Oh boy, now we're cooking with gas!

Well ok, not literal gas. All our new fancy toys run on electricity! Aaron and I got each other some fun gear, including a really great pair of work gloves for me that verge on sexy. Also, being the dorks that we are, we couldn't resist getting matching blaze orange hoodies on clearance at Gap for keeping warm while we work on the house, and it's certainly a color I won't feel bad about messing up. We even did some mugging for the camera in our new gear:

After a relaxing and wonderful Xmas, we found ourselves with gift cards and cash burning holes in our pockets, which of course meant a bee line to Lowe's and Home Depot for some preliminary home renovation supplies. After consulting Consumer Reports to make sure we got the best quality for our money, we chose the Port Cable 19.2 Volt Cordless Drill from Lowe's, a couple Ridgid tools from Home Depot: an 11 amp reciprocating saw and a 7 1/4" circular saw. I can't say I fully understand why these particular versions of the tools are great, but the brands themselves are highly rated and their basic functions (screwing drywall, tearing down drywall, and cutting drywall, respectively) make sense for the work ahead. Aaron sure is excited about them, that's for sure!

At Lowe's, we got ourselves some nice treats from the clearance section: a couple appliance timers we hope to use so the bigger energy hogs will run during the night, and 2 of this lamp and shade (we don't have end tables to put them on yet, but we're hopeful!):

We also found out that our closing costs are about $500 lower estimated. More money for drywall and paint, always a good thing! Unfortunately I also found out that my new second job had not consulted me before scheduling me to work the evening of our closing, not to mention 4 out of 5 weeknights for the next two weeks and an 8 hour Sunday! Needless to say, I plan on asking for less hours during the next scheduling cycle so I have some time and energy left for working on the house.

Two dates

Finally, our lawyer's office called around and made it "official" with everyone that yes, we really are having our closing on January 2, 2007! We knew that my lawyer was planning on that day, I'm just glad he's told everyone else!

AND the plumber called back last night - turns out his slow response was due to an epidemic of people with no heat in the area to the South of Ithaca, yikes! - and he starts on January 4th and expects it should only take him until January 5th to complete it unless things are much uglier than they appear. That means it'll be set for cleaning and maybe even primary demo of the livingroom walls by the weekend! Hurrah!

Another minor happy note: the lender said no one is going to come check up on us to make sure we live there 30 days after the closing, so if we want to put the finishing touches on before we move in and take longer, it's not a problem.

I am trying to keep myself busy with my H&R Block tax prep training (I'm a seasonal preparer this year), sewing, and getting the last of the Xmas shopping done so I can start wrapping. I think if I'd done this during any other time of year, I might have lost my mind!

Quick, quick, slooow, quick, quick, slooow

Ever taken a dance class and they count out the footsteps? I believe it was basic salsa steps I learned that had that rhythm. Unfortunately, homebuying feels nothing like having fun to salsa music, but it does seem to have the same beat! One moment (or day or two) I call the various people and they've got new information and it feels like things are moving so quickly. The next, I can't get my lawyers office to give a clear answer and I've left two messages with the plumber to no response.

I'm practically itching with impatience, not helped by the fact that this is a very slow time of year for my office and I don't have alot to fill my work days. I want to roughly plan the repairs and everything but basic cleaning hangs on when the plumber can get his part of the job finished. So no planning, and I don't want to get too deep into looking at colors and whatnot for the walls of the house since I'd have to bug my realtor to let me in - but since I can't paint until after plumbing and drywall are done, it'd be more than a little ahead of myself to try to pick out paint colors.

3 weeks from now, to the day, we'll be closing on the house and at very least then I can transfer the full effect of my nervous energy to fixing up a home we actually own! But for now, I think I'll harass my lawyer's office again to see if they made our January 2nd closing date "official" to the right people, since they've already agreed to it with us.

Clear, schmear - there is always something!

I guess I shouldn't talk about things being done and not having much to do until we actually hit the closing day and just have to sign papers until our fingers fall off. Information we were not made clear to us up until this point was that we need to take residence of the property within 60 days of the closing. Not that this is an awful thing, we can make it, but we were hoping to go at a more leisurely pace and live in our apt until close to April. So we need to make sure we can get the plumber to work ASAP after closing so we can spend long hours doing drywall before we have the carpeters come around. We probably could work long hours before the plumbing was done, but I don't think our bladders would thank us! Hopefully we are able to do shorter spurts of cleaning/prepping before the plumbing is fixed, like scrubbing down the mildew on surfaces and getting rid of the random garbage left behind. Heck, I'm so geared up about having our own house (and bugged by it's current dirty state) that I might do some cleaning the afternoon of the closing!

My current guesstimate at how things will go:

• Plumbing repairs
• Cleaning
  
• Drywall work
• Replacement patio door
• New carpet/new moulding
  
• New appliance delivery
• Finishing touches before move in
  

Almost in the clear

It's a month to the day before our closing and we've got very little left to do or have done. The lender called to let us know that we'll be receiving our committment letter on Monday because our loan is approved. The attorney's office let us know that our title search is done and totally clear and they are in the process of writing up the title insurance we need. (Every closing includes title insurance for the lender, but with a foreclosure you need title insurance for the buyer as well.) Probably we could close before Xmas at this point, but for tax purposes it's actually more beneficial for us to wait until the new year.

31 days.. an eternity and a split second all at once!