I can't believe it

It's finally officially, official...We're livin' the American dream, we're the official owners of a 30 year mortgage!

Up next...Painting Time and then...Moving DAY!!!

sad, i didn't touch him.

It happened on Friday night at 9:18 pm. Obama visited me downtown, along with over 10,000 other Oregonians, but who cares right? I have to admit, regardless of if you agree with Obama's politics or not, he is an amazing speaker, a charismatic and genuine sounding man, and even if he can't fulfill ALL of his promises, I at least think that he'll attempt to.



He convinced me with his speech on Race in our country and his live speech on friday that he's the best option for our country right now. He's not perfect, I'm not crazy, of course I know that! And some may think he's just the lesser of two evils, but heck, if that's what you think than that means a vote for him right?



It was amazing to be in the same room as this man, it was a moment in history that I'm happy is my memory to keep.

Change

Barack Obama is arriving in our town at 9:00 PM tonight. I'm going to try to touch him on the person...either that or...perhaps take his picture. Yeah. Either one. We'll see.

kicker money comes in handy

Thank you to the federal government for buying us a few new things for our new house. It was worth the 40 million spent on informing us of the kicker checks, cause then we knew what we could expect...



This my friends is the front loading, high efficient, gas heat & water heater washer and dryer that the government just bought me. It is a much larger capacity, quieter, did I mention higher efficiency? unit than the old unit in the house, and in every way, well...better. I can't wait to do laundry.



That's right it's a "reel" mower. The kind that takes real man-power, and the very kind that doesn't kill the planet as you beautify your yard. This mower's blades spin at 4 times the rate of the wheels spinning, it's amazing. So, if any of you have a great, burning desire to check out the mower in action, we'll be doing yard work every weekend...you're invited.

long awaited view

house photos

A slideshow tour of the little house that we'll call home. Click on the image above dear friends and pretend there's a bbq happening outside for you to attend at the end.

a small message.

The inlaws were here, as I mentioned, for a whirlwind visit that included touring the house (technically that didn't take very long), shopping (with no sales tax for them), a drive to Portland and back, gin and vodka martinis (ted makes them amazing) and Ikea.

I'd like to give you all a little tour of the house...here's a few photos of the outside, look for interior pictures tomorrow.

I'm actually getting tired and think I'm going to bed.

Thank you to my amazing inlaws. You have blessed us over and over again. Saying thank you a million times will never be enough.

i wish I could think of a clever title.

The dad and the mom, of the inlaw variety, have arrived.
Late. Last night. We all went to bed around 2 something. It's gunna be a long day...but I can't wait! We're checking out the house this afternoon, my camera battery is charged, the memory card is empty and the camera's already in my bag...the long awaited photos will arrive soon.

We both took a long awaited day off yesterday, cleaned the house, collected boxes, looked at a couch we found on craig's list and spent time trying to kill time as our apartment was being show to a prospective tenant.

I don't think anything was stolen. But I can't be totally sure just yet.

The photo journal begins.

To Josh

Right back atcha, from both of us.

And your profanity was highly...irregular? no that's not it. Repetitive? well, one could argue, yes. But what's the word I'm looking for? It was...nostalgic, sad even. We miss you, you bastard.

And also, no more complaining about not being in the side bar, you're now top notch. Twice.

And no I didn't include Road Trip 08 in "places I go", technically cause I don't go there anymore as the road trip is over and also because I thought it was better suited where I put it. It's in the photographer and informative blog section of the side bar, "people to see."


So stop your crying. And...you got a whole blog dedicated to you and only you so you'll always have that.

It's Official!

Title edit: It's practically Official, but let's face it, it IS official and now all we do is pack and wait.


We heard back today from our Realtor, the seller's accepted our proposed repairs and they'll be fixing the electrical and the sub-pump within the next 10 days...

We'll sign papers on March 24th or 25th, and we'll get the keys on Friday March 28th!

Mark your calendars! If you're in town, you like the webers, and you want to help them move or clean then do it!

The proposed schedule follows:

Sat March 29th 10:30am - Arrive at the apartment to help move boxes and furniture into the rental truck

- OR -

Sat March 29th 10:30am - Arrive at the new house to help do a quick cleaning of the floors, cabinets, kitchen and bathroom.

Then...

11:30am unload at the house or begin helping clean the apartment

After helping... - As our thank you, join us for the first official new house BBQ!

Time: TBA/1:30ish Location: the New Weber House!

Let us know if you're interested. We'd adore any help!

waiting for an answer

I don't know if the feeling I'm having is excitement and hope or despair and sadness.

On Thursday we had the house inspection. It was all pretty good. There were the couple of things we were going to ask for them to fix before making the deal final, but we didn't think they were big deal things, just things they should fix.

Here's the quick inspection rundown.

All Good Things:
Foundation
Structure
No Dry Rot
New Steel Doors
Updated Kitchen
Updated Bathroom
On demand hot water heater (gas)
Pipes -inside and out

Things that aren't major but we'll have to fix eventually:
Roof has 3-5 years left on it
Garage is solid (detached garage mind you), it's a good structure, but shouldn't be improved, it should be torn down and rebuilt (there's some beginning dry rot and the roof is a bit sloped because of the foundation settling)
A couple of tiles on the house will need to be replaced.
One window has a major break through one of the two panes. All the windows are a bit odd and seals are breaking, we'll have to replace them all anyways before the Fall.


Now, all in all this house is in fantastic shape, and what would owning your own home be without a few projects? But, there are a couple of things that our Realtor says are deal breakers. So here's what we're asking for:

There are many electrical outlets, wires, and covers that need to be properly "finished". It seems that when they did all of the kitchen and house updating they did a lot of it themselves and didn't really "complete the finishing touches" like an Electrition would. We're asking for them to do this, right now there's one exposed "hot" wire that could be a potential fire risk, and the other things could one day be an issue if they aren't fixed.

The second thing we're asking for is for them to put in a sub pump under the house. There's a bunch of standing water and mushy ground under the house. The water has not touched the wood foundation ever - yet - but living in a valley, in Oregon, where the rain just keeps coming, well, there need to be a pump to get the water out when it comes in so it never, never touches the wood foundation. Our Realtor doesn't know why this wasn't done years ago, most houses in this area already have pumps installed.


I don't know what they'll say. We're not asking for everything, there's so many more little things that came back from the inspection that we aren't asking for them to do. But they're already giving us a good "deal" on things, I just hope they take care of these two pressing issues and then we can buy the house for reals, and move in....

Thanks for listening. Sometimes the waiting is agony and then the fear creeps in. I'm trying not to be pessimistic and think that they'll say, "no" but it's so tough to stay positive, cause people are strange and you never know what they're going to end up doing.

Stay tuned for the next episode in the exciting adventure of the Weber Home...