House: 14 days until close of escrow

We are go for home purchase. The loan is approved. The title is clear. We’ve switched from HGTV’s “House Hunters” and “Property Virgins” to “Flea Market Flip” and “I Brake for Yard Sales.” All the inspectors have been through, as well as the appraiser, and…everything is damn near just fine.

Which sort of terrifies me. I don’t know why. I’m well adapted for crisis management and can’t manage to switch to an “Everything’s going to work out” setting because WHAT IF IT DOESN’T? I don’t think I’m alone here.

• There are no termites or beetles. There is a smidge of dry rot in fewer than half a dozen spots.
• The foundation is sound and looks like it may even have been partially retrofitted.
• The roof is less than 10 years old and in great shape.

(These top three were my dealbreakers. Bug, basement, or roof issues? Sell it to someone else.)

• The electrical clusterfuck is actually terribly simple to fix and will not bankrupt us as a Parental Figure predicted (…and still believes). We could actually wait to fix it, but we won’t, because we are overcomputered geeks who work out of the home. (Note to self: Remember to listen to experts in their fields and take with a grain of salt the advice of well-meaning family members who have only ever bought new construction.)
• The furnace is super old, but is also functioning perfectly well. We’ll shoot to replace it before next winter, just to be on the safe side. (I know. All you New Englanders just snorted when I used the word “winter,” didn’t you? It gets pretty chilly here, okay? Come visit. You’ll see. 😛 )
• The sewer lateral isn’t bad and the estimate to get us up to compliance is on the very low end of the range we’d been told to expect.
• The natural hazard report came back clean. Well, as clean as you can get in a city built on a fault line, anyway. We are in potential danger of ZOMG LIQUEFACTION in the event of an earthquake…which basically means mud. Potentially flammable earthquake mud.
• The upper level measures at 234 more square feet than in the public records (to say nothing of the finished basement).
• Our 102-year-old house doesn’t appraise for a day over 40.

Not the flashiest girl on the block, but definitely one hell of a dame.

(Yeah. I totally just said that.)

Every time we go over there, I notice some little thing I’d missed or forgotten. The first time, it was a sewing machine in its own table like my mom used to have, which will convey with the house at my request. (It seems a good omen, as Mom’s was left behind in California on the last move back east.)

Then, it was the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the small hallway off the dining room. It’s just a plain old mirror and I’d like to frame it up a bit, but it makes the space look bigger and reflects light in a place where reflecting light is really helpful.

After that, it was the detailed plaster medallion thingies around the light fixtures in the kitchen, dining room, and hallway. They’re not original to the house, but they’re apparently the real deal. I think I’ll keep them.

The night we were there just before sunset, I realized there’s a lovely view of the Mormon temple from the kitchen window. I’m not Mormon — not even close — but they do make pretty, pretty temples.

We keep an eye out for people walking their dogs every time we’re there. There’s always someone. Last time, it was two little girls on scooters who waved to Rodney as he looked out of the car (we were just leaving). I hope our little dog will like their little dog…although I also hope they leash theirs before it gets run over.

Moving: 46 > x > 14 days

Our lease is up on March 12. We’ll have plenty of time to take care of a few things before we move everything over.

WE ARE SO READY TO LEAVE. Now that this house deal is almost done, every hot tub party and every shrill whistle blast from the train tracks causes much gnashing of teeth.

Okay, it’s not that bad. This place has been great and I will miss the easy walk to the ferry very, very much. We expected that we would miss the amenities when our lease was up, though, and the pros just never outweighed the cons. We are ready to pack and load. (Well, have someone else load. I am seven months pregnant and only getting pregnanter.)

Baby: 81 days to due date

My third trimester results are in and everything’s fine. The baby is growing well (which is to say he’s measuring about two weeks ahead of average for this point in the pregnancy) and very, very active. I am taking Ranitidine religiously to manage my (OH HOLY HELL OWWW) heartburn and I am taking naps when I can.

I passed the glucose tolerance test and I don’t have anemia…or, as it turns out, a urinary tract infection. I didn’t even know they were looking for one, but yay! The thing about being pregnant is that you just get used to giving blood and urine samples and exposing your belly to whatever goo they’ve got ready. After a while, unless the staff seems incompetent, you kind of stop asking questions.

(Which is unlike me, but after all these months I’ve come to trust most of the people telling me to pee in a cup.)

It feels weird to have come away from the last visit with my OB/GYN without some homework to do or test to schedule, actually. Everything’s on track and in place. We’re already scheduled to start Teh Baby Classes — birthing and baby care — in February. There’s no ultrasound before the next OB appointment on Valentine’s Day. I don’t owe anyone any blood. There’s nothing to do but sit here and gestate.

We could work on finding a pediatrician, I guess. And a doula.

Things have been a little busy lately.

Weirdly, even as I can feel him bouncing around more and more, I’ve been feeling a little disconnected lately. I’ve got a lot going on outside the womb, a lot of things on the Before Baby checklist. I’ve been meaning to do so many things: exercise, prenatal yoga, local mommy-to-be outings… But I am also very, very tired. Tuesday night was the first decent night of sleep I’ve gotten in weeks, and that was with the assistance of an extra Benadryl. I’ve had two colds, and the hip pain is back. I’ve gained 19 pounds, which is totally fine (considering the fibroids), except that it’s aggravating an old lower back problem from my Trader Joe’s days.

I think, too, that the timing of everything has been messing with my ability to look ahead and picture this baby in our lives. We knew when I got pregnant that we’d be moving before I gave birth, but we didn’t know where. I couldn’t imagine him in this apartment and I couldn’t foresee the place where he would live with us. Now, I know where we’ll all live, but there’s still so much to do between now and then. And at the same time that I’m trying to picture our son in his childhood home, I’m also redecorating it in my head and trying to internalize the idea that I will even own a home. I’m getting there, though.

So here we are. Counting down.

Weekend: 4 hours