Bring on the Leaves

So it is still about 6 weeks until we can close on our house. In the mean time it's easy to start thinking about what sort of things that we might need that we never needed living in an apartment. The basics, like a lawn mower or a ladder come to mind. The end of the summer would be good to buy that sort of thing. On a recent trip to the hardware store Jen decided that we need to have a backpack leaf blower. We didn't buy it but as you can see it was tried on. I don't know that we really need it, but it's kind of cool in a ghost busters kind of way.
Jen did manage to find a great deal on patio furniture. There's lots of good bargains as fall approaches. In this case the set was about 60% off the original price. We even had to drive half an hour to get to the nearest store that hadn't sold out. As you can see the scooter trailer suited the transportation task perfectly.This is what it will look like when we eventually get to put it together.

Cleanup Needed on Aisle 4

It's time I cleaned my desk. Somehow everything just manages to pile up when I'm not looking. The main problem is that the people I sit next to cleaned their desks today and tipped the balance of the office in the tidy direction.

Wee Hoose

We have finally taken the plunge and are in the process of buying our first home! We have been casually looking at houses for about 2 years now but we just weren't sure where we wanted to buy. We really wanted to move back up to the Boston area but with the economy the way it is, we figured it's not a good time for Rodney to be looking for a new job. The architecture world has been hit pretty hard with this economy, as folk just aren't building as much these days and all the other architecture firms we know of are having layoffs or staff are working reduced hours, etc. So Rodney is lucky to still have a job and we figured he'd better stay put at the one he has for now. But it's also a great time to buy a house - home prices are low, mortgage rates are low, and good old Uncle Sam is offering $8,000 of free money to first time home buyers for homes purchased before December 1, 2009!

So one Sunday morning a few weeks back we decided on a whim to take Buddy (the scooter) for a ride to see an open house in Cheshire. We figured we'd do what we usually do at open houses: arrive and find something totally horrific about the neighborhood, the lot, the layout of the home or some other thing that was well hidden in the online photos. You know, things they don't tell you in the online listing like there's a train station right next door or the house is actually 10 feet from the main highway or something. But as we drove through Cheshire, we really liked the neighborhood - it's very woodsy and quiet. And the house was off the main road a couple of hundred feet down a private driveway so when you pull in you feel like you're in the middle of the woods. And the inside of the house was nice, too. Nice yard, 2 car garage, basement. It had all the things we were looking for. We put in an offer the next day. :)

So it turns out the home buying process is complicated. There are agents, inspections, appraisals, attorneys, mortgage brokers... and lots of big checks to write. Eek! But all of these things have gone smoothly so far, by some miracle, and we are on track to close the deal on September 30. Yippie! Here are some pics for the nosy parkers - you know who you are ;)


This is a bird's eye view of our lot, which Rodney has so cleverly outlined in blue (dotted line is the driveway for those of you who are spatially challenged like myself). It's just under 1 acre. Not big enough for alpacas. Not even big enough for a few chickens according to the Cheshire zoning laws (you need 3 acres). Although this is being debated in the planning & zoning committees so I may just have to join in that debate.
Front view (note how cute and at home Fitty looks in the drive)
This was taken during the inspection which is why there's a ladder - the inspector was up checking out the roof, which was replaced in 2005, sweet!
Two car garage is a few feet from the house but there is a little breezeway for protection from the elements.
Downstairs is pretty open plan - living/dining/kitchen




Deck :)
Sun porch

Kitchen - needs updating but we'll get around to that when the bank account recovers
I do like a nice big kitchen window over the sink.
First floor bedroom. This is the 3rd bedroom but the current owners have it as an office (which we'll likely do as well)
Master bedroom
View of the front garden from the master bedroom

Master bath. I'm thinking the red tiles will have to go and we're planning to lose the steps as well. The tub isn't THAT high that it warrants having steps to get in, jeez.
Guest bedroom with en-suite bath
Our awesome agent Mary Jane (love her) and me rockin' the blue scrubs
Basement - future home of Rodney's man-cave.
We would love to move in tomorrow but we are just trying to be patient while we wait to close. We figured the long wait would give us plenty of time to go through our piles and piles of crap and weed out everything we don't need, and plenty of time to carefully organize and pack the rest. But have we made any start yet? Of course not. But we're thinking about it, and it's the thought that counts, right?