The Homeownership Continues: our little house with pictures!

Our kitchen!

THE GOOD NEWS

Well, we appear to still be signing things for the new house all the time, and we are waiting on some lawyer documents that I do not understand--thank god for Brian--but I think we can now safely say that we've bought a house. The inspection went pretty well, no doubt because we spent a little extra to get a well-reputed company to do it; they did find some minor things, like a missing hand rail to the basement, and a blocked laundry vent that needs vacuuming. 

THE NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS

They also found a leak in the bathtub drain that is apparently easy to fix. For those of you who recall our old apartment (the one we fled because the bathroom floor had melted under the tiles into a muddy cesspool of black mould), you can imagine the chill that went down my spine upon hearing this news. But we negotiated for repair fees, and all the men (Dad, Inspector, Brian) are in agreement that it's a quick fix, and no mould has begun. Hmm. I'll believe it when I see it fixed, properly, and after I buy my own mould detector. 

Mom inadvertently freaked me out his week by asking me if I was really confident in the inspector; in fact, her exact words were, 'Did he seem professional to you? Did you trust his skills?' Which are good questions to ask, of course, except that she had recommended the inspector, so I have no idea why she would ask me such a thing.

LEARNING TO LET GO

This entire experience has been a lesson in leaning on others. As I'd only joined in with Brian's house hunting a couple weeks ago, I didn't have the time to learn a whole lot about the house buying realm. Consequently, I am grateful that Brian has learned so much, and that my mother is a trained former mortgage broker. Still, it's a bit weird to turn on my internal elevator music and leave my financial wellbeing in the hands of others, no matter how close they are to me. There's strangers involved, too, of course: a mortgage broker, a realtor, a bank giving us this giant loan, an inspector, and a coven of strangers in the form of a condo association. 

I’m actually getting excited now about the whole house thing. I’m excited to be able to leave my windows open without being repeatedly wakened by the sound of 18-wheelers going down the highway. I am so eager to set up my new (smaller but nicer) art/writing/office room, and to have Brian set up in an office of his own so that his myriad school and business papers don’t keep getting left around the house; I’m starting to feel like I live with a humanoid magpie who’s trying to build a nest out of all these papers by plastering every surface of the house with them.

But if someone else wants to PACK for me, be my guest.

Okay, without further ado, here are a few photos to start!