Adventures in Anderland 2011 Recap

aka Our Holiday Letter. It's not a Christmas letter because, well, we haven't mailed any of the yet! So "Holiday" makes them not late :)

Holidays are Here!

Actual size, next to average
green grape for comparison

I finally feel like having Christmas! At least there is a week remaining to enjoy the festivities and do fun little things around the house.

Friday evening was spent in Bellevue for J's company's holiday party at the Bellevue Art Museum where there was an exhibit about George Nelson. Really interesting and now I want to read more about him. Also, they had these cute little appetizers that were little pieces of fingerling potatoes, filled with pea puree and garnished with carmelized vidalia onion, chive and sesame seeds. I think I made a friend when I mentioned to the head catering guy that they were tasty but I felt so sorry for whoever had to make them! He proceeded to push food on me the rest of the evening. :)

Holiday Inspiration

I was so excited to have this beautiful house to decorate for the holidays, and have found myself plumb out of energy this December. I'm not sure why the December dark is getting to me worse than in years past, but by the time I get home, I'm too tired to do more than a little cleaning/household chores. We bought two strands of little ball-shaped LED lights and two long pine garlands and are twisting the lights through the garland to look like berries. The plan is to drape these on the front porch railings. We also bought two strands of frost blue LED lights to wind up the posts on either side of the front stairs. That will be the extent of our yard illumination this year and we plan to just add a little bit each year.

MIA

Sorry folks, just a quick update to let you know I do plan on continuing, things have just been a crazy whirlwind. It took us most of September to move and 2 days to clean the old apartment. Then for some ridiculous reason, while they could install TV with only a few days wait, it was over 2 weeks before they could get us Internet!

Then it was family visiting, followed by trying to get the house in some sort of order and host our 5th Annual Oktoberfest/The Hauswarmen on October 22nd. I have pictures of various things to share but have to get them onto the computer first, so hang tight but don't hold your breath!

Neighborhood Picnic

"Alice thought the whole thing very absurd,
but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh."

I'm a little late getting this up, but the past week has been spent on the big push to get everything packed in preparation for the main move this coming Sunday. I'm also noticing blogger is being strange and now I can't get the text to fill in the column next to inserted images. I dislike not being able to neatly layout my posts and having to waste space.

A week ago on Thursday, our new neighborhood was having their annual picnic, hosted by the City, at the little park half a block from our new house. A didn't know until the day of whether or not she would be able to attend (she ended up not), so I had made sure to make an A-friendly side dish to bring to the potluck. The City provided hot dogs and salmon and lemonade served by city council members and some of our local firefighters and police officers. The neighborhood then brought side dishes and desserts to share. They also held a raffle for a few prizes (we didn't win anything) and had a table with City-related flyers.

We met many of our new neighbors and we're in for an interesting time as there are a few notable characters!

Labor Day Weekend Labors

Since we have oh-so-wisely decided to take the majority of September to do our move, we had a pleasant holiday weekend divided between moving, play, and chores.

Saturday, we spent the whole day moving EVERYTHING out of our storage locker so we could throw that money down the drain no longer. We were out by 5pm, cut off thanks to the office closing, which is dumb since the unit we had in Issaquah just let us go until close at 8pm. The MLK unit needs to apparently INSPECT the unit with you in it <roll eyes>. We left the truck at the house and went and had dinner at Torero's. I mention this because I strayed from my usual chicken enchiladas and took a gamble on their enchilada al pollo con mole. Oh heaven, am I glad I did! Their mole is SO yummy! Flavorful and complex, not too sweet, with a smokey note. Luckily, A came to help us unload after she got off work. Good thing as J and I found ourselves just tuckered out and moving at a snail's pace with the last of it.

Sunday was our day of play: we went to Bumbershoot.

Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole...

" ...she tried the little golden key in the lock,
 and to her great delight it fitted!"

We finally did it, we bought a house! It's been a long journey...1 1/2 years of house hunting in fact! We had several false tries, the first house we made an offer on was much further north. The inspection came back with bad results: moisture and severe foundation issues under the addition. We got quotes to have it fixed and went back to the sellers asking for the amount to be amended by that much. They answered, "no dice." Thank goodness! That would have been a money. (And to their greed, they ended up selling the house for more than $20K LESS than we would still have paid with that concession.)

The next house we liked got an offer before we had a chance to decide. We came across a third house further south, but by then our loan pre-approval had expired and we had to go through the process again. The same day J was uploading the pre-approval to the agent, the status changed to pending. I was very sad.

However, it all managed to work out for the best in the end! About a month ago, J was scheduling a tour for four houses I had picked out down in Renton. He was browsing to see if he could add two more and came across a new listing, out for only 1 day. He threw it on. Thank goodness he did!

As soon as we pulled up, we both had a little intake of breath. It had great curb appeal. We walked in through the front gate and the first thing I noticed was that they already had lavender planted (one of my favorite plants) and also Hen and Chicks (a succulent J's mom grows). That seemed like a sign.

As we toured the house, we continued to like what we saw. By the time we were done looking at the first level, we knew the upstairs would have to be pretty bad for us not to want it. Much to our joy, the upstairs was great! (For what it's worth, the house we saw after this one we liked a lot and became a second choice if this one didn't go through.)

Kitchen of amazingness -
yup, that's an island with a prep sink!

We submitted our offer that same evening so the buyer's had it in hand before the opening house the next day. They did receive another offer but chose to work with us rather than trying to force a bidding war. Thank goodness! Inspection came back with several things, but nothing that was a deal breaker. Actually, it was pretty good considering the house was built in 1905! It had a large remodel around 2005, so it boasted updated wiring (none of that knob & tube nonsense) and an AMAZING kitchen.


Yesterday, we officially closed! House is in our name along with a brand new bouncing baby mortgage*. The only mar to an otherwise lovely day was that the junior agent decided not to attend our appointment, but instead just shoved our key under something on the property to find.

Celebrating with Sparkling White

Pizza picnic on the
dining room floor

Stats: built 1905
Remodeled: approx 2005
4 bed, 1 3/4 bath
1700 square feet on 0.28 acres
To answer the question I know you're thinking: we plan on taking the month of September to move in.

* cute mortgage comment attributed to H.R.B.