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Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Home Buyer's Check List

co-written with Tawana Keah

Steps To Buying A Home


You want the five bedroom, four bathroom house with the massive backyard that you pass everyday on you drive to and from work. No matter how badly you may want that home, your bank account might tell you something else.

Before starting your search for a home, one of the things it is imperative to do is take a realistic look at your finances. Scrutinize your income and your short-term/long-term budgets to determine what you can truly afford. How is your credit? If your credit report has adverse or negative information, getting those items resolved should be your first priority. Once you have resolved the issues, your credit report and score will not change instantly. To help hasten matters you can contact the creditor directly after you have met the obligation and ask them to remove the adverse information. Sometimes this works but don't be surprised if it does not.

These weekly post were created to take you step by step through the process of buying your home. Whether you are a first time home buyer or a seasoned investor, our goal is to guide you through a smoother, less stressful buying process. These posts will offer advice and tools you need to start down the path to obtaining your dream home.

Listed below are the steps to buying a home. Click on the link to find out about each step in more detail. Each link will become active as the subject is introduced.
  1. Check your credit. 
  2. Get your finances in order. 
  3. Decide on a place and type of home you want to buy. 
  4. Get prequalified or preapproved for a loan. 
  5. Find a real estate agent. 
  6. Shop for your home. 
  7. Secure your loan. 
  8. Lender has home appraised. 
  9. Buyer has home inspected. 
  10. Acquire homeowner's insurance. 
  11. Close the Sale.
We have provided a list with links to calculators with everything from mortgage cost to salaries. If you have questions, feel free to ask us, we're only and email away.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Kitchen Experience Not Required

He Was A Woman’s Dream

 
Roasted_chicken
Kitchen Experience Not Required

Handsome, nice body, educated and successful. His name was Jason Winslow and there had to be something wrong with him or he wouldn’t have been left on the shelf, at age forty-five, for me to pluck down.

I mean, Jason was just too good to be true! We’d talk for hours about politics, religion, philosophy, the previous night’s episode of Fringe, a show we both enjoyed. Even when he was brutally honest, some how Jason managed to take the sting out of his words. Nice right?

Jason was the first guy I could drag in front of my friends and family and not be afraid some stupid remark would come out of his mouth or worse yet, he’d emit something foul from other orifices. Don’t act shocked! We’ve all had that date who gassed up a room so badly you’d have thought an animal had crawled into them and died. I know a few gals, who even married such dates. Hey, whatever floats you boat.

And then it happened. On a rainy weekend in late April Jason asked me to have dinner at his place. We had been dating for roughly four months. Up until Jason's invitation, our dining choices had been to eat at my place, go out to a restaurant or somewhere outdoors if the weather permitted. This time was different. Jason was going to cook. Jason never cooked. We had been dating for several months and he had never volunteered to do so before. I was flattered. The only other time a man had offered to cook for me, dinner had consisted of me arriving to find the guy stretched out naked among a table full of food. Needless to say, I passed. Not gas…just quickly back through the front door. And if you're asking, you will meet that fellow in the posts of The Bachelor. I'm not sure if Jason fits in the bachelor category. I'll let the night unfold in this post and you decide.

Jason took total control of the kitchen that evening. I wasn’t to so much as touch a pot, pan or plate. He only wanted me to sit on a stool at the counter, drink my glass of wine, and keep him company while he prepared dinner.

“What’s for dinner?” I asked.

“Lemon-pepper chicken stuffed with spring vegetables.” Jason answered.

My eyes roamed over the counter. I saw a mixture of greens and scallions and deduced that was going inside the chicken. He even had a small bowl with all the seasonings mixed together that he was going to rub onto the chicken. It only took a few seconds more to realize what was missing. The chicken.

“Umm, Jason,” I hesitated, “Honey, where’s the chicken?”

Jason smiled and kept right on chopping vegetables as he replied. “In the sink. The recipe I’m using said to wash the chicken thoroughly.”

I looked over at the sink and saw nothing but sudsy water. Again I hesitated, “Umm, Jason. What are you using to wash the chicken?”

“Palmolive dish liquid. The commercials say it leaves your hands soft as it cleans so I thought it would clean the chicken but leave it tender as well.”

I nearly choked on my wine trying not to laugh. Did I tell Jason that wasn’t the way you clean a chicken? Eventually, but not that evening.

Later that night, we dined on a lovely meal of lemon-pepper Palmolive chicken stuffed with spring vegetables, roasted potatoes and garlic bread. What’s a little stomach ache between friends right? As we ate chocolate cake, thankfully purchased at a nearby bakery, Jason proposed. It was well worth the duck runs I had for the next two days.

Related articles:

Roasted Chicken with Vegetables (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
One Pot Roasted Chicken and Vegetables(girlinterruptedeating.wordpress.com)
Lemon and Sage Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Endive(endiveblog.wordpress.com)
slow cooker fall apart chicken (backtoherroots.com)

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

My Roommate Has Got To Go!

What am I to do?


I can’t bring a man home. No sooner do I, than she comes switching her big tail down the hall. All eyes immediately follow her. I might as well be plaster on the wall. Her blue eyes stare directly into my guest’s eyes as she brushes past. Game over, he’s in the bag. Is she aware of her allure, her power? You better believe it! Her eyes flash at me in satisfaction as she parks herself in what should have been my man’s lap.

My no cooking, no cleaning, man stealing roommate has got to go!

My days are long. Clients and a demanding boss crowd the hours from sunup to sundown. I arrive home to find her spread out on the couch. Lounging like a queen at court. Does she ask me about my day? No. She demands dinner right away. Uncaring if I’m sick or tired.

My no cooking, no cleaning, man stealing roommate has got to go!

She had nowhere to go, no one to love so I opened my home to her. Now she seems to be under the impression I am her slave. How about contributing toward the rent sweetie? Since you think you’re so “fly”, let’s see if you can get your big tail on camera.

My no cooking, no cleaning, man stealing roommate has got to go!

Don’t get me wrong, she has some good qualities and right now I’m trying to remember what they are. I love her or she wouldn’t be here. I should have my head examined, I know, but she’s my best friend.

My no cooking, no cleaning, man stealing roommate has got to go!

She doesn’t have a resume but maybe you could find it in your heart to give her a job anyway? I’ve posted her picture.

Oh man! I can feel it! 

My no cooking, no cleaning, man stealing roommate just stole your heart too!


     
Related articles:
(apartmenttherapy.com/authors/adrienne)
Old Roommates (spreadinformation.wordpress.com)
Ask Me - Question 1 (staceyarcher.wordpress.com)
Roommates, chores and groceries galore! (brandylovestomatoes.com)
Dropbox Etiquette - Stu Maschwitz (stoweboyd.com)
The Wet Jet (kellieckdahl.wordpress.com)