We arrived Saturday at noon, just in time for Ryan to join my Dad and about 3000 other men for the Knotts Island Hunters Feast.  The Hunters Feast is an annual charity event that supports the  Hope Haven Children’s Home in Virginia Beach.   The Feast, for men only, includes all of the wild game you can eat and all the beer you can drink, and all of the proceeds (usually about $100,000 per year) go to Hope Haven.  Ryan had a great time and was blessed with the opportunity to try mountain oysters, otherwise known as hog testicles, for the first time.  In case you are curious, he said they weren’t bad, and tasted a lot like fried oysters.  :o

After dropping Ryan off, I headed over to the mainland to attend Danielle’s baby shower, which was awesome!  I was so glad to be able to see Danielle before the birth of her little baby boy.  I was also really excited to see another one of our good friends from high school, Sara, and her beautiful baby girl.   We had fun and baby Finn got LOTS of presents!

After all of the festivities on Saturday, we went over to Carova on Sunday to check out the progress of the Beach House.  It is really coming along!

The decks are done, the new windows are installed, they’ve begun to install the new siding,

the ground floor room has been built, bath roughed in and the siding has been put on. . .

it looks like they’ve only got a couple months of work left!!

New Siding, Windows & Heat Pumps:

Decks & Ground Floor Room:

Close up on Southside Decks:

The built in benches:

Daddy and his girls, Ginger and Mollie:

After checking out the house, we went for a ride down the beach, and saw a bunch of Banker Horses. . . I will post photos of them tomorrow!

To see the previous house moving posts, Click Here; a lot has happened in the two months since the move!

View from the Canal:

View from the balcony in the master bedroom:

The reconstruction of the Master Bedroom balcony is next on the list:

The extra-wide stairs going up to the deck:

The “front” side of the house:

When we left on Sunday, my Dad was headed over to work on plumbing the ground level bath.  It’s moving right along!

]]> http://dumbyoungins.com/2009/12/29/house-moving-update/feed/ 0 http://dumbyoungins.com/2009/11/10/photo-of-the-day-11-10-09/ http://dumbyoungins.com/2009/11/10/photo-of-the-day-11-10-09/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:19:06 +0000 Ashley http://dumbyoungins.com/?p=2595 We hitchhiked a boat ride to the beach with my Dad early Sunday morning, he and the crew were meeting to try to sink a few more piles, for the new beach house.

The house moving company wants to sit the house down on it’s permanent foundation this week, so, they have a whole lot of work to do! They managed to get 8 done on Sunday morning!

Here they are wrestling a 20ft piling:

(That’s my Daddy, hugging the pole)

Then, last week I posted a few more pictures of the moving process, HERE.

Well, on Saturday afternoon we decided to do one of those “less-than-24-hour-down-and-back” trips, and we had the opportunity to see the house for ourselves.

Here is the house in the air up on temporary cribbing, as they put the permanent piles under it.

In this photgraph 14 of the 44 piles are in place.

We climbed up a really tall ladder to get in. . . see the ladder propped up against the door, Yikes!

This is the Kitchen:

(All of the furniture and decorations were left in the house by the previous owner.  My Mom has her own furniture and decorations ready to be brought over when the house is done.)

Living Room:

Living Room from the balcony:

1st Floor Bedroom: (My Mom plans to put a Queen Bed in this room and decorate it in a buoy theme.)

Upstairs Twin Room: (This room is going to remain a twin room, decorated with Tropical Fish)

Upstairs Queen Room: (This room will be decorated with a flipflop theme)

Master Bedroom: (This room will be decorated in tan and a beachy light blue/green)

View of the canal from the Master Bedroom Balcony:

You can see the previous post, here.

Here are my parents and their pups, standing in front of the house before it was moved:

(Look how big Mollie is getting! She was just a pup the last time we saw her!)

My Grandparents, Stevie and Karen were there to witness the house moving!

The house leaving it’s old lot, in Corolla, NC:

Headed down the road in Corolla:

Headed North on Carova Beach:

Preparing to drive over the dune (or back the house into the ocean, I’m not sure which):

Oops it looks like the house had a little trouble getting over the dune and needed some help!

Yay! The house finally arrived on its new lot!

Now the house is situated on the lot and waiting to be put up on new piles and get a face lift! (ie. New Siding, Windows, Doors, Roof, Decks, etc.)

More pictures to come when the house it’s up on it’s new piles!

What a site!

Well, a new, used, beach house.

To make a long story short, they made a simple deal with someone who was thinking about tearing down a really nice house.

The deal is: “We’ll get the house out of your way, and spare you the cost of tearing it down.”

A great deal for both parties.

My parents received a free* house that needs little more than some new carpet, and the home owner didn’t have the expense and aggravation of tearing down a house.

*free- aside from the cost of taking it down, having it moved ten miles on the beach, put back up on new piles, new windows, doors, siding, roof, carpet. . .

Anyway, my parents then had to find a way to move the house 10 miles up the beach to their lot.

This is how they did it:

(I wasn’t able to make it; but my sister was sending picture messages of the progress )

The house on the trailer in Corolla:

The truck that will pull it up the beach.

On the Road.

There she goes, down the beach. . .

(Carova Beach, NC)

To see more about Carova, Click Here.

I am hoping to get more pictures later.

And of course go see it for myself, ASAP.

I will update you on the progress!

Why do we have roommates?

Why share your home?  Why would you want to do that?  Why would you want to have to clean up after someone else or their pets?  Why?

It really may not make any sense to you.

But think about it this way:

You have an extra room in your house, maybe even an extra bathroom, that you rarely use or that is just filled with junk you don’t need anyway.

What if that room is worth $350- $500 a month to someone else (even more in higher priced areas)?

What could you do with an extra $500 a month?  Pay your car payment? Buy your groceries?

Do you have a basement apartment or in-law suite?

What if that apartment is worth $600-$800 a month?

$800 a month! That is a lot of extra spending money!

In our situation:

We live in a house that was purchased for the sole purpose of sharing the space with friends while I was in college.  It is/was in excellent condition has 5 bedrooms, and a 6th room that could be bedroom or a den, and two large bathrooms.  It was just outside of town with a couple acres so parking wouldn’t be a problem. In essence, it was the perfect house for a bunch of college students.  At the time, I always had between 3 and 5 roommates, each paying $350-$400 a month for their room, their rent aslso included utilities, cable, and Internet.

Just after we were married, the last two of our roommates moved out, and we decided that we wanted to spend our married life alone. . .

Well, that lasted a couple of months, until neither of us could stand the quiet or the emptiness in the house.  If you read our about page, you can see we are very busy and we don’t exactly spend a whole lot of time a home.  So we had a discussion about what we should do.

There we were, with at least double the amount of house we needed, and spending about double the money we needed to be spending for housing, as a child-less couple. So we decided to rent the 3 rooms on the first floor or our house, which consist of a bedroom, office, den and bathroom; we were not using those rooms anyway.  So for $600 a month the couple that lives with us has a fantastic deal on what is essentially an apartment, we share the kitchen (which, by the way, is large enough for all four of us to be cooking at once without really getting in each other’s way).

Ryan and I once again have someone else to help keep life in the house, and have our housing expenses supplemented so that we don’t feel like we are wasting money.   Ryan and I still have 3 bedrooms on the second floor, that consist of our bedroom, home gym, and guest room, as well as a large family room that doubles as an office.  We are much cozier and happier this way.

The pros and cons of have a roommate or tenant in your home:

PROS:

Extra Income- Probably the main reason you would entertain the idea of having, what is most likely a stranger (although not for long), living in your home

Permanent House or Pet “Sitter”- We have pets and all of our roommates have always had pets.  It works out really well if either we or our roommates travel, because the animals don’t have to be boarded and there is someone at the house to watch over them.

Security- There is an additional level of security in your home when there is someone one there most of the time, and when there are multiple vehicles coming and going all of the time.

CONS:

Your home-  If you are easily upset about things such as, your dishes being put away in the wrong place, your pots and pans being used/washed “wrong”, someone not cleaning the “right” way, someone drinking the last of your milk, etc; OR if you are not willing to address such issues as they arise, you probably should not have roommates. Although, if you do have a separate basement apartment or in-law suite, it could still work for you.

You must be able to remind your roommates and/or tenants, in a nice respectful way, that the property is YOUR HOME.  For example, I once had a roommate/tenant that refused to buy his own groceries or was his own dishes. Imagine that. Haha. It is a tough conversation to have with someone, when you have to say, “Hey, this is just a reminder, I am sure that you are aware, I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!  PLEASE clean up after yourself!”

I think that is a little extreme, but, it happens.

In Conclusion, as long as you are not obsessive about your house and your “things,” and are secure with the notion that touchy subjects or problems may come up, having roommates is awesome!

Us and our current roommates on a hike recently:

PMI stands for Private Mortgage Insurance. It is mortgage insurance usually paid by the borrower to protect the lender. 

PMI is required by lenders when you mortgage loan-to-value (LTV) is higher than 80%, usually meaning that you are providing less than 20% of the purchase price of your home for a down payment. It protects them from the higher risk of default on loans with a higher LTV.

The cost of PMI varies and can be quoted to you based on your circumstances by your  lender.

Under Fannie Mae guidelines, borrowers can ask for PMI cancellation when the mortgage equals 80% of the current value if the loan is more than 5 years old, or 75% if the loan is 2 to 5 years old.

About getting rid of PMI- Here are the basic ways that you can cancel PMI insurance:

1. You can pay PMI until you owe less than 80%, 78% is usually required, of the original cost of your home and contact your mortgage company to have it removed.   - For example, you purchased a home when you graduated from college in 1996, you barely had the money for closing costs so you financed 100% of the purchase price of $100,000. Since then, you have paid your scheduled payment and your PMI, and you realize that sometime this year you will only owe $77,000 on your home. At that point you can contact your mortgage company and remind them that you are no longer required to pay PMI.

2.You can pay PMI until the midpoint on your loan    PMI is usually automatically canceled when the loan reaches its midpoint–15 years for a 30-year loan, 7.5 years for a 15-year loan.  

3. A faster way may be to have an appraisal done on your property showing that you owe less than 78% of the value.   Before you call an appraiser you will need to contact you lender and ask which appraisers in your area they would like for you to use.  Also, if you are unsure  that the value of your home has increased you can contact a local REALTOR and request a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis).  Most REALTORS provide CMAs free of charge, to give you a good estimate of the current market value of your property.  

 - For example,  you purchased your home 5 years ago just before the boom in the real estate market and you saw in your local newspaper that your neighbors home sold for $150,000, $50,000 more than you paid for yours!   So you call your local REALTOR to confirm your suspicion that the value of your home has increased significantly.   Contact your lender and have an appraisal done.  The appraisal comes back showing that your home is now worth $150,000!   The appraisal serves as evidence to the lender that you no longer need to pay PMI.  To complete the example: you have owned your home for only 5 years at this point, so you owe approximately $93,000. So,  $93,000(what you owe)/$150,000 (your homes value)= 62% LTV (loan to value).

4. Also, if you improve your home, by adding a room or finishing a basement.  You can get an appraisal, and ask your lender to recalculate your LTV, the same way that you would if the market caused the value of your home to increase.

A mortgage discount point is simply prepaid interest.  A point is 1% of the value of the loan.

For example, if you are financing $250,000, one point would be $2,500.

You usually have the option to ”buy” a point or points at the time that you are granted a loan to reduce you interest rate throughout the life of the loan.  The interest rate on your loan is typically reduced by 1/8%, for each point purchased.

For example, you own your home and would like to refinance to get a better rate.  You currently owe $250,000 on your home, so your new loan amount will be $250,000.

You go to your bank and ask the loan officer about current rates.   The loan officer gives these options:

$250,000 @ 5.5% for 30 years, with no points - 

your monthly payment would be about $1420 (plus escrowed taxes and insurance)

-and-

$250,000 @ 5.25% for 30 years, with 2 points ($5000) –

your monthly payment would be about $1380 (plus escrowed taxes and insurance)

As you can see, your monthly savings would be $40, if you choose to “buy”  2 points.   So, what do you do?

You have to think about how long you intend to own the property.

Looking into the future can get a little sticky, because things change and most of the time what you plan does not actually happen, but that is the only way for you to make a good decision.

In order to “buy” 2 points you must spend $5000, on top of the normal mortgage loan closing costs.  

With $40 a month in savings, it will take you 125 months or ten years and 5 months to break even with that expense.

($5000/$40 = 125 months)  Do you intend to own the property for more than 10 years and 5 months? 

 That is the question that you must answer to the best of your ability.  

I will give you another example.  You are preparing to buy your first house, for $150,000, you have saved enough money to put 20% or $30,000 down, so you will only be financing $120,000.

Your bank gives you these financing options:

$120,000 @ 5% for 30 years, with no points

your monthly payment would be about $645 (plus escrowed taxes and insurance)

$120,000 @ 4.875% for 30 years, with 1 point ($1200)

your monthly payment would be about $635 (plus escrowed taxes and insurance)

As you can see, the monthly savings is only $10, and will take 10 years to break even ($1200/$10= 120 months).

Again, you must answer the same question- Do you intend to own the property for more than 10 years? 

If you do, after the first 120 months (10 years), you will be saving $10 a month for the remaining 20 years of the loan.

I found a calculator that will quickly help you to make the points versus no-points decision- www.mortgagepoints.com

Please let me know if you have any questions!