Signed, Sealed, Delivered...

...and it's finally mine! Whew, 63 days of escrow. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? So, things didn't go as smoothly as I initially thought they were. Delays turned into more delays until I almost thought they were going to turn around and tell me that they didn't want to sell me the house anymore. Last Thursday I signed all of the escrow documents thinking that I would have the house over the weekend. Wrong! The loan didn't post until yesterday and the title finally got transferred today. No matter, the house is mine and no one can take it away...unless I default on my loan, but let's all hope that doesn't happen.

Now I can release and finally breathe. The last 2 months have been so stressfull waiting for word on progress, of which there never seemed to be any. I did manage to get quotes for refinishing floors, retexturing the living room walls and to get my cable hooked up, all while not even owning the home. I also met many of the many nice neighbors.

Today, a nice guy by the name of Dwayne (and his friend Leonard) came and knocked down all of the texture in the living room and replaced it with brand new, beautifully textured plaster. All for the affordable price of $1900. Monday, the guy I hired to refinish the hardwood floors (Danny) comes in swallows another $1800. There goes almost 4 months of rent in my condo...and I wanted my own house why? Because I love it and it's beautiful!! :)

This weekend all of my bestest friends/day laborers will be helping me paint. I'm sure there will be a lot of loud music and dancing, but hopefully some painting will get done too.

Before I sign-off, I want to congratulate Emily and Derek on their new addition, Penelope Q-bert Guist. She's beautiful and finally gave Emily what she's been looking for for the past 3 years...a full time job... :)

On The 8th Day of Escrow...

...Everything is going smoothly; I've completed inspections, secured a loan (30 yr fixed), and the appraisal is completed. Now all I have to do is wait... I'm scheduled to close escrow on Jan. 5, but I've been told that since I'm dealing with a bank owned property that I can expect that there will be delays. Luckily, I'm locked in for 45 days so I should be good. In the meantime, I've been asked by my many adoring fans to supply more pictures...so I shall. It took me a while to get ones that I felt show the house as I see it. There are some photos out there from when the house was listed in 2007, but they show a house furnished with someone elses furniture. I have my own plans so I don't want you all to see those.

The first 2 photos below are of the living room. Some of the things that I really like about this room are the barrel ceiling, the large east and south facing windows and the fireplace. Also, the room is big (for a small house). Typically, in these small bungalow style homes, the main living space is divided into 2 smaller rooms, a living room and dining room. Since I don't plan on having too many occasions that require a dining table, I don't want to have a dining room. The fireplace you'll also notice has tiles around it. They are known as Batchelder tiles that were commonly used in houses built in the 20's in California for Mission and Arts & Craft style homes. They are somewhat rare in that during the middle part of the century they fell out of favor and were either removed or painted over. I've heard that some tiles can be worth hundreds of dollars each (not that I plan on selling them).

The next picture is the kitchen. In the picture you can't see the other side (off to the left) where there are more cabinets and a refrigerator nor the eating area (nook) which is from approximately where the photo is being taken . It's small, but should do fine for a bachelor that cooks only once and a while. Obviously the countertops need to be replaced, but I'm not sure if I want to remodel the whole kitchen or strip and repaint the original cabinets. Only time will tell or money will dictate...

The last 2 pictures are of the bedrooms. The first is the master bedroom (from where I will be ruling my domain). The window you see is the one adjacent to the front door. It won't be hard to wake me up if I don't hear the doorbell... :) The other bedroom I'm going to set-up as a guest room/office/staging area. And yes I will be repainting all of the rooms and having all of the wood floors refinished.

I don't have a decent picture of the bathroom, but trust me when I say it needs work. It has pink tiles (why?!) and pink, faux finished walls (again, why?!!). There's not much I can do about the tiles, but I will be repainting to try to de-emphasize the pinkness. The toilet, sink and shower work, so I guess I can't complain too much...

As for the backyard, it looks like this (minus the patio furniture):

Those who know me know that they needn't worry. Landscaping is what I enjoy the most and do the best. I will finally get to do something with all of this green energy!

Kansas St., San Diego, CA 92116

As I promised, I'm updating to let you know that it is now certain that I'm a future home owner. Today I spent the afternoon observing as an inspector searched my soon to be home to make sure that it won't collapse the moment I move in. And though it's in good shape, it's not perfect...but what would you expect from a house built in 1924. What it lacks in newness it makes up 100 fold in charm. It's a Spanish style home in the San Diego neighborhood known as Normal Heights, although I would say it looks more like the Adobe style homes that I saw in New Mexico. It's just a few blocks from everything that I could ever need, restuarants, markets, bars and churches...:) I have lofty plans for this house including re-landscaping, re-wiring and re-plumbing. It won't be easy, but that's what owning a home is about...I can't wait to own the results of all my hard work!