Lots of doing lately

The days are going by so quickly now, with so much to do. I feel like it's one email after another, between the realtors on both ends, our mortgage broker, the builder and the guy drafting up the plans (though DH is handling those, but I still have to make decisions with him).

We spent the weekend installing a new set of french doors in the family room and fixing the floor in front of the doors. It was a retrofit type of door, but DH still had to do some work on taking out some part of the old frame (darn!), probably because this is a mfg home and at least back when ours was built, not much was standard. The floor had gotten damaged when some water leaked in the bad doors. DH cut out the bad floor part and replaced with new plywood, cut out the carpet in front of the door and put in a nice little entryway of laminate. I think it turned out nice, as the room is paneled with similar colored oak wainscotting and it all ties in. All in all we had to put about $750 into this project.

The guy (set up through the builder) that is doing up our set of plans is a retired guy that does this as extra income. He does up one set of full plans. He is quick too! The builder met with him last week with DH's drawings, DH spent about on hour with him on the phone Saturday morning and by Monday morning he had emailed a first draft of the plans, including some 3-D photos, that really give us a feel of what a few of the main rooms look like inside. Very cool. Best of all, he only charges $750. He made a couple of small changes that we like better, then we made a couple of small changes, but other than that, I don't see us making much more.

We are scheduled for photos on our home to be done on Monday and the listing starting Wed or Thursday. The realtor is doing a dual listing. One, at a higher price, to the builders network (she said there are a 112 builders it will go out to) and then a regular listing, to sell as is.

In other news DD's car took a crap. She's been hoping it lasted just a couple more months, until she graduates and gets a job soon, and then she could buy a new car. She's put quite a bit of money into the engine already the past couple of years and just does not want to put more into it. She was going to buy a new car in a couple of months anyway, because once she starts working she will (pretty much no matter where you live around here) will have a commute and needs something reliable and good gas mileage. I guess she and her BF (who has been living with her in her apartment, since he got transferred to a job nearer her) have decided he will buy the new car and once she is working, she will get the financing for it, so it's all in her name and her credit. I did have a long discussion with her on it being a smarter plan to get a car she will be able to afford, just on her salary and not on her BF's salary. I also emphasized not financing it for more than 5 years at the most (as she mentioned the 6-7 year financing BF is going to do). I don't think I was too successful in getting my point across. It appears they are looking at a car that is more than I think she should be spending for a first new car and it appears that they are looking at their incomes (when she has hers) as a combined income, which will be at least $110,000 a year. She is looking for a job in the city he works and hopefully they will be able to commute together. They are also considering just staying at her apartment in college town (about an hours commute from where her BF works) as it's a nice little apartment and the rent is only $720 a month. I just gave her my .02 cents, based on experiences, and the decisions, at this point are up to her.

My mom was in a small parking lot picking up some pizza and a guy backed into the corner of her car. Apparently she was so frazzled by it, she only got his name and phone number (and I think the name of his insurance company). Then she got home and couldn't read the last name he wrote down. When she called me the next day to ask what she should do, because I guess she tried to call (I don't really know, she's so hard to talk to, as she jumps around in her conversations). I asked her well, did you get his license plate #? No.  Did you get his driver's license #? No. They didn't want to wait hours for the cops to show up. But then she says "I could tell he had been drinking, I could smell it on his breath". OMG, so you let him get back in his car and drive away? I didn't say this to her, but that's what went through my mind. If she had called and told the cops she got hit AND the guy appears to have been drinking, I'm sure they would have come right away.