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lpjohnso
Participantsdsurfer, you are so welcome. 🙂 It sounds like we are cut from the same cloth and I’m so glad you feel what I wrote will benefit your discussion with your wife. 🙂 What you wrote about growing up with your mother was very touching. It’s funny that you didn’t even realize how broke she was. Often kids don’t. You were fed (even if it was good ol’ Top Ramen!), you were loved, and you had each other. Kids don’t care about living in 3000 sq ft. It’s just more room to divide each other, not help bring together.
It took me a while to get to those beliefs about less is more. I, too, bought into the modern American ideology of “bigger is better” for a while and can even find myself fantasizing about it when I go into those large, luxurious models. However, a nice, stable, modest home is all we really need. It is already so much more than many people have in this world.
Love this short article:
ParticipantI think you have posted some great questions. We live in 1400 sq feet, 3/2 (with vaulted ceilings and a medium sized backyard) and we have 2 young boys. It is great for us. Any larger and there would be more to clean, heat, cool and buy.
We have been to those lovely 3000 sq ft model homes in Temecula for the same price as our place, and while it is tempting to “move up”, we believe less is always more. We want to have more quality, not so much quanity. We took our 1990s 1400 sq ft home and were able to remodel in a way that we would have never been able to financially do to a 3000 sq ft home. And everyone is right, the vaulted ceilings/open layout make a HUGE difference. I lived in a 3400 sq ft house in Vegas and it felt like a claustrophobic maze.
I don’t like the thought of getting a larger home to accommodate the kids and more stuff only to have the kids move out one day. I think it would feel too big and lonely. So then, people may say, just down size to a smaller home when the kids are gone. I wouldn’t want to do that because I would love to stay in the same house as my kids did growing up. I would love them to be able to “come home” with their family one day to all of the memories of the house that they grew up in. I never had that. We moved around constantly. That kind of stability and nostalgia is very attractive to me.
Having a decent sized backyard has been great for the kids, especially in my lazy days when I don’t feel like going anywhere but I can open up the back door and the kids can still get there vitamin D and wiggles out. I would much rather have a smaller home and a larger back yard. That’s really were the kids want to be anyways.
Our boys have shared a room and we have kept the 3rd bedroom as a play room/guest room. It has been great. I believe my kids have grown closer because of it. I have a friend who desperately wants his 2 boys to share a room because he did with his brother growing up and they are extremely close, but unfortunately his wife is not going for it. My mother grew up on a ranch in an 800 sq ft home with 3 other siblings who all shared 1 room and they all turned out great. WIth that said, just last week my oldest (he’s 6) declared he wanted his “own” room and so we moved him into in the play room/quest room. So, it has been great to have an additional room in case the kids really want to be separated, but funny thing is, now my 3 year old is sleeping next to the 6 year old in the new room. Lol! They really do prefer being by each other, but we’ll see how that goes as they continue to grow older.
My advice to you and yours: stay in your home in Encinitas, make it the best you can, and add on and open up the ceilings or walls if you feel like you need to. 🙂
ParticipantI would refi, but I think you could get a lower rate. We just closed our refi last week. We bought for $330,000 in Nov. 2011 and had a 30 year fixed FHA @ 4.125%. We just refinanced online through Quicken Loans. Really painless process, by the way. We got an FHA Streamline @ 3.375%. We had to bring $2,300 to closing (they timed closing to be when our old mortgage would have been due anyways, of course), and the refi added about $3000 to our current mortgage. We are very happy!
Best of luck to you!
ParticipantThanks briansd1!
Well, as you probably already know, a mid-century home almost doesn’t feel complete without a George Nelson Bubble Lamp or a sputnik style chandelier. However, I love the idea of trying to think outside of the box and put a glam spin on things. Yes, very appropriate for Vegas ;).
In a quick search I came upon this, which I love. Not very glam, but truly awesome. Keep in mind my fantasy shopping does not abide to a budget!
http://www.modernclassics.com/store/pc/Sylvan-Motif-Chandelier-28p1643.htm
I love these too:
http://www.ylighting.com/robert-abbey-sputnik-chandelier.html
http://www.ylighting.com/moi-raimond.html
http://www.ylighting.com/sonneman-orb-10-light-radial-pendant-light.html
http://www.ylighting.com/itr-giuko-s1.html
http://www.ylighting.com/sonneman-puri-6-light-pendant.html
http://www.ylighting.com/glb-tlr-16540s.html
http://www.ylighting.com/lyx-kristall.html
http://www.ylighting.com/moooi-raimond-zafu-75-suspension-light.html
ParticipantThanks so much for your kind words! Unfortunately, I don’t have any recommendations for invisible screens or custom sectionals. If you are referring to custom fabric for a sectional I know Thomasville Furniture has over 800 fabric to choose from and many different style, some more modern than others.
The tall lamp is from Pier 1! Here is a link!
http://www.pier1.com/Square-Floor-Lamp/2274409,default,pd.html?cgid=lighting
sdrealtor-Your furniture sounds amazing and I wouldn’t get rid of it either if I were you! Only 10 years ago most of the general public didn’t realize what they had when it came to mid-century furniture. I was in college and would finds all kinds of amazing pieces at thrift stores and garage sales. I bought a George Nelson daybed for $20 and resold it a couple of years ago for $1,000. I bought 6 Eames shell chairs for $12 and resold them for $600. Too bad for me I can’t do that anymore because people have gotten smart! The demand and appreciation for mid-century is huge now, and for good reason!
ParticipantHow exciting! I loved the planning/design stage. My husband and I bought a 1990s tract home last year and remodeled it. We put in maple hardwood floors throughout (except the bathroom and laundry room which have tile), new 5″ baseboard, retextured and repainted every wall, professionally painted kitchen cabinets, new appliances, new countertops, new hardware throughout, new window treatments, etc, in an effort to try to make the home look less “tract-like” and more “custom coastal”.
Our style is a mix of modern and traditional (eclectic, they say?). We tried to make our kitchen look early 20th century with the antique white cabinets, subway tile and honed granite. Probably not your style! However, we also love mid-century modern and we have nods to that design period in certain places like the chair in our living room and we have a George Nelson saucer bubble lamp hanging in our sons’ play room.
My advice for lighting would be to incorporate solar tubes in dark areas. Our hallway was extremely dark and now with the solar tube it is beautifully bright (see pic of hallway). Solatube is based in Vista and they did a great job!
The fireplace was awful and originally extended to the ceiling. We tore it out and hired a mason to install a new coastal looking stone (it is actually called “Coastal Ledge”) and hearth that we choose from the stone yard, and we finished it off with driftwood gas logs.
I love Houzz too and got many ideas and inspiration from the site while we were remodeling. I even posted pictures on the site after our house was finished. You can visit this link if you’d like to see it!
http://www.houzz.com/projects/35525/Honeysuckle-House
Best of luck to you and have fun!
ParticipantYou’re welcome, Mark!
HLS, our MIP payment will increase from $302 to $315. The refi will be lowering our loan by about $27/mo. However, it will actually lower it more because Quicken brought to my attention that are not paying enough taxes on our current mortgage. I called Wells Fargo, our current lender and they confirmed that was true. They said we will owe around $900 in October and then they will correct (i.e.-increase) our current mortgage payment. The refi will immediately correct the tax issue (of course, we will still have to owe Wells Fargo $900), and in the process our current mortgage payment will go down $27/mo, not increase even higher than it is now in order to correct the taxes that were initially miscalculated in escrow.
Recent comps would support that our house could appraise for about $370,000. We remodeled it and now it has maple floors throughout, 5″ baseboards, granite countertops, etc., etc. Unfortunately, we decided to do the entire $40,000+ remodel on our credit cards. They are low interest, but still, none-the-less, a terrible decision, but we knew that when we did it. We are claiming ‘0’ on our taxes, so we are on the 5 year plan to pay the cards off with each tax refund (last year’s refund was $10,000). Due to charging all of our cards up to the top, our credit has taken a massive hit, going from the high 700s, down to the low 700s/high 600s. Honestly, we did’t care because our house is exactly how we want it and we never plan on leaving, but now I am caring because it matters for the refi.
We do not have a date to close yet, but Quicken said it usually takes 3-4 weeks and we started it last week. Our exact current principle balance is $318,696.86.
I would have loved to get a conventional loan to get rid of that damn MIP payment, but we only had 3.5% down.
ParticipantYes, I understand that it is not a no cost loan. That is what I was trying to convey when I shared what our mortgage balance is now and what it will increase to after the refi. We will be adding $4000 to our balance with 3.5% interest over 30 years. It doesn’t sound great, but on paper it works in our favor. Not by a ton, but some is better than none.
As far as I understand, the $2000 is a refund from our existing escrow account that will be due to us within 30 days after closing.
ParticipantHi Mark! My husband and I closed last November with a 30 year fixed FHA at 4.125%. We are in the process of refinancing through Quicken Loans (they are the largest online mortgage lender and came highly recommended) with a 30 year fixed at 3.5%. We are getting a “streamline” refi, which is much simpler compared to other loans. We do not need to get an appraisal.
We owe $319,000 on the home right now and after they roll the cost of the refi into our mortgage our new balance will be $323,000. We will need to bring $1,600 to closing, and they will time our closing right before our existing mortgage payment is due so we do not have to pay it. Then, we will receive $2000 back after escrow closes.
Best of luck to you!
ParticipantHope and Help for your Nerves.
For any of you who suffer from anxiety. Amazing. It has brought me back from nervous breakdown/agoraphobia more than once.
TMI? 🙂ParticipantHi ocrenter! Regarding San Marcos being absent from Newsweek’s list:
“San Marcos schools have ranked high in other national media surveys. Peterson said Newsweek placed San Marcos High at about 500 out of 1,500 top schools in the nation in 2009 and was in the 500s out of the top 1,300 in the nation in 2008.
When they noticed an error in the survey in 2010, Peterson said the district contacted Newsweek, but did not hear back.
Since then, the district has opted out of participating in the magazine’s survey.”
ParticipantProud, very proud. As an early 90s high school student from Encinitas, I never thought I would see the day that the “ghetto-ish” San Marcos High would do so well. I am so happy my boys will be going there. Even though many will question the methodology of the ranking, there is no debate that their academic improvements within the past 20 years is a job well done!
ParticipantI am a wife and mother who puts up with a lot of sh$t, and I would be thrilled to wake up to a home cooked breakfast and not have to lift a finger, have a massage, spa day, a heartfelt card, a nice dinner (home cooked or somewhere out), or an inexpensive piece of Tiffany and Co. Jewelry. Something like a sterling silver necklace with a pretty little charm would be lovely. Just seeing the blue box should put a smile on her face! Oh, and of course, you could never go wrong with good ol’ flowers. 🙂
These ideas definitely are not very creative, but are SURE to do the trick of making a woman feel special and appreciated.
Best of luck!
April 10, 2012 at 3:05 PM in reply to: Where is the inventory, where is the inventory, where is the inventory… #741394ParticipantCongrats, prohoff! I wish you the best of luck!
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