The Big Day

Today was the big day we’ve been anxiously anticipating since mid-February.  Today was Closing Day for our new house!  Our meeting was at 8:30 am at the title company, and all the papers had been signed before 9 am. 

Our seller is moving to another home in the area, and was also closing on his new home today, so he had signed all our papers yesterday, so he could attend his own signing.  The moving truck was scheduled to arrive at our new house to pick up our seller’s furnishings at about 10 am.  We were told we could go in any time, but we chose to give him his space so he could get moved out without us breathing down his neck.  We took advantage of the delay to have a leisurely breakfast and then make a trip to Home Depot for, among other things, a new garbage can.  So that is the first official new purchase for the new house!

We finally went to the house at 1 pm and entered for the first time as owners!!  It was very exciting to put the key in the door and walk in!  A number of other keys and the garage door remotes were waiting for us on the kitchen counter.  We unloaded the car of our garbage can, some folding chairs and our big shop-vac.  Then we went back to the old house for another load.

After grabbing a light lunch, we returned to the house with a card table, an interior vacuum cleaner and a couple boxes of supplies: paper towels, TP, soap, cleaning supplies, disposable cups and plates, etc…

It wasn’t too long before we were greeted by Betty, our neighbor to the east.  She is a very spry and “with it” 80something widow.  She had actually helped our seller pack and move, and she came in to finish getting the rest of his food from the fridge.  He had left a vacuum cleaner too, but we told her it wasn’t necessary that they clean – we would do it.  She visited for a few minutes.  Both times we’ve met her we’ve been very impressed by her, and I’m sure she is going to be a great neighbor!!!

After Betty left, we got busy on cleaning projects.  Hubby started in the room that we are now calling “The Pantry”.  It is actually a very nice sized storage room with built-in shelves on 2 walls which is accessed through the laundry room.  This is also where the water heater and the fuse box are, and there is a wash-tub sink in there as well.  (Stay tuned for photos tomorrow!) 

I got busy on the kitchen.  After doing a very basic cleaning of the counters, I worked on washing out the fridge/freezer.  While we were working, our neighbor to the west popped in.  His name is Al, and he is a middle-aged fellow who had his dog Wander with him.  Wander is quite elderly and has a nasty looking tumor on her hind leg.  She was very sweet, and greeted us for some “pets”, and then the 2 were on their way.  Al happens to own a painting company, and we told him we would love for him to bid on our interior painting job.

A little later, we were greeted once again – this time by the lawn care people that we are going to hire to take care of the new yard.  The man and his wife came to look at the yard and discuss everything we want done.  They walked around the yard with us and made some suggestions about the landscaping.  They will also be helping with the yard at the old house – it’s just too much for Hubby to do it all.   

Today we worked until about 6 pm, and then we headed back to the old house for dinner.  We were both exhausted and decided to call it a day.  We are going to be very sure that we pace ourselves so that we don’t over-do it. 

We are both very relieved that everything went so well today, and we’re looking forward to more new-house-fun tomorrow.  One of the items on tomorrow’s agenda is cleaning the garage!  WOO HOO!!!