2 years

Happy anniversary to me and DH. It's been only 2 years, but we are looking forward to many many more years together.

No big plans tonight--he's working late and I'm going grocery shopping after work. We did go out to a nice dinner on Sunday afternoon...and we're getting a BIG present in about a month. The house ;-)

house and something else

We got the commitment letter from the bank, got a REALLY good interest rate (below 5%) and no points...

There's something else that's been going on and I haven't mentioned it. I think it's because I've been so tied up with the house. I have talked about it before, just not in a long time.

I finally did it. I lost weight and kept it off. I stayed ON the wagon. I lost about 20 lbs in 3 months! I'm down one size (pants & shirts). I have much more to go (probably like 80 more lbs--yes, I'm a bigger lady), but this was a huge start for me.

How did I do it? You're probably wondering, and so have a lot of people.

Nothing magic. No pills, no drinks, no surgeries.

I counted calories and did a little exercise (which has since tapered off to nothing). I started by writing down what I was eating, and figuring out how many calories was in each food item. Lots of measuring, looking things up online or in this little calorie booklet I had. I also had the assistance of a food scale that also contained caloric information. I still ate almost whatever I wanted, I just measured out my portions and recorded it. I tried to keep my caloric intake to between 1500 and 1800 calories.

My doctor is thrilled and so am I! Especially with the smaller pair of jeans I recently treated myself with!

another great thing

We got the request for repairs signed by both sellers! This made my day!

The chimney will be fixed! The fridge will not leak! The furnace will be cleaned and serviced!

And all of our radon tests came back in the normal range.

Just a quick update.

testing, 1, 2, 3...

Got the water tests back--we have drinkable water! Whoo hoo! The house has a well (we're going to be living in the country, people) so we had to make sure we wouldn't get sick or have anything strange happen.

Waiting for the radon tests from the basement--important because DH is making it into his "man cave." Don't want him to have any lung issues.

The things that I mentioned, here, are being resolved! The sellers are having the furnace cleaned and serviced, the water leak is being repaired, and we're pretty sure that they will fix the chimney/roof issues. The garage door is being replaced, so the only things we'll have to do are the general maintenance/painting stuff. Oh, and the dryer, ha.

Meeting with the bank on Saturday morning to do all the mortgage stuff. So much to pull out of files and prepare. Talk about your entire financial life being opened up!

Oh and the best part...the reason I put this picture in my post. The Realtor called last night, she happened to be driving by the house and the selling agent had the sign changed to "Sale Pending."

We're almost there! A little over a month til our closing date.

This weekend's activity: purging and maybe some packing.

A return to something familiar

I've posted about this before, about feeling like I don't belong or don't have a place.

I'm having that feeling at work again. For awhile I thought things were going well...but I still feel like I don't belong, really. I know, it's weird, especially because it's just WORK, but when you see other people talking about what they do outside of work (and you know you weren't included), it's hard not to feel slighted.

I probably feel more slighted than most because I don't have many local friends. Not that work has to be a direct channel for socialization, but we all know it helps. The people I'm friendly with are all in their early to mid 20s and are single, not really tied down--they are one group. There are other people with whom I'm friendly, a little older, married with kids, all male--they make another group. I don't fit in with either...I'm really trying not to let this bother me, but it does.

I think I'm feeling this way partially because of this weekend. My college friend K got married. Besides her shower last month, I hadn't seen her since MY wedding almost 2 years ago. Same with another friend, A. I really have no idea what's going on in their lives. It makes me wonder why people don't want to keep in touch. Are we really so busy? Is it me? Is it them? Who knows.

doing something NOT house-related this weekend!

Off to a wedding in another state for one of my college roommates. I'm riding up there with another roommate. DH is not coming--he has to work, can't get any time off with a new job. It's a gorgeous day here in my state--should be very beautiful where we are going!

Inspection today

It went very well. The inspector didn't have too many bad things to say about the house. There were a few "pressing" matters that will need to be addressed, and there are also some "future maintenance" things that will need to be looked at later on.

Pressing matters:

• the fridge is leaking! It wasn't doing that on the other times we came to look at the house and the selling agent had no idea. The leak was pretty small, so maybe it just started.
  
• there are cracks in the chimney's masonry and there is some flashing missing between the chimney and the house, which caused a little leak in the attic. Not a HUGE deal but should be fixed.
  

Future maintenance:

• the railings around the deck. They are OK, but will probably need to be bolted in so that they don't just fall off if someone (or a few someones) were to lean up against it.
• I sadly cannot remember anything else besides normal settling cracks that need to be patched and painted.

Other things:

• garage door--sellers will be taking care of this because their kid or a friend of the kid crashed into it and it's very dented. But, when they went to the door company, they not longer make this same door. So, now we have to decide if we want the door replaced or get $750 (cost) towards a new door.
  
• furnace--never been cleaned and there aren't any service records, so we are going to ask them to have that cleaned and serviced.
• dryer--isn't working, hasn't for awhile, and we had to sign that this was "as-is" on the contract, but S (our Realtor) is going to send someone out to look at it and see if it's a huge matter to take care of.

Other than that, all we will have to do is clean the house and sloooowwwwly paint (1 room at a time). The house is in great shape, everything else works. Eventually we will need to have some of the hardwood floors re-done (esp. in the kitchen) but the other ones look almost brand new. We'll also have to stain/paint the front porch and back deck.

As for pictures--I didn't get any today, I was so busy following the inspector around, and taking copious notes, I didn't have much time. I do have pics of the busted garage door! haha

So here's a quick overview of the house. A colonial. Front porch (covered) and back deck (uncovered). Two car attached garage.

Downstairs--living room, dining room, family room, eat in kitchen, half bath, laundry "closet"--all rooms are hardwood floors except the family room (carpet) and the hallway to the garage (stone). Stairs are UNCARPETED! (We have cats, people, you don't know how much I hate carpet with cats!).

Upstairs--every thing is carpeted (boo) except the bathrooms. Master bedroom w/ bath and walk in closet. Two very nice sized bedrooms. Another full bath. Then this crappy tiny little "bedroom" without a closet, but does have the door to the walk up attic.

Tomorrow: contact the bank and the lawyers. SO EXCITING!!!! I can't wait to "go home!"

Oh, and after I left the house, I clocked the mileage to work--almost identical for mileage AND time. Sweet! DH's commute will be much shorter which is even better!

CONTRACT!

We have a signed contract from the sellers.

The past week has been nuts--lots of counter-offering, then we finally agreed to accept one of their offers. We are paying $3K more than we wanted to, but we LOVE the house, it's a great location for both of us, nice yard, only 5 or 6 houses on the street, great town, etc. Then the sellers had a rough time getting the contract signed back for us. The owners are divorced--the wife lives MANY states away--and then she wanted her lawyer to look over everything. Probably to make sure she was getting what she was supposed to, per their divorce decree. While we signed our contract on Saturday, I didn't get it back until today (Tuesday). Geez!

Note to everyone: never buy from people who own but are divorced! LOL Just too much hassle.

Inspection will be day after tomorrow. VERY EXCITED for this!!! I am taking lots of pictures and I might post some here.

Counteroffer

The jerks counteroffered. They only went down 5K. Seriously people!? This is a buyer's market. Grrr.

We will be counteroffering back later today, but sheesh. (ETA: Realtor called while I was typing this and we put in a counteroffer for 5K more, take that suckers!)

I have a feeling that Mr. Home Owner needs to give money to ex-Mrs. Home Owner as part of their divorce settlement. Big Mouth Listing Agent spilled that out during our 2nd showing--about how he can't keep up with the house since his divorce. And all of the docs said his name only...but one doc said his and her names.

I really don't want to walk from this house. DH needs a shorter commute. It's stressing him out...he is threatening to quit if we don't move soon. (I really hope that is just talk.)

Put in an offer!!!!

On the house we really liked from the get-go. It's the perfect house for us. Of course, now we have to sit and wait for them to accept/reject (BUT HOPEFULLY ACCEPT) the offer. I think I shocked the Realtor when I told her how much we were putting down, but she doesn't know about DH's accident and lawsuit. This is not two young kids messing around with Monopoly money, here. As DH likes to say "this is blood money."

We can't do too much now...just have to wait. But I will keep everyone posted.