Day 1 -- Closing!

Well, today we signed about a zillion papers that put us solely in charge of this mess of a house. "What are they thinking??" you might ask... Well, my only explanation is the prompting of the Lord. From the moment I first saw the house online, I was intrigued, and James wasn't far behind when he saw the pictures for the first time. I remember sitting at dinner a few weeks ago and acknowledging to each other that we couldn't get the house of our brains. We said then that we just needed to see the house to get it out of our systems.

Little did we know that when Kim took us to see it, we only liked it more. Despite the cats, smell, JUNK, and undone rooms, I told James, "I'm still excited!" Kim told me, "If you weren't married to James Brown, I'd tell you to run away. But you can make it happen!" We decided on an offer as soon as we got in the car with Kim. Let me tell you, that's completely against my nature. What happened to planning, logic, reason, practicality?! --another confirmation for me that this was being orchestrated by the Lord, not by me.

I was really freaked out about taking Charis in for the first time -- I thought that if she was uncomfortable or scared, I would really start to worry about our decision. But she went in with me during the appraisal and immediately got down and started exploring the house! She was so excited when I mentioned this would be our new house. That was another major relief for me.

The inspection was entertaining, to say the least. 3 inspectors, 4 hours, 16 pages of repairs that need to be made. Scared yet? We weren't. And there I was, still thinking, "Why am I not freaking out?!"

So, here we are, on closing day, absolutely pumped about the possibilities. Charis and I took a trip to "The Orange Store" this morning for cleaning and painting supplies. Never have I had so many Home Depot employees greet me. They must have just had a pep-talk staff meeting. Where are these "helpful" people when you actually need them?!

The seller left the keys in the mailbox at 9, so James and I were there at 9:05 with flashlights in hand. It was a fun time of finally getting to really explore all the nooks and crannies -- and the many light switches that apparently go to nothing. Oh, this is going to be fun. And one day, hopefully soon, this will be our home. Now if we can just get it livable...