Me 1, IRS 0

I have been fighting with the IRS for some time now, over our First-Time Home Buyer's Tax Credit. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last year and a half or so, Uncle Obama has been giving out a substantial tax credit for those folks who have recently purchased their first house, or haven't owned a house in a while and just purchased another one.

Now, those long-time readers of my blog might remember when we bought our house. Oh, about LAST AUGUST!

When we bought our house, we took the money out of our savings for the down payment, thinking we'd get it back in the tax credit. So, we filed a 1040X in early October, 2009 to amend our 2008 taxes and applied for the credit. A fairly normal procedure at that point in time...I even found instructions on realtor.com on how to fill out the 1040x and the one-page tax credit form.

Since there were a lot of folks taking advantage of the credit, the IRS said to wait at least 8-12 weeks for the paperwork to process. Okey-dokey, we should hear something by mid-January. The holidays ensued, and the allotted time came and went with no news.

I called the IRS around the first of February, to see what I could find out. To my great surprise, I got to speak to an actual person, who spoke fluent English, and was very friendly. Not something I expected from the IRS, certainly. She confirmed that they indeed received our paperwork, and further had sent us a letter in early January asking for more information before they could process the return. I replied that I had not received a letter, and asked where they had sent it. Sure enough, they sent it to the address of the house we used to rent. This was a problem.

While we lived in the rental house, all our important mail went to a locked box at a UPS Store. I did not want to have to change our address with everyone if/when we moved. So, when we DID move, I did not think to file a change of address. I also did not remember that the IRS does NOT want a mailing address on your tax filings, they want an actual physical address. So, when they sent the letter asking for more info, it went to the address on file with the IRS, the old house which no one lived at anymore. Needless to say, the letter has still never made it to us.

Now, those of you paying close attention might at this point notice the same flaw in logic I pointed out to the nice IRS lady. If I filed an amended return for the first-time home buyer credit, wouldn't that automatically mean I HAD A NEW ADDRESS?!? I even put the new address on all the forms I had to fill out! IRS lady agreed with me, and admitted that whoever entered the information into their system should have checked the address they had on file for me against the address on the form. However, she said, and I quote, "It depends on who entered the information and how diligently they do their job as to whether that gets done or not." Now that's the IRS I expected, the ones just wandering through their day with no regard to what happens as a result of them doing/not doing their jobs. I was surprised that one of their own would actually verbally admit to what I had always suspected but had no way to prove!

So, I asked the next obvious question. What additional information were they looking for? This time I got a much more governmental-like answer. IRS lady could not see the contents of the letter from her screen. She did not have access to see such things. Whew! My faith in the red-tape-laden bureaucracy was restored.

IRS lady said the best she could do for me was to "fix" my address in their database and make sure that a copy of the original letter was sent to the new address. I guess that's better than nothing. She then told me it could be up to two weeks before I saw the letter, but if I had not seen it by then to call back. Okey-dokey.

About two weeks later, an 8.5x11 white envelope from the IRS showed up in the mailbox. Great, now we'll finally unravel the mystery of the missing information from that simple one-page form. Well, not exactly...this was a letter saying that the IRS had disallowed the amended return for...wait for it...our LACK OF RESPONSE TO THEIR REQUEST FOR MORE INFORMATION! Classic. Our government hard at work, with one hand not talking to the other.

According to the letter, I had thirty days to dispute the disallowment and have the matter reviewed by a tax examiner. They also included a rather involved set of instructions on how to file the dispute and what other paperwork to include. I spent the better part of a day first understanding the procedure, and then gathering all the paperwork and writing the dispute letter. I faxed that to the IRS, made a PDF copy of everything for myself (CYA), and sat back to wait the two weeks I was told I must wait before calling the IRS to make sure the paperwork had been properly entered into their system.

Two weeks go by and it is now early March. I called and verified they had indeed received the dispute and were working diligently on it. Another IRS lady told me that they have, by law, up to thirty days to respond to my dispute and I should receive a call or a letter by then. More waiting.

Towards the end of March, I received two copies, in two separate envelopes mind you, of a letter saying they are working on my case but they will need until April 19th to respond to me. At this point, I am not surprised at the delay. Annoyed, yes...but not surprised.

Just before April 19th, I received two more letters, again in two separate envelopes, saying that they are indeed sorry but they must delay again until May 19th. At this point, my patience is wearing dangerously thin. However, I know if I call and annoy them, they will drag this out even longer. They are the government...they don't care; they don't have to. I do resolve to ESM that this has now become a matter of pride, and I WILL outlast these buggers and get my money, even if it is the last...thing...I...ever...do!

May 19th comes and goes. No letters in duplicate. No calls. No nothing. Hmmmm. So, on the 26th, I called the IRS once again. Again, I spoke to a lady who was very courteous, but a bit more abrupt than the last several. After she verified my identity, I explained my story in the Reader's Digest abridged form once again. I heard the keyboard in the background begin clicking furiously and she came back and said, "Yes sir, I see we have approved your amended return on the 24th and you should be receiving your tax credit check within two to four weeks." HUH?!? No further delays? No more red-tape forms? What happened to the information you allegedly needed back in January? I waited all this time for "oops, sorry"?!? Showing good sense, despite being taken aback by this sudden, positive turn of events, I did not ask any of those questions and simply thanked her for her time and hung up. I then broke out the happy dance! A little premature, I know...but I could not help myself! At last, forward progress! *grin*

So, today I go to our mailbox and find a hand-addressed envelope from the IRS containing a letter outlining the same information I got from my last phone call. And another envelope with A CHECK!!! YAY!!! Even better, the check contains the credit amount, plus back interest from when I filed the amended return back in October! So, even though it took nine months to get this sorted out, at least I got an extra 5% to show for it. Now I understand why the check got here so quick. They figured out how much interest they owed me and did not want to have to pay a penny more!

After having worked in government as long as I have, and after having lived through this incident, I have a few words of wisdom to pass along when dealing with governmental entities. As always, YMMV, so don't blame me if these don't work out so well for you.

One, read and listen carefully and follow all instructions to the letter. That takes away their ability to use that as an excuse and they can't really give you a hard time for following their rules. Two, patience-patience-patience. It will probably take longer than you expect, but they should eventually find their butts with both hands. Three, it doesn't generally pay to get irate with them. They can easily make your life much more difficult, and generally without any repercussions to them.

Following those simple tips brought this saga to a successful conclusion for me. Hopefully you won't ever have to use them, but if you do I hope they help you in some small way.

-- Sundown, Out.

If It Isn't One Thing...

Got Treelo to the vet this morning...by myself. ESM apparently caught a bit of a bug and spent half the night last night "driving the porcelain bus," if you catch my drift. Not fun at all. She was in no shape/mood this morning to do anything, let alone take a trip to the vet. So, I got elected.

Unfortunately, I did something to my left foot on Thursday night and have been hobbling around ever since. So, here I am, gimpy, trying to haul the carrier to and from the car and the vet. Must have been a sight, for sure! Luckily, it is my left foot, and my car is an automatic, so I could at least drive. Otherwise, no vet visit...which I'm sure would have made Treelo happy! *grin*

Anyway, after her examination, the vet says it's probably Treelo's asthma acting up along with an allergy of some kind, made worse by the dry air. So, they gave me a prescription for an antihistamine with a bronchial dilator. Hopefully that will help her with her cough. She had two bouts with it today after we got back. Poor thing!

We're still running one humidifier...the other one apparently bit it. It leaked all over the carpet, and ESM had to dry up a pretty big puddle. I am planning on taking the broken one in the shower tomorrow and filling it up to see where the leak is. Maybe I can fix it.

I also need to check my furnace filter. I put a good allergen filter in about a week ago, and I've been meaning to go pull it and see how it's doing. Treelo and I have both been suffering, so my guess is we're both allergic to the same things. Like father, like daughter, eh?

BTW, Hubbard is doing well with his medication and insulin. No more accidental needle pokes into humans to report, so we must be getting better! *grin* His appetite is beginning to return, which is good news as well.

Hopefully, no one ELSE will get sick before Christmas! *knock wood*

--Sundown, Out

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Garage Near Completion, and New Basement Plans

One down...one more car to go! I just got one half of our garage cleared out so I can put one car away. I still have some more to do with the other side, but most of the boxes and stuff there is going down in the basement next weekend. My ESM is going to be gone then to visit her parents for a few days, and I plan to use the time to move stuff around and get the garage together for the winter.

The house is coming along pretty well. With the garage in shape for winter, now all we have left is the bedrooms, my office and ESM's art studio. *grin* Oh, and the basement! Can't forget the basement!

Speaking of which, I have a couple of ideas together for the basement remodel. Nothing is firm yet, but the demo is going to happen as soon as the weather gets cold and we have no yard work to do. Should only take a weekend or two to get the old stuff out. Anyone that wants to help, and get free passes to the home theater I'm planning to build, speak up! *lol*

Time Flies When You're Unpacking

Wow, it’s been three weeks since I posted! Where did the time go?

Well, I’ll tell you! *grin*

We spent the first two weeks preparing for our open-house/housewarming party. We decided even before we moved that we wanted to do an open-house to show off the new digs, and we wanted to do it very soon after we moved. Now I know what you’re saying, “That sounds like a lot of work for just after moving!” Well, it is. But, I had an ulterior motive. If we had to get the main living areas ready for a party, they would get finished! See, without the proper motivation, it would have taken us six months in our busy lives to get it done. This way, it only took one!

The party itself was, unfortunately, not quite as well-attended as we first thought it would be. One of Everlasting SoulMate’s friends had their family come down with flu. We’re not sure if it was piggy flu, but they were in NO shape to come. And we had a couple of other families that didn’t make it at the last-minute for other reasons. So, we’ve had plenty of leftovers to eat over the last week.

Follow the link here to a few shots from before and during the party.

This last week, we’ve been cleaning up from the party *grin* and taking a well-deserved rest. Before the party, we painted several rooms (including the kitchen, which was a job and a half!), did a ton of electrical work to replace switches and outlets and make sure the downstairs was up to snuff, finished hanging pictures and decorating the main living area, did yard-work and outside cleaning, etc. But, the place really looks like it’s coming together!

Oh, BTW, the jelly-making hasn’t happened yet. ESM got the juice made, but then the party prep started in earnest and she hasn’t gotten back to it. We have plenty more grapes to work with though.

Now begins the work on the garage (so we can get our cars under cover before the snow flies) and upstairs in the bedrooms, studio and office.

As If We Needed ANOTHER Project!

My sister did a post on her blog on Sept. 3rd that coincidentally went right along with something the ESM and I have been discussing in earnest. Preserving food.

I have a lot of the same memories of my grandmother that my sister talks about. She was a pretty fair cook, but she cooked for a farm family. I would think you would become good either in self-defense or just by sheer volume/repetition. But along with her cooking, she could preserve and can most anything you could come up with, and dehydrating was also no mystery to this woman. Most of my memories of the farm are intertwined with the wonderful smells that came from that kitchen most every day.

I remember our family always had a freezer and pantry full of the canned goods that came from the farm. Strawberry jam and raspberry jelly, green beans and such. The one that stands out for me was her wonderful tomato juice! That was such a messy process, but yielded such scrumptious results! Chili made with my grandmother's home-canned tomato juice...has...no...equal.

Fast-forward about thirty years and I'm about to embark on an endeavor that would make my grandmother proud. In self-defense, we're going to make homemade grape jelly. Why, you ask? Because I have a whole Nipsey Russell* of grapes growing on the arbor in my new backyard!

They are table grapes we were told by the original owner, and there are both red and green seedless varieties. There is no way we can eat them all before they get overripe, as there is probably a good twenty to thirty pounds of them! So we decided jelly or juice would be the best thing to do. After a little game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock to decide, jelly won (Spock vaporizes rock, BTW). But that means we need a canning outfit to help us put up our jelly.

I have been looking at several kits online, and I think I've narrowed it to this one. It has all the stuff (as I remember), seems reasonably priced and will work with our flat-top stove. I think we may look a couple of other places locally before ordering, but this gives me a good idea what we should pay for a similar kit, or for the individual pieces. It's been a long time since I've even seen this done, but between ESM and myself, I am confident we will prevail. *grin* We'll keep y'all posted on how well we do.

So wish us luck in our journey, and if you have advice, I would welcome it.

--Sundown, Out

* - So, you didn't know Nipsey Russell was a measure of volume, huh? Neither did I, until a good friend of mine used that phrase in my presence many years ago. I liked it so much I immediately added it to my lexicon and continue to use it to this day. It is roughly equivalent to a "metric buttload."

Kitchen Before and After

As promised, here is a Picasa album with before and after shots of the kitchen.

The first two are before, and the second two are after. There are several things you can't really see from the photos that we've been working on.

The water line going to the fridge needed to be redone, as it was too short to allow the fridge to roll out far enough to clean behind it. So, I redid all the copper tubing all the way into the basement to the shut-off valve. And, I replaced the water filter in the fridge. I don't think it had ever been changed since the fridge was new! Yuck!

Since we had all the outlet and switch covers off to paint, I decided to go ahead and replace all the old, funky light switches and outlets with new Decora-style units. I also changed out one standard outlet next to the sink with a GFCI one. I got lucky and the outlet on the other side of the sink was inline with the GFCI, so with one unit I am protecting both outlets. Very nice.

As my Everlasting SoulMate and I were working on the electrical paraphenalia swaps, I did pull a bonehead move. And, I'm big enough to admit it! I was careful and shut off all the power to the outlets and lights, but forgot the one for the disposal. And, unfortunately, ESM got into that switch and found out the hard way. It was totally an accident! And yes, I did take her out for ice cream afterwards to say I'm sorry! Sorry honey!

Anyway, other than some light decorating (pictures, knick-knacks, etc.) the kitchen is done for now. And, we're pretty happy with it! Now, on to other projects! *grin*

--Sundown, Out

Moved in? Yes. Finished? No.

Wow, a week has gone by. I'm not sure where it went. Let's see...

I went back to work after two months off. Ok, to be fair, it only FELT like two months. It was, in reality, only five days. In going back to work, I had to start getting used to my new commute. The rental house was only seven minutes from where I worked, now I'm about thirty minutes away. I can hear you asking all the way from here...why did you move farther away?!? Well, where we were living was "too expensive." We could not afford any of the houses there, and still continue to get by on my salary. So, we had to move to a part of town that we could afford, and that meant a longer commute. But, as you know from things I have said, we got a bigger house out of the deal, and my wife has a somewhat shorter drive to school as well. So, I'll deal with the longer commute. In a weird way, the more time spent on the road gives me more time to decompress and "shift gears" from working-mode to husband-mode.

Speaking of school, my Everlasting SoulMate started back to school in earnest this week. She goes three days a week now, and is taking evening classes. I don't see her until after 9pm on school-nights. So, she's been spending her days working on unpacking and organizing the kitchen. She's about got it together, and we just finished painting the walls this weekend. It looks pretty good. When we get it mostly back together after our painting-party, I'll post some before and after shots.

I've been working on getting the technological side of the move taken care of. We got our satellite TV installed the day after we moved in, but I just got our Internet connection back on Wednesday. So, I have been busy getting the network, servers and our workstations back up and running. As you can see, I was successful, but not without a few interesting moments. I'll do a geek post in the near future about the network legerdemain I had to do.

The kittehs are pretty much settled in. Treelo generally hangs out close by when we're home, but I never know where I will find her when I come home. She has several spots she likes to sleep in. Hubbard is enjoying the upstairs. ESM posted a letter from Hubbard on her blog the other day, detailing his experiences in the new house. Definitely check it out here.

We have a new nickname for the house. You've all heard of "Happy Acres" I'm sure. Well, this is "Half-Vast Acres". Say it fast and without a pause on the hyphen, and you'll get the full meaning.

As we've been living here, we are slowly discovering all the crap that was done in a rather half-hearted fashion. Now, I'm certainly not the end-all and be-all of home renovation and maintenance, but I am pretty sure you should shim up and level kitchen cabinets as you put them in, and not try to fix anything that doesn't fit by filling the gaps with caulk, and certainly not use an interior door in an exterior door location. That's just a small sample of things we have found.

To be fair, this is not a huge slam on the gentleman who lived here before us. He was a pretty nice guy, but he had lived here a long time and was used to things being the way they were. A new set of eyes will generally see those things that have been ignored, and I'm going to try my best to fix most of them. They won't all get done tomorrow, certainly, but most will be fixed in time.

I just realized I had not posted any shots of the new house, so here's one of the front. And, now that all things tech are working again, I hope to post more often.

Later Days,

--Sundown , Out.

Still Not Done

Well, we're ALMOST out of the rental house! >:-P

After several major trips across town today, and packing both our cars to the rafters, only the tops of my earlobes are not hurting from all the packing and moving...and we're still not quite there. We brought the last load of the day over about two hours ago. I spent the rest of the time getting our fridge here clean so we could load in all the food we brought over. I also tried to get our washer and dryer hooked up, but the dryer hose I bought is too short by about two feet. Luckily, we both have enough clothes for tomorrow, so I can go rectify the dryer hose calamity on my way home tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, I have to go BACK to the rental house one last time to make sure the cleaning people did a good job, and to pick up the last few things we couldn't get today. I still need to bring over the lawnmower, Everlasting SoulMate's gardening tools and the propane tank for my BBQ. Once I do that, we should be all done and out. Finally. And if I EVER have to pack another moving box, it..will..be..too..soon!!!

The kittehs seem to have survived the day without incident, even without us being around much. Treelo seems much more calm today, although she is still a bit jumpy and gets startled easily. I'm sure she'll become more comfortable with each passing day. Tomorrow is a big day for her, as we plan to move her litter box, food and water out of my office upstairs and down into the main part of the house, and let Hubbard start to have the run of the second floor. We'll see how that works out. Also, I plan to move back into the master bedroom tomorrow night as well. I'm tired of sleeping apart from my ESM.

I'm sorry, I wish I had some pics to post, but we've been SO BUSY today that I did not get a chance to take any. Will get some up as soon as I have the energy to do so.

I'm off to peel my shoes from my feet (remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon anyone?), eat several Advil and hit the sack. Nighty-night.

One More Day...

Yesterday was our first "full day" in the new house. I was hoping it would begin to feel like home with all our stuff in it, even packed in boxes. But, not really. It still feels like I am somehow just passing through, before having to go back to the old house. It's hard to describe the feeling in words...it's somehow a mixture of sadness, trepidation and even a little lonliness. Almost like I'm homesick. Oh, don't get me wrong, there are also times when I am excited about getting to mold this house into what I want, and not what a landlord will let me do. But, the times I feel overwhelmed outnumber the excited ones by a large margin. I know that will begin to change at some point, I just hope it's soon!

The kittehs are adjusting to their new environment somewhat better than I am. Treelo let herself downstairs yesterday, a little ahead of schedule. She slipped past the gate as my Everlasting SoulMate was headed downstairs yesterday morning. Treelo seemed a bit overwhelmed as well by all the new space. She stayed very close to us, and was going back upstairs frequently to check that her stuff was still there. However, by evening, she was beginning to go off and explore on her own, and not cling to the area where my ESM and I were all the time. She really likes looking out the sliding glass door in the kitchen. It opens out onto a patio with a grape arbor over it, then out into the back yard. We had the door open yesterday, and just the screen closed, so she could sniff the air. She sat there for quite a while, watching the little white butterflies making their rounds amongst the flowers. It was fun to watch.

It does bring back memories of Ziggy though, for both of us. We have remarked to one another several times about something we've found in the new house that Ziggy would have liked. I think the space wouldn't feel quite so empty with him here. We both miss his calm and curious nature right now. I know it would help me ground my own displaced feelings a bit.

We are unpacking some more boxes this morning in anticipation of going to the old house, filling them up with the last stuff we left behind and getting out of the rental for good. I will be happy to finally be able to work here full-time, as it were, and be done with all the box-packing and car-loading. But, I know it will also be the last connection to the memories we made in that house. When we're done, all we'll have are those memories. And, unfortunately, the last few were not pleasant. I don't know how I will deal with those after the physical connection to the house is gone. No one does, I'm sure. But I know I will have to deal with them someday. I can safely say, with no reservation...I'm not looking forward to that day.

Wow...heavy. Didn't mean to bring the mood down, but my mood has been more down than up lately! I'll take some pictures today, and maybe I can get a few posted tonight of the kittehs amongst their new surroundings. That will cheer me up, and should bring some positive energy to my writing. Take care everyone.

Sorry for the Delay!

I just got my laptop back up and running, and got all your comments posted. Whew! They were starting to pile up!

We are officially "moved in" now, but we still have some things at the old house we need to go get this weekend to be officially out of the rental house. But for right now, everything is good.

The kittehs are here with us, finally. We have them sequestered upstairs for now, with Hubbard occupying the master suite and Treelo wandering around the other two bedrooms and my office. They are nervous and curious, simultaneously.

One of the closet doors in the guest room has a mirrored front on it, and Treelo discovered her reflection. She has not really been around mirrors much, so this other interloper was getting the "evil eye" earlier! *grin*

We'll keep them both up here for a few days, to get acclimated. Then Treelo will start to get the run of the house, as normal.

Well, it's time to order pizza and have dinner. We bought lunch for the movers (Mickey-D's), but that was seven hours ago and I'm hungry! So, I'll say TTFN and get a post up tomorrow sometime.

--Sundown, Out

Man, This is Weird!

The whole experience of buying a house and taking posession is a bit surreal. I've never owned a house myself before. Of course, my parents owned their homes. And I've rented trailers, apartments and houses many times. But this is a first for me.

I have a lot of emotions all jumbled up. Thinking about the fact that now I am responsible for this house in its entirety is a bit scary. Thinking about the money I will have to spend to pay this off is daunting. The ability to customize absolutely everything I can afford to is exhilirating. And, its a bit sad and lonely here now...not just because the house is sans kittehs for now, but the fact that Mr. Ziggy won't be here to enjoy this with us. I know he is always with us in spirit, but we'd both like to see his reaction to all the nice windows in this new place. He would have been happy.

Our real estate agent informed me today that the whole process, from when we contacted him to closing only took two months. Wow! It felt more like four or five months. Another one of those ways stress messes with you.

My Everlasting SoulMate and I are working on painting the kitchen tonight. It is a bluish-purple color that neither of us care for. So, we are painting it a peachy-pumpkiny kind of color. We painted the kitchen of the rental house a little darker version of that color and really liked it in there, but the cabinets in that house were the more Eurpoean white fronts with just the wood trim at the bottom. Looked great. This house has more traditional wood cabinets in a nice oak. We figured by lightening the color up, it would look better with all the wood. I'll post a before and after shot in the future and let y'all decide.

Well, my break-time is over and I need to get back to it. I'll post again when our move is complete on Friday night. Take care everyone.

--Sundown, Out.

Beginning the "Great Pack"

My Everlasting SoulMate somehow got picked to head up the move. Mostly, this was because I have my hands full working, coordinating the metric butt-load of paperwork for the new house, and hassling negotiating with the current owners about things we want fixed. To be fair, I am working on my office a bit at a time...but progress is slow.

I did get my act together (mostly) for the recent "e-cycle" event. For those that don't know, that is when one of these technology recycling companies comes to your area and (for a small fee) will take all your old electronic devices off your hands. Then they take them, strip them down, sort the pieces into different types of materials, then crush the crap out of them and reclaim all the useful compounds. Very ecologically responsible. And, in my case, now I don't have to move all that stuff! I took several old servers, monitors, workstations, a broken VCR and several other old bits and pieces. Don't worry fellow geeks...I still have plenty of good stuff left. [grin]

The ESM has been hard at work, packing the rest of the house. She's got quite far in the short time she's been working on it. There is still a ways to go yet, but there certainly are a lot of sealed boxes cropping up and an ever decreasing amount of our stuff visible.

We decided that the days of offering beer and pizza to our friends in exchange for the use of their muscles to move, were over. So, we're going to break down and hire professional movers to come do the heavy lifting. I still plan to move our computer, audio, video and kitchen-type breakables myself. Frankly, I just don't trust anyone but myself to move my 42" LCD, my workstation or any of the rest. Then, if I screw up and damage something, I can only beat my own head against the wall. Everyone else's noggin' is safe.

Looks like we only have a few more hurdles to get over before the closing date looms. Our seller resolution list is mostly done, and the few things that are left are either in the works to be done, or they have decided they won't do. I'm a little disappointed about the couple of items they decided were too much, but our real estate agent tells me that's the way these things go right now. I can do nothing but accept that as the truth, kick some sand around in frustration and then move on.

I just want everyone to know I just found out I am psychic. You want to know how I found out? I was following the Rockies game on the computer tonight, and when the top of the ninth came around and they were down 4-0, I had my moment of clarity. Barmes was on first with one out, after being hit by a pitch. Here comes Spilborghs to the plate, and I said to the screen, "I bet he grounds into a double-play." Sure enough, on a 3-2 pitch he grounds into the DP! Things just haven't went their way in NY this trip. I hope they can turn their mojo around tomorrow.

Nighty-night y'all. Sundown, out--

A Little Closer

Home ownership is looking somewhat more likely this week, despite a few setbacks.

The home inspection turned up a rather serious issue that we have been going back and forth with the sellers over. Looks like today, for the first time, there may be light at the end of the tunnel that is NOT a train. I'll know more probably next week on the issue.

On the home front, my Everlasting SoulMate and I have been going through the arduous process of sorting through five-plus years of detritus we've collected in the house we're renting. This is of course in preparation to move it to another location. Actually, we don't WANT to move it all, so with a heavy hand and at times a heavy heart, we are creating three piles. One to keep, one for donations to various worthy charities, and one for the stuff that is not even worth donating. I am still at a loss as to why that third pile is as large as it is. If it wasn't such good stuff in the first place, why did we end up keeping it?!? I wish I could find a way to curb my pack-rat tendencies, but I haven't been able to do that in more than forty years...what hope do I have now? Anyway, packing is progressing slowly but steadily. In about three years, I am confident we will be ready to move. :-) I'm kidding, it will only take two and a half years.

I am still shaking my head that someone is actually willing to say they will lend us over $200,000 to buy a house. I never thought that day would come, especially sitting in college classes, racking up student loan debt faster than I could learn all the stuff they were trying in vain to teach me. Of course, I thought I'd be a bachelor the rest of my life at that point too...and look how that turned out! :-) Hi, hon!

We've been doing some wishful thinking and planning out a few changes for the place. Little things like new colors for a few rooms, new light fixtures, and demo-ing the basement. Somehow that third one just doesn't seem as small as the other two, does it? Doesn't to me, for sure. But, looks like it will need to be done. When you buy a thirty-plus year old house, and the original owner probably finished the basement in a weekend the first week they owned the house, it's bound to have a few issues. And boy, does THIS one have issues! I think they started on the beers a little bit before they were done.

However, all the back-breaking work of undoing the current basement does have it's upside...I have tentative approval from the boss (my ESM) to finally build something I've been dreaming about for a long time. My very own home theater! I know, I know...we still have to get to closing before that dream can even hope to be fulfilled. I am also very aware that this will be one of those work-in-progress things for a couple of years, only moving forward when I can afford to. But, that isn't stopping me from doing a little online "window shopping."

In other news...there is no other news. "NEW HOUSE" is blazoned across the entire virtual sky in my mind and imagination in huge, bold, fiery letters, with no way for anything else to really grab any attention. Which is a shame, as I would really like to spend more time with the CitiesXL beta. Maybe I can sneak away from packing this weekend and take a little gaming break. Oops, I think I just let that cat out of the bag. Drat.

You're going to do WHAT???

I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately…as I’m sure you’ve noticed.

In my defense, we are in the process of buying a house.

This is a doubly big step for me, as I have never actually owned a home yet. And, I technically still won’t for thirty years, but I will be PAYING on a mortgage for a home rather than renting. This is somewhat new territory.

I’ve been waiting for several years now to think about buying. I knew the housing market was due for a “correction.” Just wasn’t prepared for how big a correction it took! But, I’m sure there are very few out there that would deny that now is a very good time to buy, if you are in a position to do so. We are, interestingly enough. Wouldn't have expected to hear myself say that ten years ago. However, it would not have been possible without a lot of hard work, and the great care that my Everlasting SoulMate has taken with our finances. She's done a lot for us. Thank you hon!

We’re doing the whole FHA, first-time-buyer thing, which makes down payments and such easier. We’ve also got the sellers to agree to pay closing costs, which cuts down on the cash we have to bring to closing. Don’t get me wrong…we’ll be bringing a substantial amount of money to the deal; however it won’t break our bank or our budget.

As you can surmise, we had an offer accepted. That’s a big step, and wasn’t without a few days of drama. We lost one house to a better offer, and almost lost this one to a cash offer. But, with hard work, perseverance, and an insane amount of luck, we won out!

Our victory dance was short lived, as we began to realize how long the journey through the minefield of inspections, paperwork, etc. leading up to closing was.

We just did the inspection, which went about as well as expected on a thirty-plus year old house. There are some issues, but none of them are show-stoppers yet. We’ll see how the negotiating goes with the seller on fixing the issues that need attention.

I cannot say enough about how important our agent and our lender have been through this process. If I could offer one piece of advice to another first-timer, it would be this: Find yourself a great agent and a great lender before you find a great house. They have helped us SO much I can’t even begin to put a price on it.

We’re hoping to close sometime in late August, get moved and be in place before September 1^st. We’ll see how close we get to that goal.