Hello to all 3 of you that read this post, if you don't already know by now, Cari and I have taken yet another big step and purchased a house in Napa. Saving up the $1.3 Million to purchase our 1941, 2 bedroom, 1 bath house was no small chore. Working dilligently and tirelessly, we sold girl scout cookies (fraudulenty of course, but I must admit wearing the girl scout outfit just felt "right"), David Hasslehoff calendars, mistletoe in July, blood and whatever wasn't bolted down, we were able to come up with .001% of the down payment. As Cari's dad in Michigan commented-"It's not so much that you are buying a house, it is more like you are buying a payment". Oh well, do what you must and it is done.
We moved out of our rental (a whole story unto itself-suffice it to say a bad one and a bummer for friendships lost) in between working 50+ hours a week and going through an accelerated 15 day escrow in order to close early to appease the owner. Did I ever mention how much fun moving is? Thank god I have a Zen-like control over my attitude or things could have gotten ugly.
Anyway, we have been working non-stop for pretty much the past month with move-out and move-in. Move in includes re-painting every room and ceiling in the house (even though they were just recently done by the previous owner-we jumped at the opportunity to FINALLY add color to the walls and our environment), installing ceiling fans in all rooms, re-tiling the bathroom floor (again, it was just recently done, but we wanted our "own" look, organizing (step 1 of 10) the garage, landscape maintenance in the large backyard (our house is like 800 square feet, the lot is 5500 square feet), and tearing down and building a new aluminum shed. So much thanks has to go to our family members, especially my Dad and my brother and his wife—without whom practically NONE of this would have been able to happen. It truly shows community and family and we can not say thank you enough.
I will post pics in a few days, both before and after, so hang tight.
