Afternoon Marta

5:40 - leave my office

5:42 - arrive at Marta station

5:43 - the paper trip pass (to and fro) I bought this morning doesn't work. I all of a sudden remember it took 10 taps on the sensor to function correctly this morning when I exited the station. I buy a new fare card -- this time a legit, debit-card-durable card and load two round trips on it ($9).

5:46 - a southbound train arrives. I take David Byrnes advice from facebook today and get on the last car (David has generally found the last car to be least crowded in the afternoons).  Car isn't crowded -- but then again, I'm getting on toward the upper-most part of the line.

5:51 - this train is actually pretty chilly inside. Where was this chill factor this morning when I was developing a nice pre-work layer of moistness all over?

5:56 - Lindbergh station. About 15 people get on my train car, three of which seem they've recently been expunged from mental institutions. We have two talk-to-yourselfers, one of which is carrying her Marta pass, driver's license, AARP card and wallet in a ziplock bag. She's asked, "you want some?" about four times, to no one in particular about nothing particular.

6:03 - I'm no germophobe but the number of people coughing and sneezing remind me of how many colds and flus are probably passed along on this train.

My train is now standing room only.

I hear a man ask the woman next to him, "so do you ride the train often?" I bet she's never heard THAT before.

6:08 - getting more full. Next stop - Five Points to change trains.

6:10 - time to time trains. Doors on both sides open. I incorrectly assume I can exit from either side. Nope, that's to go up to the street. Whoops. Have to walk back through train car over to other side. I go up on the escalator to snag my connection.

6:11 - score! My train is here and the doors are still open. I don't have time to walk to the last train car.

Car isn't too crowded, though there aren't any seats available.

6:14 - car frees up a little but I feel it would be lazy to sit down because only have two more stops before I get off. I hold onto a railing.

I'm seeing fewer afternoon sketchies than I was warned about.

I spy a girl with that fierce Cassie haircut. Looking good, bb! Apparently the older gentleman next to her thinks so, too. Googly eyes ensue.

6:21 - arrive at my station, wishing I had hand sanitizer.

6:22 - Heavier duty card works fine, allows me to exit. I start walking home. Typing these notes on my phone, walk into a branch.

6:29 - arrive at home in almost exactly the same amount of time it took me to get to work this morning.

P.s. Does the style of these Marta posts remind you a little of Paul's blog?

My MARTA morning...

7:55 - realize it's really time to get boogying; have not yet put on makeup - whoops!

8:00 - leave for Marta with purse, book, coffee

8:06 - arrive; buy $4 ticket

8:12 - 8:10 train arrives

See that quite a few people in my neighborhood either walk to this station or park (free).

It's almost standing room only.

The train doesn't seem to have AC. I'm wearing a skirt and short sleeves but still have a little "glistening" action going on.

Observing more white collar professionals on this ride compared to when I go to the airport. Man to my left appears to be studying and making notes on a building plan splayed across his lap. Woman to my right looks like she's reviewing a meeting agenda.

Lots of people get off at the GA State station. I make a note to self that we ought to market our proximity to Marta when we list our in-law suite/apt on Craigslist.

8:21 - we arrive at Five Points; time to change trains

8:21 and 30 seconds - Score! My connecting train is just about to pull away but it's doors are still open.

8:22 - train is so full I can barely find a place to stand. Wish I had put my makeup on at home or on the last train.

8:27 - enough people get off at the Civic Center (?) that I'm able to sit down.

8:29 - 8:31 - I get strange looks as I put on concealer, blush and bronzer. Sure natural light is best for applying makeup - but being underground on a transit train while applying can't have THAT different of results. I decide to wait until i get to the office to do eyeshadow and eyeliner.

8:37 - we arrive at the Buckhead station. My train car is now about half full.

8:40 - maybe I do have time to put on eye shadow and eyeliner afterall.

Two girls are talking across the train about their latest love conquests. The girl in the red shirt doesn't believe the boy she met the other night actually owns his own place. She thinks it's his mama's place. This is mildly amusing.

8:43 - whoops. Almost miss my stop: exit the train

Walk across the parking lot, thinking this wasn't so bad afterall. Grateful I didn't have to take a bus to or from the stations

8:49 - walk into my building, realizing my Marta commute time today is equal to my car commute yesterday.

8: 50 - gaze at my reflection in the in the mirrored elevator doors; hair is frizzier than usual but the trip was worth it.

Next up: the ride home...

One Line, Two Line, Red Line, Blue Line (MARTA Adventure Time)

I've lived in Atlanta almost five years. While I've ridden the train to the airport or occasional concerts, I've never used MARTA (the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) to get to work.

That changes tomorrow. 

Love my new job... not always loving the commute. Sometimes it's 25 minutes in the morning, sometimes it's 50. Same thing in the afternoons. There's no great way to get from our house to the office. So I figure that riding MARTA (one line to Five Points, then transferring to another line to get to my office) is worth a shot. Maybe I can read or listen to some tunes. 

BTW, could MARTA not get the url www.marta.com or www.marta.org? The web address is www.itsmarta.com — which is just about as ghetto as how miniscule its reach is or how goofy its iPhone app is (it's a flat, non-interactive map of train stations).

Wish me luck!

p.s. Emily, any words of wisdom since you're a veteran to-work MARTA rider and all?

Closing Time

Tomorrow's the big day: closing. We'll sit at a table with lawyers, our realtors, our lender and the sellers. Fingers crossed all goes well!

Tonight we had our "final walk-through" of the property. I'm not sure exactly what is supposed to happen in a final walk-through (maybe walk away if something is crazy awry?), but ours went fine.

Since the last time we visited the house, the sellers (the son and daughter-in-law of the woman who passed away) moved out all the furniture, items in storage in the basement, pictures on the wall, etc., etc., and did a general clean-up of the space. There was nothing to sign so we verbally told our agent the house seemed satisfactory.

Seeing the house tonight was mostly exciting, but also a reminder of all the projects that lie ahead. Luckily the "income property" (walkout basement apartment) will need very little work to be in rentworthy condition. In fact, one of the projects my mom and I will tackle in early March is giving the apartment a mini cosmetic facelift (painting, replacing the bathroom mirror with something more modern, hanging curtains, etc.). We're hoping the space will garner us about $600 a month that we can cashflow into improvement projects.

Our realtor (Andy of The Peters Company) and I scoped out the place while we

waited for Dan to arrive.

Kitchen. Note the counter left of the oven. If put a rubber ball on the counter, it would roll off (to the left) faster than you could say "yo mama."

View one of the living/dining combo (screened-in porch is to the right).

Living/dining from another angle.

The even left us the fancy above-toilet organizer!

The ceiling tiles we'll be pulling down (or Dan will be pulling down) this week.

Masks will be worn.

Master (in our dreams, we could combine the adjacent bedroom into

one big master suite). Of course this is only when we build another

bedroom in the basement... 20 years from now.

Back bedroom. I hope there's nothing sketchy hanging out behind that mirror.

Back bedroom shot 2.

This bad baby is currently hanging out in the kitchen (likely so that the older woman who previously lived here didn't have to go downstairs to do laundry). It will soon be relocated into the apartment so we can advertise with "includes washer/dryer."

This looks about the same.

Stairs from basement up to main floor.

Buyer's remorse? Nah. :)

Inspection time: the good, the bad and the ugly

Our (potential) home inspection was yesterday. And Norman from Stellar Inspections turned the 35-plus page inspection for us in nearly 24 hours. Right on, Norman!

As to be expected with any inspection, we received feedback of a few major issues, several medium-to-moderate ones... and a slew of this-isn't-an-emergency-but-you-should-probably-take-care-of-it-soon items. Dan experienced the entire inspection firsthand, as he crawled along around on all fours in the attic, traipsed around the unkempt exterior and inspected for water damage — all by Norman's side.

I took the opportunity to take more photos of the house and evaluate the space. When you visit a house on a house-hunting trip, it's easy for everything to mix together. E.g., I remembered a formal living room area in addition to the informal one at the back of the house... yeah, I made that up!

While I was thinking about silly, not-so-functional tasks like playing with my camera, Dan decided to really maximize our time at the house. He scheduled a contractor to swing by to evaluate a few potential projects and give us his feedback. Dan also measured the hardwoods that could be refinished (about 900 square feet when you tally up the three bedrooms, hallway and large living/dining space).

On to the photos I snapped (some capture "issues" while others are just for perspective):

So, here she is. Built to last in 1949.

The kitchen (bead board wall), complete with hunter green laminates. It's a galley kitchen but with lots of counter space.

We were a little concerned concerned about this cracking in the kitchen ceiling. It appears the previous owners closed in a sunroom adjacent to the kitchen. Phil, our contractor friend, is fairly certain all this needs is a little mudding/skimming.

The long wall running between the kitchen and the living area. The wood paneling appears to be in mostly good shape, though we'd likely want to update crown molding (you can see about eight layers of paint crudded up on the molding).

Bookcase/built-ins at the "living" end of the large living/dining area. Phil the contractor suggests recessing that drywall area in the middle so we can comfortably hang out TV there. The lady who lived here obviously had a thing for yellow. I love the idea of having that storage under the bookcase.

Good-looking fireplace. Our inspector encouraged us to use gas logs instead of wood to keep this in clean shape. I'll have more to discuss re: the fireplace and chimney below.

View from the living/dining room to the "three seasons" porch, which is about the size of the main room (12-feet by 26-feet)

(Now, onto the basement apartment. The basement runs the length of the house but only about a third is finished. The unfinished area has giantly tall ceilings and is mostly used for storage. The finished area is in the form of a studio apartment, which we hope to rent for the first year or two of owning the house. Thankfully the apartment seems to turnkey, with an exterior entrance and fresh paint and carpet. That income isn't vital — but it would make a big difference with cash-flowing improvements.)

Kitchenette end of the basement studio apartment. The sink, stove and vent work fine.

One angle of the apartment.

Opposite view/angle.

Apartment vanity.

Apartment throne. Again with the yellow.

Apartment closet.

Apartment fireplace.

(Okay, back upstairs. You still with me?)

Phil the contractor measures the hallway.

Hallway/main bathroom tub. Surprise. More yellow.

What felt like the smallest of the three upstairs bedrooms. This room is the most likely to be the office/small guest bedroom... or maybe one day, a nursery (and anxiety takes over...).

Second guest bedroom.

Master bedroom (about 14 feet by 11 feet — close to same size as the other bedrooms)

Master bathroom with stand-up shower. We found out later this bathroom renovation may be one of our first projects (the shower drain pan has been patched once and has little life left in it).

(Back downstairs to evaluate some issues... are you still with me?)

Stairs seem to be supporting weight just fine; however, our inspector recommends we add some base support (versus just letting them hang) to make them more structurally sound.

Storage in unfinished basement area. Some of this area could be finished off later.

The good news in this photo: The drain appears to be in the right place, and the furnace seems to be operating fine. The bad news: It appears we have some little friends (namely mice/rats).

Are you ready for one of the most massive finds of the inspection....?

(wait for it)

(wait for it)

Oooooooh. Bad news. This giant poo shot was taken in the attic. It appears a raccoon is living amongst the wharf rats. eeeek! Thank goodness we can deal with this before we move in. I wish you could see how big this is. It's the size of medium dog poop.

As you would expect, I didn't capture every issue above. So in the interest of keeping "pros" and "cons" in these posts, here we go:

Some PROS of the inspection:

• No structural or major water damage issues (or as Dan put it, no
• Roof is 7 to 9 years old
• AC is 10 years or younger
• Electrical seems to be mostly in good shape (note: we do need to make some of the outlets GCFI compliant, and a breaker needs to be replaced)
• No termites
• There's tile underneath the main bathroom carpet (hallelujah)
• Hardwood floors under the carpets
• The yard is mega deep (the whole yard is two-thirds of an acre — and no one would ever build in the backyard)
• Late 40s/early 50s were known for good/solid construction
• Addition seems to be well-constructed
• Nothing freaked out our inspector, contractor friend or the pest control guy — in fact, they all encouraged us to proceed

Some CONS* of the inspection:

• Gaps exist between the chimney and the attic. This has led to some water damage (none active) around the chimney. We'll need new flashing (the protective material around the chimney) as well as some preventive measures (added pitch to keep water rolling down the roof, new boots, new chimney cap, etc.) to keep this in good shape.
• During this visit, we realized there's quite a bit of cosmetic work needed (painting, moldings, kitchen work, floor refinishing, bathroom renovations, etc.)
• The age of house means there may be some asbestos (e.g., in the bedroom ceiling tiles)
• Some subfloor issues need to be addressed, namely where a floor joist was cut in half to make room for a new pipe.
• "Tenants" (a.k.a. some pests)
• While it's not structural, the drywall paneling in the bedrooms is showing its seams, which means we'll want to have new drywall laid on top or have the current drywall mudded and skimmed.

Due diligence ends on Tuesday. Stay tuned.

*Note: few houses, even new ones, come without issues.

U/C stands for...

UNDER CONTRACT!

We are excited to share that we're "under contract" on one of the homes I blogged about this month. The negotiation process was a little stressful and full of ups and downs, yet somehow we came out on top. Can you guess which house it is?

Click here and see if you guessed right.

So, needless to say, we're very excited... yet nervous about the inspection process. The house is being sold "as-is," so we're crossing our fingers for a good inspector. If all goes as planned, we'll close on February 25. This is good timing, as we'll have our apartment until February 28 and can move in little-by-little. We're trusting the fantastic folks over at The Peters Company to finish us through the buying process.

This house has great bones, a fantastic location, lots of space -- most everything we'd hoped for in our next place. As I told my parents, this isn't a "next five years" house, it could be a forever house.

So what to do first? See if we can refinish the hardwoods for a reasonable price? Put some (temporary) laminate over that bathroom carpet? Grill out on the screened-in porch (okay, maybe grilling inside a screened-in porch isn't such a great idea...?).

The House Hunt Continues: Northeast Decatur

This 4/3 (with a big bonus room!!!) split-level house was a late addition to our recent Sunday house hunting trip. 

Dan saw it pop up in our gateway (an e-mail service that alerts you when new houses within your criteria come on the market) and asked if we could work it into the schedule. What a great find! The house needs very few changes (changing some linoleum to tile, maybe fancy-ing up the bathrooms a bit, etc.) and we could easily see ourselves living here.

This house is probably my #3, Dan's #1 or #2.

Cute split level.

Nice hardwoods, interesting beams, beautiful fireplace.

Updated kitchen with colors that go with our style.

Another one of those formal living rooms (nice space though).

One of the guest bedrooms.

One of the full baths.

El gigante bonus room! Can you hear the Rock Band?

Sunroom with view of the backyard.

Backyard, complete with a little storage shed.

Pros:

• Priced within our budget
• Reasonable taxes
• T-O-N-S of space (2,500-ish square feet?) — four bedrooms plus a bonus room!!
• Family-oriented neighborhood
• Convenient to grocery shopping and my fave Goodwill (Northlake/Lavista Rd.)
• Cosmetically updated (granite counter tops, nice kitchen, neutral paints, etc.)
• Structurally well-maintained
• Neat exposed beams in the living room — and a beautiful fireplace
• Good-sized backyard
• Two-car carport

Cons:

• Ever-so-slightly more northeast than I'd like (note: still a great area that I would be happy in)
• Street is nice but property values aren't quite the same as the Toco Hill-ish neighborhood we also looked in
• A few of the rooms need new flooring (totally understandable)
• (Honestly, not a lot of cons here)

Four-sided Brick in Established Decatur Neighborhood

My blog title reads like a personal ad for a house, doesn't it? 

This casa is a 3 bedroom/2 bath with a lot more space than we expected. In addition to a good-sized formal living room (sidenote: what does one do with a formal living room?), the house has a HUGE second living room that flows into a nice sunroom. This will make more sense when you see the photos. The house is located in the same nice neighborhood as this cute 3/2 we looked at last weekend.

This place is currently sitting in second or third place on my list.

View from spacious formal living room into dining room.

Main living room/sunroom. It's H-U-G-E.

The kitchen has a similar layout to our last house — but the footprint is 

a little bigger. We would want to update this.

"Vintage" (euphemism for "ugly") pink tile in one of the full baths.

View of her backside. Can't you just see a basketball goal back there?

Part of the (unfinished) basement. This basement has potential for growth.

Cozy backyard, complete with birdhouse.

Pros:

• Convenient location to Toco Hills, downtown Decatur, the Virginia Highlands
• Established neighboorhood
• Lots of space
• Priced within our boundaries
• Our investments in the home would be supported by the neighborhood — and we could cash-flow the improvements over time
• Room to finish part of the basement (one large room, a bedroom and small family room or some kind of in-law suite)
• Deep and wide two-car garage
• Optional swim/tennis club membership

Cons: 

• Bathrooms, kitchen need updating
  
• Screened in porch downstairs is accessed via the unfinished basement (awkward for now — but will be nice if we finished part of the basement)
• High taxes (more of this $6,000/year-ish stuff. ugh!)
• House sits slightly below street level
• Front porch slopes downward slightly (though this may be by design so it doesn't collect water)
• Curb appeal is better than the photos show — but it's not the "looker" from the street that this one is