Fun and Frolic With Long-Term Love

So it begins. :)

Talking with the broker yesterday and getting all of our paperwork in order took about 45 minutes. She ran it all through her automated program and she said everything looked great. Actually, DarkKnight's mid mortgage credit score was 30 points higher than I had expected - even with the recent utilization hit. So that was surprising! She said we were qualified for WAY more than we need. I told her that there was no way we would use all that. :) She asked how much we were paying now for rent, and she said if we want to stay there, then to tell our realtor to keep our max at $250,000. I told her we were looking at houses under $130,000. lol She was really nice. We spent some time going over the 203k loan specifications, and apparently she does them a lot, so she was quite knowledgeable. If we just do a straight FHA loan though, and don't do a rehab, we qualify for a $5,000 first time homebuyer downpayment assistance loan. Basically, the state of Maryland gives us $5,000 with zero interest and zero payments. The only requirement is that when we pay off the mortgage, we pay back the $5,000. So that was interesting. Not sure if we will utilize that or not. Anyway, things went well. All in all, a very positive interaction, and we are officially pre-qualified and pre-approved.

So, we looked at 5 houses yesterday and none of them really worked for us.

The 1787 house seriously makes me want to cry when I think about it. It was absolutely PERFECT except that we could dump $100,000 into it, and we'd still be upgrading after. It needs SO much work guys! PunkRock was totally on board, but DarkKnight was the sole voice of reason, telling us we were nuts. Oh, but it's the sort of house where you SHOULD be nuts. Sigh. Every single room would need all of the plaster taken down and drywall put up, new electric, an entirely new kitchen and both bathrooms need to be gutted. Some of the bedrooms upstairs are just framed out. The person that owns it estimates it needs $80,000 to make it livable, but I think that is just the start. Honestly, it is WAY more space than we need. I still love it lots though. DarkKnight has sense however, so we are moving on.

Here is a photo, since we decided against it. :)

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The other house in a small town that we were thinking of putting a cat cafe in also needs a lot of work. The layout is strange, and we'd have to knock down some walls and expand the main bathroom a bit. We all liked it, but our realtor thinks we can do better at that price point. The three of us weren't falling over each other to buy it, so we're just going to keep it in our back pocket for now. We like it, but we're going to shop around a bit more before really considering it.

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I am going out with the realtor by myself today, as both guys are at work. I was a little apprehensive about doing that, but they both say they trust me to have good judgement about crossing things off the list. Our realtor scheduled 2 houses at the top of our price range, and 1 actually over our top price, but that would work if we financed at a 30 year mortgage instead of a 15. I am not enthusiastic about that. I mean, we could afford it at 15, but not at an amount I want to contemplate. The idea is that we are going to cut our expenses by half, and at this amount we're looking at only lowering our housing cost by $500. She says she wants us to see what we could get. I am wiling to do that, but I am not thinking like I will be swayed much. We're still at the point where we are feeling each other out though, so we will see. After I spoke with her, I messaged her 4 other houses that I want to look at. :)

All of them are in our current area. I think the guys and I are in agreement that we are going to look at the nearby stuff first, before expanding westward.

At some point this morning I am supposed to be having a conversation with someone over at Shepherd, since DarkKnight and I are helping to judge a Lego robotics competition tomorrow in West Virginia. I wish we hadn't agreed to do it, as it will eat our entire day. It'll be lots of fun, I am sure, but right now I would rather be out looking at houses. :)
 
I'd be sorely tempted with that 1700s house, too - LOOK AT THOSE WINDOWS!

Good luck to you all - I loved house hunting, but it was frustrating at times. What was a godsend was that Chops is a licensed electrician and when I narrowed it down to a few houses I wanted to put offers on, he took a look around too. I had to say no to one because it had the "state of the art" for 1950 low-voltage wiring ALL OVER the place, with central control units at the front of the house and in the bedrooms. Sounded great until -A- we saw the rats nest of wires in the main patch panel in the BEDROOM CLOSET, and -B- he noticed that the place only had a 50A stove, so the service would have to be upgraded, and OBTW, ripping out all that low-voltage wire to put actual switches and outlets in would require ripping out all the knotty pine paneling I fell in love with.

Nope.

So... if you have friends in the trades, it's worth having them come out and take a look with you when you think you've got it narrowed down. Might even be worth calling some up and offering to pay them for a recommendation if you DON'T know anyone. He saved my bacon, I think.
 
We will definitely be getting an inspection and going through a house thoroughly before closing on it. :) That said, we may have found one!

I went to four different houses with the realtor today, without either of my guys. The first two were easy peasy passes - the bedrooms were too small. The third was another great find, and I was jumping up and down at how amazeballs it was. It was built in 1980, and it had never been touched afterward. Seriously - everything was pristine - even the red carpets in the sunken living room. Don't believe me?

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The size of the rooms in this place was nutters. Just absolutely huge. We have an overly large master bedroom now, but this house had one almost twice the size. Anyway, I would have bought this house in a hot minute, except for the fact that it is downtown in my city, in an area that is known as being sketchy. And, while the realtor was having issues with the lockbox, I stood and watched no less than 3 cars slowly go down the street, stop a few houses down, and buy drugs. There were 8 or so people just sitting on a stoop, dealing. It was really sad. That said, when the cops did a drive down a few minutes later, not a person was to be seen. Yeah, I had to pass but it made me want to cry. Especially since the house had a two car garage with a huge vaulted loft that would have been insane as an artist's retreat for PunkRock.

So that was a bummer. Then, we went to a different part of town, and found the house I think we might put an offer on. It's a 1951 brick rancher. It's an estate sale, and it looks like everything is just cosmetic. It needs all new kitchen appliances. The carpets are gross, but there are supposedly hardwood floors under all of them. It has a gas fireplace. The basement is almost completely finished with a second kitchen that we would rip out, and a bedroom/full bath and living area that would be perfect for PunkRock. It has a sunporch for the cats, and 3 bedrooms on the main level that DarkKnight would take over 2 for his office and bedroom.

The door is still mid century modern, and someone has painted the kitchen cabinets a funky green, that I am really digging and might keep. Maybe a black and white checkered floor, stainless steel appliances with a white/gray stone countertop? White subway tile backsplash? I have already started a Pinterest board. :)

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Anyway, the realtor had to leave by 3, but I had a chance to measure the bedrooms after calling PunkRock to come and see - he had JUST gotten off of work. He loved it. I took DarkKnight back over to see the outside later, and he will be able to see the inside on Sunday, when we are all going to go take a second look again.
 
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I have so much to write about and I am too exhausted to get it all down, I am sure. Ugh!

Today DarkKnight and I drove to Shepherd University in West Virginia to act as judges for a Lego League Robotics competition. We had never done anything like this before, and it was EXTREMELY fun. The kids were 4th through 8th grade, and we were really impressed by their talent. They had to do SO much - they had to design and build a robot (and give a presentation about it to one set of judges) and then compete with all of the teams in a series of challenges with the robot. They were also ranked by another set of judges based on an animal ally project - problem solving an issue that animals and humans have when interacting. Then another set of judges scored them on how well they worked as a team during all of these things (core values).

DarkKnight was a Project judge, and I was a Core Values judge. In all honesty, I think that my job was harder! The teams would come into my room, and I had to tell them to put down their presentations and I hit them with a 5 minute TOP SECRET challenge, where they had to immediately build a specific thing out of Legos as a team. My fellow judge and I watched to see how they interacted. That was really fun. THEN we let them give us a 3 minute presentation on how well they work as a team, and how they show those values in their everyday life, and then we peppered them with questions for 2 minutes. Then I escorted them out, and the other judge and I have 5 minutes to rank and score them in 9 areas, and write constructive comments (at least 3 sentences per section) WHILE I was tearing down the Lego build and getting it set up for the next team. It was pretty crazy.

At lunch time, we then had to get with two other Core Values judges who had seen a different set of teams, and see how they all ranked on a leaderboard based on our scores, and see if we had any ties and resolve those. Then we had some time to go watch the kids run their robot challenges, and make any changes to their rankings based on new information. The kids didn't realize we were scoring them out in the wild. :) Thankfully, we didn't have too many surprises!

The rest of the afternoon was trying to figure out who won top awards in each category, and then counting points for those moving on to State later next month. This is super complicated, because even if the team won best robot design, if they didn't score high enough in the actual tournament, they couldn't move on. Which is actually what happened.

Anyway, it was fast paced and stressful, but super fun and so enjoyable to see the kids light up when they won something.

So that was my day.

The rest of tonight, I am on the couch and stressed out thinking about the upcoming week. Thank goodness we are having our big Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, because I need those two extra days! Seriously, my house looks like a bomb went off. It also smells like cat poop, which is something I can NEVER fucking stand.

Right now I have zero groceries in the house, and I have no grocery list. I have no list for Thanksgiving, so that is sort of a priority. I am hoping to make a list tomorrow morning with DarkKnight, and then shop in the evening. I have to clean out the fridge. That will have to be tomorrow morning as well.

Tomorrow at 1 pm we are going back to look at the house again. I am excited for DarkKnight to see it but I am also sort of scared that he will like it. That means we have to write an offer and could actually potentially buy the stupid thing. Which is scary! It wasn't supposed to happen so fast. What if we actually move here? lol The plan is to go check it out again tomorrow and make a firm decision. We are going to measure ALL of the rooms this time, and measure the appliances. I think we would end up moving the dishwasher over next to the sink, so we have to measure a space for that as well. Tomorrow night the guys and I want to to go look and actually price out the cost of getting these all replaced, because before we make an offer, we need to know how much this is going to cost us. And we will probably ask for some seller concessions to offset the cost of these. The other house related thing is that since we won't be going 203k with this loan, we are eligible (maybe) for the Maryland First Time Homebuyer Cash Assistance Payment of up to $5,000. It is based on household income, so even though PunkRock and I aren't on the loan, we have to submit our income stuff to the mortgage broker on Monday, so she can run the numbers and see if we qualify. The result there will change what we might write in the offer. We've got to figure all that out.

Of course, my packing is a mess. My living room is quite impassable given the number of empty boxes piled up - I need to move these into the dining room and fill them. This HAS to happen before Thursday, as that is when I am putting my Christmas tree up in the living room. All of the Christmas decorations are up in the attic, so they have to be brought down at some point. And of course, I have to clean the rest of the damn house.

I am teaching Monday and Wednesday too. Which means Sunday night I will be grading quizzes. Thank goodness the following week is the last week for Astronomy. After that is over, I can start concentrating on the move more. Oh, and I am still helping out with the Christmas charity in New York. I have SO much to do there - I have to get together some Black Friday things. Hell, I need to finish up shopping for my own family too - I did get a lot ordered this week but there is SO much more to do!

Tonight I came home to a $400 medical bill that I didn't know existed - for me, no less. I have zero idea how we will pay for that. Oh, and DarkKnight broke a chair in the game room, so I am now down two chairs. This is unacceptable, because I need them for my class and for Thanksgiving. I ordered two for $100 last night on Amazon and they should be here tomorrow. Again, completely unexpected. My budget is bleeding. I probably won't have time until Monday night to sit and figure all that out.

Mama Cat Cookie and her 4 babies are still here, but there isn't much to tell - they are just growing and waiting until the first Thursday in December to get their next shots, and then hopefully all be scheduled for their spay/neuter & rabies shot. Then they can be rehomed. I think we have all pretty much agreed at this point that we are going to keep Conky (Mister Penny) as he can't go to any more events and not flip out all stressed and upset. He absolutely believes that this is his home, and since he loves me best, I don't do a good job of persuading him otherwise. He is actually curled up in my laptop case right next to me at the moment. He is SUCH a cuddlebug.

Ok, that's all the time I have to dump out here. PunkRock is at Infinity tonight and DarkKnight has a smidge of free time tonight, so I hope to grab him and maybe watch something on Netflix. We didn't get to spend much time together today since we were judging different things, and we both need to just chill the fuck out for a little bit.
 
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So, DarkKnight wants the house too! That happened quick! We are going to sort the paperwork tomorrow and write an offer then. I have to get with the mortgage broker to secure our pre-approval letter to send with the offer. We're going to have some conditions and see what happens - we're asking for the sellers to pay 6% toward closing costs (the max allowed by FHA regulations) and $500 worth of lender-required fixes. (If there are any. We think there is one window pane that will have to be replaced because of a crack.) Everything is conditional upon our mortgage going through, of course, and on the inspection. We're going to ask for 14 days to complete that since it prolly won't happen this week due to Thanksgiving! We didn't submit at their asking price , but $2,900 below it. Even a full price offer is fair for the property, but we feel this gives us negotiating space. We are all ok at walking away if problems pop up since we are early into this, but hopefully they accept our offer. Settlement will be by January 15, which is perfect timing. We would prolly do upgrades for about a month and then move in, in March.

We did pull back the carpet in one of the bedrooms because one corner was loose, and the hardwood floors underneath looked gorgeous. I hope the rest of the house is as well!

My Pinterest boards are filling up! PunkRock and I spent the evening walking around Home Depot, looking at appliances and tile and backsplashes. I couldn't wait to come home to share with DarkKnight. I am excited that we are going to have something that is ours, the three of us. <3
 
So, I started freaking out last night, out of nowhere, and feeling anxious about buying a house. I am better this morning, but damn, this is scary!

I am currently down in DarkKnight's office, just typing away on my laptop while he is working. PunkRock is still sleeping. I woke up at like 5 am, for no reason, so I figured I would come hang out with my other sweetie. :) The kittens are nutters down here, but they aren't jumping up in the chair so far, so I am not being interfered with too much yet.

I just printed out all of the quizzes I need to grade this morning. And I am about to print out THIS week's quiz and lesson plan. The topic is on Orbits, Tides and the Accelerations of Gravity. This means math, ugh. Oh well, it isn't too difficult but I am not looking forward to this afternoon!

I did manage to get all the grocery shopping done last night with PunkRock, so we are all set for Thanksgiving. Except that the store was out of bread and nutmeg, so I will have to go back later at some point! I packed a wee little bit, and assigned two boxes to DarkKnight to start him off putting away things in his bedroom.

For now, I am going to do some more Pinterest stuff and try to calm down about the house buying. I am kind of on hold until I hear from the mortgage broker this morning - I will call her around 10 am if I haven't heard anything. I sent her an email last night.
 
Yesterday was my busiest day yet and I passed out at bedtime. That's probably why I woke up at 4 am today. Gah! I'm on the couch at the moment, with a purring kitten warming my lap, as I wait for DarkKnight to wake up at 5:30 and bring me a blanket.

So, yesterday. Class was crazy. My homeschooled kiddos are all over the place when it comes to math, so I felt like a large portion of them were just staring at me blankly a good deal of the time. I think we were all ok for the end. It's the most brutal lesson all semester, so I let them go an hour early. Which worked out well for me, because I then spent a solid hour fielding emails and calls from the mortgage broker and realtor.

We were given two different loan options - an FHA with the current interest rate, and a different FHA loan with an interest rate one whole point above the other, but with a $5000 cash credit at closing and a tax break that makes the effective interest rate actually a point and a half lower than the other. So I had to run numbers and do more math and make adult sort of decisions. The $5000 also requires DarkKnight to take a homebuyer education class, and would push closing from January 15 to January 30. I decided to go with that.

So that took some back and forth, and I had to call around and get on a schedule for the class. Lots of places offer it, but some of them charge. I found one for free in our town for January 5, so that's all set now. I also had to talk to the realtor about altering the offer letter - we had to change the closing date but also the broker recommended asking for a specific dollar amount toward closing costs, not a percentage. So, that was also done. We got our pre-approval letter from the broker.

DarkKnight and I are meeting with the realtor later today to actually sign the contract and send it over to the seller's agent. He knows it is coming, and has promised to let our realtor know if they receive any other offers. So far, so good. We have a better offer if that happens! Actually, we have ended up in a REALLY good place financially. If they accept the offer as written, we actually won't have to pay anything at closing - wth the $5000 credit from the state of Maryland and the $7000 seller concessions, we have nothing required to put down. It's truly fucking nuts.

That said, today we have to put down the $1000 earnest money deposit, and we will have to pay next week for the home inspection, if the sellers accept the contract. We also have to shell out $40 for the credit report to the broker, and $600 or so to the appraiser, when they get involved. Still, we should still have around $10000 to spend on moving costs and appliance upgrades and paint and molding. :) I'm not counting my chickens though - if the sellers push back with wanting to pay less toward closing costs or try to bump the price back up, we will have to absorb that and the $10,000 could completely disappear. Keep your fingers crossed though!

I spent the evening out to dinner with one of my besties - she is getting a divorce and seeing a new guy. It was a much needed break from my own day. She was positively glowing with NRE. It's so cool to see that in others! She showed me a picture and her boyfriend is a super cute black guy. That brought up the topic of Greg, who messaged me again earlier this week to check in. I'm like soooo not interested in dating anyone right now. I feel overwhelmed with everything going on in my life, and even though I am going to bed exhausted without any sex at all most nights, I do feel ok with my current level, because when I do get to connect with DarkKnight and PunkRock, it's fucking amazing. I had some non-penetrative fun with DarkKnight the other day - omg it was so hot!

Anyway, back to more move info!

I spoke to my youngest yesterday about the move and reassured her that we want her to stay with us and not feel pressured to find a place too soon. I told her that though she'll have $3000 saved by Christmas for a car, I would feel better if she waits til she has $5000. She agrees that will get her something reliable. So she is now planning on moving with us and looking for her own place closer to the summer. She won't unpack much, and the room is smaller than she has now, but her financial situation will be much improved by just waiting a couple of months. I am glad she isn't chomping at the bit to leave - my oldest daughter couldn't escape fast enough! Of course, now she says she regrets that but it really was best for my mental health - the screaming fits we would have with each other! And my son never wanted to leave at all and I had to pretty much build a plan that made him move and be independent earlier this year! I'd say my youngest is a good center of both of these attitudes. She's all the good of both of them. :)
 
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Can I pick your brain about what was explained to you about the reno loan? I know that's not what you ended up going with, but you at least explained the process where you get an estimate for the work and the loan is then made for the house cost plus the reno. I'd like to know though if you have to use the contractor that provided the estimate for the reno? What if you wanted to do a combination of using a contractor for some stuff but trying to do other things yourself? Plus, usually you want to get estimates from more than one GC to make sure you're getting good pricing, etc. Did the lender explain any of that stuff?
 
Yeah, the way a 203k works is that the appraiser comes through and makes a list of what absolutely has to be done in order to make the house habitable. So that stuff has to be on the reno list in order to secure the loan. You are allowed to add other things to the list as well, and ask for more money to do those things, but there are some restrictions. Like, you can't add a hot tub or pool.

After you have the list, you then can shop it to a few contractors, and get bids for the entire project. When you find one you like, you have to give that bid to the appraiser to approve. If they approve, then the loan can close. It takes about 30 days to get the renovation funds into the bank.

You have to use the contractor that did the original bid. The appraiser approves it because they don't want you going with someone that is offering stuff super cheap, because what if that contractor does shitty work - the bank is then out their money. Also, if the contractor ends up being a jerkface and walking off, what if you can't find someone else to do it for that low cost?

The funds are held in an escrow account, and only the contractor can pull them out. In the beginning, it is set up as to how many draws they can make and when. Like, they can take half up front, and then when they want to make another draw, the appraiser will come through and make sure everything is looking good. Both you and the appraiser would sign off to get more money out, with the last amount only being available after the last final inspection and everyone is happy.

As it was explained to us, the work all has to be done by contractors. You can't personally withdraw any of the money. Maybe you could talk to the contractor and ask them to buy the materials and then you do some of the work? From what I understood, this is frowned upon.

If there is any money left in the escrow account after everything has been paid, then the money is applied toward the loan balance.

So, this is all one of the main reasons we decided to go with the house we are currently bidding on - it doesn't require a renovation loan, so we can do all the upgrades ourselves. IF we can get all the seller concessions and the price down, then we will have that $10,000 to work on stuff ourselves.

Oh! There is also a time limit. You absolutely have to have the last withdrawal done in 6 months, and they said leave at least 30 days to apply for it. So the contractor has 5 months to finish EVERYTHING.

I hope that helps!
 
bah, that's no dice for me then. We're flexible on just how much our future house needs to be worked on. We're good with anything from move-in ready, to the possibility of some major reno like a complete kitchen gut. BUT, there are certain things that we as a group (not so much me...) are able to easily do ourselves. We know how to install flooring, we know how to do bathroom tile, etc. What we would need is people if there was a need to do HVAC, counters and cabinets, plumbing, etc. We definitely don't want to pay a contractor for something that we can do ourselves for cheaper, especially when we at least know we'll do it well and not cut corners.

I dunno, maybe a GC *would* let us do some things on or own and we could actually work that into the pricing estimate. I feel like that is being fair and not trying to game the system. I'd certainly not be trying to take out a higher loan than what I needed, since I'm paying interest on that balance!!

I hope that your paperwork process goes smoothly!
 
I know exactly what you mean! :) I am very excited that with the way our offer is structured that we will have the opportunity (if it's accepted) to work on everything ourselves. :)
 
Thanks! Everything is signed and sent and we are now waiting to hear back. My phone actually rang when DarkKnight and I were walking in our front door and my heart skipped a beat! Apparently we probably won't have an answer until Friday morning because it's an estate sale and "there are a lot of elderly siblings who have to convene." Lovely. I really wanted to know by tomorrow but I guess with the holidays and all...
 
PunkRock and I went out last night while DarkKnight was at his chorale practice. We had dinner at the other Indian place in town that isn't Mango Grill and it was okay. We spent like an hour in JCPenney but came out with everyone's Christmas Eve Pajamas purchased. Doesn't matter who you are - if you sleep over at my house on Christmas Eve, you get new pajamas to wear. :) Normally we go matchy-matchy but PunkRock convinced me to change things up a bit. This year we are all wearing Star Wars themed sleepwear! What felt good was going home and knowing that I wouldn't have to justify my choice to DarkKnight or my youngest daughter - usually I hear complaints about color. But Star Wars? No, my family is nerds. Lol

I am feeling exhausted and achy this morning but I am awake regardless. I'm on the couch waiting for it to be 9 am so I can get kisses from DarkKnight while he's on break, and then I will go back upstairs and doze until 10:30 or so. I have to teach at 12:30 today. After that my plan is to finish boxing up the cookbook and DVD shelving in my dining room and living room, and then move some stuff around to prepare for putting up my tree on Thursday. I think I have everything ready for our big Thanksgiving meal on Saturday.

I am anxious about the house situation. No one would ever describe me as a patient person. I have a list of what could go wrong in buying this house scrolling through my head and I just want this to be over! I am going to do some reading about radon testing in a short bit, as we need to decide if we are going to pay for it. PunkRock mentioned something about a test kit you can buy at the store? I need to learn more.
 
Class is over for today and for the week - next week is my last for this session of Astronomy. I had a parent ask me today about teaching history! Uh, no. I do need to make some decisions rather soon about my business, and if I am going to continue offering Science classes. Honestly, I don't make much money at all, and though I find it rewarding emotionally, I still don't know if I'd like to keep doing it. I am going to do Biology this Spring, but beyond that, I guess I will have to decide in a few months!

I am tired right now, but I need to get moving on the packing needed in the living room. I did finish up with the cookbooks, but that's it for the moment.
 
Worked hard last night and got all the DVDs and books packed up, and those two bookcases are now in the dining room, out of the living room. Today I need to move the couches around - to clean underneath - and I'm going to wash the curtains in the living room as well. I need to move the snake tank over to the corner I just cleared out, and get my tree up! Decorating for Christmas is my number one priority today.

My oldest daughter will be here tomorrow night with her boyfriend, so I am excited about that. I miss her lots. She has been texting me a bunch lately, but nothing is crazy with her right now, so that is good news.

We are still waiting to hear from the sellers' agent. This is so fucking stressful for me. There is so much that could go wrong and it is starting to make me feel really dizzy when I focus on any parts that make me anxious. So I try not to think about it. What helps is when I start feeling like this is so out of my control - because it totally is - I go on Pinterest and plan out projects for the new house. I think it is beginning to annoy PunkRock, so now I am just doing it without sharing any ideas. It certainly does help me though.

Seriously, right now my house looks like a bomb went off. I am going to focus on the living room today, and the dining room will sort itself out as things get re-arranged. My game room is a pit of horror but that will tackled on Friday. The table top is clear, at least, so we will eat in there tonight and play board games.

I need to pack up my scrapbook desk - I told my mom earlier this week that I will not be having my grandma's genealogy book done for Christmas. I have the urge to work on it from time to time but it is really not a priority at the moment and I don't have cash right now to purchase the large format color printer I need. If we get this house, I am going to set up a space in the basement to do crafts and paint my minis. I think having a new area to spread out and work on the genealogy project will help. Depending on how much is left over with the home buying and move, I will buy my new printer then too.
 
Tree!

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This was the first year I was honestly worried I would run out of tree for all of the ornaments! We buy new ones when we go on a trip or something significant happens. Putting up the Christmas tree makes me so happy! If you're bored, see if you can locate these newer ornaments: Mutter Museum, a liopleurodon from Dinosaur Land, DarkKnight as Captain Orton from The King and I, chrysanthemums from the Day of the Dead, and I am sure you can easily find a bus from the Civil Rights Museum in Atlanta. :)

Today went as planned - we ate Chinese for dinner and played some board games. My daughter won Joking Hazard and the first game of Between Two Cities. I won the second round of that while everyone else was concentrating on eating brownies. :) It was a low key holiday at home. Tomorrow I have to decorate my fireplace mantle and put up my Advent Calendar. And of course, I still need to clean the game room. Oh, and yes, today PunKRock gave my daughter her first driving lesson on a manual transmission. She's had her license for a while, but she asked him to show her how to drive a stick shift, so they spent some time doing that today.

We didn't hear anything about the house, so we are awaiting a call tomorrow morning. We have plans to meet our realtor at the place at 2:30 pm regardless if our offer was accepted or if we receive a counter. We failed to checkout the attic crawl space and I want to definitely take a look at that, as well as get some other photos of parts of the house I forgot to get. Keep your fingers crossed for us - I am so nervous.
 
Omg when it rains, it pours!

My daughter left New York early this morning, so instead of being here at my place at 10 pm, she'll be here at 3 pm. When trying to plan dinner for everyone now, I realized I don't have anything to serve for lunch tomorrow. So DarkKnight and I just made a quick trip to the grocery store.

While standing at the checkout, my little brother calls to tell me his girlfriend is pregnant and due in July. They've broken up and made up like a dozen times the last couple of months so a I guess I can say I am glad that this news came while they are happy and living together.

DarkKnight's cousin's daughter who has been battling bone cancer had surgery this week and they replaced the bone in her leg.The tumor showed 95% shrinkage due to the radiation and chemo they have been doing so that is amazing news.

Oh, and the sellers countered our offer on the house, only wanting us to pay list price ($2,500 more than we offered originally) with everything else staying the same. We are signing that contract today at 2:30 when we meet up at the new place to take some more photos and measurements. W00t!

To counter all this good news, DarkKnight called his mom like 5 minutes ago and now she and her husband are coming to Thanksgiving tomorrow. You know, the dinner I had pared down and made small this year so I wouldn't have to stress so much?

My house is a wreck and I have no time.

Still today is a wonderful day!
 
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