CLOSURE!

We went for the walk through this morning. Uneventful. Except that we didn't have a key. It seems our real estate agent lost the only key while traipsing through the snow with the roof inspector. (The roof has been certified for the next 5 years, and the one little iffy spot has been patched.)

Never let it be said that I let something as insignificant as a key stand in my way. (I once got a job in Illinois Government because I knew how to pick a lock. I kid you not.) I didn't have the proper tools to pick the lock, but I was able to open a small window and send Norbert through to open the door. The walk-through proceeded right on schedule. (And a locksmith will have everything straightened out tomorrow morning.)

I can't be upset with her -- she has been so helpful during this process. And she gave us a wonderful housewarming present -- a $100 gift certificate to Driers Butcher Shop! Smoked meats, here I come!

Some of the furniture we loved stayed, and some left. Ah well. We shouldn't be greedy. We have a sofa. We having a dining table. We have dressers and some glass-fronted cabinets. We do not have any beds, but we have inflatable mattresses which will work for now!

I cleaned the kitchen -- all but the floor -- and got the cabinets lined, the dishes unpacked and washed and put away, and all of the boxes we brought today unpacked. Tomorrow Norbert and I are taking another load, and I plan to sweep and wash all of the floors. Then Thursday he and I will go out and Myfanwe will join us after work and we will spend a relaxing 4 day weekend!

Myfanwe and I have talked about having a place of our own in Michigan for 17 years. It often made us sad, since we always thought it would be out of our reach. We hate to think we took advantage of the state of the economy, but in some respects, we did. We never could have afforded to purchase the house if the real estate market hadn't taken a serious dip. (I think it's on the rebound, by the way.) In another respect, the seller needed to sell the house, the realtors needed commissions to pay their bills, the bank needs to make money off of mortgages...we were sort of doing what we were supposed to do, right?

I'm tired, and I still have a van to pack. There will be pictures soon, but I don't know when. We won't have the interwebz in Michigan, so I probably won't post pics from there.

Thank you to all of my friends, both near and far, for their stalwart support and for never once telling me that I had grown tedious with all this talk about a stupid summer home.



After the closing we stopped for lunch