Wet air and ground mid-October leaves came down yesterday and a bit of wind typical for autumn all my life in Pennsylvania now in state of Washington in a state of some bliss some tension some excitement looking ahead and remembering intertwined as we get ready to take it on down the road again on the move again changing surroundings going from our two bedroom apartment of 2 years where we have been happy to a house also with two bedrooms from 1983 and about the same square feet to move around in although set up differently and we will set down roots there our own property again or so they say although most of it will still belong to the bank but more privacy nobody up above us not that the people in the apartments bothered us too much but they did keep some strange hours and I did write a poem one time about how you could hear every little thing they did and could they hear every little thing we did and said too who knows but that’s soon to be history now going out today in the light rain to take photographs of the four entrances to the new place… I hadn’t paid too much attention to them in our two quick previous inspections I want to see the locks I’ve already contracted a locksmith to change the locks maybe unnecessary probably excessive but still wise and gives us some peace of mind also looking into some alarm systems do it yourself variety I want to see where the mailboxes are too another thing I haven’t noticed. I note that all the door handles and locks seem quality and there are even storm doors which you don’t see much here so that’s all good.  Moving from Renton of 110K or so inhabitants to 10 or 15 minutes south to Kent of a few more K inhabitants both of them are suburbs of Seattle each with their own entity and personality both with a highly diverse population some crime issues although in the five years in Renton we’ve not had any problems except for some sloppy neighbors in nearby apartments. I know the Kent area so that will cut down on the stress and disorientation inherent in moves.  I don’t know anything about the neighbors in the new place but there are fewer of them a quieter location although the places we’ve had have been fairly quiet already but this is in a 200 townhouse unit residential area where every house looks practically the same but we’re on a dead end and it’s the last house on the end so we won’t have anybody above us or on one side of us and a good distance from the house across the street and we’re we’ve got woods and trees and lawn which I don’t have to take care of because there’s a housing association to which I will pay their fees (a new thing growing in popularity out here) we’re not moving because we’re unhappy with the apartment or the area. We’d played with the idea of buying a house so that we weren’t doing the proverbial ‘throwing away’ of rent money every month and getting nothing from it in terms of an investment which we would like to leave to our daughter when we pass on to the next realm this does put us 15 minutes or so further from her place in Seattle so now we’ll be talking about a 45 minute to 1 hour drive to get to where she is… I always think of these journeys in terms of distances/ places I would drive in Pennsylvania as a comparison although I didn’t drive too many places back there …this is probably like driving from Erie to Meadville (20 miles – 50 minutes according to Google Maps  whereas Erie house to downtown Meadville was 40 miles…in less than 50 minutes)  although more traffic here which is what makes going similar distances take more time and I do try to stay off most freeways instead sticking to well traveled main roads.  Theoretically, it’s ‘faster’ to take freeways but I find that you’re often not able to move at freeway speed limits anyway and you always run the risk of getting stuck in traffic so no thank you. And far more hazardous for many reasons. 

The house is on one floor that was something that was kind of hard for us to find when we were debating whether to buy or not the problem with buying here is the cost of housing for example this two bedroom 998 ft place with a garage which we’re going to use for Isabel’s office and storage for her eBay business was listed at $325,000 the problem here is that you rarely get the house for the listed price (and forget about lower than list price) you usually have to offer more and that was the case we were up against three other offers and we had to come in at $340K and waive an inspection which we did based on what we could see and the fact that it is a condominium so we don’t have to concern ourselves with paying for roof repair or painting the outside or doing the gutters etc. but that’s where the housing situation is – it largely favors the seller right now and most houses are not this ‘inexpensive’ but we were able to take some from my IRA to come up with the down payment and it was a good time for low mortgage rates relatively so we will see but the house is in move-in condition we want to change some of the appliances and tweak a few things over time.  We’re both impatient for it all to happen and already be settling in there while also worried that there’s more than enough to keep us busy here up to the very end.  I’ve rented a storage space to help with transition and we have the movers coming in on November 1^st and we’ll have one day more after that to lightly clean the empty apartment…but we’re not going to kill ourselves because the management company comes in to clean anyway and will take it from our deposit for touch up painting and the cleaning.  The closing is on October 29^th when we’ll get the keys which will give us a couple of days to clean the new place (although its’ obviously been professionally cleaned) and get it ready for stuff to just come in and be placed ‘just where it belongs’ for the next few chapters of existence.  We’d like to be able to get in sooner and spread things out more but have to abide by these limits.  As we tick off the days we’re happy and feel we have made the right decision.