Thursday, August 23, 2007

Cartoon Brad

So yeah, this is a blatant rip-off of Chris' blog, but I really got a kick out of making my very own Simpson's character. Here's what I would look like on the show:



If you want to make one of your own, click here.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Adventures in Househunting: Conclusion and Epilogue

So you can get a little burned out house-shopping. And overwhelmed. Of course, once you find a house you like, the real fun begins. All the back and forth, lots of legal documents that say very little and mean even less in normal English, not to mention trying to get your own house ready to go on the market and hope someone else falls in love with your little abode. Needless to say, blogging has fallen by the wayside as we have been living in a "model" home for the past couple of weeks, ready to vacate the premises at any potential buyers' whim, but all was not for naught...as of August 30, we will be Raleigh-ites no more. Here is a picture of our new home in Wake Forest--woo hoo!

The process was slightly impeded by my need to have four impacted wisdom teeth removed surgically (why, oh why did I not have this done in school like any normal person? that's a rant for another day, but the moral of the story is don't let your kids leave home with their wisdom teeth!). Therefore, the first and only time we saw the house before we actually made an offer I was under the influence of a fairly strong dose of hydrocodone...probably not a suggestion in the house-hunting handbook, but apparently just what I needed to turn off the "overanalyze" switch. The whole time we were waiting to hear back about the offer, I kept asking Brad, "did we check this? what did this look like? why didn't we take pictures?", but after returning for the (4-hour long) inspection, we had plenty of time to confirm we do indeed like the house. In fact, here is one of the primary selling features for me: the huge screened-in porch. It will be nice and inviting when the upper 80s and low 90s of September offer a cool respite from the lovely weather we have been experiencing for the past month or so. Ahh, summer in the south...


So as a final treat to those who have been keeping up with our house hunt, we have one final gem to offer. While not actually a hou
se we were considering, it is quite a sight to behold--we came across it while helping my brother and sister-in-law find their new house, quite close to us in fact. It isn't often you see such a convincing argument for a homeowner's association...
The picture doesn't quite do it justice; what you see is only the tip of the iceberg. The statue gardens in the back and side yard aren't visible, and neither is the abundance of red and yellow-painted accessories. We thought someone just really caught the decorating bug, but we found out it is actually used as a church. Nonetheless, it is still one of the most interesting incarnations of the bland 1950's ranch brick I have ever seen...maybe we can should send it in to HGTV...I'm sure they have a show for that kind of thing, right?