Closing Time

We're pleased to report that our sellers scraped to come up with all of the money they needed to sell the house. So as of about 11 a.m. today, we are officially homeowners.

No official moving date yet, but things progressed nicely today.

Since we were both off, we took advantage of the day and got a lot of work done. The ugly wallpaper in our dining room and half bath is GONE!! As are the old locks, doorknobs and the glow-in-the-dark stars that were in a few of the bedrooms. Totally forgot how much of a pain those are to take down!

Only one surprise today. As Roger was changing the lock on the front door, we found that the hole drilled for the knob was too far from the frame. Fortunately the dead bolt locks the door even though the door doesn't quite latch. Looks like we're getting a new front door sooner than we'd anticipated.

Dream came along and helped Rog with a new latch on the back gate. She's pretty happy with our purchase, mostly about her big back yard!

We never got a "SOLD" sign, really wanted a picture of us with the sign in front of the house! Apparently our realtor would prefer people keep calling about the house so they can steer them another direction. Smart business, but come on!!

House Update Part Deux

Soooo were now t-minus five days to the scheduled closing on our house. BUT we got a call Saturday afternoon from a realtor indicating that the sellers were having some issues coming up with the money needed to sell the house - pay a portion of the closing costs, interest to their lender, etc.

They're looking at several ways to raise the funds they need to keep the closing on Monday, they really need to sell since they relocated to Louisiana in September!!

Long story short, everyone keep your fingers, toes and whatever else you can cross crossed that the sellers come up with the cash so we can close.

Otherwise..... the options are not totally ideal.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras to everyone, hope y'all have a great Fat Tuesday.

Thought we'd share a few (clean) pictures of our first Mardi Gras experience ... which was pointed out to each and every one of the passing floats for several parades by Richie's friend Christy.

Mardi Gras thrives on imagination and fantasy. As luck had it, we found three fixtures of our childhood imagination in the Quarter in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. And yes, we are double-fisting the famed Huge Ass Beers ... and STILL saw them!

Rog and Richie truly earned their beads on Fat Tuesday ... and made a few 'friends' along the way. Richie's a native New Orleanian who's also proud to call me his former officemate...and a trusted advisor (ha ha). He swears that one day he'll run for office and this photo will surface, ruining his chances at fame at fortune. Oh the risk you run for a little Fat Tuesday fun :).

Rescuing Racers

Saturday we helped Dream's greyhound rescue group in ones of its largest rescue efforts yet. Two farms were downsizing and a track was getting rid of several dogs to, for a grand total of 93 greyhounds! Some came to St. Louis, others went to Indianapolis and other points between here and New Jersey.

Most traveled in a converted Greyhound bus (no joke), but ours came in an unheated trailer pulled by a truck. Here's a link to video of the hounds loading up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIICmEvXp1s.

Roger had a mandatory meeting and couldn't help, he missed out. It was cold, emotional and kind of stinky, but a really rewarding experience.

My travel buddy, "USA" wasn't quite as I'd imagined ... he did smell, was VERY dirty and extremely scared. USA wasn't a retired racer, but a 2 year-old that had lived on the farm his entire life. Cars, noise and people were brand new to him and he was very shy. He had scarpes and sores from farm life, and also a case of "happy tail," so his tail was bandaged.

The ride to the vet was interesting. I had all of the seats down and covered with blankets in the back of the Pathfinder. As we're driving down I-270 with the heat cranked up, he's walking all over the back looking out the windows and trying to climb into the front to ride shotgun. Then I hear a sound like running water....

After the mishap, things were cool. We talked about expectations for living in a house (ie: going outside) and not trying to ride shotgun when you're assigned to the back seat. He was very good and enjoyed the attention. We got the vet and weighed in, got cat tested and had a few photos taken. Since he was such a good boy, I tried to give him some treats. This is the first dog I'd ever met that had no idea what treats were.

I left him at the vet's to get shots and fixed the next day. I checked his progress on the Rescued Racers website and found out that his tail was so damaged, part of it had to be amputated. That small issue aside, once he's cleand up and his sores have healed he will be a really pretty dog, and most importantly ... a very good one!

... And We're Clear!

The dust has settled, copies of the cleared non-destroyed checks checked out and we're good to go to close our on house on Feb. 26!

We braved the cold and some snow earlier this week to pick up new light fixtures and gather paint samples. Our list of "must-do" projects and "wouldn't it be cool if..." projects seems to grow every day. Some of which we're looking forward to and others, like ripping off wallpaper, are dreaded.

Here's to the start of many trips to and keeping the local home improvement stores in business!

(Sorry, this is one of the only pics we have of our house. If it ever gets warmer we'll get more!)

House Update

We're in the home stretch on taking possession of our house. Roger spent some time with the building inspector last week, and only minor things need to be done.

The sellers were in town on Wednesday from Slidell to make most of the repairs and HOPEFULLY take some of their stuff that's packed up in the garage back with them.

Our apartment company in New Orleans apparently kept ALL of their financial records off site in their corporate offices ... on Lake Ponchatrain. Bascially the files that shows that we paid our rent on time were destroyed in the hurricane!! So I spent about 6 hours on the phone with the bank we used there trying to get copies of old checks. Since we don't have that bank in STL and have closed our accounts, it was a major fiasco.

Hopefully, we'll have the copies we need by mid-week and can keep the ball rolling!