There are lots and lots of people named "joyce" in this world. I am probably not the joyce you are looking for. If you add me, I don't know you from Adam, I look at your journal and 1) there's nothing there or 2) it's obvious you're looking for someone else, I'm not going to add you. Easy enough?

So, yesterday we did our farmer's market thing, then came home and unloaded and loaded up some stuff in the cars, and Jeff and his mom drove off to the new house, with me trailing. I went and picked up my mom, and took her over to the house (which she didn't know about yet.) (I also timed the drive: 5 minutes, the way I drive.) She was surprised and pleased (and sleepy, I think I caught her pre-nap.) Dad came over and looked at the inside of the house for awhile with Jeff, home repair geeking out. Eventually, mom dad and Val and went home. We walked around and started making a list of things needed for the round of repairs that needs to happen before we move in.

( cut for supply list )

We drove into Burlington for lunch and Home Depot. When we got back, we started in the kitchen, because I was not feeling patient enough for wiring. The first thing that needed to happen in there was moving a very large, very awkwardly placed base cabinet. It chopped up the wall that the fridge and stove will go on, making the fridge space too narrow for the one we want. It was floor to ceiling, making the top half pretty unusable for me. There was an outlet behind it, that the former occupants had accessed by cutting a hole in the backing of the cabinet. And so forth.

We thought this was going to be pretty easy - unscrew it from the wall, pull it out. Well, it turns out that the cabinet was taller than the ceiling. Instead of getting a cabinet to fit the space, they'd gotten whatever they wanted - probably whatever was cheap - and then sheetrocked AROUND the cabinet, so that it was stuck in the ceiling.

Long story short, the cabinet eventually came apart, not out. At that point, we discovered that during the house's history, people had put down a layer of linoleum over another layer of linoleum over some fiberboard over 2 more layers of linoleum ... over wood floors. It looks like we have wood floors in our kitchen, which you can kind of see in this picture. We are terribly pleased, and cleaning that up is on today's list.

Watching Supernatural for the first time:

(8:15:11 PM) Joyce: holy shit, has the ATF seen that trunk?

(8:47:14 PM) Joyce: it's... Dukes of Hazard meets X-Files

One of the first things up on the list is gardening. :)

I want to try no-till gardening. That means that over this winter, I need to work on getting a good amount of compost built up.

I also need to figure out what we want to grow, when they need to get started, and whether we'll want to start from seeds or seedlings. Off the top of my head, I figure we'll want (eventually, we might not start with all this)...

- tomatoes
- onions
- garlic
- potatoes
- green peppers
- red peppers
- cucumbers
- eggplant
- zucchini
- yellow squash
- strawberries (I'd like to try everbearing or day neutral)
- raspberries
- blackberries
- blueberries
- spinach
- collards
- lettuce

[eta]
- asparagus
- green beans
- baby watermelon
- cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli

Anyone have suggestions for what's easiest to get started with?

Also, we think we want chickens. Which is going to take a lot of research.

So, after all the hoopla around getting the loan, closing was pretty anticlimatic. Getting out there sucked - wind + rain + 40 = suck. I don't like driving on 40 in good weather, but it was the most direct route to the lawyer's office. We got there at 3 and were out by 3:35.

So then we went over to the house, and let ourselves in with our keys (!!) and took some measurements and talked furniture placement. Jeff came on home, and I swung by the parents' for a few to say hi (something I'll be able to do whenever I want (!!) here soon), and then came home. Val made dinner, and now we're all peacefully vegitating.

I am so glad tomorrow is Friday.

Also, the to-do list just grew.

( to-do, house buying version )

It's Veterans Day.

Thank you to my grandfather, my dad's cousins, and my grandad's brothers and grandma's brothers and brothers-in-law. Thank you to my uncles, and my cousins. Thank you to the multitude of veterans that pass through my classes at the community college every year (and are usually my best, most involved, most driven, most curious, most academically prepared students.) Thanks to stagger_lee77.

I might not always agree with our government, or its actions, or going to war, but that does not mean that I'm not grateful to our veterans.

From: loan officer at Corporate Monolith
To: me

Good afternoon,

This is your final approval email.
Loan amount: [amount]
Purchase price: [bigger amount]
Rate locked: [damn fine fixed rate]
Premium credit: [not bad]
Rate expiration: 11/12/2009
Closing date: 11/12/2009

Title will be held as: JOYCE [last name]

Estimated funds due at closing: [incorrect number, needs fixing], our closing department will contact your directly with the final numbers once they have approved the final settlement statement.

Thank you again for choosing [Corporate Monolith]

Sitting in a car all day should not make one tired, but here I am.

The wedding was lovely. We all had a very, very good weekend. Today was punctuated by lunch with yesthatjill and flummox, which was very very nice (had arepas for the first time. Very nice.) I will write up a trip report, eventually. Right now, though, it's hopefully (hopefully hopefully) going to be a very busy week, so I'm going to go faceplant.

Today's progress on the [cryptic] front: all of the paperwork was sent off to the Big Bad Decision makers yesterday. One of them called today: One of the very important pieces of paper did not have Year to Date information on it. Cue the cancelling of a class (they're seniors, and they have a test Wednesday - trust me, they were grateful), going home, and digging for this month's piece of paper that did have YTD info on it, getting finished getting packed for this weekend, rushing off, faxing said piece of paper, and getting on the road. It was a stupid busy day.

Anyhow, we eventually got on the road. This weekend is the first big wedding out of all the cousins on my dad's side of the family (there was a courthouse wedding, her brother) and we are all converging. My sisters are out with our local cousin and his brother, who is stationed out in Cali and whom we never get to see. However, I'm tired, Jeff's tired, I'm this side of cranky from ye old life stress lately, so we are peacefully sacked out in the hotel room. I'm going to get some sleep soon, and then we will see everyone in the morning.