We moved into our new home, as I've noted, on November 15. And we've had encounters with various sales people already: One man was selling furniture from an 18 wheeler (no thanks); one was selling meat packages from his truck(we bought one package); one was selling water treatment equipment. Whoa. Water treatment? Come in and let's talk. The water here is very unpleasant to drink; it is heavily chlorinated, and also very hard, with calcium and other minerals in it. Since the home is new (so is the plumbing and our appliances), we want to do whatever we can to protect our investment. Last night, the man from the water treatment company came out and showed us with some simple demonstrations just how hard the water really is. So we bought a system, and it is being installed now. It will be about 3 days before we can drink the water, but for other uses it will be fine in the meantime. And we do have bottled water for drinking. We will save money in the long run, on soaps and cleaning agents, on plumbing, and even on appliance repairs. I say it is money well spent, plus we won't have to worry about health problems like kidney stones, which can form when water is very hard.

before new templates and hacks became available for Blogger, since the update of the platform. I'm happy to say, I've found some new templates, and new hacks for later tinkering! I've never been the most patient of people, but these were well worth the wait. I like the new xml format for templates, and it's an extra opportunity for learning. I may just jump in and see what it's like...but I'm going to wait until I have a couple of days or so, because it looks more complex than html...although, come to think of it, there was a time that html looked like Greek to me...

Many changes to write about. I got tired of the old blue template for this blog, I made that one with an online template generator, but it did not work well with the new version of Blogger....so I waited for new templates to be created. I found this one today, and I like it well enough for now, so I'm all moved in...for a while, anyway. I tend to change templates fairly often. I may look into WordPress later. I haven't blogged in a while, but I am back now.

In July, my daughter called me to tell me that she and her husband had received a real estate flyer in the mail. She said she didn't think anything would come of it, but she filled it out and returned it, and they were pre-qualified to buy a house. So she gave me the name of the buyer's agent, and I called to find out more. Later that afternoon, the buyer's agent called to say WE were also pre-qualified, and when did we want to go look at houses? The next day was a Saturday, and we met the buyer's agent, who brought us out to a small, semi-rural town about 40 miles from our apartment, and we walked through three of the model homes in a newly developing community. I immediately felt a huge wave of peace about the community and about the house and even about moving here...which I did not expect. Every time before when I have even thought about leaving Austin, I would panic...but not this time. I could almost literally hear God saying, "yes, this is what I have for you. Come on." We talked it over, and finally chose a floor plan that is 1300 square feet, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. The master bedroom is almost twice the size of the one in the apartment, with a huge bath inside the suite. There is a linen closet just inside the bathroom door, with a huge walk in closet on the other end of the bathroom. It sounds like it would be awful......but it is not at all. It works beautifully. All of the appliances are included, too. We have a digital range, range hood, dishwasher, refrigerator-freezer with ice maker, dishwasher, disposal, and a washer and dryer.

On August 4, we signed a contract to purchase the home, and paid a small amount as earnest money. Then in September, we met with the loan counselor at the mortgage company, and filled out an application for the mortgage. The loan processor worked with us then, and the loan was approved in early October (after we'd spent about six weeks "chasing paper" to collect all of the needed documentation for the loan. It had been raining more than usual all summer, and I was a little concerned that the weather would delay construction of the house...but it stopped raining, and construction began in mid-October.

We came out to the property once or twice per week while the house was under construction. We saw empty land (grass, rocks, and sunflowers) the first time we came out to our property. Then the foundation was poured, and we took the opportunity to anoint the foundation of the house with myrrh oil to bless the house and dedicate it to God. (We also blessed the foundation of one or two of our neighbors' homes, because we could not tell for sure which one was ours...) When we did meet one of the neighbors as we were leaving the sales office after closing, I mentioned we had blessed their home...just in case. The wife laughed and said, "we can use all the blessings we can get." I like them both.

We did take photos of each stage of the construction, and it was so wonderful to watch the house take shape. I was able to come inside for the first time just before the house was completed. I love the layout of the floor plan. There is abundant natural light during the day, so no electric light is needed. The living room windows, the patio doors, and the bedroom windows are all on the back wall of the house, with my office window on the front, and the guest room window on the right side of the house. The windows are double paned, and insulation is excellent, so we don't lose much heat at all. It was 34 degrees outside, but it was 70 degrees inside, without the heat on.

We closed on the house on November 15th, and I made it all the way through the closing...then I cried when the keys were placed in my hand. What an incredible feeling! We brought the girls to closing with us, and Jay and I came home and reset all of the locks so that the builder's locks were disabled. I stayed at the house to wait for the telephone installer, and Jay went back to the apartment to wait for the movers. We were in the house for the first night on the 15th, and Jay turned off the lights when we were going to bed...and literally could not see his hand in front of his face! It is so quiet here, my stress level has dropped quite a bit.

I was able to work on Friday the 16th after the internet was connected...and the satellite was installed for the television (no cable out here yet) on Saturday. Then the satellite had to be moved to the back of the house on Monday, to avoid a fine from the homeowners' association...but it's fine now.

We had arranged for the utilities to be transferred into our names prior to closing, so that was one detail we did not have to manage after closing. We are working on unpacking, and we did buy shower curtain rods and water hoses and sprinklers already.