Now to Make Our Big House a Home

We are very excited to have closed on the purchase of our first home yesterday.  Pamela and I have said "we're never moving again" countless times over the past weeks - in part because we want to stay in this house and neighborhood forever, and because this whole ordeal was so stressful.

Final Walk-Through
We arrived at the house with our agent, the person who performed our home inspection when we put in our bid, and the seller's agent.  We found that the wife/owner had left us a nice card wishing us luck along with the paint colors and lots of other goodies around the house (detergent, cleaners, extra siding, etc).

We also found out that the dryer that had caused us so much trouble does run, but does not heat.  It is likely a damaged part, so maybe we won't have to replace the entire machine.

The drainage system was the last big item of concern.  While walking the property, I saw the neighbor two doors down and spoke with him.  He was able to provide me with enough comfort that the drainage pipe would not be a problem for us in the future.

Closing
We met at our lawyers office and began signing papers.  A lot of papers.  I was also instructed I'd have to sign my full name with initials which is considerably longer than my normal signature.  After about an hour of being told what we were signing and marking the individual sheets, we went into the conference room where the seller and his attorney were, along with a person representing the title company.

In the conference room, we and the seller exchanged papers and continued signing.  The process seemed more involved for him, as he probably had to payoff his outstanding mortgage while directing the rest of the proceeds to his lawyer and the agents, as well as to his own account.

There was only a brief amount of interaction - the seller seemed a bit gruff.  He asked if he was done signing paperwork, and then got up to leave.  He handed us the keys and explained which keys were for which lock.  We then had a quick conversation about the drainage system and then he left.

We had been warned that closing can be very contentious.  Had we gone into closing with issues remaining about the dryer or this pipe, we'd probably tell them our position, then they'd go to another room and confer.  They'd respond, then we'd get up and go to another room to confer.  Luckily, all the issues had been resolved, so we avoided that.

The entire process took about 2 hours.  After the final docs were signed and we got the final handshakes, Pamela and I left to pickup the truck and move in!

Moving In
We had two movers help us unload, while Pamela, me and 3 family members moved boxes around the house and began unpacking.  We ordered Italian food for everyone and our agent came by later with wine.

Sometime around 4am this morning, something fell with a loud thud.

Haunted.