New Brielle NJ Home

I have looked around for a house in the Manasquan / Brielle NJ area for a couple of years now. Owned a few homes in my life and it’s been my experience that you MUST always 1) figure out what you need, 2) what you can afford, 3) where the market pricing may or may not cooperate and then 4) you do your best to make a ‘sound investment’ that is within your means.

Looking around patiently helps you understand market inventory and the price for size, features and location. There’s always a degree of risk and this 1st Q 2012 Southern Monmouth County NJ marketplace is still unstable, at least to a degree; however, after negotiating the price a bunch I agreed to buy a Brielle NJ home I felt I could work with.

This post will, through an ongoing set of entries & edits, document the process of buying, fixing up and then moving into the new home .

Pre- 01/18/12 Getting a loan, even with a significant down payment, is a painstaking process in this day and age. The amount of documentation required is a 3 month-long full-time job. I have a full time job = 2 now. Outrageous, actually! Surveys, appraisals and you name what else.

10/01/11- 01/18/12 Mortgage approval process to approval!

01/26/12 I call the pending 01/27 close off due to the sellers failure to live up to an agreed upon cleaning in advance of closing. The house had odor issues due to dogs that were ill with skin conditions. The owner did produce a receipt for the supposed execution of fumigation; however based upon a walk through she clearly did nothing. So, I basically said “I’m out, good luck” which was my right.

01/27/12 The owner’s lawyer made an offer to hold some funds in escrow until the cleaning was completed to my satisfaction. My response, “if I consider something, it certainly won’t have anything to do with relying on your being accountable.” The lawyer seemed to respect my position, made a new price offer. I declined and proposed a much lower price offer. They declined saying “no way, will you accept another offer at approximately half the difference?” I said, “no, but I’ll except approx. 3/4′s or I’d rather not discuss it anymore.” Offer accepted. Close delayed until banks can re- do the paperwork.

02/10 Close. Ask Contractor I trust to produce a quote for various improvement work we went through 01/25/12.

02/12 [Sunday] Review quote with builder friend, gather various advice points and produce a series of questions. Go through them and agree to terms with Contractor.

02/13 Contractor comes in rips up flooring. In the evening fumigation clean up crew I hired comes in, a fogging process with cinnamon scenting. Works nicely.

02/14- 02/17 Decide window replacement needs to be added to scope of work; agree to windows quote; find out windows will take 3 weeks to arrive; find out new floors can’t start until windows are in; gather 3rd floor HVAC work quote; discover the need for unexpected duct work;  accept HVAC quote including unexpected duct work; post existing appliances and cabinets to Craig’s List and successfully have them taken away; have 2 kitchen designers come in to measure; get 1st kitchen design measured, mocked & quoted; get semi- approval for kitchen exhaust from contractor; re- frame attic and future bedroom no. 3; discover front porch requires a variance; I rip out 20 shrubs directly in front of house. Contractor promises to speak to Brielle Zoning Officer Tuesday morning about the porch and possible variance requirement, and to get back to me with what has to be done.

02/17 Spend 4 hours @ Home Depot designing kitchen

02/18 Show contractor basic mockup design of kitchen from HD, apparently no issues

02/21/ See other kitchen designer’s design & quote, virtually double HD not including counters.

02/22 Spend 5 hours with HD, revising kitchen and buying it. Tell contracor going HD, he says “who’s going to install it?” and something about how HD is low budget? I express confusion, I have a hard quote to install the kitchen from him with electric & plumbing work. Still haven’t heard anything on variance for porch.

02/24 Still nothing on variance, nor any explanation for mixed message.

02/27 Turns out we [contractor] spoke to town on porch variance, but they haven’t responded yet. Apparently they officially deny us, forcing us to go through the process of formally making a case for the change. Guess HD is fine, no problem on kitchen install … maybe a bad day? Lots of work getting done, revised ducts for circulation & 3rd floor, attic & kitchen frame, electric wiring and we’re waiting on new windows arrival.

02/28 Allow ducts cleaning guys in. Meet electrician to plan wiring for new lights around house. Pay HVAC & Contractor. Must go to HD to get appliances set, plumbing / electric plans for those and I need to pick out some basic lighting & fixtures.

02/29 Realize that living room and bedrooms have no ceiling based lighting- aaargghhh, this is something I can’t stand. Meet the electrician there to add lights. He says, he may do it off hours- I say, talk to my contractor.

03/01 Sheet rock company brings crane to lift it all through 3rd fl window, and roll right over neighbors yard? I have to laugh, suppose in their eyes it’s my fault for not understanding “a crane” meant rolling through neighbors front yard. On the bright side, 3rd floor sheet rocked!

03/04 Mike does me a solid and walks me though all the variance paperwork. Just need to look up a couple more things and make 18 copies of all the required forms and paperwork.

03/07 Variance paperwork all in – $410 to ask for a porch.

03/08 New windows arrive.

03/11 Just ripped 3 rose bushes out of the ground, took two hours and my hands with gloves are torn up. Former owner had a lot of crap in that backyard and I’m going to rip most of it out for a very clean landscape. Well worth the scrapes, feels like progress!

03/17 3rd fl sheet rocked and lights in. House aluminum siding off, paper up. Floors got painted with primer, dog smell is gone! New windows are installed. Floors go in this week. Cabinets arrive Friday. Appliances are all purchased and they arrive 03/28. Kitchen is prepped, sheet rocked, exhaust ready and plumbing / electric is set. Tax appeal paperwork is all in! Things are moving…

03/29 Turns out variance not all in, I have develop 31 letters with variance attached to neighbors within 200 feet. Then I have to sent them Certified Mail, Return Request… which requires another 3 steps per letter after going to the post office twice to gather what’s needed and then be sure I understand exactly how the two stickers are applied and filled in. Wooo! And I have to pay anther $200 to send them. Cabinets should be installed and appliances arrived yesterday, so maybe they’re in too. One hiccup on cabinets was the manufacturer sent no sink cabinet, only a door, forcing installer to improvise. Marius, by the way, is incredible and handled it like the pro’ he is! All of my contractors’ Subs guys & team have been incredibly skilled and diligent. Things are moving- siding begins today! Go to the board on the ‘country porch variance’ 04/10!

Life’s Great Pleasures…

Felt compelled to write that a summer morning jog along the beach in Seagirt NJ is one of the great pleasures in life.

Yogies, fisherman, white sand, sea life, ocean breeze, warm [not too hot] sun & exercise = one of life’s great pleasures.

Another Great Morning Doggie Beach Manasquan NJ

Storming Doggie Beach Manasquan – pretty much a daily routine for us two

Making friends

Swim or a sniff is par

Brushed, Dried and Headed Home From Doggie Beach Manasquan Inlet NJ

Winter Surfing Spring Lake NJ

Mike Yonkowski

Ian Leclerq

Bill Aronson

Kil’ …keeps an eye on the beach

Late Fall Surf Spring Lake NJ

Ian Leclercq [last 3 pics] has game… and while I [top 2 pics] snuck into a few, I never really made it out the other side

Raceway Park MotorCross Englishtown NJ

Couple of my buddies are competitive MotoCrossers. Some great shots of Mike Yonkowski and Rich Jacobs ripping it up at the races at Raceway Park n Englishtown NJ:

 

NJ is doggie heaven

Kil’ has had a pretty great life considering he lived in my comfy house on the Eagle River in Avon CO until the last days of June ’08. Free reign to wander back and forth between house and river was pretty much how he rolled. Imagine how moving to NJ might be a backward move… or maybe not

Pretty much every day at dawn we go to doggie beach – Manasquan NJ – via the back trail

The good life carries on for one CO/ NJ doggie

Back Home Surfing in NJ

Back Home in NJ: about two weeks into my return and still unsettled, but almost there setting up rooms/ offices up North and then also in Manasquan too. There’s nothing more fun than a weekend of beach, sun and surf in Manasquan & Spring Lake NJ. Bertha served it up nicely

C McCagg bottom turn and off down the line [fishing boat background] 

Frek down the line [McCagg dives on right]

 Frek floats section

Again

Bertha attracts a crowd

Who wouldn’t want to be in NJ… Home

BRUCE’S SPEECH AT THE NEW JERSEY HALL OF FAME … so proud :-)

Bruce Springsteen was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame on May 4.
Here’s a transcript of his speech:
 
When I first got the letter I was to be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame I was a little suspicious. New Jersey Hall of Fame? Does New York have a hall of fame? Does Connecticut have a hall of fame? I mean, maybe they don’t think they need one.
 
But then I ran through the list of names: Albert Einstein, Bruce Springsteen… my mother’s going to like that. She’s here tonight. It’s her birthday and it’s the only time she’s going to hear those two names mentioned in the same sentence, so I’m going to enjoy it.
 
When I was recording my first album, the record company spent a lot of money taking pictures of me in New York City . But…something didn’t feel quite right. So I was walking down the boardwalk one day, stopped at a souvenir stand and bought a postcard that said “Greetings from Asbury Park .” I remember thinking, “yeah, that’s me.”
 
With the exception of a few half years in California , my family and I have raised our kids here. We have a big Italian-Irish family. I found my own Jersey girl right here in Asbury Park . I’ve always found it deeply resonant holding the hands of my kids on the same streets where my mom held my hand, swimming in the same ocean and taking them to visit the same beaches I did as a child. It was also a place that really protected me. It’s been very nurturing. I could take my kids down to Freehold, throw them up on my shoulders and walk along the street with thousands of other people on Kruise Night with everybody just going, “hey Bruce….” That was something that meant a lot to me, the ability to just go about my life. I really
appreciated that.
 
You get a little older and when one of those crisp fall days come along in September and October, my friends and I slip into the cool water of the Atlantic Ocean. We take note that there are a few less of us as each year
passes. But the thing about being in one place your whole life is that they’re all still around you in the water. I look towards the shore and I see my two sons and my daughter pushing their way through the waves. And on the beach there’s a whole batch of new little kids running away from the crashing surf like time itself.
 
That’s what New Jersey is for me. It’s a repository of my time on earth. My memory, the music I’ve made, my friendships, my life… it’s all buried here in a box somewhere in the sand down along the Central Jersey coast. I can’t imagine having it any other way.
 
So let me finish with a Garden State benediction. Rise up my fellow New Jerseyans, for we are all members of a confused but noble race. We, of the state that will never get any respect. We, who bear the coolness of the
forever uncool. The chip on our shoulders of those with forever something to prove. And even with this wonderful Hall of Fame, we know that there’s another bad Jersey joke coming just around the corner.
 
But fear not. This is not our curse. It is our blessing. For this is what imbues us with our fighting spirit. That we may salute the world forever with the Jersey state bird, and that the fumes from our great northern industrial area to the ocean breezes of Cape May fill us with the raw hunger, the naked ambition and the desire not just to do our best, but to stick it in your face. Theory of relativity anybody? How about some electric light with your day? Or maybe a spin to the moon and back? And that is why our fellow Americans in the other 49 states know, when the announcer says”and now in this corner, from New Jersey ….” they better keep their hands up and their heads down, because when that bell rings, we’re coming out swinging.
 
God Bless the Garden State .

Brendan Borek

In the 4 summers I spent life guarding 30th Street [surfing beach] in Avon, NJ I was proud to know and to be Brendan’s friend.

October ’07 Surfing in NJ

Treretola attracts a crowd; however, I’m betting everyone bailed out when they saw Big Tom coming down the line

C McCagg high in the pocket, riding one of those super tempting eggs [really] nicely

Mild mannered John Marvosa… looking at a whole lotta’ fun

Sought after Manhattan Architect by [week] day, bottom turns in his free time/ C McCagg!

Builders never miss a swell: Mike Yankowski racing………………

… Tommy T playing hooky

Home is NJ/ NY

 What a visit back home: spending quality time with my mom & dad, catching up with so many friends in Westfield, Manasquan, Hoboken, some good surf and fun & games in NYC… can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be at this stage in life. I’m coming home soon!

Saturday Sept. 22 2007 celebrating Burkie’s 40th at The Wine Bar in Manhattan with great friends

 

Saturday Sept. 29 2007 Rutgers Maryland Football game in New Brunswick NJ tailgating with great friends

New Jersey Heroes confront Ernesto!

NJ Late Summer’s day dream

Mikey Yankowski sizes up the top for annihilation!

Tommy ‘Big Daddy’ Treretola draws, smacks and sets his line :-)

Johny Marvosa backside cutty

Barrels in Jersey…

and more…

Wooops, how did that get there (….still there in spirit guys!)

Miss surfing Jersey with the gang….

Thanks Chris, Johnie & Tom for never letting me forget!

Entourage (mine)

Friendship is a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection. Friends will welcome each other’s company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship. A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors.

Just came across this picture. Some may resemble Sopranos and yes these guys are from NJ, but they’re some of the most solid people and my great friends/ my entourage. They’re about as influential a part of my life to this day as anything or anyone ever could be. Hysterically funny, core street- smarts, loyal, fair and kind to everyone………. but don’t bother bringing any delusions or an attitude. Team players only in this company!