It's official!

As of about 11:45 this morning, I became a homeowner. Despite all the misc. problems leading up to the purchase, the closing was very easy. A few signatures (OK, a lot of signatures) and you're done.

After the closing, Ryan and I spent the rest of the day over at the new house. We decided we need to paint the downstairs because whoever did it last did a pretty crappy job. So we spent many hours sanding the walls, taping everything up, filling holes/dings, etc. Tomorrow we will begin the actual painting.

We both have the entire coming week off so we're hoping to get at least some of the things on our home improvement list done. There's definitely a lot of cleaning and yard work to be done and several other little (and some not so little) projects - but for the most part, I think we're in pretty good shape. I'm not sure when we'll actually move our stuff in, but I guess that in part depends on when we actually get it packed up. :-)

We also introduced the dogs to the new house today. They were like two kids in a candy shop running in and out of all the rooms exploring. They also became instant favorites with some of our new neighbor kids - as did Ryan. Ryan let them in to the backyard to retrieve their lost ball and about twenty minutes later they showed up at our doorstep with several handmade "welcome to the neighborhood" cards. Each card stated that Ryan "rocked" and that he's the type of guy they'd like to hang out with - sometime soon, if possible. It was very cute. I think we'll be keeping those.

There are many stories and pictures I need to get caught up with on the blog, but it's after midnight and I'm ready to turn in for the night. Perhaps with being on vacation this week I'll be able to make more posts - maybe....