Transition

So! I am apparently a very bad blogger. This doesn't surprise me. I was never able to keep a journal when I was younger. I suppose the good news that's been a change since my last/first post is that I am employed! I have been a design assistant at Bennett & Co. since February 2nd, and it has been simply wonderful (side note: have a look at their website, www.bennettcompany.net. They are in the process of a much needed website revamping, but at least you can see some pictures of the store where I work.).

The main thing I've learned about myself since I've been there is that I was pretty sure I didn't want to do residential design when I was in school. But it's been so much fun to see inside all of these amazing waterfront homes in Annapolis and help the clients make a home out of the house that they undoubtedly worked very hard to attain (real estate is astronomical up here, and ESPECIALLY on the water). The one contract project we've done for the Naval Academy was frustrating because of the code limitations. Since we don't do many contract projects, we don't really have a wide selection of product lines to make a contract project amazing. We did pull it off, and quite well I have to say, but only by deciding to treat residential fabrics to pass Cal 117. All of that to say, once we finished proposing the Navy project, I was surprised to discover that I was anxious to get back to our residential projects where we have so much more freedom to design... except when budget is accounted for, but that is a whole other tangent for another day.

This post is called 'Transition', but the job thing is only part of that. As some of you readers may know (if there are in fact any readers at all), we are in the process of buying a house. And, my goodness, has it been a process. We knew it wasn't going to be completely simple because the house is a foreclosure, so we have to deal with a bank. But we had no idea it would take this long or be so arduous. We put in our first offer at the end of January, and after a few weeks of back and forth offers upon counter-offers, we finally settled on a price. From there we thought it would be coasting to the finish, but boy, were we wrong.

Throughout all of these issues, insert a week or two of waiting because the bank is essentially unresponsive.

Issue #1: The blizzards. It basically set this area of the country back two weeks. This alone pushed our closing date back from February 26 to March 9.

Issue #2: They had, surprisingly, taken the care to de-winterize the pipes. For the southerners out there who didn't know what that is (myself included), it involves draining all of the water from the pipes and then putting antifreeze in each drain to prevent the pipes from freezing and breaking. Notice I emphasized ALL - this is because the contractor hired to de-winterize failed to remove ALL of the water, so they might as well have not done it in the first place. A couple of weeks later, the pipes are fixed. Luckily, it was on the bank's dime.

Issue #3: The type of loan we are getting requires that the items that the appraiser does not deem 'move-in-able' must be fixed before closing. This is done, I have learned, to protect the buyer from a hazardous home (just in case we decide to chew on lead paint chips or something...no we don't have lead paint, it's just the common example). However in the foreclosure situation, it's actually hurting us because we have to take care of it. But the catch-22 is that we aren't allowed on the property; it's technically trespassing. So how are we supposed to fix things? No one seems to know. Right now, we're having to sit there, do nothing, and leave it up to the bank.

So. It's almost 10 weeks after our initial offer. It's also two weeks after we had to be out of our townhouse, so we are officially homeless. Like, when someone needs a mailing address, we have to give them my work address. It's weird... but admittedly not as dramatic as I'm making it sound... we are lucky to have good friends who have taken us in. We stayed for a week and a half or so with friends of ours that Charlie met through work, and now we're staying with the senior designer to whom I am an assistant at Bennett & Co.

No offense to our friends, we very much appreciate their taking us in, but this house is pretty flipping awesome. After tripping over each other and our belongings and sleeping on an air mattress for a couple of weeks, this is basically like heaven. We are in a basement suite, complete with kitchen and direct outdoor access. In theory, we could come and go and the family would never have to be bothered. However, they have been so nice and welcoming that it's not a bad thing to spend time upstairs. We just hope we don't get too intrusive. Another awesome thing is their dog. He's a golden doodle, a breed with which I have never interacted before, but he's such a hilarious dog (see photos on Charlie's flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16894633@N06/). The best part is that he and Twix are getting along so well! I can't wait to have our own space again, but this is not a bad way to wait it out.

Well, I have gone on long enough! Now that I've caught up, hopefully I'll keep posting regularly enough that it doesn't have to be such a lengthy venture. But really, we'll see.