Ciao, bella!

This week has been anything but easy. My poor parents spent all week in the kitchen cleaning up the mess I made of the spacklig job and painting the walls in their entirety, and cleaning up the trimwork since the previous owners evidentally had never seen a roll of painter's tape before. By the time Billy and I were leaving the house on Friday morning, pretty much everything was finished and the kitchen looks completely different, all thanks to a couple of coats of paint.

Not only is the house in a continual state of repair and remodel, this week, Billy took the Bar exam on Tuesday and Wednesday. He feels pretty confident that he passed and I'm just happy that law school is finally OVER and we can be full adults...again. Sort of. I mean, we are going to Dragoncon over Labor Day weekend, so I don't know how adult that actually makes us...

All of this led up to Friday (which feels a million years ago now). I cleaned up the loose ends from work and we were on our way to the airport with just our backpacks for luggage. The flight was the way most overseas flights are...long, cold, and uncomfortable, but I actually managed to contort myself into a pretzel and get some broken sleep. Poor Billy, I don't think he got any at all.

We landed in Rome, breezed through passport control and Customs and headed to the train station. No lie, we spent probably a total of 10 hours trying to book train tickets ahead of time on the Trenitalia website. We went to the ticket window and instantly got all of our trains booked in less than 10 minutes. Crazy.

We arrived at our hostel to discover than it sucks to not have AC in 94 degree weather. We were so exhausted from the flight that we wanted to just take a hour nap, but it was so hot in our room, that I thought Billy was going to have a heat stroke on me and we were going to have to go home early or something. We pumped him full of Powerade and he recovered well enough for us to strike out on the town a bit.

We started near the Vatican (which comes up on Monday for us) and toured some churches, which were fine, but nothing like Notre Dame or Chartres. Of course, we haven't really gotten to the true Italian masterpieces as we wanted to take today easy, but Rome certainly has a lot to prove. We went by the Pantheon, which would have been much cooler had it remained a pagan temple, but we can say we have seen it, which counts for something. We made a Coke stop in a BK (there is no way I'm eating American food here, which makes Italy better than Britain in that particular respect) for a while to enjoy the AC and then we headed to the Trevi Fountain.

Billy was already prepared to be completely unimpressed by it, and I was expecting a large round marble fountain with animals and people spouting water like you normally see fountains doing. When we got to the Trevi Fountain, we were both a bit stunned by what was before us. It feels like a raging whitewater river just pouring out of a building in the middle of the city...and the sculptures were pretty incredible too. Check one for the Trevi fountain.

Since we were well ahead of schedule today, we decided to go ahead and see what the big deal was about the Spanish Steps. They originally weren't even on our itinerary, but we were close to them and figured, "What the hell?" Indeed, "What the hell?!" is pretty accurate. I don't get it. It's a bunch of steps leading up to a building that isn't all that impressive architecturally. Yet, they were swarming with huge crowds of people like they couldn't get enough of them. Billy likened it to Trafalgar Square (which isn't impressive itself) where people all have to go when they go to London...but it's just really a place for people to meet and be seen. I'll say this, Montmartre serves the same purpose in Paris, but it is 100,000 times cooler and more beautiful than the frickin' Spanish Steps. Come on, Rome, you ruled the world for how long, and the Spanish Steps is the best you can do?!

If the Spanish Steps were disappointing, the street leading up to them were probably the coolest. I'll be the first to admit: I am not a fashionista, nor do I mistake myself for one. I know of designers, but I've never worn/bought designer clothes. If my jeans cost more than $25 I feel like I've been robbed. But we walked down the street that houses all the major designers in Rome: Dolce and Gabana, Feragamo, Gucci, Versace, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Max Mara, Valentino, Yves Saint-Laurent, etc, etc, etc. Window shopping has never been more fun. I told Billy that as ridiculous as the prices are, I would be sorely tempted to buy something, though. Good thing we both know that it wouldn't do me one bit of good to buy clothes or shoes right now, because who knows what my life will be like in the Spring?

But, we're back in the hostel and it has thankfully cooled down into the 60's so we should be able to get sleep tonight, even though the entire hostel is going out on the town tonight and will probably come back in late, juiced up. I don't think Billy and I will notice a single thing.

Tommorow, we're off to see lots of Roman ruins so that should be good day tomorrow!

Closing...closing...CLOSED! (I think)

I don't know how often closings are conducted in restaurants - let's be honest, Summit's is a bar with tables and food as decoration only - when the wall behind your bar is filled with at least 100 taps, people aren't coming to your establishment for the food. Anyway, Billy and I are conviced that we need to make up a T-shirt saying "I bought my house at Summit's" or something like that. We sat for two hours signing our lives and firstborn children (as well as Constutional rights) away. Some of the documents required witnesses, so I think we ended up having five different members of the waitstaff and management sign for us as well. Eventually, all we needed to do was raise a hand and ask "Can I get a witness?!" and waitresses were clamoring to sign.

So, we get our keys and check out the house that night before going home and we're glad to see it hasn't been firebombed or anything. We do another walkthrough getting an idea of what improvements we want to make first and then go back home (since it's 11:00 on a work night).

The next day, I get a call from Billy saying "Um, we've don't own the house yet." Turns out the bank never signed the certified check we turned in for the down payment. So, he had to leave Bar review early, drive 2.5 hours to Atlanta from Athens, just to resolve the check issue. Once he got to Atlanta, he leared the check issue was already resolved, but that lo and hehold, there were issues with the documents we signed the previous night. The mortgage holder wasn't satisfied with our signing without our middle names on the bank documents, even though we had signed name affidavits attesting to our names without middle names. The entire firm called BS on the issue, but I ended up leaving work early to add my middle name in to some of the documents and resigning others all together.

All that being said, we haven't heard of any other problems with the closing and no one has come to take back the keys or change the locks on the doors, so I think we're in the clear finally. Last night, I packed about 15 boxes of books, craft supplies, framed pictures and vases. All stuff that we can live without for the next couple of months. Billy and I moved over the first load last night and dumped it in the office, and I packed up the second load last night and packed them into my car.

It's amazing how bleak apartments look when you're in the process of moving out of them. When you move in the first day, you see the white walls as a blank slate for all your stuff. When you're moving out, you just feel like you're getting closer to living in a hospital or something. Normally I hate packing things up to move, but since we're moving to our own house, I'm pretty excited and had trouble stopping last night.

Now that the house drama is over for the most part, I can at least stop talking about it in every post and maybe make this look like there's something else going on my life other than this house. That might be kind of hard to do, now that I think about it though.

Contracts, Contracts, Contracts

In case there is any interest in the house that Billy and I just got an offer accepted for over the weekend, here are some more detailed shots of the house from the interior that couldn't be seen on the FMLS listing. Excuse me while I run in the bathroom and collapse in front of the toilet in the throes of a panic attack...

Exterior of house in Habersham on Lanier (which is not actually on the shores of Lake Lanier)

Great Room/Family Room

Sunroom

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedrooms on Main

Formal Dining Room


Kitchen
Upstairs deck off of the great room and kitchen, along with views into the backyard.


And finally, the pimp finished basement.

Additional pictures will have to wait until we actually move in and start having parties. And no, Richard can't have red wine indoors. You see how much white is all over the floors?!

UGA Law School Graduation

Finally back to a computer where I can upload pictures from Billy's law school graduation. Might as well tell the story behind the pics as I go along...


Pam Brannon spent almost more time playing "Sweet Child of Mine" and "Ziggy Stardust" on Guitar Hero during outlining sessions at our apartment than I did playing those songs, and that's pretty tough to do. Not to mention, I can give credit for helping keep Billy on task when he'd rather be doing anything rather than outlining Georgia Practice.

(From L-R):David Dix, Billy Todd, Anuj Desai, Granville Powers

Credit goes to these guys (and David Gussio who is missing from the photo shoot) for getting Billy out of the library or the apartment and out on a football field every once in a while for a stress-relieving football game. Granted, Billy returned the favor by letting them borrow the Wii for a few days when we first got it...

ZOMG! It's Billy getting his diploma!!1!

When Billy first started Law School, my first thought was, "Oh God, what have we gotten into?" Moving to a new town with nothing but maxed out student loans to pay the rent and bills (only until September, thank God), starting down a path where it is said that 50% of couples split up by the time the end comes around, trying to start new friendships where none exist...it was terrifying to be honest. But, I can honestly say that I count all of these people (Anna and Amy in the front; Anuj, Sean, Granville in the back...and Goose, Dix, Pam, and all the other folks that are attached to them) friends three years later.

And, hey, I think my family have been pretty darn supportive during this crazy endeavor, so Billy's in-laws deserve a spot immortalized in their daughter's unremarkable blog!

Sixteen Candles

Finally, Billy and I have some peace and quiet this weekend. I'm typing out this blog post from the comfort of my pillowy chair wrapped up in an incredibly fuzzy blanket while Billy is on the couch to the left of me reading something other than a law casebook for the first time in months, if not years (almost since the last Harry Potter book came out, I'm pretty sure - which is before law school started).

This past week has been a rollercoaster of a week, mostly postitive. I spent the two days prior to my birthday sick and watched my birthday float on by without much ado. Which is fine because we all had a much bigger event on our minds - Billy's graduation from law school. As Billy put it, "This is like Sixteen Candles for you, isn't it?" I hate to admit it, but there were certainly times this weekend where I felt a little bitter, just like Molly Ringwald's character in that movie, but I also realized that it was unfair to Billy on such a big day that will only happen once for him. I mean, I get a bunch more birthdays to celebrate right? So, anyway, three years later, I finally got confirmation that the hard work and late nights and lonely exam weeks actually resulted in all of that ending...well, at least ending after his Bar review classes in July. The ceremony was lovely - the weather was perfect and the setup in the law school quad was quite honestly picture perfect. I'll have to post some pics once I get them transferrred over to my laptop.

So, Billy graduates, and when we get home from lunch, we get a call from our real estate agent. The sellers agreed to our counter-offer (in which they pay pretty much all of the closing costs) and they signed the agreement. We get official copies signed tomorrow and then I guess we begin the "due diligence" section of the home buyers' exam. Every time I think about the fact that we're about to become full-fledged homeowners, I nearly collapse in a panic attack. The house is going to be fantastic, I'm not worried about that...but we're dealing with so much money! Eeek!

Anyway, just had to get all of this weekend's stress out of the way so that I can possibly sit down and enjoy the last few hours of this weekend before I hit the work grind again.

House Hunters

While Billy and I certainly aren't about to join any episode of House Hunters any time soon, we certainly feel like we've been living that life criss-crossing the countryside of Forsyth County trying to find a house that has all of the features that we're looking for:

• Four bedrooms (Master, Guest, 2 kids should the unthinkable happen!)
• At least 2 baths
• Great open kitchen
• Great living area
• Office space
• Finished Basement
• Decent lot/yard landscaping
• Good neighborhood (preferably with swim/tennis access)
• Minimal remodeling needed for livability

We feel pretty confident that we've found the place we've been looking for, believe it or not, just after a couple of weekends of scouring the countryside. The house is in an older, sprawling neighborhood called Habersham. It's just off Hwy 20, less than a mile from GA400, which is perfect for my commute to work. The only downside is that the neighborhood isn't as young as we'd like, but it definitely helps us in our offer price versus asking price. The house is pretty much everything we've been looking for: a ranch style house (without looking like a ranch), with a great airy great room and kitchen with a sunroom off the master bedroom. The basement is the real kicker though. It is fully finished with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette, fireplace/extra sitting area, office (with builtin bookcases/cabinet around every wall, extra room (perfect for my crafting), and a wood deck along the length of the basement underneath the most excellent deck outside the great room and kitchen upstairs on the main level. I'm serious, this place is really swank. We've actually taken the plunge and submitted an offer - we're hoping the the couple will accept the offer as is (but we figure they will at least entertain it and submit a counter-offer). This house costs a fair amount less than the other house we were wanting to buy, so that's just an additional plus. Now we're playing the waiting game before serious negotiations come into play either tomorrow or the following day. Eek!

Bienvenue

So, this is Blog number what for me now? I started out at Diaryland, moved over to MSN Spaces and have now migrated over to Blogspot. Clearly I have too much free time on my hands to be setting up and writing a new blog during work hours, but I am completely filled with apathy for work right now.

What I am excited about is going house hunting for the second weekend in a row this weekend. My goal: find a house to make an offer on this weekend. We almost had luck with that on Monday until we found out that the house we liked had already had a full-price, cash offer made for it. There was another house that we liked a lot that we may still go with: we call it the Egyptian Palace because it is filled with all sorts of paintings and artifacts relating to ancient Egypt. The basement is not really very good at all, except that it has a fantastic area for an artist studio and the basement area can easily hold a gym and games area. It's just not a good place for a home theater, which is a bit of a bummer. But, the living room is nice (but requires addition of hardwood floors), and the house is made for entertaining out in the boonies, which I like too.

Hmm...maybe that house is what I'm looking for - it would require some work (removing carpet from the master bath?!) and doing the hardwoods (eventually) in the kitchen and family room, but other than that, it's good to go. We'll see.

In the meantime, I need to check in with Erin and see how my godson Luke is doing these days. He's getting through his first week of daycare and both Luke and mom are experiencing some separation anxiety, which I am sure is something that every new mom and child go through and Erin shouldn't feel guilty for feeling anxious nor for being happy to be back at work amongts colleagues and adults again after her maternity leave.