Does this Zipcode Make Me Look Smart?

Hubby and I made our annual trek to Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival in Manchester, Tennessee. If you are unfamiliar with this event, it is four days of music, 70,000 sweaty, stinky people and scorching heat. Doesn't that sound fabulous? Are you already making plans to attend next year?

Just in case you are undecided, let me sweeten the deal with camping. In a tent. I personally have been camping four times in my adult life. The first was when the kids were little, and I swore I would never do it again. Three years ago, I happily broke that promise to myself to go to Bonnaroo, and it was so worth it.

While we set up camp on Thursday (and by we, I mean mostly Hubby), I went around meeting our neighbors. Pretty much the first question asked is where are you from. We of course got very nice reactions when our answer was the Raleigh area.  Several people made comments about the education level of the Triangle. When one guy said there are a lot of very smart people in the Triangle, Hubby and I said in unison that an exception was made for us.  Several people asked if we were professors or worked at one of the universities.

We are no dummies, but around here, we are pretty much average joes. The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area is always in the top ten rankings of most educated regions of the country, most PhD's per capita and most STEM workers. Living in the Triangle is like seeing yourself in a smart mirror which is similar to a skinny mirror except instead of reflecting a slimmer version of you, it reflects a more intelligent version of you.

Of course here in Cary, I am pretty quickly recognized for what I am which is a liberal arts major from a southern state school. When I tell people that I have a daughter who goes to Carolina, I'm often met with a look of skepticism.  I am sure they are thinking 'Really?! How could you possibly have produced a child smart enough to get into Carolina.' Oh well, I look smart to the rest of the world, so I am going with that.

Final Four Baby!

My alma mater, The University of Southern Mississippi, had a very good basketball team my senior year. I loved it. Not because I was in any way interested in basketball - or any sport for that matter, but because my three roommates were.  When they went to the games to cheer on the Golden Eagles, I would have the apartment to myself for up to three glorious hours. It was my own little nirvana.

Time goes on. Some things change and some things stay the same.

This year, Daughter's school, The University of North Carolina, has a very good basketball team. I love it.  This time it is not for the peace and quiet of an empty home - frankly, I get a little too much of that these days - but because I am actually interested in the sport.

I cannot really say how that change occurred. Honestly, with my natural competitiveness, it is weird that it has taken me this long to get onto the team sports bandwagon. And of course, here in The Triangle, the team sport defaults to college basketball.

We got to go to rounds one and two of March Madness in Raleigh. They were the first basketball games I have ever been to, other than the time California Boy played rec ball in the fourth grade. It was great fun, made even better by the fact that Carolina won both of their games.

Thanks to excellent coaching and team work, Carolina has made it all the way to the Final Four. Thanks to a friend at work, I scored Final Four tickets, and Yankee and I are headed to Houston. Go Heels!!!

Moving On Up

The United Van Lines' National Movers Study shows the migration patterns of Americans and this year North Carolina is the fifth most popular state to move to. This is no surprise since North Carolina - particularly The Research Triangle - offers the things people are looking for when they relocate such as economic opportunity, good weather, and outdoor recreation.

North Carolina is really pretty much perfectly situated globally. We have four complete seasons, but none of them are brutal.  As far as outdoor recreation, we have it all. On one end of the state we have beautiful beaches and on the other side there are mountains, and in between we have the best place I have ever lived - The Research Triangle Region.

Unique to this particular area of the state - and the most of the country really, is that the three corners of The Triangle are each anchored with a major research university. In Raleigh we have North Carolina State University with over 33,000 students, strong engineering programs and the state's vet school. 

Twenty-five miles to the west is Duke University, one of the country's top universities with a hospital ranked number 14 in the entire country by U.S. News & World Reports. And they have a fairly decent men's basketball team.

Nine miles south of Duke, in one of the most beautiful college towns ever, is The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  - ranked as the fifth best public university in the country.  It boasts a gorgeous, historical campus, its own hospital complex, and a great women's soccer team and men's basketball team. Plus there is one beautiful College Girl there who happens to be my daughter, so clearly this makes UNC the best of the three schools, but I digress.

I believe this triangle of top education is one of the reasons the Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Chapel Hill area is such a great place to live.  It attracts the kind of businesses that need well-educated workers and in turn provides high paying jobs. And because of the Duke and UNC hospitals, we have excellent health care.  The universities provide an abundance of activities ranging from the stunning Duke gardens, to music, theater and that wee college basketball rivalry we have going here.

The other side of the states-people-most-want-to-move-to coin, is the states-people-most-want-to-leave side. According to the Movers Study, that state is New Jersey* followed by New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Ohio.  The common thread seems to COLD.  So if you are looking to escape the cold or migrate for any other reason, I suggest the Research Triangle region of North Carolina.

*New Jersey is Hubby's home state. Number nine on the list of states-people-most-often-leave is my home state of Mississippi. We both hold a love in our hearts for our home states, but I think North Carolina is where we are meant to be.



















 

Winter, Movies and Shoes. Oh My!

Winter hit the Triangle hard this week. It was twenty degrees when I left the house this morning which is not sleep in the carcass of a dead horse cold, but chilly all the same. And what better way to spend a cold winter night than at the movies?

Cary's First Flurries of 2016

When the Academy Award nominations came out, I was shocked to learn that I had seen four of the eight best picture nominees.  Because of one of my new favorite places, Frank's, I have become a semi-cinephile. Since I am already half way there, I am going to try to see all eight nominees.  And from the aforementioned horse carcass, the astute reader may have guessed my fifth Oscar potential was Revenant staring Mrs. Tom Brady's ex-beau, Leonardo DiCaprio

Revenant a great movie, but out of the seven movies I've seen over the past year it is not my top pick.

Here is my list so far:

7. Bridge of Spies - I would describe this movie as perfectly serviceable, like a pair of Dansko work clogs.  Well made, well acted and a good story, but it lacks pizzazz. Definitely watch at home material.  

They will save your feet.

6. Heart of the Sea - If we are going to stick with the shoe analogy, and why not, I am going to go with some sparkly spiked heeled Jessica Simpsons. The CGI is flashy and looks great, so it is definitely the kind of movie to go out for, but the quality of the story is lacking so it is not something that is going to last. (The Heart of the Sea is one of Yankee's favorite books, and he was very disappointed in the movie interpretation, so he puts this movie at a distant last. Having never read it, that was not an issue for me.)

Flashy and worth wearing - at least once.

5. The Martian -  Toms. Definitely Toms. They are fun, uber comfortable, and make your heart happy wearing them.  Matt Damon was lovable as always. The film makes you feel like humans have actually walked on mars and because of this I give it a 'Worth Going to the Theater' recommendation.

Oh so wearable

4. The Big Short - I am think a great pair of Kate Spades here. They seem very conservative and even a bit everyday, but they are really very fine, special shoes. I think in delivering the impossible, this movie went even beyond the whale in The Heart of the Sea and the bear mauling in Revenant. This movie made the financial meltdown entertaining and almost understandable. It was interesting, funny and frightening all at the same time. Plus Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt in the same movie? Worth the price of admission right there.

Simple. Timeless.

3. Revenant - Think Frye boots here. The attention to detail is unmatched in a movie/shoe that is readily available to the masses, and it has a longevity none of the other movies have.  In the same way that you can look fabulous wearing a pair of Campus boots from 1975, this movie will be watchable for decades to come. Even with a great story and high caliber acting, the true star of the film was without a doubt, the cinematography, and not just for the huge majestic mountain scenes, but also the stunning beauty and realism of the bear mauling. Because of this, Revenant is a must-see-on-the-big-screen film.

Just as beautiful and stylish as the day they were made 40 years ago.

2. Straight Outta Compton  - Converse All Stars have been around for almost a century and are very affordable and yet, when you see someone wearing them, you know that is a cool person. The same goes for the story of NWA - cool, very cool. This film successfully tells a very interesting story, with good writing, acting and music.  Sadly it had no chance of being nominated since the entertainment business is portrayed as, well, less than stellar.

Cool. Cool. Cool.

1. Mad Max: Fury Road - A fabulous, funky pair of Marc Jacobs. If you have not seen it, don't laugh at my number one pick. This movie has it all -  a strong story, almost non-stop action, and stunning cinematography. This is the kind of movie that movie theaters were made for. I saw it at the theater and recently watched it at home, and I like it so much I would probably watch it again.

They have it all - quality, beauty and pizzazz!

If I see any of the other nominees, I will be sure to let you know what its spirit shoe is.

It's a Holiday Wrap

It is eight pm on New Year's Day which to me means the holidays are officially over. Here is as rundown of the some of the highlights of our second Christmas in Cary:

• The most Cary-centric activity we did was the North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival at the Koka Booth Amphitheater. It was pretty amazing. They build all of these displays out of lighted lanterns. The dragon was 186 feet long and sprayed water out of its nostrils to mimic steam. We lucked out to go on one of the few rain-free nights this December.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

•  My birthday is right before Christmas and Hubby gave me this sweet Mid Century Modern clock! 
  

• Comedian Son came from California and stayed a little over a week. I cannot really say he came home because as much as I love living in Cary, it will never be his home - it is just the place his parents and sister live. Georgia will always be home to him. 

• This is a photo of our beautiful Christmas tree. Please enjoy it because it is the last real tree we will ever have. We always had a fake tree until about four years ago when College Girl finally talked me into getting a real one. It was fine when we lived in the other house, but it was terrible in this house. The difference being hardwood floors. A reasonable person would think the hardwood/real tree combo would be better than having pine needles stuck in carpet, and that certainly is a benefit. The problem we had was ornaments falling to their deaths. I figure with a fake tree I can secure the ornaments better. Plus there is the lack of sneezing and hives too.

    

• Generally we spend our New Years Eves sitting at home, but this year we ventured out to see The Book of Mormon at the Durham Performing Arts Center. This was our first play since moving to the Triangle. It was very different than going to the Fox Theater in Atlanta. The Fox is an old movie theater and it is stunningly beautiful with an Arabian Nights theme including stars painted on the ceiling, but that old beauty comes a steep price or rather very steep steps with a serious lack of handrails. The seats are sized for 1920's sized butts, so a little tight for today's theater patrons. The DPAC is shiny and new, with comfy seats and safe stairs. As for the play, I enjoyed it but would not recommend it to anyone who is easily offended by ANYTHING AT ALL, because it is super offensive.  

So it was a great holiday, but I am ready to get on to the day to day living of 2016. I hope you had a great holiday too, and I wish you a very happy new year.

Fall is a Buyer's Season

Autumn. The days are cooler. The kids are back in school. It is a great time to walk through a corn maze,  to enjoy a pumpkin spice latte, and to buy a house. According to Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at realtor.com, buyers who are willing to close in the off-peak months of fall and winter may very well have the upper hand in negotiations.

As usual with economists, it all comes down to supply and demand.  He says that normally inventory peaks in August and begins to slow as the nights grow longer. But this year the typical seasonal decline will start a bit later. There will be more choices in September than any other month in 2015. On the demand side, now that school has started, fewer people are interested in moving, so the number of contracts decreases. This means the sellers have fewer offers, so buyers may be able to negotiate a better deal for themselves.

I can attest to this with the real life example of selling my house last year. Yankee and I had big plans of putting the house on the market in June. Quickly June turned into July and then August, and still we did not have to house ready to sell. We finally had a firm marketing date in the beginning of September, but the day before it was to go live on MLS, Yankee went under the house and found water dripping. Our dishwasher was leaking. It took another six weeks to get everything fixed, so it was October before the house was on the market.

By this time, the type of buyers looking for a 3500 square foot, five bedroom home had either bought already or were waiting until spring because the school year was well underway. When an offer finally came in after six weeks on the market, we had to take it seriously even though it was way off our target price. We needed to sell and with no other offers, we accepted a deal we would have scoffed at in July.  Our loss was the buyers' gain. They got a beautiful home (with a brand new dishwasher and kitchen floor as a bonus) for an excellent price.

So if you are on the fence about buying, right now may be the best time to climb off that fence and buy your new home. If that buying is going to be in the Triangle, I am more than happy to help find the perfect house for you and negotiate a great deal on it.

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 Cook's Paradise

I grew up in a small town in Mississippi. Some of my family and friends still live there and for the most part they love their home, but there is one complaint I hear over and over from them - the lack of a decent grocery store.

They have basically three choices: A poorly stocked Kroger; the Walmart Super Center; and a small grocery store called Sunflower. If you are lucky enough to be active duty or retired military you can also shop at the air force base commissary. And that's it. This is a really big issue for the fabulous cooks living there like my mom, Sister III,  Brother-in-Law, BFF and her her youngest child.

One day BFF was complaining she could not find shallots anywhere in Small Town Mississippi . In my continuing effort to get her to uproot her family and move up here, I pointed out that the only problem you would have in Cary is choosing between multitude of grocery stores from which to procure your shallots.

She could pick up her shallots at one of North Carolina's own Harris Teeter's. If she wanted organic shallots she could try Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or Earth Fare. For a friendly shallot, she could go to the brand new Publix. I have never been Lowe's Supermarkets or Food Lion, but I bet they have shallots too. I'm not sure if there are Indian, Asian or Hispanic shallots, but if there are, she can pick them up at one of our many specialty grocery stores.
 
So here I am in Cary with at least ten different shallot buying opportunities, and would like to know how many times I have actually bought shallots or anything more difficult to find than organic milk? None. Zip. Zero. Why? Well it is a two fold answer. First and most importantly, I hate to cook. Absolutely loath it. People tell me it's a shame because I am a pretty good cook (I learned from the best - my mom).

The second answer is that I hate going to the grocery store even worse than cooking. No matter how spectacular they are, and let me tell you, we have the most fabulous grocery stores I have ever been in, I just hate going. Luckily for me, Yankee does not mind going at all. He says it reminds him of shopping with his dad when he was a kid, so he does pretty much all the food shopping (that's what he calls it) around here.

It is sad that I have an abundance of food choices and yet do not take advantage of them at all, while the great cooks from home have almost no choice at all. I guess they are just all move up to Cary AKA Cook's Paradise.

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.

It's Almost Here

Yankee and I had always planned to move away from Georgia when College Girl graduated from high school. We just were not quite sure where. All kinds of places were thrown around, but Yankee was seriously surprised when I suggested Kansas City. We know no one there, it's not near a place Yankee could work or a school for College girl, so why would I want to live there? Simply because of two wonderful words - Google Fiber.

Just the thought of being done with cable was enough to make me consider moving half way across the country. In the end, though, factors other than our internet provider won out, and we moved to The Triangle. As much as I love it here, we still had to deal with a cable company. This time it is Time Warner instead of Comcast, but really is there any difference? The only improvement was that being referred to as Kathy for twenty-two years by Comcast was over. I guess that is something.

Imagine my glee back in February when  it was announced that The Triangle was one of the expansion areas for Google Fiber. My perfect place to live made even perfecter by ultra fast internet. There was a rumor that they would move into the Cary/Morrisville area first, so I did a little happy dance for a while and then put it out of my mind. After all, if dealing with the cable company has shown me anything, these kinds of things take forever. 

It turns out Google is nothing like cable in many ways. Instead of years, this forever only took four months. They broke ground in Morrisville on Tuesday, and it looks like Cary will be next. Yay for us!

On Friday we got a letter from Time Warner letting us know faster internet is on its way. All we have to do is get a new modem from them, so we can be ready when this extra speedy internet is available in our area. They are not sure of the exact date, but they will let us know as soon as it happens. I am thinking that will actually be a real forever. No worries here, though, because I'll let them keep their new modem and wait (a very short while) for Google Fiber. And I did not even have to move to Kansas City.

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.

121 Holly Thorn Trace

Not only am I buying a house, I am selling one too - for someone else because that's what realtors do. This  2788 square foot home was completely renovated last fall, but the homeowners are relocating.  They have done the hard work, now the new buyer can simply move in and enjoy. This wonderful home is in Holly Springs which is just a hop, skip and a jump from Cary via 540.

The house is on a large corner lot. The backyard slopes into the cul-de-sac, so the house lives like a cul-de-sac lot without the parking issues.

The large front porch is the perfect place to enjoy a glass of ice tea while staying cool under the ceiling fan.

The sunny family room has a cozy fireplace with gas logs. The gleaming floors were installed during the fall renovation and are in pristine condition.  The entire house was freshly painted at that time as well.  This home features smooth ceilings throughout.

The fabulous kitchen was the main focus of the the renovation. It features custom cabinetry, granite countertops and Kenmore Elite stainless steel appliances.

The generously sized master bedroom is on the main floor. There is plenty of natural light, a tray ceiling and ceiling fan.

The master bath has a beautiful vanity with a granite countertop and dual sinks.

The extra large custom tile shower has a rainfall shower head and a side jet as well. There is a separate tub.

 The back yard has a pergola that overlooks the cul-de-sac.

Enjoy summer cookouts on the built-in charcoal grill.

 Keep cool in the summer at the neighborhood pool which is included in the low quarterly HOA fee.

In addition to the master bedroom there is a second bedroom and full bath on the main floor plus an office with a closet. There are three additional bedrooms and a full bath upstairs along with a finished bonus space. All of the bedrooms have ceiling fans. The carpet was replaced during the renovation.  There is an outside storage shed, and the garage has built in cabinetry.  The hot water heater was replaced this year. All of this $289,900.

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.