No Longer Homeowners
July 17, 2007
We closed on our house in Austin yesterday. Despite some last minute confusion on a handful of closing-related topics that I don’t understand or follow very closely, we were done with our paperwork in 45 minutes.
The couple that is buying the house were very personable, and we did a fair amount of chatting about the neighborhood and what we could do to make their move-in as smooth as possible. It sounds like the house will be vacant for several weeks, so we’re going to help them get set up with someone to maintain the pool as well as the yard. And, they now know what rooms they’re going to repaint, so we’ll know which touch-up paint to leave and which to dispose of. Debbie — who seems to be the “Julie” of the relationship when it comes to handling myriad details — apparently really liked the dark red furdown in the kitchen (which is the same color as the dining room wall). We love how that project turned out, so it’s kind of nice to hear it will be staying as is. And, they’re sticking with the taupe in the bathrooms…which were just painted in prep for putting the house on the market.
Understandably, the baby blue in the boys’ room and the avocado-nasty in the master bedroom is going (I don’t have many opinions on color selection…but I’ve never been a fan of this one — it’s become something of a running joke between Julie and me).
So, that’s one major milestone down. I’ve also nailed down my transition schedule, with my last permanent day in Austin being August 17th (returning for the first time the week of September 10th). The going-away parties we’re throwing ourselves are also coming together — we have close to 70 people coming to Stubb’s for barbecue, beverages, and live music on Saturday, and we’ve then got a big rollerskating party for the kids’ friends on Sunday afternoon.
And…I’m still blogging. I’m actually running with two blogs. This one, which is random and personal, and Gilligan on Data, which is much more geared towards my day job. I don’t think there’s much overlap in interest between the audiences for these two blogs. But, I’m finding that the data blog is actually a useful tool for me to peer-network with myself, in a way. It forces me to sit down and articulate my thoughts and, hopefully, instill a bit more discipline in my day-to-day work. A close friend of mine for the past couple decades writes the Tammen on Marketing blog, and he actually stumbled across Gilligan on Data and claims that he quoted some of the content at work. On the “who woulda’ thunk” front, if you’d asked me 10 years ago which of my close friends and relatives would I have the most in common with professionally, I never would have pegged Chris Tammen and Steve Massey! Kinda’ makes me wonder who I’ll be saying that about in another 10 years!
Posted in Miscellaneous
