The Simpson Blog

We filled out the mortgage forms ... did the final walk-through ... sifted through a pile of paperwork ... and wrote a big-ass cheque ... and now we're home owners! Now that it's a done deal, I can start spilling the beans. We looked at about 13 houses in person, either with our agents or at open house events. Amanda dug up dozens (hundreds?) more through MLS. It was a lot of hunting packed into an action-packed few weeks. Amanda happened upon a split-level in Timberlea and went out with the agent one evening while I was still at work. She thought it was fantastic, and the listing looked good to me on paper. We went out for a second look, and I liked it too. It's a split-level, three bedroom home with two bathrooms. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, the kitchen, living room and dining room are upstairs. Downstairs is another bedroom, another bathroom (with jet tub!), a 'family room' with wiring installed for surround sound, a laundry room, and the 'den' -- a decen

Two families , originally uploaded by BigAssSuperBlog . My folks and Amanda's folks finally meet. Left to right is her stepdad Wendall, Amanda, me (crouching and bug-eyed), her mom Barbara, my dad Dave and mom Kathie. It all went pretty well, I'd say. A delightful dinner at my fiancee's family's home in Bradford.

We did almost everything short of riding a bicycle in the snow in our journey from Halifax to Bradford for the first leg of the Big Ass Christmas Tour 2008: - car to Halifax Stanfield International Airport - shuttle bus from Park n Fly to the terminal - various escalators and elevators to our flight - airplane to Toronto City Centre Airport (YTZ) via Porter -- first time on Porter, and nothing bad to say about 'em. Good (free) food, good (free) drinks, decent service, civilized travel - ferry to the mainland - shuttle bus to the Royal York Hotel - crossed the street to Union Station to take the subway train to Finch - picked up by Barb & Wendall in a car for the final leg to Bradford Trains, planes, automobiles, and a ferry boat to boot. All without any extreme delays from snowstorms that smacked Ontario and Nova Scotia. Tonight, it's dinner with both sets of parents for the first time ever. I expect everyone will get along.

Weather permitting, we're flying to Ontario to spend a week with family starting tomorrow. Meantime, the home-buying process is nearly at a close. We've signed numerous documents at the lawyer's office ... signed documents with the mortgage broker ... signed documents to take over the rental of the propane tank ... seen the number for closing costs (gulp!) ... now it's down to the wire. We'll return to Halifax late on the Monday after xmas. Tuesday morning we're due at the bank to sign a pile of papers. If the money goes through properly, we'll have a final tour of the property early Wednesday morning, do the deed at the lawyer's office, get our keys ..... and then I have to go to work. Damn, I keep missing the prime champagne-style-beverage opportunities! So, there are some crucial deadlines ahead. Two big scary factors involve the fact that the big wrap-up is on December 31. The vendors' lawyer insists his office closes at noon, despite the f

The region I'm moving to, as I understand, is known as BLT -- Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea. I'm especially looking forward to the bacon.

Timberlea Meat & Video , originally uploaded by Chris Campbell . This is the coolest thing I've seen so far in the town we're moving to. Timberlea Meat & Video. I haven't been inside yet. I love meat. I'm so-so on video -- retail, anyway. Check out those specials. Come to think of it, other than Pizzatown (a chain) and the industrial park, this is about the only retailish establishment I can remember in the town so far.

I'm mid-way through listening to this week's podcast of CBC's Definitely Not The Opera . It's all about Halifax, and how the city is of just the right size and with overlapping social circles that virtually ensure that you'll run into people you know on an astonishingly frustrating basis. I'm not the most social or networked of individuals, but even I've noticed this! From cbc.ca: We're packing our bags and heading to guest host Jonathan Torrens' hometown... Halifax! This week, we're following "Six Degrees of Jonathan Torrens." He'll be constructing his dream Halifax 'super band' to play a Canadian classic; we'll eavesdrop on his '80s cover band; and we'll tell you how to become a Hali "superconnector." Visit the DNTO podcast page or just open the MP3 right here . As much as I love Toronto and was proud as heck to live there, Halifax is super-neat and keen and has an extra layer of "hey, you

A good time was had by all at the company Christmas party this past Saturday night at the Elephant and Castle in downtown Halifax. Good food, good drinks, good folks ... and some good music. Tim the Sales Guy put on a fantastic acoustic show, performing some lovely original songs and some inspired covers. I was also invited to perform, but there was no PA available to play my backing tracks and guitar output. The proprietor, a former member of popular 1990s ska band Hopping Penguins , pulled out a small mixer from behind the bar and I MacGyver 'd together a workable solution that'd run both through the instrument input on Tim's acoustic guitar amp. Didn't sound great, but it was preferable to having me play and sing without the bells and whistles. Trust me. It's only, what, my fourth time playing in front of a crowd? And the first time with red wine in my system. All in all, it went well, and I'm keen on doing it again. I had a goal of playing two gigs in 2008.

Sandra recently posted an item on her blog about some nasty miscreant stealing her beloved green bin. She and Jojo are humbly dedicated to Doing The Right Thing and Handling Their Waste Properly: i suppose instead of being self-satisfied and complacent we should have been chaining our garbage bin to our porch and writing our address on it in big sharpie pen, and realized that we are surrounded by people who create so much garbage that they have to GO AND STEAL SOMEONE ELSE'S GARBAGE BIN in order to have properly presented garbage for the city to collect. jesus. we are now going to have to pay our fair city $50 for a new garbage bin. garbage put out in anything but an approved, registered bin does not get collected. Now, Amanda and I were struck last night by someone not so morally outrageous, but evil nonetheless. While Amanda was doing laundry at the pair of machines on our floor, someone came along with wet clothes and put them in the empty dryer that she was about to use..... an

Got the call this morning that the deal is a go. Friday's home inspection turned up more problems than we expected: a non-functioning toilet, washing machine and dishwasher; outlets requiring GFCI plugs; air exchanger and ventilation issues. We went back to the sellers asking for a certain figure for repairs, but their agent was on vacation in the sunny south, and communication difficulties resulted. (To put it politely.) The sellers came back with a cash-back figure $1500 lower than our proposal, but we're not greedy, so we're taking it. I'd celebrate with champagne-style-beverage, but I'm at work now, so that's not gonna happen until later. On the other great-karma/bad-health news, I celebrated with lunch at Burger King, and despite ordering a regular Whopper, they gave me a double Whopper. Free meat. So, high-fives all around. Closing date is the 31st. I'm hoping the pipes at the home don't freeze before then.

Many thanks to the family, friends and strangers who've been sending congratulations! More details will definitely come, but I don't want to jinx it. The deal isn't 100% done yet. I don't want bad internet karma spoiling the deal. We learned a bit about the sellers through online resources ( *coughfacebook* ), so I assume they can find us just as easily. So, I'm going to keep any commentary off the site 'til it's all locked in. The offer/counter/deal process is done. We've lined up insurance, a mortgage, a lawyer and the rest of the team (thanks largely to Amanda's heroic efforts on the phone). Tomorrow (Friday) is the home inspection. Once we get the report and settle any issues arising from it, as far as I understand, we're locked in and counting down to the closing date, December 31. Then it's a matter of packing and moving. We've been cornered into keeping the apartment for an extra month, which is not so bad, since it'll give us