About... the night before
Posted: 22 August 2002 at 00:16:36
Tomorrow morning I start working at About.com in Orem. I'll officially be an Aboutian... or something like that.
About.com overnighted the “new employee packet” to me and I received it today. This included a dozen or so forms I need to fill out along with details on paydays, vacations, holidays, and benefits. The benefits are nice... very nice. I'm looking forward to going to the dentist.
Buying / selling houses
We've started to put our house up for sale. I've listed it in the Herald Journal newspaper (if you go to their website, hold your breath so you can't catch a whiff of the stench) and I've set up a website for the house at HyrumHome.com. I'm also allowing for the possibility others in Hyrum who are looking to sell their house may want to put up a page under that domain name.
We've had a couple people talk to us about the house... nothing real serious yet. We've been cleaning and fixing things up in the meantime. Today I took all the screens off the windows on the front and cleaned the windows. It's probably the most thorough cleaning those windows have had... ever. I also fixed the handles on the bi-fold doors to our pantry. Then, I stripped all the paint off the trim around the garage door and primed it for repainting. I'll probably paint it on Saturday.
As for buying a new house... I drove down to Salt Lake again on Monday and talked to a realtor who is selling lots and houses in a new development in Herriman called “Tuscany Estates”. I really like the house plans and I like the design of the development. Almost all the lots are up for sale right now, so if we act fast, we could get one of the nicer lots.
I think I want a north-facing lot so the back of the house (i.e. the kitchen and great room) get more sunlight. I really want to put skylights on that side of the house.
I wasn't sure how we could buy or reserve a lot before our house was sold, but the realtor I talked to (James, I think, is what his name is) said we could put down earnest money on a lot and sign a contract with the builder which would say we would close on the house when our old house sold.
Sounds like a plan... assuming the old house sells.
Meanwhile, Christine is hoping we can find a good deal on a foreclosure. I think everyone's looking for good deals on foreclosures and that it would be very hard to find a house that we want that way.
It's kind of like those government auction advertisements. They show expensive cars like Jaguars and Mercedes and indicate that if you go to the auctions you could pick one of these cars up for ten bucks. Then, if you go, you mind find a 1986 Ford Escort going for ten bucks or a 1982 Lincoln Continental for twenty.
I think the people who get the good deals are the result of advertising errors. The auction date is incorrectly published. Nobody comes except for the guy who bids ten bucks on the luxury sedan. Going once. Going twice. Sold! To the only guy here.
I'll give it a shot, I guess. I just don't want to waste too much time trying to chase down a great deal when we could be working on getting a nice new lot in Tuscany Estates.
I need to find out what the Internet access situation is like out there before I worry too much about it. If I can't get AT&T or DSL, it's over. I need broadband.
Staying at Mom and Dad's
I'll be staying in the guest room at my parents' place in West Valley until we sell our house in Hyrum and have a place to move to. Tonight, I brought down a folding computer desk, an office chair, and my laptop. Eventually, I'd like to bring a desktop machine down, but there is one concern... The power receptacles are not grounded. There is grounded receptacles in the areas of the house they added on a couple years ago, but the guest room isn't in that part of the house.
I guess I have a couple options. I can either take a chance and try to run my computer ungrounded. I can move the computer to another part of the house which is grounded. I could also try to run a ground wire to a receptacle.
There is a heat duct right next to the receptacle I'm using. I'm wondering if I ground the receptacle to the duct, if that will be okay. I guess I could buy a cheap outlet tester to see if it will work. The more I think about it, the more I think it will work.
I went to Fred Meyer tonight to stock up on some things I figured I'd need while I'm here:
- Contact lens solutions
- Fruity Pebbles cereal
- Pudding
- Sunflower seeds
- A body sponge
- Diet Coke
That's all. I hope tomorrow goes well.