Hippy No Ear!

So, its been literally a month since I last "blogged." I could use the excuses such as, we closed on our house, moved, travelled for Christmas, I'm starting classes again, etc etc. But, the reality is I have plenty of time at work to blog (gotta love the state) but its FILTERED! And, I can't seem to get the "blog from email" feature I signed up for to work. Quite annoying actually because all my best blog ideas come to me when I'm at work. I could write them in a word doc, transfer to my flash drive, then copy them back when I get home, but, seriously, its just a blog. I'm not even going through all that trouble!!

Anyway, yes, we are all moved in. Still have some organizing to do (i.e. file mounds of papers and figure out what to do with all miscellaneous crap that we seem to have). And we have a ton of space to fill it seems. We have an entire empty "guest bedroom." Eventually we would like to get a king sized bed for ourselves, but, hardwood floors are coming first. And, my grandma is coming down the first weekend in February and are we really going to put her on an air matress? I mean, don't get me wrong she's in great shape and can handle it but still. We've been contemplating a futon or a sleeper loveseat in the "Office/Game Room" so maybe we can look into one of those. But, higher up on the list is a media console table (which is currently our stack of surround sound boxes) and a foyer table & coat rack. I refuse to have mail build up in the kitchen!

Some of the other costs of home ownership that we kind of knew about in the back of our heads but, didn't really put much thought into was yard supplies. We spent $200 at home depot the other day, and pretty much came back with a rake, hose, ant killer, general bug killer and a long squeegie so we can clean the jumbo half moon window over our door. Fun stuff! I contemplated going on an ant killing rampage today, but, its been rainy and might rain some more, so, its a bad time to do it. Those lucky little suckers might get another day, or week if the weather continues as such.

So, my agenda for today consists of searching for curtains for the master & guest bedrooms, buying Harry Potter 5 (I'm re-reading all of the books before I read the last, and the only one I don't own is 5), and then sitting around waiting for the mail to come becasue we're expecting a certified letter today - hopefully. Which, that pretty much translates into either me catching up on project runway and grey's anatomy, or, mopping the kitchen floor & vacuuming. It will probably consist of all of the above.

And, for those of you who don't know, "Hippy No Ear!" was something I wrote to my dad when I was about 5 or 6 which is translated from kidspeak into "Happy New Year." Its been a joke among family and friends ever since.

Winding Down

So, this is the last week of my first semester of grad school. Is it weird to say that my classes were really easy? It would be nice if the rest of my life as a grad student would be so sweet, but, I know for a fact that there are classes out there that I will need to take that will probably kick my sweet ass. But, so is life. If anything, I've at least padded my gpa nicely thus far. Gives me a little cushion in case those so called "hard" classes really do suck.

Anyway, two more weeks till we close on the house. I'm ready for this to be done with. Because, the day we close is also the day our Christmas vacation starts! Actually, it would be really nice if we could close a day or two early, but, we'll see. Gotta get word back on our loan application this week.

My coffee is ready. I think I'm going to grab my mug and knock out a little reading before class. Easy day today. Presentations. Friday is a final, but, at least its Friday so I have more time to study!

This is Ridiculous

Its 7:22am, and, NOAA says we have a high of 70 today. Its 71 out!!! Its freaking December people! Ug, I cannot take this weather. It drives me nuts. The fact that we just bought a house down here makes me realize I'm stuck with it for approximately another 3-5 years. We went to Northern VA for Thanksgiving and MAN was it gorgeous! They were actually having a "Fall" and the trees were so colorful and so beautiful. *Sigh* I really miss having all 4 seasons. And, though I know *someday* we will probably end up in upstate New York, it seems like the more we travel back up north or out west, the more I realize how sucky it is to be hot & sticky year round.

Ahhh, Fall on the Potomic:

They accepted our offer!

Now we just have to hope everything goes smoothly till closing! FINALLY!!

Third Time's a Charm?

We put an offer in on this house:

http://www.virginiaglass.com/content/listdetail.html/59375855?proppos=25&ag_id=162890&pageclicked=3&RowCount=31&VirtualTourCount=42&startpos=21&endpos=30&ids=55472288,57819175,55157102,56041732,59375855,54589339,52671134,57906447,55686898,59429472&property

Don't necessarily like the dinky lot, but, the location is what sold it. Anyway, the deadline for them to accept or counter is tomorrow morning at 10am. I hope we hear tonight though.

Housing Update

So, our last offer was flat out rejected. I guess the owner is in some sort of financial trouble (basically, we think they pulled all the equity out of their house, refinanced, and bought a way too big house in Ponte Vedra beach, and now they're paying for it). But, basically they wanted the asking price and that's it. Then, we find out that they're going to take it off the market all together, so, who knows what is going on with them. Sucks for us though.

Anyway, I think we're going to go look at a few more. We're going to check out some townhomes in southwood (a really ritzy community that has a ton of perks associated with it), and also maybe check out some new developments just outside of town to see what they are like. I'm starting to not care anymore about where we live because I'm so fed up with this stupid apartment.

On another note:

Last night we saw Transformers at the IMAX downtown. Granted, not a huge fan of transformers, but, the movie was action packed and it was fun to see it on a HUGE screen. But, I think we sat a little too close cuz it was really hard to make out stuff during the action scenes. Guess we know better to sit in the back next time! haha

I'm exhausted

And its not just because its 6:35am, although, that is a contributing factor needless to say. Basically, I'm exhausted from house hunting! I thought it would be fun, getting to tour a bunch of houses, having our pick of the litter, but, in reality, its become a big pain in my rear!

First, while there are 57829578429758 houses for sale, only about 1% of them seem to be worth what the seller's are asking. And, of that 1%, about 90% don't have all the elements we want. Granted, people usually do have to weigh pros and cons about certain features, and, unless you build your own house NO house will be 100% exactly what you want if you get down to the details.

Second, our realtor has become slightly annoying. We've already written one contract, which, we were outbid on. Now, we have found a 2nd house we like, and, all he seems to do is keep asing us "So, when do you want to write up the contract?" I don't know what's up with the pushy salesman deal but, what difference does it make to him if we write it up today, tomorrow or the next day? His take is the same no matter what. Now, I understand the longer we wait the more change we have competing bids (since that's what happened last time) but seriously. We're signing our life away here, give us some breathing room!!

Anyway, so about this house. I really like it, but, am of course anxious about spending so much money at once. But, the good thing, is, that this house has the potential to be worth SO much more if we were to take care of a few things on our own. If we could but a few grand in the kitchen, we could see a huge return on our investment. And, of all the houses we've seen, this one has the most elements that we originally hoped to find when we started house hunting:

• 2-story
• 2-car garage
• Large lot (1 acre)
• Large lot = large yard
• big kitchen
• separate dining room
• large master bedroom suite
• 2 full baths (bonus half bath downstairs)
• Laundry area away from main living area (hate listening to the dryer over movies)

So, needless to say, its pretty decent. You can check out the listing: http://www.tallyopenhouses.com/sshow/Realtor%20details.php?id_list=39

But, I think we are going to put in an offer. It needs a new roof, so, we're using that to justify our bid. We decided to put our own roof on if we get it, just cuz, then we'd be the ones working with the contractor when they did it, not the seller's.

Anyway, I had better get ready for work!