The Crazy Life of J: House, Planners, Knees and Blog

One of these days, I’ll get around to one post dedicated to a certain topic. But since everything seems to be happening at the same time, I at least wanted to get in another update post for you all. Here goes:

We are in the home stretch! The house passed inspection (we have a few minor things to repair, but there was nothing that made us want to walk away). We did decide, due to the house being built in 1939, to have the sewer lines inspected. Unfortunately, there was too much water in the pipes and a lot of tree roots growing in there, so they weren’t able to see much. We didn’t really want to spend any extra money, but we also didn’t want to move forward without being able to see the condition of the pipes, so we went ahead and paid to have them cleaned out. Thankfully, we found an awesome plumber who then re-scoped the pipes for free! Of course this all happened the day before my knee surgery because you know, life.

Not the most ‘sexy’ part of homeownership, but we were super grateful to see nice, clean pipes after the cleaning. The same can’t be said of what came out of them…

After the inspection was negotiated, we moved on to the appraisal. It really has been a fast process, but (mainly because of anxiety) it seems like it has taken a million years. Thankfully, the appraisal process was pretty quick, and after a bit of negotiation, we are happy to say the appraisal went well!

Now we have to wait. We negotiated an April 29 close date with the sellers, which works really well for us in terms of our current lease, but the 48 days between now and then seem like an eternity. I know it will move faster than I think, plus now I feel comfortable beginning to plan for the renovations and move, so that should keep me busy!

I do want to share pictures, but until we have the keys in hand, I just don’t feel comfortable doing so. I suppose you’ll just have to wait a bit as well!

I know I mentioned a while back that there was a tiny bit of misalignment with these bottom rings, but I’ve realized this week that there is now a full out gap. Sad day. It isn’t snagging terribly at this point, but I’m keeping an eye on it.

Crazily enough, once the Malden is ready for retirement (we’ll be at five years in May), I think I’m going to go a completely different route! I haven’t decided for sure as of yet, but we’ll see. I plan to use the Malden as long as I possibly can, but once that set of rings fully bust I’ll have to make a change. I’ve started to do a bit of research, though hopefully I won’t have to act on anything any time soon!

I’m two weeks post op, and things are going pretty well! I’m still a bit sore from time to time but it has been a million times better than immediately post surgery. Right now I’m mostly frustrated - I feel good, so I want to be moving. But I’m doing my best to listen to my physical therapist in SLOWLY getting back into my routine. Unfortunately, right now that means walks of a mile or less, super tiny strength sessions, and bike rides of 10 minutes or less on the indoor trainer.

The last few days have been BEAUTIFUL (70 degree days in the Midwest in March just don’t always happen), so staying inside on the trainer has been rough. But I know it is for the best - suffering now means hopefully by summer I’ll be able to do whatever I want. Plus, it’s raining today so it’s much easier to stay inside!

Stay tuned for some upcoming blog updates! I’ve finally decided to purchase a domain name so I’m working on putting a new site together. When that happens, I’ll park a post up top that lets you know where to go. I’ll hopefully import the whole blog there, so all archived post will still be able to be accessed. I’m really excited to update, redesign and refresh this year!