Never never never say things are going well or that you've been lucky like I did in my previous post.
On 18 September we'd just returned from a week in San Antonio waiting out Hurricane Ike. Our new house was virtually undamaged. We were to have the final inspection with the builder on Friday and hoped to close on the following Monday.
We had our final inspection on Friday. It went relatively well. Some things undone, because of the storm mostly, and Wife found a few dozen more items that needed touch up paint, but generally we were pleased.
But, while we were having the inspections, three business jet aircraft flew directly over our house. I would conservatively guess they were at 500-feet -- close enough to see the pilots. They flew directly at our family room windows then proceeded to land at Sugar Land Regional airport, which is 1-2 miles away.
I was moderately freaked out; Wife was solidly freaked out. We came home and the first thing I did was to start an online search of Sugar Land Regional Airport. I found that the airport services "more than 7200 aircraft a month" and that it "Handles small, private planes to the largest corporate aircraft, such as the Boeing 737 BBJ." Further digging revealed that in August 2008 they handled 6,961 takeoffs or landings. Digging into yet another site I discover that at peak times the airport can have as many as 10 operations per hour. So much for "it's just a little regional airport for private pilots".
We go out to the house on Saturday at about the time we expected the most take offs and landings. No jets came over head, but we realize that the house is right in the gun barrel of the airport runway. We see three jets taking off in the opposite direction away from us. We have more than a dozen propeller driven planes take off toward the house, but turn left before reaching us. We're still freaked.
We sweat things out on Sunday and on Monday, I call our realtor and the sales agent calling off the deal ... and watching our earnest money disappear ... and the deposits on the utilities. And probably the money for inspections, etc etc.
We're dispondent.
On Tuesday I write to our housing company telling them what happened and asking to extend the lease on our corporate apartment. We're supposed to check out on Wednesday. I start receiving emails saying, "No can do." Because of people needing housing from Ike, all apartments are booked. I swallow hard and start searching for hotels. The nearest one I can find is all the way back in San Antonio -- three hours away.
Now I'm suicidal.
The first ray of sunshine shows up late Tuesday afternoon. The head of Oakwood Apartments for Houston calls me himself saying that he's pulled all the strings and called in his chips and we can stay for 30 more days. Being the manly man I am, I cry on the phone.
We start looking for houses to rent -- figuring that god is trying to tell us "Don't buy a house right now. Weren't you paying attention when I put a landfill next to the first one you wanted, sent a hurricane, and now put this house in the glide path? Go rent." But, he's not helping us: everything we see to rent in Houston is crap. The depression grows.
So today, we're back looking for new houses. We visited 16 houses today north of the city. We found quite a few possibles. We're organizing our thoughts, and 700 pictures that Wife took today, and we'll try to make another decision.
Sorry for not writing more. It's been a long 10 days.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good
This has been a very good day.
We left our friends' house in San Antonio about 8:30am this morning to start our 3-hour-plus drive back to Houston area. We made a pitstop for gasoline and a McDonald's breakfast after putting an hour and a half of driving behind us. We drove toward Houston in very light traffic. We didn't see any damage at all until we got quite close to Houston. Then we started to see torn up and torn down billboards, trees leaning at funny angles, etc.
We turned off I-10 and headed south towards our new house. The damage became more severe as we drove. Soon we were seeing uprooted trees, signs completely blown down, blue tarps thrown across a few roofs. As we got nearer our house we really began to worry. The New Territory Blvd leading to our subdivision was a mass of broken limbs and downed trees. It looked like the city had planted red bud trees, or something similar, in the center divide of the road. Those trees hadn't stood up well to the storm at all. The city had done a good job of getting the downed trees cleared, however. The roads were open, stop lights working, shopping centers full, no long lines at gasoline stations.
We rounded into our subdivision and couldn't see damage on any of the houses. We pulled up in front of ours and found it open. We could see a few shingles pulled up, but all in all no damage to speak of. A couple of the small trees planted in front were pretty much stripped of leaves. I found a couple shingles laying in our back yard. A nest of fire ants had tried to get above the high tide line by building a nest up into our brick work. I couldn't detect any damage inside the house at all. The electricity was on, air conditioning working. While we were prowling around, some workers came to resurface part of our fake-granite countertops -- an item we'd noted in our earlier walk-thru. To say that we were relieved was an understatement.
We drove to our builder/agent's office. He said that his electricity was still out at his house a few blocks away, but that electricity in his office had never gone out. He said that they'd already noted the roof damage and had people on the way out to repair it as we spoke. He felt he would have all the required work done from our walk-thru, including re-painting the media room, by Friday. I was amazed.
He also shared that our lender hadn't received some paperwork from me and that my insurance company hadn't provided proof of coverage yet. I worked with Eric and got the lender one of the items that I owed her. I knew how to get her the other information, assuming my computer worked back at our apartment. So, we decided there wasn't much more we could do, and started to drive into Houston itself to check on our apartment. It was now about 3:00pm.
Pessimistic me was expecting (a) a tree through the window leading to, (b) significant water damage, (c) a refrigerator that would have to be thrown out because of the rotting food inside, and (d) looting that would've seen everything we left behind now sitting in someone else's house.
I was totally wrong.
As we got closer to downtown the damage became even more prevalent. Windows knocked out, large bill boards blown over -- bent over, actually. We could see lots and lots of windows blown out of the high rises downtown. It didn't appear that my building was too badly hit. As we turned off the expressway onto the side street leading to our apartment, there was lots of tree damage and several had fallen into people's houses. We pulled up outside our apartment complex and saw a tree leaning out toward the street. We held our breath.
We walked through the hallway to our apartment and could see signs of water having been standing there. We screwed up our courage and opened the front door. The air conditioning was running. We flipped the switch and the lights came on. A note slipped under the door told us that they'd emptied all perishible items from our frige and freezer. No broken windows. No water damage at all. The TVs worked. Even the broadband access was running happily along. All our possessions were right where we'd left them.
All your, and our, prayers were answered today. Thank you all for thinking good thoughts for us.
To celebrate we went to our favorite cajun place about 4:30. A bottle of wine, gumbo, crawfish bisque, salmon-and-shrimp garden salad, and "Mama's crab and shrimp spaghetti" cures a lot of ills.
We came back to the apartment. Wife wrote emails to her boys. I crashed out on the couch. About 9am I displaced her from the computer and got busy getting things moving again to buy the house.
It looks like we'll try to close on Monday 22 September. Original plan had been Friday 19 September. We need to get the insurance thing settled. My insurance agent's office is still without power, so I'll work Plan B on that tomorrow. I handled the one bit of outstanding info that the lender wanted from me tonight. We have to have a final walk-thru on Friday to make sure the builder has fixed all the things we want fixed. The lender is ordering a second appraisal to verify there's not been any serious storm damage. I have to get money from the credit union, assuming it is up and running normally; otherwise, I'll have to invent a Plan B for that.
I've gotten our household furniture back on the road toward us ... or at least I've written emails asking the companies involved to get the process restarted. (We heard from our movers that their warehouse in Houston had suffered no damage, so our UK household goods should be OK.) Next steps are to get telephone, TV, broadband, and security set up at the new house. I need to order a refrigerator, washer, and drier for delivery next week. The list is never ending -- but at least it's a positive list, and not the one I was expecting to be doing tonight.
It's been a very good day.
We left our friends' house in San Antonio about 8:30am this morning to start our 3-hour-plus drive back to Houston area. We made a pitstop for gasoline and a McDonald's breakfast after putting an hour and a half of driving behind us. We drove toward Houston in very light traffic. We didn't see any damage at all until we got quite close to Houston. Then we started to see torn up and torn down billboards, trees leaning at funny angles, etc.
We turned off I-10 and headed south towards our new house. The damage became more severe as we drove. Soon we were seeing uprooted trees, signs completely blown down, blue tarps thrown across a few roofs. As we got nearer our house we really began to worry. The New Territory Blvd leading to our subdivision was a mass of broken limbs and downed trees. It looked like the city had planted red bud trees, or something similar, in the center divide of the road. Those trees hadn't stood up well to the storm at all. The city had done a good job of getting the downed trees cleared, however. The roads were open, stop lights working, shopping centers full, no long lines at gasoline stations.
We rounded into our subdivision and couldn't see damage on any of the houses. We pulled up in front of ours and found it open. We could see a few shingles pulled up, but all in all no damage to speak of. A couple of the small trees planted in front were pretty much stripped of leaves. I found a couple shingles laying in our back yard. A nest of fire ants had tried to get above the high tide line by building a nest up into our brick work. I couldn't detect any damage inside the house at all. The electricity was on, air conditioning working. While we were prowling around, some workers came to resurface part of our fake-granite countertops -- an item we'd noted in our earlier walk-thru. To say that we were relieved was an understatement.
We drove to our builder/agent's office. He said that his electricity was still out at his house a few blocks away, but that electricity in his office had never gone out. He said that they'd already noted the roof damage and had people on the way out to repair it as we spoke. He felt he would have all the required work done from our walk-thru, including re-painting the media room, by Friday. I was amazed.
He also shared that our lender hadn't received some paperwork from me and that my insurance company hadn't provided proof of coverage yet. I worked with Eric and got the lender one of the items that I owed her. I knew how to get her the other information, assuming my computer worked back at our apartment. So, we decided there wasn't much more we could do, and started to drive into Houston itself to check on our apartment. It was now about 3:00pm.
Pessimistic me was expecting (a) a tree through the window leading to, (b) significant water damage, (c) a refrigerator that would have to be thrown out because of the rotting food inside, and (d) looting that would've seen everything we left behind now sitting in someone else's house.
I was totally wrong.
As we got closer to downtown the damage became even more prevalent. Windows knocked out, large bill boards blown over -- bent over, actually. We could see lots and lots of windows blown out of the high rises downtown. It didn't appear that my building was too badly hit. As we turned off the expressway onto the side street leading to our apartment, there was lots of tree damage and several had fallen into people's houses. We pulled up outside our apartment complex and saw a tree leaning out toward the street. We held our breath.
We walked through the hallway to our apartment and could see signs of water having been standing there. We screwed up our courage and opened the front door. The air conditioning was running. We flipped the switch and the lights came on. A note slipped under the door told us that they'd emptied all perishible items from our frige and freezer. No broken windows. No water damage at all. The TVs worked. Even the broadband access was running happily along. All our possessions were right where we'd left them.
All your, and our, prayers were answered today. Thank you all for thinking good thoughts for us.
To celebrate we went to our favorite cajun place about 4:30. A bottle of wine, gumbo, crawfish bisque, salmon-and-shrimp garden salad, and "Mama's crab and shrimp spaghetti" cures a lot of ills.
We came back to the apartment. Wife wrote emails to her boys. I crashed out on the couch. About 9am I displaced her from the computer and got busy getting things moving again to buy the house.
It looks like we'll try to close on Monday 22 September. Original plan had been Friday 19 September. We need to get the insurance thing settled. My insurance agent's office is still without power, so I'll work Plan B on that tomorrow. I handled the one bit of outstanding info that the lender wanted from me tonight. We have to have a final walk-thru on Friday to make sure the builder has fixed all the things we want fixed. The lender is ordering a second appraisal to verify there's not been any serious storm damage. I have to get money from the credit union, assuming it is up and running normally; otherwise, I'll have to invent a Plan B for that.
I've gotten our household furniture back on the road toward us ... or at least I've written emails asking the companies involved to get the process restarted. (We heard from our movers that their warehouse in Houston had suffered no damage, so our UK household goods should be OK.) Next steps are to get telephone, TV, broadband, and security set up at the new house. I need to order a refrigerator, washer, and drier for delivery next week. The list is never ending -- but at least it's a positive list, and not the one I was expecting to be doing tonight.
It's been a very good day.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Heading Toward Houston Tomorrow
We plan to drive to Houston tomorrow morning. We called the apartment this afternoon and received our answering machine. That must mean that the electricity is on at the apartment ... and that looters have at least not stolen the answering machine.
We've been in contact with our builder and our agent. The builder says the new house incurred no damage except for some fencing down and some shrubbery destroyed. He also says that the electricity is still out at the new house. Everyone, except me, seems to think we can close on Friday as planned. I'm not optimistic about that. I want the inspector to come back out at least to look at the roof and to make sure no water has entered the attic, etc. I don't think we can make that happen by Friday.
Also it appears that my financial advisor didn't get my email directing her to get funds made available. I called her today and got that process started. One more notch in my ulcer.
We moved out of the Hyatt on Monday and spent last night and will spend tonight with our friends Gridley and Terry at their house in San Antonio. We're going to leave as early as practical tomorrow morning and hopefully will be at the new house in late morning. Our builder is working at the subdivision tomorrow and will let us into the house. We'll see if we see anything horrible for ourselves and start making plans from there. After that we'll go to our apartment and at least empty the now undoubtedly disgusting fridge. If the place is livable, we'll stay there. We have plenty of bottled water and some food with us. I don't expect that we'll have telephone or internet so bear with us for a while on that front.
The Chevron office in Houston is closed for general business until Monday. It is open for mission critical people, which doesn't include me ... he says thankfully.
So that's it. Wish us luck.
We've been in contact with our builder and our agent. The builder says the new house incurred no damage except for some fencing down and some shrubbery destroyed. He also says that the electricity is still out at the new house. Everyone, except me, seems to think we can close on Friday as planned. I'm not optimistic about that. I want the inspector to come back out at least to look at the roof and to make sure no water has entered the attic, etc. I don't think we can make that happen by Friday.
Also it appears that my financial advisor didn't get my email directing her to get funds made available. I called her today and got that process started. One more notch in my ulcer.
We moved out of the Hyatt on Monday and spent last night and will spend tonight with our friends Gridley and Terry at their house in San Antonio. We're going to leave as early as practical tomorrow morning and hopefully will be at the new house in late morning. Our builder is working at the subdivision tomorrow and will let us into the house. We'll see if we see anything horrible for ourselves and start making plans from there. After that we'll go to our apartment and at least empty the now undoubtedly disgusting fridge. If the place is livable, we'll stay there. We have plenty of bottled water and some food with us. I don't expect that we'll have telephone or internet so bear with us for a while on that front.
The Chevron office in Houston is closed for general business until Monday. It is open for mission critical people, which doesn't include me ... he says thankfully.
So that's it. Wish us luck.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Sunday Morning In San Antonio
We're struggling to get going after quite a lazy day yesterday. We got up late on Saturday and tried to hit Denny's near-by for breakfast.
On the way out of the hotel we arranged to stay Sunday night for Monday check-out. We can't get a reservation after that here so we'll need to find other accommodations somehow.
At Denny's the 30 minute wait seemed too much. We wandered RiverWalk drinking a bloody mary and a strawberry margarita ... well, it was 11:30 by then, after all. We had a nice fight over where to eat then decided to eat next to the river at Landry's Seafood. It turned out to be a good choice. Wife had redfish with scallops and I had a monster seafood salad. A nice bottle of Buena Vista chardonnay was perfect with it.
We went back to hotel and just flaked out for the next several hours -- watched a stupid movie or two. The housekeepers came about 4pm and we went downstairs for a drink in the bar and nibbled some snacks. We went back up to the room and that was it for the night. We never even made it out for dinner.
So now it's Sunday morning. We're not getting much news about Houston, but it doesn't look good. It doesn't appear that they've gotten much if any of the power restored. I've not received any news on how Chevron's building fared. I just got a text message from a work colleague saying, "Stay where you are. Power out. Cell phones spotty. Trees down everywhere."
Looks like we'll be at Hotel Gridley (i.e., our friends' house) tomorrow night, if he'll have us.
On the way out of the hotel we arranged to stay Sunday night for Monday check-out. We can't get a reservation after that here so we'll need to find other accommodations somehow.
At Denny's the 30 minute wait seemed too much. We wandered RiverWalk drinking a bloody mary and a strawberry margarita ... well, it was 11:30 by then, after all. We had a nice fight over where to eat then decided to eat next to the river at Landry's Seafood. It turned out to be a good choice. Wife had redfish with scallops and I had a monster seafood salad. A nice bottle of Buena Vista chardonnay was perfect with it.
We went back to hotel and just flaked out for the next several hours -- watched a stupid movie or two. The housekeepers came about 4pm and we went downstairs for a drink in the bar and nibbled some snacks. We went back up to the room and that was it for the night. We never even made it out for dinner.
So now it's Sunday morning. We're not getting much news about Houston, but it doesn't look good. It doesn't appear that they've gotten much if any of the power restored. I've not received any news on how Chevron's building fared. I just got a text message from a work colleague saying, "Stay where you are. Power out. Cell phones spotty. Trees down everywhere."
Looks like we'll be at Hotel Gridley (i.e., our friends' house) tomorrow night, if he'll have us.
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