lewis and clark had a journal. you, beth-annie, have a diary.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Houses.

We had our current house's appraisal today, which should be the last step in that whole process before closing. We have our new house's inspection tomorrow, and I will hopefully be able to snap some additional pictures of the house then. We also finalized our closing date on both houses, which unfortunately couldn't be quite as early as we were hoping (the bank's decision), but is at least earlier than we had originally planned on (which was March 31). We're closing on both houses on Monday, March 24 (one morning and one afternoon), and we'll be pre-signing the papers for this house so we don't actually have to be here. Unfortunately that leaves us with pretty much only one option for having the movers load our stuff, which is on Saturday, March 22 (a.k.a. the day before Easter -- less than ideal, but that seems to be what we're stuck with). We'll then hopefully be able to be in Ames for Saturday night and Easter morning, close on the new house Monday and then have our stuff delivered either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what the movers can do.

Josh starts work March 10, so we'll have about two weeks in the temporary apartment. Both weekends of those we'll be coming back home, the first one because Josh plays bells one last time on Palm Sunday, and the second for the first half of our move. We're probably just going to have to put a hold on our mail during that time, picking it up on each weekend before it can actually be forwarded to our new address. So hopefully we won't get anything too urgent during that time.

Wow, it's starting to hit me just how little time we have left here.

And I swear I have some Ava walking and talking videos that we'll get uploaded sometime soon. No, really. :-)

beth, 4:07 PM || We are 6 comments. Read us!

Sunday, February 24, 2008
House-buying update (much of one).

We done boughten ourselves a house. I'm going to give a pretty abbreviated version of events here, because I'm just plain tired.

Last weekend we went to Ames with the intention of driving to Cedar Rapids Sunday morning and spending the day with our realtor looking at quite a few houses. Then there was a big old ice storm/blizzard Saturday night into Sunday and we were stuck there. We rescheduled things with our realtor for Monday and took a chance on the roads. They were actually pretty good for a while, but the closer we got to Cedar Rapids, the worse they got. And we're talking ICE here. On the interstate. We were completely stopped for a while, and moM (who was coming to Wisconsin with us for the week to help with some packing) counted 250 cars off the road between Ames and Cedar Rapids (on I-80 and I-380). (We did a little bit of slipping and sliding ourselves a couple of times when we dared go over 20 mph, so I'm not surprised at all that we counted that many.) We finally made it, albeit an hour later than we'd planned, even with leaving what we thought was plenty early.

After that day there were a few houses we felt we could be seriously interested in, so we planned another trip for this past Saturday to take a second look at them as well as see several more houses we hadn't yet seen, with the hope that this could maybe be our last house hunting trip. As it turned out, one of our favorites had just had an offer accepted that morning (when it had been on the market since October, go figure), and we didn't paticularly care for any of the new (as in new to us, not new new) houses we saw, but upon getting a second look at them still dug the other two houses we'd been seriously considering, so after weighing all the pros and cons decided to make an offer on one of them late in the day yesterday (allowing us to drive back home that night instead of having to stay until Sunday).

So... really long story short: 24 hours, four counter-offers and loads of stress later, we have a house! Two stories, in Marion (Linn-Mar School District), built in 1995, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, fireplace (I finally get a fireplace!), deck, fenced backyard (though no trees, so we'll have to plant some -- and then wait... and wait), a kitchen I'm in love with and don't even have to paint because it's already pretty, and space for our pool table. Oh, and all the appliances, which is good, because we kind of need all the appliances. (Anyone who'd like to see it, let me know in the comments and I can email you a link.)

We'll hopefully be closing on both houses and moving in mid-March, which would be great both because we could be moved before Easter (something we never would have thought could happen) and would only have about a week in the apartment in Cedar Rapids while all our stuff (and sidewalks that could get snowed on while we're gone and cause us fineage) is in Wisconsin.

Yes, that was abbreviated. Trust me.

beth, 10:56 PM || We are 9 comments. Read us!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
House-selling update (much of one).

We had a whopping two people come through our open house last Sunday. We were bummed. We heard that the few people who had seen our house (both at the open house and a couple of showings) had liked it but were either too early in their search to be serious or wanted a bigger kitchen. So we were surprised to get a call for a second showing yesterday for one of the people who'd come to the open house. And even more surprised when they decided to put in an offer. We counter-offered this morning and they accepted it this afternoon.

Huh? What just happened? We weren't supposed to be able to sell our house this fast. It was going to take months of stress and having to keep our house clean and... ah, screw it -- wahooooooo!!!! We sold our house! Assuming all goes well with the inspection (and, really, it should, seeing as this house is only three years old), then we should be good. And we should be able to actually put an offer in on a house to buy if we find one we know we want, which is a great freedom to have.

I'm just so relieved and grateful that we don't have to worry about this anymore. We did sacrifice a bit price-wise (it didn't help that there was a very similar house a couple blocks away with finished area in the basement -- something we don't have -- that had dropped their price below ours), but it was worth it to us to just get it sold.

So I'd say a trip to Iowa this weekend is in the cards. Ideally, we'd like to go to Ames, visit Lemstone one final time before it closes, get boxes if anyone has any for us, and leave Sunday morning for Cedar Rapids to go to some open houses and hopefully also some showings with a realtor if we can get some set up. We'll let y'all parental figures know when our plans are set in stone, but for now you can figure on us being there part of the time.

beth, 7:04 PM || We are 20 comments. Read us!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Iowa vs. Wisconsin: Difference #65

In the past day or so, we had both our first presidential candidate commercial and our first political phone call of the primary season.

josh, 9:39 AM || We are 10 comments. Read us!

Monday, February 11, 2008
House-buying update (though not much of one).

We've been looking on the internet at houses in the Cedar Rapids area, and we saved a list of about ten on realtor.com that we might be interested in. Since open houses aren't announced until late in the week, we didn't know until the last minute (when we found that several of them would be having open houses) that we would be taking a trip to Cedar Rapids this past weekend. (We had two showings and our own open house we needed to be out of the house for anyway, so it seemed like a good time to just plain not be around -- only have to clean up once that way, too. :-P)

We went to one open house on Saturday and seven on Sunday. There were actually FOUR additional ones we went to that turned out not to actually be open, which was a little irksome, especially when you drive a bit out of the way. (One had a "sale pending" sign on it that I'm guessing was a brand-new development, so that's understandable, but a realtor we talked to at one of the open open houses said that some people had decided at the last minute to cancel because of the snowstorm -- four days ago. Gee, thanks for wasting our time.) We found a few houses we could scratch off the list and a few that could be contenders if they're still around by the time we're actually ready to buy (it's amazing how sometimes houses that look nice on the internets aren't so impressive in person, and others look so much better in person than they photograph). We also learned that if you're going to houses and aren't working with a realtor yet, most realtors who get that information out of you will very much try to get you to work with them. Some are nice and friendly about it so that you'll actually consider them. Others may think they're being friendly, but actually come off as pushypushypushy and make you want to sneak out of the house quick before they try to talk to you again.

Ava did quite well with all the getting in and out and in and out of the car, especially since the temperature was below zero all day. She wasn't quite as thrilled with her sleeping situation Saturday night -- she really hates that pack 'n' play, and would cry whenever we put her in it (NOT an option in a hotel), so we had to wait until she was asleep before we laid her down. She was also kind of a fussy eater, which made it a little frustrating when we would pay for food for her at a restaurant and then she'd decide she didn't want to eat it (such is going to be life with a toddler, I'm afraid). And we took Ava to a real (read: not drive-in) movie for the first time Saturday night when we saw Enchanted (also the first time for her parents since she was a month old and her grandparents watched her for a few hours). Her favorite part was when the animated squirrel became the... um... computer animated squirrel. She squealed with delight at that part. Most of the rest she was eating Cheerios/falling asleep.

All told, we got a bit of a head start on the house hunting thing (especially if we happen to sell our house sooner rather than later) and got a better feel for the area as a whole. And got out of our house so a whopping four people could come see it and not be particularly interested.

beth, 11:27 PM || We are 5 comments. Read us!

Friday, February 8, 2008
House-selling update (though not much of one).

The weather's been killing us. Our first showing, scheduled for this past Monday, was cancelled due to weather. I got a call rescheduling it for Wednesday at 5:45. Wednesday we had that huge snowstorm (I'm guessing we got about 10-12 inches, and lots of wind), which cancelled our professional picture-taking appointment for that day. We fully expected the 5:45 showing to be cancelled as well, but never got a call, so we left to go out to dinner -- only to find out that the places to eat in Belleville were closed. So we drove about 12 miles up to Verona. It had stopped snowing for the most part, but the plows hadn't caught up yet, so the roads were a bit dicey (thankfully they were much clearer on the way home). We got home and found no sign that anyone had in fact been there. We weren't surprised given the weather (our church had postponed Ash Wednesday service, afterall), but we were annoyed that no one had called us so we didn't have to leave.

After talking to our realtor the next day, we found out she had never had a showing scheduled for that day at 5:45 at all -- this despite the fact that I am 100% positive I got a call rescheduling it for exactly then (it wasn't from her, though -- someone else does all the scheduling for showings). Not only was it annoying that we had to venture out on the roads for no reason because of a miscommunication, but we've also now made our house Perfect-with-a-capital-P three times, all for naught. I mean, we're certainly keeping our house clean (much moreso than usual, that's for sure) at all times, but there's a difference between that and trying to leave the absolute best impression we possibly can to potential buyers. That includes things like stashing all of Ava's toys, her baby gate, and booster seat away, making our bed perfectly, making sure there's not a crumb on the counters or floor, wiping down all the sinks and faucets, even straightening the hand towels. It's downright aggravating to do all that stuff (plus most of the cancellations came late enough that we had even already turned on all the lights in the house) only to either have to undo them or have done them for nothing.

At any rate, we finally had the professional photos taken this morning and have a showing on Saturday and one on Sunday (the one we thought was going to happen Wednesday), and an open house also on Sunday. As far as weather goes this weekend, we have a small chance for a little snow, and it's supposed to get really cold, but neither of those things should really keep people away.

They'd better not. :-P

beth, 3:40 PM || We are 4 comments. Read us!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Today in Ava news.

Last night Ava took her first steps. She was just standing on her own like she does often now, and just out of the blue took five or six steps forward. We weren't prodding her or even paying any particular attention to her and so almost missed it (kind of like when she first crawled). That was all she did last night, though she did take another two steps this morning to bridge the gap between two things to hold onto. We're guessing she'll just gradually start doing it more, and once she actually realizes what she's doing (I don't think she really has yet) and that it's fun, she'll start doing it all the time. We haven't gotten anything on video yet, but we'll try when she does it again.

beth, 10:23 AM || We are 7 comments. Read us!