Making Progress

Well, we managed to accomplish a few small tasks this weekend!

We put up smoke detectors and some trim around the front door- which makes such a huge difference. It was looking pretty janky without it. Now we just need to fill it in, sand and paint it to make it perfect. We cleared out all the stuff hanging out in the hallway, so now we don't have an obstacle course to get to the bedroom. We got our electric dryer purchased and delivered.( We don't have gas, just electric, hence the need for a new dryer.) We got the phone jack in the office fixed so we no longer have to run a long phone line from the kitchen, down the hall and into the office. We got a new stained glass light fixture hanging in the kitchen, which is a massive improvement from the ugly brass-and-glass one that was there, and got schooled on how to change the wiring to put up another nice fixture in the office. Of course, all of this required about 12 trips to the hardware store! At least there's one close by; I feel like we will be on a first name basis w/ everyone there soon.

Welcome to the Mountains!

We came home from work the other night, and noticed some cops and firefighters at a house 3 doors down. We found out the details the next day in the paper...

Cops and Courts: Jan. 16, 2009
Ben Lomond
Fire bomb thrown during fight
"Someone apparently threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a Glen Arbor Road home during a fight outside the house Thursday evening, according to emergency dispatchers.
The incident occurred around 5:10 p.m.
A woman who was involved in the fight called 911 to report the fire on the 9200 block of the road. Ben Lomond Fire responded, but the flames were out when firefighters arrived. Sheriff's deputies were also dispatched to deal with the brawl, according to dispatchers."

Still Unpacking

So I thought it'd be a fun idea to start a blog to keep everyone who's not in the Bay Area up to date on what we're doing w/ the house. I decided to call it D and K's Money Pit since that's where all of our funds are going and because of the 80's movie with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long, which D and I both love. (Not that our place is anything near that bad, purley comedic) Here' a little clip to jog your memory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSGMDHMAJrY

We moved in last week, after much hassle and stress with the escrow company at the end. If you have a choice, do NOT ever work with Integrity Escrow. We were supposed to close by the end of '08, and due to their incompetence we didn't close until Jan. 7, which was our very last day to be out of the condo. Talk about down to the wire! The escrow company lost the deed, which prevented the transaction from progressing until it was replaced. They didn't bother to mention this to us until we kept pressing them to close the deal. Thank God Gail, my boss and realtor, was all over them or else it still wouldn't have closed. Such are the hassles of buying a foreclosed property I suppose.

The notion that we actually 'own' a house is starting to seep in more and more, especially when it comes to fixing things! No more easy calls to property management. At the same time, it's nice to know we can do whatever we want. Pros and cons as usual.

One of our biggest challenges right now is keeping the fire going all night so we aren't freezing our asses of come morning. We have electric baseboard heaters in the bedrooms, but not in the living areas, so we're totally reliant on the fireplace for heat out there. This morning it was 47 degrees in the living room. The cold makes us really motivated to get out the door for work in the morning. At least the car heats up quickly and we have seat heaters!!

I put together a virtual tour of the house which you can see here: http://www.visualtour.com/show.asp?T=1772406&prt=10003
I will do another one once we're all settled so you can see what we've done w/ the place.