It's Official!

At about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, our odyssey through the treacherous waters of home buying came to an anti-climactic end with the sound of recapping pens.  Fireworks would have been more appropriate and awesome, but I guess we can't get everything we want.  After going through and preparing offers on four other houses, signing another stack of papers was a breeze, our hands still nicely cushioned with calluses of signatures past. 



After the ceremonial handing over of the keys, we thought it only appropriate to share in the occasion with our little Dexter.  We swung by Overlook to pick him up, and I must admit, I felt a little traitorous entering our beloved condo, knowing that we now had a new home.  Those feelings were quickly dashed away upon watching Dexter scamper throughout his new home, his little toenails clicking across the hardwood floors like a troupe of tiny tap dancers. 



Dexter looking like he owns the place.

John and I were able to convince Marriah to join us back at the house for a sparkling wine toast (a surprisingly delicious choice from Mumm Napa, a winery we've actually visited out in California) to celebrate and thank her for her hard work.  She and Mike surprised us with a basket of housewarming goodies, including quite a few wine related gifts (I guess they could tell we're oenophiles) and a much needed reed diffuser to help dispel the weird, closed up house odor.  I know I speak for the both of us when I say we really got lucky in finding such a great team of Realtors.  They were both incredibly patient with our never-ending barrage of questions, always knowledgeable and quick with a response, never pushy, and we always felt like we were getting advice from friends instead of people just trying to make a buck off of us.  With our Type A personalities and my constant anxiety and mood swings, working with Mike and Marriah made buying our first home almost too easy.



From the heart of Napa Valley...

On top of all that, we were delighted to hear our lender had made some overestimates with our good faith estimate of closing costs and because of this, we are actually getting a check back for about $700. With our purse strings now basically welded shut, we're happy to hear we'll be able to eat for the rest of the year. It feels great to walk away from closing with a check in our hands and feeling like the little guys won for once. I'm sure that money will be gone in no time, considering the number of things we need for the house, but it'll certainly help ease the sting of swiping the credit card for a while.

Woo hoo!!

After our sparkling wine buzz had died off, John and I channeled our excitement into taking over our first load of fragile items and starting the grueling process of cleaning up the new place.  Compared to many of the neglected properties we toured, our house isn't actually in too bad of shape and mostly just required a good wipe down to clear away the construction dust.  John took up the most important task of all - spraying down the perimeter of the house with Home Defense.  While I respect their place in the ecosystem, no bug is welcome in my home and will surely be vanquished via pulverization or at the paws of our Attack Panthers.  We cleaned until we both feared passing out from a combination of exhaustion and the bouquet of chemicals wafting throughout the house.

All in all, it was a great start to what is sure to be an exciting journey.  We definitely expect to meet some lows along the way, but we've been incredibly lucky so far, so we'll just ride out that wave for now.  In the meantime, we'll keep on rubbing Buddha's tummy and hope for the best.