“When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.” - Thorton Wilder
I have closed and am all moved into my new house in south Austin. This has been a great experience. I closed on Friday, May 27th and started moving that very night. The move was an ordeal and was more involved than I expected and spanned almost 3 full days. I find it funny that it was easier to move from DC to Texas pulling a uhaul than it was to move down the street into my new house. I am grateful to my friends and family who helped because without them I couldn't have done it.
So I wasn't sure I was going to be able to close early, but when I got the word last Friday, I was excited. The closing wasn't anything special and didn't feel like I was taking on the second biggest debt/investment of my life. (First being college/law school student loans whose balance is higher than my house.) There was a lot of signing. My realtor was there with me and was very helpful as well. She is such a doll and helped me every step along the way assisting me with every single detail. It didn't hurt that she was how you would imagine an attractive real estate person to be. I was probably very high maintenance, but she was kind, patient and most important, informative. I learned so much during process. When I signed the last document, I shook out my hand, and quickly got on the road to pick up my keys. It was a great feeling, but I'd still rank the feeling of passing the bar as a bit more emotionally fulfilling.
The moment I got my keys, it felt like the house was really mine. I walked around for a bit to take in the brand new empty house feel and then my feelings went from jubilation to focusing on the logistics of the move. I had a personal shot of Maker's Mark to celebrate. Christina dropped by to check out my place before I started moving. First stop, Uhaul. Christina was kind enough to give me a ride to Uhaul, since I would be driving back in one of those trucks I imagined. When I get there, the guy laughs at me as I ask for their biggest truck and tells me that everything is booked because of Memorial Day weekend and all the college kids graduating and heading back home. (I assume parent's home considering the state of the economy.) He had one open trailer he could rent me the next day so I took it. I returned to the house to hatch a new moving plan. I would be moving with just pick-up trucks. Abram brought over his Tacoma, and Norbert had his parent's Tundra. And the trips started, and we went back and forth and back and forth filling the trucks to the brink. My Dad soon arrived from the Valley and joined in on the fun. We moved until 1:30am before calling it a night.
There was a moving moment I won't forget. We got the beds over in a truck packing feat that only Abram could have imagined. When I thought it was impossible to pack a King size bed and box spring in a single pickup truck, Abram decided that not only could he do it, but that he would throw in a full size bed, box spring and twin size mattress just for good measure. It is an important lesson that sometimes you have to dream big to complete feats you didn't think you could, even when dealing with daily stuff. Even though it only had to travel 8 miles or so, it was packed so well that it could have gone much longer. This made it possible for me to sleep at my new home for the first night. It felt like camping, namely because I didn't have internet at the new place.
The rest of the weekend entailed more moving, and even my cousin Rino came over with his truck and helped out for a long while. Saturday, my sister Ana and Rick showed up as well. Ana and I went shopping for living room furniture and a bedroom set. She helped me pick a leather set I was happy with. When my fridge arrived I was excited because it felt like the final missing piece. Rick gave me a cigar to smoke when I paid off my mortgage. It was a cool gift and I put it away for that next milestone even though I don't smoke, I'll be happy to light it up. It was nice having family and friends to enjoy this with.
Sunday, Abram had a BBQ at his place for the family and to pre-celebrate his birthday on Monday. Each time I go visit, their place looks better and better. Ashley got a new car which looked really sharp, especially the color. I liked his BBQ pit so much I decided to get one like it myself. It is my first venture into gas grilling, but I'm liking it.
So here I am now, unpacking and getting situated and it is staring to feel real. Getting a house was always a big goal for me and I feel like I waited longer than a lot of people I know because I wasn't in the right position yet. When I was little, I had two goals for my house as an adult. Goal one was to have an upstairs. I always thought upstairs were cool and always wanted my Dad to build an upstairs on our one story house. I thought about this a lot for some reason. Goal two was to design it myself, I thought I would be an architect, and have secret passages and hidden rooms. So my first house only hit one of those goals, but my second house, I'll work on the secret passages. In the mean time, I am planning on a secret safe in some dead space, but I have already said too much. I wish I had something important to put in it.
What made this even more special was the road it took to get here. After college and again after law school, I ran into some credit problems which made life a lot more difficult. Good credit is important kids and not having it really limits your options I have learned. I couldn't get a good interest rate on a car or on a line of credit. So for about 3 years I worked my hardest to improve and clean up my credit past and it finally got to a decent point this year. I got my car refinanced and qualified for my home at 4.375%, which is an interest rate I am very happy about. Hopefully this is the dawn of a new era in my finances where I start to save more and figure out a way to pay down this student loan debt that makes work at time feel like indentured servitude. But just like diets and working out, later, you know, cause right now I need those new sofas. It is funny, but sad.
The house is 4 bedrooms, but 2 of the rooms are smaller, meant for a nursery I gather, but I'm using it as an office. There are two living rooms and I got my granite countertops which was important to me. I hope to take a month to get my place in order and then have a bar stocking party. My friends can just drop by in the mean time.
They didn't sod the backyard, so I had to order that this week. That was an expense I was not expecting. I never understood being a lawn guy, but maybe that will be me one day. I will say, sodding the backyard has been a chore. I probably should have hired help, but I'm enjoying it. I have that and many other home projects to look forward to.
The house I was renting in Buda was hard to walk away from. We moved into it brand new, so the experience was akin to that of buying a home and selling it 3 years later and just breaking even. We cleaned it up the best we could and left it in great shape. I'll miss the huge master and balcony, but upgrading to a place that is yours makes all the difference. It was a good home.
So that is another milestone achieved. What is funny is that a comment I continue to get from different people is, "Now you just need a wife." It makes me laugh every time. I'll keep my witty retorts to myself, but I don't think it works that way.
bistro set
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