Looks like the closing date — scheduled for Friday — may have to be pushed to next week. I’m already feeling super-anxious about it, and the delay won’t make it better. Why the delay? The mortgage paperwork, of course. [sigh] . . .  [deep breaths]

Lev’s latest idea for the house:  He (and a crew of laborers) tackle the demolition of the existing house. He says it would save money AND be great exercise for him!  And then he started waxing nostalgic about when he was 13 years old . . . and his dad put a crowbar in his hand . . . and told him to start tearing down walls at the cottage on 22nd St.  Um, yeah.  Is this a good idea, folks?

The blog project has me inspired to take more pictures again.  So I snapped some images from yesterday’s “pest” inspection while wandering around.

A beautiful old redwood (on the property next door):

Light & shadow through the wisteria:

This week I got the pest inspection report.  For someone who’s never read one of these reports, it was somewhat alarming.  No termites, thank goodness.  But there were findings of potential “fungus damage”(!) and maybe some “dry rot”(!) and some mysterious “white powder”(!) in a corner that apparently frightened the inspector so much he didn’t inspect the area.  So Lev and I went over there yesterday to check things out and see what’s what.

Good news. No fungus.  No dry rot.  Just some weather damage to old wood, and some peeling paint.  Mostly in areas of the house that will likely get torn down.  Oh, and the “white powder”?  Um, dryer lint that had accumulated on the ground in a corner near the exhaust vent.  Sheesh, I have no idea why an inspector would be so alarmist, but Lev says that’s just what they do.

Here’s Lev doing some inspecting:

And measuring:

And here’s what old wood and peeling paint looks like:

Not so scary. . . So I’m releasing the inspection contingencies tomorrow!

Here we go! Maybe it’s a bit premature to launch the blog, as I don’t actually own the house yet. . . But it’s under contract, and the appraisal came in where I needed it, and the pest inspection seems ok (we’ll poke around a bit this weekend to check some things), and so I should be able to release the inspection contingencies. Then all I need is for the bank to actually loan me some money! So I’m keeping fingers crossed. . .