75k in hopes that they could make some money to cover funeral expenses, but nobody was interested. Now it's down to $50k and the County won't allow it to be listed for any less, so all profits from the house will go to the County.

Chaconne wrote:

you must evaluate if $50K or even $75K is anywhere near a median for your area.

The city appraised the house as being valued at $85k a few years ago. Other homes in the area have sold from anywhere between $60k-$110k in the last ten years. The house next to it is listed for $49k. In this part of the country, cost of living is pretty low. Where we live right now is a more expensive part of town since it's downtown and lots of houses have a nice view, but this place is just a few miles west, and prices in that part of town are about $40k less.

Regarding the heating: The water heater is only two years old. The house is heated with radiators, which are in good condition. There's the fuel oil tank as well. There was new plumbing that was put in in the past ten years.

Chaconne wrote:

Frankly, having grown up in 100 year old houses, I'd stay far away from them even considering that I am quite handy myself. That low price has a real potential to be a money pit.

To be honest, I always want to live in old houses. Newer houses are rather boring to me, they lack character. With this house, if we did pay the full $50k, we could sink probably $25k in renovations before we would lose money on the house. There's actually not that much that needs to be done. The wood paneling needs to be taken down, and if the walls are fine below it, it needs some paint. If the walls are in bad shape, we would rip them out to the studs and properly insulate. There are popcorn ceilings in two rooms which needs to come down. We would want to paint the walls in the place since they're all white. Possibly strip the paint off the staircase and maybe some of the original wood work. The stucco on the front of the house needs to be patched and painted or maybe replaced. The kitchen needs to be updated and the bathroom needs a different tub (original sink and medicine cabinet, which is super cute). However, as the house is right now, it's definitely move-in-ready.

-Date of wiring. This we will have to find out. The circuit breaker looked fairly new, maybe 10-15 years old.

-Condition of the foundation. Again, something we will need to get professionally assessed. However, Vinnie used to do estate stuff with his dad and has experience looking at these kinds of things, and he felt that the house looked very sturdy. There are no gutters on the house, one side of the house has a cement slope but the other side doesn't. That's something we would need to fix.

-Age (and fuel) of water heater. Two years old. Vinnie knows all about the hook ups and approved of it.

-Do the drains work. I wish I would have read this post before we went today. We will have to find this out as well.

-Date of last roofing job. Realtor will find this out for us. It looks to be in very good condition.

-Power available for upgrades. Upgrades have all been made. There is a washer/dryer in the basement.

-Are the windows single pane with perhaps storm windows (pretty normal for old houses.) They are terribly inefficient. Yes, the windows are single pane with storm windows. I know how awful those are in the winter. The place we have now has those windows and the place is terribly drafty. Our place is only 1,000 sq ft but our heating bills have been about $275 for the last few months. The Realtor is going to find out the utility expense over the last year, he'll let us know.

-Date of appliances if they come with the house. The stove is from the 70s and is terribly ugly. It's mustard yellow and needs to go. Right now the stove is propane, and there is no propane tank. However, the hook ups are still there, and until we wanted to upgrade the stove, we could get by with getting a small tank and living off that. That's oddly the only propane powered thing in the house. The fridge looks pretty old too, but it's very clean. It's in much better shape than the fridge at our place now, anyway. Washer/dryer are five years old. We would want to put in a dishwasher.

Chaconne wrote:

Doing an old house can be rewarding, even fun...if you know what you are doing and particularly can do much of it yourself.

We would definitely do all the work ourselves. I was around my dad when he fixed up my parent's house, Vinnie used to fix up houses with his dad, the two of us feel confident in our fix-up skills, and we have two great resources if we need help. We want to get a house that needs fixing up, it would be a lot of fun.

Caffeine wrote:

While building a house is different to buying a house, you're never stuck in an area just because you own property. Houses can be sold - either to upsize, downsize or straight out move. Just because Vinnie's dad felt tied to the town doesn't mean you are, ever.

Yeah, that's my sentiment exactly. Vinnie was just really bummed by his dad's attitude. The two of us want to buy a house that we'll live in for only a few years, 10 or so. Right now we don't know what we want to do with our lives, and this house would serve as a great living space while we get older and go places with careers and schooling and whatnot.

Caffeine wrote:

I know you and Vinnie are looking at staying together long-term, but when you go in to get all the paperwork done, make sure you have something drawn up

Definitely. We've already discussed the what-ifs. We're going to have a joint account where we deposit a certain percent of our paychecks. We're going to keep meticulous records of what money goes into the house. If we were to break up, we decided that I would probably be the one to continue living in the house, and when it came time to sell, I would reimburse Vinnie. Otherwise I could move and he would have a friend come live with him, and he would pay me back via rent money. We've got it figured out pretty well, I think. (I'm so sorry to hear about your grandma, that must be tough.)

Tansey wrote:

This. Fabulous advice. I make every buyer I work with buy title insurance. Best deal ever. You buy it once and it covers you for the entire ownership period. Never pass up title insurance, people. Never.

This is wonderful. I actually hadn't heard of that until your replies, is that terrible? We will definitely look into this.

The only issue we have is that while we were researching tax stuff, there is something like $800 in taxes for last year that were unpaid. Of course we would want the sellers to pay this before we closed.

We applied for a loan yesterday, spoke with someone from the bank today, and they will call us back tomorrow to see if we are approved. Today they told us that it's good we are putting both our names on the loan, because I have a great credit score but only one line of credit, where Vinnie has an okay credit score but five lines of credit. My score helps him, and his lines help me. It sounded pretty promising.

We still need to look into the things that were brought up in these replies, sleep on it for a few more nights, but I think that if everything goes well with the bank, that we would be ready to make an offer. Keep your fingers crossed for us that someone doesn't buy it before we do.

I'll attach some pictures in a new reply.

Again, thanks so much for all the nice replies, it's immensely helpful.

It was in my head all night last night to take our camera, but as soon as we got there I realized I forgot it. These photos are from the website, and really don't do the house justice, in my opinion.

1. Street view. The porch is very private. The walk-in feature is super cute, all woodwork has its original stain on it. There's street parking. Vinnie was thinking that if he was ambitious, he could put a retaining wall in the front of the yard to level it off instead of having the slope, then putting up some privacy shrubs. It's cute the way it is, though.

2. Back of the house. The enormous house on the left really dwarfs this house, but the house is actually a very decent size. It's 2,500 square feet. Back yard is a decent size for this neighborhood. Two parking spaces connected to the alley.

3. There entrance to the house is to the right. This is the fireplace room, connected to the living room.

4. The fireplace. There's a huge painting above it which I believe would come with the house.

5. Dining room with built in hutch and stained glass. Kitchen is to the right of this room. There's no pictures of the kitchen, but it has a built-in pantry which is adorable. There's also the door to the back yard from the kitchen.

6. Staircase and original stained glass. There's also an art deco chandelier that's original to the house. This is the front entryway with a door to the kitchen. The staircase is actually really interesting, this is the first flight, and there's another flight from the kitchen. Those flights meet in the middle and the staircase continues to the top floor. It's a t-shaped staircase. There's also a huge amount of space above the stairs.

7. Yummy wood paneling and drop ceilings in the bedrooms. All the bedrooms have large closets. There's one bedroom without paneling or a drop ceiling and the second story ceilings are very tall. I want to say maybe 11 feet? Vinnie, who is 6'2'', standing on the top of a 5' ladder, could just barely fit his head into the attic crawl space. That room is painted grape purple, so we would definitely paint that straight away. You can see the floors are in pretty good shape.

The bathroom is on the second floor and there's a toilet in a small room in the basement, which could easily be made into a cute half bath.

Again, the pictures don't do it justice. It's a nice place, just needs some loving.

How to check for slopes on the floor (assuming no carpeting)...Bring some marbles with you!

Jon