It's Ours!

Yippee! On November 6, we became the proud owners of Lot 4! Just a little less than 11 months from the first time we saw the property, it is ours.

The night before the closing neither of us slept at all. Between last minute packing and the excitement we were like first time home owners; giddy, fearful, too excited to speak.

The closing at the Registry of Deeds went smoothly, with our attorney, Susan Kaye and Mike's attorney Scott Ambler. The process is much simpler that I remember and we we done in less than 45 minutes. We packed the cars with live plants and a few precious items and raced to our new home. It took minutes to unpack the cars, but we spent about an hour just walking around touching things and opening doors. Yes, we'd been there the day before, but this was different - now it was ours! Mike left us a wonderful bottle of champagne and glasses in the fridge to celebrate. Off to dinner and back to the apartment to try and get some sleep.

The movers arrived promptly at 7am the next morning to pack us in. A couple of the guys had helped us move into the apartment 15 months before and it was nice to see familiar faces. Mark's is one of the best movers I've ever used - and I've moved a lot! Careful, fast, polite and patient. And they have come in a good 10% below estimate each time I've used them. I'll post a link to their website here.

Halfway through the day, it suddenly hit me that I had all sorts of new computerized appliances with no idea how to work them. We had a box full of instruction manuals to go through! I discovered how fast it is to overboil water (don't put the stove on high and add a cover to your pot) - it really is possible to screw up spagetti!

I'm liking the kitchen more and more as I get used to it, but it is crying for bright color. I'm thinking either Chinese red or cobolt blue.

Here's the new dining set, delivered Monday. Fits perfect in front of the sliders and expands when needed.

My plants were so excited to be in the sunshine again instead of the one cramped northfaced window we had in the apartment. The peace plant has a new "flower" appearing after just 3 days. Good sign I think!

So far, I've left the great room furniture right where the movers placed it. We are still waiting to unbox the rest of the stereo equipment.

The bed got put together first thing of course, but we haven't done much else here yet. You can get a peek into the master bath in the background. The bathroom will be a post to itself. It deserves it! The shower is worth every penny, every angst and aggrivation! But more on that later.

The lawn will wait till spring to go in, it is just too late in the year to expect the grass to grow before the snow. We did find a solid and relatively flat bit of land to rest this 300 pound concrete bench on.

Mike was able to get in the foundation planting, thanks to the mild autumn we are having. New England is not the best place for new gardening in November, but Tom managed to get over 100 bulbs into the foundation area at the front of the house, so we will have blossoms in the spring. Budda found a happy new home greeting guests at the beginning of the walkway.