Let the packing begin!

Over the last several weeks I have been rescuing boxes from work that were otherwise destined for the trash compactor. It's starting to look like we're building a fort in the dining room. (Which would not be the first time this year I've built a box fort.) Pretty cool, right.

That's what you get for going out of town in my office.

Greg and I are not exactly known for being minimalists, but we're looking forward to using this opportunity to clear out some of the junk that has been moving from dorm rooms to our parents' houses to apartments to other apartments. The tough part is decided where to begin. As of today we have 32 days until we close and 39 days (September 18th, which is incidentally my 27th birthday) until we can start moving things. So I want to do things methodically. I hope that happens. (I still remember helping Greg move out of his sophomore year dorm room scramblingto get everything out as they are literally locking the building doors.) In the meantime I am making lists of what we can pack now that we won't miss and can pack now (books, decorations, craft supplies) and what we can't live without and will wait until the last minute to pack (kitchen supplies, the rabbits.)


Speaking of our four four-legged children, I am so excited that they are going to have their own room soon! Thor and Valkyrie have lived in our kitchen since we moved here and during shedding seasons that's a little unappetizing to say the least. It will also be nice not to have trails of timothy hay through the apartment from carrying it to the little kids in the dining room.

Odin and Frigga, the little kids

That is pretty much where we are now. Getting ready to do the paking and fanticizing about the possibilities. I've been pouring over all our our favorite catalogs (CB2, Crate and Barrell, Ikea) and magazines. We've even made some visits to Lowes and HomeDepot to look at paint. But I'd better not get ahead of myself, the apartment won't pack itself.

Well it is finally more or less official. Our sellers agreed to the repairs we had asked for, so the process is mostly procedural from here on out. We are getting the house! It's a relief to be past the negotiation stage, but it's a bit intimidating at the same time. One of those strange moments when you realize that you are what society considers an adult. Redecorating the whole house is going to be a bit of an undertaking, but I think Elena and I are both looking forward to it. I am glad we found a place that really suits us, in a neighbourhood we have really come to care about and feel a part of. Hopefully in not too long we can really make the house our own. Wish us luck, it should be an adventure.

Greg

They don't show you this part on HGTV

So I am somewhat ashamed to say that I have watched my fair share of House Hunters, Property Virgins and the like. It makes the house buying seem so much easier than it has been for us. On those shows you make an offer, maybe negotiate the price and suddenly it's months later and the family is in the redecorated house.
They leave out the fact that there in a seller in addition to the buyer, who has needs and desires and has to move out of the house for the new people to move in. Plus there are banks, insurance companies, inspectors, two realtors, which makes for a much more crowded process than one is led to believe by watching HGTV. (Of course if the world worked the way it does on TV, it would be a lot easier all the way around.)
We keep reminding ourselves that this part will be over soon and then we can start the next stage.

Our House in the Middle of our Street?

As of today, we have been in our apartment for exactly four years. It's been a great home for us, but we decided in May to start looking into buying a house, enticed by the promise of $8000 from the government when we closed.
It's been quite a journey and we decided to start blogging, because that's what all the cool kids do these days, right? The blog will cover the end of this part of the home buying and then we will use this to record the process as we update a house that is structually quite sound but is a little behind in the times when it comes to decor.
As of right now we're under contract on house number two. Number one fell horribly to pieces (only figuratively at this point but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually falls to pieces.) The current owner had "updated" a lot of things, like the plumbing and roofing, but he didn't do what one would call a "good job." So after sinking $800 into inspections we walked away with the piece of mind that we wouldn't be sinking several thousand dollars into the house when everything went to pot.
But sometimes they say things happen for a reason, and after that we found what will hopefully end up as our home. It is a lovely home which has been owned by an older couple for 42 years. They had taken great care of it, but haven't updated anything since shortly after they moved in. Now we're going through all of the fun of negotiating. The stuff they don't show you on all those home buying shows, but we're getting closer. Hopefully as of this week everything will be squared away. I hope.
-Elena