here comes everybody

so i'm about to buy a house. tomorrow is the day. tomorrow morning actually. i'm a nervous wreck. here's what i know:

1. we're going to be living in the same neighborhood. this is a great neighborhood. we've been living here since we moved in october 2010. the house is close to mayfair park. it's also close to a neighborhood restaurant and ice cream parlor. i've only been to the restaurant once and i didn't eat. the ice cream place is great. super ice cream. but we're also close to downtown, city park and stores and shops on colfax and colorado. great neighborhood. great location.

2. interest rates are low. considering the massive amount of money that the fed is pushing into the economy and artificially keeping rates low, there's a question of whether or not you're getting a great deal. if there is no artificial housing boom (such as now), then the price of the house would be lower. i know that. however, interest rates would be higher. so is it a wash? compounding interest is a scary thing. i'd almost rather have a bit more principal than a higher interest rate. the only worry is that once interest rates go down and the artificial housing boom is over, will the house sustain it's value? but hey, that's in 20 years or so. who knows anything at that point.

3. the backyard is great. that's a huge point. we love to sit outside. and since the house is small, we'll be needing to sit outside.

4. the house is small. this will be the smallest house i've ever lived in. obviously apartments i lived in were smaller, but they are designed that way. this is not texas. the houses here are small. it's forced me to rethink what i really need and get rid of a lot of stuff. just stuff. things i haven't looked at in 20 years. seriously. 20 years. i don't need it. i need books, cds (music) and a computer. that's about it. and clothes i guess too.

5. there is major work to be done. we have to finish the basement. that's going to be tough. we're going to try and do as much work ourselves as possible. we also have to build a garage. we won't be doing that. this is a 5-8 year plan. that's a long time. i'm nervous about doing good work and having a fully functional basement. i don't want to find out the basement wasn't done because if you finished it, the whole house would cave in or something like that. i'm also nervous that this is going to consume us, this unfinished thing sitting around waiting to be completed so we can expand into our new house. i'm nervous.

6. money. isn't that always a concern? what if one of us loses our job? what if we both lose our job? i think we have that covered. i'm not too worried about that. i'm more worried about one of us getting suddenly old and can't work. what do we do then? i tore an acl playing volleyball. i'm not a young dude anymore. i could break an arm or leg boiling eggs. it could happen. then what?

7. the neighborhood. back to number 1 eh? well yeah, what if the neighborhood doesn't hold up? what if that street becomes gangland central? i guess we move. i hope that doesn't happen. i like quiet. gangs are loud.

8. big decisions in life. who to get married to? where to buy a house? what house to buy? what major in college? so many big decisions. and with each big decision comes about a million little decisions underneath it that you don't see until you made the big decision and suddenly you open the door and you're drowning in little decisions.

yep. i'm nervous. i think that's obvious. i don't get excited about big decisions. i get nervous. and eventually i calm down and enjoy it. it takes time.

tick, tock.

never seen such good things

last month dad came to visit. while he was here, we headed out to glenwood springs and on the way back home, we stopped at rifle gap falls in rifle. there are three falls at rifle falls. those are in the bottom shot. i couldn't get a great straight up shot, so this from the side. the wildlife at the rifle falls is great. the birds, the chipmunks. they're everywhere. there were also a couple farm houses by the falls. i assume it's people who work at the fish hatchery, which is just up the road. so i took a few shots of those allowing me to get some b&w shots too. the landscape was beautiful that b&w just didn't work for it. i took quite a few. the color were far better.

i'm sure most who read this blog know that we're moving into our own house soon so the blogging, as it already kind of has, will be sparce for probably the next month. i'll try to take pictures of the new house and post those along the way, but the end of june and into july will be busy. it will be back like old study/audit times except this time, we'll have a house to show for it at the end.