House Updates
The big news here of late is still all centered around our house purchase. I can’t believe it’s only been eight days since we made an offer. The number of hours we’ve spent signing papers, visiting with insurance companies, e-mailing back and forth with the broker and realtor… seems like it’s been months! But I think we’ve got a good team working for us. Like Lauren said, we figured the hardest part of the process would be finding the right house for us and then agreeing to an offer. Instead, that was the easy part and the paperwork stuff has been more stressful.

We had our inspection yesterday and overall it was a success. The biggest things were all in good shape, anyway–the foundation, roof, plumbing, and electric all checked out. We asked the seller to pay for a few repairs to the exterior where animals had ruined a few boards trying to scratch their way in, as well as some water heater stuff. Instead of cash, we agreed on a trade where the seller will leave behind a fridge and doggy door in lieu of cash for the repairs. Also, the seller agreed to sell us her washer/dryer for a very fair price.

So now, we just wait on the appraisal and continue to shop insurance. The insurance part has been really annoying. One insurance agent absolutely talked my ear off on the phone, going into detail on every bulletpoint and then including a personal story or sidenote on everything… and then we went into his office after the inspection and he repeated everything all over again! However, this is our current insurance company and from what I’ve heard it’s just so much easier to stay put than switch if the prices aren’t too terribly different.

Other News

  • Last Saturday night we went to a concert downtown with some friends and saw four bands including Blues Traveler and Barenaked Ladies, Lauren’s all-time favorite band from her Canadian days. They really did put on a great show, very comedic and high-energy. Afterwards, I met the BNL drummer in a bar and shook his hand.
  • Due to our house expenses and road trip plans colliding, we are almost certainly going to go the cheaper route and cash in our free Delta flights rather than drive 1100 miles each way to Minnesota and back. It will cut four days of driving off the trip and could save us as much as $1000. That unfortunately would mean no Baxter and no visiting the Glanzers in SD on the way home. We are also sad to use our hard-earned free flights on a trip to Minnesota instead of a spontaneous fun city, but with the house we likely won’t do much traveling outside of MN/SD in the coming year anyway.
  • Our co-ed volleyball team won for the first time last night, beating the Ravens in two straight matches despite Bart playing on zero sleep and the girls getting sand kicked in their faces by a frustrated opposing player. Our volleyball game was going on the same time the big David Allan Coe concert was about to start, and rumor had it Willie Nelson was also hanging around for a surprise appearance, but we didn’t get to see or meet either of them.
  • Speaking of our teammate Bart (the other Ryan, nicknamed to prevent confusion), it’s his 30th birthday tomorrow and there appear to be some plans of some bar-hopping to celebrate. For a couple people about to make a major financial commitment, we sure aren’t cutting back on the extracurricular activities, are we?
  • A lot of my attention has been focused on the MLB trade deadline which is quickly approaching, and the Twins are obviously sellers this year, being 18 games under .500 and well on their way to a 100-loss season. I have been checking Google Reader and Twitter every few minutes for updates, but nothing has materialized so far. Hope the Twins can ship out Liriano, Span, and a few others and get some prospects in return.