A Mid Century Modern Dilemma

My interest in mid century modern design really started when I began looking for a our new house. I was drawn to low roofed ranches with avocado green kitchens, and if I had an unlimited supply of money to sink into one,  I am sure that I would the proud owner of a 1969 North Hills ranch. Instead I am the proud owner of a five year old West Cary faux craftsman track home.

One of the great things about our newish house is the complete lack of decoration. There are no built-ins, no crown moldings, no chair railings. The most decorative thing is the mantel, and Yankee has promised to rip that thing out for me (a story for another day, I'm sure). Most people would find this a negative, but for me it just makes it easier to get that MCM feel I'm looking for.

Another way to achieve the look I want has been to load up on some nice pieces of furniture. One thing I have been searching for is a make up vanity for my bathroom.  I found a really fabulous piece at Gremlina Vintage in Fuquay-Varina, but while I debated buying it, someone else snatched that baby up. So I was again on the search until I found a desk on Craigslist that I thought might do, and the best part was the price - $30.

Yankee and I drove to North Raleigh to pick it up. The seller was absolutely the most hipsterish dude I have ever had the good fortune to meet. He lived in a tiny little hundred year old cottage that he had been renovating for several years. In true hipster fashion, he did not appear to be making much headway, but I digress.  We paid the guy $30 bucks and drove off with this:

In the  Craigslist photo I could not see what made this piece the true treasure it is. What I saw in the photo was a desk with nice MCM lines and drawers on the right side like I wanted but which were surprisingly difficult to find. I figured I'd bring it home, paint it and have a great little vanity.  When I saw it in person though, this is what I saw:

It has charcoal and rose Boomerang Formica! This was a really popular pattern in the 1950's. It is really cool and in pretty good condition too. The yellow top and edging are not it great shape though.

My dilemma is - do I paint it? On the one had I absolutely hate when people Pinterst-up MCM furniture. I see it all the time on Etsy and Craigslist. They will have a beautiful Lane Acclaim piece painted with gray chalkboard paint advertised as "Shabby Chic." It is really painful to think that beautiful piece of furniture painted and called shabby. On the other hand, the piece is the perfect size and style for my bathroom, but not the perfect color.

My bathroom is painted a light blueish gray and there is a lot of white in it. There is absolutely no pink. The pink in the laminate is very pale though, so not too noticeable. The yellow part is pretty rough with some holes in the top and gouges in the trim.

Last night I decided I was definitely painting it, so I took the whole thing apart to prep it, but I did not do any painting. It just feels wrong. I am considering just painting the yellow parts and leaving the boomerang. Any thoughts and/or advice from my readers?

On the inside, they used left over laminate. Now this color would be perfect in my bathroom.

This leftover piece is exactly like the counter top in my parents bathroom when I was growing up. 

Could the shape of this support get more 50's? I think not!

The two legs on the right side are wood painted black with metal caps.

Cary's Newest Movie Theater

I hate going to movies. It is extremely rare that I go to any movie that does not have the words Harry Potter in the name. It's not that I don't like movies, because I love me some celluloid entertainment. It is the theater part I hate, in particular it is that one person in every movie who talks constantly or plays games on his phone or  eats candy covered in crinkly wrappers. For some reason those people always choose to sit right next to me or behind me. I guess it is the downside of my magnetic personality.

The reason I was willing to go to a movie in the first place.

Yesterday, though, I was so desperate to get away from our box filled home, that I suggested we go to the  Frank Theater's Cinebowl and Grill that recently opened at Parkside Town Commons in West Cary.  After Yankee got over his shock, he jumped at the chance (he is just as sick of boxes as I am).

Let me just tell you, Frank's is not your typical movie going experience. The difference started when I went online to buy tickets. They have assigned seating. The front to rows are the Rockers and the rest of the theater are Dine & Recline. We went for Dine & Recline not because we particularly wanted to dine or recline, but because we did not want to sit in the front two rows. It was a matinee, so Dine & Recline was $10 as opposed to the Rockers which were $8. At night they are $10 & $12 and on the weekend the Dine & Recline shoots up to a stunning $15. If you order your tickets online, there is a $1.25 service charge per ticket, so then you are looking at $16.25 for a movie (a bug-eyed smiley face emoji would be perfect here). Once you get to the theater, you go to machine and swipe your credit card to get your tickets.

Just a word about the building itself. As the name implies, it is not just a movie theater. There is a bar and grill, a bowling alley and an arcade. We did not use any of those options, but they looked nice.  There is a traditional box office where you can buy tickets and concessions. The theater is not huge. The two rows of rockers look like a typical theater, but that is where typical stops. the rest of the theater is made up of sections of big, cushy chairs that almost fully recline. The way the theater is designed you have tons of personal space so talkers/texters just are not an issue. Each chair has a little table that swings into place in front of it with a menu sitting on it. A server comes by to see if you want any food. We ordered sliders, and OMG they were delicious.

So once we scarfed down the sliders, we settled down to watch Straight Out of Compton.  It was a great movie. There was one thing that that was driving me crazy during the whole movie though, and it was not talking or texting. It was the fact that the actor playing Ice Cube looked exactly like Ice Cube. I don't mean he resembled him a little, I mean it was like they went back in time and plucked a young Ice Cube out of the late '80's and brought him back to play himself. It was freaky. I commented on this to Yankee after the movie, and he told me it was because the actor is his son.

I think it would be really weird to play your dad in a movie about his life. First of all, that actress you are snuggling up with is playing your mom. Awkward.  Thank goodness, she was one of the few women in the movie who was not topless. And the scene where there are two little kids playing in the back ground? One of those kids is you and the other is your sibling. Weird.

Anyway, I have to say this was the best movie going experience I have ever had. I think now that I know how fabulous Franks is, I will probably see more than two movies a year. 

A Great Real Estate Day

One of the main reasons I decided to be a REALTOR is my love of houses and design. My guess is that the majority of people who make a career out of selling residential real estate feel the same way, but when we get into the business we quickly find out our business really has very little to do with houses and a whole lot to do with people.

The part that has to do with houses is mostly related to our clients, so we see the houses our clients see. According to The Triangle Business Journal, the current median sales price of a home in the Triangle is $231,00. This means most of the homes REALTORS are touring within a range of that price. These are good houses for people to make their homes in, but they are not the million dollar homes you find in magazines. Just like most people, we in the industry rarely have a reason to go inside one of those homes.

That is why when one of our agents had a broker's open house yesterday for her 1.8 million dollar listing, I was one of the first ones at the door. I expected spectacular, and I was not disappointed. This was absolutely one of those houses that could be in a magazine.

The overall look of the house was impressive, but as someone in the business, it was the details that blew me away. They are way to many to list, but I did take a picture of the home theater that I think really shows off the attention to details.

 It is designed to look like the inside of a theater, and the riser even have small lights in them just like in a movie theater. Of course the seats are way more comfy than any movie theater I've ever been to. And this is just a basement room, so you can just imagine how grand the rest of the house is.

Getting to see the inside of an incredible home like this made it a great real estate day for me. If you would like to see it, AND you are pre-qualified to purchase a 1.8 million dollar home send me an email, and I will set you up. 

Buyer's Agent: Don't Buy a Home Without One

When we bought our last house in Georgia, I did what many buyers do. I called the number of the agent on the sign in the yard and made an appointment to see the house. I did not really consider that the person showing me the house was the seller's agent, and I certainly did not know what that meant. I just knew I wanted to see the house and this person had the keys. We went on to buy that house without ever getting our own agent to represent us, and let me tell you, it was a very unpleasant experience. If I only knew then what I know now. Luckily for you I am here to share my knowledge with you.

The agent whose name is on the sign in front of the house is the listing or seller's agent which means she represents the seller and thus is concerned with the best interest of her client, the seller. You are not her client, you are merely a customer. Think of the listing agent as a car salesperson. His fiduciary responsibility is to his employer, the car dealership, and he is going to try to sell cars for the most money possible thus bringing in the greatest profit to his employer. 

If Ms. Listing Agent is showing you her client's home, and you mention that your wife told you she is going to divorce you if you don't buy this house, you better believe she is going to pass that information on to the seller. It is her responsibility to give her client, Mr. Seller, any information that will help him sell his house at the best terms possible.

On the other hand, Ms. Listing Agent is required by the rules of agency to keep important information about her client confidential. Any real estate agent in the state of North Carolina (and hopefully all other states as well) is bound by a code of ethics and must be truthful when it comes to material facts about the property no matter who she is representing, but she should not disclose her clients motivations. She is never going to tell you that he is willing to take 20% less than asking price and throw in the washer and dryer too. 

And here is another surprising fact - every single other real estate agent is working for the seller too - not just Ms. Listing Agent. All of the other agents are considered seller's sub agents, and it is their duty to work on behalf of the seller's best interest as well. It used to be this was the only way real estate agents worked until someone decided it might be nice for the buyer to have some representation in the biggest financial deal she is likely to make in her entire life.

That is how we got something in North Carolina called Exclusive Buyers Agency. With this agreement which can be written or even oral until an offer is made at which time it must be written, the buyer is getting an agent to represent her interests in the deal.  So if your buyer's agent finds out that the seller is willing to go 20% lower on the price, she is going to share that information with you her client.

Having a buyers agent is helpful in so many other ways. She can use the data available to her to come up with the best offer in terms of price and other considerations. She will negotiate with the sellers agent or the sellers directly if they do not have an agent. She will negotiate repairs and other due diligence issues, and in many other ways help you make it to closing as painlessly as possible.

Best of all, these services generally don't cost you a thing because the buyer's agent is paid out of the commission paid by the seller.  Some people worry that a buyer's agent who is paid by the seller will not be loyal to them, but because of the rules of agency and the code of ethics, this situation really does work.

So I recommend you get a good buyer's agent on your side before you start looking at real estate and avoid all of the unpleasantness of that purchase I made without one.

Froggy A Cappella

Our townhouse overlooks a retention swamp. My guess is it was originally meant to be a retention pond, but at some point the developer and/or HOA gave up on its being full of water. They have tried to make it look like it has a purpose by landscaping it  and putting a picnic table down in the middle of it, but the only use I have ever seen made of the picnic table is as a place for the neighborhood kids to put their jars full of tadpoles that they have fished out of the swampy water that surrounds it.* If I were a kid, I would be right down there with them. As an adult I wish it were a full pond maybe with a nice fountain in the middle.

The retention swamp in the day

It would be reasonable to assume that with a swamp a mere forty feet from my back door we would have a terrible mosquito problem, but due to the parents of the afore mentioned tadpoles, we are fairly free of those flying, buzzing, blood-sucking fiends. It really is amazing the frogs even have time to clear the skies of mosquitoes what with their constant ongoing choir practice.

In Georgia the sound of summer evenings is cicadas. Apparently in North Carolina, at least in my little corner of Cary, it is frogs. I have never heard such a cacophony. We can hear it in the house with the insulated windows closed. We can hear it over the TV. We can hear it from our third floor bedroom. It is especially loud when the bullfrogs join in with their baritone ribbits.

The retention swamp at night

There is no swamp behind the new house. There is thick tree barrier that I think will be nice to look at, but I doubt we will have our own froggy a cappella group serenading us on summer nights. I will definitely miss that.

*Don't worry, the tadpole catching is a catch and release program only.

She's Got That Sparkling Personality

The perfect house we are buying is, like all houses, not quite perfect. We did just what I advise my clients do when choosing a new home - separate things that cannot be changed  or would be prohibitively expensive to do so like location and major structural and/or renovation changes, from things that are easier and relatively inexpensive like minor updating such as painting and new flooring. Buy according to the first list not the second.

The perfect things about the house are its location, floor plan, and condition. The not so perfect thing is that some parts of this house were finished to builder's minimums. Although the kitchen has granite countertops the floor is vinyl. The master bath is huge with an eight foot vanity, a water closet with a window (goodbye claustrophobia), and even a large linen closet which is a great.  The not so great features are the same not-so-lovely vinyl floor, a 24" X 24" prefab shower and one of the ugliest prefab tubs I have ever seen.

To be fair, I am slightly prejudice against bathtubs. I have not used one since I was ten years old, so I  see them as space wasters and dust collectors. I want to pull both the shower and tub out and have a nice, big tile shower built plus replace the vinyl floor with tile. The hall bath has a plastic surround that College Girl hates, so we are going to have it tiled and have the kitchen floor tiled as well.

I am pretty good with design, but I needed to pick out about seven different tiles, so I made an appointment with Krysta at Florida Tile in Morrisville. She was a huge help - particularly with keeping me on budget. Yankee says whatever is the most expensive; that is what I'm going to pick out. I like to tell him - I only want the best Baby, that's why I picked you.

Anyway, Krysta and I got the bathrooms picked out but were having a really hard time finding something I liked for the kitchen floor until she pulled a piece out from the back. I liked it the minute she showed it to me, but as I studied it, I noticed something a little different about it that I did not notice at first.

Me - Are those tiny little sparkles?

Krysta - We call those flecks. It's meant to be like natural quartz.

Me - Flecks. Sparkles Whatever. I want it!

A few of my sparkliest items. I've worn the silver shoes maybe three times. I actually carry the purse almost daily because silver sparkles brighten any outfit. As for the gold shoes - what can I say? The caught my eye on the clearance rack at Target a few years ago. I have never worn them outside of the house, but every once in a while I do like to try them on.

I realized I had an obsession with sparkles when I first started working and was going through my wardrobe looking for appropriate work clothes. What I found were the things I wear all the time - jeans, cardigans and tee shirts - and an inordinate amount of sparkly clothing that I almost never wear, mostly because I have no place to wear sparkles. At this point, I had to admit to myself that I am much girlier than I ever thought. Until now, I have been able to hide this part of myself, but in a few short weeks my secret obsession with sparkles is going to be laid out on my kitchen floor for all to see.

Bravely Serving My 48 Hours

As a very pale person who has spent her entire life in the Sunny South, a close working relationship with a good dermatologist is a must. When my new dermatologist's receptionist apologized because it would be a three week wait before they could get me in, I almost laughed because in Atlanta it would have taken four months minimum to get an appointment. This is one of the best parts of living in the Triangle - fabulous medical care.

The Triangle is home to two of the country's top medical schools, Duke University and the University of North Carolina, so this area produces more than it's fair share of excellent doctors and nurses. Many of them never leave because it is such a great place to live. This gives us a plethora of doctors to choose from, fast appointment times and short waits in the office.

After examining me with a magnifying glass - literally - my new doctor's plan of attack was to treat my entire face at once to get rid of all the per-cancerous spots at once, which seemed way better than having pieces of my face scrapped off little by little.

The treatment involved a photo-sensitizing medicine and a very precise 16 minutes and 40 seconds in front of a blue light.  For me the actual treatment was a breeze,  but now I am suffering through the tough part - no sun for 48 hours.

Apparently the medicine's photo-sensitizing effects take a while to wear off, so I have to stay out of the sun completely in order to prevent post-treatment burns. And they mean it. Three different people said we are not kidding before I left the office with my wide brimmed hat shoved down low on my head.

All of the shades in the house are closed, but I still cannot sit close to the window. I cannot sit near a lamp either. Thank goodness computer light was not included in the list of no's. I could not survive without some link to the outside world.  I have gone all Orange is the New Black and am scratching out little hour marks on the wall. I'm halfway through my sentence. Tomorrow at noon I get sunshine and a ticket to drive.

The Not So New Girl

I am fairly new to the Triangle. It's been a long time since I was new anywhere. Before when I was new, all I had available to help me out was my good natural sense of direction and place. There were maps too, but I am very map challenged. Yankee can look at a map of the entire state of North Carolina and zone in on College Girl's dorm in a split second. I could search for hours and never find it, but I CAN  refold it perfectly which makes us a perfect pair.  A neatly folded map does not get you very far though, so luckily I now have Google Maps Lady to tell me where to go.

Even with her at my side, not being familiar with the area was sort of awkward, particularly since I'm in a business were knowing the area is very important.  For a while most of my conversations included 'where is that?' or 'I don't really know that area', and if I made plans to meet someone, I always let them choose the place because I didn't really know any places.

The other day, I think I crossed a big new resident milestone with one simple text. I was making plans with a friend, and I suggested we go to the new Starbucks next to the Verizon store. This was big not only in that I suggested the place, but also because the Starbucks and Verizon store are even newer than me. They were only a cleared lot when I moved here and now they are places to meet friends. I think that makes me if not an old timer, at least a not so new girl.

Sight Unseen

When our perfect house popped up on the MLS at 7pm, Yankee and I leashed up Tiny Terror and made the four minute trek to check it out. We gave as thorough a once over as we could without causing the neighbors to call 911 which means we basically admired it from the sidewalk. It looked good from there, and knowing it would go fast in this crazy Cary market, I made an appointment to see it first thing in the morning.  I toured it solo because Yankee had to go to work

It had our major criteria:

1. It was in our budget
2. Location, Location, Location
3. Two master closets - It actually does not have two closets, but the 12 x 6 is just begging to be divided in  half
4.  It was in good condition with very little cosmetic or repair work needed. 

While that was the good news,; the bad news was that it certainly fit the criteria of many other Triangle area house hunters. I dashed straight to the office, worked up the offer and submitted it that morning. 

But Cat, you forgot to tell us the part where you took Yankee to see it, he loved it too and then you made the offer.  It's not that I forgot to tell you about that step; it just did not happen.. That's right - Yankee agreed to by the most expensive thing he has ever purchased sight unseen. 

As confident as I was in this deal the listing agent was equally apprehensive. I understood her position, and if I were the listing agent in this deal I would be nervous too. But with the  combination of  Yankee's traveling schedule and the super competitive Triangle market, it was our only choice if we wanted a shot at the house. 

I am happy to say that ten days into the contract, Yankee has finally seen the inside of the house.  He agreed it's the perfect house for us. 

My Virtual Quirk

When I was in high school, my friends and I would drive by the houses of the boys we liked. I don't know what we were thinking. Maybe that the boy would see us drive by and come running out his house waving his hands in the air to get us to stop, so he could ask one of us out.

Luckily I graduated from high school, and dropped the stalking  - that is until we bought our second house. It was less than a mile from the house we lived in at the time, so it was quite convenient for house stalking. Before we had a contract on it, I would tell myself I was just driving by to see if it was still for sale. This was back in the dark ages of the late nineties. I guess houses for sale were available online then, but I do not ever remember looking at it on the good ole Packard Bell. Once we had a contract, I would still drive by every couple of days. I am not sure why.  I think seeing it made it feel more real to me - that it was soon to be our home.

The house we are buying now is so close I could use the excuse of taking The Tiny Terror on a walk to check it out, but I haven't. I have not driven past it either. It's not because I've been cured of my house stalking. It's because I can now cyber stalk, although I prefer the less felonious term, creeping.  It is even better than the old drive by because now I can see the inside of the house as well. I check the online listing at least once a day. I like to look at the pictures of the rooms and imagine what color I will paint them, how we will arrange the furniture, where we will put the Christmas tree, where the California Kid will stay when he comes to our new home to visit. Then I like to send the pictures to my family members, so they can give their approval.

At least 85% of all home buyers start their search online. I wonder if those buyers continue to check out their house online after they have signed the contract, or is that just my own special quirk.

Due Diligence North Carolina Style

 

We have a contract on the house! Even though I am in the real estate business, I have the same gambit of emotions as anyone when buying a new home. I went from 'this is the best house ever' to 'if we don't get it, it will be fine. We'll find something else' then back to 'no other house will ever do.'  And  just like any other home buyer, when the agent call to tell me that we got the house,  I did a little happy dance.

The dancing stopped pretty quickly though because now Due Diligence begins. North Carolina does due diligence differently than most other states. A due diligence fee and period is negotiated as part of the offer. The fee is paid directly to the seller and is non-refundable, but it does count toward the closing. The due diligence period gives the buyers a chance to thoroughly exam the property and have any inspections done that they choose to do. It also gives them opportunity to get all of their financing in order. Here's the kicker though: until five pm on the due diligence date, the buyers can walk away from the deal for any reason or NO REASON AT ALL. They will not get their due diligence fee back but they do get their earnest money back.

The first I heard of this type of due diligence was in real estate school. Our teacher was throwing out examples of due diligence fees of $250 and due diligence periods of just a week shy of closing. That may have been true a few years ago when this first started and the market was down, but in the kind of market we are in today a seller is probably not going to accept $250, and she is going to want a shorter due diligence period as well.

With a small due diligence fee and a long time frame, the burden of worry is pretty much on the shoulders of the seller. A buyer could walk away and her wallet might squeak a little in protest at losing $250, but relative to the cost of the house, it's not that much, so the seller lived in fear that the buyer would choose to end the contract, and she would have to start the entire selling process over again.

A realistic fee in the Triangle in this market is from $500 up, and now the burden of worry is shifting to the buyer side because it is a whole lot harder to walk away from $750 or $1000. That said, our way of doing Due Diligence is still an excellent benefit for North Carolina buyers. Better to lose a little up front than to lose your much larger earnest money check because you discovered the house was built on an ancient burial ground and is now haunted with poltergeist.

Location, Location, Location

In real estate school one of the many words I had to learn was 'situs' which is the physical location of the property. My memory trick was Situs, Situs, Situs, like the most quoted real estate term ever, location, location, location.

There is a reason almost every adult American has said those three words - because absolutely nothing is more important in real estate. It is why people pay millions of dollars for tiny apartment in Manhattan or why you can buy a brand-new five bedroom house on the outskirts of Boise, Idaho for $250,000.


There is no escaping the real estate truth of location which brings me to our nearly perfect house from the other day. You remember the house. The one Yankee and I toured twice. The house my lender pre-qualified us for. The house we decided on Thursday night that we would make an offer on Friday morning. Yeah, that house.  Well one of the things that reduces the perfectness of that house is its Situs, Situs, Situs which is Morrisville.


Morrisville's slogan is The Heart of The Triangle, and geographically they are pretty much right on the money, but the heart of my personal version of the triangle is right where we live now. In my entire life, I have never lived anywhere that is as convenient as where I live now. Need to go to Target? 3 minutes. The airport? 15 minutes. College Girl's dorm? 22 minutes. Nordstrom's? 15 minutes. My office? 10 minutes. Having experienced that level of convenience, I hated the thought of adding just a few minutes to one of those drives.


That's why when I checked the listings one last time before bed on Thursday night, and I saw a single family home come up in our neighborhood, I jumped on it. I toured it at 8am Friday morning. Yankee had a trip and couldn't go, so I sent him some videos, then I wrote an offer. Hopefully we'll get the house, proving that saying one more time.

The Perfect House?

Anyone involved in the current Cary/Morrisville, North Carolina real estate market knows how insane it is right now. Houses sell in days often with multiple offers. It's a great time to be a seller, but a tough time for a buyer - even if said buyer has the inside scoop because she's a real estate broker. Now lets throw a hole bunch of picky in, and  that buyer (who might be named Cat) has set herself up on a nearly impossible quest.

I had pretty much resigned myself to another year of renting the tree house. Another year of three floors. Have you ever climbed the stairs at St. Peter's Basilica? Well if you haven't and want to, but can't afford a trip to Rome right now, just pop on over to my place and walk up the stairs from the garage floor to the main floor. It's pretty much the same. Oh, and you carry a few bags of groceries up while you're at it, just for bonus fun. 

Stairs in our Town/Tree House

But this morning on my early morning perusing of the new listings, I spotted one in my target area with the golden ticket - two master closets. So we rushed over to take a look. As I walked through, I was overcome with a sense of relief because I believe ladies and gentlemen, we found a house, we can comfortably live the next decade in. That feeling lasted about 3 minutes until the panic of losing out to multiple offers started creeping over me. Grr Argh.

I will let you know, gentle reader, if we were able to beat out all those other desperate house hunters.