Condo is coming along. Their bank is almost done with their paperwork... then my bank's paperwork :-(

I submitted a query to an agent last week. I'm not expecting to be accepted. No one get accepted on their first attempt, right? I should have done 6 or more all at once, but I'm letting this one play out first just in case I get an answer with tips I might use on the next attempt.

Other than that, life is same old, same old. Working retail during the holidays is a major ass pain but... I'm used to it.

The condo is really looking like it's a go. The appraisal is tomorrow and, unlike the first one, there's no way in hell this will come in under what I'm paying so my bank will ok it. I still can't believe the deal I'm getting. It's too good to be true. Elsa & I swung back there yesterday to peep the area and there are only two minor issues. First, unlike the first condo, there are no grocery stores within easy walking distance. Second, parking sucks. I will have a garage so it's not bad for me, but my friends could have an issue when they come visit... especially for any parties.

Since I will likely be getting the condo next month (although it may be earlier than I thought!), Elsa and I are thinking of having a housewarming/engagement party after the holidays.

We've picked the date, btw. October 2cd for the wedding down at the Renaissance Festival and Oct 3rd for a reception up here in Columbus. (Oct. 9th is the back up if they're booked when we try to reserve in January)

I need to lose weight. I need to get back to where I was in '08 for the Going Postal play at MarCon... if not thinner.

The sellers accepted my bid!! Their bank has to approve the short sale which can take up to thirty days but that shouldn't change the fact that I'm going to own a kickass home!!

Elsa & I walked through 18 condos yesterday.

18.

The 18th one was the beauty.

I put a bid on it today.

It's a wonderful 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath with a one car detached garage. Wonderful finished basement with a gas log fireplace. And it's only 4 minutes from a bus stop.

I didn't know how I could have missed this one before until my realtor told me it had just been reduced in price to my range.

OH MY GOD, the price. It's roughly $7k LESS than the 1 bed/1.5 bath I was originally going after. It was appraised by the auditor as worth $139,000. The realtor did some checking for me since I was concerned about the price being so low. The couple who own it (and their baby) apparently lost both of their jobs and need to get out. I feel really bad for them so I didn't try to haggle the price; I'm essentially offering them what they want. It's too good of a steal already, there's no need to twist the knife.

The only potential bad thing is that it's a short sale, meaning the bank needs to ok it since they're taking a loss. That means delays. I should know by tomorrow if the owners agree to it, but the bank can take 30 days.

This one I really could have a roommate (or two) until Elsa moves in... Hell, it's so big, I could have a roommate after she moves in! After leaving my furniture behind when I moved in 2005, I don't think my stuff will fill the basement, let alone the other two floors.

Also, even though everyone knew Elsa and I were getting married down the road, yesterday we told her parents so that makes it a bit more official. That was a little scary even though they like me.

Stolen from Randy. This costume is made of AWESOME.

Well, tomorrow, after the movie for the book, Mel & I are going to have 7 condos to go through. We had a close call this week. I placed an extremely low bid on a condo that wasn't FHA-approved. What's the difference? FHA approved housing you only need to put 3.5% down, conventional loans I would need 10% down. My realtor (who is really scrappy) got them to cut their price by $15k which brought it right to where I needed it. However that did not include the closing costs. They wouldn't budge on that and I refused to go higher... because I couldn't really, so I walked away. At least I know it is still a buyer's market since they came down that far and even their asking price was $10k below the auditor's appraisal.

Finished my 16th chapter :-)

( here's the list )

Elsa & I are still going strong. We're going to go public soon and let our parents know about our plans. It's a bit scary. I wanted to have a house bought before we do that but, considering we were supposed to have HAD a home seven days ago....

Alright, the condo Mel & I were supposed to be seeing today and going to enter a bid on is a no go. First, the buyer wanted to know if we would let her rent the place for a month. Sure, no problem, I don't see an issue there. Now, it's been withdrawn from the market. It appears she lost her job at Nationwide Insurance.

This sucks. That makes 4 that have been really possible that have failed for various reasons. I'm going back to checking for other locations including ones that I had previously dismissed for less than ideal bus access, but I'm also going to make a play for the third possible condo.

That one failed because it wasn't an FHA-approved condo so instead of 3.5% down payment, it would have been 10%. I'm done being the guy who was trying to please the seller and myself. This place has been vacant since February so I'm going to do some haggling. I'm going to try to drive a fairly good bargain (almost $20k less than asking price) and do it the hard way with a conventional loan.

Time to draw on my inner asshole and get tough.

As for the book, things are going well. I forgot to post here that I think I have a title, Blacula, Barbra & Bee Girls: My Adventure Through 1973 Cinema. I think it's pretty good. Mel was reading the first 8 chapters for her choices of what I should send to an agent and she votes for "The Exorcist" and either "Charlotte's Web" or "World's Greatest Athlete." I was doing some rereading of earlier chapters while talking to her and I actually got pretty happy. There are some points that I actually turned a good phrase or two.

so that's the plan, rule the world.

We may have a condo.

Elsa and I will be going to give this one a second look tomorrow. I was there last week and really liked it so now I want her stamp of approval before I bid on it.

It's a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath two story condo with wood-burning fireplace, patio, one car attached garage.

It may not have the location amenities my original pick had, but the condo itself is better. On the bus line and all that jazz.

What the hell?! I thought the hard part of buying a house was paying for it! I've had 3 condos that were very acceptable possibilities and all have failed. The first was appraised too low, the second had too many restrictions and this last wasn't on the FHA loan list.

good grief.

Found a replacement condo!

It's close to the original one. It's a 2 bedroom with a finished basement. I has hardwood floors, stone tile floors, stone counters, washer/dryer, enclosed patio with small area to grow plants. It has a walk-in closet and separate living and dining rooms. It's on a better match for the bus line.

It's also CHEAPER.

The only things I don't like is that it's older and it doesn't have all the stores immediately around me.


Cross your fingers, people, this might work.

It's a good thing I didn't audition for CSP's Rocky Horror Show. I wouldn't have had time even under best conditions this year!

I checked a few listings on condos tonight and found some distinct possibilities, including one that is $10k less, 2 bedrooms with 2 FULL baths and a shorter walk to the bus stop. Time to call tomorrow and set up showings. Sunday and Monday are going to be BUSY. I still haven't finished last week's chapter yet because of the monkey wrench that was thrown into the mix. Hopefully, I'll get it done after the dentist tomorrow.

Anyone remember when I used to have time to sit around and watch tv shows all day?

My run of luck may be fizzling. The appraisal came back today 20k less than asking price so the bank nixed the deal. I need to scramble and find something quick if I'm going to qualify for that tax credit. Damn... I really liked that place.

Less than 2 weeks to go. Closing is the 30th. I'm going to call the woman on Wednesday to find out when she'll be able to be out, get utilities info, etc. etc.

On the book front, since I'm officially one quarter of the way done, I've started looking at agents. There are a lot to choose from so that means eventually I have to get one, right? I still have no idea what to call the book. Birth of Geek is best I can think of. I'll ask over on facebook and see if anyone has ideas. I guess it doesn't matter if I don't have a title yet. I'm also going to need help picking the best chapters. Some of the agents say they want sample chapters or other examples. What I might do is repost the first 10 chapters (or wherever I'm at on the proof corrections) on 1973inmovies and have some voting on that. Elsa is going to be a big help on it, too.

It kind of sucks that the whole housing thing is coming to a head now! There's the Pumpkin Show going on this week, Big Gay Dan's Rocky Horror show and about a dozen other things that I don't have the time or money for right now.

Elsa and I are heading off to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow. We may have some people joining us so that's cool. We've got to do some scoping out for the wedding next year!

Had fun watching Enter The Dragon. It's been a blast with the group of people watching these with me. The group keeps slowly growing so by the time I get to that last movie that I want to rent a theater for, it may be needed!

( movie list )

Had a small scare yesterday with the bank. I came home with to a letter in the mail from the bank that said I had been denied on my pre-approval and it was dated 9/25. I called the bank guy this morning and he was confused by it. He said that no, I'm still fine and it's in the process of being underwritten right now. He figured that it was from a delay in the initial pre-approval to him filing the paperwork. It definitely gave me a night of worry. Truthfully, I also had a little bit of relief. It would have meant I would have had to go back to what I was familiar with. But I want to own, so I'm happier it's still a go.

I also had a very strange dream the other morning. I was in the bathroom and a bird had gotten in the windowless room somehow. First, it was a dove but then it got out somehow. The next bird that showed up was some kind of hawk... but it had the eyes of an owl! I held out my arm and it perched on it so I could try to get it outside, but then my cat comes in. Now Tigre is a grey tiger-striped tomcat but in the dream, he was an orange tiger-striped... but he was still Tigre. Anyway, he jumps on my back and starts climbing his way up it. Ouch.

That was it, just a weird short dream.

Yes, selling my soul has paid off. ReBoot is back, baby!

So, the condo is a go for an October 30th closing date.

It's amazing how much life can change in a short period. In 2006, I was broke. I mean, broker than broke. I had nothing, no job, no love-life, my car died and I had moved back in with my parents.
I started the job at the book store that year, so money coming in but not huge bucks. In 2007, I wanted to move out but the only way to pull that off was with a roommate. Finding one didn't work out so I decided to buckle down, save money and plan on buying a place in '09 or '10. I found the right woman in '08. Now life is going pretty close to plan.

It scares me a bit, but it also shows what happened when you stick to a plan. I couldn't use the small amount of money I had for everything I wanted so I had to prioritize. It worked.

Also, the book is coming along. This next movie will mean I'm 1/4th of the way done. In a way, I should have thought about this kind of project years ago. People always said I should be a movie critic and reading Mike Nelson's Movie MegaCheese back in 2000 should have shown me that you can write a book about movies and that critics don't just write newspaper articles. I just never thought of writing books outside of fiction.

Life is exciting.

May you live in interesting times.

Looks like Randy may be joining us this weekend for And Now The Screaming Starts! over at Brooke's. Here's the updated list (minor changes) if anyone wants to join us or host any of them. Once I get the condo (sent in paper work today), I'll host some over there (as well as getting to have my poker nights again!!!!) though it may be BYOC - bring your own chair.

( I'll save your friends list this time )

And since I'm making the scary jump to home-owner, it is indeed a Brand New Day.

So, it seems like my life is being consumed by two things right now. The book and buying the condo. I'm so lucky to have such a caring girlfriend through this it really helps. Which is good because I have doubts about both projects.
With the condo, it just seems like complications just keep pushing the price higher. It's gotten so frustrating that I just signed all the contracts today without reading them in depth. I just skimmed through it then said "fuck it" and signed. Closing should be in the last half of October. Hopefully then I'll have time again and just have to focus on paying bills.
The book project is a different worry. This is more of an anxiety issue. I have these doubts surfacing in the back of my head saying, you don't know what your doing, no one is going to want to read what you think, why are you wasting everyone's time? I'm trying to ignore those fears. If a douchebag like Tucker Max can write a book, so can I! I'm twice the douchebag he is! :)

Elsa has been a big help on both parts. She's had confidence in me even when I lack it. I may be broke after getting this condo, but she doesn't care.

I'm really looking forward to when we get married.

Created by Recipe Star

Having a great time in Myrtle Beach. I've posted some pics over on facebook.

peace out all, it's 3:30 am.

In Myrtle Beach with Mel and her family. I flew in last night and am really enjoying the relaxation. Mel greeted me with her new shirt that say "My boyfriend is my favorite accessory." :-) In younger days, that might have bugged me and I might have felt crowded, but I liked it now. I don't know if it's because I'm older or just because of the woman. It would have been super-possessive from some of me former girlfriends, but this time, I just know she loves me.

I did some bodysurfing in the ocean this morning and hit the pool. Now, we're making dinner plans.

I had a fairly intense dream this morning. I was in a car approaching King's Island and saw that the top of their "Eiffel Tower" had been ripped off by a MASSIVE tornado. It had already passed by and was dissipating, but as the darkness in the sky lifted, I saw at least 7 more smaller tornadoes all over the park, wreaking havoc. I had gotten out of the car (my brother was supposed to be in the park that day) and found him in the parking lot and about that time the winds drove a massive flood of water from the water rides over us. It was past us quick so we didn't get hurt, but I woke up before I saw what else was happening with the tornadoes.

I have to agree with Randy in it was like something from a Michael Bay movie... but less confusing.

Other than that, I'm calling the condo woman this weekend to hammer out details. I project being in the condo by November 1st.

I'll have no furniture or anything until I get the $8000 tax credit next year. Just some of my old stuff I kept from the old apartment.

The book grows. Still no clue for a title. Chapter 8 is done and the movie for chapter 9 (Papillon) is tomorrow. I've never seen it and don't know much about it.