Holy SH!T

House is off....more info to come later. Sorry for the cliff hanger!

Yeah buddy!

And it's finally done. We sat at the kitchen table tonight, signed about 10 thousand pieces of paper, with our middle names, and now we're proud owners of the house. We technically close on Monday, we've un-corked the champagne, and we're into the tequila. Can't wait to wake up tomorrow for work! Pictures to follow....

Are we there yet?

Hmmmmmmmm.....you think the house stuff is finished yet? Nope, still going. We've gotten everything in order, now it's just up to escrow and us signing the final papers. Looks like we're almost into that bottle of Tequila, I'm hoping we get there soon!

Final countdown?

A little update from earlier today, we're making the last turn towards the home stretch of the house. We heard from our mortgage broker this afternoon, everything has been given the green light, we just have some minor hoops to jump through. Nothing major, just some paper work to re-submit and info to track down. After weeks of back and forth, I'm actually starting to feel like we're close. Not sure if closing will be Friday or early next week but god knows we're ready to celebrate!

Still waiting

I know that everyone is glued to their computers waiting to find out how our housing situation is going to turn out. Well, I've got no real updates. Looks like we'll be closing on Friday, if everything gets finished up. The presidents day holiday will probably slow things down today, but we are hopefully right on track. I'm optimistic that we are in the clear at this point. Sorry, but you'll have to stay tuned this week for the final word.

A weekend full of great Holidays

This weekend is no normal weekend, no, it's loaded to the gills with holidays....actually, ever single day is one. Friday marked the birthday of one of my great friends, Bob Merrill. Today, Saturday, is most obviously Valentine's day and then Monday is presidents day. So I ask, do you know what tomorrow, Sunday is? Other than Dave Sadr's birthday? Well I'll help you out with this one. It's international "that's what she said!" day. I was only made aware of this momentous holiday earlier this week. So if you're wondering what I'll be doing all day tomorrow, well that's easy, following all statements worthy, with a clever little phrase. Don't believe that it's real or just need to prove it to someone? Here's the link:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/140575/international_thats_what_she_said_day.html?cat=7

Hopefully everyone reading this will take advantage of every opportunity to throw one of my favorite statements around. I know I'm excited........"that's what she said!"

Just when I think I'm out......they pull me back in

Okay, I know what you're thinking, this is a lot of posting from me in such a short amount of time. Well, I've got more to talk about. So as you know, we gave up on the house on Sunday, threw in the towel Monday morning and restarted our journey for housing. Why shouldn't I have expected the email from our realtor asking if we wanted to take another run at the house? It was funny to see that come in and not in anyway be surprised by it. Looks like the seller wants to be rid of the house more than we thought. He was willing to throw in more money from his end to get us back to the same deal that we originally agreed to. So we took the night to mull it over, got advice from everyone willing to listen or awake studying Spanish and decided to take the house. So here we are right back in the same spot as last week, just waiting for everything to get final approval and waiting, except this time, we're a little more excited. Stay tuned.....I'm sure this will get more interesting

Next time, we kill more trees!

What a stressful 30 or so days we've had. We went from getting our offer accepted, locking in a pretty good interest rate, to having our loan application denied, having it approved again, to bailing on the house altogether yesterday. Home buying is a very interesting process. Not only do you kill a number of large trees with the amount of paper that you use, sign your name 10,000 times, then in the end, you might not even take the house that you originally thought you wanted. This is what the past month has been like for us. We were really psyched to find a place close to the water and have our offer accepted. But all of the sudden we found out there was litigation with the HOA against the company that poured the concrete for the sidewalks, basketball courts, and all other common areas. This didn't affect the house whatsoever but immediately led the lenders to not wanting to give us the money to buy. Somehow, our mortgage broker tracked down someone who was willing to accept our loan application, but it was too late. The deal had totally changed, didn't look good with all the outside crap, so we backed out. So here we are, 30 days later, no new house, more knowledgeable about the home buying process, with very cramped hands and only 8 less redwoods in the world.......at least I'm excited to do it all again!

On another note, I've decided that I'll be posting everything regarding the next go around. For this one, we kept our cards close, not wanting to jinx anything and it didn't work out, so this time, it's all going to be out there for everyone to enjoy. Who knows, we might find two places that we like, I can post them both, and everyone can vote......but it better not turn out like the Yeti/Wilson faceoff.

Big winter swells?

As soon as I started to learn anything about surfing, especially here in California, I was told that winter is the best season for surf. The large winter storms that pummeled us with snow in Utah also push swells south that make for great surf. So here we are, first winter, and little to no sign of large waves headed our way. Well that all changed two weekends ago. Surfline was predicting double to triple overhead(8-10 feet) and really great weather. Well, guess what never happened, the waves. The weather was amazing, it was 80 degrees and sunny and the waves while better than flat, were no bigger than shoulder high at the most. So it made a fun day for surfing in the warmth. Tom, Moses and I headed out just down the street at the jetty that's south of our place. A quick walk to a really nice right handed break. Here are pictures from the hour or so that Chris came and hung out on the end of the jetty.

Making a bottom turn


Where are waves?


Tom catching one of the fifty waves he caught that day


Moses getting a good one


We shared a room freshman year of college, now we share waves 10 years later

Anyone need a drink?

Anyone who has come to visit us has gotten the chance to witness our neighbors amazing talent but now I've finally been able to capture it on film.



Now, I know what you're thinking, they must have really gotten after it last night. What makes this so mind blowing is that this is what their deck looks like everyday. I can only speculate what's going on over there but I've narrowed it down to two possibilities. One, they are in fact running a recycling plant for mostly Sierra Nevada bottles or they are homeless and collecting bottles is their only means of earning an income. I actually wouldn't be surprised if the latter were true considering when I was wasn't working, they would be out there every day about noon celebrating another morning in SoCal.....in fact, I can hear them out there right now. Any guesses as to what they are drinking?