all the news that isn't

So yes, we did close last Friday the 23rd. Things went about as well as you could expect, given the history of the seller and his lawyer: only the lawyer showed, and he failed to bring the money required to close. All $23k of it. Slight oversight…

So we took two loads of stuff in the CRV that afternoon/night. Then had a 17-foot truck (not much fun finding parking on city streets…) for the weekend, one load each day. I think this photo is from after the first truck-full, late Saturday night. You can see we got the important stuff (stereo!) hooked up first:

The room is now about twice as packed with boxes!

We’ve spent every weekday evening still getting ‘small stuff’ out of the apartment and cleaning. (We weren’t really as prepared to move as we should have been.) We expect to finish the kitchen (last room) tomorrow. Adrienne’s had to work this week, but I’ve been lucky to be off. So in addition to doing some unpacking, I’ve already re-caulked the tub, installed a shower curtain, fixed a faucet, and I can’t remember what else. We’ve also learned that we are in the market for a new laundry washer and possibly a dryer as well. The good news is the dishwasher works (Adrienne does a happy dance – because now she will be eager to offer to wash the dishes!).

Also on the bright side, some of the trees are beautiful colors! Here’s looking out the back bedroom.

Of course we’ve got lots and lots and lots (did I say lots?) of leaves to rake, once they dry from the 2 days of solid rain we’ve just had.

The cats are finally starting to be normal. Dudley had a pretty hard time the first couple of days. But they seem to be getting the lay of the land and back into a routine… as much as an animal that spends most of its time sitting around on its duff can have a routine!

This place definitely already feels like home, and our apartment definitely feels alien. Amazing how just moving your stuff can do that. So I suppose we’re no longer ‘burb-bound, but regular ‘burbanites!

We’re set to close Friday afternoon. Let’s hope I’m not jinxing it, the way this has been going. And congrats to Doug and Aurora, who close today on their place!

Friday night I met Adrienne in the city for a concert at the Manhattan School of Music. Afterward we strolled down Broadway and found ourselves at a Ben and Jerry’s. We both got 2-scoop mini waffle cones, but Adrienne didn’t/couldn’t finish hers, and so decided she’d take it home… on the subway, then the PATH then walking home. Here’s a photo of it at the World Trade Center, waiting for the 7-minute PATH train ride and then 7-minute walk:

Adrienne put it in the freezer and had it the following evening as we watched “The Wrestler.”

The cats always seem to like laying on my trombone cases, and my new one seems to be no exception. Though due to the design, it’s more of laying in vs. on:

And Sunday evening Adrienne went for a little ride out to the house. We were a bit disappointed to find very few houses decorated for Haloween, but that’s less competetion for us (still hopefull we’ll be in it by then…). We did come across this laying on the sidewalk in front of the house. Hope it’s not a sign…

We’ve learned today (and seen proof!) that all necessary permits for the house have been paid for and the Certificate of Occupancy has been obtained. All that remains are final negotiations on two issues, and then we can close. Adrienne’s out of town for a week, so we’re looking towards October 20th. If it does all go down, I’ll likely be taking 10/22 through the end of the month off (I have 7 vacation days I need to burn), so if anyone wants to come out and help… 🙂

When Dan was in high school (and I was correspondingly younger) he took a series of architecture classes. I remember being inspired to “design” houses – basically to me this meant drawing up floorplans to imaginary houses. At the same time I moved my room around probably on a monthly basis. So there’s always been part of me that likes the “how stuff fits together” type of thinking – guess that might go back further to my lego days! Anyway, if you had trouble making sense of the layout of “the house we may purchase someday” from the photos, here’s the floorplan (front of house to the left):

Follow the jump to see the up- and downstairs… because really, who doesn’t like looking at floorplans? 🙂 (more…)

After a long day at work Adrienne picked me up and we did a little driving/exploring. Cruising along the highway I see the sign in red neon: Red Robin. Suddenly Adrienne is excited and alert. We have to stop! (We hadn’t yet had dinner.) To us, Red Robin is a West-Coast thing: there was one in Salem, OR and I went to one in the Federal Way-ish area when Doug and Aurora were there. So we were happy to find one out here, even if we didn’t get the tower of onion rings (this time around).

And on a related note, we’ve discovered that not more than 15 minutes up the road from the house we may eventually purchase (that’s my new way of thinking about it…), there is a Friendly’s Restaurant. I have fond memories of Friendly’s and vacations, but that could just be because of the make your own sundae thing. We’ll have to go sometime and see if it lives up to the memory – but does it ever?

Andrea says her place is a mess. Ha!

It’s hot, we’re trying to pack, blah blah blah, and Dudley’s showing Sylvester who’s boss.

Celli always likes to help read the newspaper.

Dinner was salmon burgers, done on the cast iron stove-top since we’re out of charcoal:

Along with the packing come new empty places for kitties to explore.

A Sunday drive took us back out to the ‘burbs to check on the results of our garlic-juice mosquito spray. Let’s just say we’re not quite convinced yet. But there are many variable to control for, so who knows. We’ll keep the hope alive.

We now have a trash can full of weeds, and we’ve just barely touched the surface. That area where Adrienne’s standing is actually a driveway! And the green over the the right should be grass, but isn’t.

Despite the mosquitoes, we remain hopeful we’ll be moving in in the next two weeks, but time will tell.

We’re hoping to make it out of our apartment without putting the A/C in. The cats are thus going for maximum surface area air-cooling.

Because it gives them stuff to climb. Celli likes high spots:

We’ve already started packing, and we’re clearing space for boxes. Which means going vertical with some shelves. Meanwhile, Dudley goes horizontal: