Homeowners

We closed on our new house a couple of weeks ago.

At the time I started writing this post, a couple of days after closing, it didn’t seem quite real yet.

I hired a chimney sweep first. It made me feel all Mary Poppinish. He wore a chimney sweep hat, which distracted nicely from his old t-shirt (from my university!) and jeans. His two assistants didn’t get into the Victorian vibe.

We found our mailbox by the method of trying the key in every box in the set. Don’t get me started on mailboxes (Mr. Luo says, “really, DON’T get her started) but this is the kind where the little locked mailboxes for a bunch of houses are all in one place.

Homeownership has already changed us. Despite the fact that the small lot (teeny-tiny backyard) was a selling point for us, we perused at length a brochure about local plants that I picked up at the library. Hey, it was partly written by the Botanical Center Named after Famous Recently Deceased Former First Lady, and who can say no to her?

I have not quite decided whether the tub in the second bathroom is damaged and in need of replacement or just not well scrubbed. I got it a little cleaner today while waiting for the chimney sweep. I can’t be the only person in the world who uses some elbow grease on a tub, can I? Based on a sample of my husband and the seller of this house, yes. (It’s at times like this that I worry about turning into my step-mother.)
I’m glad I did a lot of de-cluttering before Zebediah was born, because I don’t have time for it now. We haven’t even started packing. Since we have the apartment until the end of the month, we were waiting till the things that need fixing are done before moving, but now our moving date seems very close.