On Tuesday of this week, we had two of our trees trimmed.  Now, when you buy a house, tree trimming isn’t necessarily the first thing on your mind.  In fact, we didn’t think of it until years had passed.  2 1/2 years to be exact.  It was around November of last year when leaves started to fall in our backyard, and I was reminded of the joys of racking up leaves.  But wait!  We received a leaf blower for our wedding.  I’m almost 100% sure that the leaf blower is just as much work as a rake, just a different type of work.  Anyway, I’m glad we decided to get the trees trimmed in the hopes that next November will be much kinder to me.  Here’s a comparison of our biggest tree before and after it’s makeover:

And if you want to see some messy leaf raking from this past winter, click here to check out Evelyn’s pictures of me slaving away at those damn leaves.

So, we are now “in contract” for a house ( I posted a picture of it in my previous blogging.) Exciting stuff. We’ve just had a bunch of inspections done on the house with another one to happen on Monday. And after that, well, we make our final decision. We’ll have all of the inspections and disclosures to make our FINAL final decision. At this point, we’re both pretty sure that we like the house a lot and are capable of handling the few, little things that need to fixed around the place.

We visited the house yesterday, and everytime we go, I like the house more and more and I get even more anxious. After the last inspection on Monday, we’ll be in a kind-of lull where we are just waiting, and waiting. In the meantime, Evelyn and I (mostly Evelyn) have been putting together a list of items that we’d need for the house. Fridge, washer, dryer, couch, stuff like that. We already have lots of little things, but no big stuff. Which is ok… We knew that going into this home purchasing event.

Stay tuned for my next update!

Most of you probably know that Evelyn and I are looking at homes to purchase (I use that term loosely.) Well, we’re still looking. We’ve come across a few decent ones, but we’re finding that most places require a certain amount of compromise. A place might be in a great neighborhood, but needs lots and lots of work. Or, maybe the house looks great, but is in a crappy neighborhood. Or, and this has often been the case, the home is crappy in a crappy neighborhood. Distance also plays into the equation with these homes. But once in a while, we’ve encountered a home or two that is actually a pretty ok compromise. Not too far from things, or if it is farther, the home is really nice in a good neighborhood.

The picture attached is of a home we like in North San Jose. It’s well kept, on a large lot, but it’s really, really tiny. Just under 900 square feet. But it’s very cozy, is in a great, quiet neighborhood, and is on a corner lot.

Another house we are interested in is closer to Los Gatos/South San Jose. It’s about 1300 square feet, huge lot, and an also quiet neighborhood. However, it needs a lot of work. A lot. New wiring, plumbing work, new carpets, and lots of other little things. It’s a tough choice for us since we both know the possibilities with this home are great; it just would take a lot of time and money to get it where it should be. Thankfully, we’re not in a huge rush to go anywhere… So we could always take our time with a project like this.