Our sellers requested two repairs: replacing the fireplace vent cover on the side of the house and repairing a leaky faucet in the backyard. Ever eager to save money, especially on this house, I attempted to repair both. As you might already know from previous posts, my do-it-yourself projects in the past often follow this pattern: 1) Discover a problem. 2) Get excited about fixing it myself and try to figure out how to do it. 3) Attempt repair. 4) When repair doesn’t work or makes it even worse, try something else. 5) Give up and call a pro. I have almost fixed the fireplace vent cover, but I finally threw in the towel on the faucet. I found several articles online about how EASY it is to fix a leaky faucet. Unfortunately for me, the directions don’t seem to match my faucet. I don’t know why. Since I broke off part of the faucet handle trying to remove it (who knew those were so flimsy?), and I have to get the handle off to get to the washer that’s supposedly causing the leak, I finally asked for some quotes from real plumbers. I’ve never hired a plumber before. I’m almost embarrassed to do so, afraid that he’ll laugh condescendingly as he fixes the leak in ten seconds with a flat-head screwdriver and then hands me a bill for $200. But at least the job will be done, and my buyers will be happy.

Jenny and I both came down with a stomach bug earlier this week that laid us out for a couple of days. Jenny actually missed a day of work. I would have, but I had a couple of days off. I have never called in sick at Southwest and was eager to keep it that way! Thanks to God and a great anti-nausea drug called phenergan, we are recovering but still a bit weak. We missed the Basic 5k, but it worked out for the best since we ended up having CARES orientation training all day Saturday. We passed our CARES interview (which is a miracle in itself, considering how bad we felt!) and hope to interview with an apartment manager in the next few days. I’ll post more details once everything is finalized. We’re really excited, a little nervous, and eager to get started. The house sale is progressing nicely as well, with the buyers only demanding two minor repairs that I hope I can perform myself.

So far we’ve looked at 9 houses in Irving. We immediately rejected 4 of them because they
needed far more work than we want to invest (floors that slope, complete remodels, etc). The other five are still in the running, but each one has one or more significant drawbacks. Fortunately, we’re not in any hurry and can be patient. We want to be able to stay in the new house for many years and raise our kids there, so we want a house with enough space for that, but we also want it to be easily affordable on my income alone. It’s a lot to consider, but we’re having fun looking.

I am intrigued by people’s different approaches to house shopping. When I told my parents and sister we wanted to move, they started driving around looking for FOR SALE signs and pulling flyers. They also assumed that our realtor was finding us houses to see. They still seem surprised when I tell them we’re finding all of our houses ourselves through the Internet instead. We tell our realtor which ones we want to see, and she makes it happen. We might drive around a neighborhood or a specific house we’ve found just to see what it’s like, but not to look for houses. Many, if not most, houses in a neighborhood don’t meet our criteria, which is why we search online. I track the interesting ones in Excel spreadsheets that show prices, size, and amenities so I can compare them more easily. I don’t know whether it’s a generational thing or just the fact that I’m a geek. =)