Homeownership, week one

We've been homeowners for half a week now, but it already feels like much longer, and the house already feels like home to me. I think that's a good sign!

Late last week we had a minor scare when our lender contacted us to inform us that she'd just learned that our mortgage had some additional documentation requirements that hadn't been communicated to us earlier. Fortunately, it was nothing too difficult to obtain, and we were able to provide it quickly enough that things could proceed on schedule nevertheless.

Closing was Monday morning, and it went smoothly. After being warned by our family and friends about how much paperwork we'd have to sign, we were actually pleasantly surprised by the number of signatures and initials required — yes it was a lot, but not some crazy mountain of papers. I was a bit disappointed by the fact that the sellers were already on the road to California, and only their agent was present at closing - it would have been nice to actually meet these people whose house we now own! (We did cross paths with them momentarily when we were first looking at the house, but that really doesn't count.) Also, their agent insisted that we not get the keys to the house until after the transfer of deed had been recorded downtown, which meant we had to wait more than two hours after closing before getting the keys. What's with that? It's not like there was anything more that needed to be done from our end — we'd already handed over our money and signed our lives away! In the grand scheme of things a couple of hours wasn't a big deal; it was just rather odd to us that she was such a stickler about it.

As soon as we got the keys to our new home, we sprang into action. We transferred our gathered tools and supplies in one load, picked up our new (used) trundle bed (for the office/guest room) and delivered it as a second load, then transferred all of the bamboo flooring (680 square feet of it!) as a third load. That's a lot of moving, and it was a great reminder of why we're having professional movers do the work of getting everything else from the apartment to the house - whew!

Since then, in the last four nights we've:

• Taken up all of the carpet in the three rooms we're reflooring (this was surprisingly fast and easy!)
  
• Taken up all of the carpet padding in the aforementioned rooms (this was surprisingly gross)
• With help from our friends Eric and Leandra, torn up all of the tack strips and carpet staples left behind (this was surprisingly tedious)
• Pried up the 3'x3' area of oak tongue-and-groove flooring at the front door (this was surprisingly fun)
• Begun leveling the plywood subflooring - pounding down nails, sanding raised edges, etc. (this was surprisingly... ah who am I kidding, nothing surprising about it, really!)
• Tested four different shades of paint for the upstairs bedroom, and started applying the one we decided on (with help from Heather's friend Krista)
  
• Made approximately four hundred trips to Home Depot (actually, only three counting last weekend, but it feels like more!)
  

I think we're still on schedule to get the floors all installed this weekend... we just need to finish leveling the subfloor (roofing felt in the low spots, belt sander on the high spots), put down the underlayment (big rolls of the stuff - should go quickly), and lay the floorboards. Easy as 1-2-3 (hopefully)!

By the way, the color we decided on for our master bedroom? Disney "Mickey's Shadow". Why yes, we're grown-ups... can't you tell?