We finally signed the paperwork for our mortgage refinance yesterday. The whole mess was one hell of an ordeal, not thanks in part to some horrible record keeping and incompetence on the part of Wells Fargo. After several weeks of having them ask for things we already sent, question why we sent the things they ask for, and demand to know why we didn’t send things they didn’t ask for, they apparently finally managed to get it all together.

And then the title company never sent the paperwork to the notary.  Yeah, epic fustercluck there.

Anyway, we dropped roughly 1.2% off of our interest rate, which saves us $260 a month off the mortgage payment. While that doesn’t sound like too much, over the course of the next 20 years or so, that’s a little over $60,000. In any case, we are going to continue sending in the same amount that we were paying before and putting the extra money towards the principal, which should save us another $150,000 in interest.

It’s amazing how much such a seemingly small amount can do over a long period of time.

Anyway, the reasons we got a refinance while many others are begging for loan modifications and getting smacked down are simple.

• Our mortgage was not in trouble. Every payment was on time and paid in full with extra.
• Our income had gone up, not down. We were in no danger of not being able to make the payments, we just wanted to save a little dough.
• Our house isn’t underwater. In fact, our mortgage is for about $25,000 less than the current value.

If you’ve got those things going for you, you’ll have a much easier time refinancing, even though the people who are behind and were laid off need loan modifications more.

Anybody else refinance lately? Did the bank give you a hard time?

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Unfortunately, the pitter patter of little paws in the kitchen is not a new puppy or kitten, but a mouse. Using what little I know of scatology, it seems like it’s a field mouse. If you’ve seen the snow outside my window, you wouldn’t blame the little guy(s) from trying to come inside.

Clearly, I need to get one of these ferocious beasts.

That doesn’t mean he’s a welcome guest though, especially now that we need to devote the time we’d use to getting ready for baby to getting glass storage for all our grains, etc. So f-ing annoying and part of the reason I haven’t been posting much this week.

Our pest control service (we have an annual contract) was supposed to come do their yearly inspection on Saturday, but I guess we’ll have to move that up. While they will take care of the problem, we’re going to have to insist on them using non-chemically baited traps because of  my obvious condition and the fact I don’t want that crap in my kitchen. Normally, I’m a bleeding heart when it comes to animals, but when they are pests in my house, I am not afraid to snap a few mousey necks.

Having an annual contract with the pest company seems expensive at first, but the nice thing is we don’t have to worry about paying anything for the rest of the year, no matter how many calls we put in. We see crickets? They come out for free. Ants in the bathroom? Out they come. Bees in the siding? Our heroes to the rescue. One (probably vastly inflated) price.

So how do you handle pest control? Do you have a contracted exterminator? Do it yourself with natural/non-chemical pesticides? Just pick a name from the phone book?

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Add Home Depot to the list of places we won’t be getting installation from (the other offender is Lowes).

Now, in Home Depot’s defense, they did order the right carpet and pad and rectified the issue with the installation company immediately once we notified them, but a) we shouldn’t have had to deal with it in the first place and b) they’re the ones that hired the crappy installation company in the first place. Contractors ARE responsible for their sub-contractors.

Also, first, the discount story. When we went in the first time, there were two employees working with one couple. I guess this couple must have been spending major $$$, because instead of one of them breaking off to either help us or take down our order, they sent over the lady from the blinds department. She took 20 minutes to write down 10 lines of info and screwed up on both our installation (we needed carpet and pad removal and she only marked down pad removal) and on what carpet we wanted.

The next day, the employee in charge of the carpet department (who’s only in 9-5) called us up and basically informed us that we were getting a very basic carpet for a non-sale price and would we like to come in and look at the carpets on sale. Well we did, and got a very nice carpet for cheaper than what the basic carpet was. It would have been nice if we got this kind of customer service the day before, but I can’t fault this woman for not staying late.

Blah, blah, blah, carpet guys come to install. (Did I mention they called that morning to give us an installation window. At 7:30am they told us they were coming at 8am. Fortunately I had nothing to do that day.) They get here and point out that the carpet and pad were still in the room. Well, no duh, we asked for removal and haul away. Were they expecting my pregnant butt to do it? Of course this isn’t on their work order thanks to the Home Depot foul up and they have to wait for their boss to call Home Depot and get the okay.

They finish the install and ask me where I want the carpet. I wasn’t aware that Mr. had asked for haul away so I just told them to put in the garage. When I call Mr. to tell him that they were done and to watch out for the mess in the garage, he has to figure out what’s in there because they were supposed to take it all away. A call to Home Depot (the manager here was actually pleasant and helpful) and 4 hours later, they come get the carpet.

After dinner, Mr. happens to look up at the ceiling over our stairs and realizes that the installation guys have scraped a sizeable chunk or plaster off of the ceiling. What happened is instead of bringing up the carpet with two people, one idiot dragged it up doubled over and whacked the ceiling. Thanks, jerks. We wouldn’t have really even minded if the guys had been honest about it, because we’ve put in several dents along that hallway ourselves dragging things up and down the stairs.

So yeah, no more installation companies that we don’t contract with ourselves. Between the Lowes hired guy that wanted over $1,000 just to remove and replace a laminate counter (took Mr. and friend maybe 2 hours to do and that’s because they’d never done it before) and this company, we’re lost all faith in the companies around here.

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Sorry for the big breaks between posts. It’s just lately I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to say and I hate blogs where you can tell the owner is just posting for the sake of posting.

We’ve finished the floors on the first floor. And by we I mean Mr. because I sure wasn’t doing anything besides supervising.

Anyways, the end cost turned out to be a shade under $1,200 for 700 square feet (we did the foyer, the hall, the kitchen and the dining room all at once.) That price includes the laminate, the pad, the quarter round trim and all the assorted other minor things you need. We were fortunate that we were able to borrow the miter saw and other tools from a friend and several friends came over to help lay the actual floor down.

We went with laminate over engineered or true hard wood because of a) durability and b) cost. From what we understand, engineered isn’t as durable as laminate and in order to get one of the truly durable hardwoods (not all hardwoods are the same hardness) we’d be looking at around $5 a sq.foot and up. For that money, we could replace the laminate 3 times. To be honest, the laminate isn’t as good looking as a really nice hardwood, but I don’t really stare at my floor.

We also went with self-installation because we’re cheap (installation started at $1.99 a sq.foot, which would have doubled our cost) and because we choose a ‘floating’ laminate with click installation. Click installation laminate is not only easier to install because it snaps together, but you don’t have to worry about what’s underneath unless it’s remarkably uneven or you are working directly on the subfloor.

I wish I had some better pictures of the before floor (nasty, white vinyl laminate that hadn’t been taken care of so the stains just wouldn’t come up) but here are some shots.

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(Pimping my Twitter Account again. I’m not very social, but I share a lot of good recipes and DIY links. Think of it as my old Weekend Reading posts in small chunks.)

You could tell I was never a ‘true’ urbanite because I never had plans to stay there full time. I loved D.C. but I never wanted to work 80 hours a week just so I could rent a tiny studio in the middle of it.

But, like me, a lot of urbanites have a secret dream of buying a big ol’ house here in the urban sprawl. Right now I’m going to inject a big ol’ healthy dose of reality into that dream.

A house is… not always a better option than renting. Not everyone lives the same cookie cutter life with the same cookie cutter finances. Maybe a decade down the road it will make more sense, but don’t feel obligated to buy a house just because you can afford the down payment.

A house is… expensive to maintain. You thought the utilities in your apartment were expensive? Now you’ve got to maintain the grounds as well. Not to mention that if anything breaks, now you’re paying for it and it’s not fun when you realize the roof needs to be replaced to the tune of $10k. And don’t forget the property and school taxes.

WTF were the previous owners thinking?

A house is… a lot of hard work. Yard work, cleaning, maintenance… Sure you could pay someone to do it for you, but that’s not a frugal idea for most people.

A house is… expensive to customize. When we shop for houses, we spend most of the time thinking “I’ll paint this room blue, put hardwood in here, we’ll need a new couch for the living room. It all adds up. Mr. and I had $10k for improvements (necessary because it was a foreclosure) and we barely got the new appliances and 5 rooms painted and carpeted (all with reasonably priced, on sale items). Half of the rooms have no furniture, and it will probably stay that way for a few years while we comb the second-hand stores and garage sales for solid wood pieces.

A house is… 15-30 years of massive debt. When you see the ‘final’ amount you will have paid on the final mortgage documents, you’re stomach just sinks. There are ways to pay down the principal faster so there’s less to collect interest on, but it’s still a long, long term and a large number.

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I knew there were going to be repair costs and miscellaneous expenses to go along with our mortgage, but I didn’t think it would be this much in our first year.

I’m not talking about furniture and appliances (hand-me-downs and second-hand shops do wonders), I’m talking about the little things that you just don’t think about if you’ve been living in an apartment for years like:

Snow shovel
Outdoor Broom
Garden rake
Garden hose
Garden spade
Curtains/Shades
Light Bulbs (35 in our house)
Extension Cords
Draft Blockers
New Door Locks
More Lamps

And tons of other miscellaneous crap. None of them were expensive on their own, but together we’ve probably spent $1,000 in the past three months in addition to our regular $100 house repair budget. Eventually we’ll have these items and our monthly budget will be enough, it’s quite a shock especially after you’ve now started dealing with the big mortgage payment.

And yes, all homeowners need to budget in repair money on top of their mortgage/taxes/utilities. Because light bulbs burn out, windows shatter, appliances fail, cracks appear and the ants march in. Better to have that money budgeted and saved for emergencies than to be constantly be pulling money from your actual emergency fund.

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I was reading Frugal Dad this morning, because I enjoy a different perspective on things, but I had to laugh a bit at today’s post.

Just because you live in a neighborhood, rather than a 5-acre ranch, it doesn’t mean the same rules of self-sufficiency do not apply.  There are a number of things you can do to make your small homestead more efficient, like building a square foot garden for vegetables, installing a clothesline to lessen the energy demand from your dryer, and reducing your waste by starting a compost pile (also great for gardening!).

I’m not laughing at his advice, because those really ARE great ideas. I’m laughing because the fact I live in a neighborhood rather than a ranch is exactly why the only one those I can do is plant a very small garden, so long as the plants don’t grow higher than my fence and no one can see it from the front yard.

The closer you get to the city, the more draconian the HOA agreements get. When an area has high property values, they tend to want to keep them that way even if it means totally inconveniencing everyone in the neighborhood.

The first thing that jumped out at me when I read through the agreement was that I couldn’t build a pool in my front yard, which is perfectly reasonable. The second thing was that clothes lines were specifiically forbidden anywhere on the property. I plan to purchase a portable standing clothes tree I can take down when I’m done and hang my laundry outside anyway, but still. And compost piles are verboten, because they can really stink in hot weather. I’m going to ask if I can have a contained pile in one of the modern, stink-proof compost rollers, but I have a feeling I’ll be shot down.

I’m also not allowed to have ANY livestock. Not a chicken, not a goose, not a goat, not even a pet house pig. I can’t do any activity that reaches a certain decibel level for more than 8 hours a day, making DIY projects drawn out and making some home businesses impossible. I can’t plant more trees for shade. I can’t put out solar panels (eyesore) and any water barrels have to be totally hidden behind the house because heaven forbid it offends my neighbors delicate sensibilities.

Not that I’m really crying all that hard over my HOA. The neighborhood is lovely because all the houses are reasonably taken care of and the association gives owners a reasonable length of time to fix things when a complaint is made before issuing a summons or a fine. 3 bedroom houses are still selling at over $300,000 here, so I guess they’re doing something right.

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Friday evening, Mr. came home to find a door hanger on our front door. On this hanger was a lovely message that we needed to cough up $201.84 or our sewage would be cut off in 24 hours.

There were several things fishy about this.

1. We’ve never received a bill before and we have from the other utility companies. Thanks to the foreclosure, we have no idea who was handling this bill before. This notice had no account info on it, just our address.
2. The business hours were 9am-5pm on weekdays. How would we pay a bill they had to expect we’d receive after business hours going into the weekend?
3. They didn’t give us the option of coming in and paying in person. We had to pay by credit card over the phone.
4. One of the numbers they listed was disconnected. The other one rang out with no answering service.

There are two conclusions here:

• It’s a legitimate bill and our sewage company is inept. We will be driving down the street to the grocery store if we need to use the bathroom this weekend.
• It’s someone scamming us, hoping that we’d panic because we only had a few hours to pay the bill.

So today we’re tasked with trying to figure out who the hell handles our sewage and whether or not they have sent us a bill. Unfortunately our HOA people are apparently just as useless and can’t be reached, so we don’t know if the whole neighborhood has one service. We’re going to drive down to the address on the hanger to see if it’s a legit place (we have errands to run in Arlington, so we’ll be out most of the day.)

Just one more fun aspect of being a homeowner, I guess.

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While we were visiting Mr.’s family, our roommate came home to find the police had posted a subpeona on our door. My first thought was that it was about having to go to court for the accident,  since the guy would probably try to contest the reckless driving ticket, but it turned out to be for the former resident of our house.

In addition to this lien for ~$8,000, we also received her W2 forms and bank statement. Apparently the former owner either left in a hurry or wasn’t very bright. While we are going to turn her mail over to the post office, someone without our morals could certainly have messed up this lady’ s life worse than it probably is now

Remember to get the change of address form to the post office early on in your moving process. You can specify the date to start forwarding your mail. The last thing you want to do is have your sensitive documents coming to the new owners of your former pad. Not everyone will do the right thing and send the mail on.

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1. How To Fix A Toilet – You should be able to lift off the top to the tank and flip the flapper so the valve closes or replace those innards. It’s easy and can save you from many sleepless nights because of running toilets and thinking about that ridiculous bill from the plumber. (Remember, the tank is filled with clean water so it’s not as gross as you think.)
2. How To Properly Paint A Room – The next time you get sick of your furniture and have the urge to hit IKEA, try painting and rearranging your stuff instead. The change can be drastic and decent quality paint costs around $25-35 a gallon vs. $500 for a new couch.
3. Hot To Unclog a Drain – Sure, sometimes it’s so bad you need to call in a professional, but most clogs can be solved by baking soda, vinegar and boiling water. If you’re not eco-friendly, chemical solvents work too.
4. How To Maintain a Computer -You should know how to defragment your computer, how to run a virus and spyware scan, how to install automatic updates, how to clean your keyboard/monitor and how to keep the fans in your tower clear.
5. How To Check You Oil – It’s not hard, really. And you should do it before any long car journey.
6. How To Change A Tire – I have and use AAA, but in an emergency I do know how to change one. Make sure you have the proper equipment (including a spare or donut.)

So what DIY knowledge do you think everyone should have?

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