Thursday, September 10, 2009

Whoa, What Happened to August?

We were busy buying our first home in August, that's what happened to it! Yippee, we are so excited! And actually, we are so RELIEVED! We'd been looking for a house for 16 months - fortunately we had a very good realtor, who was the consummate professional during the entire time. Why so long? 1) We're picky (ok, I'm picky), 2) Since we don't have kids (and therefore don't have a school year deadline to deal with) or any sort of job re-lo to be constrained by, why not wait to find the optimal house?! 3) we live in an overpriced, highly populated area, so it just took us that long to find something we loved that didn't cost an arm and a leg! We are actually very fortunate that we had all these factors at play, plus with low interest rates and an alleged buyer's market (although I'm not sure how much the latter is true in this fairly recession-proof area), everything worked out. Now we just have to move in!

So the house we purchased is 11 years old and in excellent condition. The previous owners did a great job maintaining it added a lot of nice (small) custom upgrades. I will say that their decorating taste is not aligned with ours, so we've been taking the past 2 weeks to have the entire house re-painted & re-carpet the bedrooms (the BRs are the only place that have carpet). The colors palate we used (and the colors we picked) are shown here. I'm sure these photos don't show the "true" color, but at least you get the idea.
We've also been running around shopping for some necessary / nice to have additions, such as a refrigerator, a bed for the guest room, a dehumidifier for the basement, etc. Needless to say, August zipped by.
We plan to pack this weekend and move next weekend. Even though the house looks MILES with the new paint and carpets, it still don't feel like our home. Obviously, since we aren't living there yet, I imagine it's hard for that feeling to sink in. Right now it just feels like a really nice "financial asset" that we own. But like I said, once we actually go to sleep and wake up there, I think things will change!
In knitting news, I finished my "spoilee" gift package for SOAB (Swap On A Budget). I knitted my spoilee a chocolate brown Drop-Ribbon Scarf, and included a skein of earthy green Sheep Yarn 3, some stitch markers, a pattern for some mitts/gloves, and some hazelnut chocolate. I received a Thank You from my spoilee, and I am happy to see that she enjoyed the package. Now I am waiting for my "spoiler" to send me my knitting package! The dead-line is 25.Sept, so I hope to receive it soon!