New Stage

After a year and a half of off-and-on looking (with long periods of off), I'm happy to announce I've finally found a condo to buy. I saw it for the first time on December 29 and made an offer on New Year's Eve. All of this during a time of year when the real-estate market was supposedly -- and in fact -- dead. I lucked out: fabulous price and only a block and a half from where I live now. The proximity wasn't planned, but I have called this general area of the city home for more than eleven years, so I think it doesn't want to lose me.

My offer was accepted last Thursday, but I have been circumspect in trumpeting the news pending the results of an inspection that would reveal whether a discomfiting level of radon was seeping through the floorboards, as it was in my erstwhile almost-condo.

Got the results today, and we're good.

I haven't closed yet but expect to sometime in the next several weeks, with a tentative move-in date around March 1, I'm guessing. The place needs some work -- nothing too major. Just some tweaking and a couple of new appliances as well as visits by various Men With Butt Cracks. A little daunting for this longtime renter, but I will take it in . . . yes, steps.

There's a nice patio for the dogs (and me).

And

a

fireplace.

Longtime readers of this blog know I don't really have a fireplace, let alone a mantelpiece, just a stage prop. The new place has no mantelpiece either -- yet. Mind you, I'm not complaining. I consider this progress.