Hearst Dr. - It's Official!

So we finally closed and get the keys to the house today. Phew... what a process. Because it was a foreclosure, we were dealing with a Seller/bank in New York, a lender in Florida, and a title company in LA as well as the HOA. Poor Robbie - I think he spent several hours a day on the phone trying to work everything out. And huge thanks to Bob who was a big help from the Merill Lynch side of things.

All in all it was a 9 month process. We looked at over 60 houses and made 5 offers - 3 on this house. 3rd time was the charm looks like. We're thrilled, excited, and exhausted. And we haven't even started moving yet. Our plan is to move boxes and little furniture nightly this week. Monday we have a Uhaul rented and our awesome friends Mike and Michael will help Robbie move all the big furniture. In the middle of all this we're trying to unpack and paint several rooms. Our also awesome friends Ariel and Damon have offered to help paint or watch Owen. So hopefully the move in process will go smoothly. Hopefully we'll be settled before we know it. :)

Look for an email from me with the address info. Also, here is a link to more pics...

pics of the house

Camp Richardson (Lake Tahoe)

Our good friends Ariel and Damon Tribble invited us to join them, their daugher Alexandra, and Damon's mom Bobbie (sp?) on a day trip to Camp Richardson. This is a beach on Lake Tahoe that is kind of like a camping resort. It has cabins and things you can rent, a restaurant right on the beach, and a small marina a little out from the beach. Bobbie apparently worked there in the summers in college. It's where she met Damon's dad. Damon grew up going there in the summers.

We had a great time!!! We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the restaurant and then camped out by the water just chatting and playing with the kids. I can't say that watching over the kids is exactly relaxing, but we did our best. Our friend from Austin Drew (Taki to those who knew him in Austin) is in Tahoe now and joined us for a bit. It was great to catch up.

This was Owen's first beach day ever. He's seen the pacific ocean and the beach - but it was February at the time, so we obviously didn't spend any time there other than looking around for about 15 minutes. Owen LOVED the beach on Sunday. He had a great time playing in and eating the sand. And he loved the freezing cold water. Robbie held his hands and he just waded right in almost up to his nose and would have gone further if we let him. He would stay in there until his lips were blue and his teeth chattering and then we'd haul him out protesting.

Wonderful day spent with great friends. Looking forward to going back again next summer. :)

Owen is Walking

While we were in Estes Park in July, Owen was working really hard on his walking skills. We spent most of that vacation hunched over following him as he walked around holding our hands.


About two weeks later, I picked Owen up from day care on Tuesday and asked if he had walked any and they said not one step. By Friday when I picked him up the story was that it was now his main mode of transportation. Now he rarely crawls as he has also learned how to stand up from sitting on the floor.


It's official. He's a toddler. He's moved up to the young toddlers room at church and will soon move up at day care too. Sniff. Our little baby is now a little boy. Sniff.


It's amazing to watching him walk around, negotiating bumps and things in his way. It's also become interesting to keep tabs on him. We went to the "Concert in the Park" this past Friday - which is live music at a local park each week. This was the first week we took him as a walker - and boy did he just want to take off and toddle where all the kids were playing and try to get close to other kids balls (mental note, we now need to bring our own balls to these things). It was the same way yesterday at the beach we went to on Lake Tahoe (new post on that coming soon - pending pics). Quite a challenge for us to keep up.

We Got a New House (Again - Hopefully!)

Our house hunting expedition has been a rather long and interesting journey. We started looking for houses in January, and put in our first offer in April. Because of the housing economy at this point, it's actually a really good time to be buying a house in CA price-wise. But it's a very difficult time because 58% of the houses in the the tri-county area are short sales or foreclosures. So they're all long shots, and all take a really long time to do. Consequently, we often had more than one offer out at a time.

In July we were "accepted" on a house in Cameron Park. This one was a short sale. The buyer accepted, and then supposedly the bank accepted. We got the loan process going and were supposed to close August 8th. After two weeks with not a peep or a signed contract from the bank, we realized something was amiss.

In the meantime, a house in El Dorado Hills we really like and had previously put two separate offers on (and been rejected) came down in price. We decided to put a third offer on it. This one is a foreclosure, so we're dealing directly with the bank. And this time, after a tiny bit of haggling, we got accepted!!!

I have been waiting to post this since the first house didn't do so well after a fast post. But, we've got the signed contract from the bank. The inspection and appraisals are done and went well. We have the disclosures, and are good there. The loan documents are in processes. All we're waiting on at this point is the title company to do their stuff and the HOA documents - and then we're done with the contingencies. Our realtor felt comfortable enough that this will happen that we released the other offers out there. We close on August 26th (and please cross your fingers and pray that nothing goes wrong) !

We are thrilled with the house. It is 4 bed/3 1/2 bath with a separate office and a nice big bonus room. It has all the things we were looking for as well as most of the things we considered "great extras" like a sink in the laundry room, a pantry, a 4 car tandem garage, the guest "suite" downstairs, and a back yard that is already done. Stuff like that. :) We even have fruit trees (apple, grapefruit, orange, and lime).

Wish us luck and that everything goes smoothly until we have the keys in hand. Then we can breath easy that the house is ours!

Lamaze Babies Celebrate 1 Year

Most of you who read this blog are aware that we remained in touch with 5 other couples from our Lamaze class when we were pregnant. The ladies all got together often during our maternitiy leaves, and now the whole group tries to get together about every six week or so, if not more often.

The babies were all born within about a 4 week time span and so we all got together to celebrate the 1 year birthdays of all 6 babies. We all brought goodies to a park near by that has picnic tables, swings, and a water spout the kids can play in. We took lots of pictures, and Karen baked each baby an individual cake to dig into.

It has been so wonderful having these great people in our lives and being able to share all these experiences with people going through the same thing at the same time. It's been fascinating to watch each child grow and develop into individuals throughout the year. And it's been really handy having people to offer advice when you're stuck. :)

Happy Birthday to - Owen, Alexandra, Bryson, Gabriel, Dominic, and Chase!!!!!

(in order of birth date and in the picture below from left to right).