Chapter 2: Finding a place and moving in

Amy's step-sister, Bethany, referred us to Justin Douglas at Reali Realty. He worked his ass off for us, and saved us all sorts of headache. He did all the foot work and phone calling and answered all our silly questions. He even did much of the work for the sellers because they didn't follow through on some of the things they were supposed to do. We looked all around to find an affordable house, all the while my landlord was getting antsy for us to sign another year's lease. We looked at crap hole after trash heap and the occasional tiny little house while trying to keep in an affordable price range. We were ready to sign the jerk's 1 year lease when a diamond in the rough popped up. It was a nice little ranch with a porch, overlooking a wooded lot with a brook running through the trees. It was, and still is, buried in snow, but the pictures - which the neighbors since confirmed - showed a well groomed yard with flowers everywhere. It has a paved driveway on a dirt road, central air and a shed. We had to fight and counter-offer three other people. We ended up paying a little more than we were first expecting, but it still wasn't bad. It was a foreclosure, and my Aunt and Uncle (referred to in my previous post) was the prior owner's neighbor. I got all kinds of insight on the house and its owner from them and our neighbors, who I must add, are all really nice people who've all introduced themselves. They were so welcoming that it was kind of strange, at least after living in Biddeford for a year where folks ignored each other.

We signed the mountain of paperwork - twice - to get our mortgage and told our landlord we were moving out. During our house purchase, Amy's financial advisor for college called and said she wasn't completely covered by FAFSA, after all and needed to be married, have a child or be in the military in order to be considered independant under the age of 24. We found out, while we were trying to buy a house, that we now owe $4000 - and would owe more if we didn't rectify the situation. We certainly weren't ready for a child, and she decided the military wasn't for her, so we got married. We've been together for 2 years already, and we are still having our ceremony in October, so we figured why not. I tried to keep it simple and private. Just us, our parents and the justice of the piece who would do it for free because she's a coworker and a good friend. I didn't want to involve too many people because it was a quick thing in the living room of our apartment. I didn't want there to be jealousy if some were invited and some weren't. Turns out my plan backfired and most everyone was upset we didn't invite them. Oh well, I guess I can't please everyone all the time.

Moving day came, and it turned out that we had to dodge snow storms, just like the last few moves I did. Somehow I seem to decide to move in January. After we signed our paperwork at New England Title (and waited an hour because someone dropped the ball on an attorney hadn't signed something), we headed to our new home, in a limo that Justin provided. It was a nice gesture, but we were under the impression we were going to have lunch with Justin, and didn't eat. We had a glass of wine each, and felt it. We had to ask the limo driver to stop at Lakeside Variety so we could grab some fast food. We bought him a coke and tossed him some money as a thank you. Folks were staring at us as we crawled out of the limo at a gas station. Who knows what they were thinking as I was dressed up, but with big green boots on because of the weather.

We got back to our new house, and unloaded our cars that we had left there before running in town to finalize the deal. We set up an old full-size mattress to sleep on in our new bedroom, and had lawn chairs set up in front of out 13" TV, which was sitting on an upside down bucket.

The next day, we got a bunch of friends and family to help. It was a convoy of 2 pickup trucks with trailers and a conversion van. We got almost everything except for one last van-load of stuff which had to wait a week in order to get because of more snow storms. When we returned, we found that my Dad and father-in-law, Carl, had cleared the driveway and paths for us, as the place hadn't been cleaned out in a while, and was literally up to our ass in snow. Moving turned out to be fun as we had my friends Danny and Kenny, Amy's sister Laura and her mom, my Dad, Amy's Dad and us. Oh, and Danny's girlfriend came by too. We couldn't get the couches in over the railing of the porch on the kitchen door side, so we teamed up and hiked them over the railing to the front porch. The front door was otherwise inaccessible because of a mountain of snow on the corner of the house (which may be there until July by the looks of it).

Kenny bought us some pizza and my Dad went home for his tractor to finish clearing us out. My friends hung out on my 2 couches, each with a busted leg, eating the pizza and joking. I took a few pictures and posted them on my Picasa Web Album. Later, I heard my Dad jack-knifed his trailer on the way home from clearing out my Uncle and Grandfather after my place. He wasn't happy.

So, now we're moved in and will be unpacking for years to come!