Grandchildren

The last time I visited my grandsons in LA my Grandson, Isaac asked me to make meatballs. I have only made meatball once in my life and that was before his dad was born. So I went into the kitchen and made up this meatball recipe. I have made it twice now, and I have to say - it works.

Here is a picture and recipe:

Yummy Meatballs. 1lb. ground beef 1lb. sausage 1 T minced garlic 1 onion - finely chopped 2 stalks of celery - finely chopped 1 red bell pepper - finely chopped 2 eggs salt and pepper to taste ¼ - ½ cup of flour - or almond meal Mix everything together until well mixed. Form meatballs. Brown in small batches on stove in hot oil (I used coconut oil), remove from oil when browned all over and keep working in small batches until complete. I let the meatballs sit in an iron skillet until I finished browning them all, and some of the oil cooked out of them, which I strained off before adding meatballs marinara sauce to finish cooking. You could also cook them separately in the oven @ 350’ for 30 to 40 minutes.

The Kitchen is Done!

 At long last the kitchen remodel is finished. It was actually completed in November but it took me a while to take pictures and then to find the time to post them. As you can see, the ugly 70's florescent light box is gone. For now the moldings that surrounded the light box are staying, I am afraid to see what the ceiling looks like underneath. I had to have someone come in and mud, sand and tape the ceiling that is visible and in good light you can tell that more work should have been done. But, it is so much better than it was. The recess will remain because the junction box for the lights needs to be accessible, perhaps someday I will add paint or track lighting.

Taking out the upper cabinets, moving the peninsula to the right opposite side, and getting rid of the bar height counter top made a huge difference. The new counter space in awesome.

There are some very minor measuring issues, but the overall effect is such a huge improvement, nothing else matters. I love having the large drawers for storing almost all of my dishes and cookware in. So easy to see where everything is and so easy to access.

In the end, we had the contractor only tear out and replace the cabinets and counter tops so I had to hire an electrician, plumber, and the get the flooring patched. Because of the condition of the ceiling, I also hired someone to do the touch up and painting. I thought this was going to be really hard, but in the end, it wasn't hard and saved us about $17,000.00 from what we were quoted by the kitchen contractor.

We went with Kitchen Plus in Bellevue. The pluses, they really did finish in a week. The cabinet quality is very acceptable for the price and they offer a really good warranty. The designer I worked with gave me some really good design advise, things I definitely would not have thought of on my own.

The minuses, the installer was a bit messy,even dumping some of the scraps and garbage behind the new cabinets. And, if I was ever to do this again, which I will not, I would measure out every section with blue tape and make sure it works. There is about 4 inches of space over the refrigerator that I was hoping would be space for trays to fit vertically. Also, the glass cabinet, that is hanging over the peninsula is a bit too wide.  

In the end, I am very happy with the final product. There is a lot of storage space and I love cooking in the new space. 

The Kitchen Remodel --

At long last the kitchen remodel is finally moving along. A few weeks back (the first week of August) I decided that I needed to ask for a date. I sent a couple of emails to the contacts I had been given and waited. About two weeks later I was called by the scheduling department and we got a date.

I took several weeks to pack all of the kitchen supplies and carry them downstairs to the basement. As I was carrying the final loads I realized I was going to have to carry everything back up the stairs, and I would not want to wait three or four weeks to get that done.

The kitchen destruction occurred on September 20.  Since we did not go with the full service remodel we had to get all of the appliances out of the kitchen. Lucky I have a good handy man to call on and this was not as bad as I thought it would be. Then I would have just about one week to get all of the other tasks accomplished before the reconstruction begins on September 29.

 

After the destruction, I had to schedule an electrician, a plumber, and get some help patching the ceiling and the walls. The walls were in a lot worse shape than I thought they would be, and the retro wall paper didn't

help. There was even wall paper on the ceiling, interesting choice. All of the exposed wall paper was painted over before we bought the house, but I didn't realize how much this would come back to be such a pain.

Painting the ceiling started today. My nightmare will be the exposed wall area above the sink. I thought I could get by with just paint, but now I am not so sure. I’ll be taking another trip to Home Depot to see what I can find that will help. 

For Sale by Owner

The final chapter in the For Sale By Owner series.

We officially listed our house on Zillow on May 29, after a few frustrating attempts with the MLS4SalebyOwner website, I was able to get the house listed on the MLS on June 26. Within hours we received five phone calls and three offers. We quickly accepted the best offer. The buyer’s Realtor

came by our house to have us sign the appropriate paperwork. The entire process went fairly smoothly. Being a seller is definitely easier than being a buyer and not having to go through both processes at the same time has made it all the more easier.

We received a full price offer for our house and only had to make a small concession after the inspection to have a wall heater replaced (which probably just needed to be reset) but all in all we felt very good about that part of the process.  Additionally, there were a few additional cosmetic things we considered doing, but ended up not having to. We did not get new blinds on the windows, so most of the windows were not covered at all. The bath tub in the main bath needed to be refinished. We considered having that done, but procrastination paid off. The new owner accepted this as one of the items they would have to take care of.

The only real issue arrived when we went to sign the closing documents. There is a list of fees that the sellers are assigned to pay. My husband was on the lookout for charges that he thought might be erroneous and sure enough he (thought) found one.  Under the section labeled “Reductions in Amount Due to Seller” there is a fee labeled, “Portion of Owner’s Policy Paid by Seller”. We still do not really know what this fee is for. 

The closing agent said it was an insurance policy that protects the owner in the case of a title dispute. But the title company was already paid $766.50 for doing their part and getting a title history and making sure that the property title was not being challenged.  Apparently, this fee is listed in the initial offer and acceptance paperwork and can be negotiated. Lenders require title insurance, even if the title has been deemed “free and clear”. Usually the seller pays this fee. It was about $1000. I guess it pays to read EVERYTHING. And what I would really like to know is who receives this fee? Has a title ever been challenged after a legal sale? Has anyone received compensation from this fee for title dispute?

On a final note, I will be picking up the check today. Now, what should we do with this money?

Kitchen Remodel

I just figured out that I made the $10K deposit on the kitchen remodel on April 29. Last week I finally received the final plans to approve. There was a slight error in the design, after several emails the plans were perfect. Now I wait for the second review and then the plans will be submitted for the cabinet construction. I still have no idea when the actual destruction and installation will begin.

We decided to go with a "basic" kitchen plan which means, we get new cabinets, sink, and counter tops installed. We have to get all of the appliances out, do all of the finishing and electrical work. I have know idea how we are going to get it all done. I have started putting away appliances and other kitchen ware that we will not need in the next few months, but how we are going to move the stove, microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator and where we are going to put them. Stay tuned for the continuing saga.

For Sale By Owner

Two years ago we moved to a townhouse, now we need to sell our first home. My husband wants to do a for sell by owner. The house has been empty since May 5, on June 27 I finally got the house listed on the MLS. It has not been simple. Lucky for us, our daughter sold her home by owner a few years back and she kept track of the details in her blog - Laura's Blog.

First we had to get the house cleaned and ready to show. That took us several weeks. I was still working full time and we could only work on the weekends that we did not have other obligations. Every time we went back to the house I found more things that needed to be cleaned and put in order.

Then we needed to get pictures. I took several with a tablet, but they were not very good. Finally my daughter came by and helped. When I thought we finally had several good pictures, I sent them to a MLS For Sell By Owner service and learned that the, For Sell By Owner sign that I put in the yard could not be in the picture. Then, I sent the marketing information and learned that the words "family" and "children" are not allowed to be in the description. Every task took at least two attempts to accomplish, but most took more. Even securing the key box required a trip to the hardware store.

Now that the house is listed on the MLS we have been receiving one call after another. We have several offers and no clue as to how to respond. I would like to accept the first offer and get it done with, the husband wants to question every offer and figure out what scam the buyer or Realtor is trying to run . We would also like to sell the house to a new family not an investor. So far the calls are about 5 to 1, investor to actual home owner buyer. Do we have another housing market bubble forming? The entire experience is stressful and tiresome.

The MLS service we chose is MLS4owners.com. This is the same company my daughter used and they offer a good selection of services and have been very responsive to my emails. Hopefully the next update will have all of the details of accepting an offer and selling a house.

Kitchen Remodel

These are the before pictures. I am waiting for the final design approvals. I met with the project manager over two weeks ago and sent a follow up email on Monday - I have not heard back. Time to leave a voice mail.