Chi- I always feel that way. >.> And I hate it. Because then I go and actually get them a bunch of random things that I'm kinda eh about but feel I should get them because they would like it...and then they get spoiled by everyone else and I end up donating a lot of the toys that I was eh about (and other people were eh about) because they wanted to get them stuff and the kids were pretty eh about them as well. I don't know if that made sense...but yeah. Grandparents normally go overboard and such when it comes to holidays. And then I have aunts/uncles that get them stuff too. >.> /sigh.


Babies were always funny to shop for anyway, because they would be thrilled with a blanket to roll on and totally ignore the toys that were given to them.

I hate feeling like the things I buy the boys are overshadowed by the things my family buy them >.> despite the fact that most of the stuff doesn't last a week in our house because my mom sister and both the brothers that are still hanging about go for quantity not quality <.< Of they will buy something huge and noisy... >_< grar... I buy my niece ONE gift... That is it... That is all we can usually afford... and it is parents job to spoil her further... Especially since nothing I seem to buy her EVER gets used....

Ellie is going to be hard because she has hand-me-down toys from both Michael and Sean (go buying quality :P) for the most part she has all the basic baby toy things with the exception of like teething rings that never last when they have water in them lol.... The only advantage she has is that I can but "girl specific" colored items or dolls etc... Not that I haven't bought the boys dolls they just usually aren't given for Christmas/ birthday

The problem I'm having most is that the living room is seriously packed to the rim with toys, all of which she plays with and are age appropriate. The room that will be her playroom doesn't yet have its window replaced and will be FREEZING this winter. Same deal with the extra room, too. Those windows won't be replaced until this coming spring or summer.

Otherwise I'd just get her playroom put together now. Maybe I'll get a space heater out of reach and put it in there, getting things reorganized anyway!

I wish they made space heaters that were kids and baby safe... Our house is 100 years old all but ONE, of the I think I counted 18 windows though I never get the same count twice, are the same age as the house... Many have had the panes of glass replaced with picture frame glass instead of window glass as well so 3 are cracked or broken.... We have two space heaters. Both of which are NEEDED to keep the house from freezing since no one got the bright idea of running the forced air into the upstair much at all... both our bedroom and the biggest room of the house have NO heating... But the laundryroom and bathroom have heating up there explain that one.... Maybe you can use those heat seal window treatments on the window? That is what we plan on doing again this year....

We figure we can do the plastic weatherization thing (I don't know the proper name of it) on the windows we'll be using, and put a heater out of reach in the meantime. We scored a very small plastic one (plug-in) from someone for $5. We have it planned to be in the bathroom, but I may switch that and see about putting it in the play room.

*ponder ponder* D:

If we can get the baby gates we put on our registry we are planning on putting one of the space heaters in the kitchen and keeping it blocked off by the baby gates. But I think they are $70 a piece and we need two of them to block off the kitchen from the living room... And there are STILL ways to get into the kitchen once she is smart enough to start opening and closing doors >_<; my house is fail for kids I swear it...

Man, you guys make me happy I not only replaced the windows in our house...but bought a newer house. xD The price of replacing the windows sucked (but we were able to pay them off at a $2000 discount since the company that did our loan went under and wanted to lose as little as possible when filing score!) So that was like a free window...energy and heat effecient ones at that.

And that we'll be having base housing, where all repairs are paid for by the Coast guard and all heating/cooling costs are as well. As is water and electricity. *win!*

We're renting, and one of the agreements would be that the windows would be replaced. We are meant to resign our lease at the end of March, and if the remaining windows and door aren't replaced in a timely manner by spring/very early summer, we may not resign. It depends how much it will cost to heat.

The living room windows and door, and all bedrooms on the ocean side have new windows. We just need windows in the spare room, the playroom, and the kitchen door. The prior tenants really left their mark. They are going to replace the kitchen and bathroom windows ASAP, before the cold sets in.

When we get a house, it'll be newer. If we can pull it off, we want to build one. :3

::Fails second attempt at getting out of bed::

Holy cow 18 windows? This place has 9 windows and I swear they put them in really useless places like right next to a sliding glass door and in the bathroom...I could only afford to get 3 replaced at a time when I was doing it because it was so pricey.

As much as my family and I would love a new house (in a better neighborhood), this one is completely paid off and financial security is nice and cozy.

I have a two story 2530 Sq Ft house with 5-6 bedroom house, depending on the site you look at, (only 3 legit really) with two bathrooms (technically both are classified as 3/4th baths)..... 2 windows (use to be 3 I guess but a previous owner decided to make 2 opening and closing windows into 1 5 foot by 4 foot picture window. which someone chucked a rock through less then 6 months after we moved in... That ONE window was like $800-900 all by it's lonesome for the energy efficient-y ones... But we had it split into two windows that were pre-made for the size of the window frame :) so it was a little cheaper that way... Any hoo we have aprox. 9 rooms (counts) yes 9... Not counting bathrooms... and the least amount of windows in a room is 1.... Average is probably 3-4 cause the most is I think 6 windows.... We also have 3 doors lol... a front a back and a balcony... and a window in our hall opposite the balcony door....

I'd love to find a new house that has bedrooms bigger then a closet :/ All the newer houses we looked at (which was like 1 in our price range) the rooms were smaller then the rooms at the apartment... It was a nice house but it was sooo sooo sooo small... it was a 3 bedroom with a finished basement... I don't think I could have handled it if we wound up with that one if this one fell through I need ROOOM!

I'd love to build my own house it would be mega awesome...

Scottie and I are actually talking about building our own house as well. Buy the land, build the house to our own specifications. Why buy another house and do random fixes on it when we can build the one we want? lol. I've done some research and it seems to be about the same price overall. Sometimes cheaper depending on where you look. SO that is a pretty cool shindig. But we need to decide where we want to live. My parents are pretty set on Southern California...while Scott and I seem to have caught the travel bug. ^^;; We'll try out a few places as the Coast Guard deposits us and see where we like best!

You know I haven't done any real research on it. I should.... We could live here until we built the other house then we could increase the market value of this house and sell it once the market goes up. This house once sold for $170K I think we could probably get it back up to that value and more! The only problem is the neighborhood... Like the freaking drug dealing granny across the street who needs to die soon so they can condemn the old shop/ house thing she lives in....

lol, drug dealing granny. I know I shouldn't laugh about that...but I can't help it. ^^;; Hopefully more good people will move in and improve the neighborhood. As the price of houses go up (er eventually) that should help keep the bad sort out and bring in the good sort.
I still need to call and see about refinancing mine... I'd love to have the rent from house #1 pay for house #2! lol.

How many years has it been since the market crashed? I've heard it goes in about 10 year cycles. I want to say it was in 08 that everything fell to shit...(since I bought my house in 07 when everything was still super pricey </3)

On the talk of houses..

Okay. I rented from the same apartment from May 2006 until March 2011. We then took uncharacteristically odd jumps into the idea of moving closer to the college. So we did.

When we found this house, everything appeared fine. But you know what's hilarious?

Only after we moved in did we realize there are light switches with no lights. The water is rusty, the water heater leaking. Things we wouldn't have known until we had been in the basement for a while. Or showered, done the dishes, etc. Running the tap you don't see it, but it does indeed smell and we've used a PUR filter from the get-go. The baby drinks bottled water.

Er, anyway.

The only visible problems we had were the windows, and the landlords (husband and wife) said they were planning on replacing them. They have replaced all on the ocean side (a picture window and 4 others), and the remaining ones need replacing. All of them.

And the water heater is still leaking. When we moved in the boiler coil needed replacement. We had no hot water. Just... dumb shit.

Anyway! We moved with the understanding we were planning on a long-term stay. But I just saw an ad for a house with a rent-to-own option that's up the road (probably 4 miles, which would put us 5 miles from the college as opposed to 9ish). We're going to look at it tomorrow.

My understanding, it's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Check it:
Home for rent

It's going to have to be damned perfect for us to move, and if it is we'll call our landlords and tell them to hold off on the repairs. They did indeed say they will replace the two kitchen windows, the living room door, and the bathroom window before the cold sets in. I wouldn't want them to if we'd leave.

Gotta be perfect though. :s

I'm so nervous.

Chi be careful with rent to own options we looked at several and we wouldn't have paid off and owned the houses for 50-60 YEARS! If we pay our mortgage we will be done in 30? Years paying off this house... I'll be 54 and Dill will be 53 at that point... Still TONS of time to do stuffs with our lives that we want to do :) WAAAAAAY better then being 70 or 80 years old.... I don't even know if I'll be around at that point O_o; not only that but our mortgage is currently $608 and some change the rent in the houses we were looking at doing this with were like $800-900 plus utilities and the original owner can back out at any time and be like NOPE we are selling the house outright... O_O The newer house that we qualified for was currently being rented by someone who thought she could buy the house eventually... And then they sold it out from under her... I felt really bad for her.

Mellie I was under the impression that it started happened along with 9-11 and all the bad stuffs that hit from that....

I guess it might have started from that... I dunno really. I just know that it was after we bought our house that mortgage rates fell drastically and interest rates fell. Though they've been continuing to fall. Which is nice for new home buyers like Jazzy. I'm glad some people have benefited from it. (:

Chi- that sounds like a pretty nice house. I love cathedral ceilings...but I wouldn't want to heat them in the winter. @[email protected] If you could get a rent to own that has about the same deal going as a buying deal that would be pretty sweet. >.> Because then you still get the deal with the landlords taking care of any issues with the house!

We wouldn't be doing anything without a rock solid contract, regardless. :yes: Part of me hopes I won't like any part of it.

We took a drive tonight and looked at the outside. I could be wrong, but it looks wicked old. Maybe the inside will be a pleasant surprise. The 16 acres of land is awfully tempting for a garden... :drool:

It's definitely a buyer's market though. $32,000 for 2 acres directly on the water. Makes me wish I already had my degree.

16 acres sounds like a lot of yard work. D: We had a little under half an acre for our back yard and it was flippan huge. We never bought a riding mower so Scott had to do it all by foot...it would take generally an hour for the back yard and a good 35 minutes for the front. We had our garden on a small ish plot around one of the sides and it provided our peppers and tomatoes for the summer. We tried watermelon and cantaloupe...and cucumber this year amongst other things. But yeah, 16 acres....that's more of a farm than a garden! lol.

Yeah, I agree definitely! We talked about possibly getting it (possibly) and then eventually building a new house on the same land, in the back. We could then rent the house to college kids or something. :lol:

But it's a moot point, as we a.) won't have the money and b.) it's a scary concept right now. D: I imagine the owner wouldn't want to deal with my specific demands. After this house, I trust no one, and I wouldn't commit until living in a place six months to make sure the roof didn't collapse, lol.

I'm jealous of the land.. Our 2.5K sq foot house is only on 3.3K sq. feet of land... :/ and it is a corner house to boot... I'd kill for more land :P we are going to take up the whole back yard to build a driveway since we have no drive way or garage....

BTW I was serious about the drug dealing granny I should take pictures of it.... She even talks like a freaking gangster kid...

That's scary. (The drug-dealing lady.)

I'll let you guys know how it goes. We'll take the house and the land into consideration. It may be overly forested for all we know. It was nearing dark when we saw the house from the outside, so I don't know about a driveway and garage yet. xD

Good Luck Chi <3

She is more obnoxious then scary I think...... Drug dealers here aren't like what you see in other places... I'm not really afraid of drug dealers more of my drug doers I guess haha... It is hard to explain. But I guess it doesn't help to have grown up in a town where it seems like EVERYONE had done recreational drug or is still doing them... Even doctors seem to be drug dealers here. The neighbor on our right side has a license or so he says for medical marijuana.... NOT JUST THAT there are probably 6-10 people living in the house (or at least using it's number as a primary residence) and I've seen the van that delivers my mom the diapers and medical supplies for her wards delivering the marijuana to ALL but the 5 year old who lives there.... I want to know what medical need a 15 year old has for it.... Or a bunch of visibly strapping young boys in their early to mid 20's need for it?

Well, it was gorgeous, and a lot of work has gone into it... BUT... definitely not doable right now. The upstairs would require a lot more work to suit our tastes. A lot. But we have particulars in mind for our dream home.

With the market being as poor as it is right now, it may very well still be available after we graduate (summer 2013). If come then we have more income and our student loan payments can either be consolidated or something, we'll go back to it. She's been trying to sell it for a few years while renting. I just don't think she's going to get $145-155k right now, though it is certainly worth it.

T'was huuuuge. And gorgeous. Truly freakin' gorgeous! @[email protected]

I am thinking we would have tried to work a rent out if more work had been done on the upstairs.

At least you know what you want.... :)

I don't think I've ever known a drug dealer. O.o I met one once. In Oakland. I was in the car with my friend when she went to pick up some marijuana. >.> The kid was like...16. It scared me. So perhaps that's what the visually strapping young men are doing with it? They're selling. ;) Apparently it's expensive stuff. I think she paid like $40 for a snack sized baggie of the stuff? Yeah, drugs are so not my thing I can't get over the waste of money!

I need to start thinking about what I want in a house. I know how I want the master bedroom and bathroom and how I want the kitchen...but yeah. I still haven't decided if I want a one story or a two story or anything else like that.

What I do know...is that I really miss my house. ):