Seems the buyer fell through (he was being an ass about some stuff on the mortgage) so they are back in the hunt for another buyer... fingers crossed for me guys... PURTY PLEASE!!!

So I am finally cashing out. For a lot less than I wanted or expected for a while, but I still get all my money back (along with the interest it has been gathering over the past 2-3 years) and I get an additional 6K. So I essentially double my money in that time frame.

Bad investment? Not at all.

Could I have done better? Absolutely. If things had moved quicker, or if the unit had turned out better in terms of view onto the pool and deck area.

Would I do it again? probably... but not for a while... need my money for other things these days!

Who? Me?... Wait... who am I? What the hell is this? ohh... well... ummm

So I was in a Marriott's in Tysons Corner, Virgina last week, and after a meeting that was due to last 30 minutes lasted 1h 40 I was in a rush to pack and run off to the airport. In the rush, I left a bunch of clothes in one of the drawers in the room. Called them when I got home, several times, and they always told me they could not find anything. I followed up with an email last night, which resulted in several phone calls... first from the Director of Services who told me they still could not find them and that he would buy me a free lunch or breakfast the next time I was there... two minutes later one of his staff calls me and it seems that he was wrong... they had catalogued the items under the wrong day... and they are now sending them to me.

Opposite experience today when I was leaving the hotel in Mexico. Here it seems I left my sunglasses in the room. When I go to check out they must have called housekeeping to let them know. Within a minute or so THEY are telling ME that I left the glasses in the room, and someone rushed off to get them for me! Very friendly and efficient (even if the walls are painted like the Flintstones house!).

CRAAAAPPPPPPPP... only 11 days until we close!

Things seem to be in alignment at the moment, but the heavens are fickle and anything could shift... but I hope not!

Although this post is technically going to pop up under the Piedmont news in the house hunting section, it really has very little to do with the Piedmont... although maybe not entirely.

What with the endless delays around the Piedmont (updated completion date is now not until sometime in either Jan or Feb of next year... at the earliest!), I have moved on. In addition to that, it looks like I am not looking for just myself. Miss Cammy aka the Fuzzballs, needs a larger house and Angel will be following along to take care of her! Yup, I am now looking at buying a house with Angel! Gone is the bachelor pad at the Piedmont, here comes the 3-bedroom townhouse with the girlfriend! WHHHOOOAAAAHHHHH NEEELLLLYY! :p

The long weekend was spent house hunting (except for when I showed the world how not to play golf!). 17 houses later, and we have a top 2, with a potential 2 backups.

That being said, this whole expidition was kicked off when we saw the Feagan Casitas and decided to try and go for one (http://www.feagancasitas.com). We even went as far as signing a contract with an offer... but the offer has been pushed back. We are not completely giving up hope, but after an extensive search, we may be able to find something bigger and potentially better within the same price range, if not cheaper.

Below are the current top 4, with the first 2 being the top two...

	http://search.har.com/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=5798059 1333 Fairview Nice, relatively new townhouse, middle unit, with bags and bags of space... and not an inch of carpet anywhere in the house!!!
	http://search.har.com/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=1930887 2436 Bissonnet Another newish townhome, this time right next to Rice Village... great house, great location, corner unit... but has some carpet (you getting the idea that we don't want carpet???
	http://search.har.com/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=9482420 1717 W Webster Carpet only in one bedroom, otherwise an extremely open plan loft style house. Good view of downtown from the decking area... although it is obscured by a new fancy development from an evil company called Innerloop Condos (Yeah, it is the Vistas, the big, ugly sister of the Piedmont!).
	http://search.har.com/engine/indexdetail.cfm?mlnum=6665833 1819 Matthews This one does has some carpet, but only in some of the bedrooms I think. Fantastic view of downtown from the fantastic rooftop decking area where you could host a fantastic party. Nice house, floor plan maybe not the best and the area certainly not the best (it is also just a couple of blocks - 10ish - closer to downtown than the Vistas and the house on Webster

The Ape in Me - Slate.com - short and to the point. Funny!

Semen 'may fuel cervical cancer' - so our little guys truly are killers!

Agassi wins dramatic five-setter - when Agassi was up 4-0 in the fourth set I thought it was all over, but man as I wrong! What a match for the ages! Baghdatis will be one to watch in the future

Greece oust USA in massive upset - To be expected! Guess the NBA champs are not the World Champs like they think they are!

Belgian town bans school French - Go Walloons- Kick those Flemish butts! BRING ON THE REVOLUTION!

Well, things are not quite that bad, but I have made up my mind to sell the Piedmont condo before I ever move into it. My ultimate plan (which should be more than feasible) is to sell the contract before I even close on the place. Result will be that the estate agent takes a bite out of the pie, as does the builder (to the tune of up to 20%-25% of the profits!), but I should still be able to come out well ahead. I certainly do not want to come out behind! What is next? Well keep posted, things are a flurry... deals being made and falling through for others to open up... Very mysterious, maybe, but hopefully good news to come out at the far end!

Oh, and the reason for this post... new photos of the development. As you can see Building I is almost complete on the outside, and Building II is well on its way too!

Up close of Building I... I know, you can't see much beyond the framing

Much better view of Building I

Lopsided view of the pool area from ground level

Framing basically complete on Building II... Next step? Windows!

of photos taken today, 31st July 2006 (my Birthday... in case I did not mention it before!)

Not quite sure how they plan on rebuilding a large chunk of the decking area, but here are the designs for the balconies in question...

The more and more I look at it, the more confused I get, mainly because I cannot quite see how it applies to my unit... I cannot match the blueprints from this picture to the official blueprints I have seen (and posted) and to what I have actually walked on and around! Will keep posting with new information as I get it!

Went to make the colour selections for the condo (again!), and was disappointed by the selection that they have, especially with the cabinets. They only had 3 choices, although they may get some in. Most colours selected, except the cabinets as I will wait to see if they get more choices in.

Updates to come, especially an update on the floorplan itself as the Marketing Director walked all the units earlier this week and is in contact with the developer with regards to the issues I brought up in a previous post.

To be honest, I had trouble getting motivated to make the colour selections, and I am really just thinking about flipping the condo before I close on it, making less money than if I bought and resold a year or so later... but I am tired of all the crap with them!