Everything between the moment when I found out we were clear
to close on the house, and the actual time I signed all of the documents, was a
relaxing break. The closing itself happened in the office of my real-estate
agent in Winsted with he and a representative of both title company and
mortgage brokerage office in attendance. Two of the sellers ended up being
there for the final thrilling moment. They had grown up in the house that their
father had built, and grown old and died in along with their mother. They were
there to get their check, sure, but it was more than that for all of us: it was
an extension of life.
I signed paper after paper, and initialed line after line
before it was done. Then the sellers handed me the key; I was speechless. I had
been waiting 39 years for this moment, and four years ago I thought this was
not even a possibility. Now nobody can take it away from me (as long as we pay
for it.) Amanda took pictures of some of the critical moments but I left the
camera at the new house, so I will post them at a later date. Actually, for
this post, I will find pictures on the internet of other people doing things
that look important.
Even though Amanda had to get back to work for our Cuatro de
Mayo event, we drove to our new home after the closing to take pictures and bask in our accomplishment.
We walked around the property inside and out, and we took a few more pictures. This is ours. This is our home.
Flash forward to Sunday, two days after closing. My mother was gracious enough to give up a day of her life to help peel
wallpaper and remove glue. I—probably we—were under the supposition that we
would be spending the whole day just getting the stuff down. We were wrong. In
just under three hours, we (including Amanda) had all of the ugly wallcovering
in plastic bags ready for disposal. The glue underneath, however, was a
different story.
There are four rooms in all that need to be painted. The
kitchen is first priority, so after removing the paper, we got to town with a
stripper and began removing the glue one square foot at a time. The stripper
left shortly after we began working, so we were able to be much more
productive. Another four hours of scrubbing the glue and we were done. Well,
done with the kitchen.
Yesterday Amanda and I went back to wash the walls with
T.S.P. and prime. Everything looked so different than the day before. There is
so much more to do in this house. My mind races to find all of the projects and
complete them all as soon as possible, but today a very wise woman told me that
summer is here, and we have a house that is fully functional to enjoy as a
family. That made a lot of sense to me. There are a few superficial changes
that need to be made before we move in, but after we are settled in, it’s time
to enjoy the weather and save up to do these tasks in the winter. We currently
have 360 payments left on our mortgage, so this is definitely a “long term”
scenario. We are going to be there for a while, and I shouldn’t try to get the
lot done now.
There are eleven days left until we move, and I have one day
off until then. Actually, I have to work on moving day. For these eleven days I
will try to get as much done with the walls in the four rooms as possible. A
little paint is going to go a long way in making this place look a little more
modern.
And that’s all. I’m going to stop writing so I can add funny
pictures.
Hey, I found some real pictures from my phone. The top two are the result of the peeled wallpaper in the kitchen and laundry rooms. The bottom is a picture of said paper.
