Pixar's Up and Visiting Dad

It's been a while since we visited my Dad with all the house hunting and all so today we headed east to Corona do go out to lunch with my Dad and see a movie.

For lunch we did our favorite Chinese restaurant Hong Kong. After that we headed to the movies to see either Star Trek or UP. When we got there Star Trek started too late so we opted for UP.

UP is Pixar's new movie. I have loved every single Pixar movie that has been mad and would consider many of them in my top ten of all movies. So I had high hopes for UP and it didn't disappoint. First we got a short called "Partly Cloudy" which was very cute and enjoyable. Then the movie started. I was crying five minutes into it and thought to myself.. "oh man this isn't good"

Here's a brief synopsis of the movie UP...

The 78 year old balloon salesman Carl Frederick finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that he has a stow away on the trip; an overly optimistic 8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. You're taken on a hilarious journey into the lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth.

This was another Pixar hit. I can't say it was my favorite Pixar movie but that's not really saying much as all the movies are excellent. It was fun, witty, charming, moving and adventurous all rolled into one. The characters were endearing, especially Doug the dog who had a fondness for squirrels. If you are a fan of Pixar go see UP you won't be disappointed.

A Very Yummy Find..

While we waited for Harry's appointment with Lenscrafters at the Northridge Mall we went in search of some lunch. We found a new place that neither of us had ever heard of Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill.

It sounded good as we both love a good steak. It was a nice atmosphere and they started off with some very yummy rolls. When then ordered BBQ Chicken Breasts and grilled baked beans for me and Steak and mash potatoes for Harry... OMG it was some of the best BBQ I have ever had. The chicken and beans were wonderful. Harry really seemed to be liking is steak and mash potatoes. Of course the meal was a bit expensive and we couldn't do it everyday but man what a find it was worth every penny... we can't wait to go back.

Eye Sight

Today Harry informed me that he has been having vision issue the past few months. I was not too happy that he waited so long to tell me. So we went to lencrafters to have his eye sight checked. There was a slight difference in one eye of .25 improvement. So he decided to get new lenses, but they were having a $100 off sale so he picked out some frames as well and got a whole new pair of glasses. I think I need to be next as my glasses sometimes give me a headache.. if it's not one thing its something else.

World Most Dangerous Rope Bridges

World's Most Dangerous Rope Hanging Bridges


Here are some of the world’s most dangerous bridges that are meant only for walking. These are the so-called rope hanging bridges. You can find a wide variety of these bridges in countries like India, Malaysia, Philippines, New Zealand, Pakistan, Nepal, as well as in the interiors of some other countries.

A bridge can prove to be dangerous for a variety of reasons; either because it’s very old, narrow, too high up above the land, over a quick river or if the wooden “floor” goes missing. What makes them dangerous is the fact that in spite of the condition of the bridge, they have to be used; as many a time, these pathways are the main or even the only way for the local inhabitants of a small village to reach a bigger city. Among all the bridges, the most popular among tourists are the hanging bridges. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Hussaini - Borit Lake, Pakistan



Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, Northern Ireland

Loboc Hanging Bridge, Philippines

Taman Negara National Park Bridge, Malaysia - That’s the world’s longest Canopy Walkway.







Siju Hanging Bridge, India
Some Hanging Bridge in India
Hanging Bridge at Thenmala, India

Repovesi nature park Valkeala, Finland

Locked and Loaded

After talking it over with Harry we both really love the house so we went for the FHA loan with BofA. We had to decide if we were going to use points or not. With an FHA loan you already have 1.25 points but we could go higher and get a lower interest rate. Again Harry and I talked and decided that we would go with 3.375 points which would add an additional $9,271.97 to our closing costs of $4774.00 for a total of $14045.97 in closing costs but it drops our annual interest rate to 4.875%. We did the math and it will take us 4 years and 1 month to break even but then after that every payment will be saving $187 in interest every month. Another thing about FHA loans is that home owner taxes and insurance are built into your monthly payment. With conventional loans you can opt not to include them and pay them bi-annually. So with our house payment, mortgage insurance, home owner insurance and taxes our monthly housing payment will be $2,054.20 a month, but will include everything for the house. And in 4 years 1 month we lose $113 a month dropping our payments down to $1941.20 for the remaining 25 years.

So we started the process of our loan, I'm sure I'll be approved. Next up are well, septic tank and house inspections and then appraisal. And if all goes well the house will be our at the end of July. I'll keep you posted.

On the Road Again

Well after yesterdays little panic attack, today seems to be going better. Been on the phone and computer dealing with finanacing this manufactured home. Got a hold of our BofA loan rep and she informed me that BofA can do a loan for a manufactured home but it's not a conventional one. Instead it's something called FHA Loan. In short it's the same kind of loan as a conventional one except you have to pay mortgage insurance regardless of the amount you put down. The good news is you only pay for five years and then you can drop it. So if we go this route will be paying roughly $10,000 more dollars then we would with a conventional loan which we will not get if we want this house.

The other option that Marie came up with was to do several loans, she found someone who will loan our a large chunk of the money but not all. So we would have to find a second person to loan the rest of the money and of course a second home loan always has a higher percentage rate.

Need to talk with Harry but I think we are going with the FHA loan... I'll keep you posted.

A Bump in the Road

Today I contacted the loan officer within our Realtor's company to see what kind of deal she could give us, maybe something better then BofA. Well a few hours later after talking to her she called me along with our Realtor Mary and said we have a snag. I thought.. OH NO.. Marie (the loan officer) pulled the title of our potential house and noticed that it's listed as a Mobil Home. And in H.U.D. (Housing Urban Development) it is listed as a Manufactured home on a permanent foundation. Which means the house was built elsewhere and brought to that location.

Well come to find out that in today's scary mortgage times banks and loan companies are not giving loans for Manufactured homes. So we are now scrambling to find someone who will finance us and this house. We have an inspection set for Wednesday and we don't want to pay $1000 to inspect a home that we will not be able to finance. I have a call into our my BofA rep to find out if BofA will finance us with this manufactured home. And Maire is searching high and low for someone.. keep you fingers crossed.. we may lose this home. :(

So it begins...

So far today I have received several emails from my Mary, our Realtor that I had to print out, sign and fax back to her. I sent out our 3% check to the escrow company. Mary has set up an appointment with our house inspector, well inspector and septic tank inspector for next Wednesday June 3rd. Going to cost us about $1000 for all the inspections but it's well worth the money. Have to contact BofA, who I initial got my pre-approval loan through and see what the current rate is, then I have to contact another loan company and see if I can get a better deal. It's alot of work but I know in the end will have a beautiful house waiting for us....

....the adventure continues.

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

At 3:01 today Harry and I became Home Owners. I got a call from Mary our Realtor and the first thing she said was Congratulations. My mouth dropped open and I said.. you're kidding me. The home owners accepted your offer. There were not counter offers other then instead of the 45 day escrow that we requested they asked for a 60 day escrow which is even better for us since we still have four months under our current lease. So Harry and I are now home owners.. of course we still have a lot to do, inspections and appraisals but if all goes well in about two months we will official own the house. Both Harry and I were stunned with the news. After the phone call we went back to watching TV with stupid grins on our faces, every once in a while I'd poke him and say, "We're home owners" and they we laugh.

Let's hope for a smooth escrow.. I'll keep you posted.

BTW you can see more pictures of the house here.

No Word.. well kind of

Got a text from our Realtor today letting us know that the home owners and their realtor were getting together tomorrow to go over our offer.. so we wait.

Awesome Geeky Tattoos

A love/hate relationship with HTML
A Klingon in disguise?
Tastes like salt
USB-compatible
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this
Turn me on
For when you need to grow up
The tattoo that must not be named
Drawn in ink am I

Making an Offer

At 5pm today Harry and I went to our Realtor Mary's office. We had decided to make an offer on the first house we saw in Agua Dulce. They were asking $369,900 so we put in an offer for $355,000. They have three days to accept, counter offer or decline... now we just wait.

Even though this is our second offer on a house our first one was really a back up offer and we knew it wouldn't lead to anything.. this one may actually lead to use buying a house. It's very stressful trying to figure out if this is the right house for you. I mean it feels like the right house, we like the area, we like the house's outside, we like the land, we like the inside of the house. Only thing that we really don't like it the distance to our friends, family and work. But we figure friends and family can come to visit on weekends and get away from the city. I'm sure I'll get use to commuting to work. I do have my Books on CD so I'll just get to enjoy those more. Of course all this worrying can be for nothing as we haven't gotten the house yet..... just breath.

House Hunting

Today Harry and I went House Hunting again. Up at 9:30am and went over to the Mary's office. We were checking out 3 houses up in Agua Dulce and one house in Winnetka. First we went up north and checked out the first house in Agua Dulce. It was a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom house, located on a hill and had some beautiful views. This house is located on 2.2 acres of land. The bigger part of the land is a downhill slope and of not too much use but there was still a fair amount of land that we could use to expand the house if needed. This house was great inside and out and it definitely going to be put on our "maybe" list.


We then checked out the second house. This house was on 10 Acre land, but the house itself was pretty much a disaster. This house needed much more work then a fixer upper...it needed a complete tear down. The only reason to consider that property would be for the land. But for that, the price was way too high and neither Harry nor I intend want to become farmers anytime soon. So we removed that house entirely from our list.

We then went to house number 3. This house was okay and had 3 bedrooms. Neither Harry nor I felt that this would be the right house, although it had a really nice open floor plan, that we both liked. One thing we didn't like about this house is we didn't know where the property line was. There was small western town built right below the house and we weren't sure if it was on the property or part of the house down the road. So we moved on to the final house of the day.

The house in Winnetka had 3 bedrooms and was absolutely beautiful. It was located on a 8000 square foot lot, in a nice and fairly quite neighborhood. Of course it wasn't as secluded as the first house we saw. Overall a really nice house but I knew Harry really liked the open space more secluded house and to be honest so did I. So we never really consider this one.

So that was our house shopping day. We really liked our first house. It was a bit of a drive but was it worth it to have a nice piece of land and be in a very quiet and secluded neighborhood. As we drove back to Mary's office Harry and discussed it. I knew he wanted it and he said it was up to me as I will be doing more the driving. I came to the conclusion that it was right for me as well. It's everything we would want in a house. But before we made the offer we went home for a few hours and planned to meet back up at our Realtor's office at 5pm.. We would then make our decision.

Star Trek Figures

I swore I wouldn't be buying any of the new Star Trek figures, but after seeing the movie and told Harry I think I need to buy these figures. And today on my lunch I decided to stop into Toys R Us and take a look and see what they had. Well there was a huge Star Trek display. For the new action figure they come in 3 3/4" , 6" and 12". I liked the 12" ones because they had the most details... but as of now the 12" figures had characters for Spock, McCoy, Kirk and Old Spock. I wanted the entire crew. So it was either 6" or 3 3/4". I went with the 6" because they were the next best with details. I told myself I would only buy them if they had all 9 figures... well they had all 9 so I bought them all. It was kind of funny as the sale lady asked if I needed a gift receipt and I said no that they are for me. She then handed me a bag and said you want to bag them I don't want to feel the pressure of bagging these for a collector.

So now I own all 9 of the 6" Star Trek figures. Luckily the 6" figures didn't have a transporter or bridge set like the 3 3/4" ones.. now I must resist buying those. Ugg the life of a collector.

Real Life HTML Error Codes

Happy Anniversary Daisy

Today four years ago we got our little miss Daisy. She's come a long way from this scared unapproachable skinny thing. She can drive me crazy sometime but I couldn't imagine my life without her unconditional love.

Ford Raptor

Ford Raptor

2010 Ford F 150 SVT Raptor Interior

Getting My Hopes Up

Today our Realtor IM'd me and said "They accepted your offer on the Calvin house" This is the house that both Harry and I loved but someone put an offer in right before us. My heart started to pound. I wrote back "WHAT!! Really the Calvin home" I couldn't believe what I was reading. She then wrote "yes, as a backup" and my bubble burst. For a moment I thought the first offer fell through and they accepted our offer on the house. But I guess even though they have an offer in they still have to accept back up offers. So our offer was accepted and we are back where we began. Just waiting to see if the first persons sale goes through. Will continue to look..

V Trailers

I know I'm being a bit V obsessed but I was and still am a huge "V" fan of the original miniseries and series so I'm excited to see what ABC does with this re-boot.

Here are some trailers shown to the media.

A very strong Child