Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 148

Mission Impossible

The house I bought doesn't have a built-in toilet paper dispenser in the bathrooms and no towel racks either. The couple who owns the house used one of those stand on the floor dispensers, but that takes up valuable real estate and the bathroom is one of the smaller rooms in the house.

At first I thought about getting a stand on the floor dispenser like they had, space or no space. It would certainly be the easiest way to go, but I could see me knocking it over or walking into it. Nah, best to get something built-in.

So I popped online and figured I'd find what I wanted and it would all be good. Only that's not what happened.

You see, I like the ceramic towel rack/toilet paper dispensers. Maybe it's because when I see the metal ones they're usually the cheap ones that look like crap, but I knew I didn't want metal. Period. The problem was I also did not want white. I wanted an off white, preferably the color they call biscuit, almond or some other color that is off white would work.

Yeah. You can't find it. Anywhere. I spent hours searching online. Hours. It was enough to make me cry.

(And as an aside, thanks so much Google for changing your search a few months back. I can't find anything now and when I try to put plus signs in, you find nothing. That's just so helpful.)

I finally found a set in biscuit on eBay that contains two towel racks, a toilet paper dispenser, and a soap dish. (I don't want the soap dish, but whatever, right?) The man had two sets left which was perfect since I had two bathrooms to outfit. But the shipping charge made me balk. Like more than $15.00 for one set.

After another hour of fruitless searching, including looking up the place in Minnesota where I went to pick out my bathroom stuff while my house was being built, I caved in. (That store in MN apparently doesn't handle anything except flooring now.) It's worth the shipping to not have to waste anymore time trying to find an actual store that carries off white, ceramic fixtures. What a totally frustrating evening.

Borders: Canada and the US

I'd always wondered how Minnesota got that notch at the top.

Organization

This is another post about the new house. I know that's all I've been talking about for weeks now, but I'm so excited that I can't stand it. For the last year and a half, I've been living in Atlanta, but 98% of my things have been in Minnesota. The idea of having a home with all my stuff? Bliss.

Unfortunately, my new house doesn't have a basement which means I'm going to have issues figuring out where to put things. My basement in Minnesota was unfinished and pretty much a massive storage facility.

I've decided the only two things that can help me now are decluttering and organization.

I did get rid of a ton of stuff as I went through my house in MN to put it on the market, but I didn't get rid of everything I could. Because of time constraints, I just did the things I knew I could power through quickly and I decided to move the rest of it to Georgia and deal with it here. Now, I will have to deal with it promptly, not whenever I get around to it. :-/

Step 2 is keeping myself organized. I am notoriously bad at this, but I've been pinning organization stuff over on Pinterest (Organization Tips) and now I'll have to actually click through and read these blogs. Oh, and come up with a system that works for me.

Some of the guys at work have suggested I put up an outbuilding for storage, but I really don't want to do that. Not only do I not have the space, but I don't want to worry about bugs getting in my things.

Others have suggested I get a storage unit, but I look at it this way. If I can put things in storage and rarely, if ever, need them, then I can get rid of it all together.

Complicating my plans? An August 15 deadline, followed by a November 15 deadline.

News for UK Readers

Great news for readers in the UK who were looking for my Nocturne Bites stories in print. Mills & Boon will be releasing one of the Bites I've written in paperback!

The release is scheduled for October 4, 2013, and this information is so new, I haven't seen the cover yet. I'll be joined by two other wonderful authors--Kait Ballenger and Anna Hackett--and the anthology will be titled Vampire Hunter.

I'm not 100% certain which of the two Nocturne Bites stories I've written will appear in the anthology, but given the title, I'm guessing it will be Shadow's Caress. In that story, my heroine is a former vampire hunter and that would fit the theme.

I'll share more information as I get it, but if you'd like to preorder now, I'll link to a couple of options. If you'd prefer another store, please check their website as Vampire Hunter is available for preorder at many different stores.

Preorder at Book Depository
Preorder at Amazon.co.uk

Countries Inside Other Countries

A short look at some interesting geography.

Happy Independence Day, America!

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This is a picture of my house in Minnesota, the house I'll be saying goodbye to shortly.

Crossing Every T

It's actually kind of amazing how much paperwork is involved with buying a home. I thought that once I initialed the counteroffer that all would be finished until closing. I was wrong.

I spent the week afterward signing and initialing many more documents. One or two every day until that Friday. Finally, I had a day without emails from my real estate agent. I kept waiting, checking email and expecting more documents to deal with, but nothing showed up.

The inspection happened the first week and only very minor stuff on the exterior of the house came up as a problem. A damaged gutter, some weathering on the area around the dormer windows--nothing to worry about.

Of course, we're not quite out of the woods yet. There's still an appraisal to get through. I'm hoping the house won't come in low because I really don't want to deal with renegotiating even if meant I got a better deal. I just want a nice, low stress (as low as possibly anyway) glide into my new home.

Weird Places: Blood Falls

House Hunting Part Four

I left off on Tuesday with making an offer on the house I really liked. Now the story continues.

I put in the offer with a noon Monday deadline for getting back to us. My Realtor said she expected to hear something that day, though, and I went home to wait. I stayed off the phone and did some online browsing for things I'd need to buy for the house. If I got it.

And I waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, at about 9:45 I decided it was probably time to wrap things up and go to bed. I wasn't going to hear anything tonight. Five minutes later the phone rang. The sellers had made a counteroffer.

They'd come back with a dollar figure that was higher than we'd expected, but still lower than the asking price. After some discussion, I slept on it and ultimately decided I wanted the house. Besides we had an appraisal as part of the contract. If the house didn't come in at what I was paying, everything reopened for negotiation.

So I said yes and initialed and signed a bazillion papers. Okay, maybe not a bazillion. They're saving that for the closing.

It made it official, though, I was under contract to buy a house in Georgia!

House Hunting Part Three

When I ended Part Two, I was fleeing in panic before committing myself to buying the house I thought I wanted.

Only I kept thinking about House 5--the one that had everything I wanted except a basement. It was lower priced than the builder's home by a big enough dollar figure that I could actually change the few things I wasn't crazy about and those items were few and far between. I even liked the colors the walls were painted.

I asked my agent if we could go back to House 5 and take another look. She set up an appointment for Sunday at 11am.

I went home, loaded all my pictures on the computer, and started thinking hard about what was really important to me. Did I want that basement enough to live in a cramped house with flooring and fixtures I wouldn't like and couldn't afford to replace for years?

House 5 wasn't brand new, but it was only five years old and had only had one owner. They'd taken good care of the house.

Other pluses were the lot was setup in a way that gave maximum privacy. There were houses behind it, but I could only see the roofs from the back patio. There were houses on either side of this house, but you couldn't really see any neighbors from the backyard either. And not only was it private, but it was quiet and serene. It would be a great place to recharge at the end of the day.

But no basement. All the boxes and books and dishes that I have stored in my Minnesota basement would have to fit--somehow--into the bedrooms or closets in the house. Some stuff I could get rid of, but a lot of it...well, not really.

The question then became did I want a basement so much that I would go with a house that didn't measure up to a house that had everything else I wanted?

I decided I wanted the house that had all the cool living space. I called my parents, figuring they'd talk me into the basement, but to my surprise, they didn't.

And when I went to bed that Saturday night, I knew that unless my second look at House 5 was a complete disaster, that was the house I'd be making an offer on. That was meant to be my house.

It shocked me. I always pictured my house with a basement. I also was surprised that there were things I liked about this house better than my house in Minnesota. That feels so disloyal, but then I remind myself that there are things in my MN home that I like better than House 5, too. I guess it evens out in the long run.

My second look at the house didn't change my mind. Sure there are some things I want to change--some of the light fixtures aren't to my taste, but then my style is modern/contemporary and most people prefer more traditional lighting. And I would like to screen in the patio to keep the bugs away. But ultimately, the house is move-in ready and I don't actually have to do anything to live there happily.

When we went back to my agent's office to put in my offer on the house, I didn't panic. I was a little nervous, but mostly calm and that's how I know I made the right choice for me.

Of course, then the nerves changed from making the right house decision to would the sellers accept my offer?

To Be Continued.