First, probably the biggest news in our life right now: we're moving! Yes, we bought a house in the Bryant neighborhood and we are really excited. The house is absolutely huge with lots of room to grow in---definitely a home for the next 10+ years. As always, there was much drama around our home buying. We actually first put an offer on another house in Greenlake and was in the process of countering when another offer swooped in that completely trumped ours. We were sad but that was perhaps a sign. So we turned around the next day and put an offer on another home that we had been eyeing also for awhile. To our luck, it all worked out! We reached mutual agreement and completed inspection just today which went really really well. If all goes well, we'll close by the end of the month and start moving in at the start of December.
So what happened to the condo? Well, sadly, despite many showings, not a single offer. Nada. Just a terrible market to sell, especially for condos. It's okay, we were almost prepared for that and just feel fortunate to even purchase a home despite not selling the condo. Likely, we will take it off the market next week and then seriously start looking into preparing it to rent out. I'm hoping we can just hold onto it, renting it for awhile until the market picks up again. Ideally, we can get renters in by January---so let me know if you or someone you know would love to live in a hip 2 bedroom loft near the bars and restaurants of Capitol Hill!
Oh, one thing I'm excited about and hope our timing works out well ---- you know how the homebuyer tax credit ends Nov. 30th? Well, apparently the Senate is not only tossing around the idea of extending it but also EXPANDING the program to existing homeowners! Basically, as long as you've lived in your home for 5 consecutive years in the last 8 years and you're upgrading your home (your principle is higher than your current), you qualify for a $6,500 tax credit! Woo Hoo! The senate will be voting on this next week at the earliest so I'm keeping my eye out....
Halloween's around the corner and we are hitting Bonza Bash again, courtesy of Miss Katie who won the costume contest last year, winning free tickets. I still have no idea what I'll dress up as though there are some ideas...just depends on how creative I feel last minute.
Speaking of Halloween, well sorta .... seen a few "frightful" movies lately:
- Zombieland was AWESOME. I think I still prefer Shaun of the Dead but Zombieland is a great movie.
- Paranormal Activity wasn't bad for a $11,000 movie--and I was surprisingly not as scared as I thought it would be. Creative story, kudos to the filmmakers.
The house we're getting has been pre-wired with Cat 5 wiring. Cool! But I feel dumb -- how does one set up a network with all the Cat 5 wiring? Do I just hook the cable modem to one outlet and then boom, it works?
Lots of researching needing to be done in the next few weeks: refrigerator models, washer/dryer models, security systems, Cat 5 wiring, furniture, etc... FUN FUN!
