Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2004
Moving

Exciting news! We sold our condo for asking price, and they're not even going to do an inspection. We found a house in Blaine that we like, made an offer and they accepted it. We had a few changes due to the inspection, and they've agreed to either fix the things we wanted fixed, or take a specific dollar amount off the price of the house in exchange. We've been signing papers everyday. I think it's all finalized now. But, we drove by the house over lunch today and the For Sale sign is still up without a SOLD attached to it. I'm sure it's all done - realtors just take forever to get things done. Our condo is still upont on the Edina Realty site and it sold almost 2 weeks ago!

We timed the trip back to the office and it's 15 minutes and 7.8 miles - not too shabby. We can take the freeway during off-peak times and it will take less than 10 minutes. The 15 minute route was all back roads on a 30 mile per hour street. It's nice to have options.

The house is very cute. We decided after looking at a lot of older ones in the area we currently live, that we tend to prefer the newer layouts - more light, more openness, and more closet space. So, this one was built in 1998 - the current owners built it. It's got 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms, a living room, a family room, and a kitchen with a nice eat-in section. The kitchen is open to the living room, which we LOVE - I'm so used to being in the same room as Pete and Lucy when I cook. And with as much time as I tend to be spending in there lately, I couldn't bear the thought of being closed off in a room away from everybody whenever I wanted to cook something.

It's got extra large windows throughout, and custom oak cabinetry in the kitchen. It's got beautiful oak hardwood floors on the upper level (it's a split), and decent neutral sculpted carpet on the lower. It's got two fireplaces, both of which are gas. That bummed me out a little bit. I would've preferred one gas and one wood-buring, but what'r'ya'gonna'do? It's a newer development where the houses don't look all cookie-cutterish. I'm glad about that. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part...it's got TONS of mature trees on the lot!

The current owners must've either been totally broke after they built the place, or prefer to keep things very simplistic, because they've basically done NO decorating whatsoever. Very nice for me. I'm moving into a clean slate, ready to be transformed. There are no window treatments, except some nice wide blinds, all the walls are off white. The woodwork is untouched. They didn't even put any kind of hardware in the bathrooms. I honestly don't know where they've been hanging their towels for the last 6 years. My only complaint is that the counter tops in both the bathrooms are green. I'm terribly sick of green. Our entire condo is green, so I don't like being limited like that. But, they're a nice sage green, and I can mix other colors with that, fortunately.

The really fun thing about this house, is that I played a big hand in getting it. We had already made offers on two different houses and lost them due to other offers. Well, this time I took my sister-in-law's advice and wrote a letter to the owner, telling her why we loved the house and how much we'd love to see our little girl grow up there. Apparently, they had another offer come in the same day, and they had met the other couple. So, they would've gone with them except my letter swayed her. She's selling the house because she's a single mother of a grown son and she's gone back to school. She was heartbroken to have to downsize, and truly loves this house. She felt that I would really appreciate and care for the house the way she has. I'm so glad my sis gave me that advice - I never would've thought of it on my own!

So, now we have the exciting task of shopping for furniture and deciding which colors to paint rooms. I already have a lot of ideas. But, we don't move until May 1st - so we have time. I'm mostly excited to finally give Lucy her own room... complete with a theme!! I'm thinking periwinkle with yellow moons and stars. Of course, there's always butterflies... or possibly an under-the-sea theme.... Oh the possibilities!!

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