The offer sheet needed a line for the fire pit table.
It also needed the Adirondack chairs, combo grill and smoker, outdoor sofas and flooring, raised deck, exterior TV, interior TV, shell chair, and kitchen shelves. I sent the whole list with a spreadsheet called Patio Options.xlsx.
This had moved fast.
Two weeks earlier, Amanda and I had gone to Rockaway for a beach weekend that turned into real-estate research. I came home reading the Rockaway park plan and sending Zillow links. Now I had a verbal yes on a condo near Beach 116th Street.
The patio list sounds ridiculous. It was also practical. The outdoor setup was a big part of what made the place interesting, and none of it was permanently attached. If it was supposed to stay, it needed to be written down.
I was in Atlanta doing Wahoo work while the offer came together. Eighteen minutes after I emailed the patio list, my camera roll has two close-up photos of Wahoo hardware. The next morning it has my road bike hanging over a trainer beside the balcony.
That was basically the week. Product work in Atlanta. A lawyer and lender in New York. A possible beach place in Queens. A bike jammed into the apartment wherever I happened to be.
The verbal agreement still needed real terms. I wanted a mortgage contingency. I did not ask for an inspection. I asked the lawyer who had helped with earlier property purchases to represent us, even though I had not spoken with him yet. We set up a call for later that evening.
At the same time, I was still asking about other properties. A wooded land parcel I liked already had an accepted offer and multiple backups. A condo at the old Piano Factory in Poughkeepsie had been sitting for months, but its rules did not allow short-term rentals. After five years rebuilding the Victorian, I was apparently still looking. I kept looking at all of it.
The next step in Rockaway was the contract. The mortgage application started the following day. The offer was still verbal, but the patio spreadsheet was already saved. Two weeks later, I signed almost everything.