Culinary Quest

One of the lookers at the open house this past Sunday came back Monday for another peek with his spouse. They are still interested and have asked a lot of questions. Unfortunately, they have to sell their house before they can buy our house. There is another interested person coming back this weekend to look at the house.
Not much else is new... we got home from our accounting jobs around 10:00 last night. Tonight we are going out with a co-worker for a meal at a place called the York Grill. Another co-worker said that it is his favorite place, so we decided to check it out.
Maybe I'll post a review on my food blog.
I also found the web site of a friend from the Culinary Institute. It looks like he is doing some amazing work. Hopefully, I can get some leads for a potential chef for the restaurant.
Later...

Went to Woodstock Thursday and Friday last week, primarily to open a few holes in the walls to see what the real structure of the building is like. Also, I met with a local architect to discuss his possible involvement in the renovation of the building. The meeting went pretty well, but I told him that we have to sell our house in NY before I can even start thinking about hiring him to work on the plans for the building. An interesting comment that I've heard in Woodstock is "In Woodstock it isn't what you know, but who you know". I guess that I need to work with "connected" people. I need to write him a letter to get a better estimate of his fees and a rough estimate of some of the optional construction projects that we've discussed.

Not much else is new. We had an open house this weekend at the NY house. Our realtor said that the turnout was pretty good and that there were two parties that seemed to be interested in the house.

Let's wait and see what happens.

This week I'm heading back to Virginia for a couple of days to work on the place. Hopefully, I'll have the time and the equipment to sand the floors in the apartment. I've heard that the nearest rental center is in Winchester.
More info to follow this week.

I can't dissapoint my beamish boy, Nate. I know from his comment in my previous post, that he really misses my postings. Here is the latest...
I received an information packet from an architect today. I found his name in a Shenandoah Valley phone book and then got his e-mail address off of the internet. He has a lot of good experience, but I feel that his rates may be too high for my small project. I'll probably call him next week to discuss the project and my budget for it. Let's see what he has to say then.
I might go back to Woodstock next week or the week after. I've got a few things that I need to do at the building, and I can take some items down with me.

We changed the locks on the building this morning, but it took longer than expected. We also scrubbed the toilets, cleaned the sinks and left lots of saw dust on the floor from drilling. Then we decided to head back to NY after having lunch with Nate. Traffic was a nightmare on I66 so it took 2-1/2 hours instead of 1-1/2 hours. After that ordeal we decided to spend the night at Ashley's house instead of driving home in the rain for hours on end. We had a nice dinner with Ashley and Nate at A&J in Rockville, MD. Now we're watching "Medium", a show that Ashely recorded on Tivo.
We hope to take off early in the morning.

The settlement is done. I am now the owner of a commercial building in Woodstock, VA and a house in NY. I hope that the house sells soon, so I can begin the construction of the restaurant.
We had an 8 hour drive from NY to Woodstock this morning in the rain. This was partly due to a 25 minute period on route 78 where we stood still. When we finally moved, we couldn't see the source of the problem.
We've got to head back to NY tomorrow.

I finally got the insurance issue taken care of this morning. Then I called the settlement attorney’s office and was told “It looks like the settlement will not take place tomorrow. There is a problem with the seller's corporate status. We’ll have to call you back in a while to let you know the date will be rescheduled or not”. Well, maybe it wasn’t those exact words, but close enough.

Anyway at 2:45 I finally got the call saying “It looks like everything will be taken care of tomorrow morning so the closing will take place as scheduled. You’ll need to bring a certified or cashier’s check in the amount of $xxx.” I walked to the branch across the street and had them prepare a cashier’s checks for lots of cash made out to the settlement attorney. The attorney's name is Keith Richards. The bank kept asking if the check was for "THE Keith Richards". I insisted that it was for Keith Richards, Esquire, not Keith Richards, Rolling Stone.

Tonight I have to go to Home Depot and purchase 3 new deadbolt locks and some additional security hardware. I hate buying them in NY because the sales tax is much higher than Virginia’s. However, the nearest Home Depot or Lowers to the Virginia location is about 30 miles away.

We’ll leave tomorrow morning around 6:00. Hopefully it won’t rain all of the way there, but according to the Weather Channel it looks like it will be a long wet ride.

More to come …

Just 2 more days!
I was told that I’ll have the insurance binder today. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m hopeful. Everything else is ready to go.
The closing is scheduled for 3:00 so we’re doing a walk-thru at 2:15. After the closing we’re going to eat in a local restaurant to check out the competition. I’ll won’t post the results in my eating out guide so don’t look for it.
My plans are to take a tape measure, a quadrille notebook and 6 deadbolts to the building. As soon as the closing in finished, I want to change the locks and get an accurate floorplan of the entire building.
Hopefully, someone will look at our house in NY this weekend and decide to purchase it. Wishful thinking, but…
I’ve written out a preliminary menu for the place. It still needs to be revised a few more times, but I’m happy with it now.
We’ll stay at Black Cat’s house Friday night. We haven’t decided what to do on Saturday… head back or stay and get some work done on the place.