watertown

Return of the Corn

Posted on by grahams

After

[info]coco_b

returned from South Dakota on Friday around Midnight, we managed to get a few hours of sleep in before piling into Hawkeye and heading down to NJ. 

[info]jerseyboop

was visiting from TN, and I hadn’t seen her in quite awhile (Christmas?).  I also used the opportunity to trade cars with mom for the week and bring the crap I’ve kept in their basement to the new place now that there’s room for it.  It was a really busy 36 hours or whatever…  Saturday night we all went out to Outback to celebrate Father’s Day a little early (since we were all in town at the same time). 

[info]tatyana

was accompanied by Stosh and her “stepkids” (she and Stosh aren’t married, but she lives with him and helps take care of the kids when they are with Stosh).  They are cute kids, but a handful, and totally reminded me why having kids is a bad idea… =)

Anyway, I was in the basement with Mom and Dad, who were helping me spelunk the basement for my stuff, and helping me bring it out to the car.  My dad was bringing out a box to the car when I looked into my plastic Rubbermaid coffin and noticed the infamous can of corn.  I quickly sprung into action, grabbing the can and bringing it out to the car with the intention of hiding it in his car..  Unfortunately, he caught me as I entered the garage, and quickly proclaimed “Damn it!!”  Apparently, he had just put the can in the coffin a few minutes prior..  This was extra special, because this is EXACTLY how this whole can fiasco started almost 10 years ago when I was packing up to move to RIT (in late August or early September 1997).  The ball is back in my court… for now…

On the way back from NJ we stopped over in Manhattan for a few hours to visit with Sara, Dave, Sappha, and Finn…  To save time, I drove directly to their place down by Battery Park, so we could just blast up the FDR when we were done as opposed to taking the PATH back to NJ then driving from there…  The Holland Tunnel was awful, but the TomTom got us there without too much hassle…    Sara made some awesome baked Mac & Cheese, and we caught up for an hour or two before we hit the road…  Mom’s Honda Pilot treated us pretty well, but I really don’t like driving such a big car, especially when I can’t see out the back..  Fortunately I didn’t have to do all that much backing up…

We got back to Watertown around midnight, and we quickly settled in for the final episode of The Sopranos..  What a way to go out, it was everything I could have hoped for…  Exactly the kind of way I had hoped the series would end, I mean, I wasn’t “expecting” how it turned out, but I really hoped many of the “all wrapped up nicely” theories that were floating around leading up to the finale were wrong…  I’ll leave this spoiler free for awhile, but I’ll try and come back to it at some point…

Houses in Motion

Posted on by grahams

I finally spoke with

[info]coco_b

last night, she apologized profusely for leaving me in the dark for so long… She seems to be having fun out there in South Dakota, at least in her down time… Apparently it is very beautiful out there, we’ll have to get out there as part of our travels sometime soon.

I’ve been spending most of my time unpacking, cleaning, and settling into the new house. I use the term settling loosely, because I’m sure of my decisions will be overridden by Corinna when she gets back… =) Yesterday I managed to get the last of the boxes out of the living room, dining room, kitchen, and den, which allowed me to mop all the floors. The floors were refinished before we moved in, and whatever they used on the floor (stain or whatever) was getting onto socks and feet, so I had been walking around in flip-flops and sandals all the time.. But once I got the bulk of the crap unpacked, I was able to move everything around in order to mop. Now the floors don’t seem to scum up socks and feet, although they may need another mopping to be sure.

I bought a grill the other day, a propane Char-Broil… I had some people for grilling over on Saturday because

[info]luke0x

was in town briefly, and afterwards some of us went to the Middle East to see a band I had never heard of before, CSS. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you if it was a good show because I imbibed a bit too much and I think I would have enjoyed a Barry Manilow performance at that point… Seriously, though, it was a fun time,even if it wasn’t exactly my normal listening fare.

Sunday started off a little rough, but I eventually pulled it together… Unpacked a bit, but mostly I just lounged around the new house… It was strange, but I think because I’ve had a seemingly unending stream of projects in the months leading up to selling Corinna’s old place,simply sitting around watching TV caused me to feel guilty, like I was neglecting something which needed to be done immediately. Once I Reminded myself that the boxes would still be there the next day, and we weren’t in a race to get a house on the market or anything, I was able to just relax and enjoy Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon. Later on we caught Severance with the film club, which had a big turnout and was lots of fun, even if I was tired and hungover…

On Thursday I’m headed to the dreaded Avalon to see Skinny Puppy… I caught them last time they came through town, and it was a great show, so I’m hoping for even more fun!

I am homeless.

Posted on by grahams

[info]coco_b and I woke up this morning, packed the rest of our crap into Hawkeye, and said goodbye to our Comm. Ave apartment for the last time.  I think it was more bittersweet for her than it was for me, being her “first home” and all…  I liked the place, but we’ve been talking about selling it and getting a new place for so long I just think I’ve lost all perspective on the matter.

Corinna called around 12:30 to tell me that the closing on the old place was done, so all that is left is for us to drive out to Needham and close on the new place…  But for the intervening time, I’m homeless….

Movers are a gift from god

Posted on by grahams

The movers, Aviv Moving and Storage, came right on time this morning at 8:45, and they had all our stuff loaded into the truck by 10:30ish.  While they were loading the truck, Mauro dropped off the keys to the new place…  He also mentioned that the road our new place is on was closed for the day due to some power company work.  Fortunately, when we got over there with the moving truck, the cop let us past the cones and the truck made it into the driveway.  It took us awhile to get over there, mostly because we had to come in the “back way” due to the road closing, but we passed several “No Trucks” roads before finding one that would let us turn around and come in the back way.  The guys probably started unloading the truck around 11:15a and were done in an hour.  The total move time was about 3.5 hours, which is at least half of what it would have been had we done it ourselves.

I still have a few small things left in the old place, but I will throw most of that into the car tonight.  Our buyer has her final walkthrough scheduled for 6:30pm tonight, and our closings are at 10am and 3pm tomorrow.  Then, finally, the “buying” phase of operation new home will be complete, and we can move on to the insurgency.

A Quick Update

Posted on by grahams

I’ve been really busy, for obvious reasons, but here’s a quick update as to what’s going on:

  • We’re still go for both closings this Thursday.  Everything seems to be on track, all the repairs to our new place that we asked for in the Purchase and Sale agreement have been taken care of.  In addition, we have a verbal agreement with the seller to move our stuff in on Wednesday (but not ourselves), but we need to get that signed off tomorrow or else our movers will have nowhere to put our stuff on Wednesday morning.  =)
  • Speaking of movers, I’m packing, packing, packing… 
    [info]coco_b

    has been working a ton lately, even this Saturday and today!  So I’ve been doing most of the packing, which is okay with me, especially since this will hopefully be the last move for many years..  I’ve pretty much got most everything except the bedroom packed up now…  Not sure if we will have enough boxes for everything, so there might be a last-minute scramble for boxes tomorrow.  Or, I suppose, we will just have to buy a few boxes from the movers and box up the last of the stuff while they are moving what we have boxed up.  We’ll see though..  Many thanks to

    [info]rat_girl3

    and

    [info]equalize

    for helping us out with the boxes.  They just moved into THEIR new place, and the timing just so happened that while they were emptying their boxes we were in need of them…  They were life (or at least wallet) savers!

  • For some reason I’ve started to sort of follow the Red Sox.  I’m not sure what happened, I think it’s
    [info]roryk

    ‘s fault.  Perhaps it was only a matter of time before I caught the local disease.

  • Yesterday we took a break from work and packing, and headed out to
    [info]adamfletcher

    ‘s folks house for grilling and pool chicanery.  It was awesome, we had a great time as always…  It was a much needed break from all the adult seriousness the two of us have been dealing with lately…

Inspection

Posted on by grahams
[info]coco_b

 and I met up with Mauro (our agent) and Tony (home inspector to the stars) this morning to have the new place inspected.  Pretty much everything went well, although the stairs to the rear deck need a bit of repair….  But an area we thought had water damage turned out to be wallpaper that had been painted over and which started to bubble up a bit…  Not fun, but much better than water damage.. =)

I have a bunch of pictures I’ll throw up once I can take them off the camera…

New House

Posted on by grahams

Front of Building
Originally uploaded by seangraham.

Corinna and I finished negotiations, and tonight our offer on a condo in Watertown was accepted! Here are some pictures, most are from the MLS listing, but the larger ones towards the end were taken by me. I’m sure there will be more in the future, but these should whet your appetite!

Obviously, the offer is only the first step in the process, we still have to have an inspection, sign the purchase and sale agreement, and close, and occasionally things go wrong along that process… But we’ll find out soon, because we are closing on the new place the same day we are closing on the old place: May 31st!