Glory Builders

If you are interested in building a new home near Clemmons, Lewisville, Advance, or Winston-Salem in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, look no further than Glory Builders! Harvey Schneider builds quality homes at reasonable prices.

Developments include Barrington Oaks, Bermuda Run West, Riverway on the Yadkin, and Taylors Run. Visit the Glory Builders web site and see for yourself.

- schneid

Stimulate the economy?

Let's just send money to everyone to stimulate the economy. I'm sure that will work!

If they send everyone money, one thing that will be stimulated is home mortgage refinancing. I was just looking into this myself. I could probably break even within a year, but definitely within two years. Then I would save 43,000 in interest over the life of my loan. Even more if mortgage rates drop below 5.5%. Unless I desperately needed the money for something else, which I don't, this would be the best financial decision for me. This is probably true for almost everyone.

- schneid

New paintings

We bought some paintings from an Israeli door-to-door salesman. I bet you've never heard that sentence before.

Suzette called me at work and said that a man was selling very nice original oil paintings. They were pretty expensive, at least to us, since most of our artwork has been purchased for $50 or less, but we considered buying one of the small ones. She said the paintings were very good. She asked him to return when I came home from work.

He showed us about 20 original oil paintings on rolled-up canvases. He had an accent so we asked where he was from - an Israeli accent is very hard to place. He was very intent on pleasing us, and showed off the paintings and made suggestions for which would match our decor. We ended up buying two - a small one and a big one. They are almost identical - Paris street scenes with the Eiffel Tower. One now resides over the fireplace in our family room and the big one is in the living room. The salesman was actually the artist that painted our paintings.

There were some other paintings that we really liked of Mediterranean scenes and typical French or Italian hill towns, but those were all tall rather than wide, and we don't have a good spot for them.

The story is that a group of art students are opening a gallery in New York. They sold paintings in the Batavia area last year, and decided to come back again this year. The paintings are all original oils by these students.

My neighbor is convinced that this is a scam. I ask him, "What's the scam? I have two beautiful original oil paintings that I love at a fair price." Sure, it's sounds funny that paintings are being sold door-to-door, but unless they're stolen, I can't imagine what the scam is.

The artist suggested a local friend who does framing. We checked at Michael's and JoAnn's, and framing is outrageously expensive. $1000 for two paintings - with a coupon you can get it for $500. We invited the local framer to come over. He was also Israeli, and really wanted to please us. He showed us all the frames with our paintings and made suggestions. Framing a canvas oil painting involves more than just sticking it in a frame. You must stretch the canvas over a homemade frame and staple it. We picked some frames, and he would frame the paintings and return them in a week. Now that's the part that might sound like a scam - you just bought some paintings from one guy, and now another guy is going to take those paintings and frame them. Hmm, would they ever return? But they let you choose any painting as collateral - so you pick another painting that you really like and keep it until they return your framed paintings.

Of course, the framed paintings were returned in a week and we really like them. The photo is the big one. No, it's not crooked, I just can't shoot straight.

- Mike

Working outdoors

This weekend we stained the playset and spread mushroom compost. The weather was great all weekend so we were a little too aggressive in scheduling two serious tasks for the weekend. Now we're sore and exhausted.

The playset is really cool, with a tornado slide and a tube to crawl between the structures, but it is really weathered. It looks much better now. It took 11 man hours to stain it. I thought it would take 2-3 hours. My wife claims that I underestimate everything and she's usually right. At Lowes, we purchased 5 gallons of Olympic Maximum Semi-Transparent Deck, Fence and Siding Stain tinted a nice dark brown. We used about 3.5 gallons. Here's the before and after pictures (ok, just before, I'll have to add "after" later).

My wife spread the compost for two hours while I took the kids to see Jeff's puppies. His Springer Spaniel had a litter of 8 puppies, and they sold 7 in two days. They are going home this week, so it was the last chance to see them. They were adorable and the kids had a great time playing with them.

There's about 3-4 yards of compost left. I need to haul it to the garden. The garden is about 20x20 to the compost should be about 3 inches deep. The mushroom compost was delivered by CC Mulch and More (630-484-6852) for $190 total for 5 yards. The best part is that it was delivered within 24 hours of when I called, allowing us to get the work done while the weather was good.

I'm planning to order mulch from Kramer Tree Specialists in West Chicago (630-293-5444). Their special blend mulch is a nice dark brown and only $16.50 per yard which is about 1/2 the cost of most places. They do charge for delivery, $40 up to 5 yards, $50 for 6-25 yards.

- schneid

Volleyball

I actually played volleyball today at lunch for the first time in about four years, if you don't count Westy's annual beer parties. Now that I'm back at Tellabs, Mike K. put me on his 4-man team, and we play once a week during lunchtime. I didn't think I would survive...that 75 minutes was the longest I've exercised in three years. Yes, I'm that badly out of shape and overweight. 205 lbs. is not a proper weight for someone 5'7". But it actually felt great to be out there, and my body does remember how to play volleyball. I'd like to work my way up to playing basketball at lunchtime too. The courts are right here at the Tellabs facility, which is very convenient. I might ride my bicycle to work a couple of times a week from the new house. Home and work are both near the Prairie Path, so I could ride without getting killed. It's about 8 or 9 miles which is a reasonable distance, and would probably take about 45 minutes.

These social+athletic+fun pursuits are another big reason why Tellabs is such a great place to work.

- schneid

We have paint and carpet!

The carpet has been installed at the new house and the painters are almost done. The only white walls left in the house are in closets - everything else has been painted a different color. Now that the carpet is down, it will be easier to work at the house because we can take the kids with us. We didn't want the kids playing in the house due to the bare floors and tack strips.

Remaining tasks: bathroom countertops, tile, vinyl, and appliances. We're planning on moving in July, although we haven't set a date yet.

- schneid

House is progressing...

The granite countertops were installed at our new house. The painters are in there right now, and I'm waiting to receive one more estimate before getting the carpet and flooring done. When it's complete, we can move in. But we're not sure if we want to leave the old house empty when we're trying to sell it. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

- schneid

Lots of work to do on new house

We have a lot of work to arrange on the new house when I return from my trip. Within the next few weeks, we hope to finish the carpet, tile floors, paint, countertops, bathroom counters, and refinish the wood floors, not to mention general cleaning and landscaping. We're going to be pretty busy and our current house is still for sale.

- schneid

Working on the New House

We've been busy cleaning up the new house. We removed all the carpet and pad. We are washing all the walls and ceilings, which is very tedious. We had the furnace and A/C serviced and the humidifier replaced.

My dad arrived yesterday to help us out, in particular with getting estimates from contractors on a lot of the work to be done - painting, carpeting, countertops, vinyl floors, and refinishing the wood floors.

Some of the work that we will probably do ourselves includes repairing drywall, replacing the light fixtures and installing cabinets in the laundry room.

Greg T. and I are going to finish the basement when the other work is done. The plumbing is roughed in for a full bath, but we need to get a plumber due to city code. I'd like to have a bar, rec room, bedroom, bathroom, and storage room.

You know, it's a real pain having two houses. We need to spend all our spare time at the new house, but things still need to get done at our current house, like moving the lawn, cleaning, etc. And you have bills for both houses too!

Hopefully we are on track for moving in June.

- schneid

Buying a House Before Selling Your House

Here are some lessons learned about buying a house before selling your current home. I'll try to add more information as things happen, since we only just closed on the bridge loan today and haven't closed on the new house yet.

We obtained a bridge loan, which allows you to purchase a new home before selling your current home. It doesn't allow you to just sell your current home at your leisure. You need to put your current home on the market quickly after your offer is accepted on the new house.

The bridge loan pays off the mortgage on your current home. It is an interest-only loan, and the monthly payment is a similar amount to our current mortgage + taxes monthly payment. When we sell the current house, the proceeds (equity) from that house will be used to pay off the bridge loan in whole, and we get any leftover money. If we weren't going to use that money for home improvements on the new house, then there might be tax implications for the capital gain, because the price of our new house was much less than the sale price of our current house. When we signed the bridge loan, we also receive a check (which is basically some of our equity) that is used as the down payment on the new house. Starting in May (a month after closing on the new house), we will have a monthly mortgage payment on the new house and a monthly payment for the bridge loan; therefore, it's prudent to get our home sold quickly.

- schneid

Building a home in North Carolina?

If you are looking for a quality custom home builder in North Carolina, you should contact Glory Home Builders. Harvey Schneider builds quality custom homes at reasonable prices. I should know, because he's my dad. I've seen dozens of his homes and they are fantastic. They build mostly in the Winston-Salem area.

- schneid

NBA Summer League

And what does basketball have in common with poker, you ask, other than my interest in both? One of the NBA summer leagues is held in Las Vegas, and it's a lucky coincidence that it's during the WSOP. I've been wanting to attend an NBA summer league for years, and this will be my chance. There are 4 games per day, and it only costs $20 for an entire day. The players are almost all rookies, second and third year players, and other players trying to make the roster (but probably won't). Some of the recently drafted rookies won't be there because they haven't signed a contract yet. But it's a great opportunity to see many rookies and young players up close.

- schneid