Home Owners!!!

Friday we closed on our house, but not without lots of ups and downs along the way. Thanks to our real estate agent Betty, Chrissy's incredible great Aunt, we closed on time. Every day there were little glitches and things that could potentially have kept the deal from going through on time. Fortunately everything was worked out. Closing was kind of fun...lots of papers to sign. Since Dad wasn't there, I got to sign for him since I had been given limited power of attorney to act on his behalf. This was the sentence I had to sign every time a signature was required on the closing documents: "Clark Thorpe Bishop by Nicholas H. Bishop as his attorney in fact." When initials were required, I got to shorten it to "CTB by NHB as AIF." I almost laughed out loud nearly every time I had to sign it.

Immediately after closing, we drove over to the house to show it to Mom. It was pretty much as we had left it the last time, except the front door locks had been changed and a carbon monoxide detector installed (as per a new law effective July 1). As we were leaving the house, I saw a cute baby snake in our front yard. I was excited, but Chrissy was not amused. Apparently we get them a lot along with rabbits and other wildlife.

Saturday Mom helped us clean the kitchen and unpack a few things from the truck while our new carpet was installed. By the way, it looks great! Then mom helped us get started on our list of home improvement chores by taking me to Home Depot. After our shopping trip, I took her to the Denver International Airport, which is just about 12 miles north of our house. Then I went to pick up our rental piano dolly and arrived back at the house just in time for our Elder's quorum to help me use it. There was a great turnout of about 8 guys who were very nice and helped us get everything either onto the new carpet or into the garage. We put together the bedroom set, returned the piano dolly and the moving van and went to bed! Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset we enjoyed from our porch the first night in our new home:

Church was fantastic yesterday. One of the guys who helped us move is the director of the ward choir, so we showed up 45 minutes early for practice. The couple we sat next to in Sacrament meeting invited us for dinner which was very cool since we weren't exactly put together yet at home. All the members were super friendly and very welcoming. I think we will love our ward. In Elder's quorum, I met one of my classmates named Mike. His wife is just starting a residency in pediatrics and he's just starting med school like me. So I know there will be at least three Mormons in my class, maybe even more.

As we speak they are putting in the laminate wood floor. It looks very nice. When it's all done we'll have to post before and after pictures.

We are so happy in our new home and we feel very blessed that everything has worked out so well thusfar. Now back to all my to-do's...