Day One

Friday the 15th of January, 2010 ... Closing day on the weekend house. Closing was held at 10am in Valparaiso, Indiana. The actual closing took only about 15 minutes time since it was a cash deal. The entire process took about 45 minutes, with the bulk of the time spent waiting for the signed paperwork to be faxed & receipt confirmed.




15-Jan 2010

  I spent Friday/Sat/Sun at the house getting things in order & securing it as best I could. I replaced all the locks, installed a security screen door on the front door (have one for the back door to install yet), put a wood beam brace across the back door for now. I will need to add burglar bars to some of the windows, but for the time being I put a wood bar across all of them on the inside to deter people (though only a few windows are of real concern).

There is no heat or water at the moment, I had the electric turned on Friday. I was going to wait until Spring for water, but I may turn on the
gas for heat sooner (the cost of using the space heaters will prob be as much or more than running the gas furnace on weekends while I'm there). So its pretty rustic for now. I bought a camping cot to sleep on for now, but will be looking for a futon (or 2) soon. (if anyone knows of a used one, let me know!)

The dining room ceiling has a hole where someone took a wrong turn in the attic (as I almost did as well when I stepped on an unsecured board up there). I insulated the holes w/some roll insulation & will eventually get the plaster holes repaired (for now the heat isn't escaping out at least).

All the windows came with mini blinds. I had just acquired the single
largest collection of the worlds ugliest vinyl mini blinds, I'm pretty sure.
They were old & most had broken slats & all of them were filthy. The best
part was the colors ... who knew they came with brass accents? Black with
brass edging, cream/white with brass ... I measured each window & went &
got replacement blinds @ Meijer for $4/each, I left the hanging brackets
from the old ones in so just replaced the blinds.

I also met 2 neighbors so far. Kelly (owns house to left) came by &
introduced himself, he rents out the house & was there preparing it for a
new tenant, he lives in South Bend. Also met Winter, who lives across the
street, nice girl (think the girl from the movie "Precious"), she offered to help w/mowing & snow shoveling.