What's new in the Williams household? Well... an actual household!! Jason and I are currently in full swing of the house buying process. I'm still in shock myself, waiting for the panic attack I'm sure to have any moment now, but here's the story (the more I tell it, the more real it becomes.)
Last year when we moved to Fort Worth, we signed a lease at our apartment complex for three months. We figured it would give us (ok, me) time to find a job and then we could focus on finding a house. Only I never really found a job. Nevertheless, we went with our realtor (a longtime family friend of Jason's parents) to look at a dozen or so houses. We found one or two that would have been nice I'm sure, but nothing that made us drool, or want to go into major debt for. So we decided that we would sign another lease with our apartment complex, and try again in another year. We wound up moving to a bigger apartment across the property, and here we've been for 10 months now.
The new year rolled around and we knew that we wanted to try, try again to find a house. So off we went with Jarod the trusty realtor on our second installment of drive-bys and walk-throughs. This time, I had a better job (though still not a career) and so we went a little higher in price range. And we were shocked to find even less than we did this time last year! Every house we looked at had something wrong - missing appliances, foundation issues, washing machine hookups in the kitchen, etc. We didn't even make it inside one of the houses because the neighbor was feeding his 10 foot long python a big fluffy white rabbit - ON THE FRONT PORCH. So we quickly moved on.
Just when we had resigned ourselves to signing yet another lease (at an increased rate thanks to the bastards running our complex) Jason spoke with his dad about a house that he was renting out. Turns out the tenants' lease had ended and they were paying on a month-to-month basis. A lot of phone calls and a visit to a mortgage company later, and it looked like we might be able to buy the house from Jason's dad.
The most recent developments have come in the last 48 hours. Jason's dad called the tenants, told them the situation and gave them 45 days to vacate. Then he had Jarod send them a list of other properties for rent in the area. To clarify, Jason and I are not trying to kick them out or anything. We want them to have as much time to find a nice new place. After all, our apartment lease isn't up until the end of March.
Well, the tenants called Joe back today. Apparently they are looking at moving into a rent house right across the street! And what's even more unbelievable is that they are thinking they can be out mid-February. So it looks like the house we were planning on having in April may be ours in the next two weeks!
As for the apartment, Jason's dad is going to pay our last month's rent if we decide to move in Feb/March (it's cheaper for him than having to pay mortgage on a house no one is living in.) Since we get a month's grace period of paying nothing on the house from our mortgage company, we can move in any time starting this Saturday and not have to pay anything on the house until April. On top of all of that, Jason's dad is paying all of our closing costs AND Jason is getting a raise starting this week!
So there's our crazy house story. It happened all of a sudden, and while I'm scared to death, I'm also really excited! Who's up for a housewarming party?!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Vendor review: Focuslight Productions
[Wow, it's been awhile since I wrote last. Partly because I've been enjoying the married life, partly because of the holiday rush, and partly out of sheer laziness. But what better time to pick things up again than the new year? Hopefully I will get back in to the blogging speed I was at a few months ago.]
Hiring a videographer was something that Jason and I went back and forth on several times. All we wanted was a record of the ceremony, plus the important things like first dances, cake cutting, etc. and we couldn't seem to justify shelling out a whole lot of money for something so basic. So we finally decided that if we weren't sure we wanted it, the decision was made for us - no videographer.
During the time when we had contemplated hiring someone, I contacted several people I found online. No one over-the-top professional (read: expensive) but I thought maybe I could get a good deal from someone starting out a business who didn't have much experience. Since we were looking for bare minimum anyway, we figured even an amateur could set up a tripod and film the entire ceremony without too much hassle. We probably would have done this ourselves if a) we had a video camera or b) we had someone to work said camera. But we realized that once the wedding actually started, we wanted our families and guests to have fun - not to be behind a camera the whole night, worrying about if what they were doing was good enough.
In the end, it happened suddenly. I had spoken to Chris Campbell, a student at the Art Institute of Dallas, a few months prior. He showed me some little things he had done for classes, and the work was pretty good, especially considering he was still learning. But then we decided not to hire someone and I put the whole thing out of my mind. Then at the last minute (and I'm talking the Wednesday before the wedding) he emailed me out of the blue to see if I still needed someone. I thought that was very professional of him, and given the fact that our guest count was smaller than we planned for, we had some extra budget to play around with. So I emailed him back and said "sure why not" and two days later, there he was at the rehearsal, with his assistant, getting a feel for the venue and for us. We literally didn't meet him until after we'd hired him.
We just got our DVD in the mail this week, and I have to say I am impressed. There are three components - a highlights chapter, a ceremony chapter, and a reception chapter. The ceremony and reception ones are pretty self-explanatory as to what they encompass. The highlights chapter is only a few minutes long (actually it's as long as me and Jason's first dance song, since that's the music he put this chapter to) and it encompasses everything from pre-ceremony picture taking to ceremony and reception shots.
While the DVD wouldn't pass for something done by Spielberg, it's exactly what we wanted and it's perfect for us. Here is what we got for the $200 check we wrote Chris:
* Both Chris and his assistant came to the rehearsal and were there for the entire length of the wedding day.
* They did all filming and editing of the footage that they took.
* We got the finished product on DVD, and will shortly be receiving all of the files on disc for the purpose of backups. (There was a small typo on our DVD, so he's fixing that for me and sending me another copy. So technically we will have two copies.)
As you can see, we got an amazing deal! If I ever need video in the future, I won't hesitate to call Chris at Focuslight Productions. And I won't be surprised if his rates go up as he gains more experience in the film industry because as it is, he's worth more even now!
Final grade for Chris Campbell and Focuslight Productions: A
Hiring a videographer was something that Jason and I went back and forth on several times. All we wanted was a record of the ceremony, plus the important things like first dances, cake cutting, etc. and we couldn't seem to justify shelling out a whole lot of money for something so basic. So we finally decided that if we weren't sure we wanted it, the decision was made for us - no videographer.
During the time when we had contemplated hiring someone, I contacted several people I found online. No one over-the-top professional (read: expensive) but I thought maybe I could get a good deal from someone starting out a business who didn't have much experience. Since we were looking for bare minimum anyway, we figured even an amateur could set up a tripod and film the entire ceremony without too much hassle. We probably would have done this ourselves if a) we had a video camera or b) we had someone to work said camera. But we realized that once the wedding actually started, we wanted our families and guests to have fun - not to be behind a camera the whole night, worrying about if what they were doing was good enough.
In the end, it happened suddenly. I had spoken to Chris Campbell, a student at the Art Institute of Dallas, a few months prior. He showed me some little things he had done for classes, and the work was pretty good, especially considering he was still learning. But then we decided not to hire someone and I put the whole thing out of my mind. Then at the last minute (and I'm talking the Wednesday before the wedding) he emailed me out of the blue to see if I still needed someone. I thought that was very professional of him, and given the fact that our guest count was smaller than we planned for, we had some extra budget to play around with. So I emailed him back and said "sure why not" and two days later, there he was at the rehearsal, with his assistant, getting a feel for the venue and for us. We literally didn't meet him until after we'd hired him.
We just got our DVD in the mail this week, and I have to say I am impressed. There are three components - a highlights chapter, a ceremony chapter, and a reception chapter. The ceremony and reception ones are pretty self-explanatory as to what they encompass. The highlights chapter is only a few minutes long (actually it's as long as me and Jason's first dance song, since that's the music he put this chapter to) and it encompasses everything from pre-ceremony picture taking to ceremony and reception shots.
While the DVD wouldn't pass for something done by Spielberg, it's exactly what we wanted and it's perfect for us. Here is what we got for the $200 check we wrote Chris:
* Both Chris and his assistant came to the rehearsal and were there for the entire length of the wedding day.
* They did all filming and editing of the footage that they took.
* We got the finished product on DVD, and will shortly be receiving all of the files on disc for the purpose of backups. (There was a small typo on our DVD, so he's fixing that for me and sending me another copy. So technically we will have two copies.)
As you can see, we got an amazing deal! If I ever need video in the future, I won't hesitate to call Chris at Focuslight Productions. And I won't be surprised if his rates go up as he gains more experience in the film industry because as it is, he's worth more even now!
Final grade for Chris Campbell and Focuslight Productions: A
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
