Removing Crayon and more from painted cabinets

If you are a mom and you live in a residence you own or rent ( pretty much every mom right?) 
Likely you have had to figure out how to remove crayon from a number of surfaces.



I love our house and when we looked at it the first time this type of thing was a huge concern for me......why?

 Well our new house has beautiful custom cabinets painted WHITE in not one, not two, not three, in FOUR rooms of our house and I was so scared they would be written on by little ones.  I could not see banning crayons entirely.  At the same time, I was really worried.....

Thing is even with out crayon in our kitchen we had ended up with black scuffs that no amount of washing was removing and I did find a way to remove them and found it also removed the finish off of the paint.  I was not sure WHAT to do.

Then it happened.  While his older sister was watching him our youngest son decided the cabinets in both the butler pantry and part of the kitchen needed to be embellished with a purple crayon.  I used soap and hot water and it just smeared it.  I had visions of it remaining so embellished.....not good. 

Then I looked on line for answers.  Some of them did not work.  Then I came across a post that recommended Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  So....off to the store with hopes it works....did it ever!

Not only did it remove the crayon with ease, it also removed all the scuff marks with out damaging any of the paint finish what so ever.

 "after"

So, parents if you have a stain or a mark that needs to come off of paint, I would recommend Mr. Clean Magic erasers.  If you are considering buying a house and the white painted cabinets are giving you pause...there is a solution and it does not involve hand cuffing the kids or removing all art supplies, pens and pencils from the house.

Best laid plans interupted & not ruined by a bank robbery and seizure.

From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum, Keller Willams Realty
253 353 2662

Monday was a chaotic day to say the least.  Sunday our youngest son had what appears to have been a seizure and we spent a good deal of the day in emergency. 

Arriving at School Monday morning I found out that he could not stay at preschool with out a care plan or having me stay with him....the care plan needed the assistance of the school nurse who was not there so I stayed.  As I walked home from the 2.5 hours of preschool with Peter I called to check on the 2 transactions that were set to close and 2 more close to closing.  ( multi-tasking) 

One was signed and funded and one it looked like had a hold up, not identifyed by the assistant to my escrow closer.  I headed home, fed everyone lunch and continued phone calls, including talking with the testing site for EEG's for our youngest son.  They could see me today or tomorrow in the am and he needed to be asleep.  When today?  Well they had a 2:30.  I told them I would take it....he had been up until after 1am the night before ( or should I say that morning) after getting too long of an afternoon nap.  I knew he would sleep in the car.

I managed to shower and my husband changed his departure time to leave to Portland for work and arranged for him to pick up our first grader and I was on my way.

Made calls to move things along and update and negotiate on the 2 close to closing transactions on the way to Mary Bridge and talked to one of my friends I work with too.  Arrived just a couple minutes late and utilized the valet parking and made it onto the 2nd floor with out waking my little guy at all.

Remembered to turn off my phone before going in.  I prayed he would stay asleep since I in no way shape or form was excited about the fact he might have to have be put under to get it otherwise.  The technican told me that in 9 years no one had slept through it.  I had talked to him about it and told him it would be best if he slept and as her skilled hands marked his head and applied all the electrodes he only stirred and he slept through it all and slept for the 25ish more minutes they needed with him asleep too.  I was relieved.  I read a book and thanked GOD he was sleeping still and that I had remembered to turn off my cell phone.

He woke with out crankiness and complied with everything else asked for in the test.  ( horray) and we were on our way home in 2 hours.

  On the way home I checked in again with escrow regarding the 2 closings.  One was fully funded and had recorded, the other had had a delay and they would let me know.  "Yes" I said I knew there was an issue with the Power of Atty on the file.  No that was not it, the bank the funds were being wired from was held up.  All transactions from it were suspended and we were waiting for a resolution.  This is an issue I had not yet dealt with in 9 years of Real Estate.  I asked them to call when they knew more.

Got home. Unloaded all the things in the back of our mini van that completed the move out of the "at the office, office"  and loaded it all into the area that I am setting up as my home office, so hubby could load his things for his 3 hour delayed trip to Portland. Chased after 2 dogs that got out and ran in to check email regarding transactions.  In my email several things that needed answering and confirmation that yes the 2 transactions were recorded.....clearly the issue with the bank robery was worked out. 

Lesson for the day?  Continue to do all I can to NEVER close on the last possible day unless there are no other options, you never know when some thing like a bank robbery or a seizure might interupt the day you had planned.  Was glad these both still closed in contract and was able to complete all that was needed for my family and my clients this day....and Thank GOD for Admin help!

Sometimes the Real Estate you buy has a good surprise...sometimes not.

From Anna Matsunaga, Managing Broker, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Tacoma.
253 353 2662  www.teammomentumrealestate.com

It is always a good idea to order and have a complete inspection with a licensed professional...pretty much 100% of the time.  However there are things that no inspection will tell you and that you will likely only know AFTER you own the house and live in it....things like exactly how the lay out works for you.  Whether you love or hate your neighbors....and little things about the house in general.

Sure you can and should work to get the best idea you can before you buy.  Do a good neighborhood review which includes meeting some of the neighbors and getting their take on the neighborhood.  Consult with a Realtor who really spends time getting to know how you will live in the house and cares enough to talk you out of a beautiful home that he or she knows will not work based on what you told them in your consultation......be sure you can afford the payments.....get copies of the typical utility bills for the place so you know how much your utility bills will be.  All these things can help you avoid surprises that are less than pleasant though it will not completely shelter you from them.

From experience I will tell you even a careful buyer can get some rather nasty surprises.  ( strange things inside the walls, "improvements" that really were not, and you could not tell until they failed, parts that should have been used in the plumbing that were not and you could not see until again, they failed.....and so on.....and really none of these could have been avoided....and we took them in stride and fixed them and were glad we owned the place and were in a place to fix them, even though we swore under our breath a little about them ( mine were mostly oathes that we would find a better place later and well hubby's were not the not to be repeated, actual cursing)

So....imagine my delight with our third purchased family home....so far every large surprise has been a bonus.

The neighborhood is quieter than we thought.  The neighbors are even nicer, sweeter, kinder and friendlier than we ever imagined.  So many things more than we realized are close by.  The schools are even more helpful with the kids than we had expected....so far no shoddy workmanship to anything found anywhere in the house.....so did not expect any more wonderful surprises, felt we already had more than we bargained for.....and I was wrong.

Imagine my delight to find that under the carpet in the only carpeted room in the house ( mind you I HATE carpet) is beautiful, original hardwood floor in almost original condition!



We set about ripping it up right away....I just finished pulling out all the tack strips and nails.....will haul it all off and out this weekend.....

So....when you buy, check out all you can.  Ask your realtor ways to avoid most of the most nasty surprises and may all of the surprises you have be as sweet as ours have so far with buying Song Haven......

One family's ride on the Trillion Dollar Real Estate Roller coaster

From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Tacoma

253-353-2662

The entire nation has been riding the Trillion Dollar Real Estate Recovery Rollercoaste for the last several years and the above link can tell you much more about the numbers behind it.  I will also be writing more soon about what that looks like on a local basis.....and first I am going to share what is has been like on a very personal level to ride this coaster while also riding the personal roller coaster caused in part by the national and perhaps international rollercoaster.

Don't worry this is not a bleak or down and out story, although even though if I had been writing it 3 or 3.5 years ago you might have thought it was even if I did not believe it was even at the time.  I do want to share in the hopes that our story can inspire and give hope to those who are in a different place on the roller coaster than our family is right now.  Also for anyone who thinks that the roller coaster is just about numbers I intend to show it is far more personal than all that. 


This is a story about a family, my family on this coaster.


This is also a story about faith.  Something that helped us very much the last few years.

I am not sure where to start with this story, because like all real stories it does not have a neat beginning and ending.  I think the best place to start is as the coaster was rising like crazy, since that is where it began to be a coaster.


At that point in time I had 3 children, one of which was very young and I was working from an office in my home along with a full time assistant.  I was as busy as I wanted to be, in fact sometimes more so and was doing a good many short sales.  I had my very best year in 2007 despite the fact I had a small child I kept with me while I worked and had little time to actually meet new people.

 I owned one rental home all on my own and one with my husband and we had the home we lived in.  I decided to purchase another one at that point this time with far less down than before with the intent of doing a lease to own for a friend who could not yet qualify for a loan.  Of course she would buy me out in 2 years and values would be much higher by then so getting her own loan after repairing her credit would be easy. ( remember this was 2008)  I purchased the home. This was the end of July....what I now have identified as the very very top of the peak of the market in our local area.  She moved in.  At first it was all fine. 

My business continued and was very busy at the end of 2008, I had well over 3.5 million dollars in escrow at that point and my husband had just received a small raise.  We had planned to have our 4th child ( and since we did not even have the first until we had been married for 11 years and he was now 11 we were also running out of time to do so)  So...we took the plunge and conceived right away. 

We were excited and happy.....and then the bottom dropped out of our lives.

It all happened so fast I am not sure today the exact order of it all.  We just kept falling and just when we were sure it was bottom, well it was not. 

My assistant of 3 years began working from her home over the summer of 2008....at least I thought that was what happened.  The bottom had not dropped out yet and I was not pregnant yet.  Only really she stopped doing much of what I paid her for and reported to me as if it was done.  I kept paying her of course......She had been the most dependable and loyal person I had worked with in the past and so I did not question her reports.....I should have, just did not know so until later.

I was busy and generating business and mean while she was not following up with the details since she had from what we have pieced together stopped working.  I still don't know what happened, whether it was depression or something else....what I do know is by the time I realized she was not actually doing what she said she was it was late fall and I was newly pregnant.  I lost 4 very high end listings and 2 that were not high end and would have been fast sales due to the fact that things that should have been done were not done.  At about this point I found myself with out the business I had generated there as well as with out an assistant. ( I actually had been for a while, just did not know it)  At this point I scrambled to reconstruct files she simply disappeared with as well as all the information and marketing pieces that had been on a hard drive that also disappeared.  I decided I had learned a really valuable lesson, at a very high cost at this point and took measures so it would not happen again.  Little did I know this was the beginning of many expensive and valuable lessons.

  Meanwhile I have been making the entire mortgage payment some months and other partial payments since the friend that I purchased the lease to own home for is running into trouble. She can't pay so I do. I don't want her or her kids on the street. Then one day I come by to drop off something and she is gone....thankfully the house is clean inside. Unfortunately the yard is full of about 4 tons ( yes really 4 tons) of garbage.  A market analysis reveals there is no way to sell for what I paid even though I purchased under market when I did.....and even though we put 10% down and even though we put another $5K into the house.  The rental market also will not cover the mortgage payment....a lesson that no matter who you want to help and even on your own home, do not buy what will not rent for at least your mortgage payment plus taxes and insurance.

Next we got word that my husband's job of over decade was doing partial layoffs....for everyone in the company. No no one was being "let go" instead everyone was getting a 10% reduction in hours along with a 40% reduction in pay. What benefits we had also all but disappeared. Mind you with the drop in the market and resultant reduction on my pay we were already not really making it before the layoff.  Along with working full time ( he had been working more than full time)  he began to look every day for work.

I also began to experience preterm labor about the same time.  Not only was I working with out an assitant for the first time in over 3 years....I really could not work much at all.  I blogged from bed.  I made phone calls, going much of anywhere and in the field prospecting and home showing became a no no. Of the more than 3.5 million in closings I had in escrow, only about $175K closed.  The others ( many short sales) failed for a large variety of reasons including buyers walking because they did not want to wait for short sale approval as well as properties being foreclosed even though we had offers to buy on them. 

By January of 2009 we were sure, we had no choice, we had to do a bankruptsy.  This seemed like a possible light at the end of the tunnel, until after doing the required budget worksheet it was clear, even with our debt wiped out we were over $2400 short each and every month.  The budget councelor said to me "The only thing I can see to cut is your grocery budget, do you think you could spend less there?" Even so I knew we would never make it with our debt so I worked hard on all the paperwork.  ( not a fun task when you own property and one of you is self employed) We sent our newer truck back.  Could not make the payments.  We drove a 2003 Kia rio strip model that had about 165K miles on it for our daily driver for the family and my husband drove a 2 seater car to and from work.  We were happy they  were paid for.  We did not care that you could not open the drivers door from the outside.

Our court date was set for July 13th, 2009.  I continued to have preterm labor as we planned for a do it yourself at home delivery.  (partly personal choice, we had done it before, and partly like before because we had no insurance we could afford)

On July 10th labor started hard.  I still did not know if it would continue since I had had so much early labor, and it was the very day I hit the 37 week mark where it was considered safe to do a home delivery.  I was still in full blown labor by July 11th and woke that morning with my water breaking....I knew we were doing this for real now.  Peter was born in a warm pool of water finally in the wee hours of the morning on July 12th afer over 50 hours of laboring hard.  We were both ok. We were all exhausted.  We went right to bed.  When I did wake panic set in...we had to be in court the next morning. 

Friends helped take care of our younger kids as we bundled little Peter for his first outing.....Federal Bankruptsy court.  We cut the cord on the placenta that we had left attached until then as we walked out the door.  The judge was taken a bit back when she asked if we had had any changes since filing and my answer was "yes, our 4th child was born yesterday"  So a snap shot of that day determined that we were eligible to do a bankruptsy......

We barely got our breath the next day when Fed Ex delived a notice to our door.  My husband had been hired for a position he had interviewed for in the month before.  Not only was the pay almost double what he had been making BEFORE the partial layoff, he also was being offered full and really great benefits as well as lots of room for advancement.  We thanked GOD.  No one else could have arranged the timing for us so well. 

The end of the story is another blog......the short of it is......we were able to repair our credit.  We purchased our dream home April of 2012 and we are living there now.  My business continues to make recovery along with the rest of the Real Estate market.....

The story of what we went though making our move and the decisions I have made in the last 3 years or so with my business are a blog for another day......Funny thing is in the middle of it all I knew we would be ok.....I am so thankful we landed in a better place, know not everyone has.....yet.



  From Anna Matsunaga, Team Momentum, Keller Williams Tacoma
253 353 2662