No pictures yet, but at least there's a post!

I keep putting off posting because I need to give the masses an update of the reunion in Utah and pictures of the new house, etc, etc. I also have noticed that my fellow bloggers are also slacking in their posts, except Heidi, who follows a rigorous 13/7/13 schedule. What is it about the summer that causes the bloggers to hibernate? I doubt they're outside frolicking in the newly trimmed lawn. In fact, they probably don't HAVE a lawn to frolic in, and if they do, it's not newly trimmed. Everybody knows you can't frolic in unshaven grass.

So, if the frolic-meter is low, where are the bloggers? At the pool? Watching the tube? There's nothing on TV in the summer. Or do they just think that blogging is like homework and homework is not done in the summer? That's my excuse, I think. Every time I'm online and I'm thinking "I should write a post", usually my thought process is..."NAAAAAAAAAAH! I'd rather go bother the wife."

HOWEVER, summer is no excuse. I must blog on. Today is the last day of July, and I've had 2 posts this month, both of which were extremely weak and excuse-laden. No more lading excuses!

For those of you In The Know, you know that we've been in the process of finding, offering, and buying a house. This process was at first enjoyable (finding the house, looking at different properties), then stressful (figuring out how to pay for it), then exciting (picking paint colors and carpet, working on the property), then stressful again (waiting for the bank to approve us).

We spent the 4th of July painting the kitchen, as well as the next Saturday. That was hard work, but a lot of fun. I was out in the backyard digging up huge rocks and gathering wood. There were a few dead trees that our neighbor (remember it's a duplex, we share the land) hacked down with his huge chainsaw.

I should elaborate on our neighbors. They are a couple about 40-ish, both cops in the neighboring city of Randolph. They have a K-9 dog. The dude is a burly, stocky, tough-lookin' guy with a shaved head. He reminds me of Dean Norris, the cop on "Breaking Bad". Google him, looks just like him.

Anyway. I was out in the backyard pokin' around and he came out and asked me what I wanted to do with the trees on "my side" of the yard. I said I wanted to cut them down. So he leaves and comes back, fully decked out in an awesome lumberjack apron and goggles with this huge 5 million horsepower chain saw. I was pretty excited, maybe he'd let me cut some stuff up, as I have no chainsaw experience whatsoever.

"Need me to help in any way?" asked the mouse, sheepishly. (Can mice be sheepish?)

"Just get out of the way," replied the burly, no-nonsense lion.

Even though Steve acted like this was a total chore, he could feel my adoration emanating from my very core. He was eating this up. I watched in awe as he felled a few trees and cut them up in pieces.

"Need any other manly tasks completed around here?" he asked, flexing his pecs.

"No, Steve," I said, caressing his sweaty biceps, "that's all for now. Care for some lemonade?"

Anyway.

That led to a sweaty day of rock and wood gathering. Not sure what I'm going to do with all our land, but I think I'll dig a fire pit and build a stone path leading to it. There is definitely enough wood for a few bonfires.

In the meantime, Mel was doing a bang-up job painting the kitchen. I helped her tape up the edges, but that's about it. It looks fantastic. Pictures to come soon, maybe in 2010.

After that, it was stressful. We were trying to close by July 18th so we could have the weekend before to tidy up the place and get it ready for our move-in. But the broker didn't let us know until July 17th that we were going to push it back. After that, we were living every day in fear that we would never close and we wouldn't be able to get off work. First we pushed it til Wednesday. Then Tuesday night they said no go on Wednesday, maybe Thursday. Then midday Wednesday they said Friday, which was next to impossible for Melanie to get off of work. But late Wednesday our broker's assistant, Stephanie, came through in the clutch and got us a Thursday close. This was huge because it gave us a day of leeway in case the sellers were lazy and didn't want to drive 20 lousy miles. Which of course was the case. So we closed on Thursday and the sellers closed Friday and the attorney went on record Friday around noon and the house was ours!

Here's where I'm going to complain about my broker. If I was a rich man and could afford more of a down payment than 5%, then I would have had more options, but I was stuck with my original broker. Not that he tried to screw us or anything, but every time I called he made it sound like I called him WAY too much. Even at the closing he was cracking jokes about how often I called him. I'll admit, I called him a few times a week, but when the sole purpose of your profession is to serve the customers and get them the best rate and walk them through the complicated process of buying a home, then you need to probably GET USED TO TALKING ON THE PHONE WITH STRESSED HOME BUYERS. Geez. Glad to get that one off my chest.

Friday night we headed down to Whitman with our air mattress and tools and got to work. We stayed up late cleaning (thanks to our builder for leaving us with a huge mess) and installing blinds. We hit the sack in our house, found there was no hot water for a shower the next morning, then headed to pick up the moving truck. Moving out was no prob, had help from a bunch of Elder's Quorum members, it only took 45 minutes. Moving in was a problem, the missionaries were supposed to help but they canceled last minute. I ended up unloading most of the truck by myself while Mel attended a baby shower. Brad, my tutee, showed up and helped me with the bigger stuff, and James and Mike from the ward braved traffic to make up for the canceled missionaries, special thanks to them for that. Unfortch, they showed up with only 3 things left to move, but they helped me fix the hot water sitch and showed me a thing or two about home ownership.

The whole thing about owning a house is that all the problems are yours now. No landlord to call, no parents to pick up the tab. Our basement was FILTHY so we bought a squeegee, a sump pump, and hosed down the whole thing Monday night. Now it's as clean as a whistle! I hooked up the washer and dryer and they're running like a dream. I adjusted the shower temps to make them slightly warmer, although I ran out of hot water this morning rather quickly. Other than the hot water, we're up and running!

Well, that and the dirty garage, the unpacked boxes, the weed-filled yard, the paint droppings on the floor...