Day 290

Today Rick and I headed up to Champaign.  He left super early this morning so he could 'start work' to appease our lenders.  Silly underwriters.

I left at a normal hour and met him for lunch.  But first we spent almost 2 hours getting my name added to Rick's checking account here.  He's had an account open here for the last two years with $7 in it.  It turned out to be a good thing that he never closed it, though.

Tonight we have our walk-through and then we're going to grab dinner and go to bed early for our big day tomorrow.  When we got to the hotel this was parked a cross the street...

It was a glass sided truck with bells in it and the drivers (I'm assuming that's who they were) were taking turns playing music.  I've never seen anything like it and they had gathered quite the crowd of onlookers.

Day 289

Today we spent the day out on the dock at Rick's parents house just hanging out and cooling off in the lake.  It was really nice to have a day to relax after all the craziness of moving, well I guess we're still in the middle of moving, but anyway.

I beat Rick in a swimming race and got a really bad sunburn... oops.

day 288

It's moving day!!! Everything we own is in the back of that truck.

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Day 287

Rick and I have been watching the tv series Swamp People on netflix the last couple of nights.  It's about redneck cajuns who hunt alligators.  They all speak in crazy cajun accents and it's hard to understand what they're saying.  They sound just like Adam Sandler in the Water Boy, but worse.  One guy is always yelling "treee shakkker"  and "Shooot" (in weird cajun accent).  So, Rick and I have taken to randomly saying these things to each other and trying to imitate their accents.

Ya. We're cool.

Day 286

Tonight Rick and I hit up all our favorite lawrence spots one last time.  We had dinner at Free State and got an order of onion rings.  They have the best onion rings ever there.

Then on the way home we drove by Rick's old apartment on Illinois street.  We wanted to see if all the black tire marks were still on his parking spot from when he had to wedge his giant truck into the tiny space.  We couldn't really tell because a car was parked there.  We did see the neighbors down the street were still up to their old tricks, standing in the middle of the street like they own the place and drinking Budweiser straight out of the case.

Finally, we drove by the Zorse and camel house.  The camel was nowhere to be found, but we did see two zorses.

day 285

When I'm not packing this week I'm hanging out with Steven colbert's doppleganger learning everything I need to know for the bar. My life is awesome. I hope the next 8 weeks go really fast.

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day 284

It's been storming like crazy here the past couple of days. Rick is in heaven tracking all the weather and having Gary Lezak on tv 24/7.

Thankfully we've only gotten some big thunder and a lot of rain. Nothing crazy like in poor Joplin.

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Day 283

We're still packing...

We bottled the last beer we'll ever bottle in this apartment last night... sniff sniff.  Actually, I'm not that sad, mostly dreading moving all those bottles of beer.
This is the current stash.  And that doesn't include all the beer in the fridge.

I've tried to convince Rick to give it away so we don't have to move it, but he doesn't like my plan.

Day 282

Got my diplomas framed today!  This was my graduation gift from my dad.  Currently my law school diploma is leaning against the entertainment center right under the tv, so I can stare at it allllll night.  I'm proud of that thing.

Day 281

Now that graduation is over we finally have to start packing for the big move.  Neither of us is very motivated.  We went and bough boxes and tape and Rick tried to convince me that was enough productivity for one day.  Eventually we got going, though, and we're making pretty good progress.

This is all I have left in my closet...

But now all these hangers are on our bed.

Anyone have good ideas for how to pack hangers?  I'm stumped.

Day 280

It's graduation day!!!

My dad got to hood me because he is also a KU Law grad.  It was really special, but unfortunately no one got a picture of it. Bummer.

Rick whacking me with my own tassle

We finished off the day with a BBQ at our house with both of our families and a bunch of friends.  It was a really, really fun day.  I was exhausted by the end.

Day 279

Tonight we're going to a couple's shower for Tanner and Cassie.  The shower theme is 'stock the bar', so I found some wheat beer glasses on their registry and wrapped a few of Rick's home-brewed wheats for them.  I was pretty excited at my cleverness (and frugalness haha).  The whole gift probably cost $20, but I think the customization makes it way cool.

Their colors are green and pink so I made
label match.

It's called "Tanner & Cassie's Wedding Wheat" and the bottled on date is
their wedding date, even though it was obviously bottled earlier.

Day 278

When I ran that 5k a couple weeks ago I was really excited to get a t-shirt with a dragon on it.  The race was for an elementary school and the dragon was there mascot.  I got it out to wear the other day and discovered that I somehow got a kids size.  Boo.

Rick tried it on to make sure it wouldn't fit him.

Day 277

I've been saving my best pictures from the house hunting expedition for a rainy day post.  As a K-stater these pictures are particularly funny to me.  I doubt whoever picked out these gorgeous bathroom fixtures graduated from K-state, but they definitely loved purple.

note the purple toilet paper holder

purple bathtub AND sick

purple shower

These are actually from two different bathrooms, but both owners were obviously purple lovers.  Seriously, what are people thinking.

Day 276

Tonight we headed over to KC to see some friends one last time before we move.  It was a fun night and I got a little sad on the way home thinking about leaving everyone here.  We (mostly Rick) do have quite a few friends that still live/are moving back to Champaign, so it's not like it will be the two of us just hanging out alone every night.

I think I'm really bad with change or something, even when I'm really excited about it.  When Rick and I moved in together last year I was ecstatic.  No more choosing who's house to make dinner at every night and toting stuff back and forth.  But the day we moved in I felt almost homesick.  I don't even like going home (to my parents), so I have no idea why I felt like that.  I played it off as concern over our lack of storage in this apartment and the massive amount of stuff we own haha.  When I was little, after my parents got divorced, my dad would have other families over for dinner parties a lot.  I remember always being so sad when they had to go home because our house would feel so empty with just us in it. I probably have some weird child-of-divorce-residual-issues that I never worked through.

I could not be more thrilled to have our own house, but I know I'll feel a little sad and out of place when we first move in.  Maybe I'll be fine because this is the first place that is totally ours, the first real home I've had in years.  Or maybe we'll host a dinner party right away so I can feel better. :)

Day 275

And it's back to haggling again...
We got two quotes for the major repairs we want done on the house, which are about 1/3 of the total repairs found in the inspection.  One guy said it would cost $1500 the other said $2600... wtf?  We asked for $2600... hopefully Esther doesn't read my blog haha.  They countered with $1300... jerks.  We've already compromised on the price of the house when Esther refused to budge, and we are volunteering to cover the cost of all the minor repairs in the house.  Rick was not too happy about their counter.  So, we made it very clear to our realtor that we are really not willing to budge on these repair costs and if needed we will walk away... not sure how much of a bluff that is, but we know Esther has already started making plans, packing and possibly signed a lease so we're hoping she will feel like she has to work with us.

We on the other hand have done absolutely zero packing haha.  So, you just test Esther!  We'll walk away (maybe).

Day 274

Tonight we went to a BBQ at my friend Katie's house.  The weather was less than cooperative, but we made up for it with some bat excitement.  She has two boston terriers that are pretty rambunctious.  We went outside to play with them and Otis had pinned a bat down on the ground.  Katie was pretty freaked out and the boys were super excited to save the bat and check it out.

It kept making a super high pitched hissing noise and clicking sounds.  Rick said the clicking was it's sonar.  I think the noises scared the dogs because they backed off as soon as we got out there.  I'm sure they thought they were catching their usual fare of chipmunk and were a little freaked out when it started making weird noises.

The bat was so rigid and didn't move at all, so we put it in a bush in the front yard away from the dogs.  About 20 minutes later we were showing it to some late arrivals and about 30 seconds after we moved away it flew out of the bush and away.  Good thing we weren't leaning over it right then.  yikes!

Day 273

Tonight we went to dinner at Cafe Beautiful (where got engaged) with two of our friends, Karen and Luke.  Apparently the place has changed ownership and is not quite the same.  The original owner went back to Korea and this other (non-asian) guy is running it now.  The food was still really good, but it didn't quite have the ambiance it did before.

Interestingly, we did find out that the place the restaurant is in is Wilt Chamberlain's old apartment.  That led to an interesting debate about how many of his conquests happened in that room haha

We finished up the night with some delicious lunch box drinks, darts, pool and apples-to-apples at Red Lion.  I'm going to miss that place.

Day 272

Yesterday afternoon on our way home from Champaign we found out that Rick's uncle, his dad's brother, had passed away.  He had been sick for a long time, so it wasn't unexpected, but it was nice that we happened to be in town so we could spend some time with his dad and see all of his aunts, uncles and cousins.

Rick's family has a history of colon cancer and they decided to try to do some genetic testing with his uncle so that all of the cousins can get tested to see if they have a mutated gene that causes the cancer.  I'm not sure how to feel about this... On the one hand it would be nice to know that Rick was in the clear, but on the other hand do I/we really want to know that he has this gene that basically means he will get/has a high likelihood of getting it?  Rick made a good point of saying that it doesn't matter either way he will still get early screenings and try to live the healthiest life style possible (within reason, no crazy cleanses for us).  So, I guess we'll just see what happens.

On a happier note, today is Rick's parent's 28th wedding anniversary, and our 9 month wedding anniversary. yay!

Day 271

Today was the house inspection and it all went pretty well.  There are a few major things that need to be repaired, but we're hoping to get the seller to pay for those.

Rick was a real trooper and donned his white paper jumpsuit to crawl all over up in the attic and under in the crawl space.  I stayed on ground level.

I did manage to snap a few shots of the dead mouse in our crawl space.  Someone left a big roll of insulation down there that the mice have made into their own little apartment complex.  eww.

Day 270

Today we headed back to Champaign via Rick's parents house.  Our home inspection is bright and early tomorrow morning, so we made it a little easier on ourselves by crashing at Rick's parents house for the night.

The last time we were at his parents they showed us some tadpoles that had hatched in a few big puddles out in their pasture.  At the time there were about a billion of them and the puddles were pretty big.  Tonight we checked on them again and their puddle home was quickly drying up so Pat, Carly, Rick and I made it our mission to save them.  We tried several methods for transplanting them but they're slippery little things and were hard to scoop up.  We finally discovered... after much tromping in the mud... (ok, not by me.  I don't really like to get dirty) that a pool skimmer was the best way to catch them, put them in the bucket and then have Rick's dad drive out to the other side of the pond... far away from the numerous catfish... and release them.

I don't know what that froggy mom was thinking laying her kids there.  Lucky for her we were there to save them.

Day 269

The AC is fixed!!! Thank goodness!  The AC guy came out a few minutes ago and it is now pumping out the cold air.

It was kind of a miserable night between loud neighbors, clanking blinds and being super hot and sweaty.  I'm really looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight.

If only I had time to squeeze in a nap.  Unfortunately, I don't think that's going to happen.

Day 268

Lately one thing after another has been falling apart in our apartment.  It's making me a little nervous for house ownership because I realized last night that if this were our house we would be footing the bill for all these repairs.

Last week, well actually a few weeks ago, the fridge stopped being cold.  We had two gallons of milk go bad before their sell by date.  I've never had that happen.  I had to put  Rick's beer thermometer in the fridge to make sure I wasn't going crazy and convince our land lady something was wrong with it.  That all seems to be fixed now... the milk was frozen this morning haha

We also had a window break... the frame just fell out when we opened it.  And the handle on the microwave is no longer attached at the bottom, but if you give it a good whack and pull from the top it sort of functions.

The biggest problem is that our air conditioner stopped working last night.  It only blows hot air and 'blows' might be a bit of an exaggeration.  The AC guy was out here all day working on it, but we got the bad news about 5 that it would be fixed until tomorrow.  Something about it being overheated.  So, we've been sentenced to a hot sticky night.  Not fun.  I looked at the weather and it's supposed to get down to 74 for approximately 2 hours tonight... awesome. 

Day 267

It's official... we bought a house!! Pending the inspection this week.  Here are some photos of our future home.

Home sweet home!

Hall

Living Room

Kitchen

Dining area

kitchen

laundry off garage

living room (view 2)

master bath

backyard and deck

Master bedroom

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Hall bath

Can you tell an old lady lives here currently?  We have some big plans for wall paper removal and updates.

Day 266

We take a break from the house drama to attend Maifest.  Tom's annual drinking festival.  It was really fun and they had a million different beers that they had brewed to try.  Saw a lot of Alpha Chi's I haven't seen for ever.

Oh!  And I ran a 5k this morning!  My time was 36 minutes, (minus a minute for the really bad start) not awesome but not terrible either.

Day 265

The war of hard-headed-ness continues...

5am: Email from Jeannie trying to convince us to buy house.  This makes me want to walk away even more just to prove her wrong.

9am: Call Jeannie.  Give another offer of $160,500, no warranty.  Tell Jeannie we want to discuss rental properties with her to psych Esther out.

9:05am: Determine that even if Esther counters with $162,000 we will accept it because we want the house.  Although, I will forever hold a grudge against Esther for being so stubborn.

10:30am: Counter-offer: $162,000 and warranty... gee thanks for that bone Esther.

10:45am: Accept offer at $162,000 plus warranty.  Ask for earlier closing.  Jeannie tells us we're driving her crazy.

noon: Contract deadline expires.  Radio silence.  Has Esther changed her mind?  Call Jeannie.

2pm: Here from Jeannie. We have verbal acceptance but because Esther is out of town it is going to take awhile to get the contract signed.

Day 264

We officially put an offer in on the house yesterday afternoon.  It was kind of a whirlwind and a little scary to be doing it so fast, but after looking at approximately 28 duds we knew a gem when we saw it.
Now, we're playing the waiting game in the middle of a heated negotiation...

Here's a little timeline:

Wednesday
4pm: Put in official offer of $155,000 plus asking seller to pay for 1 year home warranty

6pm: Speculate as to whether Jeannie will call with the counter-offer tonight.  Will we get the deal of the century and the seller accept our initial offer?

8pm: Conclude that Jeannie will not call tonight.  Seller is old and a time zone ahead of us, she's definitely gone to bed by now.

Thursday
7am: Wake up bright and early in case Jeannie calls first thing with an offer.

9am: Decide to head for home from Rick's parents.  Make bets on whether Jeannie will call before noon.

noon: No call.  Call Jeannie to see if our phones actually work.  She hasn't heard anything.

2pm: Counter-offer!!!  $166,000, home warranty out.  Curse Esther for being so stubborn.

2:03pm: Call Rick's parents for offer advice.  Try to get inside Esther's head and figure out her strategy.

2:45pm: Counter with $158,500.

3:45pm: Esther counters in record time... $162,000. Final Offer.

3:48pm: Again try to figure out Esther's strategy.  Call Rick's parents, my dad and Rick's realtor friend for advice.

4pm: Decide we really don't want to pay more than $160,000.  Offer $160,000 plus home warranty.  Tell Jeannie this is really as high as we want to go given the comparables.  Reiterate that we just started out home search and we are totally willing to walk away and keep looking (haha ya right, wonder if she bought that).

5pm: Go to dinner with friends.  Discuss how we might buy a house while at dinner.  Place cell phone in middle of table with vibrate and ringer on, so we don't miss the call.

5:45pm: She's calling!!!  Rick runs outside to talk.  I try to analyze his body language... it's not looking good.

5:50pm: Esther countered with $162,000... that stubborn old bird, how dare she!  Rick is really, really disappointed.  He really wants this house.  At this point I thought it was all over, Rick didn't explain that we could still counter again.  I'm a little disappointed, but know that we'll find something eventually.

6:30 pm: Head home.  Realize the negotiating is not over.  Discuss all options.  Conclude almost immediately that we're willing to pay the $2,000 more because, even with interest, we would spend that on a rental and other moving costs.  Do a bunch of math.  Determine that I am stubborn and would rather win the negotiation war than the house.  Decide to sleep on it.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Day 263

30 houses looked at on our house hunting trip.

2 houses that Rick's dad approved of.

1 offer

After an awkward morning with Jeremy the world's worst realtor we called up Jeannie (the realtor from yesterday who actually knows a thing or two) and told her we'd found a house and we wanted to buy it with her.  We went to see the house for the 2nd time that day and now we're headed back to her office to make an offer.

Making an offer turned out to be quite the process.  Jeannie is not so hip to the technology.  Good thing Rick was there.

Did I mention that Jeannie's business card has a picture of her posed like a genie on it?

Day 262

Well, Day 2 of house hunting was slightly more successful.  We were no longer looking in the slums of Champaign, but still didn't find anything we loved.  So instead of more house pictures I have a fun montage of Rick-walking-through-my-shot pictures.

Day 261

Well todays house hunting expedition was a real bust.  Looking at houses online is NOT an accurate representation of the actual thing.  I knew going into it that we'd be looking at some homes that needed some repairs and remodels, but I was not prepared for the terrible neighborhoods.  No one takes a picture of their neighbors trashy yard, the busy street behind their house or the muddy yard where grass refuses to grow.  Here are some other 'gems' I managed to get photos of...

This house had a really nicely re-done kitchen.

but then you went in the garage and there was
the ugly 2nd kitchen  that took up half of
the 2 car garage...what?

The bathroom with velvet wall paper.

the weird brick chimney that had a built-in, indoor grill

This house had an attached garage, but they  had walled
 off the door to the garage, so you still had
to go outside to get to it.

See that island... it's portable, you can take put it
against the wall, next to the fridge, even outside!

Aqua toilet...

and sink.

This house looked really normal...

Until you discovered the microwave stuffed with bread...

The stove that backs to nowhere...

the labyrinth of storage/dog/cat rooms

the labryinth continues.  

Oh and see that crazy cat in the last picture?  Funny story.  We were at that house and the realtor had special instructions to be careful not to let the cat outside.  So, we're in a back bedroom all three of us and we hear this weird noise... bang... bang... bang.  Finally the realtor goes to check it out and it's that psycho cat throwing himself at the open screen door trying to get the handle open!  Nuts!  This is why I don't like cats... they are weird.

Day 260

Well we're headed up to Champaign tomorrow to begin our house hunting adventure.  I've lined up 3 realtors and about 30 houses for us to look at in 3 days, so hopefully we find a gem.  It's going to be a crazy trip!

Since today is May 1st aka May Day I was telling Rick on the drive up about May Day.  When I was a kid we would make little baskets out of strawberry cartons with ribbon woven in and fill them with candy and stuff and then you would leave them on your friends door step, ring the door bell and run away.  Rick thinks I'm nuts and that May Day has something to do with the communists?  I think my May Day is way better.