So today I took the last steps we need to take before closing day (other than a walk-through to make sure they fixed what they were supposed to) - getting homeowner's insurance. The quote came in as low as I was hoping it would but it was still pretty (pleasantly) surprising.
The one thing I'm waiting on is for flood insurance, as our new house is in the 100-year floodplain. The only reason I have to wait is because Steamboat is bass-ackwards. Typically, insurers will just look up a house in the USPS database, but (and it took me a while to figure out why the lady on the phone couldn't find our house) since Steamboat doesn't deliver mail TO YOUR HOME (I ask you - what is a post office for, if not for home delivery?), our house isn't IN the USPS database.
So, I had to tell her the lot, subdivision, blah-blah legal description of our property so she could send someone to check the records MANUALLY. But it won't take more than 24 hours.
So, more than a month out from our closing (May 1), and we're set to go! D and I both want to get there NOW, but.. what can you do, I guess?
If you're all good, I'll post what our plans are for the downstairs of the new place sometime soon.
First off, a big congrats to Steve and Janet and the uber-scary Leprechaun that aided in their engagement. I'm going to have nightmares about that damn leprechaun. For real.
I'm taking it easy tonight--Mark and I just got back from dinner at Old Town Pub, one of our favorite places to eat, and he unfortunately had some work to do. I had today off, and after sleeping in in the morning, reading Newsweek, eating lunch, sitting on me arse, and watching Alan Alda on PBS, finally went out riding for a bit. The snow is definitely melting off, but there is some great spring snowboarding out there. You know, when it gets a bit slushy, but everything is still pretty well covered and the runs are fast. I had a good time. Even met some people on the lift who were talking about the Best TV Show You've Never Seen (except when you visit us). Good times.
I think Mark and I have picked out the flooring for our new place, at least the downstairs area, anyway. It's a really rich, dark hardwood, currently on clearance and here's hoping it goes down even more. We'll probably try and actually buy our flooring around mid-May, so it gets here early June, when hopefully we've completed the rest of the renovations and are about ready to move in once the floors are done. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam is not our friend this year, which will delay some plans, but what can you do? You pay The Man.
In other news....had a great St. Patty's Day, with a free concert on the mountain by Sister Hazel, who I really like, and we called up Gina to hang with us for the afternoon. Saw a ton of people at the concert that I knew from work, and of course a bunch of moms. We ended up being so worn out that we just came home, ordered pizza, and crashed, but that's how it goes these days. Next year we'll definitely start our St. Patty's Day Awesome Fitz Party at our new big house. When we started looking at it, there were probably about 30-40 people we wanted to invite, and honestly, in the townhouse, we just don't have room. Nowhere for kids to run around, woulda been crowded, no bueno. Next year. Next year's our year.
House looks like it's a total go. We got the appraisal for the house today, which worked out well, and all we need to do is get insurance lined up and the loan stuff is done until closing. Everything else with inspection, blah blah blah has been settled, and we're set to close May 1st. For some stupid reason the For Sale sign is still up in front of the house, but whatever. The dude wants to sell, we want to buy, and the loan is good. All is well.
So this past weekend I took the time to figure out exactly how much money we'll (hopefully) have by - and after - closing, so I know what my fix-up budget for the new house will be. Happily, it was a little more than I expected.
So, I'm starting to figure out what we're going to do before we move in (as you may recall, we have a two-month window between our closing date and the day we need to be out of our current rental). Because Dana is insistent, we're tearing out the carpet in the master bedroom, along with getting the nasty texture off the ceiling and repainting (actually, we'll be repainting pretty much everywhere).
Additionally, we need to remove the carpet from the basement and frame in an office for me, since the house will be not only our home but my office as well. So in addition to stripping out the carpet down there (and building a wall), we'll be putting in hardwood floors downstairs.
While we're at it, I think we'll be putting in hardwood floors in the dining and living room, the upstairs hallway and our master bedroom (as it turns out, hardwood floors aren't terribly more expensive than installing carpet, so that decision was easy).
So today, I ordered a bunch of floor samples from Simple Floors. I would have also ordered samples from Lumber Liquidators but for whatever reason they were only allowing me to get three samples at a time (and then the friendly support rep disconnected me). I'll get to them later.
Otherwise, things are going well. D and I finally joined the gym, I've been cooking up a storm, and we're preparing for my sister and her boyfriend Roy from New Zealand who are coming to visit later this week.
Also, I ordered the few supplies I need to keg, which should be arriving tomorrow. Perfect timing too, since Roy works at a brewery. So, we'll keg the Scottish Ale and they'll be able to enjoy it before leaving next week, and we can brew the IPA that I've had sitting here since September, waiting to be brewed.
Who remembers this? We had so much fun with these games in college (back before the internets, even!), and I imagine they will prove to be a great time-waster now that they've gone flash. Booya! (PS, you need sound on for this bad boy to work)
So with all the snow we've gotten here the last week (I think it's up around 4-5 feet since last Saturday) I finally worked up the courage to hit the double black diamond runs. And with all the powder, they are REALLY sweet. I was getting some great face shots today heading down into a couple chutes and bowls on one side of the mountain. It's funny--I usually just avoid that area, but with powder everywhere, it really was a blast. Not to mention there are rarely people over on that side, so a lot of the time it really does feel like you have the whole mountain to yourself. For at least a little while anyway...
So now I'm about to take a nap and then have a meeting for the Pentathlon tonight. Sheila and Lisa and I put a team together--me doing the run up the mountain and snowboard down, Sheila doing the snowshoe, Lisa doing the skate ski and bike, and then I'm finishing it off with a 2 mile run. Can't wait--this is the first year the event has filled up beforehand, and it sounds like a lot of people come out to cheer everyone on. Yea!
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