Our House

 
After a successful weekend of working on the house, we continued making progress on Monday. Randy got additional shelving installed, completing the storage closet, pantry and master closet. We chose to install adjustable shelving in these spaces ourselves to fit changing needs and to make best use of the  10 foot ceilings. 



The landscaping company installed some additional plants including 3 aloe plants and another Mexican Bird of Paradise, among others. We got to the house a little bit late and had to have them move the 3 aloe plants that were too close to the driveway. The appraiser came through the house for the final time. The paper signing was postponed until Wednesday.

We noticed that our neighbors, the burrowing owls, had moved because the lots around our house were leveled by the developer. They probably did not like the earthquake that the bulldozer made as it as it traveled around the property. They found another home just down the street next to a stop sign. Randy spied another pair in the development too. There are only an estimated 10,000 pairs of them left in the United States.

Tuesday and Wednesday found Randy busy at work with out of town visitors from the hospital software vendor Epic. This left Georgia making the final arrangements for moving, utilities, and deliveries. 

On Wednesday we finally got the papers signed and were able to make us the official owners of the house – now “OUR house. “ It had been postponed by two days because the builder had not gotten the necessary information to the title company quickly enough. There are many new regulations that require more information than in the past and not all companies are familiar with them.

The closing would not record until the next day (Thursday) and normally we would not be given the keys until after the recording. The real estate and title people were aghast that the builder had given us unofficial possession of the house Friday before. It had made our lives so ever much less complicated to have the extra week for preparation and we were very grateful. Early possession could have caused complications if for some reason the closing were not recorded.

Georgia also took delivery of the furniture that we had ordered on the 4th of July weekend. We also got Internet and cable television installed. The electricity was put in our name too.

Thursday found Georgia moving many items from the apartment over to the house and getting the master closet organized. We have really been able to pack more usable space into the closet by doing it ourselves. The upper reaches of the 10 foot ceilings make great shelving space for light items not normally used (like suit cases and hats).

Now all we needed to truly make the new house, “Our House”, was the delivery of our household goods that have been in storage since their transportation from Oregon in June. That was scheduled to happen the next day - Friday.