My most recent potential first home

All right, after going through another stupid deal last week, I was back on the hunt this morning. And, I think I found a good one! Or I should say, what will be a good one. It is located on Edith, just east of the I-65/24 Trinity Lane exit. Here are pictures of a house I think I'm going to put an offer on this week. It would need to be renovated, but mostly cosmetically (flooring, paint, whole new kitchen, and some bathroom fixtures); I would spend May doing that, with the goal to have my dad come down over Memorial weekend to install the flooring and finish up. I think this house will be pretty cool once I'm done with it; here's what it looks like now:


Front of house (and Tim)


Side of house (right of front, door leads to back bedroom)


Right side patio


Outdoor oven on front of house


Ginormous detached garage/future recording studio for Tim


Left side of house (door leads into kitchen)


Front door (into living room)


Living room (door into front bedroom, laundry, and front bath)


Another view of living room looking out to front


Fireplace in living room


Shower in front bath


Laundry hookups in room adjacent to front bath, through front bedroom


Front bedroom (laundry/front bath behind, living room to left)


Family room (addition, they left the siding on the original walls! doors into right side of living room)


Other side of family room (door leads to outdoor oven)


Hallway off back of living room (second bedroom on right, hall bath on left)


Second bedroom


Other side of second bedroom (out to hallway)


Hall bathroom vanity


Hall bathroom tub (needs a bit of work...)


Dining room (straight back through hall, kitchen to left, back bed to right)


Back bedroom (door to dining/kitchen, door out to right side of house directly behind)


Kitchen (I'll be gutting this and starting over)


Side yard (right of house)


More side yard (left of previous pic)


Another pic of ginormous garage

And that's it! Let me know what you think...

It'll be just like starting over

Thank you, John Lennon, for such an appropriate title.

Well, the house that I thought was going to be my first home is no longer in the running, as the homeowner has decided to file bankruptcy and take the house off the market. Additionally, the even better house I found last weekend that I put an offer already had an offer on it, and is closing on Friday, so things are not looking good on that front.

All that to say, I've got a bit of work ahead of me.

I'll be looking at places tomorrow and for the rest of the week if needed; my goal is to have an offer on an available and realistic house by the end of the week, and I think I can achieve that goal. We'll see. It's in God's hands, and I'm fine with that.

This week is going to be moderately intense. Not only do I need to find a house, I also have several work events to attend, along with preparing for a 21 mile run Sunday morning. There's just a lot that has to happen this week.

My newest addictions are: Cubis 2 on MSN Games and the Pieces of Flair application on Facebook. Check out both if you get the chance; definitely worth your time. Well, maybe not definitely, but sure beats doing nothing!

The hope

This is my goal for what the basement will look like...

The home buying process

Not really the process, so much as where I'm at in it... which, in this case, is waiting for the seller's mortgage company to accept my offer.

In the meantime, here are pics of the place!


Upstairs bathroom (shower to the left)


Upstairs landing


Upstairs bedroom #1 (right up the steps)


Living room view from entry


Living room view from dining (entry door is on left)


Back porch (off kitchen)


Kitchen


Basement stairs (the start of something great)


Rear view


Side view from corner of street


Front of house (main entry is off side porch on right)


Main level bathroom


View into back main floor bedroom (bathroom on left, other bedroom behind)


Dining Room (bathroom directly behind)


Main floor hallway (living room ahead, kitchen left, back bed right, porch behind)


Stairway upstairs


Upstairs bedroom #2 (left up the steps)


So that's that... more to come!

Another milestone

I ran 14 miles today. And now I'm tired.

But I finished, and that feels good.

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A rainy Tuesday evening

I am seeing rain for the first time in probably a month right now, and definitely lightning for the first time in that long. I like it.

My run this morning went well. I'm still trying to regain some of the stamina that I lost during my hiatus. I was encouraged this morning, however, when I found out I didn't gain any wait during the break, which I think is crazy.

As part of my training, I'm going to be making some dietary changes, most notably no chocolate or pop and more pasta and fruit juice. The fruit juice can't come at a better time; I'm starting to feel a cold coming on.

Yes!!!! Sweet thunder happening right now.

Work was really slow today. I'm waiting for a statement from a ringtone company, and I can't do any more royalty entries until I get that statement. The thing that saved my sanity today was hulu.com, a joint-venture between NBC and FOX that streams all their new shows and a bunch of old shows and movies for free. I've found myself turning on an episode of "30 Rock", minimizing the window, and using it as a kind of radio program. If you haven't checked it out yet, I would absolutely recommend signing up. Totally worth your time.

Ahlberg out.

(Wow, did I just type that?)

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And the beat keeps running

My marathon training has officially begun.

I started on Saturday, running a little over 8 miles after taking approx. the last month off (smart, I know). My body wanted to kill me the rest of the day and most of Sunday too, but I was able to get out this morning and go another 6, which went well.

My schedule for the rest of the week is 8 miles tomorrow, 6 Wednesday, 4 Friday, and 10 Saturday. I think that's really doable, especially since the weather looks like it's going to be mild.

Rant of the day: What is it with people wearing iPods at the grocery store? It is an interesting social observation that in an age of over-connectedness with social networking, texting, e-mail, and instant messaging, we are trying our hardest to isolate our world. I think that's really what all of this new stuff is doing: allowing people to consolidate and control their social bubble. In an effort to make people more open and accessible to new people, we have created a socially acceptable mindset that makes it ok to cut yourself off from everyone you can. Hmm.

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