Weeks #38 & 39 - We Bought a House!

Katie and I decided to look at houses, or I should say we decided for Katie to look at houses, the last couple months of my deployment with the hope of finding something before I returned. Despite the obvious complexities of such an objective, Katie managed to negotiate all the real estate hurdles of house hunting, finding a great house, making an offer, and agreeing on a price with the sellers. All without my help. Well, not really, but almost!

Katie had seen about a half-dozen houses when the realtor helped her find this gem. Here’s Katie’s original e-mail description to me:

“It’s basically perfect. Raised ranch style. Central air. Nice big 2-car garage. Nice big yard with a storage shed. New windows. Nice hardwood floors in the living room and dining area. Gorgeous kitchen with granite counters. Very, very nice deck outside. Beautiful finished basement (carpeted) with a wood stove and nice shelves and brick wall. Wooded area and yard. Wonderful neighborhood, very cute. There is really nothing bad about it and lots of good stuff. Its ready to be moved in to.”

Note 2-car, attached garage!

The house is 110 Butternut Lane in Southington, CT. Follow this link to see pictures:
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/110-Butternut-Lane_Southington_CT_06489_1109011599

Hardwood floors, gonna need some rugs

My only constraints to Katie when we started looking were that it have central air and a two-car, attached garage. I should note these were my same requirements when we were looking for a place to rent two years ago, so I’m glad we’re finally “moving on up.” Anyone need a couple window AC units?

We of course had a price range and size of home in mind. Even with the current market, Connecticut homes can be pricey. So we decided to keep it to a smaller home. And three bedrooms should last us a few years, if you know what I mean.

Granite counter-tops, nice big microwave

Katie had seen about a half-dozen houses, but ruled out many of the others because they didn’t really fit the description or weren’t in great neighborhoods. Of the ones we liked, the raised range style seemed to be a common theme. But this house in particular has it all: the three bedrooms, the central air, the two-car garage, the amenities, the lawn, the shed, and the nice neighborhood. The sellers are even throwing in a riding mower, snowblower, and some other larger tools in the shed.

Finished basement: Game room or TV room?

Not surprisingly, with the current real estate market, the sellers asked that we have a loan pre-approval and credit check before they accepted our offer. But filling out the online pre-approval with USAA made it easier when it came to completing the actual loan application. I was still on the phone for a couple hours Friday night trying to get things done before the weekend. But now I just have to lock in the rate on Tuesday, 60 days before the closing of August 7th. Are there any financial analysts out there? What’s the prime interest rate doing right now?

Back to the house, I used a couple different online mapping sites to get an idea for the neighborhood. We’re basically on a loop off Berlin Road just east of downtown Southington. Our normal commute will take us through town and then either west or north to I-84. Katie will have a short commute to ESPN, about the same as now, while I will have about a 50 or 60 minute commute to UConn.

Also looks like the our lot and our neighbors’s on the inside of the loops backs to some woods with some high voltage power lines running through them. While I could do without the powerlines, the woods will remind me of our neightborhood growing up.


Southington has a standard New England history to it. George Washington and the Count de Rechambleu came through a couple times on their way to and from Wethersfield, where Katie grew up. I guess apples are a big deal in town, there’s some sort of apple festival. Some other ESPN talent live in town, and as Katie has repeatedly pointed out that one former Yankee pitcher grew up there.

During one of my searches Southington ski area came up. It’s not too far away, just on the other side of I-84. Maybe I’ll get involved with teaching or coaching somehow. Or maybe just some night skiing over there.

So summer is looking like this: Mike returns from deployment, flies back East on the 4th, spends week in CT. Then Katie heads to St. Louis for the All-Star Game weekend, with Mike on her heels. Then Utah the following week to relax, catch up with friends, and go to a wedding. Katie home and Mike back to San Diego for two weeks. When I get back it will probably be just a day or two before the closing. But then we’ve got a couple weeks before I have to be at UConn to start my MBA program. Probably spend that time moving, shopping for a little more furniture, and setting up the house. And remembering how to ride a mower and take care of a lawn ☺

So that was this past week. I think we made the initial offer last Saturday, then went back and forth and had a final price on Tuesday, spending the rest of the week working with agent and bank to keep things moving.

On the Navy side of life, pretty routine this past week. Right now I stand watch for four days, then have three days off. So I have the same schedule every week. The first watch of a new rotation is the “mid-watch” early Wednesday morning, which is not pleasant as far as sleep cycles go. But my other responsibilities haven’t been too demanding as of yet. They have me coordinating our redeployment, turnover, and final after action report. So I basically have my hand in everything, but no one reports directly to me and I’m in charge of no one. So far it’s moving along, no problems, so I can’t complain. People generally want to do a good job of preparing to turn over responsibilities to our reliefs and going home on time.

If you’re following closely, however, you may have noticed I missed a week in my blog posts. The week prior to this past week I spent four solid days as investigating officer for what the Navy calls a “preliminary inquiry.” I certainly can’t go into details here, but I can talk about the experience. I guess I can reveal it was for a weapons misfire, in other words a gun didn’t work like it was supposed to. There’s only a few reasons that can happen. So on the “investigation” side of things it was somewhat interesting trying to solve the mystery. And I think I was able to do a good job at this because of my experience working with the weapons on this deployment and general familiarity of how we maintain them.

Unfortunately, it was human error on several levels, so the other part of the investigation is laying the groundwork for the Non-Judicial Punishment, or NJP, that will come as a result. Basically reading people their rights and taking statements. That was the unpleasant part. In the end everyone was cooperative, and we (I had the help of a couple others) allowed them to put the events in their own words. In the end, I delivered my report to the Commanding Officer of the unit involved and he held the NJP proceedings (XOI and Captain’s Mast).

So while it was a mixed bag of experience, it was an experience that might serve me well in the future. I hadn’t been involved with anything like this since my active duty days, and had never been the investigating officer for anything. The only downside in the immediate sense, other than four days of high stress and low sleep, was that it made it difficult for me to continue my boat qualifications. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back on track this week.

It’s only about three weeks to go until we turn over. So three more watch rotations. And the last one will get cut short be a day or two if we stay on track.