updates

It's all done! I am now the proud owner of my mint green house. Yay! But the past few days have been a whirlwind.

Wednesday
9:00am: final walk-thru, almost everything seemed okay. The upstairs bathroom was taking a long time to flush and the dishwasher didn’t seem to be getting water in. Plumbing is something GHI takes care of (yay co-op!) and so there was only the dishwasher to bring up at the settlement table.

9:45am: Starbucks with my mom

10:45am: Arrive at lawyer’s and my realtor is already there (I heart her) and had called the seller’s realtor about the dishwasher.

11:00am: Move into conference room, seller’s realtor arrives and says that she checked out the dishwasher and called the seller (already down in Georgia or Florida or somewhere warm and Southern) and apparently it always takes a while for the water to start going through. So no problem, but I could contact them afterwards if it’s still weird (and it’s not – I’ve already used it and is working fine). GHI representative is also there and she already put a work order in for the upstairs toilet. Lots of signing, lots of gossiping between the two realtors and the GHI rep (they all live in OGB) that I really wanted to listen to, but had to focus on the lawyer. I had received my HUD-1 the day before so had already reviewed that and the legal assistant had gone over it with my over the phone so I understood everything and all was correct.

12:00pm: Picked up my brother-in-law and niece and went to my house for champagne & bread (my mom brought champagne, bread & salt for my housewarming present – very sweet)

2:00pm: Went over to BIL’s house to use his internet and buy my car. I decided to do this all via email and over the phone as my mom won’t drive on the Beltway so it would have been a PITA to get home from the dealership (in Rockville) and I really didn’t want to spend the whole afternoon in the dealership anyway. This way, instead of sitting in a waiting room while they ran my credit application and such, I was able to play with Emerson or wash cabinets (once I move to phone-only instead of computer so was able to go back to my house)

3:00pm: Went to my house to clean kitchen and bathrooms

8:00pm: Car arrived at my house, I signed papers.

9:00pm: Dinner at Plato’s, where I totally freaked out. This is why conventional wisdom says to only do one life-changing thing in one day. Though I then realized that a few hours of being totally freaked out is okay as then I’ve gotten it all over with and don’t have to think about it anymore. And I’m so not freaked out anymore.

10:30pm: Slept in my house all by myself – on an air mattress, but I felt comfortable enough to sleep with all the lights out (and it was very, very dark)


Thursday Packing day.

Loved having my mom to help me, though she wasn’t always logical and so living room and bedroom stuff got mixed up so while I found my hairdryer on Sunday, I haven’t found the nozzle tip for it. And I have no idea where I packed my straightener (and I packed that one!), but I have an old one so have been using that. We finished the bulk of the packing around 5pm and took my painting and Christmas ornaments and lamps out to the house and then I went back and did the final packing and cleaning up leftover magazines and newspapers and slept in my apartment for the last time.

Friday Moving day!

The movers arrived right on time and they sent three guys instead of the two I was quoted, which was awesome because I had been debating calling them up and asking for three guys so I was very happy that they made the decision for me. Everything went really quickly and they didn’t throw around my boxes, my borrowed-from-my-sister Venus mirror arrived safely and no furniture was broken. Very nice guys. I'm quite happy with my decision to hire them. After the movers left, I went to lunch with my mom, brother-in-law and his best friend who had helped Karl bring over the supa fab air conditioner that he and my sister don't need anymore as they installed central air during the renovation. And then I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking.

Saturday Unpacked most of the kitchen, went to the mall, Target & grocery store and made cupcakes.

So crazy to have volunteered to do this, but it was good as it forced me to unpack instead of sleep. And the cupcakes were for the bridal shower of my very good friend, Shelly, and hosted by my sister so I was so happy to be able to help. And the cupcakes came out really well, too! But now I'm back to my normal routine. My commute in has been taking about 40-45 minutes and last night I worked until 9:45pm so getting home was only 30 minutes. I am still working on figuring out a way in that will shave off a few minutes - think I'm almost there. But really, it took me about 45 minutes living in the city as I had to take 2 busses. Tonight I need to leave work on time so I can stop off at the apartment and do a final sweep and drop off my keys. And then I will be fully a Greenbelter!