^-Sweet
The link works, yay! Love that BM paint a room tool. 
I might leave the front door stained.
Patiently waiting for @notrichenoughâs property transaction to close so he can tell us about his adventures in shaggy carpet replacements.
We liked our Costco carpet service. It was reasonably priced, fast, they did not mind that it was a small job of only 1,000 sft, and we got 14% back (11% cash card right away and will be getting 1% from Visa and 2% from Costco next year; OK, taking the time value of money into account, slightly less than 14%).
Closing is scheduled for next Tuesday, assuming all the insurance issues resolve properly. Of course all this stuff blew up a week before the closing, and we had to scramble around. Very stressful.
We are going down tomorrow for the walk-through, so Iâll get to see my new septic system (and the havoc they wreaked in the front yard) in person!
@BunsenBurner, that blue in your link looks similar to the color on my Cape house! Very nice!
Damn insurance companies! Ours sent out an âinspectorâ - after the closing - and the idiot wrote that the roof was shot and needed unspecified repairs. I had a couple of roofers come inspect it to tell me that it is good for at least 10 years. I am going to have one company clean it and call it ârepairs done.â
Will be keeping fingers crossed for your closing!!!
We are getting private flood insurance, and told the bank this way back in the beginning.
Suddenly, 5 days before closing, a new form appears about the flood insurance that has to be filled out to the banksâ satisfaction. Because private insurance doesnât meet all of their ârequirementsâ they suddenly decided they werenât going to take it.
So I called up the insurance company that is related to the bank. They quoted the exact same flood policy from the exact same company using the exact same insurer with the exact same premium, and because it came from the in-house insurance group, suddenly itâs acceptable.
At least, we think so⊠weâll see what happens on Monday. 
Adventures in insurance!
And we told the bank way back in the beginning that we were using our HELOC for the downpayment. âSure, no problem!â Suddenly, 6 days before closing, they decided this wasnât quite acceptable, and they wanted to see the money in our bank account. So we had to get a cashierâs check from our HELOC (itâs a pretty big amount) and deposit it into our bank account. Such large checks donât clear overnight, and itâs about 50-50 if it will clear in time for the closing. If it doesnât, we will either have to delay the closing a day or they are going to decide to take another check from the HELOC.
Adventures in banking, too!
Wow! That is quite an adventure. Our BofA HELOC was linked to our checking, and transfer was Instantaneous. Not like the brokerage accounts where the cash goes into a black hole for 3 days before it appears in the linked account.
We had issues with the sellers trying hard to force us into a breach so they could keep the $50k earnest money and the house. Did not work that way because we are good at the game of chicken (and delayed closing is not a breach as far as I know). Turns out, the day they accepted our offer, some mystery big bucks buyer appeared on the horizon who was wling to rent until the fall - when their ownership would have matured for capital gains deferral.
I feel like I made a huge mistake, not realizing how busy the boom bubble is causing the contractors to be! Our house is 12 years old & when we moved in, I hated the range in the island and promised myself I would replace it with a different brand when it died. Long story short, I am ending up constructing a new island! The one good part of the delays is that an architect friend came for a visit from 1500 miles away and had all sorts of ideas & drew me a new schematic.
I had been planning to buy cabinets of the same brand as are in my kitchen, but then we decided to go painted, then we did not like their colors, in pricing painting the unfinished cabinet we could order, we learned it is far cheaper to have the local guy build and paint the island. I have been browsing all this stuff since last fall and actually bought the new rangetop in May, but am just finally meeting the cabinet guy this next week. He promises I am on the schedule for the first week in September.
Today I am off to Seattle to see DD tonight and choose the countertop tomorrow. I guess we are finally making progress, I just wish I had not paid for my appliances and then had these twists and turns slow it all down. My architect buddy suggested some changes to our master bath, Iâll take the plans and wait for the RE bust to make the contractors hungrier 
I agree - good plan to wait for few months, unless it is an emergency. The pace of the craze canât continue. It is nuts out there. The folks down the street that have a dream house built are still not done, two years and counting.
My neighbors have complained about the difficulty of getting a contractor even to deliver an estimate, much less to show up and do the work. Iâll give them the name of my guy - as soon as my bathroom is finished.
That exterior looks good. Itâs funny, I donât like blue much as an interior color, but I really like it for siding.
Check your junk mail - I got a coupon for $7 off a gallon of premium BM paint up to 5 gallons. That coupon will be used for sure!
More adventures in banking:
Yesterday, the bank insisted on doing conference calls with the banks or servicers for all six of our mortgages to verify the escrow accounts and payment history. DW spent over an hour on the phone dealing with this.
Then, today, at 10am (the closing is scheduled for 1pm) the bank calls me and says they need to do another employment verification and could I get someone from my company to call them? Well it seems like the entire HR department is on vacation, and Iâm working from home so I have no idea who is in the office. Finally I get my manager to call them. Nothing like waiting to the last secondâŠ
But we closed! We are now the proud owners of 2200 sq ft of the ugliest carpeting Iâve ever seen. Let the renovations begin! The dumpster gets there on Saturday. 
First up: rip out all the carpeting, padding, tack strips, and staples. We bought some cheap area rugs (rugsusa.com clearance, really reasonable prices) to cover the plywood sub-floor for the short term.
Next: remove the moldy sheet rock in the basement and seal up the garage door down there allowing the moisture in which led to the mildew
Then: Paint the master bedroom and bath. Maybe cover the horrid flooring in the master bath and kitchen.
Fourth: stain the 700 sq ft deck. Not looking forward to this one.
Fifth: do some other painting if I have enough time/energy.
Bunch of little things like replace the locks, get the âvista pruningâ process under way, get some tree guys out for estimates, the list is long.
Weâll be down there for a week so hopefully we can get a lot done.
Sherwin-Williams is having a 35% off sale, which ends today but they told us we can still get the prices until Saturday. Anybody ever used their Duckback Superdeck stain? Any other stain recommendations?
CONGRATS!!!
For decks, I have one word: Sikkens. I just stained our mega deck with a 5-gal bucket of it. Pricey, but apparently holds for 4-5 years in our rainy PNW climate. The siding contractor recommended that brand to me. I washed the deck with some stuff I bought on Amazon and used wood brightener, then applied a generous coat of Sikkens. Do not do 2 coats - warning - one coat makes it impermeable.
We just had something called NuDeck put on our deck. It allegedly protects the deck so well that youâll never need to restain or reseal the deck. Power washing will still be necessary from time to time, but not restaining or resealing. Weâll see.
http://www.zar.com/products/zar-exterior/ugl-nudeck-wood-and-concrete-restorative-coating.php
We just had something called NuDeck put on our deck. It allegedly protects the deck so well that youâll never need to restain or reseal the deck. Power washing will still be necessary from time to time, but not restaining or resealing. Weâll see.
http://www.zar.com/products/zar-exterior/ugl-nudeck-wood-and-concrete-restorative-coating.php
A contractor that gave me a quote over the phone to do some finishing work on the new stair railing just showed up to do the work and lowered his price once he saw the actual installation configuration. I might be in love. You can have his number, too, as soon as he is finished with this job.
^^
âI might be in love.â
LOL!
@MomofJandL, where are you located? 
Love honest contractors.
Speaking of contractors trying to get away with anything while they are in demand⊠We got 4 bids on a window reconfiguration project ranging from $10k to⊠$28k. No kidding. The lower end bid came from a pretty reputable company that we have dealt with in the past. The $28k bid was a âspaghetti at a wallâ kind of bid - letâs toss it and see if it sticks. Guess who is going to get the job?