Catching Up

We did manage to close on the house (wayyyy back on April 22!). It was a rather dramatic finish, I must say. What was supposed to have happened at 10:00 a.m. actually got put on hold while bankers discussed how to handle a last-minute negotiated credit. At 4:30 we got a call that everything was ready so we hauled butt down to the title company's office and signed on oh-so-many dotted lines. *whew*

So, it's officially our "new house" now! We're slowly moving things over. Getting estimates for things, having some work done. The list is, thankfully, short:

*roof -- we'll do it in stages; the flat roof first, late next week, then the shingled bit in a couple of months, after our "old house" has sold

*wall paper -- ugh. was not "awful" but definitely NMS (not my style), so we had it professionally removed. Bad news: there's a bit of work to be done on most of the walls. *sigh* Here are a couple of "Before" pictures. The first will be my studio and the second will be Leith's room.








*wall repair and painting -- we have estimates, widely ranging estimates. We're having a remodeler sand and skim the worst bits, and repair a couple of speaker holes (the house has a non-working intercom/speaker system). Hopefully that work will be done by early next week. Then we can figure out the painting thing. We have picked out two of the three necessary colors. At least I've got a little more time to decide on the studio walls!

Great news: there is some *amazing* landscaping. Amazing. I'll get pics this week, since it seems the clouds and cold seem to have moved on....

"Meh" news: the tennis court's in less-than-stellar condition. Several large cracks with weeds growing. lol We'll get it cleaned up and filled in, but we're probably going to have it ripped out at some point and put in some additional patio, a play ground-ish area and some actual lawn.

I'm excited to have some new projects! Yes, it's a hassle to move, deciding what to keep (and where to put it) and what to garage sale/donate. It's also kind of fun to review what we have, where it came from and think about using it in a new space.

Leith cried today when I sold "her favorite toy EVER" -- no worries. It wasn't even a toy! It was a Little Tykes book case. She was consoled with a bit of brownie.

Picture tour coming soon!

k