Inspector dude; and, First Grade
Yesterday was the inspection of our new house. Leo hired a guy he usually hires for all his clients, for his thoroughness. When you are buying a home, thorough is good. When we bought the house we're living in now, we knew nothing, and since the Realtor generally hires the inspector anyway, we went ahead and let him (this was, of course, long before Leo was a Realtor himself). We realized gradually that our wonderful Realtor had hired a dud, possibly just to make sure the deal went through. Now, I'm not saying that our house has anything major we need to specify on the disclosure sheet. I AM saying that there are minor issues all over the house that were not called to our attention at the inspection, issues that probably would not have kept us from buying the house, but maybe would have made us ask the seller to fix or give us money for at closing.
This guy, this time, he's GOOD. Leo has shown me examples of his work before. The inspector takes a digital camera with him and photographs items of particular interest. The things he finds would make you cross your eyes (especially if you were the seller). He noticed the door leading from the garage to the house had been dented in several places, and repaired, but with little more than drywall paste. He showed us how to open the flue of our fireplace (something neither of us have ever had personal experience with before), and told us how often it would need to be cleaned.
He also was just a really, really nice guy. He got there ahead of us, doing some external inspection before we got there to let him in. When we pulled in the driveway, he stopped and grinned when he realized Leo had brought the whole family (I didn't even know about the inspection until the last minute; Leo was going to go by himself, but I cajoled him into letting me go to, because I wanted to see this guy I'd heard so much about in action. So of course there was no time at all to even think about a babysitter). I followed them around as I could while trying to keep track of Aislinn at the same time. He explained things in terms we could understand and was patient with my questions, even when it was obvious I was clueless (with our first inspection, the guy more or less ignored us the whole time, answering our questions as necessary, but not going out of his way to explain, good or bad, what he was seeing). And as usual, Aislinn worked her charms on him. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before...but Aislinn is a flirt. Any man she sees, and most boys, she's all "Hiiiiiiiiii!", reaching her arms up to be held. I kept telling her, no, sorry honey, he's got to do his job. But a couple of times he did lift her up and carried her around while still paying close attention to all the details he was looking for.
The whole thing took over three hours. Leo had estimated two or so, but like I said: this guy is thorough. The best part was, as hard as he tried to find something, he didn't find anything significant. Oh, there were some extremely minor issues, but as he said, he usually can even find popped nails in a brand new house. But in our perfect house, he found nothing that would necessitate going to the seller to fix or pay us for. All the minor things were written down in the report, so at least we know ahead of time what will need a little attention.
I'm just silly over the whole thing. The house that we BOTH love, the deal we got on it (oh yeah, and the whole time, the inspector kept exclaiming over how great the house was, something Leo had not really heard him do before. How many houses does this guy see in a week? So it just made us feel even more that we'd got the very best house for our money). And an inspection as close to perfect as you could find in a 16-year-old house.
Dude even took $50 off of his fee for us.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Audrey started first grade last week, with much excitement and trepidation. We knew the day before she started that we'd got the house, but didn't tell her officially until Saturday. It might sound cruel at first glance, but I wanted her to go to the effort to make friends in her class, even though she would have to say good-bye to them in a month. Why? Because I wanted that skill very fresh in her mind when it came time to start her new school.
Technically speaking, we could have started her in the new school on the first day there. They started a day after her school here, and all you really need to prove residence is a purchase agreement with a closing date on it, which we had. But as little as a week before school started, before we had even first seen this house, we had resigned ourselves, and her, to the fact that she would be starting school here, possibly going all the way until Christmas, if not longer. She had already started to get excited about her new class and new teacher, whom we met a few days before school started, and she also knew a few of the kids in her class who had been with her in kindergarten, as well as a little girl who is a mutual friend of her very best friend. We'd bought all of her supplies with the list provided by the school, so it was set in her mind that this was the school she was starting at. I knew it would crush her to change plans the very day she was expecting to start school. (Not to mention the new school is a one-hour round-trip drive from our current house, not a trip I wanted to make twice a day.)
She's had a great first week. She already was chosen (at random) as Student of the Day in her class, and today she came home with a note saying her teacher had given her name to the principal for the monthly good citizenship award (I think there are several students chosen each month). Her reward for being chosen for this is getting to go to McDonald's for lunch next Tuesday with the principal and the guidance counselor (I assume along with the other kids chosen this month). I couldn't be prouder.
She got 100% on her first tests, a sight-word reading test, and a spelling test on the same list of words.
And the really, really big deal of this year is I'm letting her ride the bus home in the afternoons. I'm still driving or walking her in the mornings, but I realized a few days before school started that school gets out right in the middle of Aislinn's nap time (remember, she went half-days for morning kindergarten!). Last year she had begged to ride the bus to school, but I wasn't ready, wasn't sure she was really ready. But once I figured out where the bus stop actually was, a short block away from us, and that she wouldn't have to cross any streets after the one immediately when she gets off (and the driver watches her cross), I decided she could ride home on the bus. The first day was a half day, so Aislinn and I were able to walk down to the stop and meet her, and Leo was home the second day to meet her. After that, she said, "I know the way, you don't need to come down to get me anymore!" ::sniff:: My little baby, she's growing up so fast. (I still wait on the front steps for her though!)
This guy, this time, he's GOOD. Leo has shown me examples of his work before. The inspector takes a digital camera with him and photographs items of particular interest. The things he finds would make you cross your eyes (especially if you were the seller). He noticed the door leading from the garage to the house had been dented in several places, and repaired, but with little more than drywall paste. He showed us how to open the flue of our fireplace (something neither of us have ever had personal experience with before), and told us how often it would need to be cleaned.
He also was just a really, really nice guy. He got there ahead of us, doing some external inspection before we got there to let him in. When we pulled in the driveway, he stopped and grinned when he realized Leo had brought the whole family (I didn't even know about the inspection until the last minute; Leo was going to go by himself, but I cajoled him into letting me go to, because I wanted to see this guy I'd heard so much about in action. So of course there was no time at all to even think about a babysitter). I followed them around as I could while trying to keep track of Aislinn at the same time. He explained things in terms we could understand and was patient with my questions, even when it was obvious I was clueless (with our first inspection, the guy more or less ignored us the whole time, answering our questions as necessary, but not going out of his way to explain, good or bad, what he was seeing). And as usual, Aislinn worked her charms on him. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before...but Aislinn is a flirt. Any man she sees, and most boys, she's all "Hiiiiiiiiii!", reaching her arms up to be held. I kept telling her, no, sorry honey, he's got to do his job. But a couple of times he did lift her up and carried her around while still paying close attention to all the details he was looking for.
The whole thing took over three hours. Leo had estimated two or so, but like I said: this guy is thorough. The best part was, as hard as he tried to find something, he didn't find anything significant. Oh, there were some extremely minor issues, but as he said, he usually can even find popped nails in a brand new house. But in our perfect house, he found nothing that would necessitate going to the seller to fix or pay us for. All the minor things were written down in the report, so at least we know ahead of time what will need a little attention.
I'm just silly over the whole thing. The house that we BOTH love, the deal we got on it (oh yeah, and the whole time, the inspector kept exclaiming over how great the house was, something Leo had not really heard him do before. How many houses does this guy see in a week? So it just made us feel even more that we'd got the very best house for our money). And an inspection as close to perfect as you could find in a 16-year-old house.
Dude even took $50 off of his fee for us.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Audrey started first grade last week, with much excitement and trepidation. We knew the day before she started that we'd got the house, but didn't tell her officially until Saturday. It might sound cruel at first glance, but I wanted her to go to the effort to make friends in her class, even though she would have to say good-bye to them in a month. Why? Because I wanted that skill very fresh in her mind when it came time to start her new school.
Technically speaking, we could have started her in the new school on the first day there. They started a day after her school here, and all you really need to prove residence is a purchase agreement with a closing date on it, which we had. But as little as a week before school started, before we had even first seen this house, we had resigned ourselves, and her, to the fact that she would be starting school here, possibly going all the way until Christmas, if not longer. She had already started to get excited about her new class and new teacher, whom we met a few days before school started, and she also knew a few of the kids in her class who had been with her in kindergarten, as well as a little girl who is a mutual friend of her very best friend. We'd bought all of her supplies with the list provided by the school, so it was set in her mind that this was the school she was starting at. I knew it would crush her to change plans the very day she was expecting to start school. (Not to mention the new school is a one-hour round-trip drive from our current house, not a trip I wanted to make twice a day.)
She's had a great first week. She already was chosen (at random) as Student of the Day in her class, and today she came home with a note saying her teacher had given her name to the principal for the monthly good citizenship award (I think there are several students chosen each month). Her reward for being chosen for this is getting to go to McDonald's for lunch next Tuesday with the principal and the guidance counselor (I assume along with the other kids chosen this month). I couldn't be prouder.
She got 100% on her first tests, a sight-word reading test, and a spelling test on the same list of words.
And the really, really big deal of this year is I'm letting her ride the bus home in the afternoons. I'm still driving or walking her in the mornings, but I realized a few days before school started that school gets out right in the middle of Aislinn's nap time (remember, she went half-days for morning kindergarten!). Last year she had begged to ride the bus to school, but I wasn't ready, wasn't sure she was really ready. But once I figured out where the bus stop actually was, a short block away from us, and that she wouldn't have to cross any streets after the one immediately when she gets off (and the driver watches her cross), I decided she could ride home on the bus. The first day was a half day, so Aislinn and I were able to walk down to the stop and meet her, and Leo was home the second day to meet her. After that, she said, "I know the way, you don't need to come down to get me anymore!" ::sniff:: My little baby, she's growing up so fast. (I still wait on the front steps for her though!)
posted by Andrea | 9:34 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, so many life moments in this post. New house, both girls growing up (didn't think you'd need to deal with flirting quite yet huh?). Life is good.
Post a Comment
<< Home