Happiness among insanity

I had a hard time coming up with a title for this one. I wanted it to sound more poetic but eh.. anyway...

So my career and work is still completely insane. I'm not even sure at this point I want to stick around till after lunch... sometimes I wish my boss would fire me so I can collect unemployment while I find a new job. Well if my boss runs this place into the ground like I think hes doing I'll get my unemployment check that way too I guess. But enough about all the craziness.

For now there is some good stuff going on in my life. I'm buying a house! An opportunityI couldn't refuse came by a few months ago. I made it through a few weeks of nail biting and wondering if the low low price was going to stay low. Only by unique circumstances have I come across this opportunity. My neighbor's parents unfortunately had to move into an assisted living facility quite quickly. This left their house empty and needing to be sold so that they can afford the cost of living in a home. They had lived their for over 60 years. My neighbor (their son) does not have the time to fix the place up for regular sale with a real estate agent and all that jazz. Therefore the price is staying pretty low. We are also excluding and involvement of an agent. Its being sold as is with some contents. Also no matter what they get for it, the money will pretty much all go to the assisted living facility, so why make them rich? Again all keeping the price within my limited means. This weekend I finally got to see the house and settled on a price.

The place is definately a fixer upper. Which being an architect, woodworker, and all around handy man is a dream for me. I want to do some research into the house but from what I know it was built in the early 1900's. It did not have a bathroom (outhouse) or a kitchen. These were added as afterthoughts so they aren't perfectly executed. My neighbor who grew up in the house told me that when they first moved in these things were there but not original. The bathroom has a tiny wall hung sink and only a bathtub, no piping for a shower head. It has a fairly new roof and a practically brand new oil fired furnace and oil tank. The electrical service is in sad shape. Because indoor plumbing was an afterthought most of the pipes are outside of the walls. The floors are 8" tongue and groove planks that have shrunk so much that they have 1/4" gaps between each board. It has a beautiful staircase. The attic is heated and "finished" however to serve as a usable space the finishing would have to be redone. Excluding the attic its only a 2 bedroom. The 2nd bedroom being quite small due to the bathroom taking 1/3 of the original room's size. The kitchen is small but cozy. Definately not an eat in. It has the old porcelain unit type sink with an old stove. The refrigerator is quite old too. No dishwasher. The cabinets and counters look to be from the 40's to 50's. It has a one car cement block garage off the service ally that I plan on using for a workshop. All apliances, including a brand new washer and dryer, some furniture and miscellaneous tools and junk will be sold along with the house.

I can move in and really only have to add a shower head to live comfortably. However being an architect my head is spinning with renovation ideas out the wazoo. Initial information suggests my mortgage is going to be even lower than my current low ass rent. This should free up a lil bit of money to invest in renovation. I'm going to be doing it one room at a time doing as much work as I can handle on my own.

I have to keep myself from thinking about it too much. I get way overly excited. It is so nice to have some news to be happy about and think about instead of how much I hate my job. Ugh and as this day moves forward I am getting more and more things to hate about my job. But anyway... YAY for me I am buying a house!