ScrappyDoc

Saturday is...

...moving day!!! We did our walk through this morning, and it looks AWESOME!!! OK, that is enough gratuitous exclamation points, can you tell that I'm really excited to move into our new house? After 40 nights (yes, folks, I said 40) in a hotel, I've about had it with the Residence Inn. That was just a little longer than we were planning on, but we got through it without going completely nuts or wanting to wring each other's neck's. There were a few meltdown moments, but nothing we couldn't get past. It makes us feel pretty darn good that we can roll through the hard times we've had this year and come out on the other side relatively unscathed, and even smiling most of the time.

Heading to the house...

...to do our final walk-through. That's a pretty good reason to get up at 5:30 am. We stopped by yesterday and things are looking great. They were in the middle of fixing the lights over the bar (which were uneven), it will be good to have that done. They've also got to put another coat of paint on the stairs. Unfortunately, they realized that the stain they were using originally on the stairs was the wrong type (it had the polyurethane top coat premixed in already). It wasn't drying because of the type of stain, not because it was too hot. So the stairs had to be stripped and started all over again. But they've already got a couple of coats on with the right product, and they're drying really quickly and it looks great. The power has been turned on (which means the AC is on) and the last coat should go on today. We'll do the walk-through this morning, and complete our punch list. This will probably have quite a few things on it, but it doesn't matter, as long as we can move in. Unfortunately (for Nicholas), I'll be in NYC this weekend to go to my sister's baby shower, so he'll have to do a lot of unpacking by himself. We made a deal, though, I'll take care of wedding stuff in NY, and Nick can take care of house stuff here. Sounds OK to me.

House pics on Flickr

So for all of you who have been wondering where the new pictures of the house are, I've decided to go ahead an put them all on Flickr, and you can get there by clicking the orange-bordered badge on the right of the page. This is a much better interface for viewing photos and it allows you to write descriptions and comments without writing on the pictures themselves. So check out the pictures through Flickr, and play around with the different ways to display photos. I think the slide show format is the best, let me know what you think!

Final Friday...

...of freedom. Now that sounds like that could be a movie title or something, maybe. Nick and I just got back from the gym, or rather, he got back from the gym and I got done with my intro training session with Satan. No, actually it was really good and it just proved to me how really out of shape I am. It was like an old school gym class, doing jumping jacks, mountain climbers, lunges, the plank (I thought of you, Bex), etc. I can't wait to see how I feel tomorrow ;)

I also posted the new pics of our place from yesterday. The floors are in throughout the main and upper floors and they just look great. There was actually a snafu with the actual floors that were shipped, because we had originally wanted the vertical grain bamboo because it shows less of the knuckles, but they sent the regular stuff on accident. We didn't know that until we went over to take a look the other day. This was one of those cases of accidents happening for a reason, because we actually really liked the way the floors looked and we were worried that the vertical would look too busy. All in all, things are really starting to come together.

We accept...

...your counter offer!! So after a little back and forth, we've finally settled on an offer that we think is fair, and everything is underway. The inspectors are actually coming through today, the radon test is underway (hope that comes out within the EPA limits) and everything should be go to go. Our closing is set for mid-July (I think the 12 or 13th), which will be great.

Nick and I are heading to the gym (we joined Peak Fitness) to get a start on getting fit. Bye bye muffin-top, you won't be missed.

In other news, we stopped by the house again yesterday afternoon. Granite has been installed in both the kitchen and the bathroom, bamboo floors are being laid, more paint is up, etc. I'll post more pics at the end of this week.

I counter your counter with another counter...

So that pretty much sums up how the offer on the house with. We've finally accepted their second counter offer and are awaiting their signed contract as I sit here writing this. Hallelujah!!! With our prospective closing date of July 13, this means no double mortgage, which is truly a blessing. Money is tight as it is right now, so every little bit helps, and not paying another month of bills, HOA, mortgage, etc. is more than a little bit. In conjunction with our delayed move-in here in Winston-Salem, it looks like everything is turning out alright.

Nick and I stopped by the Emergency Medicine office today to pick up the swag they ordered for us. It was so nice of them to do that, we got really cool messenger bags, sweatshirts and polos, and I also got to pick up my books. They bought Tintinalli's for us (which is considered to be the EM textbook). I think we get Harwood-Nuss next year which is certainly a more advanced book. There was also an Emergency Ultrasound book and a variety of Tarascon's pocket guides, which are always good in a pinch. Oh yeah, and I also got a big hug from the residency director, which was very funny because it kind of caught me off guard. It was pretty cool to see how excited they were to see me again.

In other news, one of the soon-to-be second year EM resident is having all of us over for a BBQ this evening. We got together this weekend with just our class at one of the interns houses and that was a lot of fun. The rest of the week will be spent doing random stuff to get ready for my first day. We have our EM orientation on Thursday, and then a pool party at the Chair's house in the evening. Then a little break before my first shift on Sunday, which is 6pm to 2am. Not sure if that will be busy or not, but it sounds like ER has been crazy busy regardless of the time or day. Nothing like jumping in headfirst right? Fingers crossed that it goes smoothly.

Another offer on the house

We got a call from Anna yesterday evening with another offer on the house. Yippee!!! They came in higher to start than the other offer, and it looks like they've got all of their ducks in a row. We countered their initial offer and then they returned another counter, hopefully we'll be under contract today at some point. They're 2 docs who I am assuming are starting residency at Iowa and they want to close in mid-July. That would just be great, because it is likely that we will close about the same time here in Winston, and what does that all add up to, no double mortgage!!! That would fantastic. I'll keep everyone posted as soon as we know.

A few new pictures

Nick and I stopped by the house again today and took care of quite a few things on our to do list. We had Jim reimburse us for our expenses so far, walked through the house and looked at the paint colors that are up and finalized some design things with Shari. All of the paint looked great except for the master bedroom. Unfortunately, the brown is oddly reminiscent of a PB & J, without the J, or course. We picked a different, more brown, less gold color and they are going to try to get that up tomorrow and let us look at one wall to see what we think. We found out that Jim accounts for 4 paint color changes in each room, but hopefully we won't have to do that. As far as we're concerned, everything else looks great.

Other good news is that some of our doors have arrived, the bamboo floors are in the garage, waiting to be installed, the granite counter tops are being delivered tomorrow. There are a few other things that I'm not remembering at the moment, but Jim reiterated that he fully believes that we will be in there in 2 weeks. That brings us to July 9th. Obviously this is later than we wanted, but it could be worse. I'm sure as soon as we start work, the time will just fly. OK, time to get a little reading done before bed, don't forget to check out the new pictures to the right.

New pics of our house

Nick and I went back over to our house today to meet with Jim (the builder) and go over some details about the finish work on our place. We took a bunch of pictures which are posted in a new album, and I also added some that my dad took yesterday. I tried to label the rooms and such so you could get a sense of where stuff is. Hopefully it makes sense.

So Jim said once again that he fully believes that we can be in 2 weeks from tomorrow if things go according to schedule. Of course in construction, we all know that doesn't really mean a whole lote since most of what goes on tends to be out of their control, but we'll hope for the best. Either way, he encouraged us to stop by every other day to check in and make sure things are looking the way we want, and also so that if we do see anything we don't like or that we'd like to change, we can let him know right away. All in all, this building thing has been very cool and a great learning experience. Stressful at times, yes, but worth it. We were also encouraged when we Jim told us that Karen got her energy bill for the last month (and it has been pretty darn hot) and it was $16.00. Yup, sixteen bucks, and her space is about 300 sq ft larger than ours. That will really be a blessing over these next few years when money is a little tight.