Sunday, March 26, 2006

Goodbye Webster, Hello Worcester

Well, tomorrow I make the big move back to Worcester and leave Webster behind. Its been wonderful living with Elliot again (techincally its the first time but when we both lived on Bowdoin Street, with him on 3rd and me on first, it was pretty much close enough) and I will miss him as a roommate.

Just so everyone knows I will be completely cut off from all electronic communication for a while since I don't have internet yet at the new place and don't know when I might. Add to that the fact that I'm on vacation this week so I won't be in the office at all to check mail there. I might get mail for the time that I'm at rehearsals this week but I wouldn't count on it.

Long story short, if you nee to get a hold of me you'll have to be old fashioned and call me or visit me.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Soooo Tired

Well I've begun the process of moving in. I moved some of the boxes from my room at Elliot's to the condo as well as some of the boxes from my Dad's place. I'll probably grab some more stuff tomorrow. Monday is the official "big" move day with professional movers and everything to move my couches, desk, bed, and other assorted actual furtniture. By Monday night I will be officially living in my new home.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Mission Accomplished

And after a long day, goodnight. I have closed on my condo. A 2.5 year saga has ended. I move in on Monday.

Countdown to Closing - Day 0

Well today is the day. I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. I barely slept all night. I was up about every hours or so. When I went to sleep I thought about how it felt like I used to at Christmas. The anticipation and the exceitment.

At 10 AM it happens. I become a homeowner, or as my Dad amusingly mentioned, a "landed gentry".

I'll post more later! Wish me luck!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

We are go for launch

Its official. I have a closing date. 10 AM. Friday. I'm about to part with a rediculous amount of money and put myself in debt for an even more rediculous amount of money. Oh god, what have I done. :)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Another year older and another year wiser?

Well for those that didn't know I just had my birthday on Sunday. Oh joy - another year closer to "death day cake". If you don't watch QAF you probably won't know that reference.

Hopefully this year will be a good one!

Friday, March 17, 2006

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Fremont Open House

Well today was the official "Completion Celbration" for the Fremont Lofts. There were some speeches by the head Realtor for the project, one of the primary partners of the development company, the mayor and one of the people from the city manager's office. There were also tours, coffee and desserts, and a small jazz quartet playing live music.

I showed my dad and Lisa my unit as well as Dani's. Dani and I went around looking at all the other units. Trust us, our layout is the best. Seriously, the Type J unit (our unit) has the best space utilization. There are very few units larger and the ones that are larger usually have thinner master bedrooms.

All in all it was nice. Dani and I hung out in my unit for a bit and chatted about random things and it really made me look forward to when I own the place. Just a little bit longer, hopefully. It's all been worth it.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Birthday Party Update

As some of you may have seen in a previous post I mentioned that I was likely going to have a birthday party on Friday March 24th. Well, given my complete lack of stability in my living arrangements and the complete lack of available time in April that I will not be having a birthday party any time soon.

I have decided that I will have an UN-birthday party in May or June. At that point I won't have the closing looming overhead, I will have settled into the condo more fully and I won't have New Voices to contend with.

Additionally this will have the added benefit of being nicer weather. So stay tuned for more information

I will still be having my Wine, Cheese and Candles party on 4/8.

Closing Update 2

Well as of today my closing has officially been delayed again. At this point the only thing I know is that I will not be closing at any point this week. I don't know when I may end up closing at this point, but I'll post it as soon as I know it.

I have gone through and cancelled my utility orders for gas, electric and cable. The only good from all of this is that Charter is doing the site survey so hopefully by the time I actually move in I can get cable and internet.

I'm definitely starting to get a bit frustrated.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Not again....

Another 3 days out, another delay. Appartenly the condo documents are not yet recorded and they don't think that they will be able to be ready for Wednesday. I'm beginning to get pissed off. Do they know how disruptive this is? Do they even care? I can only put my life on hold for this process so long before I run into problems. Thankfully, my boss and coworkers have been great about this and have been really flexible with me needing to take time off with little to no warning, but this cannot continue. I am unable to make appointments or schedule serious work because of this impending closing and moving thing I have on the horizon.

On top of all this when I asked Robin if my walkthrough was still on, she said she'd have to call me back once she did a walkthrough herself just in case it wasn't ready for me. Considering they were going to try to close my unit 2 weeks ago why the hell isn't it perfectly done now? The scary thing is that I'm told by people who have seen other condo's and done other closings that I'm doing fairly well and the quality of work I'm getting is better than many other developments out there.

Well now I have to call the movers and cancel them, put the utilities transfer on hold. I'm glad I didn't start moving on the change of address forms. Someone wake me when its all over please?

UPDATE: I had my walkthrough today and everything looked good. There were some items on the list but nothing major. I've cancelled my moving date, but hopefully I should have a new closing date soon.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 3

Well today I packed a whole lot, which is good considering that i'll be spending a lot of my time in New Voices auditions this week. All of my non-hanging clothes are now packed with the exception of 4 sets of outfits that I have laid out for the next four days. All of the electronics that I'm not currently using or will need in the next few days (VCR, DVD Player, game systems) are packed. Almost everything from my desk is packed. At this point I just have some more papers on my desk to pack, the rest of my electronics (receiver, TiVos), and the rest of my clothes to pack. This whole thing is really starting to come together.

I have my walkthrough tomorrow and I should know for certain what's happening when as of tomorrow.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 5

Have I mentioned that I hate moving? ugh....

So I called today to setup all of my utilities so there won't be any issues once I move in.
Gas Company - All set. Nice and easy.
Electric Company - All set. Nice and easy.
Cable Company - You've got to be kidding me....

So while the Realtor's told me that Cable is all set to call in and get turned on, when I called Charter (the cable company) I was told that they don't have it in their system and they need to do a site survey. This survey takes 7-10 days by their estimate, although it could be done sooner. I will be calling in on Tuesday to find out if it is done yet. Its the little things like this that have been the most frustrating with getting this condo done. *sigh* Just 5 days more.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 6

It's really looking like this time will actually be the real closing date. I spoke with the realtor today and she has the fax of the certificate of occupancy in hand and should have the actual certificate tomorrow. My final walkthrough is scheduled for Monday at 2:30 and it should go fine this time since everything looked pretty good when I went to see the unit today. It simply needs to have some painting finished (it's about 90% done) and have the entire placed completely cleaned up. Finally I've gone and booked the movers to move me in as of 3/16. Here's hoping it all works out.

Funny little story.
I went up to my unit to take a look at it. I walked in and rolled my eyes as the painting was still not done and the doors were still not varnished. Of course they did have scaffolding in there to do painting so I wasn't all that worried. I walked into the the living room and saw they had still not painted my door frame. I looked up to see that they had fully stripped the paint off of the metal beams. Now I was starting to get upset. I nearly blew my gasket when I realized that the ceiling had been covered with sheetrock and painted. I was pissed because one of the HUGE benefits of my unit was the exposed beam ceiling. I immediately ran off to find Robin and find out WHAT was going on. I got half way down the hallway and got even more upset when I saw that the hallway area ceiling had been covered by dropped ceiling and gone were the sawtooth cathedral like ceiling with the beautiful skylights. I continued walking but it slowly dawned on my that something wasn't right. I stopped and looked at the sign on the wall and read the directions to the different rooms and realized one very, VERY important thing.

I was on the third floor.

Oops. I guess the floors really are almost identical. At least I realized this BEFORE I got to Robin. At this point I went up to the fourth floor and with a huge sigh of relief saw that my unit was practically finished and was exactly like I expected it to be. Unbidden the lyrics to Herman's Hermits "Silhouettes" came to mind.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 7

So no new update at this point but I wanted to mention a few other things.

1) I have found a temporary roommate. Jon Abad has recently accepted a job and Boston and needs a short term place while working out plans to move to Boston in June. Woohoo. :)

2) I still need a roommate starting in June. Any takers?

3) I will be having a Wine/Cheese/Candle party on April 8 at my new condo. I will be providing wine, food and a nice time and will be hosting a PartyLite candle party. If you didn't get on the evite and you want to come then just drop me an e-mail and I'll add you. You don't have to buy anything if you come.

4) I have been told that my very good friends Dani and Cate will be arranging a birthday party for me and it will likely be Friday March 24th. Details to follow.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 0+3+5=8

Ok, so on day 5 on the first countdown I get told I get delayed 3 additional days to make 8. Now on day 3 I got delayed 5 days for a new total of 8. Plus this is my 3rd delay. That's just odd.

At any rate, I'll get confirmation of the new closing date later this week. The issue is that they got the Certificates of Occupancy, but they are still being processed by the city Worcester and they can't close until they get them.

Oddly enough, I actually have a good feeling about the possibility of closing on 3/15. Things always come in threes and this was my third delay. March 15th adds up as 3+1+5=9 which is 3 times 3. My unit is 408 which is 4+0+8=12 and 1+2 =3. There's the yin/yang balance of having my close on the same day as the open house. Plus there's my gut feeling that thinks this time might just be it. Also, for fun, this will be the third day of the week, the third week of the month, the third month of the year as well as also being the third wednesday of the month. Additionally 3*5 is 15. Of course all of this probably doesn't mean much but it certainly is amusing.

The bank is set to close providing the seller is ready to close. I'm ready to close. And it sounds like the seller is ready to close once they have the permits that allow them to do so. So all three of us seem to be ready and willing, its just a matter of paperwork.

I have only my final walkthrough left at this point, so lets hope this all works out.

Closing Update

Well I won't be closing on Friday. For some reason all closings had to be pushed back at this point. By the end of the day I should know my new closing date which should hopefully be able to be hit. I'll also know my walkthrough date by the end of the day too.

On the positive side the bank has signed off that they are fully prepared to close so that's one less worry now and one less road block. At this point the ball is fully in the seller's court.

Stay tuned for more details.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 5+3=8

Well my closing date got pushed back... AGAIN, and the funny part is that I'm not all that upset. I've figured this wasn't really gonna happen this soon but it was sure fun playing along. I did my unofficial walkthrough today which was almost a real walkthrough given that they did most of the work necessary this morning before I got there. Amazing what a bit of last minute motiviation will do. We walked through with the contractor who was a very nice individual who was good about listing to all of the things that I said needed fixing. Because I still need to have the apparaiser in there before the closing there's no way to do this for Tuesday so I've pushed it back to a week from Friday (3/10). I'm fully expecting things to not work out for that date so I'm planning on pushing it to the last week of the month in order to give me the time I need to deal with this as well as to let all other parties do what they need to do to get this done.

All in all I'm not nearly as stressed or as upset as I would think I should be for this. I should have more information on Monday.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Countdown to Closing - Day 6

Well I just got a call saying that my walkthrough was cancelled. Apparently nothing has change since Sunday and there's still a lot of things left to do. I mean its only about a days worth of work but its not done. What we've decided is that I will reschedule my official walkthrough for Saturday, Sunday or Monday and I will go in at my existing scheduled time to do a "rough" walkthrough. What this means is that I'm going in understanding that some things aren't done, but I'm going to point out the major glaring items so that they know about them as soon as possible and have time to fix them.

They don't think this will affect my closing date, but its cutting things AWEFULLY close. I still have to have the unit appraised, which cannot be done until the unit is fully finished which doesn't give the apparaiser a lot of time to get in there. Potentially they'd only have Monday to get in there.

The odd thing, is that I'm not as stressed or upset as I would think I would be given the situation. At this point I'm fully prepared to push my closing date later in the month and just give myself a LOT more breathing room.

I heard from the Bank today and I should be getting a call from the Bank's lawyers soon to talk about payments and such as well as to confirm the closing date.

I still have yet to hear from Fremont's lawyers to confirm the date.

We'll see what's going on from here.