Tis the season...

I mentioned here that I had some really nice neighbors to go along with my new home. Well this week we've found out just how nice they are.

On Wed we got our first real snow of the season, I worked from home and went out in the afternoon to shovel our sidewalk before it all turned to ice... and it was done, plowed no less!

Today we got our first significant snow storm of the season, DH picked me up from my sister's house and by the time we got home not only was our sidewalk recently plowed but so too was the spot for my car in the driveway! DH's car was in the driveway or I'm sure they would have done that spot too.

To pay it forward, DH and I stopped for gas tonight and this poor man who was pumping gas was the friendlies and most cheerful attendant we had ever met. We gave him a $5 tip (I wish we could have given him more but that's all I had in my wallet) and offered to drive up the road and get him a coffee but he said he was already wired on energy drinks.

So although it's frightfully cold and snowy outside, we're just filled with kindness and warmth in our new home.

So much I want to say...

is unbloggable.

I'm feeling underutilized and the crazy work 15 hours in one day and then be bored for 2-3 days cycle is continuing. I'm waiting for things to change... asking for things to change... demanding in an appropriate manner that things change... while at the same time starting to give up hope that things will change.

So, I'm looking at post doc listings, and keeping my eye out for late posted jobs. I sketched out a grant proposal yesterday (I can't write this grant at ANJ, nor can I conduct this type of research here) and I'm going to spend some time this afternoon working on my dissertation manuscript which is oh so close to getting out the door for review.

I wish I could give details and ask for concrete advice, but I can't.

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We got our first real bit of snow today so I'm working from home. I live about 11 miles from work and the roads were still bad when I got up for work so I decided to forgo the commute.

Then I realized... we don't have any shovels here. Left them all at our other house in grad school town and rented all last year so we did not have to shovel. My sister just picked one up for me at the store and will drop it off in a while so I can dig out the front sidewalk and driveway. But seriously, who grows up in New England, moves back, buys a house, and not a friggen snow shovel? What were we thinking??

I'm being stalked

by DENTISTS!!

Ever since Hubby and I moved into our new house we get mail from 3-5 different dentists per week. I've never seen Dentists work so hard to get new patients, we did not get dentist stalked when we bought our house in grad school town. Maybe it's something about the North East, maybe dentists in my state/town are hard up for patients. Maybe the economy is forcing them to branch out to get new patients (i.e., magnets, small calendars, coupons!).

Oh, and have I mentioned my pre-existing, uncontrollable fear of dentists? Yeah, being stalked by dentists does. not. help.

Nice Neighbors

This is the first in a series of posts sitting in my draft box. I've had ideas for posts but no time to actually write them so I title them and put them in my draft box to get back to later.

Anyway... the week before Thanksgiving I had a neighbor stop by with a really nice housewarming gift. Neither DH or I had met these neighbors before so I was really touched at the thoughtful gesture. It was a really cool basket with a beautiful flower, a few different types of candles, hand lotion, dish towels, wine, diffuser kits and a kitchen note pad. Of course with the cold weather settling in we haven't even seen these people again to thank them ( I answered the door when she dropped it off and was appropriately gracious).

With the holidays coming up I thought it would be nice if we could do something for them but we know nothing about these people. Other than they're very generous and thoughtful... so I thought I'd ask for suggestions.

In the past I've made baked goods for neighbors (cookies or little cakes) and included gourmet coffees or teas, made up gift baskets for the kids with little games, bought them a movie w/ microwave popcorn and movie sized candy boxes for a night in at the movies, or gave them a couple of bottles of wine they liked. But I knew these people fairly well so I had an idea of what they would like whereas I would just barely recognize these neighbors if I saw them.

So, any ideas?? If you were them what would you like?

Time to grow up

Apparently, to my DH grown up = new, matching furniture. So, today he and I went to the furniture and bought a new couch and dining room set. Here is the couch.
The funny part is that although it's a sectional, it might just be too big for our living room so the chaise may have to be separated. He's always wanted a sectional and I thought this was really pretty so be it.

And here is our dining room table/chairs and server (I already have a china cabinet, much to DH's dismay I refused to buy the "matching one").

We bought 2 extra chairs so we'll be able to seat 8.

We also bought a new 8X10 area rug for under the table.

So, aren't you impressed with how grown up we are?

The best part is that we are picking it up next Saturday and not telling any of our friends/family that we bought the furniture. So when they come for Thanksgiving, it will all be here! I can't wait to see the look on their faces when all of our old furniture is gone. How fun.

Today is HEAT day....

After 31 days of owning this house we will finally get heat!! You can read about our lack of heat here and here. I can't tell you how happy I'll be to get up in the AM and not see my breath when I breathe!

I am heading out soon to get my massage. I am really looking forward to it. I think I'm going to make it a monthly appointment. I need to start taking care of myself, and this is one step in the right direction.

After my message I am meeting my WP to get to work on InaDWriMo. I've decided to go with revising my first year project, it's closest to publication given that I have a complete draft and really good comments about revising. I have to think about how I'm going to make the word counter work for this project. Any suggestions I'd love to hear about it.

On a different note, yesterday was the shittiest day I've had at ANJ. I can't decide if I should blog about it or not. Something happened that made me really angry on behalf of other people but I don't know that I can post it here without giving away enough details. I'd love to blog about it as a way to vent so I'll think about it. Maybe once I have a little time away from the incident I'll be able to blog about it with less emotion.

Freezing my ass off

It is 56 degrees IN my house! I have a long sleeve shirt, a fleece sweatshirt and jean on. And I'm still completely freezing.

I mentioned when we did the house inspection that it needed some major mechanical work. Since we had to replace the heat system anyway we decided to convert from oil to gas. Well, we ordered our new boiler 3 weeks ago and it still hasn't come in and it's really starting to become a problem.

We're headed to my sister's house to watch some baseball this evening, thank god she has heat! I really, really hope the boiler comes in this week. I can't take much more of this!

Not much to tell.

I've been busy with the house and ANJ so haven't had much time to write any thoughtful posts.

Things are moving along with the house. Settled on a mortgage person yesterday so all we're waiting for is the appraisal which should be in any day now and then we're all set to close on the 30th.

I was just given a really interesting project at ANJ. It's a two phase research project and I am basically going to take over phase 2. So I'll be spending the next few days getting acquainted with phase 1 and brainstorming ideas for how to tackle phase 2. The nice part is that this project isn't promised to anyone for another year so I can take my time and get to know it.

I have two on-going collaborations going on outside of ANJ that I have been moving forward on. One, we're in the process of gathering materials and writing the IRB. The other we are in the design stage. Yay for research.

That's all I have to report for now. I need to finish breakfast and get to work.

Drama

This morning DH and I decided to walk away from the house. The sellers responded to our request after the inspection with less than half of what we were asking for. DH and I just didn't think it was worth it so we called our agent to say forget it, we'll take a break and start over again.

I went to work this morning slightly heartbroken. I really wanted the house, but I agreed with DH that the sellers compensation was just not worth the amount of time, energy and money we'd have to put into the house. Not to mention the fact that many of these things need to be done before we could even more in.

Then about 3 hours into my work day I got a call from DH.... the sellers had agreed to the total amount we asked for!! They're no longer paying our closing costs but we have accepted their offer and we're getting our house!!

We'll probably close by the end of September and move in late October/early November. Yay for a new home.

RBOC: Exhausted edition

• Getting a little board of reading and editing at ANJ (I know, I know it's only been 4 days but I'm a Sagittarius and I'm used to the crazy pace of grad school & post doc), I am glad my team's deadline is over, maybe I can start getting involved in real work.
• I was so bored today I was working on my dissertation manuscript. So far, I'm not crazy about the way GA reworked the intro. She screwed up a bunch of the literature review, she doesn't know the literature and made statements, backed up with citations that are not true. I think I'm going to have to work with my old version and work in some of her ideas.
• No word on the house. Seller still hasn't gotten back to us after we sent them to our response to the inspection. DH is out of town between Friday and Sunday, I was really hoping we'd be done with all this before he left. I am feeling frazzled and exhausted with the hole thing.
• I'm exhausted and looking forward to another single girl weekend. Yay for sleeping in.

Quick updates

We had the house inspection today and it went pretty much how we expected, which is to say that the house needs major work. Our agent is preparing a list of these things and a request for compensation for the major issues (plumbing, heating, & electrical all have to be completely redone). I have a feeling the seller is not going to want to budge and we'll probably have to walk away.

Day 2 of ANJ was better, I didn't meet any new people. :) Also, I was only there for 5 hours since we had the house inspection. Tomorrow is a full day and I hope they give me something besides reading to do, Thursday is my first staff meeting. Fun stuff.

I'm exhausted. DH and I were discussing the mental exhaustion that comes along with the house stuff, never mind the mental exhaustion I have from reading all these documents for ANJ.

It's a deal

The home owners have accepted an offer on the house. We're now moving forward with inspection on Tuesday. We don't expect any surprises, we've been through the house rather thoroughly but if we find anything we'll negotiate again.

So if all goes as planned purchase and sales is on 8/25 and closing 9/30. So, we could be in and settled in our new house for Halloween. Wow did this all move quickly.

Waiting for the phone to ring...

We were pre-approved for a mortgage yesterday morning, so DH and I met our realtor at house #3 last night and spent 3 hours during a thorough walk through. We made our offer early this evening, but it's pretty low.

The house has been on the market for over a year, and it will need quite a bit of work. We don't expect the sellers to accept our offer at this price but we're hoping they'll at last come further down. We're willing to negotiate, but not willing to pay full price. There is some major stuff (heating, electrical and plumbing) that needs updating/re-doing. We're not afraid to do it, but we want to make sure we're not paying too much for a house that needs all of that.

I thought for sure we'd hear from our realtor right away with a "no way" but no word so far and it's getting rather late here. They have until 12pm on Friday to respond to the offer. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Big Day

I have orientation at ANJ today. Then I'm meeting with my team for coffee/lunch (depending on the time).

I'm a little nervous. I tend to be a bit shy with new people and although I'm excited about getting to know everyone I am easily overwhelmed by meeting many people at one time. However, everyone I have talked to has been great! They've put me at ease almost immediately so I'm hoping that feeling permeates my meet and greet today and I can just relax.

In other news, DH and I are meeting our realtor at house #3 today. We were pre-qualified for the mortgage yesterday and we turned in all the necessary paper work this AM, which means we should have our official pre-approval letter by this afternoon! Perhaps, we'll be writing an offer tonight!! Still trying not to get too excited... but I'm kinda excited. :)

Big day here today!!

House Hunting Recap

Well, it's not going to be either of the houses I posted pictures of in the previous post.

House #1 is too small, it looks deceptively large in the pictures but the rooms are all tiny.

House #2 is already under agreement but they still held the open house to get back up offers. We suspected and were correct about the fact that it was a flip. It looks pretty but there were a lot of short cuts taken when they remodeled which were apparent when you started to take a closer look.

However, all is not lost because surprise, surprise we ended up liking a house that we weren't seriously considering before we took a look at it. It's an older house (built in 1900), but that is what we like. The house we own in grad school town was built in 1890.

So here are a couple of pictures.

The side view which shows the front of the house.


The back view with the 2 tiered deck and a closer look at the deck.

So we're going to contact a mortgage broker to start the pre-approval process tomorrow. I'm not sure how long that will take or how long the house will be on the market so we'll see what happens. We didn't bother with the pre-approval previously because we were really just looking but we like this house enough and it's about 10K below our general budget that we're going to move forward. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

House Hunting

Today, DH and I are open housing (is that a verb). There are two houses that I love, love, love. So let's hope they're as great in person as they are on the web.

Here is the kitchen and backyard from house #1.


And then here is the kitchen and front view of house #2.



Both of them are 30-40K more than we wanted to spend, but they're also in much better shape than what we were originally thinking we'd get. I'll update later today with our experience.