Okay, for the last few weeks I've been looking for a house, so that I can "get out of the trap of rent and start earning some equity"...or whatever.
So I find a spot I like, it's roomy, the price is right and it's right on time. I get the appraisal back for more than I'm paying, the inspection only spots minor stuff and the neighborhood has about ten or twelve new houses in the area, so values should be holding steady.
I'm laying out the floorplan, how I'll convert this bedroom into the library/bar, this is the guest room and this other my office, how I'm gonna arrange furniture and picking paints. I've figured out the new route to work and my new grocery store. I'm getting estimates on the minor repairs, appliance shopping and checking out lighting and I'm climbing the walls to get out my spot an into this spot that is just has potential out the ying yang. (By the way...a copy of Metropolitan Home is like Old Man porn).
Then the city of Atlanta smacks in the face. Just goes to town on a brother. *whap whap*
The taxes we got at the beginning weren't the real taxes. The taxes don't double, they almost triple in the week of closing. And I balked.
At one point my mortage broker is yelling at me through the phone, like I'm not about to come out of pocket in a major way for her benefit....but that's a whole other story.
I told the finance person that I had no intention of living in this spot and eating tuna fish five nights a week to make ends meet. I know a few folks that have gone that way and I know they're miserable. For some reason they thought I could afford it, and I'm thinking second and maybe third job to make it work...and then what's the point of having the house?
I was supposed to close on the 8th...I'm out looking at more houses now.
This is some bullshit.
Bartender, some of that boot you keep under the counter. In a dirty glass.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Saturday night throwback
A few years ago, gas was about a 1.50 a gallon, my insurance was $800 a year, and had no car payment. And I kicked it five nights out of six. Justin's, Chaos, Havana Club, Velvet Room, Martini Bar, Kaya, 112, the list just goes on and on.
But on Saturdays we caravaned. We load up three or four cars and hit three or four house parties, sometimes more. We would show up and sometimes getting the party started. Other times when we left we'd have six cars trailing taking the party with us. Well Saturday I did something I had done in a while, we hit three on the parley.
This Saturday we started on the southside, in 1) Ellenwood GA, a suburb of the ATL. A little birthday set for a young lady we hang out with from time to time.
It was ugly. They had maybe eight girls there, though if you divyed them up into normal sized girls you might have gotten twenty five. So we dipped. E walked back out with the twelve pack he brought in.
Then we drove up to 2) Woodstock GA. Check a map, that's about forty five minutes to an hour away. Better function, more normal sized women folk, crowd looked a little less buffett and internet intensive. We hung around for a while, hollered a couple and tried to figure out why the guy in the suit jacket and sweatervest would normally hang out.
So we leave it's around one, and in the car my boy gets a call and it's back to 3) Stone Mountain. Check the map, that's another half hour. We get there it must be around two or so but the party is still working. And it's got the largest selection of good looking women all day. We finally get outta there around three thirty and back to the crib and it's nearly four.
Been long time. I wonder how the young folks do.
Barkeep - Some Pinch and branch water.
But on Saturdays we caravaned. We load up three or four cars and hit three or four house parties, sometimes more. We would show up and sometimes getting the party started. Other times when we left we'd have six cars trailing taking the party with us. Well Saturday I did something I had done in a while, we hit three on the parley.
This Saturday we started on the southside, in 1) Ellenwood GA, a suburb of the ATL. A little birthday set for a young lady we hang out with from time to time.
It was ugly. They had maybe eight girls there, though if you divyed them up into normal sized girls you might have gotten twenty five. So we dipped. E walked back out with the twelve pack he brought in.
Then we drove up to 2) Woodstock GA. Check a map, that's about forty five minutes to an hour away. Better function, more normal sized women folk, crowd looked a little less buffett and internet intensive. We hung around for a while, hollered a couple and tried to figure out why the guy in the suit jacket and sweatervest would normally hang out.
So we leave it's around one, and in the car my boy gets a call and it's back to 3) Stone Mountain. Check the map, that's another half hour. We get there it must be around two or so but the party is still working. And it's got the largest selection of good looking women all day. We finally get outta there around three thirty and back to the crib and it's nearly four.
Been long time. I wonder how the young folks do.
Barkeep - Some Pinch and branch water.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
The House
I just stole about $80,000. Okay maybe $40,000, or $10,000... but I damn sure stole something.
After looking off and on since last July, I found a spot. They accepted my bid on the house, which is four bedroom two full bath and slightly narrow but deep lot. I'm paying what they asked and they're picking up closing. It's not a bad deal, area in transistion, house needs some cosmetic, yadda yadda yadda.
But I did my homework.
For those from other locales, in Atlanta you can look up the tax records on line ...and they include a lot of other information that the realtors don't want you to see. Which is good because the real estate market in Atlanta is the wild wild west. The online records give stuff like the square footage - which they don't give in GA, and the lot dimensions - which aren't advertised, or construction info - you need this more than you know, or the FORMER APPRAISED VALUE... and just for kicks, how much the last person paid for it.
The house I just got, somebody paid 200K for last year, went into forclosure and I scooped it for just over half that.
Somebody somewhere is about to get fired over this one. I'm not sure if the previous deal was a flip, or appraiser was jacked up on something last time or what. But the former lender got dicked, and now I'm moving in.
All I know is for less than $2,000 out of pocket in clean up, I'll have a pretty nice piece of property.
Barkeep - The good stuff. The Knob Creek. Just ice.
After looking off and on since last July, I found a spot. They accepted my bid on the house, which is four bedroom two full bath and slightly narrow but deep lot. I'm paying what they asked and they're picking up closing. It's not a bad deal, area in transistion, house needs some cosmetic, yadda yadda yadda.
But I did my homework.
For those from other locales, in Atlanta you can look up the tax records on line ...and they include a lot of other information that the realtors don't want you to see. Which is good because the real estate market in Atlanta is the wild wild west. The online records give stuff like the square footage - which they don't give in GA, and the lot dimensions - which aren't advertised, or construction info - you need this more than you know, or the FORMER APPRAISED VALUE... and just for kicks, how much the last person paid for it.
The house I just got, somebody paid 200K for last year, went into forclosure and I scooped it for just over half that.
Somebody somewhere is about to get fired over this one. I'm not sure if the previous deal was a flip, or appraiser was jacked up on something last time or what. But the former lender got dicked, and now I'm moving in.
All I know is for less than $2,000 out of pocket in clean up, I'll have a pretty nice piece of property.
Barkeep - The good stuff. The Knob Creek. Just ice.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Condi as president?
"Dr. Rice, who I think would be a really good candidate [for President], is not interested. Probably because she is single, her parents are no longer living, she's an only child. You need a very supportive family and supportive friends to have this job."
--the words purportedly of Laura Bush, the First Lady.
Well damn. The president's wife just said a single woman can't be president. Now I'm a man of the first water, and for a minute I honestly believed that the next presidental knockdown was going to be a catfight between the Republican throwaway candidate Condi Rice, and the Democratic Bully one Mrs. Hillary Clinton.
My warped logic: After the debacle that was the midterms and the continuing issue with Iraq, the Republicans ever the forward thinkers would see that this election was lost and offer up for posterity and to unshackle the miniority base of the Dems the first serious Black Female Candidate for the presidency. No, I am not Karl Rove's assistant floating one out there. Hillary on the other hand would ninja her way into the nomination, through that process known politicking (note spelling).
I don't follow politics like sports, but I do dabble enough to know a kick in the teeth when I see one. Laura may have some insight the rest of don't have, but then I think I can draw an ugly enough bead on it.
Condi is not married, and apparently isn't dating anyone though I do understand she once mistakenly referred to the president as "my husband." No, I'm not going to source that. So my question, as crudely as I can put it...where is she getting dick? I have no issue with a wholly active woman, but if she ain't sleeping with somebody, somewhere, then we got a problem.
Did I just say I wouldn't elect Condi cause she's "reserved"? Yes. Yes, I did.
With the media today you would think there would be a hint of who's tapping that. Oprah has Steadman (um..right...), Beyonce has Jay-Z, Halle Berry was seeing some italian dude last time I checked, and the 2nd most powerful woman in the free world is with who? Is there even a hint of somebody? Does one of her security detail look like a maybe? Something.
And if she could swear off sex for ...let's see it'll be eight, then four..twelve years, I'm not too comfortable with her as a person. Even if her sex drive is low, damn that's a long time. Or worse yet, nobody ever tapped it right so she doesn't get it. Woe be the country.
Would the country be better run by a sex fiend? Yes. *cough* billclinton *cough*
Think about it, did you ever notice how in a candidates commercial they always show his/her family? Wonder where those kids came from? That's right, the candidate is subliminally annoucing that if their getting their freak on, their doing it at home. That me and the signifigant other get it on just like you. (Okay, they're usually lying about the home part). And this presents a problem for Condi in the values section, as she is unable to demonstrate on a fundamental level her sharing of the core values.
I'm not even a professional and I can come up with a halfway decent plan that wouldn't look too dirty the make Condi unelectable in about four or five good hours.
Maybe I'm just ranting and raving for nothing, although I just can't see middle America voting for someone named Obama unless between now and the election something changes.
Barkeep - Old crow with a beer back.
--the words purportedly of Laura Bush, the First Lady.
Well damn. The president's wife just said a single woman can't be president. Now I'm a man of the first water, and for a minute I honestly believed that the next presidental knockdown was going to be a catfight between the Republican throwaway candidate Condi Rice, and the Democratic Bully one Mrs. Hillary Clinton.
My warped logic: After the debacle that was the midterms and the continuing issue with Iraq, the Republicans ever the forward thinkers would see that this election was lost and offer up for posterity and to unshackle the miniority base of the Dems the first serious Black Female Candidate for the presidency. No, I am not Karl Rove's assistant floating one out there. Hillary on the other hand would ninja her way into the nomination, through that process known politicking (note spelling).
I don't follow politics like sports, but I do dabble enough to know a kick in the teeth when I see one. Laura may have some insight the rest of don't have, but then I think I can draw an ugly enough bead on it.
Condi is not married, and apparently isn't dating anyone though I do understand she once mistakenly referred to the president as "my husband." No, I'm not going to source that. So my question, as crudely as I can put it...where is she getting dick? I have no issue with a wholly active woman, but if she ain't sleeping with somebody, somewhere, then we got a problem.
Did I just say I wouldn't elect Condi cause she's "reserved"? Yes. Yes, I did.
With the media today you would think there would be a hint of who's tapping that. Oprah has Steadman (um..right...), Beyonce has Jay-Z, Halle Berry was seeing some italian dude last time I checked, and the 2nd most powerful woman in the free world is with who? Is there even a hint of somebody? Does one of her security detail look like a maybe? Something.
And if she could swear off sex for ...let's see it'll be eight, then four..twelve years, I'm not too comfortable with her as a person. Even if her sex drive is low, damn that's a long time. Or worse yet, nobody ever tapped it right so she doesn't get it. Woe be the country.
Would the country be better run by a sex fiend? Yes. *cough* billclinton *cough*
Think about it, did you ever notice how in a candidates commercial they always show his/her family? Wonder where those kids came from? That's right, the candidate is subliminally annoucing that if their getting their freak on, their doing it at home. That me and the signifigant other get it on just like you. (Okay, they're usually lying about the home part). And this presents a problem for Condi in the values section, as she is unable to demonstrate on a fundamental level her sharing of the core values.
I'm not even a professional and I can come up with a halfway decent plan that wouldn't look too dirty the make Condi unelectable in about four or five good hours.
Maybe I'm just ranting and raving for nothing, although I just can't see middle America voting for someone named Obama unless between now and the election something changes.
Barkeep - Old crow with a beer back.
Monday, January 15, 2007
House Hunting
The new year brings new things, and this year after renting for eight years I've decided to put down some damn roots and buy a house.
Unlike a number of my counterparts, I've decided to stay inside 285. ITP baby!
There is something about moving outside the perimeter of Atlanta that I-1285 represents that changes a person. It makes them more homebound, by the simple act of home assimilation and traffic. People get home after work, take their shoes off and their done, it doesn’t matter how hot the party is or how free the drinks are, that drive home is a killer at midnight. As one of my coworkers put it: “there are too many jurisdictions between here and my house”.
I’ve taken my brother with me and although he’s actually accomplished very little in the long run, he is my resident skeptic. When he finally goes along with what I’m thinking, then I know I’ve done enough homework. I had to talk him into the area of town I’m looking in, and then into why. He’s bought in so far, but he lives in Alpharetta, so his thinking is a bit “warped”.
So anyway, today I’m looking at this house, just riding through hitting a lot of places. By the way if you’re a developer, you may want to move the notification that the house has been “Winterized” to inside the front door. So we stop by this house, pair of houses really, side by side mirror images of each other. Outside looks nice, peer through the window it looks good, I call my agent to check it and dammit, it’s under contract. Now I’d checked my listing less than 24 hours ago and this one was cool, so I’m like whatever. So after we look around a bit more, I find say what the hell and call my agent for the other house. That’s one’s under contract too! Now I’m pissed. Two times and two misses in 15 minutes.
Do these people not update? Everybody in Atlanta is trying to sell somebody something, so keep it moving folks... geez. Looked at this other spot up the street, call and the agent won't give my agent permission to go in. And I wonder for serious, for serious, just how much they want to sell these homes.
Finally called it quits for the day after about 4 hours, cause my brother who is out of shape had to go home and get a nap and the game was coming on.
Barkeep - two shots of Old Grandad. And he’s paying.
Unlike a number of my counterparts, I've decided to stay inside 285. ITP baby!
There is something about moving outside the perimeter of Atlanta that I-1285 represents that changes a person. It makes them more homebound, by the simple act of home assimilation and traffic. People get home after work, take their shoes off and their done, it doesn’t matter how hot the party is or how free the drinks are, that drive home is a killer at midnight. As one of my coworkers put it: “there are too many jurisdictions between here and my house”.
I’ve taken my brother with me and although he’s actually accomplished very little in the long run, he is my resident skeptic. When he finally goes along with what I’m thinking, then I know I’ve done enough homework. I had to talk him into the area of town I’m looking in, and then into why. He’s bought in so far, but he lives in Alpharetta, so his thinking is a bit “warped”.
So anyway, today I’m looking at this house, just riding through hitting a lot of places. By the way if you’re a developer, you may want to move the notification that the house has been “Winterized” to inside the front door. So we stop by this house, pair of houses really, side by side mirror images of each other. Outside looks nice, peer through the window it looks good, I call my agent to check it and dammit, it’s under contract. Now I’d checked my listing less than 24 hours ago and this one was cool, so I’m like whatever. So after we look around a bit more, I find say what the hell and call my agent for the other house. That’s one’s under contract too! Now I’m pissed. Two times and two misses in 15 minutes.
Do these people not update? Everybody in Atlanta is trying to sell somebody something, so keep it moving folks... geez. Looked at this other spot up the street, call and the agent won't give my agent permission to go in. And I wonder for serious, for serious, just how much they want to sell these homes.
Finally called it quits for the day after about 4 hours, cause my brother who is out of shape had to go home and get a nap and the game was coming on.
Barkeep - two shots of Old Grandad. And he’s paying.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Finish it!
My new motto for the year, my sole resolution for 2007 is to "Finish it"!
The phrase stems from my now ancient days of high school football, where the coach would bellow that line to the offense in practice when we'd run a play incorrectly. We'd have to "finish it" meaning run the same play again, only correctly this time with the added benefit of the defense knowing where the play was going.
As it applies now, to this point in my life the meaning is a bit more literal. There are a number of projects I've been procrastinating on - movie, books I've half written, job hunt, house hunt, all manner of madness. My goal this year is to "finish it", no matter what it is. Projects lying half done? Finish them. Relationships open ended? Talk to them and Finish it the way I want. House search that shoould have been done? Finish it! New job that should have been applied for? Finish it!
The mantra for the '007? This year, I'm going to Finish it.
**************
Sidenote:
Two things amazed me this year. How fast the NYE parties broke down once midnight hit (I saw folks breaking out at 12:15 - seriously), and the number of women who've suddenly shown up in my life.
Met a woman last week who seems really into me.
Met a woman at a party last night who I knew, but didn't realize she was that into me.
Had a woman tell me should would leave her husband if I said I would marry her.
And of course "Sporty", who claims we're not dating, but acts as if we are.
My question is why did god have to send them all at once?
Barkeep...just leave the bottle on that one.
The phrase stems from my now ancient days of high school football, where the coach would bellow that line to the offense in practice when we'd run a play incorrectly. We'd have to "finish it" meaning run the same play again, only correctly this time with the added benefit of the defense knowing where the play was going.
As it applies now, to this point in my life the meaning is a bit more literal. There are a number of projects I've been procrastinating on - movie, books I've half written, job hunt, house hunt, all manner of madness. My goal this year is to "finish it", no matter what it is. Projects lying half done? Finish them. Relationships open ended? Talk to them and Finish it the way I want. House search that shoould have been done? Finish it! New job that should have been applied for? Finish it!
The mantra for the '007? This year, I'm going to Finish it.
**************
Sidenote:
Two things amazed me this year. How fast the NYE parties broke down once midnight hit (I saw folks breaking out at 12:15 - seriously), and the number of women who've suddenly shown up in my life.
Met a woman last week who seems really into me.
Met a woman at a party last night who I knew, but didn't realize she was that into me.
Had a woman tell me should would leave her husband if I said I would marry her.
And of course "Sporty", who claims we're not dating, but acts as if we are.
My question is why did god have to send them all at once?
Barkeep...just leave the bottle on that one.
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