Vail Life

Well my old roommate helped me move my dresser yesterday. I don't feel like such a bum living out of a cardboard box now.

I never did hear back from Capital One so no MINI until at least next week. That kinda bums me out but is not so bad. This way when I go to Denver next weekend to watch the comedian Dane Cook I can pick up my MINI. It will be a little bit of disappointment this weekend for a whole lotta fun next weekend. Now I need to call Capital One and make sure they get me my money before next weekend.

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Capital One. The document I sent them to prove residency won't work. I am getting a title of deed ownership faxed to me now so I can prove where I live. It is tough to prove residency when you pay no bills and have a PO Box for your mail.

I had talked about getting a get together over at my house this weekend. I will have to see how things go today and see if anyone is up for it tomorrow. I have a counter to set food on and a deck and grill. I don't have much in the way of chairs but if my friends bring over their camp chairs I think we will be fine.

Tonight Serenity is released. I am looking forward to seeing that. Unfortunately I will have to head into Vail as it is not playing in the Avon theater. In fact I don’t think the Avon theater ever gets good movies.

Posted by Coign at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

I broke the mail server for about an hour today. No one noticed until 5 minutes before I fixed it though. Oh well.

MINI financial turned me down when they ran my credit. Their reason: not enough credit history. I need my house to be on my credit reports to have credit history and it is not there yet. It may not be there until Nov 1st when I make my first payment.

I applied and got approved for a Capital One loan for 5.25% this morning. They took all my information and got all my proofs but now they have to "review" the application they approved before they can send out my blank check. Once they send out the check it is a note for up to $27,000 dollars. I can write it out for 8,000 or 23,000. What ever I want the loan for. Then they offer overnight delivery on the check via Fed Ex. They told me they can send it out as late as 5:30 PM and get it to me by tomorrow.

It is now 4:30 and they still haven't gotten past the review phase. I have a feeling that they are not going to be able to get it to me by tomorrow which means I will not be able to get the money until Monday and my MINI will have to stay in Denver until next weekend.

And another thing to bitch about is I have been asking my friends for help in moving furniture since last week. Everyone is to busy or tired and so all my furniture is still stuck back at my old place. I don't have enough room in my car to move my desk, dresser, TV, and TV stand. I know it is a favor and I can not expect anyone to drop what ever they are doing to help but until I get my furniture at my house I can not really unpack or set anything up. It delays going through all my boxes and sorting out what is going into storage and what I need to find a place for in my place.

All-in-all this day is pretty sucky. I think I need to go home and take a nap.

But to end on a good note, my Internet access did get hooked up today so at least my laptop works now.

Posted by Coign at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

I got a pretty big ego boost last night. I was talking about my new place to a number of friends and people I knew at the bar where we were doing trivia night.

Then about 8:30 PM my cell phone rings and I get a call from the MINI dealership telling me my car is done. We start talking numbers and payment methods and I am bouncing percentage numbers for outside loans off of him. We finally agree to a 90% financing, 4.6% interest loan. He gets my fax number and confirms ID I will need to provide him. We then talk about pick up times and I tell him how I have to talk to some friends but if I can get there this weekend I will.

I hang up the phone and one of my friends looks at me and just says, "Look at Thom, wheeling and dealing on the phone. Gets a house and now he is has the hook-up all over the place."

Posted by Coign at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments

I stayed in my new place last night. I would tell you how it was but I was drunk.

It feels really weird to own my own place though. I feel like I should knock before entering my own house. I moved a couple of loads yesterday. I think I pulled my groin muscle moving a 100+ pound box. Going to be moving the ferret over today and will be aiming for moving what little furniture I have over on Wednesday.

Then if I can get my shit in gear maybe I will host a little get together this weekend to show people around.

Posted by Coign at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

I just got done closing on my new place two hours ago. It feels really weird to think of myself as a home owner. I will take some pictures and post them when I get the chance. Now I just need to get a roommate to pay for my new MINI that is waiting for me in Denver.

On a non-house note I went and raced go-carts this weekend for a friend's birthday. It was a ton of fun but I got the hell beat out of me doing so. My ribs are sore from the seat bouncing me around, my ankle from t-boning a friend on the course, and my forearms from steering for over an hour of driving. Unfortunately I didn't know where we were going when I was invited so I didn't bring my camera.

Posted by Coign at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments

My latest on the house buying madness.



Diane Larson
Via Facsimile: (970) 926-9101

Dear Diane:

I was informed today, 9/21/05, by Nick Brinkman, my loan officer at 1st Bank, that he would not get the appraisal by 5:00 PM today. After talking to my attorney at Goodman & Wallace they told me I should send you a letter informing you of a request for an extension until tomorrow, 9/22/05, at 5:00 PM and to send you a letter from my loan officer detailing what he told me.

As you are not in the office until after the closing date I called Cheryl Bird and informed her of my request for an extension. She was not able to receive a copy of this letter or Nick’s letter as she did not have access to a fax machine but did verbally agree with me over the phone to extend this deadline to 9/22/05 at 5:00 PM.

I am sending this letter to your office as an act of good faith that I am doing everything in my power to meet all deadlines and complete the sale in a timely fashion. This delay should not push back any of the remaining deadlines.

If you have any questions please contact me at (970) 376-2521

Sincerely,



Thom Haupt

Enc: Letter from Nick Brinkman of 1st Bank




My favorite thing about deadlines is the whooshing sound they make as they go flying past. –Dave Barry

Posted by Coign at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments

Quick update:

Dropped off the down payment from my parents today.

The appraisal took place last week on Thursday but I have not heard results yet.

Closing date is still scheduled for the 26th.

My MINI dealer called me. Car is on the shore and we are looking at a tentative date of Oct 4 to get the car to me.

Smallville season starts this Thursday. (Actually it is only the season finale from last year, but we catch that one to refresh our memories for the season premier next Thursday.)

I am on three fantasy football teams this year but with my roommate getting rid of TV and me not planning on getting it at my new house I am not watching football. I think this will be the last year I play competitively on fantasy football. (Although without me watching many games and not even Sportscenter I do not think I will be very competitive this year either.)

My computer is still dead but at this point I am thinking more about my new place then my computer. Besides I think my roommate's house is cursed and causing my PCs to break.

Posted by Coign at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments

Not much to add to the house update. My parents will be loaning me the 3% down and I will receive that next week some time. The appraisal will take place on the 21st, the due date, so I will get that done just in the nick of time. And I missed the homeowners meeting that took place yesterday for my complex. I will catch next month's meeting though.

As for my PC, the problem that was not causing it to boot was the fact that the power switch pins are not the ones that are marked on the mother board instructions. So now my machine boots, but now for some reason my pump in my water cooling unit stopped working. It originally worked for about 10 minutes as I installed the unit but now it is not pumping anything. So my next step is to tear it all apart and get a replacement pump so my machine does not overheat.

Posted by Coign at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments

I just got called that I got approved for a 97% Flex 30-year fixed rate loan. I am gathering together bank statements and proof of finance now to meet their requirements for the loan. I am so excited.

Plus I dropped off my PC at a PC repair place. I will let someone else work on it for a while so I am not worried about that now.

I have gone from depressed yesterday, due to stress, to giddy as a schoolgirl today.

Posted by Coign at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments

The title company wrote up my purchase for the property today. Other than that, slow house buying day.

Posted by Coign at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

I got a lock today for 5.25 percent Firm 5 loan. That means my house loan will be 5.25% for 5 years and then at that time I can re-lock it at the market or let it rise 1% every 6 months to a max of 10.25 or market.

I am also looking at trying to get a 30 year loan but I am not sure if will qulify for it because my complex is only 51% owner occupied and the 30 year fixed requires the complex to be 61% owner occupied.

I also got my transfer tax exemption in today. I found out that the title company doing our sale has no clue about legal addresses. I had to have the court house lady who did my transfer application tell me what my address actually is.

And finally I got the final parts that I thought would fix my PC. After 6 hours of work, my PC still will not boot. I have now replaced everything in the case and have no clue why it is not working. I really don't know what I am going to do with this machine now.

Posted by Coign at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

Brandon posted my tattoo on his site right after finishing it. It is pictured under the black light he used to tattoo it in. To ink this tattoo, since you can not see the lines, you have to do so under blacklight in a dark room. A pretty cool experience getting tattooed in the dark.

You can not see the fact that it is all red and icky from this one so I will link to it here. Like I said I will post a picture of the healed finished product but it would make people not want to get one if they saw it all icky red and inflammed as it heals.


This is the big version.

Posted by Coign at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments

Had the inspector go through the place yesterday. He told me it is the cleanest place he has seen in the complex where I am buying. The only 3 items of note were a broken window I knew about, rust on the space heater in the bathroom from humidity, and that the water heater is 17 years old.

The broken window I will fix, the space heater I will have to sand down and repaint it with water proof paint, and the water heater should be fine. He said that he has seen them go after 5 years and some last 30 years. And even if it does break down he said it is only about 600 for a new one and installation.

On another note I got a tattoo on my wrist in blacklight ink last night. I took pictures of it when it was all nasty and fresh. I will wait until it heals to show you the finished product. It is a clear ink so that it will be invisible except under a black light. I have seen a couple of them done and they look sweet.

Posted by Coign at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

It is official now. I am under contract. Tomorrow I meet the seller and a property inspector I hired to look over the property.

Posted by Coign at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments

Buying a house is tough. The seller is doing it by "for sale by owner" and not having an agent available to walk me through all of the steps can get confusing. I have hired an attorney but getting people to respond promptly and answer my calls can be trying.

I highly suggest when you buy your first house, buy one that allows use of an agent. To many calls to be made and chasing after people to work with you on things makes it much more difficult.

Posted by Coign at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments

This morning I will be signing papers to buy a condo for 239,000. It is 2 bedroom, 2 bath. It is ground floor and overlooks the river and the area where the new ski lift into Beaver Creek Ski resort is going in.

Needless to say I am pretty excited this morning.

Posted by Coign at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments