Live from Rickety Central

Image by: kfury

Since our move I hardly think about the old house anymore. I really didn't expect to let go of the idea of 'home' so quickly, but I guess I'm adapting to change more readily than I expected. 'Home' has been replaced by a 60 year old house much closer to work.

Sure, it creaks, it gets bone-chilling cold at night and it's got its share of other problems, but it's really not a bad deal. We're a 5 minute walk from a park (perfect for the plutinator), 10 minutes from work (lunch and sportscenter... yes, please), and much closer to everything and everyone we frequent.

I thought Pluto may have been adversely affected by the move, but he may not have even noticed that we moved. He gets his bones, his treats before he goes to bed, and has grass to subject to his death-stink poo. He even found a mud pit to replace the one at the old house (thank heavens). The main difference here is the abundance of squirrels and other tiny wildlife. Squirrels taunt pluto in the back yard, and a gang of little birds flies from bush to bush along the back fence as pluto runs from one to the other, then freezes to try to figure them out. He's a happy pup.

One contributing factor to the dog's happiness may be the schedule Katie and I got together and drew up this past weekend. We decided to try to come up with a schedule to keep us (me) motivated to get things done when we get home. So we've got a walk for pluto in there (thus the happier dog) and time for cleaning tasks, time for dinner, etc.

Thus far it's been pretty effective. The main problem leading to our lack of motivation was the TV. We would sit down with/after dinner and just bum in front of the TV... most of the time because we're drained after work. Now, I get home, feed the dog, play a little fetch with him, squeeze a poo out of him, then hit the neighborhood looking for squirrels and children to harass (he views both as toys, I'm convinced). I feel better after getting out and getting some exercise (though my arms and hands are sore from choking pluto for 20 minutes).

Now that I'm thinking about it, the schedule itself may not be as important as just turning the dern TV off, but it feels good to add a little self imposed structure to our lives again. We haven't stuck to the schedule with a catholic school nun-like discipline, but it's been an effective guide to keep things from getting out of hand in the new house.

Well, I'm off to go make myself useful somewhere else. The dog won't beat himself, you know.

The move of moves

Katie and I are moving this weekend. By the power of grayskull, we managed to close on our new house today at 3:30 (no thanks to our local countrywide) which means we're finally moving... two months or so after the initial bug to move bit us (and by us I mean Katie).

I have to be honest, I really hope that I get more excited about the move. We're moving from a one year old, small, energy efficient house to a 60 year old, drafty home with one less bathroom, which also needs some serious updating to accomodate our lifestyle and to fix the messes (cheap shortcuts) created by the person who flipped the house before the seller we bought from today.

I like the house. I'm excited about the short drive to work and the proximity to town and even happier that Katie's happy with the house. It's just that the closer we've gotten to closing on this house, the more things we've found to be a problem or under estimated. For instance, our closing was almost delayed due to our lender, our closing costs were under estimated by $3000 and our monthly payment is a full $150 over what we were told at first as well. It's just hard to be excited about turns of events like these.

I was ok with the house until things got closer... and more hectic. I even stayed optimistic about the deal when I thought we'd have an extra $3k. Having a mortgage company snatch that from your account (and breaking the news a mere hour before closing, no less) managed to break my spirits and dash any hopes of optimism I had for the house. Now I just hope I can keep my bad mood to myself and not ruin the house for Katie.

Things will probably settle down, the shock of being robbed by our lender will fade and I'll grow to like the house and the area... at least I hope so... because otherwise, I'll be forced to go back to another lender yet again and start the process all over again.