Arsenic and Old Radon

When you buy a new home, you start to ask yourself questions. Should I upgrade the carpeting? Is it worth it to consider finishing the basement? Do I want a humidifier on the forced hot air? Will I eventually get a shed or park the lawnmower in the garage?

Then there are the more serious questions you ask yourself. Is the construction of this house sound? Is propane gas cheaper than oil or electric? Should I add insulation to the attic? How energy efficient are my windows, doors, and appliances? And perhaps one of the most important questions: How safe is the water?

Nothing can cause panic or stress in the heart of a buyer of a new home like finding out that the levels of certain elements or chemicals are higher than the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) levels of acceptance. Things that can cause panic are Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Radon, Arsenic, and a slew of various other chemicals that are known carcinogens or various other disease causers. These are both naturally occurring and man-made compounds that can seep into your water and without proper filtration you can unknowingly damage the health of your family and yourself.

You may remember a few months ago I wrote about my thoughts on the book "A Civil Action" by Jonathan Harr. Humans did a darn good job screwing up our environment. When purchasing a home, it's a good idea to do a search on the EPA's SuperFund site to make sure that any sites near your potential home are either cleaned up or non-existant. Man-made chemical messes are known to cause damage to drinking water in nearby sources, including private wells. However, there are also a number of naturally occuring elements and chemicals - including Radon, Arsenic, and Iron - that home buyers should be on the lookout for as well. Sometimes there may be presence of both man-made and naturally occurring elements/chemicals and sometimes it may be one or the other. Either way, a comprehensive water test is always highly recommended.

The good news for any home buyer is that proper filtration can eliminate all of these things down to acceptable levels by the EPA and your state/local government standards. Once filtration is installed and running, a second test can show if the levels have been effectively reduced and if they have been then you're clear to continue with the purchase of your new domicile. If they've not been reduced to your satisfaction, then hopefully you and your buying partners were smart enough to arrange a clause in your purchase and sale to exit cleanly in the event of poor water quality.

The most important thing to keep in your sights while purchasing a home is the health, safety, and well-being of your family.

Exciting Announcement

May I have everyone's attention please? That's right, gather around. We have a very important announcement to make.

We signed the Purchase & Sale last night to buy our first house!!

As I mentioned before, we've been looking for a little while at various houses and finally decided that a new construction in Pelham NH would be the best for us. We put in an offer a couple of weeks ago, agreed on a price, and the fun began. For the last two weeks, the Purchase & Sale agreement was in limbo in "Lawyer Land" while the details were worked out. Last night we met the seller's agent at a Dunkin' Donuts (the RE/MAX office was closed... besides, she's a number 3 so we didn't mind chillin' with her at a Dunks) and signed the document stating that we're buying the house.

At this point, we're considering the house "ours" knowing that if it doesn't pass the home inspection we'll walk away from it. That said - it's new construction, everything seems sound in the house so we're relatively confident it will pass. We've been going back and forth to various vendors to choose our options for cabinets, flooring, and counters (which is an adventure by the way, and the names of colors are just ridiculous). We got our mortgage pre-approval, and we fully recognize that after 3 years of paying a cheaper rent than most with all utilities included - we're about to get a reality check with things like an electric bill and finding a propane vendor.

All in all though, we are very VERY excited. Probably as excited as we were when we got engaged. We've been talking about where our offices will go and things we can do to upgrade things over the years and how we'll rearrange things once the Lil' 'Thanases come into the picture in a few years.

A couple of quick details:
- 4 Bed, 2.5 bath colonial with a 2-car garage and a full basement
- 1.22 acres of land
- It abuts a Girl Scout camp and the town has 50-year first right of refusal on their property - so there's a very low likelihood that we'll have neighbors behind us.
- Nice big deck appropriate for cookouts and such things

We get to pick our own appliances, so I'm PSYCHED to pick out and cook up some goodies in the new kitchen. I know that Steve is already devising some technological schemes for the house too. I can't believe that we're actually buying a house, but we are and provided everything keeps going in the positive direction it's going in - it's going to rock.

Soon-to-be Casa Athanas (photo by S. Athanas)

"Wanna Look at That One?"

Things at the Athanas pad have been recently centered around finding a new pad. That's right - we're finally taking the plunge and doing the official house buying process. We're hoping that it will culminate in us finding a wonderful home that we can enjoy by ourselves for a couple of years and grow a family into. We've been tooling around and looking at open houses after church for a couple of years now in preparation, working out the things we like and the things we don't like. And now - the time has come.

In our house-hunting travels, we've encountered many different realtors. I've come to the conclusion that most realtors fall into one of three different categories.

1. Weasels. This one is self explanatory. When it comes to answering a question, they may skirt across the issue or give you some falsified answer like "Oh I'm sure those sandbags near the basement door are just there for decoration. It's a very dry basement."
2. Nervous and Rehearsed. These are the realtors who know how to do their job well, but very obviously have practiced the speech for the house they're showing you time and time again. When you ask them a question, they know the answer but typically follow it up with their experience in house-selling; it's almost as if by asking a question you don't trust them.
3. Relaxed and comfortable. These guys know their stuff about the house and even talk to you like you're a human. When you ask them a question, if they don't know the answer right away they're totally comfortable writing it down and getting back to you - usually in a reasonable amount of time. They're straight-shooters who you can typically trust to give you a solid, honest response.

We've met our share across all three of these categories of realtors, and I've been hard pressed to think of one we've met who's fallen in between. We're hoping that the selling agent we buy from falls into category 3; if we're that lucky, then whatever house we buy we'll feel comfortable going back to that person once the house is purchased with any other questions we have. After all - we ARE first time home buyers.