Facie’s Ramblings

I am certain I have never used the word "crap" in blog post title, but crap is pretty much what I consider the Allegheny County reassessment mess. This is a long post, but I have to get it out. When we bought our house in 2002, we paid $87,000 for it. At the time, it was assessed for $92,300. I clearly remember the settlement agent telling us we should appeal to get it down to $87,000. I decided not to bother since I had hoped to sell our house within three to five years and wanted to get more than what we paid for it. We tried unsuccessfully to sell our house back in 2007 and 2008. At that time, the only offer we had was too low. But looking back, we probably should have taken it, because I am very confident that today, we would not get that 90k for our house. Not only is the market bad, but we live in an area where home values have been on the decline. We live on a cul-de-sac, but on the street we use to get to ours, out of about 15 houses that sold over the past thre...

A number of blogs I read include posts about must-haves, recommendations, and favorite things. Unfortunately, there are very few material things that I absolutely love, and on top of that I have almost no brand loyalty, save for Heinz ketchup because I am a Pittsburgher (I refuse to buy another ketchup for fear I would like that more). I am also a big fan of Kohl's, having shopped there regularly since 1999, but I think the quality has gone slightly downhill. Not so far down that I will stop shopping there, mind you; I hate the mall and love that I can buy most of what I need for myself, my family, and gift-giving in general at Kohl's. But this post is not about those large companies, but rather about two friends who have put their different talents to business. Let me tell you a little about them. A former coworker started HappyJack Bakery just last month. Lynnette bakes out of her house and sells her goodies at the Whitehall Farmer's Market at Caste Village in the S...

We have had our new windows for a couple of months, and I am happy to report that we are very satisfied. I really think it has cut down on the outside noise and has kept the house cooler (and warmer, for those few cold days we had in May and/or June). I hope we are still happy years down the road. But I also hope that we are no longer in this house in another seven years! Which brings me to our next house project: the bathtub. I am assuming it is the original (our house is about 60 years old) or at least very old. The porcelain finish is long gone, though in all fairness, I have to bear some or most of the responsibility for this since I clean the tub with harsh/abrasive cleaners every two to three weeks because it gets so stained (strangely, on the off weeks, I use Simple Green). Our tile is also a mess. Brian replaced some of it a few years ago, but that did not work out so well. Apparently, there are several shades of white, and he ended up buying tile in a different shade without...

Ah, home-ownership. Can someone please remind me what is so great about it? We are estimating our roof is about 30 years old. Our windows are a little older than that. Their old age and condition combined with the crazy snow we had this winter pretty much leaves us no choice but to replace both. When you are under-employed, the thought of spending this kind of money is painful. Well, the price tag would be tough to swallow even if both of us were working full time. When we put our house on the market three summers ago (and then again two summers ago), we knew the windows would be a detriment. Most of them are foggy, having gotten moisture in them some time ago. And when we bought our house eight years ago, the inspector said we should probably replace our roof within a few years. I know I was happy that the furnace guy did not fall through the roof this week when he was putting a cap on (although he did say it was pretty spongy)! So it's time. Because we have been dutifu...

Our house went back on the market last Monday, and by that afternoon, someone wanted to see the house. Not wanting to miss out (even though we asked for 24 hours' notice), Brian spent probably close to two hours putting out the nice towels, hiding toiletries and laundry, and completing various other tidying tasks so this couple could see our house early that evening. By that weekend, this couple made a verbal offer! The catch? They wanted a seller assist (or some term like that) to be included in the asking price, which basically means we would be getting 6 percent less than the asking price (minus all the other things like commissions). We thought about it and decided to counter-offer with the seller assist on top of the asking price. Two days after our agent presented the counter offer, the agent said her clients just could not go any higher than what they offered, so the deal was off. When our agent first called and told us about the offer, I cried. I know it sounds odd, but I f...