Since I am going to be en route to my new place on Election Day, I voted early!  Woot for democracy!

This weekend marked the first major volley of going away parties.  A very rousing good time was had with my D&D crew, culminating in a goodly amount of intoxicated Rock Band 2.

Today, we headed to Goofy Ridge to see Tasha’s family, and then it was on to our October family birthday party where they surprised us with a big basket of “necessities” for living away from our brood.  These included cards for Euchre, a bottle of wine, a 20 year old cookbook from my grandma, and a good portion of chocolate and caffeine.  They also presented us with a huge photo collage picture frame with everyone represented and a very nice card… it was very awesome.

Hopefully that about does it for the overly emotional goodbyes, but at this point nothing will surprise me.  Onward to my last week of work in Peoria for awhile!

We’re getting closer to the end of the relocation process, but not before they throw a few more minor wrinkles into the act.  I can claim fault on this one… it seems that I had either forgotten or not realized that in Illinois, we pay our property taxes in arrears one year.  I did not calculate this into my figures when I was considering an offer, so I’m going to end up short the $2,200 or so in property taxes for 2008 that have accumulated.

Luckily, the relocation package provided me a fair amount of cash for things like this.  It’s just frustrating when my math is incorrect.  Things will shake out in the end, and I won’t make this mistake a second time!

Just got a call from my realtor, she said that they accepted our counteroffer contigent on the completion of the repairs!  Their counteroffer almost perfectly breaks us even with the 5% down that we had to have in order to secure our new mortgage in Colorado.

At this point I’m considering breaking even as good as making a little money on the deal, since the economy has softened (NOT receded) and we’re nearing the holidays.  We win!! It’s sake time!

it’s low.

I get to go meet with my realtor in a few minutes to work out a counter-offer.  The trouble is that their offer was only around $1000 more than we have left on the mortgage, ideally we would cover the rest of the amount needed to secure the mortgage on the new house.

I have the cash, but it would be nice to not have to spend it on that.  I know in this economy I’m lucky to have an offer, however I can’t help but feel like all the repairs and inclusions were for nothing more than breaking even.  That stinks a little, but I suppose those things were what got me the offer in the first place.

At least, that’s what I’m telling myself!

Tasha and I have successfully negotiated airport security here at DIA, and are now sitting at our gate waiting for the flight back home to Peoria.  I have heard they’ve been showing my house heavily in our absence, this morning also saw the second showing to a couple that saw our house last week.  I hope that they put in an offer!

Tasha and I are excited to get to see Teddy and the rabbits again, its going to be a whirlwind week of getting repairs done to my house as well as getting prepared to move for good.  My final day in Illinois will be November 1st, I will fly out to work for a week prior to our house closing.  At this point, I believe that Tasha will be driving out with the pets and plants on or around November 7th.  We’ll spend a week getting the house set up and I will begin work the following Monday.

We are still unclear about holiday travel plans, but stay tuned and we will post ’em as we’ve got ’em.

Today marks the end of my first full week here in Westminster!  Things started out a bit rocky early in the week but quickly resolved, highlighted by the acceptance of our offer and a hell of a lot of Blue Moons.  By the end of the week I had gotten into a pretty decent groove and I’m a little sorry to have to leave again for a month.

It seems that they’ve been showing my house back home like crazy, so hopefully I’ll have an offer on that pretty quick and I’ll be done with this relocation nonsense.  I am very happy that Tasha and I completed our goal of getting a house this week, so far we’re the most efficient of the group of people relocating for finding a house, so we win that competition.

I’m off to work dinner outing, and we’re heading back to Illinois tomorrow!

The sellers accepted our offer!  There was some drama with the relocation company, but I will detail that later.  We have a house in Colorado!!  wooot!!

Tasha and I have decided on the 9715 Iris Street address!  We’re writing the contract tomorrow afternoon and then we enter into the oh-so-enjoyable negotiation process!  wooot!!

Today was a fairly eventful day at work… I got to meet new members of the team, our project was officially announced, and Tasha spent most of the day house hunting for us.  We have narrowed down our choices to two houses: 9715 Iris Street and 3171 S Princess Circle.

I get to see both of these houses tomorrow… Tasha is leaning towards the Princess Circle home, however the Iris Street home has some features that are slightly better for resale.  I think in the end its going to be the emotional response that wins the day, but I’m not going to rule anything out yet.  Hopefully we will have a tentative decision tomorrow and be able to put an offer in, but who knows what will happen in this crazy, mixed up process?

Stay tuned, theres more to come!