House update and Sunday Dinner

Enjoying our Poori

 Well....lets start with the house in TX update.  We officially worked with the seller to get the house.  She originally didn't want to concede anything, but after many agonizing phone calls between realtors, we came to an agreement. There were tons of things on the report (it is a 1991 build) but the things we requested were #1 Fix the AC (it is Texas...need to have a functioning AC), #2 Fix the Roof, there were holes and some other damage that needed to be fixed to stop further damage, #3 Fix the 8 windows that need to be replaced 1 that is cracked and 7 that are fogged, #4 Certify that the crack in the pool is not a structural crack and can be fixed with new surface material and quote how much the cost will be to repair and #5) Verify and Fix if necessary the potential rodent activity in the attic. She basically conceded the price to Fix the AC and Fix the Roof (she did not want to fix anything, so she gave us money back to fix it).  Both of these items were necessary to make the house habitable. The other major item that was the reason why we almost walked away was that during our inspection there was evidence of rodents in her attic.  At first, she said that she had squirrels in her attic 10 or so years ago and that there was not problem.  Then we had to demand that a pest company come in and do an inspection to very that is what our inspector say...she didn't want to do this, but very begrudgingly did.  We are very glad we pressed her on this issue because it turns out, she has a current infestation of roof rats.   Henry knows the house that we are buying as "the house with rats in the attic".  To top that off, after she found out that she had an active infestation, she did nothing to fix the problem with the response "the buyers can take care of it when they move in."  WHAT?!?  Rats are bad on so many levels, one they destroy everything and two rats have been known to carry diseases like the plague.  So gross. Plus, we moved our closing date back from April 1st to May 15th at the Seller's request...can you imagine how much damage rats can do in 2 months?!?  So, we finally got her to agree to fix the rats ASAP. Give me a break...she is nuts.  She had someone come out and look at the windows, but no quote because since the windows are circa 1991 we will need to replace all of them to look uniform.  And she felt the pool is a luxury item that she disclosed that we may need to repair so she didn't want to help with that.  So it really stinks, but the house is really lovely.  Now we just have to wait for the appraisal to come through and to May 15th until it is officially ours.   Because we got the house, we decided to come back to Phoenix early...which is great because it will be nice to be in a proper size house again.  One bedroom 'luxury' apartment living is tough for four people.  On the last Sunday we were together we had a little adventure trying to get dinner.  Andrew wanted to go to Indian, but our favorite restaurant didn't open until 5 PM and he wanted to be at the airport for his flight by 6 PM.  He was worried that was not quite enough time to order, eat and drive.  So he found a place that was near the airport.  Well, it turned out being a Pakistani/Afghani/Indian buffet.  The food was very good but didn't have any of the regular Indian dishes we ordered.  So I think that it was more of Afghani/Pakistani food.  But still very good and the kids ate it too.  At the end they made fresh Poori for us, which is Indian and delicious.  So very yummy, but a little greasy. Andrew is headed back to Texas for three weeks then will be out for Easter.  Our house has still not sold, we are going to adjust our price based on the most recent sale in our neighborhood and have another open house next weekend.  Fingers crossed.