07-VI-2004.
Jack threw the spoon* a week ago. I emailed Jack „Last time we spoke he radiated the impression he had at least ten more working years in him. Too bad I met the man only once. No matter what they say about lawyers, I really enjoyed talking with him.“
The epilogue of that story will come next year, when we discover that our paperwork is now nowhere. He didn't leave it to anyone, it's simply gone.
Gary wants that little side app for one of his customers. I already had a ready setup.exe made in Inno, no problem. Also, there was some work for Berix, about SpeedCanvass, I guess something about the indexer, which she needed and I actually had ready.
My folks report that Vanji is on a leave since his last stint in Libya, basically hanging around for three months after the last two-month contract.
In the afternoon Changrissa took us to see two more houses. The first one was in yet another closed circuit but near a major thoroughfare, with a big parking in the middle and, being the last one in a row, had a yard twice the regular size. The only obvious downside is that about 15m from its fence there was a Burger King brzožder (v. house dictionary) with who knows what kind of folks hanging around and potentially attracting police at night, and the huge parking of K-mart and others on the other side of the street, where they sometimes organize small races - go-carts, bikes, souped up cars. Still fine. And look, someone forgot a bicycle behind the house.
The window above the patio will need a new glass. Likewise, one on the side. But it has a nice panoramic window in front, almost a real kibicfenster like they have in Vršac.
Inside, it looked even better than outside. And amazingly, it had power and water - probably courtesy of her agency, these are usually shut off, Virginia Power routinely takes off the meter (which is just a clip-on, attaches to the three prongs on the board). And when we went upstairs, she opened the bathroom door and then jumped in spot, aaaaaaa, there's someone in the bathroom! Some guy seems to have discovered, or learned from the previous owners, that the power and water are still on, and that the patio door doesn't lock, so he came on his bike, and took a free bath.
And nothing, the guy said he was almost done, and he was, within minutes. Wiped himself, got dressed, and we briefly saw him going down, getting on his bike and ciao ragazzi.
Changrissa was still shocked. Never saw a black guy naked? I doubt it.
So okay, this house was a good candidate, albeit at exactly 100K$. The next one was in a curve, below the place where there's an exit from the highway to one of the major streets.
There was a gang, barely visible behind the car, all black and in gangsta style, hanging out under the trees. Those trees are supposed to give you an illusion that you're driving through a forest, at least when looking from the highway, but the row is not too deep. Actually, the shoulder and the fender can sort of be seen behind them.
We couldn't get into the house, because the key was supposed to be in the coded box (and she had the code and the key to the box), but the agent before her didn't leave the key in it. So we looked around and sure enough a couple of the guys from that gang came to ask why were we taking pictures of them. The nice thing with digital cameras is that you have the little screen with instant preview, so I was able to show that they're not on the shot.
Well, thanks for your hospitality, guys, we surely won't be neighbors.
We decided to take that house with tested bathroom, but the accountant at UniJewel ignored my request to send a paper saying I have a job.
Actually it got a bit more complicated than just the accountant. First we put up an offer at the asked price level (asked by the bank which foreclosed on this house, as the last „owner“ (not quotation marks abuse, you don't own it until you pay it off, but you owe the tax for all of it) was in the arrears, but that bank now asks for my credit union to issue a statement that they will give me a loan to buy the house as is, with them having no obligation to fix anything (such were the terms when house went for sale), and then the CU said our loan was stopped as they noticed we were international (previously known as foreigners) and we haven't submitted any proof that we're legally present. Well, nobody asked any such proof so far. Tried to call them but their switchboard closes at 16:00. Retried the next day. I can send all they want in two minutes, just give me an address.
Presently the state of affairs is unknown. The time limit to submit the paperwork (last offer, in our case offer plus the extra assurance by the CU that they will agree to finance a fixer-upper) was nine in the morning yesterday, and the papers didn't arrive until noon. The agentulja faxed them at noon thirty, now whether these will be accepted or not - we don't know. It's possible that nothing at all has happened, because they may not have opened at all, America was celebrating, i.e. staying at home to watch Reagan's funeral (the final phase of it, on 11th). It's not mandatory at all, each business decided to open or not, but the banks are always looking for any excuse to stay closed. We'll see on monday.
There's about 99% chance that this slipped through our fingers, but there are other houses. Moving on.
Meanwhile the house was sold to someone else. Search resumes.
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* long story short: kicked the bucket
Mentions: Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), Gary Brandywine, house dictionary, Jack Baran, Jack Baran sr, SpeedCanvass, UniJewel, Vilmoš Baranji (Vanji), in serbian