New dog + house purchase = no blog posts
I know, two months. Sorry. I’ve never exactly been consistent here, though, so this particular hiatus was unexpected but not unprecedented.
We adopted Kooper and have been working on getting him fully adjusted to us, and us fully adjusted to him. He’s bigger than we had planned, and his size does make him a little intimidating to some people, but so far everyone who gets to know him falls in love with him. Now all we have to do is get him to realize that car rides are not punishment.
We’re also in the process of buying a house. The current housing market really isn’t bad if one can get credit, and as it turns out, we can, thanks to FHA loans (a New Deal program that the Republicans haven’t dismantled yet) and a nifty benefit from my employer that will be providing 5% towards our down payment.
The house itself is a story and a half, so the dog and cats can be on separate floors if they so desire. It’s in wonderful shape thanks to the conscientious efforts of its current owners; the house inspector only found a couple notable problems, and they’re relatively small fixes. We’ll be living in a well-managed inner-ring suburb that would have been part of the City except for the 1876 secession; the daily commute will be very short for me, and it’s very close to most of the stores we frequent. There’s also a backyard that’s big enough for both an energetic dog and a modest vegetable garden.
Closing is set for early October. Once we take possession of the house, we’ll be pulling up carpet, refinishing floors, and upgrading dual-prong electrical outlets to grounded outlets before moving. Later projects will include some work on the kitchen cabinets and upgrades to the air conditioner and water heater, and possibly even a photovoltaic system on the roof. In the meantime, though, Fred’s packing stuff and I’m hashing out details on the mortgage and insurance and down-payment program.
More on all that as things develop. Any questions?
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August 26th, 2008 at 15:16:04
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome…. Totally awesome. My 2 year anniversary for my new house is Oct. 11. And I’m finally having a house warming and a blessing. I’m having a non-denominational and maybe a shaman come do it.
September 21st, 2008 at 23:54:03
Dude - congrats on the new house, and wrt upgrades, I have 3 words for you: Tankless Water Heater. We got one a couple of years ago, and I couldn’t be happier (well, I probably should have up-sized it a touch, but we were poor). Dropped our gas bill a ton, and we /never/ run out of hot water (a blessing if you, like me, like to take the occasional steam bath by running the shower full-hot with the shower open and just hanging out in the bathroom naked). Dropped our summertime gas bill from about $40/month to about $19. Seriously.