Wednesday, July 25, 2007

First Bath Together



In the midst of everything else, David’s been growing up, almost without Mommy and Daddy having a chance to notice! He’ll be six months old tomorrow and he’s started sitting up on his own! (That’s remaining in a seated position, by the way; he’s not getting into a seated position, just yet.)


Thus armed with his latest trick, Mommy and Daddy decided it’s about time we implement a time saver and bathe the babes together. They both loved it so much, laughing and splashing away. It’s so cool that our beautiful little kids are such great little buddies! ☺


(more pics)


Saturday, July 21, 2007

Busy Days



Another quick entry here…. Not much to say except that Grandma and Pop came out from New Jersey to tow the U-Haul trailer Daddy was renting, up to the new house. We figured we’d get a whole bunch up there in one or two trips and make next week’s Friday night “moving party” easy. No such luck. The electrical system in Pop’s minivan—the wires that the blinkers on the U-Haul were supposed to hook into—was broken. He’s never even used it, but it’s already broken. Niiiiice.


Anyway, we took the van up to the new house three times and the car twice (following the van, of course). It wasn’t nearly as good as a U-Haul, but at least we got something done. Plus, Grandma and Pop got to spend time with the kids while Mommy and Daddy got some extra time to pack, so it wasn’t a total loss. ☺

Saturday, July 14, 2007

We Got It!



Just a quick entry to let everybody know that we got the house! The story is frankly long and protracted—the sellers didn’t want to fix anything—but their Realtor® took care of some stuff and convinced them to give us an extra $1,000 to cover the rest. Bottom line: it’s all good.


Anyway, we move on the 28th, so we’d better get back to packing. (It’s going to be a very long two weeks, but we want to make sure we’re back in Lafayette before Daddy goes to his annual developers’ conference in Florida. Mommy + two little kids + three days with virtually no help = unhappy Mommy.) ;-)


(P.S. The above pic is the kids in the new house; there’s a few more in the Photos section.)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Inspector’s Gadgets



Well, yesterday was the big home inspection. Mommy and Daddy brought the kids up to Lafayette and left them with Mawmaw while they headed over the house to meet Inspector Don. What we weren’t expecting was for the inspection to take four hours! Don is apparently nothing if not thorough, and man, was he thorough! Of course, a few things couldn’t be missed.


First of all, the roof: it’s not even up to code! Apparently the manufacturer’s requirements specify a maximum ⅜″ overlap and the builder had overlapped them by as much as 1½″! There was also a missing shingle and a loose one, so those obviously need to be fixed. The denouement of this issue, however, seems to not be so dire: our Realtor® had a roofer go out to the property yesterday, and the roofer claims that although Don was right about all of the problems, they don’t actually constitute a code violation. Don says that’s fine, that he’s going to confirm who the manufacturer is and what code specifies, and if he’s right, the roofer is then liable for any repairs (since he put the bill of health in writing). We shall see….


Secondly, the air conditioner wasn’t working. I mean, it was blowing like crazy, but it wasn’t actually doing anything to speak of. When we got to the house at 10:30 a.m., it was 80˚F in there; when we left at 2:30 p.m., it was 79˚F. That’s not a good sign. Bottom line: an HVAC specialist went out to the property yesterday and, among other things, changed the filter. Between that and whatever else he did, it was 74˚F by the time he left—a much better result, to say the least.


The third big thing is that the top eighth or so of the garage door is literally bent in half, and the tracks it runs on are likewise bent. On the bright side, the sellers knew about this one, so they’re fixing it.


The list goes on and on—we gave them thirteen “action items” to respond to within 24 hours (not to fix within 24 hours, mind you; to respond to), but the rest are fairly minor. What’s probably going to happen is that they’ll sign a contract to fix x, y, z, etc. within t days and escrow the money to do it, so if they don’t actually get it done, we get the money. The selling Realtor® still thinks we can close on Friday, so we’ll see what happens!

Friday, July 6, 2007

David’s Cereal



Well, it’s official: David has eaten a little bit of solid food! Granted, his oatmeal didn’t go down that well: unaccustomed to such an intrusion into his little system, he gleefully spit out a lot of it. Still, for a first effort, he did a great job!


(more pics)