Journey to Gestalt

Icon Is Relevant

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:37:36 GMT

Okay, I haven't posted here in far too long because I was caught up in house- and craft-related stuff.

Before I LJ-cut this: the home inspection went well. I got approved for the mortgage. I close on the house next Tuesday, which explains some of the frantic activity. I've arranged homeowner's insurance (and switched my auto policy to bundle them together for discounts), but there's still so much to do!

* Get the utilities switched over into my name
* Decide whether I want cable or DSL internet access & arrange for that
* Haunt Craigslist for the appliances and furniture I still need (or want - the appliances are a need, the rest of it can probably wait a bit)
* Figure out if I want to refinish the floors before or after I move (before probably makes more sense, but I don't know how long it'll take, argh)
* Find out if friend with truck can help me move the larger furniture, or if I need to rent a U-Haul van
* Get cashier's check from bank for closing costs

I picked up a few more kitchen items last night, and have a line on a batch of other cooking/storage type doo-dads. Trying to keep an eye on Freecycle for anything that'd be useful. Need to pack like a mad packing thing this weekend.

All the house fuss has made it hard to focus at work, which I hope isn't affecting my upcoming performance review too much (ugh). You can probably see the lack of coherence in this post!

As for craft stuff, I finished my first basket-weave scarf (here's an early-progress picture to show what the pattern looks like), started another, and took part in a color-themed swap for a group on Ravelry which involved sewing one project bag, and decorating another tote. Pics for those haven't been uploaded yet. Knitting makes a very good mild-sedative substitute; in the evenings when I can't cope with much of anything else, I just whip out the yarn & needles.

There will be house pictures once all the papers are signed and it's really, truly mine. (Well, the bank's - but you get the idea!)

Home, Stress Home

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:37:54 GMT

I think I have to give up on my favorite of the houses I looked at, because I can't wait up to 4 - 6 months for closing. :(
Found out only last week that the house in question is up for what's known as "short sale," and did some research to find out what that means - it hasn't been foreclosed on yet, but the owners are behind on payments and are trying to sell it for less than they still owe and hoping that their lender will settle for what they can get. The catch to this is that the lender (or lenders, if they took out a second mortgage or equity loan on the property) have to agree to each step in the process, which can drag the process out to ridiculous lengths. The lender(s) can apparently also veto any offer at any point in the process, even if the seller accepts it.

My buyer's agent has already admitted he's never handled a short sale in his 20+ year career, so I don't think he could magically whisk me through it and get me the house I really want in short order.

I could wish the information had come out before I got a little too emotionally invested in that property. As it is, unless I get a lucky lottery ticket tonight, I think it's time to change focus over to the second-choice house. Which is still a quite nice house, it's just a little less privacy and not what I had kind of gotten my heart set on.

So yeah, I've been alternately stressing out about that, and doing mindless stuff to try to NOT think about it. Oh yeah, and some stressing about the local SF con play, but that's done now and went over pretty well. One thing off the worry-list, at least. Now I need to catch up on a LOT of stuff that I let fall off the radar. *facepalm*

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:46:48 GMT

So much to do, so little brainpower...

We had a Kaitou over the holiday weekend, which included a lot of quiet knitting, a trip to a local yarn shop (daaaaaangerous place, that!), local fireworks and a tasty brunch, all in excellent company. ♥

In less happy / Technology Hates Me news, I had to ask for an extension on my Big Bang art assignment, because my desktop PC (the one with Photoshop installed) lost its power supply fan. I'll be trying to replace the power supply tonight - wish me luck! (...I'll need it.)

I have plans to meet Renda next week for a wild, adrenaline-crazed roller coaster binge at Cedar Point - dependent on weather, of course. Keeping fingers and toes crossed for no (or minimal) rain on the chosen day!

The local SF convention is in 2 1/2 weeks, which means I need to nail my songs & lines for the play and make sure I have my costume stuff & wig lined up. Will probably not have anything for the Art Show, at this rate.

And of course, threaded through all of this is the house-hunting... and quite probably getting another buyer's agent, at this rate, because good ol' Marv seems to be blowing me off. (Guess I'm not a big $$ enough customer for him to bother with? In which case he can kiss my lily-white tuckus while I give somebody else the commission.)

After July, hopefully things will get a little more sane again. Well, aside from (hopefully) moving, and all that entails. ^^;;;;

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:34:38 GMT

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Feel free to ignore the eggs; I joined a doohickey called "Dragon Cave" for fun, and the eggs "mature" as a result of page views and clicks. You can certainly click on them if you want, or are curious - but I'm throwing them into entries mostly to get them passive page-views.

Instead of doing the multitude of things I probably should have done this past weekend - like laundry - I spent most of it reading the first post (yes, only the first, out of I don't know how many now!) of the Star Trek Kink Meme. >,> My, fandom has such creative minds!

Have to call my realtor and badger him with some questions, keep things moving on that front. There haven't been as many new properties listed lately, and even fewer in the areas/price range I was hoping to buy.

Progress

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:58:26 GMT

At least there is some, which is a relief.

The finance person said I should have no problems getting a mortgage for the amount I've been looking at. (Actually she said she could probably still get me financed higher than that, but I want to stick to more of a comfort zone.)

I've been watching Craigslist furniture listings with near fanatical attention, but it's paying off; so far I've gotten a nice sofa and loveseat set from one seller, and a pair of end tables that should go well with them from another, all for under $200 total. The rest of whatever house I get might echo empty for a while, but by god I Will Have A Living Room.

I think the tooth discomfort is at least exacerbated by (if not caused by) clenching my jaw, as I've caught myself doing it far too much lately. Haven't figured out yet how to prevent that short of paying the dentist money for some kind of bite protector/retainer thingy.

The cat is responding pretty well to getting the fluids and medicines; two of the problem areas in her first blood test are in the normal range now. The others mostly show improvement, but not quite as much as the vet would like. At least that only takes getting a little more of the gel into her mouth, not more needles!

Damn, I'm tired.

Ouri's House Downpayment Sale!

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:54:12 GMT

So with the market in its current condition and my job being relatively stable *knocks on wood*, this is probably the best chance I will ever have at owning my own home. You may have already seen my posts skimming the highs (and omg lows) of my first two rounds of house-hunting.

I'd given my finances a once-over and just about figured I could swing it, when somebody said two dreaded words I hadn't taken into account:
Closing Costs. D'oht!

That - and the prospect of packing up all the stuff I've been collecting over the last *coughmumble* years - inspires me to offer some items for sale.

Sales terms: Paypal preferred, check or MO accepted (but shipping may be delayed until it's cleared the bank), please don't send cash through the mail!

Postage: Priority Mail, $4.80 for up to the contents of a small flat-rate box, or likely around $2.50 for First Class mail (within the US) for most items listed here. If you buy multiple items, I can figure out the shipping and let you know exact charges; there will be no "handling" fees. International shipping... talk to me, we'll figure it out.

CDs - $5 each

Shawn Colvin, "Whole New You" [front cover] [back cover]
Daze, "Super Heroes" [front cover] [back cover]
Five for Fighting, "America Town" [front cover] [back cover]
Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 5 [front cover] [back cover]
Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 6 [front cover] [back cover]
The Offspring, "Conspiracy of One" [front cover] [back cover]
Stabbing Westward, "Wither Blister Burn & Peel" [front cover] [back cover]

Anime & JPop CDs - $5 each

CardCaptor Sakura OST Vol. 1 [front cover] [back cover]
Fushigi Yuugi OST [front cover] [back cover]
Gatchaman TV Series Background Music Collection [front cover] [back cover]
Gundam W Operation 1 [front cover] [back cover]
Gundam W Operation S - Endless Waltz OST [front cover] [back cover]
Sorcerous Stabber Orphen OST Vol. 1 [front cover] [back cover]
Vision of Escaflowne OST Vol. 1: Over the Sky [front cover] [back cover]
Weiss Kreuz Vocal Collection: Soulfull Live [front cover] [back cover]

Utada Hikaru "Single Collection Volume 1" [front cover] [back cover]

English-translated manga - $3 each

CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators (novel w/ a few illustrations) Vol. 1
GetBackers, Vols. 1 - 6
Immortal Rain, Vols. 1 - 7
Mars, Vols. 1 - 15 + Horse With No Name Special - $40 for full set!
Please Save My Earth, Vols. 1 - 4, 6 - 21 (# 5 = lost in the house somewhere, argh.)
Tokyo Bablyon Vols. 1 - 4
X: 1999 Vols. 1 - 16 (Vols 1 - 9 are the old, larger, US-flipped format)>

Japanese (untranslated) manga tankouban - $3 each

Fushigi Yuugi (Flower Comics) Vols. 15 - 18
Tokyo Babylon Vol. 1
X (1999) Vols. 9, 12 - 18

Japanese Art Books
Please Save My Earth: The Final Book - $15 [front cover] ISBN4-592-73122-0
Trigun Art Book (Roman Album) - $10 [front cover] ISBN4-19-720087-0

Key Chains
$2 Bleach - Inoue Orihime [image]

Pins
Bleach pins - $1 each [image] Kuchiki Rukia, Sado Yasutora "Chad", Kuchiki Byakuya, or Abarai Renji.
- "Episode splash" images for eps 4 and 5, 50 cents each
L'Arc en Ciel promo pins (1.25" diameter) - set of 4 for $2 [Image]
- Hyde, Tetsu, Yukihiro, Ken

This post will be updated - removing things as they sell (hopefully), and listing some additional items as I get things sorted out. If you know someone who might be interested in any of this, please point them toward this post. Thank you!

House Hunting, Round 2

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:48:11 GMT

Took off after work last night to look at two more houses I'd found online; this time Rissi came along. We met Marvin the ~~Martian~~ Realtor at the first of the two new properties.

House the First: "This Two-story Farmhouse home features ... 1 car Attached Garage ... 2 bedrooms, 1 full bathroom..."

My second "Internet Romance" house. It was, honestly, a nice little place, although not as spacious as it looked in the online photos. The downstairs was open and bright; new Pergo flooring & fresh paint made it look pretty spiffy. The ceilings were a teeny bit low, and the kitchen was small. The two bedrooms upstairs were decent, only disadvantage there is that the smaller of the two had no closet and would require a wardrobe or armoire to be used as an actual bedroom (which would take up a fair chunk of already kind'a limited space). The bathroom was likewise in okay shape - though I'd probably replace the sink with a pedestal version, to keep the little nook where the toilet was from looking claustrophobic.

Again, it had a relatively new high-efficiency furnace, and newish hot water heater.

Its main problem: it was - well, a nice LITTLE place. Like the best of last Saturday's houses, it had no basement. It also didn't have the long garage & mudroom that the other place had. Long, pretty front yard, teeny little garage... I'd have no problems at all renting a place like that, but it didn't inspire me to want to buy & make it my own.
Conclusion: second-best property so far, but I doubt I'll put in an offer. *sigh*

House the Second: "This One and a half story home features Frame exterior, Composition roof, 8 car Attached Garage, ... 1 fireplace, Gas heating, Central Air cooling, 5 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 1 partial bathroom ... Jet Spray Tub...."

Okay, I knew going in that this one - just based on its description - was going to be ODD. On the off chance it was a good sort of odd, though, I had to see it. I mean... 8-car garage, wtf?! But I thought depending on the condition of it, I might be able to use some of that space for an art-studio type area - and if nothing else, it'd give me more storage than I could need.

First of all, this place was a royal bite in the shorts to find, and we had to drive up some very hilly roads to get to it, which can be a big strike considering Pittsburgh winters. The property had been neglected for longer than most of the others I've looked at, with the grass nearly a foot tall.

From the front, the place honestly looked like at one point a business had been run out of it. The inside... you know, if I were looking to move into a place with a couple or three friends - and at least one of them had some home-repair skills - it could have been tempting. It was a funky, rambling place, with a full-sized hot tub on the second floor, a coat of arms hanging on the wall just outside the hot-tub room and a set of deer or elk antlers on the wall opposite, various piles of interesting clutter left all over the place. At least one of the "5 bedrooms" was captive to another; one of the upstairs bedrooms was almost completely taken up by a plywood platform built for model train tracks! There were a couple of random skylights; the kitchen on the main floor was narrow but long... the strangest thing, I think, were the two sets of double doors on the second floor.

...yeah, the ones that had no deck or steps outside them. O_o (...although now I think I know how they got that hot tub onto the second floor.) I didn't even venture down into the basement to check the furnace and water heater.

There was no access to the alleged 8-car garage from inside the house proper; it didn't look quite that large from the outside, and all its windows were either painted over, or the kind of patterned glass that lets in light but you can't see through. No way of knowing what its interior looked like - but the house itself, while amusing and plenty quirky, needed more TLC than I could give it on my own.
Conclusion: Sorry, O Quirky House - but I do hope you find a young family and/or collection of people who can appreciate your oddities and fix you up proper!

(Sub-conclusion: If I were to win the lottery, the weirdness/amusement factor would almost be worth buying this place and rehabbing it!)

After that, I made Marvin take us back to the best house so far, so Rissi could see it. That one is still entirely a possibility.

He had another batch of handouts for me to look through and see if there were any I'd be interested in visiting. They're all in a neighborhood closer to work, but frankly on most of them the property taxes are no better - and I think only one of that lot has off-street parking. 8P I'll go through 'em more thoroughly tonight, though - and find my list of the houses I thought looked interesting in that neighborhood as a counter-proposal.

No new houses this weekend, as Marvin is out of town and I will either be away myself or lurking around area garage sales, depending.

Trying This Again...

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:55:04 GMT

Yes, the icon is kind of appropriate. Okay - going to try writing this up again, and hope MicroSquish doesn't devour my text this time!

I've got half a dozen more houses lined up to look at, and have once again fallen in love with one of them based on the realty website's pictures. (Somebody remind me of how rarely 'Internet romances' work out, okay? ...even when it's between a woman and a vacant home, instead of another human being.) It's a renovated farmhouse with big airy-looking rooms on the ground floor; looks like hardwood floors downstairs & carpeted bedrooms upstairs. The exterior doesn't look like much in the photos, but that's not such a big deal to me; I'd rather not look like I've got anything worth stealing, y'know? (Not that I do, really - most of the tech I own isn't exactly what you'd call "cutting edge.")

Acquired so far for new living space: inexpensive used microwave and TV. Three cheers for living in a college town when the students are moving out! Also got a set of pretty new flatware I found at Target. Also have spotted some tempting furniture on the local Craigslist, but I really shouldn't start picking out stuff there until I know where I'll be and what colors I have to try to coordinate with. (The farmhouse? What I saw would be fine there. The best of last Saturday's houses? *BZZZZ* Wrong, could not use that particular sofa & chair in a living room with red carpet.* )

So, note to self for today: call real estate agent and make appointment to either look at the two closest properties tomorrow evening, or make it another long day of looking at scary little houses Saturday if he doesn't have the time tomorrow.

* The red carpeting makes the room in and of itself look quite snazzy - but there are some colors/patters of furniture that one just should NOT choose, in that case.

House-Hunting, Round 1

ouri-chan@ouri.laranica.com — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:13:28 GMT

Okay, I really ought to have remembered how frustrating this process is, from tagging along as Nan & Lara shopped for homes.

The day started with a very minor frustration; I stopped at my bank as soon as they opened Saturday morning, hoping to speak to someone about mortgages and what I'd have to do to get a preapproval, etc. Only the mortgage specialist wasn't in. *facepalm* Looks like I'm going to have to take time off from work to talk to him, at some point. I did get a somewhat better idea of what kind of numbers I'm looking at, which reassured me that yes this should in fact be possible, and that I might even be able to go a little bit higher than I had been looking.

Originally, Lara had planned to go out with me on the expedition to look at houses. She had some database testing to do, though, and ended up waiting and waiting on other people to get their part of the process done. As it turned out, she couldn't start her testing until just past the time I was supposed to meet the realtor - so I went alone. My realtor had added two more houses to be looked at, one of which I'd actually looked at online (and had on my list as a possible for Round 2). I took a notebook with me to scribble down the pluses and minuses of each house.

House the First: "Solid built brick ranch. Large living area, open dining room, and eat in kitchen. Nice level back yard. Don't pass up this house!"

Ummm... yes, pass it up - unless you're willing and able to do a LOT more fix-up work than me. The yard was indeed nice and level, and frankly it was the best thing about the entire property. The concrete walk up to the front door was badly cracked in several places and crumbling in one. Somebody had kicked in the metal lower panel of the front storm door. It had very old, single-pane windows (energy efficiency? ...what's that?!). The living room was NOT very large, and had carpet of a rather vile bright shade of green. The kitchen was stereotypical 60s - 70s decor: VERY dark cabinets, avocado green stove, and scary large-loud-print wallpaper.

Two of the three bedrooms were about half the size of my room in the Mews house, and also had fugly carpet. The somewhat larger "master bedroom" had soot stains going up the wall from the furnace register. WTF?! Had the previous owners never heard the concept of changing their furnace filter, or what? The thing that had even my real estate agent giving up on it, though, was the cracked foundation in the basement. Right, Strike One.

House the Second: "Adorable and cozy - large rooms ... larger than it looks."

Okay, House 2 had a curved gravel driveway leading to the garage and a fairly large flat area that could be used for additional parking. Nice landscaping in front of the place. The front porch would be a great place to put a small table and chairs ~~or a hot tub, if I could afford one~~. The living room was large, and had an actual log fireplace in one of the far corners. The combined kitchen/dining room area was nice, open and well-lit; it had a couple of gouges in the vinyl floor-covering, but frankly I hardly noticed, and it still looked better than the kitchen floor in the previous place. There's a long, narrow room along the back of the house that I suspect used to be a porch; the floor was just a wee bit uneven, and you have to pass through this room to get to the downstairs full bathroom.

The stairs to the second floor were narrow and had a twist, which would make getting any furniture up them quite a challenge. Upstairs... well, it claims to be a 2-bedroom, but the other rooms were captive to the smaller 'bedroom'; you have to pass through it to get to either the master bedroom OR the upstairs bathroom. The master bedroom was HUGE and interestingly quirky (a couple of little nooks). The upstairs bath was tub-only, and had the toilet placed under a slanted ceiling; tall people would have to exercise caution when standing up, or risk bonking their heads.

It had no basement, but there was a BIG garage (much longer than most cars would need) and a mud-room between the kitchen and garage (just as long) that would make for good storage areas as needed. The back yard was up a slight hill, but once you got past that it was pretty level - and had a large lilac bush ♥, a couple of trees, and an aluminum storage shed for keeping one's lawn mover and other yard-maintenance type tools.

One thing that was both amusing and vaguely alarming: neither the realtor nor I could find the furnace! O_o Near as we can figure, it was in a crawl-space under the house... that's something that would have to be checked on. So - not ideal, as this place was a little more expensive and wouldn't allow me to have a roommate unless it was somebody I really trusted well - but overall, far more positives than negatives. This one had possibilities.

House the Third: "GREAT HOME WITH NEWER ROOF, WINDOWS... DECK, BEING SOLD 'AS IS'..." ...yes, the description was written all in capslock - should have told me something right there. This was one of the two I'd picked out myself, although I wasn't terribly confident about it due to that "as is" clause. Sadly, that uncertainty proved well-founded.

First of all, we had a hard time finding it. It was on a quiet, almost cul-de-sac sort of street, which was nice. The steep steps leading to the front door were in very good condition. The living room - unremarkable, I didn't bother to write down any comments for it. The kitchen was tiny and cramped, with badly damaged cabinets. Not at all attractive. The downstairs master bedroom had cracks in the plaster walls, and some of the plaster in the closet had actually crumbled. The single bathroom, on the main floor, was in decent condition - except that the cabinet (vanity?) holding the sink blocked about 1/4 of the doorway. I'd be guaranteed to constantly bash my hip on that!

The two upstairs bedrooms would have also been unremarkable, except that their ceilings were only about 6" high! Very claustrophobic for anybody over 5' 5". Then I went down to the basement, and that killed it completely. The basement and garage were just one big room, no separation at all between where you could pull a car in, and where they had the washer and dryer hookups. And the garage door gapped pretty badly, too - all sorts of small critturs could sneak in through it, and the drafts in winter would be killer. A big Strike Two.

House the Fourth: "THIS MOVE IN CONDITION HOME HAS BEEN WELL TAKEN CARE OF * NEWER EAT IN KITCHEN W/LOTS OF CABINETS * NEWER WINDOWS, FURNACE, A/C, H20 TANK..." Yeah, there's that capslock again.

This was the one I'd half fallen in love with via the website. It was in an older neighborhood, that was once part of the steel-mill zone, but we went to Google Maps' street view and the area didn't look bad at all. And I wanted to stay in love with it, really I did!

Again, we had trouble finding it, because my agent doesn't usually show homes in that part of town. It was also the only place still occupied at the time, so we had the owner kind of hovering over us the whole time. And it really did have a lot of good points about it.

Like the previous house, it had steep stairs leading to the door - and again, they were in excellent condition. Unlike the last place, the front yard was terraced and had an interesting mix of plants in the terraces. There was a huge, beautiful azalea bush in full bright-purple bloom in front of the place. The living room had two sets of built-in bookcases (with cabinets below)... but what looked in the website photos like brick walls turned out to be some kind of brick-look paneling put up over the old lath & plaster walls, and it didn't look nearly as good in person as in the small photos. Still, not a deal-breaker. Dining room was in nice shape (although that was the only room in which I saw a crack in the wall... maybe because it's one of the few that hadn't been paneled over) and had a fireplace - which had been closed off by the current resident, but could be opened again. They'd installed double-pane thermal windows throughout the place, and even had compact fluorescent bulbs in most of the light fixtures.

The kitchen... I adored their kitchen. Not huge, but didn't feel cramped at all, bright, TONS of cabinets for storage, a small bay window one could keep plants in, a built-in breakfast counter (with still more cabinet space built into it!). I'm not much of a cook, and the kitchen isn't usually my favorite room, but... damn. ♥ Behind the kitchen & dining room, at the back of the house, was a long narrow den-type space that made me start thinking "hmm, sewing and/or art space?"

So that was the first floor. (Anyone notice yet what was missing from that list?) The owner took us out through the den's outside door into the back yard. Small, with one raised bed for flowers and/or a small garden patch. The property had a two-car garage, in very good shape, but garages - yeah, not all that exciting to me really ~~except when they're part and parcel of the basement, and then it's NOT the good kind of excitement~~.

Back into the house, and the owner took us into the basement. It was in pretty good shape, as basements go; not too damp (although he did have a dehumidifier going). The furnace was less than 10 years old, and a high-efficiency model, something none of the other homes had going for them. They'd replaced the hot water heater less than a year ago, so definite plus there. Lots of storage room in the basement.

The other thing in the basement? One of the two full bathrooms. Including the only shower in the house. >,0 Now, the owner had just told us that the temperature down there stayed pretty steady all year 'round, at about 55 degrees F. And if I wanted a shower, I'd have to walk through the cool and slightly clammy basement to get it?! Yeah, at that point the disillusionment definitely started to kick in.

That may have colored my perceptions when we went up to the second floor, I don't know... but that was a disappointment, too. The upstairs floors were all linoleum (which could be replaced, but that's extra money and effort that I might not be able to invest for a while, so I'd have to live with it in the meantime). All the lath-and-plaster bedroom walls had been covered over with wood paneling that looked kind of cheap and cheesy to me. The two smaller bedrooms didn't even have normal doors; they'd been given the kind of bi-fold doors (kind of like this only all wood) that I associate with closets, not rooms. ("Oh hi, kids, we don't trust you enough to give you complete privacy WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE WITH THE DOOR SHUT?!") The closets in all the bedrooms had been added by the current owner, and in the case of the two smaller bedrooms seemed to take up an awful lot of the space. Second-floor bathroom was okay except for the lack of a shower (he'd never installed one because he had concerns about water leaking into the frame of the window, which was right above the tub).

I might have been able to work around my issues with the upstairs, but the whole "no shower except in the basement" thing - not to mention the lack of any kind of powder room on the main floor! - really killed it for me. Which is a shame, because there was so much to LIKE about that place. I had to sadly call it Strike Three, and I was done for the day.

So, I'm going to give a rest for a couple of days, and go through more of the online listings, before I look at any other houses. The second place is still an option.