The final week

Slowly but surely things are getting packed into boxes in the apartment. It is a long and frustrating process, but it will all be worth it in a matter of days when all those boxes are being upacked into our beautiful new home.

My least favotire things to pack? Books and clothes. Books are so incredibly convenient on their shelves, and clothes in their closet. When packed into boxes - those those items are a complete pain.

To take a break from the packing, we stopped by the house to see where things were at. The exterior of the home is in its final stages, so I thought I would post some of those photos.

Progress continues

Ten days and I will be closing on my first home. I can finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And even more importantly, I can finally see how everything has come together in the home. The fun stuff, like countertops, flooring and light fixtures have been installed and there has been a great deal of progress on the exterior of the home.

Let's go to the pictures to really get an idea.

Interest rates

One of my most stressful worries was that odd time between the loan approval process and the closing process is the floating period when you are allowed to lock your interest rate.

With a lot of luck and a limited amount of strategy, we managed to lock our rate at 5.5% which felt awesome. I never thought I could be savvy enough to manage that, but we have and just in time too. I wanted to see what the Federal Reserve was going to do last week before we made any decisions, since most analysts were anticipating one more cut. The cut did work in my favor, and this week, rates are back around 6%. Hooray for a poor housing market - said to say it, but that is exactly what has made it possible for me to buy a home.

In other news, we drove by the house last night and the exterior has been completed and a retaining wall is now being constructed. I will post some more pictures of that later.

More progress

This weekend we were able to go into the home and see some of the interior projects. It is incredible to think that this is all going to be done in a mere 26 days. As of this weekend, the cabinets are installed, as well as the fire place. Here are some of the photos from the tour.

Designing a home

One of the benefits of buying this townhome was being able to select the basics for the home. I am so picky that this was definitely a huge plus. Also, I wanted to design an interior that I knew would be appealling for a while down the road. I haven't even moved in yet and all I can think about is resale. Yet another reason why my mother says I am years beyond my true age.

Below you can see some of the selections we made. Note that if you click on the photo, it will enlarge.

I think one of the better choices was some of the mixed textures. The dark gray slate that will be used for the mantle of the fireplace is definitely going to be unique and beautiful. The cabinets are called, "Autumn" which I think is a perfect explanation. The warm glow of that varnish on the maple gives it a varied golden color that contrasts well with the dark maple floors. I have to admit that seeing all of it on a small scale makes it very difficult to imagine. It is hard for me to wrap my head around what it will look like when it all comes together - so fingers crossed we have created something beautiful.

Progress

The best way to see the progress of the home building progress is through a series of photos, so here is a series showing how the work on the home has progressed.

I have complained about this before, but every time in my life that I have moved from one place to another - it has been pouring rain. Nearly every time we go to the house to take photos, it is raining. I am hoping this is an omen that we are going to finally get a sunny day when we move in.

Start:

What I do

What I do on a daily basis is a complicated mess of technology based things. But for those of you that have an insatiable interest in my work life, then here is a sample:

www.youtube.com/umn
www.unews.umn.edu
www.national.umn.edu

I would highly suggest you check all of it out. I only deliver the best in web 2.0.

Also, rate all our videos 5 stars on YouTube. You know you want to.