Three Days Later...

The past few days have been a mixed bag, but I'm still very excited about buying my dream house! On Saturday I had a migraine all day and then it started snowing.

Meme of a woman pouring alcohol in a blender that says "Oh look!!! The virus is still here and it's snowing again."

My friend Ganou told me that in France they have an old timey saying: "Avant Saint Servais, point d'été, après Saint Servais, plus de gelée." (Before Saint Servais, no summer, after Saint Servais, no frost.) Basically the idea is that the weather can all sorts of crazy stuff until they've passed the Ice Saints, which are Saint Mamertus, Saint Pancras, and Saint Servatius. Their feast days are May 11, May 12, and May 13 so we're almost there!

Sunday was Mother's Day and I was missing my mom. That's all I have to say about that.

What else happened? I emailed Love Bug's family to let them know about the house and to see if the Mother's Day cards we sent had arrived (they hadn't).

Photo of a house shape made out of construction tools.

Meanwhile, today I had the home inspection! Nothing too surprising, thank goodness. There is a bit of mold in the attic which I knew about and which the seller is fixing. Turns out the soffit vents were blocked with insulation so the attic wasn't properly ventillated - hence the mold. Luckily this is an easy fix. Other findings include:

* The water heater is older and will most likely need to be replaced soon
* The basement tends towards being damp which is not shocking given that it's next to a lake
* I need to raise the mast head on the side of the house
* I should add a chimney cap so water doesn't come down the chimney when it rains
* I need to add a support beam in the basement to reinforce the one that is already there
* There are a couple close-to-the-house trees I should remove
* I should spray for pests
* It wouldn't hurt to add more insulation, either

The end.

I feel like I can handle this list. Nothing on here is particularly expensive and nightmareish. And luckily the water heater is one of the cheaper types. *Phew*

OFFER ACCEPTED!!!

They accepted my house offer! Yay!

Meme that says "Offer has been accepted. So I guess you can say things are getting pretty serious."

Today was my day off so after a long nap, I spent the day hanging out with Love Bug. He was very excited to hear about the house. I had wanted to go outside but the weather was kind of bleh so we played with his music toys and read some books instead. Also, I baked a cake to celebrate the new house:

Chocolate cake decorated with with chocolate chips in the shape of a house.

Offer Is In

Ok. The offer is in. Now I just have to wait.

Black and white meme of a skeleton sitting next to a sink with text that says "Me waiting to hear about a house offer."

The Perfect House

Ok. Today was my first day of in-person house hunting. The first house on the docket was the Perfect House. As soon as I saw it in person I knew this house was the one so I told my realtor I wanted to cancel all of my other showings and put in an offer. We're aiming to get that done by 5pm. Yikes!

My dream house.

Why is this house perfect?

* IT'S ON A LAKE!!! Waterfront property?! In my budget?! What?! Also the lake doesn't allow motorboats so it'll be quiet. I'm excited just imagining the kayaking and swimming and sunsets over the water!
* It is in a small town with a great public school system that has a good special education department.
* It is on a private dirt road with barely any traffic.
* The town allows residents to keep farm animals, including poultry and bees.
* It already has well water and a septic system. All I need is some sort of alternative electricity and I'll be off the grid.
* The house is sitting on an entire acre of land which includes land on the opposite side of the street where the leach field for the septic system is located.
* It's only a 20 minute drive from my church so I won't have to switch churches.
* It's about half an hour from my dad/brother and an hour from Mikey's family, which feels very doable for visits.
* It's a shorter work commute to my current job and it's close to Worcester which has lots of nursing jobs in case I want to switch jobs.
* The house is ranch style with laminate flooring so it's going to be easy to adapt for Love Bug. All I have to do is make the bathroom accessible, turn the front walkway from platform steps into a ramp, and get a hoyer lift.
* It's a three bedroom so there's space for me to have more than one kid if I decide Love Bug needs some more siblings.

The only drawback I can see is that the town is very white. The school does have a diversity council that seems fairly active and they appear to be trying to address racism at all grade levels and among the faculty, so that's good. There is also the option for future kids to use school choice to send them to Worcester public schools, which are far more racially diverse (though not a good fit for Love Bug because of the quality of their special education department).

Kid from "The 6th Sense" with the caption "I see white people" instead of "I see dead people."

Anyway, please pray for me - I really want this house to work out!

I Just Survived My First Shift As A Pediatric RN!

Little blonde girl in blue scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck using a tongue depressor on her teddy bear.

Hat Month Grand Finale!

Well folks, it has been a month. I'm actually kind of sick of wearing hats so I'm glad it's finally time to let my head be free. For my final hat I'm bringing back the hat I wore to my wedding. This was actually the first time I'd worn it post-wedding and it felt kind of freeing to be able to wear it again without all the emotional weight attached. For anyone who was not around when I got married (which is probably most of the blog readers since I started this blog during my divorce) I got married in a white tux with black shirt and a white bowler hat with a birdcage veil. 

Today I wore the wedding hat with a pink and white striped button down shirt, jeans, and pink converse shoes. Not a bad finale, if I do say so myself.

Me smiling in my outfit.

Me making a funny face in my wedding hat.

Geek Hat

I've been saving a couple of my best hats for last. This hat makes me super happy. It's a black hat that says "GEEK" in white lettering and it has a floral brim. I wore it with jeans and a pink t-shirt. I also tried it with a chunky flower necklace. Not sure whether I liked it better with or without the necklace though. What do you think?

Selfie with the necklace.

Selfie without the necklace.

Today I had work and I got to see Love Bug. We spent most of our time together playing with some new toy airplanes. Some time was also spent trying to yank at my necklace, which is why I ultimately decided that the no-necklace look was the winner.