Sabby Ann

Last night, after finding the animal tracks in the attic, we purchased a larger Havahart live trap (sized for opossums, raccoons, cats, and armadillos!). I was still thinking that we had a possum living in the attic, so we baited the trap with apple slices and wet cat food. 

This morning, the trap hadn’t been triggered, and the food appeared untouched.  I posted a link to the paw(hand?) print photos on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, and a few friends commented that our unwanted visitor was most likely a raccoon, not a possum. Armed with a can of tuna fish, Eric headed back into the attic to re-bait the trap. 

We then left for a meeting with wedding photography clients. When we returned, Eric noticed this: 

Although the siding wasn’t quite finished along the front of the house, the soffit vent was fully installed. The soffit is the underside of the roof “overhang”, and there were vented vinyl pieces along the entire length. That is, until Mr. Raccoon fell through…

The soffit vent pretty much just snaps together, and it looks like our attic visitor got a little too close to the edges. Several pieces fell onto the ground, and there were a few more suspended in place. There were also muddy prints on the trim around the top of the door, where the raccoon broke through.

We’re not sure if he actually fell out, or if he just broke through and then “caught” himself on the trim/door. I think tonight we’ll be on high alert again, listening for things that go thump in the attic…

In the three years since we moved in, we’ve had our share of unwanted visitors. A handful of mice (some of which moved in before we did!), a few chipmunks (kinda cute, but they needed to go!), carpenter ants (I think they’re all gone!), some birds, and perhaps one or two of the human variety!  ;)  

Unfortunately, we seem to have some new house guests. In the evenings, when we’re sitting on the couch or laying in bed, we can hear thumping sounds coming from the attic. Eric occassionally hears a high-pitched squealing noise as well, also from the attic. 

Initially I thought it might be a few rogue chipmunks, since we’d recently found a stash of seeds in the spare room (which is presently accessible to both the attic and the crawlspace). Last night the noises seemed especially loud and thumpy, as if there was more weight being thrown around than a chipmunk would have. 

Eric placed a live trap in the attic last night, with some peanut butter as bait. By morning the trap had been set off, but with nothing inside. I went up in the attic this afternoon to see if it had been triggered, and instead found some paw prints. 

Whatever it is, it’s sure not a chipmunk, or even a squirrel!  My initial thought would be perhaps an opossum, since we see plenty of them running across the road in the middle of the night! I don’t know what possum tracks or paw prints look like (and I haven’t spent much time comparing these to images online), but they definitely have a distinct “hand print” look to them. 

I guess it’s off to Home Depot to buy a larger animal trap!

This is a follow-up to a previous blog post, Can We Refinance. 

President Obama’s homeowner rescue/bailout plan was announced several weeks ago, but very little information has been released since then. I’ve tried calling our mortgage bank to find out eligibility information and program details, but so far haven’t been able to find out much. Initially the customer service reps said to call back mid-March, then late March, now it’s early April… but it does sound like they are getting closer to hammering out a plan & process with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac though. 

I’ve been compiling a list of questions about the Home Affordable Refinance program, to help us determine whether 1.) we can even qualify; and 2.) whether it’s financially feasible or worthwhile to pursue a refinance. 

Most of these answers were found in this publication, which applies to loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae. 

1. Does the refinance apply only to the first mortgage?  Yes, 2nd mortgages are not eligible. 
    
2. If we have two mortgages, and are not currently paying mortgage insurance (aka PMI), will we be required to take out mortgage insurance? No. If you aren’t paying PMI currently, you won’t be required to take it out. If you are paying PMI, you will keep your existing policy. 
    
3. If we have two mortgages, can we roll the second mortgage into the first?  No, only first mortgages can be refinanced. Second mortgages and HELOC can not be refinanced as part of this program. There is no “cash out” component, with the exception of limited closing costs. 
    
4. How will the current value of the home be determined? (independent appraisal, assessed value, etc.)  Lenders can use “whatever means they deem acceptable” to assess current market values. A full appraisal will be required if the LTV approaches or exceeds 95%. Still waiting to find out additional information. 
    
5. Is the loan-to-value (LTV) cap of 105% calculated based on the first mortgage only, or on the sum of both mortgages? The 105% limit applies only to the first mortgage. If the 2nd mortgage or HELOC puts the LTV greater than 105%, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of the refinance. 
    
6. What will the interest rate be? It will be a fixed rate, based on market rates. 
    
7. Will the refinance interest rate be fixed through the end of the program, or will it fluctuate with market rates?  It will fluctuate based on market rates, and will be locked in at the time of refinancing. 
    
8. Will we be required to get a 15-year fixed loan?  I read some literature indicating that they are pushing homeowners to move to “more stable” products - so interest-only will move to fully amortized loans, ARMs will become fixed rate mortgages, 30-year loans will become 15-year loans, etc. I don’t know the details yet. 
    
9. How much will it cost (appraisal, closing fees, etc.)?  Unknown at this time. 

For now I’m still waiting to see what information will be released in the upcoming weeks. It looks like my initial concerns about having to bring several thousand dollars to closing are no longer an issue (since the LTV amount is calculated based only on the first mortgage, and will exclude the amount owed on the 2nd), but we will need to crunch some numbers based on estimated up-front refinance costs, available interest rates, and whether the new loan will be a 30-year or 15-year fixed.

We would be able to reduce our payment by around $150/mo (assuming an interest rate in the 5% - 5.5% range)… but if we’re required to move to a 15-year loan, our payments would actually INCREASE by $225/mo. A higher monthly payment wouldn’t necessarily preclude us from refinancing, but it’s certainly a consideration.

Although I’d originally planned to do some yardwork today, it was a bit too chilly to motivate myself to work outside. Instead, Eric & I decided to take a drive through the countryside. We saw a few silos standing amongst old foundations (with the buildings haven long since burnt to the ground), and stopped to take a few photos. 

When I got out of the car, this was the first thing I saw. It was clear that it’d been there awhile, as there was no “meat” left, no foul odors, and no flies/maggots. There were actually 3 ribcages + LOTS of fur. My guess is a local hunter decided that this was a convenient location to skin & field-dress deer. 

There was a barn next to the silos, with what looked like a feeding trough coming off the back. I guess I’m not sure whether this was, at some point, actually for feeding/watering livestock, or if it was used for something else. I’m rather clueless when it comes to farming and raising farm animals… 

There was also one other barn still standing and in decent shape. There was a piece of equipment stored in there, and a few bales of hay (or perhaps straw, I always get the two confused!) inside. 

The combination of extra daylight and warmer temperatures provides ample opportunities for evening walks. When the dog comes with me, I can’t really take pictures of wildlife - but when he stays home, the camera comes out. Here are a few ‘wildlife’ photos, taken last summer at Heritage Park in Canton, Michigan. 

There were tons of frogs along the banks of the water! 
I just couldn’t resist taking a few shots… 

This guy was big and scary, and rather territorial, 
so I hightailed it outta there right after I snapped this. 

Nothing special here, this pair just liked to chirp a lot.
I think they were keeping an eye on the hawk too…

I followed these lil guys around for a good hour,
until Mama finally led them out of the water. 

FLOWER GARDEN:
There’s something quite relaxing about coming home after a day at work, changing into a pair of sandals, pouring a cool drink, and then heading outside to pluck a few stray weeds out of the flower beds…

We’ve only got a handful of plants, and they’re all located in a mulched area in the front of the house. A few shrubs, perennial grasses, four asiatic lilies, and some hastas and day-lilies.

Last year we had tons of wild ‘common blue’ violets that invaded the landscape beds as well. There were just two clusters of violets the previous summer, and they appeared to have been deliberately planted - but last summer they completely took over! The two small clusters turned into a 5′x5′ area, with dozens of others sporadically located throughout the front yard. 

I was originally planning to leave them be, simply because they’re so pretty and they require so little maintenance. But when I googled them, I stumbled across far too many articles suggesting to get rid of them as quickly as possible, so by the end of the summer I dug up every single one that I could find!

VEGETABLE GARDEN:
I had intended to plant a small vegetable garden last year, but got preoccupied with other projects and with work. This year, with a much leaner renovation budget, I think I’ll have more time to spare… which means my garden can finally come to fruition! 

The stores started putting up the seed displays in February, and initially I resisted the temptation. Then I decided that I wanted to get a jump start on planting this year - so I bought the necessary supplies and got to work making a mess in the middle of the living room floor!  :) 

I briefly contemplated spreading out a few garbage bags, or going out to the garage, but what’s the fun in that? I grabbed a few measuring cups from the kitchen (to scoop the dirt with) and a glass of water, and then got to work planting seeds. I only bought 8 little plastic trays, and 5 packages of seeds (Roma tomatoes, Chives, Lavender, Stattice, and Painted Daisies) - but it’s at least a start. I’d also like to grow carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, and eventually strawberries… plus a much bigger variety of flowers!

The tomatoes were the first seeds that sprouted, and the cat took quite the liking to ‘em! Within a day, she decided to pull up and eat at least four or five plants… and that’s just what I caught her with!  It was clear that I wouldn’t have anything left unless I intervened, so I’ve had plastic food wrap laying over the tray since Sunday night. It seems to be working for now.

While we were in Key West, we visited the Hemingway House. I’m not that into Hemingway (I’ve only read snippets of his writings, as required reading for classes), but it was kind of interesting to listen to some of the stories about his life. One thing is for sure, Ernest Hemingway was quite eccentric! 

I definitely enjoyed exploring the grounds though. The Hemingway property is home to several cats (currently around 60, all descendents of Hemingway’s!), most of which wander the property and buildings. I don’t think there was a single moment where I couldn’t see at least one cat… 

Here’s one of the cats, contentedly lounging on the walkway: 

We bought our house almost three years ago. At the time, home values in the area had fallen because sales were down (many houses were sitting on the market for a year or so), but there were relatively few foreclosures available. Bank-owned properties were relatively few & far between, at least in the areas that I would consider and that were in reasonable “livable” shape. Meanwhile, interest rates were climbing… a year before we bought, they were around 5% - at the time we bought, they were at 7% and still rising.  

We closed on the house with a first mortgage at 7%, and a second mortgage at 9.625%  The first mortgage is a traditional 30-year fixed, and the second is a 15-year balloon (so we pay only a nominal amount of principal each month, and will have a lump sum payment due at the end). 

With interest rates as low as they are, we’d love to refinance into a lower interest rate. We had intended to refinance after some of our home improvement projects are complete (since I don’t think a half-way complete project would give us any added value on an appraisal), but property values have fallen enough that we wouldn’t be able to qualify for a traditional refinance loan… or we’d be stuck paying a higher interest rate, to compensate the bank for the additional perceived risk, that any benefits of lowering the interest rate would be essentially wiped out by the up-front costs. 

However, the most recent stimulus package includes another measure to help get the housing and banking markets back on solid ground. It’s called “Making Home Affordable“, and has two separate components. The first is a loan modification, to reduce mortgage payments to ideally no more than 31% of monthly income. It only applies to homeowners who are current on their mortgage but are at a significant risk for defaulting, and will generally allow a portion of the loan to be forgiven (as well as a temporary decrease in interest rates, going to a 40-year loan term, etc). We do not qualify for this program. 

The second program is for refinancing homes with little or no equity. In order to be eligible, homeowners must be current on their payments, and must have a loan guaranteed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. We are eligible for this program. 

The Home Affordable Refinancing will allow homeowners to refinance up to 105% of the value of the house, which means that they are allowing the loan value to exceed the market value by 5%. Exact details haven’t been announced, but will be available later this month, and Fannie Mae will begin processing refinance loan applications at the beginning of April. 

I’m hoping that we’ll be able to benefit from this program, but it’s hard to say at this point. We currently owe about $166k, and the 2009 Property Assessment valued our house at $156,800… so by that metric, we’re over the 5% threshold. Zillow says our house is currently worth $150,500. 

Depending where an appraisal sets the value at, it’s possible that we’d have to come up with several thousand dollars (to bring the loan value to no more than 105% of the home value). If that’s the case, we’d probably have to stick with the higher interest rate and just wait it out. 

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months. The Home Affordable Refinance program sunsets in June 2010 (but who knows that current interest rates will be in a year!), but I’ll be keeping a close eye on this program. In the meantime, it’s certainly a good motivator to get some of our house projects done!

I stopped by a local drugstore and saw some really cute planters. They had several different designs, but each was basically a very oversized tea cup or mug glued to a saucer. Each cup had a hole at the bottom, to allow water to drain out of the soil and onto the plate. It was $15, so I didn’t buy it, but I’m thinking about going back to pick one up.

I went online to see if I could find a similar style planter with a cuter design. I didn’t have much luck with the teacup/saucer-style, but I did find several other unique ideas! 

Teacup & Saucer Planter
This is similar in style to the one I found. 
Thanks to Two Boys & A Beagle for the photo! 

Empty keg planter  
Hopworks Brew Pub, Oregon. 
Thanks to Oregon Live for the photo! 

Old Shoe Flowerpot
I absolutely love this one! 
Thanks to cmpalmer for the photo!

Brassiere Planter
Just when you think you’ve seen it all…
Photo borrowed from Feverish Thoughts

We have two big home-renovation projects planned for this summer: finish installing new vinyl siding on the house & garage, and create a brick-paver patio in the backyard. Although we have a list of other projects on the wish list, we’re only going to tackle those that we can pay for using cash… so the others will have to wait until another year. 

The siding project is actually a carryover from last year, so a substantial portion of the work is already complete. Some trim (mostly around windows and a door) needs to be completed on the house, the soffit vent needs to be installed, and the south side of the house needs to sided. We haven’t started on the garage yet, but we’ll need to remove the old aluminum siding, replace several boards damaged by water and moisture (we may need to remove the big garage door to do so!), hang Tyvek, do the flashing & trim around windows/doors, and then install the new siding. 

We purchased an aluminum brake (a device used to bend long strips of aluminum into L-shaped flashing that goes around each window & door), and we also bought enough materials to complete the entire project. Unfortunately, we’ve “wasted” quite a bit of siding and trim (mostly due to bad cuts, especially around windows and doors) - probably an entire box or more! Although we bought plenty of extras, I think we’re going to be short still…

I think the cost to finish this project should be relatively minimal. I’m anticipating that we will need to purchase box of siding, a box of vinyl trim, and another roll of aluminum. I’m hoping that we’ll have enough Tyvek to finish the garage, but it’s possible we’ll need to buy another roll of that as well. The old asbestos siding (Transite) needs to be properly disposed of, the side door to the garage needs to be replaced, and we need to install several new light fixtures (six in total!).  I’d been hoping to find some exterior wall-mount lights on sale, but so far I haven’t seen any great deals. 

Probably the single biggest expense related to the siding will be new gutters. We’re definitely going with seamless (which means we’ll need to hire someone to extrude them!), and based on the estimates we received last fall I’m guessing it’ll be around $1000.  

Scrap metal values for aluminum have dropped significantly (60%) in the past few months, which means we won’t be able to recoup much when we take it to Haggerty Metals to be recycled.  It’s still worthwhile though (especially since it reduces the amount of waste we need to pay to haul away).

The second project is the brick paver patio, and I think it’ll be a lot of work… but it’ll definitely have a big impact! Unilock is having their big inventory liquidation sale at the end of April, so I intend to buy the pavers then, but I suspect the patio won’t be complete until late summer. We need to re-grade the area (roughly 500 SFT) to create positive drainage, place and compact the base, and then lay all the brick pavers. We’ll need geotextile fabric underneath, edging to keep the pavers in place, and some specialty sand used for leveling and for in between the bricks. We’ll probably also waterproof the concrete foundation blocks along the back side of the house, since it’ll be much more difficult to do once the patio is complete (it would pretty much require ripping it out). Depending on how quickly we’re able to complete the project (and hence, how many days we’ll need to rent the vibratory plate compactor for!), and what sort of deals we’re able to get on materials, we should be able to complete the patio for  around $1500. 

I’m just hoping there’ll be enough left in the budget for me to purchase a hammock!  Me lounging in the hammock, enjoying the warm weather, a good book, and a fruity drink… while Eric grills some steaks on our new patio…  ;)