Shane's Babblings

Comfortably Numb. That is the feeling after walking into a mortgage. Everything is now all done and official. We had a small problem with the other party (go figure) as the wife had been signing with a 'Power of Attorney' and didn't bring the legal proof of this to signing. The seller's agent never checked or verified this document. Besides being beside myself, our agent was about to go through the roof when she heard this.

Well we are moving the 'big' things today. It's not like we have a bunch of stuff and the majority of it is already over here in the new home with us now. It's quite nice to migrate ~ 1000 sq feet into 2000 sq feet. The interesting thing about this is that we have been doing the small things since Tuesday and I think our neighbors are a little confused. I guess we will have to shake the condo mentality and next time we move (hopefully not for a good long 7 - 10 years at least) we'll have to actually get a truck. The trips aren't bad but moving with a 2-year-old is always an adventure. Dennis has been a great little trooper and is saying 'home' and buh bye all the time now. you can just see the excitement in his little frame as he has not one, not two but about 5 new running paths. He loves the space.

Keoki are cat is now getting into the swing of thing here as well. She was all hunkered down for about a day and a half as she learned to trust that this is a permanent thing. We have been able to move her litter box where we want it now and the adventure that Liz is about to begin with cat potty training will commence after her parents leave.

Liz appears to be rather pleased. I am grateful to be able to have given her a home for Valentine's. I know she didn't want just that for the gift, but c'mon now, that's a pretty dang good gift. At signing she only had to sign one doc, while I signed about 50. We're very comfortable with our decision and in fact are rather confident this is exactly what we are supposed to be ding right now. On Wednesday we had super storm and had a 3 foot drift of snow across our new driveway, welcome to the city I guess. Our next door neighbor came chugging over with a huge smile on his face as he pushed his over-sized snow-blower into the mess I was shoveling. In less than 5 minutes our driveway was a clean as it was when we first moved in. Bill was quite pleased with the work he cut down and introduced himself and let us know that he'll try to do this most snowstorms. Our other neighbors struck up a conversation the first day and seem rather cool as well and have an awesome looking dog named 'Annie'.

Well, I am going to cut this as i need to get up and start moving. The day is quite young and we have a lot to accomplish. the in-laws get in today as well sometime this afternoon. i think we may have them sleep in the 5th unfinished bedroom. I doubt they would take to the levity very well but i almost had my wife convinced that we should tell them that is where they will be sleeping for the next week. Who knows, maybe Liz will surprise me and actually try to tell them just for a good reaction from the parentals. I think as we grow older we get more confident about pranks such as this with our parents to get back at all the years of various things that they pulled on us.


Cheers.

On Tuesday, Liz and I become homeowners. Strapped complete with a 30 year mortgage and all other benefits and fears of an initial home purchase. We are walking into a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 floor and ~2100 sq foot home (with 1 unfinished room ~ 11 x 17) at ~ 158k. So al in all it is a wonderful deal for us. The home is about 11 years old and I believe it is a Kartchner home (the same developer that was asked to do the Pauni's home in our area for American Home Makeover).

It's finally going to happen. Our final walk through is Monday morning. We hope that the previous owners are smart and nice and not walk away from the home in a messy state. the negotiations were fairly smooth but honestly given the steal of a deal we are getting we didn't overly press for too many things, other than the things we did request were met with some resistance through the process. The only thing I am unsure about in this home is the backyard. t has been under snow since the first time we chose to view the home. Its quite true about the cliche statement when people say 'I just knew this was the one'. It isn't completely perfect by any means but the home suits our needs and has everything we suspect we'll need as our little family grows larger if we are so blessed to have that opportunity.

I keep hearing from various friends that they know people that live in the neighborhood and how the children of these friends love the area as do their parents. I just hope it isn't the typical apathetic community that tends to foster in America. Those that are blinded by the false pretense and ambitions that money correlates directly into personal and family happiness. Rather, we hope to discover a community that is trying to make things work, struggling together as trials come and playing hard together when the opportunity presents itself. I know of about 3 colleagues that live in the neighborhood which will be kindly welcomed.

I'm hoping that this home will present Liz and Dennis with more opportunities to grow and be happy. The idea of not sharing a wall space with another residence is immense. It will be very cool to not hear Liz complain about the sound coming from next door unless there truly is a reason to be concerned about noise pollution. Other than that, onward and tally hoe.

Our big moving day is scheduled for Saturday although we will begin the migration to our new home on Tuesday. We imagine through the week we will be able to move most things over, except for maybe our HUGE sectional couch. It really does seem that we'll get most of the things needed to live and feel comfortable in the new space moved in less than 2 days with the use of our Isuszu Rodeo only. Should be a nice transition. All other things such as the utilities, gas, cable and internet are all onboard and ready to transition on Tuesday. Liz and I are pleased and hope the rest of everything goes smooth into Tuesday.

Wish us luck, we'll need it. I have posted the pictures of the homes in the photos section of this blog. Cheers.