The work begins...again

As you can see from the lovely realtor pictures in the last post, we have lots of projects ahead of us. The house, a 1950's brick rambler, has been frozen in the 1980's for 20 years. We have thick navy blue and bright green carpeting, flowery wallpaper peeling everywhere (I've almost got the bathroom wallpaper free) and, of course, bright green flowery drapes hanging in the basement (even covering a light fixture!).
We've just had radon mitigation done-at the cost of $1750. Ugh.

We're Here-We're finally Here! Consider these-the BEFORE pictures

Stranger than Fiction

Ain't nothin' easy.  Seems the guy who owns the house we're buying is suffering from stage III Remorse.  2 1/2 weeks before closing he wants to cancel the deal.  Enough so that he talked to his lawyer today.  And here we are wondering where it's all going.  Will we have a home to move to?  Will we become a lawyer's pet?  I'm sure it will be terribly amusing someday.  Not today, though.

My brother's city

This is the view from my brother David's roof in Santa Barbara. He and my sister-in-law, Mary are fine. Sadly, many in the area are not.

The tunnel suddenly ends

This is the post I've been waiting to write for at least a couple years now.  We bought a freakin' house!  Cindy sold hers (old news)!  I'm entertaining an offer for mine tonight (so I've been told)!  This has seemed like an unreachable pipe dream for a long time now.  And here we are.  Trying to put together moving plans.  Trying to come up with a wedding plan.  Trying to come up with a financial plan.  What a sweet pain it is!

Know this:  We are getting married on August 22, 2009 come hell, high water, astroid or whatever.  We hope to see you all then.  Formal information will be coming shortly.  Woo Hoo!!

Fame

Hey!  Somebody wrote a nice article on my and my photos in the new Color magazine!  My print prices have just doubled. (not really)

9 months, 7 open houses and 75 showings later...

Someone has signed the papers to buy the house. And, just to drive home the point that this market is in the tank, I'm making 1/2 of what the realtors are getting out of the deal. $7K smackaroos.

My love.

To lead a better life,
I need my love to be here.

Here, making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of his hand
Nobody can deny that there's something there.

There, running my hands through his hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking but he doesn't know she's there.

I want him everywhere
and if he's beside me I know I need never care.
But to love him is to need him

Everywhere, knowing that love is to share
each one believing that love never dies
watching his eyes and hoping I'm always there.

I want him everywhere
and if he's beside me I know I need never care.
But to love him is to need him.

Everywhere, knowing that love is to share
each one believing that love never dies
watching his eyes and hoping I'm always there.

I will be there, and everywhere.
Here, there and everywhere.

Still here.

I've had close to 30 showings. But we're still here. I just had the floors refinished and they look lovely. The whole damn house is lovely.
Fingers and toes crossed.
By the way, Lulu is the photographer for this picture and the two below. She's fab.

Finally, some good news

My proposal has been accepted by the U of M. I will be getting a BA in a self-designed program of cinema/politics/journalism/french. I'm not even kidding. How cool is that?