Exciting Announcement

May I have everyone's attention please? That's right, gather around. We have a very important announcement to make.

We signed the Purchase & Sale last night to buy our first house!!

As I mentioned before, we've been looking for a little while at various houses and finally decided that a new construction in Pelham NH would be the best for us. We put in an offer a couple of weeks ago, agreed on a price, and the fun began. For the last two weeks, the Purchase & Sale agreement was in limbo in "Lawyer Land" while the details were worked out. Last night we met the seller's agent at a Dunkin' Donuts (the RE/MAX office was closed... besides, she's a number 3 so we didn't mind chillin' with her at a Dunks) and signed the document stating that we're buying the house.

At this point, we're considering the house "ours" knowing that if it doesn't pass the home inspection we'll walk away from it. That said - it's new construction, everything seems sound in the house so we're relatively confident it will pass. We've been going back and forth to various vendors to choose our options for cabinets, flooring, and counters (which is an adventure by the way, and the names of colors are just ridiculous). We got our mortgage pre-approval, and we fully recognize that after 3 years of paying a cheaper rent than most with all utilities included - we're about to get a reality check with things like an electric bill and finding a propane vendor.

All in all though, we are very VERY excited. Probably as excited as we were when we got engaged. We've been talking about where our offices will go and things we can do to upgrade things over the years and how we'll rearrange things once the Lil' 'Thanases come into the picture in a few years.

A couple of quick details:
- 4 Bed, 2.5 bath colonial with a 2-car garage and a full basement
- 1.22 acres of land
- It abuts a Girl Scout camp and the town has 50-year first right of refusal on their property - so there's a very low likelihood that we'll have neighbors behind us.
- Nice big deck appropriate for cookouts and such things

We get to pick our own appliances, so I'm PSYCHED to pick out and cook up some goodies in the new kitchen. I know that Steve is already devising some technological schemes for the house too. I can't believe that we're actually buying a house, but we are and provided everything keeps going in the positive direction it's going in - it's going to rock.

Soon-to-be Casa Athanas (photo by S. Athanas)