Why do laundry? We're MOVING!

Lately we have been absolute models of restraint regarding our new house. The first week we signed the papers, we drove by every night and sneaked in most of those nights. That weekend the listing agent held an open house for the one unsold unit left, so we showed up bright and early with our supporters in tow to check out the carpet, the counters, and the fixtures. And after that week? We didn't go until the next open house weekend when we brought my in-laws to fulfill the oh-so-important Parental Inspection. That was Sunday and, amazingly, we left our house alone until last night, when Phillip wanted to stop by at 10 p.m. just to look. Which is all we could do because our house now has a LOCK on it. No more sneaking in, and not for lack of trying. I've got three more weeks, people. That's twenty-one days. I deserve a MEDAL.

The only addition to our house- that we could see from outside, anyway- is the landscaping. My new house now has a very nice fence, a red maple tree and an assortment of scraggly little mysterious bushes. It's hard to read the little tags when you are trespassing in the dark. I picked the unit in the back corner because it would have the most private yard. The two front units look out on the street and have a tiny patch of grass with a sidewalk running through it. The unit next to mine has a larger patch of grass, but sidewalks running down two sides of their unit. My unit might face the townhouses they're building on the other side of our block and the sad decrepit apartment building on the other side, but no one is going to be walking through my yard or next to my house. There's also quite a bit of space (relatively speaking- have you SEEN how they pack these townhouses together?) between my house and the others, so even though it's blocked on all sides, it's not like someone's going to be staring directly into my living room.

But anyway, where my fence meets in the corner, the builders have dumped a pile of gravel and a large rock. Directly in front of the rock is the new maple tree and then the little bushes form a semicircle around the tree. It's okay- again, hard to tell in the dark- but I'm not cool with the rock. It's sitting there like some kind of relic being worshipped by it's leafy and bushy subjects. "The rock must go!" I declared. There's another larger rock sitting in the gravel area between my unit and the next, but it looks like the builders haven't decided where to enshrine it yet. I'll wait to pass judgement. Also, the gravel is kind of lame, but they've left more than enough space for grass AND for the multitude of flowers that have not yet been purchased from Home Depot. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THE FLOWERS.

One of the situations Phillip and I have noticed as Future Home Owners is the increasingly poor condition of our apartment. The kitchen floor needs to be scrubbed and we should probably do some vacuuming, but WHY? Why bother when soon- SOON!- we get to MOVE? Knowing I'm moving means I have a much greater tolerance for filth. We don't even care about the woodpecker slowly breaking into our apartment via his beak. (Yes, the woodpecker is back. The Pecking: Part Deux.)

I've also been ignoring the small mountain of ceramic pots on my landing outside. I left them and their contents there to die last fall when I realized I had nowhere to store them. All summer I had a staircase full of petunias and geraniums and gerber daisies, but the cold came and the leaves got crunchy and the squirrels started hiding their peanuts in the soil. But a few days ago I was walking up the stairs and there were bright green leaves sticking out of the crunchy brown ones I hadn't ripped out. So, where I thought I had NO plants, I now have a tiny fuchsia, a tiny geranium, and a few sprouts of gerber daisies. I am DYING to put them on my new porch. DYYYYYING.

Yeah, well, this is the most boring post in the history of post-dom, but this whole "closing date" thing is the suckiest part of Home Ownership and whining is necessary. Don't you think I should get the keys NOW?

Comments

[young]

Nice Maggie -- I think Bertha's family populates all the stores out in Boston. Anywho -- HomeDepot has some blinds/shades that they cut to order on the spot -- that's where we got ours :) Post some pics when you can!

Deliberatley avoiding Neuro-
Young