Suspended Animation
It's been awhile since I've posted to my personal blog. We've been quite busy, and at the same time a lot of things were just hanging out there in suspended animation and we needed a jamcracker to break things loose.
We finally closed on the sale of our house on June 15th - which was a tense 2 weeks later than we were supposed to. We have experienced second-hand (the buyer experienced it first-hand) what the antsy mortgage industry and tighter loan requirements are doing to the home buying process. And late closings are happening frequently due to the added steps of additional documentation and heightened scrutiny of loan applications. Some days I would be gripped by moments of sheer panic, that this deal would never close, and I would have to put my home back on the market and start all over with a new buyer - 2 months too late. The sale of our house needed to get wrapped up so we could proceed with the purchase of our townhome at High Point. Everything is working out perfectly, of course, but not without some worrisome moments along the way. We are renting our house back from the buyer until the end of August.
We threw a "Summer Picnic Blowout" on June 23rd. This was our final party at our current house. This place has a great yard for entertaining (which means we didn't entertain other parts of the year since the inside of the house was lacking in style). 5,000 sq ft is fenced and we host Italian greyhound playdates sometimes. So we mixed our friends and family with our dog friends and what did we get? Total chaos and a lot of free entertainment. We had at least 50 people here, and probably that many dogs as well (altho only about half the people here were dog owners - many IG people have multiple dogs, or packs). We put the picnic table up on blocks and made it bar height so we didn't have the dogs stealing food from the table like we have had in the past. But they didn't need to since many of them were quite adept at stealing food - mostly steak and veggie kebabs - right off people's plates. It would be upsetting if there wasn't so much food - I would laugh and say there's more where that came from! We spent three days preparing food - mostly chopping fruits, vegetables, and meats. The menu was pretty extensive - I pretended I was on the Food TV reality show "Dinner: Impossible", but called mine "Picnic: Impossible".
*Picnic Potato Salad
*24-Hour Coleslaw
*Tossed Green Salad with Grapefruit, Avocado, and Gorgonzola with Dijon-Red Wine Vinaigrette
*Blueberry, Avocado, and Cantaloupe Salad with Lime Mayonnaise
*Beef and Vegetable Kabobs
*Grilled Pork Chops with Dijon Baste
*Grilled Beer Chicken
*Best Strawberry Pie for dessert
*Ice cream with berry sauce
We discovered we forgot to bring out all the S'mores fixings when we went in at the end of the evening.
I used an idea I read in Danny Seo's "Simply Green: Parties" book. We created a selection of flavored chilled bottled water for people to choose from. We put sprigs of Spearmint, Chocolate Mint and Apple Mint in bottles in one cooler, and another cooler's bottles had wedges of Lemon or Cucumber. It's more healthful and less expensive than providing soda or other drinks, and the bottles could all be recycled. (We also had a whole cooler full of plain bottled water.) The coolers were borrowed from various friends, since we didn't want tp purchase styrofoam (especially since we would never need it again). We also focused on setting a good example by reducing our environmental impact and provided washable/reusable plates and bowls (by Dixie and Preserve), and provided real cutlery in addition to Preserve recycled/reusable cutlery. We knew we were not going to have enough, tho, so at the last minute threw out an email asking people to bring plastic stuff they had around the house to add to the supply. All of the plates and bowls were washed in 2 loads in the dishwasher, and one of the guests, Valerie - a friend of Colette's (who did most of the veggie and fruit preparation) - was found in the kitchen washing cutlery and putting leftovers in the fridge. It was a nice surprise!
You can see some dog photos here: http://itgreyhound.meetup.com/145/photos/ I didn't get the chance to take any pictures. I slept 10 hours that night after the party, woke with a terrible headache and after a shower and some cereal. went back to bed for almost another 4 hours. I felt much better after that. I was glad the party was over and didn't have to worry about planning such a huge event anymore! I've never tried to feed so many people before. It's expensive! And I could not have done it without the help of Colette and Steve. In fact, they did a lot of the the work while I just kept the process moving, lining things up for what to do next to be efficient. Steve spent 4 hours grilling food the day of the party and I know his feet were killing him afterwards. Our housewarming party will be broken into more than one at the townhome - or be a rolling drop-in type party with just appetizers. I don't have to worry about it for awhile since that won't be until late September or early October - but I am thinking about it already.
We took both Sprite and Sophia to the vet this morning - Sprite has been favoring her rear left leg and we were worried she did something to it. Well, we found out there's nothing that can be done for it since it's a genetic thing - she has a luxating patella. I only know what this is since it is common in dogs and is a real fear with dogs and I know both a whippet and a couple of IGs with the problem. Hopefully it doesn't get worse. The only fix for it would be surgery...Oh, Sophia only needed her nails trimmed and her teeth looked at, no big deal.
I do have some pictures to post, mostly of flowers and whatnot. We did the Furry 5K fundraiser for Seattle Animal Shelter earlier this month (you can see some IG pictures here - Steve took the pics). We're staying in town and working around the 4th of July this year - we're going to start packing the office and cleaning up so we can sell what furniture we have left that we are not taking with us to the new place. Our current closing date is "July 27 or sooner". We are doing a private inspection on July 11th, and a Warranty walk-through on July 13th. We also are meeting an interior decorator there on the 13th - we need help picking out paint colors.
Ok, I think that's it for now. I do post to a blog almost daily, but it's been to Green Spaces Real Estate.com If you ever want to know what I am up to, what I am reading, or what I am thinking about along the lines of green, please visit!
We finally closed on the sale of our house on June 15th - which was a tense 2 weeks later than we were supposed to. We have experienced second-hand (the buyer experienced it first-hand) what the antsy mortgage industry and tighter loan requirements are doing to the home buying process. And late closings are happening frequently due to the added steps of additional documentation and heightened scrutiny of loan applications. Some days I would be gripped by moments of sheer panic, that this deal would never close, and I would have to put my home back on the market and start all over with a new buyer - 2 months too late. The sale of our house needed to get wrapped up so we could proceed with the purchase of our townhome at High Point. Everything is working out perfectly, of course, but not without some worrisome moments along the way. We are renting our house back from the buyer until the end of August.
We threw a "Summer Picnic Blowout" on June 23rd. This was our final party at our current house. This place has a great yard for entertaining (which means we didn't entertain other parts of the year since the inside of the house was lacking in style). 5,000 sq ft is fenced and we host Italian greyhound playdates sometimes. So we mixed our friends and family with our dog friends and what did we get? Total chaos and a lot of free entertainment. We had at least 50 people here, and probably that many dogs as well (altho only about half the people here were dog owners - many IG people have multiple dogs, or packs). We put the picnic table up on blocks and made it bar height so we didn't have the dogs stealing food from the table like we have had in the past. But they didn't need to since many of them were quite adept at stealing food - mostly steak and veggie kebabs - right off people's plates. It would be upsetting if there wasn't so much food - I would laugh and say there's more where that came from! We spent three days preparing food - mostly chopping fruits, vegetables, and meats. The menu was pretty extensive - I pretended I was on the Food TV reality show "Dinner: Impossible", but called mine "Picnic: Impossible".
*Picnic Potato Salad
*24-Hour Coleslaw
*Tossed Green Salad with Grapefruit, Avocado, and Gorgonzola with Dijon-Red Wine Vinaigrette
*Blueberry, Avocado, and Cantaloupe Salad with Lime Mayonnaise
*Beef and Vegetable Kabobs
*Grilled Pork Chops with Dijon Baste
*Grilled Beer Chicken
*Best Strawberry Pie for dessert
*Ice cream with berry sauce
We discovered we forgot to bring out all the S'mores fixings when we went in at the end of the evening.
I used an idea I read in Danny Seo's "Simply Green: Parties" book. We created a selection of flavored chilled bottled water for people to choose from. We put sprigs of Spearmint, Chocolate Mint and Apple Mint in bottles in one cooler, and another cooler's bottles had wedges of Lemon or Cucumber. It's more healthful and less expensive than providing soda or other drinks, and the bottles could all be recycled. (We also had a whole cooler full of plain bottled water.) The coolers were borrowed from various friends, since we didn't want tp purchase styrofoam (especially since we would never need it again). We also focused on setting a good example by reducing our environmental impact and provided washable/reusable plates and bowls (by Dixie and Preserve), and provided real cutlery in addition to Preserve recycled/reusable cutlery. We knew we were not going to have enough, tho, so at the last minute threw out an email asking people to bring plastic stuff they had around the house to add to the supply. All of the plates and bowls were washed in 2 loads in the dishwasher, and one of the guests, Valerie - a friend of Colette's (who did most of the veggie and fruit preparation) - was found in the kitchen washing cutlery and putting leftovers in the fridge. It was a nice surprise!
You can see some dog photos here: http://itgreyhound.meetup.com/145/photos/ I didn't get the chance to take any pictures. I slept 10 hours that night after the party, woke with a terrible headache and after a shower and some cereal. went back to bed for almost another 4 hours. I felt much better after that. I was glad the party was over and didn't have to worry about planning such a huge event anymore! I've never tried to feed so many people before. It's expensive! And I could not have done it without the help of Colette and Steve. In fact, they did a lot of the the work while I just kept the process moving, lining things up for what to do next to be efficient. Steve spent 4 hours grilling food the day of the party and I know his feet were killing him afterwards. Our housewarming party will be broken into more than one at the townhome - or be a rolling drop-in type party with just appetizers. I don't have to worry about it for awhile since that won't be until late September or early October - but I am thinking about it already.
We took both Sprite and Sophia to the vet this morning - Sprite has been favoring her rear left leg and we were worried she did something to it. Well, we found out there's nothing that can be done for it since it's a genetic thing - she has a luxating patella. I only know what this is since it is common in dogs and is a real fear with dogs and I know both a whippet and a couple of IGs with the problem. Hopefully it doesn't get worse. The only fix for it would be surgery...Oh, Sophia only needed her nails trimmed and her teeth looked at, no big deal.
I do have some pictures to post, mostly of flowers and whatnot. We did the Furry 5K fundraiser for Seattle Animal Shelter earlier this month (you can see some IG pictures here - Steve took the pics). We're staying in town and working around the 4th of July this year - we're going to start packing the office and cleaning up so we can sell what furniture we have left that we are not taking with us to the new place. Our current closing date is "July 27 or sooner". We are doing a private inspection on July 11th, and a Warranty walk-through on July 13th. We also are meeting an interior decorator there on the 13th - we need help picking out paint colors.
Ok, I think that's it for now. I do post to a blog almost daily, but it's been to Green Spaces Real Estate.com If you ever want to know what I am up to, what I am reading, or what I am thinking about along the lines of green, please visit!
posted by Wendy Hughes-Jelen @ 9:39 AM
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