A new house for the Kalihers

It finally came. Settlement day!!! Look I have to write a long blog about this experience but let's just say that the last month it has been non-stop with the broker and the loan company having to proof everything. Really just take my blood - it would be easier. First they needed proof of Karl's employment and every paystubs for the last three months. Next I had to document every deposit from the last three months. Then the loan went through a 2nd underwriter who wanted official bank statements with a signature and date from the bank demonstrating we had money in our account. All this pushed our settlement date back to Friday the 24th from Wednesday the 22nd. I had planned to take off the 22nd through the 24th which I'm glad I did.

On Wednesday had to go to the bank to get the statements and meet the broker. Then Wednesday night had to do more paperwork/signatures to update loan back to 4.5% from 4.35%. See, we were at 4.5% and would only have to have $9500 for closing. Then the APR went low and the loan company wanted us to have another $1000 for settlement (they gave us less of a credit!). Which meant waiting another week because we had to proof we had that extra money in our account (we didn't at Thursday but Friday with payday we did). I didn't want to do that so get back up to 4.5% so had to re-do paperwork and meet the broker on Thursday. Well at the settlement as we found out we got the 4.35% and got a return!!! All this drama for nothing!

Friday finally came and we met our agent, Tiffany, at the house for our final walk-through. As a ResLifer it was like a room inspection. We checked to see if all the work got done (it did) and I took lots of pictures and wrote down ideas of what to do with the house. Look the house is great and there really isn't much but I gotta make it my own.

Then off to lunch at BW3s and to the lawyer's office. Met with the sellers and their agents and the signature marathon started. I kept track of it all. After 40 minutes were up to 40 signatures then the sellers got to leave and it was us, the lawyer, and Tiffany signing away. Paperwork like we promise not to ask the loan company to take care of the appliances, a paper saying who we are, a paper saying we promise to pay the loan, a paper saying we're married, etc. After 85 signatures we were done!!!!! Homeowners!!

Really I felt a sign of relief to get through this process. We had the keys in hand and went home to get the kids to take them to the new house. They loved it! They ran around it and played on the playground.

It's done!!! We are finally started our next chapter of our life as community members and a family!!!

Father Day - June 2011

It was an eventful Father's Day for Karl this year. We spent Saturday at the pool and wore the kids out. Carlita is really into making and selling cupcakes (Cupcake selling) so the rest of the day was doing that.

Sunday the kids and I got up early and jumped on Karl to wake him up. They gave him their present - a painted plate. Very cute. Then as every other father did on Sunday morning we went to IHOP for breakfast. Very good. Then Karl and the kids went off blueberry picking at the UD campus while I got all the bags we needed for a surprise trip. I had purchased tickets to the Wilmington & Western Railroad from a Groupon special. They were having a Father's Day trip. So once they all returned we were off. Karl had no clue until we drove into the train station. The kids (and Karl) were very excited.

I was surprised to see how packed the train was. It seems alot of people were thinking like I. The train ride was 45 minutes to Mt. Cuba Meteor picnic area. We disembarked the train, and had a very nice picnic and then back on the train. Great fun!!!

Then we went to the Western Y pool to wear the kids out more and by 3pm they were passed out in the car driving home. Carlita spent the afternoon making crafts, Karl napped, and I BBQ'ed up some ribs and corn for the big papa. My gift to Karl was massages which he needs one so badly. I am lucky to have a great partner in life who loves being a father and is so caring and compassion. Love you Karl and Happy Father's day.

the Kaliher waterpark

Sometimes it's more fun making a "waterpark" in the backyard than going to one. We added some sprinklers to hang from the clothing line and a slip-n-slide and there you had it! Water fun in the backyard.

Cupcake selling

Carlita is really growing up. She learned all about Spending, sharing, and Saving from an Elmo DVD we got from PNCBank.  She got her banks set up but knew she needed to make money so why not have a cupcake sell outside our home. She was goign to raise funds for sick animals. We made over 36 cupcakes and that little girl sat outside with Karl all day and made no sales. Our street isn't really a place that gets tons of travel. Luckily the neighbors came over and gave her $10 for 4 cupcakes (really we expected a quarter). She was so excited for her first (and only sale). We'll keep trying to make a sale.

The tooth fairy visits

Carlita has had a loose tooth for over a month now. she's been working hard on getting it out. Over the weekend she took a bite out of an apple and it really got loose but we just couldn't get it out. So last night I looked at it and she was able to twist that tooth almost out so one simple pull and it was out!! 

She was so excited. We wrote a letter to the tooth Fairy asking that she return the tooth when she was done with it (for Mommy to keep). Carlita glitterfried the letter and the tooth went into a special box. She slept in her bed all night and this morning woke up to find a dollar bill in the box and a letter from the tooth fairy saying thank you for the tooth and once she checked it over she would be returning it. She also asked to come back! 

It's weird to see my baby growing up but all these moments are worth it!

Horse Lessons for Carlita

So we live on a street that is all about horses. Everyone has one. They walk the horses, instead of dogs. Every day Carlita pets a horse so knowing this is a unique moment of our lives, Carlita started horse lessons at the horse farm right next door to us. She really has enjoyed this experience and is learning alot about taking care of horses and how to ride. I'm not sure how long we can do this for (until we move) but for right now we are enjoying this experience.

Crazy Luka kids

Really our kids keep us very entertained! Carlita is really into watching Dancing with the Stars and Househunters, and Luke is into Chuggington, Thomas, and Cars. Carlita does alot of crafts, and Luke does alot of running around. They love the new pool out back of the house, and love riding around on their bikes. But most of all they love each other and making each other laugh. I hope you enjoy these pictures and video to showcase our crazy kids.

Strawberry Festival fun - first weekend of summer fun

For the first weekend in June, we went off to the Brandywine Strawberry Festival. All week we have been picking fresh strawberries at the Walnut Springs Farm, roughly 10 minutes form our house. they are delicious, and this is coming from someone who doesn't eat strawberries.  So to go to a festival about strawberries we just had to do it.

It took us roughly a hour but we got there. And we had a great time. the kids got to ride rides and bounce around. We took a tiny train ride and got to meet characters. And yes we ate strawberry shortcake. Spent most of the day there and drove home with sleeping babies in the back. Gotta love it.



On Sunday we went to church and Carlita got to see for the last time with the Little Lights at St. Thomas. They were so cute!!! I really enjoyed her being part of this group and the friendships we've made with fellow parents. After church we went off to visit Mike, Tara, and Emma at their new house in NJ. It was great to see them in their new place and for our kids to run around. After a great afternoon of catching up we headed back to Delaware. Just a great first weekend to the summer.

Memorial Day weekend of fun

Memorial day weekend we had a blast seeing family and playing in the water. Our Y pool opened so Sat. was spent at the pool. Carlita tried to pass the swim test in order to use the slides but didn't. It didn't matter. She had a good time in the pool.

Then on Sunday, we went up to Atco, NJ and went to Sahara Sam's Indoor water park. The kids had a blast on all the slides.






Then we went over to Karl's Aunt Laura and Uncle Bob's place for a BBQ. Luke was passed out for most of the party and Carlita got to learn how to do croquet. It was a long day for them and we headed back home late.

The on Monday we met up with my sister and her family at the Susquehanna River for a little boating. Now it was a little because the boat broke down out in the water. We had stopped to swim a bit and the boat wouldn't start up again. After trying to fix it, we waved down another boat and they towed us into a boat landing. Michael, my BIL, had to hitchhike on a truck to get back to our cars. Meanwhile Karl is with Luke and had no idea what was going on. After two hours we got back to where we were originally. The boat never did get fixed but we had a picnic and just hung out. It was an exhausting weekend but full of fun and memories!

Little lights sing

Carlita really enjoys singing in church. This is the video of the group's last sign-a-long for the summer. Yes you can hear Carlita the whole time. That's my girl.

Update on Luke

For a while Karl and I have noticed that Luke’s language development has been slow. Really slow compared to Carlita and just want we know about development. So Sandra helped find early intervention services in Cecil County, PA to get Luke tested. As it was, Luke is behind cognitively and communication. He qualified for services and now sees a teacher once a week and a speech therapist once a month. We also went to see our doctor and she wanted further testing down. So we took Luke to A.I. DuPont and he passed all his hearing and ENT tests. The speech therapist services will also be set up through DuPont, which is good since our new house is very close to the hospital. Immediately with all these services and Karl working with Luke more intentional Luke has greatly improved his language. He is more vocal and articulated of his needs. He does make a lot of noises (just like his mother) but he is speaking a lot more. He finally identified himself “I’m Lukie”. “Here I am – Lukie”. He is so adorable and sweet and crazy at time. WE only think this is the problem due to he being a preemie. Luckily he doesn’t have anything else wrong and this is something we can really work on with him. He truly is our special baby.

May is running season

For the past 6 months I’ve been training for the Delaware half marathon, which was May 16th. Now this has been hard to do due to my schedule, but I have this group of ladies I run with early in the morning (4:45am) that have been very supportive. Now they are not the fastest group, but they care to make sure you make it to the end.

Now I was lucky enough to get a hold of a running bid for the Broad St. 10 miler. This race was sold out within a week – 30,000 runners!!! So on Wednesday before the race I found out that someone couldn’t run the race on Twitter and by the end of the day I had the bid. Then Sunday I ran the race. It was very flat and straight. It was the largest race I’ve ever run and lots of fun to be in, but boy did I struggle. I went out too fast and mentally struggled the whole time. The race started in North Philadelphia (way up there) and ended at the Navy Pier. There were bands and groups of people screaming and cheering along the way. So amazing to have that inspiration the whole way because I needed it!!! My feet at the end of the race were beat up, and I couldn’t walk any more. I had to walk a mile back to my car, and somehow I made it.

So that race really was a training device for the half marathon, which happened two weeks later. Karl and I were running this race, which I was excited to do. We planned to run 10 minute pace, but after 3 miles I had to slow down and Karl was off. This race was better mentally than the 10miler, but rougher on the body because of all the hills on the course. I am not a good hill runner and really slowed down on them. What’s even worse is that there’s a BIG hill at the last mile and it really just kicks you. But after 2 hours and 30 minutes I finished!!! Karl came in at 2 hours and 11 minutes. Not bad for someone who really didn’t train. We both were exhausted and somehow got home.

Now anyone who has kids knows that you don’t get a break from kids even though you need one. We both struggled all day walking and playing with the kids. Luckily Luke took a nap so Karl got to rest and I just had to take Carlita shopping for food. Really rough, but we made it.

So we’re done for the season. We’ll keep running for pleasure, but not train for anything. We really wanted to do a triathlon, but with this year’s transitions we’re going to do that next year. But the best thing I think is that the kids really notice that we work out and try to be healthy. Carlita is always saying “Mommy when are you going to work out?” or “Mommy we have to eat healthy”. Yes we do honey. For that reason we started a garden out back and have tons of lettuce to eat (too much actually!). Hopefully our habits will be embedded into the kids for their future.

April is House Hunting time

March was really rough for the family. I was away at conference for 16 days out of the entire month. Though both conferences ( NASPA and ACPA) were local, I was really busy with recruitment and conducting on-site interviews, and didn't get to see the family much. Luckily they did come down to Baltimore to stay overnight one night and the next day we went to the National Baltimore Aquarium, which was great fun for the kids (and grown-ups!).

April came along with a lot of rain and coldness. I was training for a half-marathon, so I got up real early to go run with a group of ladies at the local YMCA. This has been a fun group to get together  and run outside with. Fortunately, the weather started getting better and the sun was getting up earlier.

April was also the big kick off for our house hunt. We decided when I got my Temple job that we would move right off campus in Newark, DE and I would be the one traveling the most. This allowed for one-layer of transition. Now the lease for the rental house is up in July and we needed to look for a place to call home. We had to first decide where we wanted to live. Karl is still working in Newark and I will be in Philadelphia. We went to look at neighborhoods in PA and Delaware and decided to stay in Delaware for several reasons: 1) if we were in PA my train commute would still be roughly 40 minutes due to the area we would want to live in (Media/Swarthmore). Karl’s commute, though, would be 45min -1 hour and considering he works late and isn’t the best driver at night being in PA wasn’t the best choice; 2) the kids would be in PA, and both parents would be 45 minutes from them and would not be able to get to them fast enough if something were to happen; and 3) the cost of houses and taxes are so much more in PA than DE, and for only a little better school system. We couldn’t justify that. So the decision was made to stay in Delaware and look into North Wilmington. This area has the best school district and is the closest to both of our work locations. So off we went looking at areas within North Wilmington. We learned a lot about the developments and what we would like. We made a must list and a want list. Karl and I differed on several points such as:

§  Lulu 

o   Something unique that stands out

o   Nothing like a cookie cutter house that looks like a monopoly board

o   A bit of a fixer –upper is fine

o   Walk-in closet

o   Space for kids to run outside

o   Updated kitchen  (NO white appliances, counter tops or laminate flooring)

o   2 bathrooms

o   Open-space flow in house

o   A garage or basement for all my holiday boxes

o   An office or glitter room

§  Karl

o   No/minimal fixer – upper

o    Lots of updates

o   Space for kids to run

o   Nice backyard/close to park
    2 bathrooms
    Open floor plan

Carlita also had her demands: stairs and a purple room. Luke really needs a dark room to sleep. That’s all.

Next we needed to know how much we could afford. We checked out three brokers. All said the same thing about our finances. That we needed to pay off debt in order to be considered for a mortgage.  One broker we really liked, but never got back to us so after a month, we let him go. The second broker was a bit arrogant and I didn’t like that. The last one I found accidental by looking at a house and we hit it off. He was experienced, knowledgeable and someone I could trust. So once we figured out how to get our debt paid off, we got pre-approved for up to $300,000. Now that was way too much for us. Karl and I set up our budget at $200-$250,000 thinking that we’ve seen enough houses in this price range that surely we could find a house.

So the house hunt started. I took off every Friday in April to do the house hunting. So the first Friday it was real estate agent selection. We interviewed three agents. Our criteria were to have someone who we could be personable with and have a strong desire to work for us and find a home for us.

First agent was an experienced agent with 30 years of experience. Really knowledgeable of the market. Older gentleman and a nice personality. I liked him a lot. Rated 4.

Second agent was a newly licensed agent who used to be an RA at UD several years ago. Great personality and desire to get started. Really liked her Rated 4

Third agent was several years experienced, but desire to be in the industry was driven by the amount of money he could make. When I told him what I did, he told us “O I was one of those who drank in the halls and never got into trouble”. Yep he was not the one for us. Rated 1

So after mulling about it we went with agent #2. She was youthful, a minority, and someone I could chat with any time of the day.

So the next week was spent looking over housing listings and determining which houses we wanted to go see. There were many we wanted to look at, so the next Friday we went to see 8 houses. Only 1 or 2 were good. We quickly realized that the price range we were in gave us a certain housing area that we really didn’t want to be in. So after much thinking we decided to increase the price of houses we were looking for to $250-$275,000.

So over the weekend we determined another set of houses to look at and on Tuesday met up in Claymont, DE to look at 6 more houses. Only 1 was okay. Friday came again and we looked at another 8 houses. One or two houses now were good enough to make our top 3.

So we had a top 3 and invited Sandra and the fam to come visit them over the weekend. Mike, my brother in law, was very helpful at how to look at issues in the house--what to look for in the basement, foundation, around the house, etc. Our top 3 houses quickly disappeared. What we thought would work for us really didn’t, due to too many issue with the houses. One house was beautiful outside, but not good in the basement with a foundation that had major issues. The second house was custom made, but really did not have good flow. I loved it, but it was way too close to a major street. Too dangerous for the kids. Now the third house (South Rd) we loved the location and the charm inside the house. It really had that mix of old and new. We really were thinking of bidding on this house, but we didn’t like the flow and that we couldn’t see the kids if they were outside. Also we would have to put up a fence and get permission from the home association.

So we went to look at more houses the next Friday – 8 more houses that just didn’t work out. South Rd was still number one. Then a house came on the market, Boothby, and I saw there was an open house on Sunday. It was the same Sunday I was running the Broad St. 10-miler (I was able to get a bid because someone couldn’t do it and they posted about it on Twitter – love social media). So after I ran that race (and that was painful), I went to the Y to take a shower and met Karl and Tiffany (the agent) at Boothby. Immediately we loved it. Karl loved the flow and openness and everything updated. I loved the area and backyard. We were there for most of the open house and then left. Then Wednesday went to see more houses – nothing compared to South and Boothby. So I invited Sandra back up and took her over to Boothby. She loved it. The house is 5 minutes from a state park so we went over there and decided to bid on the house. What!!! Really we bid on the house. The house was going for $279,900 so we asked for $265,000 and sellers’ assistance. After going back and forth we settled at $272,500. Not really where I wanted to be, but with everything in this house really worth it.

So now we're under contract and having to figure out all the steps. We got an inspection done and there were roof and foundation issues. The sellers are fixing these issues. Next we officially applied for the mortgage and are waiting to hear back from the underwriter. If everything goes well, we settle on the house June 22^nd. I really can’t believe it still. I’m waiting at each turn for something to go wrong. There has been a lot going on.  Some of it can’t be posted here, but this process has been intense. It’s easier to have a kid than to buy a house today. Everyone is nervous about the housing market and people are not buying or selling. Very tough. I wonder if we could have bargained more for the house, but we will never know. I also wonder if there’s a better house for us out there. Nothing really has come on the market since early May worth looking at. If they have, they are in bad neighborhoods, or have alot of fixing up to do.

So we’re almost there with the house. Once we know for sure, we have to figure out the next steps of finding daycare and getting Carlita ready for kindergarten for the fall. Also moving and getting settled into the house. Just a lot to think about!!!!! We’ll keep you informed!