I tried to get a straw house but they were all sold out.

I heard from the bank today, and they've verbally accepted. But it's a short sale, so they have to check out several other things to make sure they are in the position to make the sale.

I'm not worried about being stuck in the area because the only reason I'd move is if I had a great job offer in Chicago. And in that case, I'd just be renting an apartment in some high-rise downtown. I'd keep the house and use it as a weekend get-away. I could also rent out a room to a friend or relative to keep it from sitting empty the whole week.

When I saw your title I thought about this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4o-TeMHys0

ORLY? How astute!

I only offered about 45% of what they owe on the house. But they owe more than the house was ever worth. Given that and the updates I will do before moving in, the offer is probably closer to 75% of what the house is actually worth. So I wouldn't call it a steal, but I shouldn't lose any money on it.

Normally short sales take a long time, but given the high number of bank owned properties, they are motivated to dump things as fast as they can. If everything clears, I'll probably close within 20 days of the offer.

A new way of examining people's organs? Why?

Congratulations Matthew!

Welcome to home ownership. Feels nice doesn't it?

We have something called "homesteader's insurance" in Ma. If you fall into financial trouble, it helps. You should look into it. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/rod/rodhom/homidx.htm

On a related note, it seems that an apartment has finally opened up for me. I saw it yesterday and it looks good. It's a small one-bedroom, but the layout is nice. My brother has the adjacent apartment and when you walk in his door you're looking at the kitchen, which is little more than a row of cupboards and such. The entrance is little more than a thin "hallway". In [soon to be] my apartment, when you walk in the door you are looking at the living area. The kitchen is to the left in a corner.

Approximately mine:

 _____________________
|              |      |
|      LR      |  BR  |
|              |      |
|   _          |  _   |
|    |         |  _|__|
| K      ___       WR |
|____|  /   |__|_|____|

(Imagine the counters/appliances because there's no space to draw them)

Approximately his:

 _____________________
|      |              |
|  BR  |    LR        |
|      |         _   _|
|   _  |        | | | |
|__|_           | |K| |
| WR            |_| |_|
|____|_|__________   _|

I'm rather satisfied with it. It will be the first place of my own.

They're just fixing it up now. They're going to try to get the carpets cleaned. If that works out then I should be in in about two weeks. If the carpets can't be cleaned then they'll be tearing them out and putting in hardwood floors (I think). Additionally, they'd redo the tiling in the bathroom and kitchen, so I wouldn't mind if they took that approach, but I'm not going to explicitly ask for it. Rent seems reasonable at CAD$650 (CAD$675 if they redo the floors).

Expect a number of threads in the near future to help pick out things to fill it up. Early must haves will be a computer desk, entertainment stand, and bed.

I've been looking into Tempur-Pedic beds because I want to be comfortable (and not suffer from an inability to sleep or soreness, etc.). They are unfortunately rather expensive. It seems Sears has queen-sized bed for $CAD2200 ish. It seems like a lot, but then everybody else I know that has bought a bed say they can't sleep and they hate it... A queen-sized bed barely fits in the small bedroom in these places, but it seems having a double would be awkward to share with someone else.

I'm also interested in getting some exercise equipment. I'm leaning towards a bow-flex, but those are quite expensive too. It seems Sears has one model on sale for CAD$1000, but I'm not sure how much it's capable of doing, let alone whether they actually work yet. I would love to work on muscle mass and toning and such. That said, it would also be nice to work on cardio and stamina... I just can't afford two machines to handle everything and even if I could I wouldn't have space for them. Already, I'm going to have to be careful about what I do get to make sure there's space for it.

Months ago I was going to get a pool table, but it seems that there just won't be space. Besides, if I actually manage to buff up then I'd be more comfortable spending all night at a bar and playing pool there.

I'd like to get a gaming PC that is capable of running anything modern easily so eventually I'll probably buy a liquid cooled Falcon-Northwest. It looks like it'll be between CAD$2500 and CAD$3500 for that. I'll have to try to hold off on that to see how much savings I still have left. I'll probably wait until Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and/or Portal 2 are released, but I doubt that I'll be able to wait any longer (unless I find myself terribly afraid of affording to live on my own by then).

I'm planning to get a Roomba robot vaccuum so that I don't have to physically make time to vacuum the apartment. One that can run automatically on a schedule, perhaps when I'm away at j0rb, would be nice. They're not cheap though either. It seems you can get cheaper models for USD$300 ish, but their capabilities are very limited, forcing you to still do some of the work. It seems the USD$600-700 ones can pretty much do it all by themselves.

Advices/experiences with these specific items/brands and/or life itself appreciated.

You must never go outside to get your shoes dirty.

I don't wear dirty shoes in the house...

Or leave them in the entry.

I have literally just finished moving all our stuff to our new apartment. We're now in a two-bedroom apartment configured like this:

 _______ __________
|                  |
|                  |
|  LR         DR   |
|                   
|______            |
|     |            |
|     |      ______|
| BR  |            |
|     |            |
|             K    |
|______            |
|        __________|
| BR  |  |    |    |
|     |  |    |    |
|_____|  |    | L  |
|             |    |
|     WR           |
|_____________|____|

The wall between the kitchen and the dining room is only half height, so the whole lounge/dining/kitchen area is pretty open-plan. The bathroom is huge, as is the laundry area, which is going to double as storage.

It's going for $370 (USD 280) p/w, fully furnished. We're in the same building we were already in, so we're still right in the centre of the city.