We learned on Friday morning that our realtor FINALLY received the signed paperwork from the developer allowing us out of the contract. I'm not happy about the $5,000 we are out, but realize it could have been A LOT worse if we had gone through with the sale..... today was supposed to be the day that our mom's helped us unpack!
No idea what we are going to do next... we're just happy to have this noose off our necks.
You will not believe this... I was walking to my facial yesterday and was less than a half a block away when this crazy accident occured. I was on the phone with my friend when I heard a series of loud crashes. I hung up and ran over. It couldn't have taken me less than a minute to get over there and by then they had already lifted the car off of one of the injured pedestrians. I can't believe this woman is getting off so easy!
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20070421_2_hurt_as_car_plows_down_Locust.html
We spent Easter weekend (it feels like AGES ago!) with my dad and that clan... we hadn't seen any of them since a birthday party in early January, so we were overdue to show our faces. We learned that one of my stepsisters is pregnant again (due in Sept) so Adam and I are off the hook for a little while longer -- I have been saying that we won't start having kids until my two stepsisters are done, so I can have all their baby stuff....
The best part of the day was the puppet show that my sister and Colin put on for the kiddies. It was absolutely hysterical. Never would I have thought that someone could work in a joke about the Republicans in Congress into a zoo puppet show - well done, Colin!
Also quite amusing, was trying to get four kids under the age of 5 to sit still and look at the camera at the same time - this is the best we could do. Julian is such a clown! He was making silly faces like this the whole time!!
My dad had a great idea to take a picture of all of the siblings - we haven't done that since my wedding a year and half ago. It wasn't any easier to get all of us looking at the right camera.
I almost forgot - we also had a lot of fun playing with Barney, the newest addition to the family. He's so big compared to the photos my dad sent in January. He is such a puppy - so full of energy!
So, Adam's lawyer-dad sent out a letter on our behalf to the selling agent on Friday. We are still waiting to hear if the developer is going to let us out of this contract. It sounds like the developer is as interested as we are in putting this behind him, but we haven't heard anything official yet. We will probably have some annoying back & forth about what exactly we owe him (custom paint, damn undermounts, & upgrades). Hopefully, we can get this resolved soon. We are getting tired of having this noose around our necks. We have put off taking any next steps until this is behind us. I sure hope we decide soon - I can't stand living around all of our packed boxes.
During lunch today, I stopped at the fancy tea store and bought myself a new tea mug/cup. I also got two new loose teas - Black/Mango and Black/Peach & Ginger. I had really been enjoying my Black/Cranberry & Orange, but was ready for a change.... enjoying my first cup of Mango now.
I came up to Boston today for a business trip. I took the 6:30am flight out of Philly (yes, it is as painful as it sounds) and had a full day of meetings. Actually, since I wasn't able to get on the flight my management team was taking home, I had to miss the last two meetings to catch my flight home (I was on the 4:30, they are on the 7pm).... So, 5min after I get to the airport, they cancel my flight. It was sleeting here this afternoon and all of the flights between 2 - 4:30 got cancelled... the 5pm was delayed and everything else for the rest of the night was on time....
After 25min online with customer service (as I stood in the non-moving customer line at Logan Airport) I learned that there were NO USAIR flights out of Boston until SUNDAY (!!!!) and they weren't able to book me on another airline today either. Luckily, my admin who is a bit flaky (and hasn't been showing up at work much lately) was in today and able to book me on a TRAIN home. Ugh. So, I'm on a 5:20 train out of here, but I don't get home until after 10:30. I am on an ACELA (fast train) until NYC, and then have 10min to switch over to a regional train for the last leg -- let's hope I make the connection. The only ticket they could get me for the Boston/NYC leg was First Class, so I am currently enjoying the Club Lounge -- its kind of swanky -- A row of free computers to use, free tea, drinks, snacks, and newspapers... I'm walking out of here with a WSJ, tea, apple juice, and fistful of pretzels. :-)
Luckily, I packed my portable DVD player, so I have plenty to keep me busy on the train. I had a feeling that the bad weather may delay my flight -- never did I imagine that it would be such a zoo.
Update: First Class Trains Rock! It felt like flying first class -- Free booze and a dinner were part of the deal! The train was packed with lots of people like me, that couldn't take their flight. I got home around 10:45pm - a very long day. Turns out tha the mgmt team I was travelling with were able to hop on an earlier flight. What the heck!!! they tell me I can't get a flight at all for 3 days, but they can catch an earlier plane??? There must have been plenty of others like me that just gave up on flying altogether. I was able to watch a movie and 2.5 epiosdes of Xfiles before the DVD players batteries died -- thank goodness I brought that thing with me!!!
I'm going to make this quick, because frankly, I am sick of thinking about it. Yesterday (Wed) Adam's uncle came down to look at the HVAC system of the townhouse we were supposed to buy. He pretty much confirmed what we already knew -- actually, its worse that we initially though. The HVAC system is a piece of crap and pretty much everything was installed incorrectly. The new thing we learned is that because of this, the warranties on everything become void. The developer was in the middle of correcting things (in a sloppy, last-minute, patchwork kind of a way) as we had expected.
Adam and Dan were working today on the paperwork to submit to the developer that we want out. It doesn't look like he is going to fight it, although some nit-picking in likely regarding how much we owe for upgrades, etc...
NOW WHAT? Good question. We know we can stay in our current apartment buildign through the end of the month - Ad was checking today if we can stay longer. I moved some of the boxes we had packed last night into our large closet, so at least we aren['t tripping over them, and unpacked a few of the kitchen things (like food!!!) Do we keep looking, stay put, rent somewhere else??? We have no idea. We are emotionally spent from all of this and aren't goign to think about until we KNOW that we are in the clear regarding this place.
I'll go into all of this in greater detail later....
I was booking a flight today for a business trip and realized that the points we accrued with our airline credit card were not being reflected on my dividend mile account. I got it straightened out this afternoon and we suddenly have over 30,000 more points - that's an entire free domestic flight!!!! We have just over 91,000 miles, which is fabulous. Looks like we will have the 100,000 we need for two free flights to Europe. We are planning to do a Switzerland/Italy trip in the Fall (assuming we aren't broke!) -- free airfare definitely makes a big difference!
This Home Inspection Report is thirteen pages long and includes a three page punch list.
The electrical wiring to the heater is the wrong type and was improperly installed.
Both Heating systems are using a closet to return air to the system. This is a safefy hazard.
.... This is a major safety hazard and the necessary work should be performed to correct this problem immediately..... The house should not be occupied until it is determined that..... {short version of this is that there is supposed to be a bunch of different things that have exhaust vents to the exterior and our Inspector couldn't find any -- doesn't sound like an easy fix to me}.
There are water stains on the window frames in the 2nd fl bedroom. These stains appear to be caused by water entering through the wall.
We will be going to the house tomorrow with Adam's uncle who is an HVAC guy. Should be interesting to see what kind of corrections Bill has made since yesterday morning. We don't have a lot of confidence at this point.
I saw on Netflix this morning that the third season of The 4400 is going to be available on May 8, 2007! YEAH!!!
AND..... according to Internet-Land, Season 4 is going to be returning this summer..... So nice to think of something happy for a change!
