In the home stretch

Okay, we’re ready.

The end of March is here, the emails and phone calls are winding down, the paperwork is in, our loan is approved, the repairs to the house have been made by the seller, and we are in the home stretch for closing.

We will go to Santa Fe on April 9, do a walk through of the house on April 10, and sign the closing papers on April 11. Then our dream becomes our reality ~ we will own our home in New Mexico.

John has told his boss that he is moving out of state, and that he would like to postpone his retirement for several months and work from the remote location, so that he can continue working on the project he loves at work. They were receptive to his idea.

We have not set the moving date yet. At the top of our list: call some moving companies for bids. We hope to move in the middle of May, if not just a little sooner! MAY!!! That is right around the corner!

We are working like crazy to get our house here ready to put on the market, and we are tired and trying not to bitch at each other. The major remodeling is almost done, and there are a LOT of little jobs to be done. I am cleaning every inch of this house.

We have a great second hand furniture store near us, so we wandered around it last Thursday night and bought a couple of chairs in like-new condition. A stuffed comfortable chair for relaxing and reading. And a dining room chair that we didn’t need but that we liked the almost-Southwestern design of. All purchases now are planned according to how they will look and where they will go in the new house.

There are two guys here today installing new gutters on the outside of the house … and my dogs are barking insanely….this could go on for several hours. It is very windy here … I am watching to make sure they don’t blow off their ladders.

Tonight I am going out with some of my friends from dog rescue for our weekly Whine and Dine at a local restaurant. I need the chance to sit down and unwind. We are going to a Mexican place … imagine me voting for Mexican when in a month or so I can eat New Mexican cuisine to my heart’s content.

Oh … and one more thing…. MY KANSAS JAYHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR next week! ROCK CHALK!!!

Snow in Santa Fe

Here are a few pictures that John took in early March when he was in Santa Fe for the home inspection. Not sure where the first one was taken...but that is definitely not our new house in the picture. LOL. (Remember that you can click on all pictures to enlarge them.)



This was the view of the mountains from his hotel room on Cerrillos Road:



And this was taken on a drive he took up the mountain:

Counting down the days

Oh! The past few weeks have been busy! (I haven’t had time for so many of my online habits, like visiting all of the blogs I generally frequent daily.)

First of all, buying the new house is just one email, phone call, amended agreement, proposal and counter proposal after another. There are deadlines every day for which stuff must be done. I am glad our real estate agent in Santa Fe keeps us up to date on what comes next. I just don’t remember all this paperwork and deadlines when we bought our previous houses in Texas, Michigan and Kansas.

Then there is our house here in the Midwest, which still requires so much work to be done before we are ready to put it on the market. We are aiming for mid-April. Things are starting to look really good as far as the remodeling. The kitchen is coming together and really looks awesome. What concerns me is the garage full of stuff that needs to get tossed out (<---- my solution) or sorted through.

While John is working on the remodeling, I am cleaning and cleaning and cleaning so this house is spotless when we put it up for sale. And I am still finding things to get rid of to lighten our load when we pack up to head west.

A radon test (two of them actually) turned up elevated radon gas levels in the new house and the sellers have agreed to pay for the remediation. That will occur after closing.

Next thing on the schedule: closing on the house on April 11, which will mean another trip to Santa Fe to do a walk through of the house, sign the closing papers ….. And finally finally finally GET OUR KEYS TO THE HOUSE!!!!!

I keep telling myself throughout my busy days here: “This is really happening!!!!”

(Edit: Just noticed that in the picture above, you can see the backside of me taking off my boots to enter the house..)

Snow and Checking out the House

Hubby is flying to NM tonight for the home inspection at the new house tomorrow.

I understand they are having some snow in northern NM today but he loves it so he will think it makes things even more fun.

We are really not too worried about the inspection ~ it didn’t look like much could be wrong with this house, and if the inspector finds anything, we need to know it and then negotiate with the sellers to get repairs done.

(The pics were taken the last week in February when we were in Santa Fe house-hunting.)

Y'all come on in!

Here are some pictures of our new home in Santa Fe.

We are so thrilled with our good luck in finding this perfect house..

This is going to be such a fun house to live in!