#3

It's official: we're home owners again! This has been in the works since the end of July. We actually got the call that the sellers had accepted our offer back when we were camping with my family earlier this summer, and we were originally supposed to close September 1. Of course there was an issue with the title, closing got pushed back, drama ensued. Then finally, this past Thursday, the bank calls and says the title's ready to go, we're closing Monday. Yay! The next day they call Alfred and say hey, you've been dicking around too long, close today or you lose the house! (Cause, you know, when they take 3 weeks to fix the title that's fine, but the 18 hours we've spent getting our loan in order from our lender is just unreasonable.) So at about 3:30 I left work, drove 45 minutes up to the bank to sign the paperwork, turned around and drove another 45 minutes back to work to close and lock up, then drove another 45 minutes back to approximately 1/2 mile from the bank we had closed at to meet friends for dinner. 90 mile round trip to travel approximately 3 blocks. But we have a new house!

This one is 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, 2 stories, attached garage, and a pool! Lots of nice big closets (this is the first time since Alfred and I have lived together that we'll both be able to keep our clothes in the closet in our bedroom!), attic space over the garage, tons of storage, it's great. It's on a big property too, nice big fenced in backyard, plus a shed and pool house (well, what we call a pool house anyway, really it's a little storage type room next to the pool). It also comes complete with some new pets. The pool hasn't been cleaned in probably a year or two, possibly more, so it's basically a nature preserve now. We've seen at least 2 frogs and at least 2 turtles. I think there are more turtles, but I only ever saw 2 at a time today. Here's a good picture of one of the turtles.

In this picture you can actually see 1 of the frogs and 2 turtles. The circle on the left is the frog.

This house is bigger than either house we've lived in so far, much larger than where we are now, which is going to be so nice. I can't wait to actually unpack all of our boxes! At least 1/4 of our stuff is still sitting in boxes in our house now, which makes it easier for this move I guess. This new house does require a bit of work, of course, but we actually did a bunch of work this weekend already. Our to-do list as of right now:

pass electrical inspection - done
repair roof
pressure wash house - done
scrape popcorn texture off ceilings - 99% done (except for one chunk over the stairs I couldn't reach with the ladder)
install new AC
remove old carpets
install new carpet
install new wood floors
paint
install new toilets
install new kitchen sink
install new lights in living room and kitchen

Whew! I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff that Alfred will remind me of as soon as he reads this. The goal is to be in mid-October. Then we sell the house we're in now ASAP. And live in one place for more than 6 months. It's going to be a busy few weeks.