After intense negotiations over a couple of days, we signed the contract on our new house this morning. It was touch a go there for a while, but we feel good about the agreed on price. The closing date is March 31, and inspection is next week.
This is a big upgrade from our current house, which will decrease our commute time, provide us with more space, and (once we do a few minor tweaks) provide us with a great dog room + outdoor area for the iggies.
We did a bunch of measuring in the new house, and Julie took more photographs.
The title papers were filed around 4pm today, and we're officially closed: owners of two houses. We stopped by the Villa on the way home, and the contractor and painters were already swarming, taping, measuring, cutting wood (for the dog room). It'll be a busy week. We plan to move in next Tuesday, and list the Castle sometime next week. So much excitement!
Updated: I changed the title to reflect that we have not yet moved into the Villa. We're hoping to move in Friday or this weekend.
We received our furniture from Dallas, TX yesterday. It took the two movers most of the day to unload the boxes and the incredibly heavy baby grand piano from their truck. It will take me (and hopefully a few friends) the better part of the week to put together the furniture.
The furniture arrived in large boxes from the furniture store. Each box is filled with what seems a tons of packing materials, including plastic wraps, styrophome, and too-much cardboard. The furniture is mostly put together, much more so than typical Ikea furniture. Usually I have to add the legs or attach two large pieces. With the help of a friend last night, we finished the master bedroom, half of the living-room furniture, and most of the lobby. I'm hoping I can swindle another friend to assist tonight to work on the study, dining room, and (ambitiously) guest bedroom.
We forgot the camera yesterday, but we should have photographs of our progress tonight.
We moved! Yesterday, we packed up both cars with as many boxes and computers as we could fit, threw the dogs into the back of the Prius, and drove to the Villa. The movers are coming this afternoon to bring over our TV, BBQ, outdoor table, and swap the washer and dryer. We still have a bunch of clothing and miscellaneous stuff left in the Castle. We hope to complete the move this weekend.
The iggies spent the night in the new dog room. The contractor is just about done. He will return in a few weeks (after his vacation to London) to refinish the cabinetry and install the shelves. When I visited the dogs this morning, they were still in their cage. In the Castle, Ziggy whined by 6am if I hadn't taken him outside. I'm sure he'll start again once he figures out the schedule. Luckily we can no longer hear him from our bedroom. Once we train the dogs to use the invisible fence, they'll have more area to roam and a place to sun bathe, one of their favorite activities.
Now that Julie's computer is set up, I hope to upload photographs tonight. The floors are still covered with tiny styrophome balls, there are still two boxes of furniture that need putting together, and most of our kitchen stuff is on the counter (we plan to kosher our old stuff this weekend). But for the most part the Villa already feels like home. Now we just need to get slippers. The hardwood floor is a bit cold and, well, hard.
We are almost fully moved in, making a big trip last night. The Castle is mostly cleaned out, with only a few odds and ends in some of the closests, and some tools and miscellaneous stuff in the side storeroom. The maids are swarming the Castle today, and the carpet cleaners will steam it tomorrow. We plan to schedule haulers to take away the large mound of junk we piled behind the house of stuff we decided not to take to the Villa or donate.
We still haven't cooked a meal in the Villa's kitchen. We haven't gone food shopping or even house shopping for the odds and ends, such as bathroom mats and necessary kitchen supplies. We leave for NYC on Thursday, so we'll probably wait until we return for the shopping. This week we're concentrating on preparing the Castle for showing. We will eventually list it. We have to. Either that or they'll foreclose on both of our houses.
Personally, I don't think these photographs do the Villa justice. I may be biased, though.
Some random flowers and iggies around the Villa.
This is a really ugly doodle. The foreground is fine, but the background: it's like I wanted my new house to look ugly. It's been sitting at the front of my queue. I kept promising myself that I would edit it and improve the house. I've decided that will never happen, and while I thought briefly of deleting it, I did like the blue guy and his coffee. And did you see the title? How perfect is that for the events of the last days.
I've been in a bad mood these last few days. Julie blamed is on my MySQL server going kaploey. That was definitely part of it. Now that it's back up--and in plenty of time for the start of the Marathon this Saturday--my mood will hopefully improve.
The real reasons for my bad mood haven't changed, but my perspective may have moved slightly for the better.
Okay, so the first wave were just the walkers. The runners are now whizzing by our house. Here are a few snapshots the Julies caught.
