The Old Man and the Street

When we first looked at this house, we knew it was going to need a lot of work–in the typical fashion that old houses do; however, only time will tell if I’m prepared for the never-ending projects that this house is going to provide me with. I’ve got a fairly itching fix-it finger, so for now, I’m pretty excited.

I got to the house at about 7AM with my cup of coffee to find that our phone service wasn’t working. Oddly enough, the buttons make tones, but I get no dial tone. Weird.

My first action as a new homeowner was to liberate the back gate to the alley, which was so overrun with vines that you couldn’t see where the gate ended and the fence began. I celebrated by pulling down a few ceiling tiles in the basement, but more on that later.

After picking up the Mrs. and making the first (of what I’m sure will be many) deposits at Home Depot, the Glass Guy came over to measure our front door for a new pane of glass.

The front door is original, but somewhere along the line, the bevelled glass that was in it got replaced by a piece of plexiglass. Not only is this brutally ugly, but it’s also patently unsafe, so it’s got to go. We’re getting a quote for a 22″ x 58″ piece of bevelled tempered glass, so that it will look very much like the original glass in the door.

After living in a condo for three years, my wife and I bought our first house today.

When we went over for the walkthrough, we found an electrician in the backyard, digging a trench to run a new line out to the garage, which had shorted out (again) the night before. “Jeff” assured us that he’d be all finished by the time we got back from the closing.

So off to the 1:00 closing, which turned out to be in the back room of a local law office which was already in the back room of a local insurance office.

Coincidentally, the back room in question was a mere five feet behind the back wall of the deli of our favorite local grocery store.

It was just that kind of place.

Anyway, our attorney was late, then the bank took forever to put the loan through and we didn’t get out of there until 10 to 4. We grabbed some sandwich fixins from the deli next door and headed back to the house to eat and wander around the house enjoying our new purchase and waiting to get an estimate on refinishing our floors.

The “Floor Guys” were a father and son team, and couldn’t have been any nicer… there’s a very good chance we’ll go with them.