House Buying and Hiking

M. and I spent the last week in Alaska and just got back to Midwest early this morning on a red-eye. We consider the trip to have been highly successful. Our realtor arranged showings of about 15 homes for us, and we liked a few of them a lot. On our first day of looking we saw one that we really liked but that was on the very edge of our price range. The next day we saw a home that we loved just as much that was more affordable for us, so we made an offer on it. It was accepted and we close in mid-July!

View from the street

We managed to get a home inspection done while we were in town so that we could be present for it, and, although there were a couple of small issues that need to be attended to, the house checked out, and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief. We were even happier when the seller agreed to fix all those little problems. In between housing errands, we opened a bank account, picked out a few pieces of new furniture, chose paint colors for the master bedroom (which is currently an almost-black shade of eggplant purple) and the kitchen and dining area, and shared a couple of meals with some of my new colleagues.

I didn't run the entire time we were there because of a combination of factors, including the location of our hotel and our schedule. However, M. and I were able to fit in a couple of 1.5-2 hour hikes. It was still snowy on the mountains and we didn't have very good gear for tackling inclines, so we stuck to more gentle inclines and easier paths.

Hiking the Powerline Trail

The trip was a success and now we just have some paperwork odds and ends to deal with and of course packing and preparing for the move over the next few weeks. My stint in the Upper Midwest is drawing to a close, as I'll be gone for part of next month, working on a research project in New York. I need to more or less divide most of my days between writing and prepping for the move between now and the time I leave for NYC. I do have some plans to get in some favorite running routes here while I can and a group run or two.