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I would say we love each other just as much now as we did back then,

but it’s actually way more now.

… then comes the house! For the first time in our lives we will be in debt. It feels a little weird. In the whirlwind that was last week: the offer we put on the first house we wanted to buy fell through, we went to look at more houses the next day, put in an offer on another that we liked, and finalized that deal on Tuesday night.

The house is very close to my mom’s house where I grew up; the neighbourhood has changed a lot in the past 8 years that I haven’t been living there though (for the better). The location is conveniently close to both my jobs (and Dave’s job), and there’s a major bus route about 2 blocks away. Location was pretty important to us since it’s the one big thing about the house you can’t really change.

The only thing left to do is the home inspection this coming Tuesday, and unless there is a major issue neither party knows about, we are officially home owners (pending many paper work and signatures). Closing date is April 30th. We’re debating hiring movers since it will be a weekday and anyone who wants to help us out would have to take a day off work. It’s going to be a hectic few days, since right after the move we’re off to the dance competition in Deerhurst for the weekend (which is a whole other blog post in itself)!

Well, the house ended up going to the people who made an offer in the first place – they decided to buy the house right away even though they have no offers on their own house yet. So it’s back to house hunting for the next great house; it can’t possibly be more drawn out and annoying as this one was.

At least we have a much better idea of the location and kind of house we like and can afford, and now we have a list of house inspectors, mortgage brokers, etc etc on hand.

We looked at about a half dozen houses last weekend and narrowed it down to two we really liked which we went back to see this morning. And then this afternoon, we started to make an offer on one of these houses – but the catch is there’s already another, conditional, offer on the house. And tonight we found out someone else is thinking of making an offer tonight as well! Since it’s the beginning of the house hunting season, houses at good prices are seeing a lot of action. So I’m not too optimistic about getting this house (even though I <3 it). I would write more about it but I don’t want to get my hopes too high.

But it’s weird, because if they DO accept our offer, we have a house. I had no idea things could happen this fast.

Also, I would have taken some pictures but I lost my camera AGAIN at the concert last Sunday. I just got it replaced from the thievery – the Sony Cybershot is clearly cursed.

After talking idly for many weeks and months of house hunting, our search began in earnest almost by accident when Dave mentioned at a family brunch that we were looking. His uncle happens to be a real estate agent – and since then we have found ourselves perusing through listing after listing of potential love-nests. So far, we’ve narrowed it down to about a half-dozen that we are interested in enough to actually go see.

Our house choices thus far have been based primarily on price and location. We know our budget (and have been pleasantly surprised at what we can afford), and we know we don’t want to live out in the suburbs (even though I secretly love Desperate Housewives. oh wait. Now everyone on the internet knows.). <– that punctuation looks weird…

Other than that, we really have no idea what to look for in a house. I imagine as we look more and learn more we’ll know more. Any tips/advice would be so appreciated (including punctuation; parentheses and semi-colons are damn confusing).

Finally – all the honeymoon photos have been uploaded!

… including the promised sheep of New Zealand.

Enjoy!

I know I should probably be worried about identity theft, but the internet makes it so hard:

So today we got a shock, when we came out from the gym we discovered our car had been broken into. Some miscreant jimmied the lock and stole a whole bunch of stuff, it looks to be around $1500 worth missing. For some reason I thought a beige 2002 civic wouldn’t be a prime target for thievery, but I guess they showed me. I learned a few things from this experience:

1. A car alarm is probably worth it; I doubt the villain would have chosen our vehicle if we had an alarm, there were plenty of other easy pickings in the lot.

2. Going to the gym only ends in tears.

3. Villainy is defined as “outrageous wickedness“. This definition amuses me.

I made brownies for Dave’s birthday. These would be really yummy with Bailey’s Mint Irish Cream More…