Contract Time

We put the earnest money down on the new house and signed the contract today. Most of the earnest money out of the equity line we have on the condo. It's nice being able to make the move now without having to wait for a sale that may take months. The whole contract signing took less than 30 minutes. The contract was fairly standard. Not really unlike the contracts I used to write 18-20 years ago. Of course, we have the usual 5 day "attorney review" period we can use to rescind the contract but that really is not much of a possibility as far as I can see at this point.

The difference comes in the follow up process. Instead of an options/changes addendum immediately attached to the contract, we have to come back for a first meeting to go over the options we want to have added. And once the options are chosen, that's pretty much it. We can't add more and can't drop anything.

The rest of Sunday was spent working on the condo. Kerry and my mom painted in the bedroom and hallway. A few years ago a neighbors water heater cracked and caused some water damage to the drywall. The severely damaged drywall has still been replaced but the ceiling in the hallway closet had some rust stains which needed to be painted over. As has always been the case, the walls just drink paint and to cover the stains will probably take several coats of Kilz white.

I took the TV and TV stand out of the bedroom (to maximize space in there). I bought the TV in 1997 or there abouts. It still was pretty nice but the original remote was shot (and replacements are apparently unavailable) and the universal remotes don't utilize all the TV's programming capabilities. Also, the On/Off button had fallen off and the TV could only be turned on and off with a remote. Oh, well. It really was just for background noise before we fall asleep anyways. I left the TV in the lobby of the condo unit with a note reading "FREE TV - works with remote". Within 2 hours it was gone.

I also unload the curio cabinet of all schnauzer memorabilia and hauled the curio, TV stand and a cocktail/end table to storage. My mom also brought the cocktail/endtable she picked up for us at her store and I put that together. Despite the (again) terrible instructions sheet. I'm actually getting pretty good at this handy-guy stuff. Ok, I'm getting pretty not terrible at it.

I also cleared much of the surplus glasses, mugs and other items from the kitchen cabinets. Again, to maximize the appearance of space. Still need to take out the George Foreman Grill, the microwave bacon tray and other various and sundry items. But I need to pick up a couple of boxes for that.

All in all a good and productive day. We're pretty much on target for the early April listing of the condo. Of course, putting down several thousands of dollars on the house and signing the contract made this all very real for both of us. Very real but very exciting.