TRAVEL HERE: MAYBE NOT!

If you’ve been following me on Fridays you know we’ve just moved to Wylie.  It’s a part of my beloved Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, but nothing about it is very metro.  I need to get used to that if I’m going to live in the rural backwater of Heath, but for now, it’s a shock to my system.  Travel Here will stay a part of my blog, but please understand, when I say “here”, I don’t exactly mean right here, in Wylie.  I mean here in the Dallas area.

What About Wylie?

OK, so what about this place we’ve moved to?

The Good Stuff:

• Reasonably close to my bestie’s house
• Reasonably close to the house we’re building
• Reasonably close to George Bush Turnpike, which will get me to everything else
• Reasonably close to Firewheel Town Center, which is OK for shopping, restaurants and movies
• An amazing Kroger Marketplace is close
• A branch of Capital One, my bank, is nearby
• Pretty much every fast food joint imaginable is around the corner and Raising Cane’s is within striking distance
• The high school mascot is a PIRATE …how can you not love that!

The Not So Good Stuff

• We don’t love the floor plan, the garage or the low ceilings of our rent house
• Kroger Marketplace is NOT Market Street, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Central Market, which all used to be close to me
• A Raising Cane’s within striking distance doesn’t compare to a Hook Line & Sinker I can walk to!
• I’m church-homeless – AGAIN!
• I do not have a creek/private nature preserve
• Adding 20 minutes to the drive to work is no fun, even when you only have to go in twice a week

First Impressions

All that being said, I’m here now and the eventual result will be our wonderful new home on a pond by the 3rd hole of the Buffalo Creek Golf Course, so I’m not going to whine too loudly.  I have made some interesting observations however:

• Folks here are real nice, if you run into them outside your neighborhood – especially at the nearby Capital One and at the Dairy Queen drive-thru.  They chatted me up like I was their long lost cousin. (Perhaps that was because I had Precious with me.)
• They’re not so friendly if they live in your neighborhood.  I’ve gotten one tentative wave so far, but not so much as a nod or a meeting of the eyes from anyone else.
• In West Plano most customers at Chipotle ordered chicken or veggie burrito bowls with brown rice and black beans.  At my new nearby Chipotle they order beef burritos with white rice and pinto beans.

I just keep telling myself that this is temporary.  I really live in Heath!

HEADING TO HEATH: DO WE HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE?

Monday night things looked grim.  Yet another landlord had nixed our six-month lease issue and the list of issues with our friend’s house was growing.  After we saw it, we realized the house didn’t have a straight-forward answer to our pet issues. My Precious is house-trained to use a doggie door, but the way the house was set up, we didn’t know where we could put it.

That Left the Wylie House

The Wylie house was our only option, if we didn’t rent my friend’s house.  When Bill first saw that house in Wylie, he hated the floor plan, but that bad floor plan was looking a whole lot better, now.  We had one month, minus one day, to find a place to live.

The Wylie house was within our budget and that counted for a lot.  My friend’s house was 10% over our budget and we’d have to maintain the pool.  When you’re building a house, budget is very important.

Wylie was also a lot closer to our build.  Not only would it take much less time going back and forth, but the gas consumption and wear-and-tear on the car would be less.  Oh yes, and we could get there without going on the tollroad – a savings of over $14oo if the build takes six months.

Then there was my puppy.  You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  She needed a straight shot out her doggie door to her potty space.  She’d had that for fourteen years.  Even if we had figured a way to route her through a sunroom, we’d never have gotten her all the way around the pool before she stopped to do her business.

All things considered, we had to reconsider the Wylie house, bad floor plan and all.  But first, we had to find out if the owner would allow us a six month lease.  Tuesday night, we crossed our fingers and called the Wylie landlord.

Then Out of Nowhere!

The Wylie landlord called back with good news on Wednesday morning.  While Bill was filling out the application, I got a call out of the blue.  An agent I’d talked to on the weekend was calling to let us know her owner had re-canted on the pet thing.  I reminded her that we also had the six month’s lease issue.  We discussed it a bit and she said her landlord would be a fool not to take our contract.  So we decided to go take a look.

It was perfect!  We loved the floor plan.  It was in our budget.  It was three miles from our build.  There were several possible doggie solutions.  Life was good.  We called the agent back and asked her to find out about the six month thing.  We only wanted one landlord checking our credit.  We take our credit score very seriously.

Euphoria Sets In

We were feeling a whole lot better.  We didn’t have an answer yet, but certainly something would work.  Wouldn’t it?

Well, “out of nowhere” didn’t work.  The agent had been so sure, but not sure enough.  I was standing in the grocery store when she called me back and I wanted to throw something.  I called Bill and he sent the application to the Wylie landlord.

We’re Approved

I didn’t sleep much Tuesday night.  Intellectually I knew our credit was great and that we’d be approved, but there had already been so many landmines.  I won’t keep you guessing anymore.  We were approved.  In fact, we’ve moved in and the bad floor plan is a lot better than we thought it would be.

But while we worried about finding someplace to live, a lot more happened.  Come back next week and I’ll catch you up with our build and maybe tell you a few moving adventures.

HEADING TO HEATH: WILL WE FIND A PLACE TO LIVE?

I believe in the power of prayer and friendship. Early on a Saturday morning I made a post on Facebook, “Mission Find-a-Rental is in full swing. I’m hearing a lot of ‘But you have to sign a year’s lease!’, ‘Pets? I don’t think so!’, and ‘Sorry, it’s been leased.’ I think I need a little prayer coverage on this project.”

Help Was on the Way

Almost immediately things improved.  I got some good advise on next steps and the prayer warriors went to work.  One friend offered a guest room.  Another offered up a one bedroom condo.  Another friend had just bought a rental property and offered it “friend-priced” and without a lease term.  None of those exactly fit the criteria we’d set, but they were all better than homeless.

That afternoon we ventured out to look at some properties, hoping that someone would fall in love with us, in spite of our pets and our six months lease.  The pickings were mighty slim.  There was our friend’s new rental, but it was about twenty miles and $3.92 toll away from Heath, not to mention that the “friend price” was still a little steep for our budget.  There was one house in Rockwall we’d seen, but we hadn’t confessed we only wanted six months, yet.  We had an appointment to see a house in Wylie on Sunday and were trying to get an appointment with another.

The Sunday Tour 

So, Bill wasn’t crazy about the house we toured.  We drove by every other possible rental in all the communities on the eastern side of Dallas, but each one seemed worse than the other.  We were stumped.  We decided that first thing Monday morning we’d confess to the Rockwall agent that we wanted a six months lease.  If Rockwall rejected us, that left my friend’s house.  Still no more perfect than it had been the day before, but looking a whole lot better.

Down to the Wire

Monday marked thirty days until we had to be out of our house.  Bill called up the Rockwall agent, did his best sales thing and was shut down – completely.  Other than that, we had one more appointment we’d set.  We decided to go see my friend’s house after that, because then we’d know there were no other options.  Our budget would be busted and every time we went to the build, we’d pay about $8 in tolls.  That adds up fast.

What were we going to do?  Come back next week and I promise, there’s still hope.

HEADING TO HEATH: STILL LOOKING FOR SOMEPLACE TO LIVE!

With my list in hand I started to make calls. It was an eye-opening experience.

It’s Off the Market

About the first zillion calls I made for rental houses were completely useless.  The houses were “off the market,” “leased,” “gone” and otherwise unavailable.

This is when I started worrying.  I’d thought this was going to be easy.  Do a little research.  Make a few calls.  Take a little walk-through.  Rent a house.

It’s Available, BUT…

Finally, I found a few (very few) homes that were actually available – but only up to a point.  We were starting out with two strikes against us….make that three.  The first two were Precious and Princess.

For the uninformed, Precious is my beloved Shih Tzu.  She’ll be 14 years old in a few days.  She doesn’t shed, stink, bite, chew or otherwise mess up our house.  She’s trained to use a doggie door and does so like a trooper.  Outside, all she needs is a small area cordoned off for her business.  I understand that there are dogs who will destroy everything in their path, but those dogs are not Precious.

Princess is our cat.  She was rescued from the pound and is a few years younger than Precious.  Like all cats, she very low profile.  She uses her litter box without fail.  She’s both spayed and de-clawed.  She does not chew or claw or any other nasty stuff.

I know everyone says that about their pets, but mine really are virtually invisible, except for the gallons of love we get from them and the occasional outrageous vet bill.  We’re willing to pay pretty much any pet deposit anyone wants to charge, because as long as it’s refundable, we know we’ll get it back.  (Shame on those folks who want the pet deposit to be non-refundable and you know who you are.)

Anyway, there are a lot of landlords out there that won’t even consider renting to people with pets.  I think this is a cause someone should take up.  Used to be you couldn’t rent if you had kids.  That’s called discrimination this day and time.  My pets are my children, so if you won’t rent to us, then you’re discriminating against me.  If you know of a petition I can sign somewhere, I’m in!

The Other Problem

The final hurdle between me and a rental was a one year lease.  Now it would have been very easy to lie about the whole thing and let the chips fall where they might, but that’s not how I do things.  We were willing to sign a six months lease.  We were willing to pay more per month and we would have even paid a penalty, but we were turned down left and right.  No shoes,  no shirt, no service!

So what happened?  I’ll tell you next week.

HEADING TO HEATH: WHERE TO LIVE IN THE MEANTIME

So last week I mentioned we were having a little difficulty finding a place to rent.  Well, actually I think I said I thought we were going to be homeless.  Let me tell you about it.

Blinded by a Misconception

When Bill and I returned to Texas from California, eight years ago, we needed a rental and fast.  I called a real estate agent friend of my mom’s and by the end of the day, we’d found something.  A year later, Bill came home from Iraq and the tiny two bedroom duplex I’d been renting was suddenly too small.  I did a little research and in no time at all, we found something and moved in.  This is one time that my previous experiences were misleading.

Beware of Craig’s List

For my first stab at finding us a rental this time around, I went to Realtor.com.  Bill didn’t like what I found, so he took the lead.  The first thing he did was lead us into trouble.

I am not a fan of Craig’s List, but Bill uses it all the time.  He’s bought books there, sold all kinds of things and also finds different kinds of contractors and workmen for the house.  This time he found trouble.

During his first search, he found a house for rent that was right around the corner from where we’re building.  The rental was only slightly above the budget he’d given me and Bill was ready to lease it sight unseen.  I’m usually a worry-wart about things like that, but hey, I figured we’d only be there a year at the most and I can deal with almost anything for a year.

The Craig’s Lister sent us an application.  Bill had it all filled out and was ready to send it back when a little bird sang in his ear, “Beware the Ides of March.”  Well, actually, Bill just got cold feet about sending all that information to someone he didn’t know.  So he had me check the tax records.  The Craig Lister was not the owner of the home.  OOOOPS!

The Do-Over

Besides living through a cautionary tale about Craig’s List, Bill learned several things while he was researching rentals.  For instance, he’d been unrealistic with the budget he’d given me.  No way were we going to find something within the range he originally gave me.  So he raised the budget by a couple of hundred dollars.  He also found out researching rentals is a lot of work, so he delegated it back to me with a long list of the rentals he’d found on a variety of rental sites.

His priority was for homes that were being rented out by their owners, rather than homes being leased by agents.  I just wanted to rent from someone who didn’t steal our identity and empty our accounts.

With fear and trepidation I started trying to figure out if the homes on Bill’s list were really real or just another scam.  I quickly found that most of the houses were on Zillow.  So I poked around Zillow a little more.  The new price range made things a lot easier.

Eventually, I had to quit researching things on the internet and start making calls, but I’ll tell you about that next week.

TRAVEL HERE: DINNER AT YE SHIRE TAVERN

No, I haven’t turned into a Hobbit, but I have found a great little neighborhood restaurant you should try.

Stopping by Ye Shire Tavern

It was late on a Sunday night.  After church we’d put in a full day of rental house shopping.  We were tired and all we wanted was a decent meal.  Bill said he knew just where to go.

Where he headed was The Shire, a restaurant/retail development at the Southwest corner of the Bush Tollway and Jupiter Road.  From the tollway you see restaurants like The Silver Fox, Casa Cha Cha and another place that’s just called TEXAS.  Behind that is another row of restaurants, places like Main Street Bakery, Thai’s Thumbz Urban Kitchen and Apollonia’s Italian Kitchen.

It was after nine and pretty much everything was closed down, with just a few stragglers finishing up their meals.  Ye Shire Tavern, on the other hand, was open until ten and they welcomed us in.  The other patrons were at the bar joking around with the barmaid and nursing drinks.  One got the impressing that they were there most nights, joking around with the barmaid and nursing drinks.

More Than Adequate

Confession: We weren’t expecting much.  It was the end of a Sunday night and no one else was eating.  We figured the real cook had gone home hours ago.  Still we were hungry, so we ordered.

Since we weren’t expecting much, we were pleasantly surprised with what we got.  I had a patty melt and Bill had another sandwich.  Both were delicious and time had actually been spent on presentation.  There were garnishes on our late night meal.

What’s more, the service was great.  No wonder there were so many regular patrons at the bar, joking with the barmaid, on a Sunday night.  She was a treasure.  My husband assured me she was easy on the eyes and she had a great personality.  She took care of us like she was glad we were there, rather than acting as if we’d just shown up to cause her more work.

We’ll Be Back

The beer was cold, the service was good and the food was delicious.  I even got to pretend I was being healthy, having a salad with my patty melt instead of fries.  The place was clean, very clean, which goes a long way with me.  The prices were reasonable.

In our new digs, on the northeastern edge of Dallas, the intersection of 75 and 190 will play a more important role in our lives than it did while we lived in Far North Dallas.  We’ll be back to Ye Shire, but someone should tell them this is the 21st Century, the age of social media.  They really need a website.

HEADING TO HEATH: DOING BUSINESS WITH FRIENDS

Well, closing day is still a few weeks off, but everything is going smoothly – at least as smoothly as anything Bill and I ever expect – but there are a lot of things are going on.  In other words, the deposit money went hard.

Escrow Things

First, I want to give major kudos to my best friend, Deborah Shera.  She just happens to be an escrow officer with Chicago Title.  She usually does huge commercial closings, but since she loves me, she agreed to take on my teeny tiny little escrow.  Since we are acting as our own real estate agents, it’s been nice to have a friend keeping her eye on my escrow. Her client list reads like an issue of Fortune magazine.  If you’d like to be on that list give her a call at 214-987-6782.

Anyway, things are trucking along in that department.  The buyers are as anxious to move in as we are to get that call saying, “The money has been wired into your account.”

More Kudos

My next kudos go to another good friend, Michael Picolo.  I haven’t known him as long as I have Deb, but that’s because he was probably in diapers when I met Deb.  Nonetheless, I’ve known him for over a quarter of a century.  Michael is a real estate agent with Ebby Halliday and he was my Plan B.

Well, actually, he was my Plan A.  Mr. Bill is the one who wanted to try and sell this house ourselves.  If it had been up to me, I would have just called Michael and been done with it.

We did call Michael though, because we wanted him to know what we were up to and we wanted his input on the price.  He “got” our house and understood its value.

I’ve found that most agents just throw a few comps into a software program and wave it around like the Holy Grail.  Michael knew our house and he knew the market, so he was able to give us a real number, not a piece of marketing.

He also knew us and figured with our experience in real estate and our expertise in marketing, we could get it sold ourselves.  He was absolutely golden throughout the whole process.  Calling to see how things were going and bolstering my confidence, because I really just wanted to hand it over to him, in spite of Bill’s insistence that we could do this.  When we got a buyer, Michael was the first to congratulate us.

Fast Forward to Mission Find-a-Rental

One morning Bill and I woke up and realized that we’d have to move in about a month.  I hit all the rental sites I knew and started trying to find something.  I suggested calling Michael, but Bill said, “He doesn’t make enough money on a rental to justify bothering him.  You can do this.”  Isn’t it amazing how often Bill has to keep telling me the same thing.

I dug into the task, but it was hard going.  For one thing, the market is hot.  As I called around trying set up viewings of different properties, I heard, “It’s already been leased,” a lot.  I also found out that pets are not universally adored.  Oh and we weren’t sure how long we were going to need the house, so we really didn’t want to sign a lease we might have to break.

So, after a couple day of banging my head against a brick wall, I made a post on Facebook telling my friends I might need a little prayer coverage on the project.  I have amazing wonderful friends who not only started praying, they started coming up with solutions.  Deb had already offered up her guest room.  Another friend had a small condo we were welcome to.  Other people had some really good suggestions of various sorts.

Then Michael called.  He had a solution for me.  Come back next week and I’ll tell you about it.

TRAVEL HERE: FOOD WITH FRIENDS AT FRANKIE’S

Here’s a local hangout in Richardson, near Custer and Lookout, you probably didn’t know was there.  Even though we were looking for it we missed it, because it’s hidden away between Canyon Creek Square and Valley Glen Drive.

Frankie’s Found Through Friendship

When I was in the throes of locating a rental to tide us over between the house we sold and the house we were building, I made a cry for help on Facebook.  Several friends made viable suggestions.  One had just bought a house on West Lookout in Richardson and was willing to hurry up his renovations in order to provide us with a place.  This was just the latest in a series of assists he offered, so even before we’d decided what we were going to do about our living situation, we knew we owed him dinner.

Our friend recommended a local hangout for dinner and it was perfect for catching up.  See, I’ve known this friend for about thirty years.  We used to work together and he was the roommate of one of my boyfriends.  The boyfriend is long gone, but the roommate and I are still good friends.  However, we travel in different circles now, so our paths rarely cross.  We had a whole lot of catching up to do.

Good Food and Awesome Margaritas

Anyplace would have been a good place to catch up with my friend, but as is often the case with him, that little restaurant he knew about was just the sort of place everyone else is looking for.  He is from New Orleans after all and New Orleans folk know food.  Every time I think of him, I think of a muffalata joint around the corner from Jackson Square.

The meal at Frankie’s started out right.  My husband considers himself a chips and salsa connoisseur.  He proclaimed the chips beyond satisfactory – some of the best he’d ever had, I believe, or something along those lines.  (I’m still on the El Fenix has the best chips team, but different chips for different folks)

Friend and I ordered Margaritas, on the rocks with salt.  Let me tell you, the drinks alone are reason enough to make your way to Frankie’s.  I had two and was a very, very happy camper.

For our meal, Hubby had chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce and I had flautas.  Friend had some kind of enchiladas with fried eggs on top.  Friend cleaned his plate.  He thought it was because the food was so good, but it might have been the spin class he’d just been to.  I ate way too many chips, because there was still guacamole left when my flautas were gone and it was very good guac.  Hubby ate up his meal, too.

So do I think you should go to Frankie’s? Absolutely!  The atmosphere is very casual and so are the prices.  We had a great waitress who got us everything we needed without being intrusive.  The food is yummy – and did I mention the Margaritas?

HEADING TO HEATH: WE SOLD OUR HOME

Well, we sold it, but it was a job!  Now will it stay sold?

Welcome to Our Open House

The real fun of selling our house started one Saturday morning when we put our custom sign out in the yard, with a box of full color flyers attached, and sprinkled a trail of open-house-signs (some custom, some from the home improvement store) from the major thoroughfare a couple of blocks away to our front yard. I filled the air with Glade and baked some chocolate chip cookies, then opened the front door.

That first weekend we were only on the ForSaleByOwner site, because we wanted to see what kind of traffic we’d get. They were also filming the virtual tour that day.

During the weekend open houses, we were overrun by neighbors, had a few drive-bys and were visited by one guy who saw us on the FSBO site.  We were surprised to discover we’d missed the price point by $10K. By the end of the first day we’d raised our price. This was another part of the reason we hadn’t gone very wide with our online presence. We wanted to test the water a little bit.

By the next weekend, we were on more sites with our higher price, but we were still getting mostly neighbors at our open houses. We did have a couple of folks set appointments to see the house during the week, but most of the calls were from agents trying to list our house.

One of the last people to come through that second weekend, came with an agent and made an offer, but the offer was ridiculous and I got pretty depressed.

The third weekend brought two very interested couples, but no offers. One of the interested parties wore us out with emails during the next week and said he was going to make an offer, but he just kept asking questions. Finally, the fourth weekend rolled around and we opened our doors again, but only on Saturday, because we had plans on Sunday.

Bill was excited by some of our visitors, but I didn’t put too much stock into people who wouldn’t leave an email address or a phone number.

Narrowing the Field

All along our question-asker kept asking questions, but then he got very, very quiet. So, we were gearing up for the fifth weekend of open houses, when late on a Thursday afternoon an agent called and asked to show the house. I’d planned to spend Friday perfecting my housekeeping, but Bill and I performed a whirlwind cleaning and opened our doors a couple of hours later.

The couple and their agent stayed forever, but when they left they said we’d get an offer the next day. Bill and I were both thrilled, but we were also afraid to be thrilled.  Lo and behold, the next morning we had a full price offer with no strings attached. We negotiated a few details back and forth throughout the day, but by dinnertime, we had a deal. We were going into escrow!

Due Diligence and the Loan Contingency

We’d sold the house, but we had some hoops to jump through. Right off the bat was an appraisal and a home inspection. We’d already planned a vacation and as we boarded the plane, the buyer’s agent was calling us about warranties and flood zones. We thought we might be fielding real estate calls all vacation long, but what we told them as we found our seats seemed to satisfy them.

Will the Money Go Hard?

One item that we negotiated hard for was the condition that if the loan was approved, then the buyer had to up their deposit and the funds would go hard.  That meant, even if they backed out, we’d have a nice compensation for it. Was the loan approved? Did the money go hard? Find out next week!

TRAVEL HERE: WHAT’S AT THE DMA NOW

Looking for a way to get out of the house, but don’t want to fight the heat?  Go to the Dallas Museum of Art.  Along with air conditioning, they’ve got some interesting special exhibitions right now.

Mind’s Eye: Masterworks on Paper from David to Cézanne

Right inside the front door, in the Chilton Gallery, is an exhibition of works on paper – primarily drawings and sketches.  Since the the exhibition focuses on the period from David to Cezanne, you’ll see a lot of names you’re familiar with from the popular Impressionist Era, but that’s certainly not the extent of it.  You’ll also see a lot of French artists, because the French sort of dominated the scene during that period, but you’ll also see English, German and Spanish artists, to name a few.  In other words, the drawings come from a specific period, but represent a wide variety of styles and artists.

I’ll just be honest with you.  I am not a big fan of drawings.  For me, they seem like watching a video on You Tube when I could be at a live opera at the Met.  However, I found plenty to entertain me while I was there and Bill thoroughly enjoyed it.

Bill’s always interested in the “how” of things, so when the DMA began the exhibition with examples of various mediums and what it looked like when you used them, Bill was fascinated.  Items like graphite, charcoal and waterpaint he was familiar with.  Gouache was something new.  That simple demonstration greatly enriched his appreciation of the works he viewed.

Now for me, the good news was that not everything in the exhibit was a sketch.  Sketches can give an insight to the artist’s technique, but after about the tenth one, I’ve gotten all the technique I can handle.  I want to see some bright colors and interesting textures.  There were pastel drawings and pretty watercolors spread through out the exhibit rooms.  There was one gouache floral on paper that I would have been tempted to think was an oil on canvas.

Bottom line, you’ll learn something and see pretty things at this special exhibition, so you should go.

From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith

While you’re at the DMA seeing the Mind’s Eye Exhibit, don’t miss From the Village to Vogue.  Art Smith was a jeweler creating unique pieces in his small shop in New York’s Greenwich Village.  Eventually he was discovered and became a national sensation through the fashion magazine Vogue.

This is not your mother’s wedding ring!  Unless your mother wore modern art pieces with an African influence.  These things are gorgeous.  Though not necessarily the most practical things you could put around you neck.  Think large minimalistic sculpture.  Worth seeing though!

The DMA is my suggestion for a hot day.  What’s yours?  After visiting the exhibits, we faced the heat and took a stroll through Klyde Warren Park, then visited Starbucks and had one of their new Fizzio Hand-crafted Sodas.  For me, the jury’s still out.  Have you had one?