Greetings Fellow Homeowners

And I'm now a first time Homeowner. Yes sir-ee-bob. The FHA loan was approved and officially recorded with the city last Thursday. Got the key's. No big moves yet, just some cleaning gear and trinkets. Mostly what I've chosen to take over (in the car) have been items I'm considering difficult to pack, big (but will still fit in the car), or unusually shaped. Figure that will make the packing go a little bit easier.

Yeah Right!

A little easier until you setup the first box and take the first REAL move to put something in it.

Today was fairly productive. Got five boxes of kitchen stuff.

Went over to the new place and decided to clean the torch lamp I took over there. Sucker had been sitting in my bedroom for years - unplugged. Took the lamp head apart, cleaned it and while vacuuming the bones of four to five year old fly's, managed to vacuum up the one screw that held everything together! Oh Shit ensued. Heard the screw travel up the vacuum tube, but cannot be found in the tube or the vacuum bag. Can't decide if it is worth my time to take apart the vacuum cleaner searching for it or run down to the store for the 2 cent part - which will actually cost me closer to a buck. One train of thought says that if I spend the time taking apart the vacuum cleaner looking for the damn thing, if I do find it that could be a buck I can apply towards the mortgage. Maybe it'll shave a couple of day's paying off the mortgage.

Home shopping has been a real experience for me. Spent some time looking for thoughts on how to shop for a new home on the Internet. Many of the tips where relatively the same and did not prove very useful. I've got my own useful thoughts I'll post here at some point and simultaneously elsewhere. Just have to figure out where the best place is - Wiki ?? or eHow or something. Any ideas?

Question: "How do you know you will not be satisfied where you are at?" Answer: You are still looking at MLS postings for your area even though you've just been approved for a home. Here I am, still looking the listings for the homes just today while I was taking a lunch break. I will say that I was feeling much more comfortable while there today.

I still say that the only reason I'm a home buyer at this point is because the housing market took a dump. The mortgage folks said I would qualify for a mortgage of up to $171K. The Realtor told me the place I purchased was selling for $180K during real estates hay day (I purchased for $113). I've since learned that a number of other places I looked at had similar price differences. I did look at a number of places that were in the 120 - 140 range (and I could have afforded), but fears of not being able to hold my own took over. So here we are. Repairs are needed, but at least $1000 towards repairs will equal $1000 and not $1800 if they were part of the selling price through interest charges. Besides it is a great way to learn repairs and I won't be afraid to touch it if I know if I cannot make it any worse.

Pics coming soon. I'm outta here.
-Mighty