Umbral Echoes Blog

…to the Notheast Side? We signed on the house yesterday, which would have taken 25 minutes (we were signing the papers faster than the lawyer could handle), except we had to wait around for an hour or so for the confirmation on the wire transfer that was supposed to have taken place earlier that day. But that finally came through, and all was well.

The previous owner had some stuff left in the garage still, so when he came to get that afterwards, he also gave us a walkthrough of the house — showed us how to work various things, told us about any little quirks, etc. He also let us pick through some of the stuff he was about to move out, in case we wanted any of it, and he even gave us a pellet gun (we live in a wooded area, and squirrels are a problem). The women out there will probably have horrified expressions right now at the thought of shooting a cute little furry thing. Squirrels are tree rats with bushy tails, and some have even taken up residence in our chimney. I plan on getting in a lot of target practice.

Awesome Features of New House

• Cell phone reception - Not a featuer per se, but we didn’t get this at our old house. This will be very refreshing.
• Lots of room - This house technically has 5 levels — Garage, then basement slightly above that, then main level (kitchen, great room, dining room), then the bedroom level (master + 2 spare), then the loft. Plus the deck, of course.
• Deck - Speakingof the deck, it’s a quite nicely constructed deck, and also a great vantage point for squirrel-sniping. It also has a…
• Grill - Old owner left the grill, whbich he actually converted to natural gas, and hooked into the house’s gas line. Se we don’t have to worry about buying propane tanks (apologies to Hank Hill).
• Water softening system - Something new for us; once we figure out how to program it and set it up, anyway.
• Large driveway - We’re in a cul de sac, plus the driveway is wide enough to park 3 cars side-by-side. This will be handy for parties.
• Star Trek HVAC system - Well not really. But the thermostat has all sorts of advanced controls for making the house different temperatures on a schedule (can set different schedules for weekdays and weekends, as well as summer and winter). So we can use less energy during the weekdays when we’re not here, and in the middle of the night, but still wake up/come home to a nice temperature.

Obligatory pictures are beneath the cut. There are too many rooms in the house to post pictures of them all, so these are just a few highlights. Continue Reading »

We got final approval on our loan, and were also approved for a closing date of the 26th (pending that being okay with lawyers and agents and so forth).  Woot!

We will be having a combination housewarming/Kirstie’s-birthday party on Saturday, November 17th — we’ll probably start it around 6-ish, but details to follow.  You’re invited.  Bring friends or random miscreants if you dare.  Birthday presents are not compulsory; your presence is a more than adequate gift.

I’ve been thinking about the concept of democracy a lot lately.  Or at least, I’ve been gnawing on it in the back of my brain anyway.  I’ve come to the conclusion that democracy doesn’t work.  And I don’t just mean this flawed two-party democracy that we live in, but democracy as a whole.

For the record, I’m a libertarian in theory.  I think that people should be free seek happiness as they please, so long as it doesn’t encroach on other people’s ability to do the same.

That having been said, people at large are idiots, and don’t know what’s good for them in the long run.   Or put another way, people are inherently selfish, and are fine with taking from society at whole if it means more for them individually.  Some people expect that the government should pay for all of their health care.  Some people see no problem in getting permanent disability pay, when they don’t actually have a disability that prevents them from working.  What ever happened to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”?

I like the idea of democracy in general — having one person make the final decision on things for an entire population seems awfully silly.  But I think voting should be both a privilege and a duty, but not a right granted to everyone.

Ideally, I would say we should do away with Congress, and a much larger number of qualified individuals (i.e. both intelligent, and know the issues at hand) should vote to enact laws and policies.  These people wouldn’t be elected by the masses, because the masses don’t know what’s good for them.   There would be some sort of unbiased procedure for determining who “qualifies” to vote on what.  And those that qualify, would be duty-bound to vote.

I know this could never work, because inevitably the process of choosing these “enlightened citizens” would become biased.  So like all other such ideas, not so great in practice.  But I feel like some day, that’s what it will come to through some combination of technology and social evolution.

Last night was White Wolf’s official office opening party. There was a snake dancer, a fire eater, a magician, and of course… an open bar. Two, technically. Cary was already drunk when we got there at 9, and things only got more interesting from there.

I got to catch up with some people I hadn’t seen in a while, and let everybody know that I’d be moving near the office.

Now that I don’t fear jinxing it, Kirstie and I are officially moving to a new (well, pre-owned, but new to us) house in Stone Mountain, about 3 miles from the White Wolf office.  The inspection was yesterday, and we actually got to meet the previous owners — one of them, anyway, as it seems to be a divorce situation.  His name was Marcell, and he was very cool.  The inspection went well, and Marcell will be fixing everything that the inspector found wrong, other than some double-pane windows that had the seal between them broken.  Those cost about $5,000 to replace, so I don’t blame him.  Slightly less energy-efficient this way, but it also makes the windows fogged — which is a good thing, since the windows in question are bay windows around the bath tub.

We sign on the 30th, and have the movers booked for the 1st.  For some reason, Kirstie didn’t want to move on Halloween — go figure.  Then, next month, we are going to have a big housewarming/Kirstie’s-birthday thing.  There will be beer, and grilling, and strippers.  Okay, maybe no strippers (unless we get Cary drunk enough, but that’s not hard to do).

Pictures of the new digs forthcoming, since the pictures on the MLS site don’t do it justice.

Then will be the annoying part… getting our current house ready for sale and putting it on the market.  Cleaning, painting, recarpeting, cleaning… and then some more cleaning.  And then waiting for it to sell, which we expect to take at least 6 months, probably more like 8 or 9.