Thursday, August 26, 2010

It's been a long time

OK, a very long time. More than a year actually. I can't promise I'll start updating regularly again. But here's an update on my life:

  • We eventually succeeded in selling the house. Received an offer in Nov 2009 and after much delay finally closed in Feb 2010. We had to drop the price substantially and took a bit of a loss, but at least we got rid of it.
  • When we moved out of the house, we packed most of our stuff up in a PODS unit to be stored in Schenectady. I moved into my parent's new place in Utica with our clothes, computer gear, toiletries, and a few miscilani that hadn't fit in the unit. We actually moved out nearly a month before closing was finalized, so I had to deal with that from Utica, alone, because...
  • Billy immediately went off to work in Brazil and Russia on back to back trips. We're talking like a day a home in between to repack. While in Brazil his backpack with his laptop, backup drive, camera, calculator, passport and lots of other important stuff got stolen. Due to some very suspicious circumstances, his business card collection and passport were recovered, but not before he'd reported the passport stolen to the consulate. The good news was that the Russian visa it contains was still valid, but the passport could no longer be used to the enter the US. As a result, in addition to replacing all his "stuff" Billy now has 4 passports: The original 10-yr, a 10-yr duplicate (now invalidated as stolen, but containing important visas), a temporary passport (now expired, but also containing a still-valid visa), and a replacement 2-yr duplicate. It will be about a year before he can go back to carrying just 2.
  • I got to go back to Porto Seguro with Billy for a relatively short trip (<2 months). It was really nice to be "home". And it's not the beach that I miss... it's having people everywhere we go recognize us! When Billy's there w/o me, people even ask where I am. That sure never happened in Glens Falls.
  • Now that the house was sold and we could be in the U.S. together for a couple months, Billy and I went on a big house-hunting road trip. After much debate, we decided our best bets were to move to the Charlotte or Nashville area. Access to airports, weather, and availability of someone to watch our house/check our mail when we're away were the major factors.
  • We checked out the area where our friend lives north of Charlotte and it was way too suburban for me. Really nice area, but not walkable, and that's really important to me. We cut our visit there short (no sense falling in love with the inside of townhouses when I don't like the neighborhood) and headed to Georgia for Billy to have a business meeting. Fun guy there will likely be sending some work our way in the future.
  • After 1 night in Georgia, headed to the ATL airport so we could test out the drive from there to Nashville. Met up with a friend who lives in Atlanta for lunch on the way. It's not a bad drive. No worse than our JFK-Glens Falls commute. It's good to have the option to skip the connecting leg on international flights. Especially on the way out (less risk of lost luggage).
  • Stayed with Billy's cousins in Nashville while we went house-hunting. Hooked up with their friend to be our realtor. We drove around a lot ruling out options based on location. We only went into 4 townhouses. We found the perfect place just above our price-range search and finagled a bit more down payment to make it work. Just outside downtown and only a couple blocks from the farmers market with a 2-car garage and rooftop patio. What more could we ask for? We did the inspection and met with some painters before we left town.
  • Financing turned out to be a huge pain. Mortgage companies would even look at Billy's income because he went contractor this year. In the end, we were forced to cosign with Billy's dad (my parents had just bought a house and therefore could help). But we got a 5 year ARM at 3.75% which is amazing. At the end of the 5 years we'll plan to refinance his dad out of the loan, assuming the rate for a refi would be better than just letting the one we have adjust.
  • We put the offer in on the house near the end of April. The rains that caused Nashville to flood arrived the day we left town. Luckily, the water didn't reach our house (within 1 block on 3 sides). The fact that we're slightly uphill from the surrounding area is barely noticeable, but made all the difference. But the mortgage underwriter's house was underwater and so our application got sent to corporate to process. That mean delaying closing by a few weeks.
  • Billy's brothers flew up to help us move down. I packed up what we had at my parents, which they put in a huge Enterprise truck, drove to Schenectady to pick up the stuff from our PODS unit, then drove it down to Alabama to stay at his parents until closing. Then Billy went off to Switzerland for a training course.
  • When we finally closed, I flew down to Huntsville, meeting up with Billy in ATL on his way back from europe. Then we drove up to sign the papers and move in.
  • The 3 boys did most of the unpacking (I supervised in the 90+ degree weather) and it took all afternoon. Considering the size of the truck and the fact that our new place is 3 stories, they made really good time. Then they all left and I spent my first night in my new house alone. Billy had left so he could return the next day with his motorcycle.
  • The first couple weeks were full of painting (a serious ordeal as the colors I picked are a bit extreme and weren't cooperating) and installations (cable, security system, etc.). We were also forced to get a new dishwasher shortly after moving in because the old one hadn't been installed properly (it was GLUED to the granite countertop, not actually mounted to anything). Stupid thing started tipping forward whenever you pulled the drawers out after the first couple uses. The microwave also has issues, but we're putting off replacing that as long as possible.
  • With the house painted and our stuff in, it was time to get this house put together. We bought nearly all new furniture. The only things we'd kept were our living room set (sofa, chaise, TV and console purchased just before receiving the offer on our old place) and the guest bed. Shopping has been fun, but expensive. And we've made a few poor choices. The master bedroom color isn't working out very well, and the master bed we picked is so large there's no room for dressers. We've ended up with an enormous, but shallow, wardrobe from Ikea to solve that issue.
  • In mid-June, Billy left on another trip to Brazil while I continued to work on the house. At the end of June I flew out to San Francisco for my brother's wedding and finally got to meet my colleagues at oDesk. It was a little odd because my visit to the office was also my boss's last day. My job has been a bit up in the air ever since - I'm reporting to different people on different things and it's all rather awkward. Billy flew out and met us there for the wedding. Then we spent a long weekend in SanFran being tourists.
  • We flew from SanFran to Buffalo instead of heading right back to Nashville. We had another wedding in Chautauqua the following weekend. In between, we swung by Rochester for a quick visit. We had a nice little MacRIT reunion at BWW and got to stay at my friend Brad's new house. We'd been each other to closing (he won, but only because of the floods). Down in Chautauqua we got to stay with friends of my family from Wilson who'd also been at my brother's wedding (parents of one of his best friends). They have the cutest little lake cottage and the day after the wedding we spent the day riding around on their boat before driving up to Buffalo to spend the night and catch a 6am flight.
  • From Buffalo we flew to ATL, took a taxi to an Enterprise truck place, then spent a very long day at Ikea. We got our wardrobe, bookshelves for the guest room, a whole set of dishes, and a variety of other small stuff. Sadly, we failed to get me a cute little desk because they were out of stock. It was very late by the time we arrived back in Nashville and unpacked.
  • Again, Billy only got to spend a few days at home before hitting the road. This time he was flying to London to drive the Mongol Rally - a road trip from England to Mongolia as part of a 3-person team in a Citroen Saxo. We got the wardrobe assembled before he left, but it still doesn't have doors hung on it.
  • A few days after Billy left, my mom came down for a visit. She helped me unpack a lot of the remaining boxes, build the bookshelves, and shop for additional furniture. I totally blame her for my purchase of a bunch of patio furniture for our roof. It was on sale for a really good price at world market, but that was so not on my list!
  • She stayed a week, then I was here myself for a couple weeks before flying up to see her again at the beginning of August. In between I discovered a friend from college lives in the area. Her husband's shipped out in the military, so it's nice to have someone around who doesn't act like I'm crazy for having my husband gone for a few months. I went up north again so we could drive to grandma's and go to a family reunion. This is an annual event, but I've only been to it once before, my mother twice before, and my grandmother never. For some reason my grandfather always refused to go. It was fun and I found I have a second cousin who spells Jacqui the same way I do. A weekend at grandma's then a few more days working from my parents house followed. I stayed a week because that's the way the flights were cheapest.
  • Been home since then, and still shopping and organizing like mad. All the boxes are unpacked now, though there's still a pile of empty cardboard in my dining room that hasn't made it to the dumpster yet. The addition of a coffee table in the living room makes it feel like the house is really getting put together. A couple side-tables still need to be purchased, but most of the spending spree is complete. And tomorrow a big day of cleaning lays ahead - time to put away the stuff still sitting around and vacuum/mop/etc. the whole place. It's about time this place got presentable so I can invite over all the new people I've been meeting!

  © Blogger template 'Minimalist F' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP