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Sunday, November 06, 2005

and for good reason. I fell in love with a house this week. I've been casually searching for a home for over a year now. I browse the realty circular every few weeks and look at realtor.com when I'm bored but I've never had anything pop out at me and say WOW. I've looked at a few houses, maybe 6-7 and there was only one I liked quite a bit but it needed too much work and sold like hotcakes anyway. There's been this one a few blocks from me that I've driven by but I thought it was a duplex because there are two front doors. This week I set up a time to view a different house also near me but it sucked. I mean really sucked. Weird layout, horrible painting jobs in almost every room and weird renovations. So on a whim I asked the realtor to show me this other one. Walking up to the house I sighed thinking that it didn't look like anything I'd want to buy: too big, too bland, too not what I want. Well, don't judge a book by the cover they always say... as soon as I walked in my brain screamed "this is it!" It's exactly what I want in a house. It's old (107 years!), original hardwood floors and woodwork, character seeping out of every pore, big rooms, a claw foot tub. Need I say more? Okay, it also has closets galore, three bedrooms exactly where I want them, a decent basement, and the neatest windows I've ever seen in the living room and main floor bedroom.

Alright, I'll stop gushing before I throw myself into another panic attack. Suffice it to say I was busy last week. Trying to coordinate some city grants I'll be eligible for, meeting with the bank to be approved for financing (which I was,) frantically working my budget to make sure I can afford it (I can,) and all this in the midst of the business of our every day lives.

I also managed to knit up a tiny baby beanie and mittens for my cousin who's baby shower was on Saturday. I'll post pictures when I get them back - I had to take them with a friend's digital. Then yesterday Kurt and I wound up the third ball of yarn for the shawl. I couldn't do the darker colors. I just couldn't. I left the three pattern repeats with it in there but then switched to this lighter ball (which, of course, is TOO light). The three repeats will be the exact center of the shawl and since I'm a centering freak this worked for me. I worked and worked on it this weekend in an attempt to keep myself calm about the home purchase stuff (I'm so scared someone else will put an offer in before me!) and it sort of worked. In any case, I'm now two pattern repeats from completion. Hooray! No more boring shawl progress shots! Now I can finish Kurt's socks and move onto making some fingerless gloves.

Wish me luck on the house! I'll be calling my realtor first thing in the morning. :)