5 Random Things I Have Discovered while Living in Houston

I know...I know. I owe you a bigger post. One is coming...I promise. With pictures of the new place and talk about how we are going to renovate and sock puppets! (Eric says no to the Sock Puppet...If you read my Your Moment of Heatherness Tumblr's "Things Heather Should Stop Doing in Public According to Eric", you will eventually learn why.) For now...the 5 random things I have discovered while living in Houston (so far):

• The majority of the people we have encountered have been polite, patient, and kind - particularly customer service types. That being said, when someone is rude it is far more jarring.
• There are some good Texas wines.
• Downtown Houston is really working on being a vibrant and interesting place. There was a Korean Festival, a night time flea market (every third Saturday!), and an urban foot race this weekend!
• The view from our place is pretty damn amazing.
• The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston is really a delight and has become a part of our weekends. (Surprising to some, I'm sure. But I was raised Unitarian Universalist and missed being a part of that community.)

Eric and I are trying to be as involved as possible so we are planning to go to the Downtown Town Hall Meeting Tuesday. So much awesome and we are only in our first week here! More later...but first...a shot out of the kitchen window.

I like to watch the elevator go up and down on the building being reno'd. "Ellelator go up...Ellelator go down..."

Launch in T-minus 30 Hours...

Moving is stress. It can be deemed good stress or bad, but it is stress nonetheless. Having a relocation company assist with your move is supposed to alleviate some of that in theory. In practice? Let's just say if you believe in their sunshine and lollipops description of your assisted move, I've got a bridge to sell you in Death Valley.

Eric and I are relatively low maintenance clients. We are diligent in our research and thorough in our preparation. We knew approximately how much our San Leandro property was worth. We knew exactly what we wanted in Houston. Our realtors love working with us because we ask smart questions and thoroughly evaluate our options before acting but do not drag our feet. There is no indecisiveness or wishy washy-ness.

While we were in Houston house hunting, our California realtor, Lori, listed our place and then held an open house over the weekend. Within 24 hours of posting, there was an offer from Bob the Buyer. Bob the Buyer was out of state but had spent a lot of time in our building. His kids and grandkids lived in the Bay Area and he wanted to purchase a second home there. He and his wife had been watching for units in our building. His friends in the building showed up to the open house first thing in the morning. Then they came back in the afternoon to look again. Whatever they saw, Bob must have liked because he asked Lori what we were looking for and what he needed to do to get it off the market rightthisveryminute. Lori gave him a range and told him we'd need proof of funds to remove the listing. He offered us the top end and promised to get us the information we needed on Monday. Before he could even send it, there was another offer significantly higher than his. Bob the Buyer matched the deal and we were done that Monday. No contingencies. No assessments. As is. Go us!

The next step was the relocation company buying it from us so we could have our funds to purchase our new home. That should be simple...right? Except they required all the inspections and assessments Bob the Buyer waived plus a termite inspection (for our fourth floor condo...). Sighs. Fine, fine. We get it. I mean even though they are acting as an intermediary, they still will own it. And should anything go wrong...it's theirs. Plus really it shouldn't take long to do these and fix whatever minor things they find.

Except whoever they hired to do our general inspection didn't seem to have a sense of urgency. It took two weeks to get him in here and then his inspection "recommendations" left a lot to be desired. A smoke detector that was missing a battery (it had died recently) was written down as non-existent rather than non-functional. He recommended a contractor be hired to fix a door that just needed WD-40. A few things definitely needed to be addressed and by a professional. But over all...he came across as an idiot. An idiot who was holding our sale hostage.

Meanwhile, in Houston, we decided to make an offer on a really amazing loft downtown. It met all of our criteria - close to where Eric would be working, in an interesting building, and in a truly walkable neighborhood with restaurants, stores, and a grocery store. Two story loft in a great old building (built around 1911; converted to homes in 2000 approximately). There were some things we would want to change but we had the cushion to do so based on our sale in San Leandro. An offer was placed.

There were a couple of things I wanted checked by the inspector. Things I knew could be a problem. One of them was the ceiling height for the bottom floor bedroom. I could tell by looking at it that it was not to current code (too much HGTV). If we renovated, would we be on the hook to fix that? We didn't have to renovate...but we really wanted the master suite to be downstairs. Turned out that not only would we be if we chose to renovate, we would be if we needed to relocate through Eric's company again. The property would not qualify unless it met current codes. We had to back out and we despaired of finding something until we moved to Houston. It looked like we would be in temporary housing for a couple of months.

Fortunately, a couple new properties suddenly became available as we removed our offer. In the morning Eric booked my flight and I left that afternoon for Houston. In a whirlwind 24 hour trip, I looked at three different properties and optioned one. Once again, the relocation company was there to make things more difficult unwilling/unable to give us proof of funds. After much fighting and gnashing of teeth, they finally produced the paperwork we needed. If all continues to go well, we close on the 16th of October! Just in time for our arrival! Instead of months in temporary housing, it looks like it may only be two weeks if all goes well. 

Tomorrow the movers show up, the electrician arrives to fix some of the minor stuff found in the inspection, specialists come to pack up the televisions (the relocation company insisted), and St. Vincent de Paul will take our furniture donations. (Because Catholic nuns housed me on Guam when I was pregnant with Avery, I try to donate to local Catholic charities whenever I can.) When all the chaos settles, Eric and I begin our drive to Houston!