The Winner of the House Contest! March 18, 2008

Filed under: Contests — News Writer @ 11:20 pm

Well, okay, no one actually won a house. Now that would be nice, right? But, someone did get pretty darn close to the price of my house, which is….

$67,000

Everyone guessed too high. Maybe you were afraid of being insulting. Or perhaps you’ve just never experienced a town like Nowhere, Texas before. The thing is, you can get houses even cheaper than this one not too far away from here. My town has a university, which drives up prices. The towns in these parts with no university have very, very low real estate prices. As in the same house would go for $40,000 or so. No joke.

I do feel like I got a good deal on the house–of course! Coming from Austin, this is peanuts. I can’t imagine what it must seem like to you folks from LA. Don’t feel bad, though. There are no beaches here, and we have crime anyway.

At any rate, the astute winner is…Tina Kubala from The Creative Nerd. I really like her post Reduce and Reuse Failed. Tina will be getting the grand prize of $10! Yea Tina!

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A House, A Contest, Some Pictures March 14, 2008

Filed under: Contests, Life, Love — News Writer @ 4:17 pm

So, here it is! The house that I have been doing all this writing for! In a way, it doesn’t even seem real. It is definitely a commitment to stay here in Nowhere, Texas, which has its charms at times. One of those charms being this house.

I’m having a little contest. Tell me how much you think the house cost in the comments. The person who comes the closest wins $10 in their PayPal account.

I didn’t think to take a pic of the outside of the house, so here’s one from the realtor’s site.

Here’s a partial view of the living room.

My favorite room is the kitchen. I love the colors, and check out that old chimney! The house was built in 1920, by the way. A cool thing is that I can see the brick streets of historic downtown from my front porch.

The bathroom, although small, has a clawfoot tub that looks like a well-kept original.

Here’s a partial pic of the dining room. The house also has three bedrooms and a sunporch. I’m not posting all of the pictures. The sunporch needs work, though. It opens up to the backyard, coming up soon… I’m wondering how much the guy would take for the piano. It’s got to be a hassle to move that thing.

The backyard is a landscapers dream. It has a fountain and bamboo! I love the patina on the old bricks. It is so shady. The seller strung party lights between the trees as well.

So, what do you think? It is within walking distance to my job and Sage’s school. Facing the house is a city park–the same one they set off fireworks in on holidays. It’ll be a great show from the porch! It will need central heat and air at some point–window units aren’t my favorite thing, although I do like old space heaters.

I felt pretty nervous putting down the earnest money. This means that I’m not going to Portland, anywhere in Mexico or the American Southwest. This is where Sage and I need to be right now, though. I can be at peace with that.

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I Took That Final Step… March 14, 2008

Filed under: Contests — News Writer @ 4:02 pm

I bought a house! Well, officially, it’s not mine yet, since the closing is on March 31. I’ve been too excited to sleep, though. I’ve decided to share my excitement with others. When I post the photos of the house, everyone can take a guess at the price, with the person coming the closest winning ten bucks. Why only ten dollars? Well, because I’m broke due to buying the house. One thing that helps out right now–my renewed PR. So bear with me, I’m going to share a bit of the wealth by Monday!

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Play the Game O Love! January 24, 2008

Filed under: Contests — News Writer @ 11:18 pm

Starting January 25, you can play the
Game O Love! The Game O Love is a contest you can enter so that your sweetheart can win the prize that you want! The first step is to take a look around on the Overstock.com site and figure out just what you want for Valentine’s Day. I did that, and I changed my mind about the tulips that I blogged about earlier. I think a Lamborghini laptop sounds much better, actually. I also saw some lovely turquoise earrings that would be nice, just in case I don’t get the laptop, of course.

Have you thought about what you want for Valentine’s Day yet? If not, it’s time to start, because if you don’t start dropping some (serious and overt) hints, you are going to end up with a half-dozen wilted roses from the supermarket, or even worse, one of those seven-dollar velveteen heart-shaped boxes of horrible, horrible “chocolate”. In eighth grade, I thought that stuff was cool, but I’ve moved on.
So, a good way to start is by checking out the merchandise on Overstock.com and then heading on over to play
Overstock.com’s “Game O Love”. I hear it’s a way to force your significant other to win some prizes for you. Sounds fun! Although, wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have to be forced?