It’s quite difficult these days to think of anything beyond the process of buying a house. Yesterday was particularly bad for me in that I was transitioning from a few weeks of being mostly idle at work to suddenly having more to do than I could reasonably handle while simultaneously trying to keep all the house paperwork in order and juggling phone calls from agents involved in the house purchasing debacle. My brain could not focus on anything for more than a few seconds at a time and it occurred to me that this must be how Roscoe (our lovely but stupid cat) feels at any given moment. Jules’ dinner suggestion of food court Phở and his subsequent decision to get Thai after we arrived at the Vietnamese stand left my mind a confused wreck. Luckily Nathaniel was there to share in the noodly broth with me, which somehow made it better. That was the state I was in though.
All things considered, we have been at this house-buying business for about the minimum time possible given all the procedures that need to be completed, but I’m already aching for it to be over so we can move forward. We are just waiting on the bank to do its appraisal and tell us whether it’s worth the amount we are asking to borrow. The sellers are on a really tight timeline and their purchase of their new house is contingent on the successful sale of their current house so if this somehow didn’t work out all of us would be in a bind. They have been fantastic so far in doing everything they can to make sure it works, but there’s very little wiggle room. I have been praying a lot for the success of this deal if it is meant to be. I know better than to put all my energy into something if it isn’t the right thing, and I feel strongly that this is the right place. I trust my instincts; they have put me in the position I am in now because I have had faith in them during the big decisions I’ve faced in the past.
As I mentioned before, it is extremely difficult to keep my thoughts away from all the fun things we want to do with the house. There will be room for a studio, which means I’ll get the chance to start painting again. I have missed having a strong creative outlet the last few years while I’ve been cramped into an apartment that didn’t allow me the freedom to let loose (lack of space and fear of losing security deposit by ruining walls and carpets) so this is a wonderful thing indeed! The attached sunroom will be a perfect place to set up my easel and drafting table where I will get plenty of natural light and ventilation. This room is also quite private as it is on the back side of the house facing the garage, which is enclosed in a fenced yard. Hopefully we can also use it as something of a greenhouse as well. There is a 3-car garage off the back alley which will allow room for secure parking for our car and more than enough room to set up a workshop where I can build canvas frames and other structures. The basement is completely finished which will be ideal for a media room where we can play movies and video games at any volume we choose! Never again will our Rock Band sessions keep a neighbor from sleeping peacefully (or rattling their dishes in the cabinets or shaking their light fixtures, as our current downstairs neighbors have complained!) We plan to get a pinball machine, a kegerator and full bar, and nice set of furniture for the area (Craigslist, here we come!) to make it really comfortable. Both Jules and I envision this as the place where we will spend most of our leisure time. There is also a 3/4 bathroom down there!
Additionally, my mind keeps wandering to all the things we can do to improve the house. Although the house has been extensively remodeled, it is also very old and there are plenty of things that still need to be done. I love the idea of putting money into the house to make it nicer and watching it build equity. The upgrades to the house will make it worth a lot more when we eventually sell it, or borrow against it if we need to.
I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned this before, but we are pretty sure we will have Nathaniel move in with us, at least for awhile. It will be a mutually beneficial situation because it will help all of us out financially. We will all have more space and be able to split a lot of the things that tend to go to waste. It will be Jules’ first experience having a non-family member as a roommate so that will be an adjustment for him, but I’m sure it will be fine. I’ve lived with roommates for a long time and despite all the tense moments that inevitably occur in such a situation, it has always been a positive experience. Living with other people can be really fun. We have a lot in common with Nat and tend to spend a ton of free time with him as it is now, so it shouldn’t be too rough of a transition.
Throughout all of this I have been amazed at how easy it has been. Granted, being disciplined enough to save money hasn’t exactly been easy, but thankfully both Jules and I have had help from our families to cover additional expenses. We had enough to cover the downpayment but there’s always miscellaneous costs incurred during closing that throw things off a bit. Otherwise, our agent basically found us because we had only called her to show us the house but it turned out that she was free to represent us as a buyer’s agent, and it was just our luck that she was awesome. We had done our research online and both fixated on this particular house out of hundreds of others and knew on first viewing that it was the right one. To ease our minds (and our families’) that we weren’t making a mistake we toured others in the same price range and location, but discovered that it was far and away the best we could afford. I found our mortgage lender online and had him run quotes for us over email. The house inspector and insurance agent we went with are both people our agent has used in the past and fully recommends. Most of the paperwork has gone back and forth through email (scanned PDFs and faxes) and almost everything else has happened over the phone. It’s like we’re living in the future, and thank god for that!
As it turns out, we are the first of our friends in Seattle to go forward with buying a house. We have several friends who are nearing the position to be able to do the same, but have been holding out for various reasons. It is nice to see that some of them are considering this a realistic option for them soon now that we’ve shown them how easy it has been for us. It really has been so much less hassle than I had ever expected. Maybe that is a sign that it was supposed to happen now for us, or maybe we’ve lucked out with the people involved and they have all had very streamlined processes.
Aside from all this house stuff, I realize I haven’t been too verbose the last few months about the rest of our lives. It’s kind of been samey up until the last month. Get up later than we should, get ready, go to work, come home, have dinner, watch movie or play game and then go to bed. Maybe a little kitty teasing in between, but not much in the way of deviation from that schedule. We’ve been trying to save money where we can so we haven’t been eating out as much and we’ve been staying home when we can rather than going out to events. Labor Day weekend pretty much destroyed us in every way possible so we haven’t had much desire to go out to shows since. I’ve been reading a lot on my Kindle and crocheting here and there. I started exercising again just before we started house hunting but have since stopped due to suddenly having a demanding and chaotic schedule. I expect to start up again once we’ve moved. We played some Spore, finished Silent Hill: Homecoming but haven’t yet touched Lego Batman. Saints Row 2 and Rock Band 2 will probably have to wait as well since they’ll be coming out while we’re in the process of moving. We’ve watched up to season 8 of The X-Files and finished the excellent series Simon Schama’s Power of Art which we got from Jules’ family for one of our birthdays. We’re catching up on Mythbusters. Mum Lancaster’s book on Australian women in France was published and she sent us an autographed copy! (It’s been so long since I’ve read a paper book but I will have to make an exception for this.) We booked our trip to the UK for Christmas, but have yet to create an itinerary and book hotels. We’ve watched our amazing little hydroponic garden flourish and eaten some tasty steaks seasoned with Italian Basil. We’ve spent lots of time together, just being together.
I am very excited to finally get the chance to have the life I’ve dreamt of; owning a house of our own is the last piece of the puzzle. The pinball table and maybe another kitty would just be gravy.
