Last night I dreamed of endless birds being born in our house. We have birds in our attic and they are loud outside the windows. They also poo all over my car. And toss out little tufts of insulation. However, I'm usually inclined to think that when life appropriates your space, it's just a little bit of reality. I draw the line where any animal would draw the line at things invading its nest: things that threaten my food (ants), hygiene (mouse droppings), or shelter (termites). So, these birds haven't been onything more than a nuissance, really.

But last night I dreamed that they were multiplying endlessly and holes in the vents were allowing them to infest the house. I also dreamed of a cross between an oropendula and a chestnut creeper that I was calling with in conversation. It was beautiful. Oh, I just remembered that this bird looked like a few of the fancy pigeons I was surfing about last night. And the birds were all up in my audio waves in bed. So, that probably fed the dream.

Either way, the attic may have crossed into the realm of nest territory. As in MINE.

Class, paint, and a bird in wait.

This week we both leave for a month, putting us in the curious situation of committing a push to close on a mortgage for a house that will stand empty for a month. Our realtor and mortgage agent are our star players right now, finding the cheapest handyman to do some touch-up painting to pass mortgage inspection and assuaging the worries of the seller to hurry up and close already before their next mortgage payment (not that we'd ultimately mind....). Those women are a god send. If you are ever looking for real estate in Michigan, let us know.

We drove by the house a few times during the past two days of breaks in the storms wondering when the painters were ever coming, and finally had to make some phone calls to light a fire. That's what cheapest buys you, I guess. Today it was done, yay!

Saturday Curt went to a mortgage counseling course given by a local community service group and learned a little bit more about borrowing mass amounts of money, but mostly learned that the counselor was mighty impressed with how right-on we are in all our considerations and actions.

Last time we drove by we saw a cardinal sitting atop the sold sign. Now we just wait.

SOLD!

We drove by the house this weekend to see if there was any storm damage and look what we found! If the seller's realtor thinks it's ours, we're joining in.

Our thoughts ran to the large tree out front during the insane storms. Fortunately it and the rest of the house were fine, even though every other yard between here and there was covered with a large fallen branch. With threats like these, we are speedily beginning to understand what it means to have a serious investment.

So far so good.

Our next step is easy: waiting to hear back from the mortgage agent on estimates of the window painting required for the loan to close. We'll take those estimates (currently running $600) to the sellers and get them to do the work. Once that's done, we can begin to close. In the mean time, we're transferring our down payment out of stocks (A hubby and a home! Gee thanks, Starbucks!) and dreaming of tomato plants and bushels of basil.

The One.

Welcome to our new house on Fairview in Lansing! We are finally letting ourselves call it ours even though we haven't closed because it's unlikely we could back out even if we wanted to.

These are pics from the realtor so none of this stuff is ours and of course the snow is gone now. This house sat on the marked at $130k all winter and then came down to where we could bargain for $100k. And what a bargain it is! It's a 3-bed 1-bath with enclosed porch, a fenced, tree-lined back yard, and a 1-car garage.





This is the living room with nice windows onto a sizable tree-lined side yard maintained by our neighbors and more windows onto the enclosed front porch with new windows. The hardwood floors are pretty dark. We are thinking of changing that if we refinish.








The french doors onto the charcoal-grey library are another star of the house. We love love love it and are drooling all over its cozy library potential. We'll need lots of lighting to stake our place in its gloom, though. We are not too fond of all the colors in the house (there are many!) but the white trim lends a bright continuity that allows the colors to stay for a while. There is a ceiling fan in nearly every room and we especially like the one in here.



Dining room is done in a strange paper texture that looks gold at a distance. I'm not sure I like it, but don't think it's a priority to change it. We can work with it. I'm thinking mixed metals. Suggestions?









This bathroom is too cute! The checkers are tops as well as the modern fixtures. A whirlpool tub or claw-foot bath is sadly moving way down our list of priorities. Strangely, there is only 1 bathroom upstairs, so we get a free stairmaster!









We couldn't love our new kitchen more. It's the star of the house, which, despite all the needed repairs, makes it a winner. The apron sink, granite countertops, gas stove with microwave above (we haven't had a microwave in years!), and extra counter space are so great. We are most especially enamored of the dishwasher.







To the right of the sink is a new mud room extension (not pictured) with tile floors, new windows, and french doors to the back yard. We have pipe dreams of routing a stacked washer/dryer in there because the basement is so annoying to climb down into. The basement door is to the left of the fridge.

Annoyingly, the previous owners thought it clever, along with their strange paint, to mix up the cabinet colors. It looks like a clearance job, not clever, but I imagine we'll get over it!

Upstairs pics to come!

The God-forsaken 2008 housing market

You'd think we'd have the pick of the litter in a market like this. But we went out with our wonderful realtor, Ms. Carol Chapman, and looked at 10, count 'em, 10 houses in a single day, finding just a single one we could even consider buying. Sadly, many of the houses people couldn't afford to keep weren't affordable to maintain either. After starting a bidding war with our last losing offer, we're jumping on this one with a smidgen of hesitation. It needs some work, but it's solid and meets our primary requirement of being highly sellable in 5 years when we leave Michigan.

Next step is to qualify for a subsidized Michigan first-time homebuyer's mortgage. With just 3% down and a 5.625% interest rate in a market that lists more like 6.5%, we're glad to be able to get this special loan.