Oct 2007 to Dec 2007

Everyone tells you that a "real estate closing" is difficult.  Well, mine wasn't so bad but having to transition the move from a rental unit to my own unit was going to take me a lot longer than the 5 days that the seller wanted me to do.  So they actually kicked back to me one month's rent so that I could "close" on the right day - I guess they needed the bigger sum from the bank rather than my $650 a month rent.

Here's the outside of my building.  Pretty nice, eh?  I'm on the middle right (you can't see the lower units because there is a retaining wall at the level of the shrubs. 

So I moved into my unit in October 0f 2007 and by November I still hadn't done much.  





Yep, just a bed and a few things around. No chest of drawers, table, lamp or even a TV. Oh well.










And here's the view from my couch looking towards my entry way.


And looking towards the kitchen from my sofa......














Well, that was the quick move in - painting the walls was still to come as was trying to put some sense of order into all my crafting items that were still stored in boxes at my aunt and uncle's house. 

And then I found out that the local cable company wouldn't hook up the first two buildings until at least 5 had been built.  So I had to settle for dial up and good old AT&T.  How I HATED that! 

Time passed and I continued to list on the Internet (Ebay and Ruby Lane) and I even found time to open up a booth space at the mall across the street from where I lived.  Things were fine and moving along as I thought they would.  Life was good.  And then the building started across from my unit......














Noise, Noise and more noise.

Yep, I definitely put up with a lot while the other buildings were being built and my waiting for the cable to arrive. I think that was the hardest part - waiting for the cable. Do you know what it's like to go months on end without TV?  or a fast download?  I had to resort to watching the same DVD movies over and over and over again. Thank goodness I LOVE movies! I think I went through my library of films several times over. So when cable finally arrived, I welcomed it with open arms!

Once I had my cable in place and my connection to the Internet greatly improved, I settled in as best I could. At least I had pre-ordered a refrigerator but it managed to get put in place without my having painted the back wall. To this day, I still have THAT to do. And I did manage to paint a few walls to get my colors right - olive green for the kitchen - dining area and brick brown for the living area. I found the perfect sage green sofa (deep and comfy) and ordered it post haste (it went well with the hardwood floors and brick walls). One of the two oversized comfy chairs I had purchased when I first arrived in Missouri sits in the living room and once it is re-covered, it will fit in perfectly with the scheme of things. While waiting for the sofa to arrive, I managed to get to JC Penny and pick out some curtains. They laid on the floor, in their original packaging for a VERY long time! When the sofa finally arrived, I was able to stretch out full body length to watch television. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Until then I had only sat in the comfy chairs and there's hardly room to stretch out in them!

So things were progressing. I was in love with my condo, knew that eventually everything would find its right place and had only to drown out the pounding of nails and screeching saws to keep my sanity. A small price to pay, it seemed, at the time for owning my own home. But things were to change.

Approximately 3 weeks after I moved in, my unit developed a "hum". Yep, I went shopping early one morning and came home to a noise that is simply indescribable. Well, think the clashing of puts and pans in a metal duct - VERY LOUD and constant; by that I mean 24/7 constant.  I quickly ran to the salesperson's on site office, dragged her over to my unit, and together we tried to track down the noise. It seemed to emanate from the main bedroom bathroom but as the day progressed it seemed to be coming from the main bedroom wall where the window was located. Putting my head to the wall, I could hear the most horrendous noise - like someone having left an electric razor on. Only amplified 100 times!

I ran outside to try to figure out the problem but I could find nothing. I checked the electrical boxes BELOW my window and I thought I could discern a light hum. So I called the electrical people and asked them to come out. They did and found 2 things wrong with the set-up though neither was my hum.

The drone went on and on. Hours turned into days - days turned into weeks - weeks turned into months. I tried everything to keep the noise at bay. Earplugs. Head phones. Loud TV. Sleeping with pillows over my head. Everything. The hum went on and on. And slowly but surely, my feet started to tingle. And tingle. And tingle until I finally realized that the floor was vibrating and that the hum emanated from under the floor boards.

I called the builder. The City Inspector. The sales people. No one could hear the hum - no one could feel the vibration. Why?  Because they were in the condo a very short time and were not attuned to the noise.  Either that, or they just didn't want to acknowledge there was a problem with the unit.  I began to think I was going slowly mad.......

When it rained, the noise was less. Go figure.  When it didn't rain, the hum along with the construction that was outside kept me awake ALL the time. I didn't sleep much and I certainly wasn't thinking straight. Whenever I had to go out of town I loved it so much I didn't want to go back to my condo. My dream home had become my nightmare!

No one could help because no one knew what was causing the problem. And when it finally dawned on me that if I had the problem, maybe my upstairs and downstairs neighbor ALSO had the problem. So a check was in order. But that outcome I will save for another post.....

Stay tuned!