Our New Home

We have settled down into a real home, white picket fence and all. It feels like we have finally found our little patch of the world (for a few years anyway) and think its going to be very functional for our growing family.  It's got a super cute playset for the kiddos and enough space for Dan to work at home without bumping into them at every corner. It needs a bit of a facelift, but I think we are both looking forward to some DIY projects! Dan is extra excited because Dy and Pranay are going to let us have all the tools that their (crooked) contractor left behind.

Keeping Mina occupied during the move

Didn't want to nap, so she got tuckered out...

Celebrating the closing

Photos from the listing

Moving day! Pap is taking the picture.

Celebrating Dan's Birthday simultaneously, since he had to share it with Moving Day.

The process itself could have been a bit smoother, but we have discovered that people thrive on chaos here. Here were some of our headaches:

1. Movers got the moving date wrong.  

2. Internet providers got the date wrong. They turned off our internet two days early, which is a real problem because Dan works from home. After several hours on the phone, they turned it back on, but forgot to turn it back off again and charged us for an additional month. Eye roll.

3. Our bank decided to overcharge us ~$5,000 dollars in escrow, until we questioned it. They did agree to give us a little credit (yay!) but then forgot about it at closing, and then forgot to send it to us later too. 

4. Our lawyer was supposed to tell us how much to bring to closing.  Luckily we didn't listen to her, because she got the numbers all wrong.

5. We had to "tip" our title search guy a couple hundred bucks. Which is like, a bribe, right?  

6. Our walk-through of the new house showed a cracked sewer pipe.  Plumber says its going to be quite a major fix, but managed to create a temporary patch.
7. The landlady of our rental noticed some "major problems" during our move-out walkthrough.  As in, we had moved a shelf from the inbuilt bookcase, we didn't clean out the lint collector in the dryer, there were holes in the ceiling (not created by us; just drywall settling), the drywall seams were visible (again, not something we had anything to do with) etc. We tried to call her (>10 times) after the move, but she didn't answer and has no voicemail.  She doesn't have email. Oh, and she won't answer her door.  In the end we had to write a letter and leave it in her mailbox.

Nevertheless, Mina is liking "new house" already, and constantly wants to be outside to play on the slide. I have definitely fulfilled some serious "nesting" urges, and Dan has been happily researching insulation and fireplace DIYs.

Cleaning out the gutters 20 ft up in the air.