We . . . Are . . . HOMEOWNERS!!!

Wow, it's been a while! We've been in a whirlwind for the past few weeks - and failing on our promise to deliver an update - til now!

We officially closed on our first home together last Wednesday, with BIG/HUGE help from our real estate agent at Keller Williams, Jeff Roney, and our attorney Jim Casazza (aka Uncle Jim!). Everything went smoothly - and our hands didn't even get tired from signing our names over and over and over . . . When it was all done, we shook hands with all the lawyers and bank representatives present, took our manilla envelope of keys, and immediately drove over to our new (to us) house on Fellows Ave. It was pretty amazing to open the door on our own for the first time and scamper upstairs and down as if we hadn't already explored every inch of the house on our multiple previous visits with Jeff acting as chaperone :)

The house is so cool!!! Most of you have already seen lots of 'before' pictures - don't worry, by the end of all this we will have hundreds (thousands?) of 'before' AND 'after' pictures to thrust upon you all for years on end.

On our first night as homeowners, we honored a little tradition we had unsuspectingly started with our very first visit to Syracuse - on that day we had been looking at apartments in preparation for my move in May to start my DPT program at Upstate, and after spending a few hours driving up and down the streets of the University neighborhood, we were at a bit of a stalemate with which apartment we wanted to rent: I was ensnared by the hardwood floors, checker-tiled kitchen, cosy sunporch, and the "woman-of-independent-means-and-mentality" factor of our landlady. Jesse was leaning towards the cheaper apartment with the saggy porch.

(Let me just insert here, the cheaper apartment burned down at some point this year, so who had the better instincts, huh? Huh?? Plus, if we'd moved into that place, you all would have been tragically deprived of all the adorableness of 203 Hawthorne. Am I wrong?)

In order to sit down and really hammer out the pro's and con's of each place (yes, we live to make lists - a bit of the Rory Gilmore in us) - and to banish any cranky's with some food - we went into Alto Cinco's on Westcott St FOR THE FIRST TIME. It was a fortuitous start to a long love-affair with Alto Cinco's (insert here: catfish burrito, jalapeno cornbread, tofu BBQ burrito, spinach enchilada, etc) - we scribbled our notes regarding size and location and price and vibe-factor over a basket of sweet-potato fries and loaded nachos. The bartenders put in their 2-cents which quickly became 63-cents when they heard that the Hawthorne place had laundry machines on-site. They both liked the neighborhood too, and Alto Cinco's was, afterall, only about 3 blocks from the Hawthorne place.

Sooo - ever since then, we seem to find ourselves making plans, making decisions, dreaming about houses while perched over the copper-covered bar at Alto Cinco's, sharing a beer (a small but good and changing selection), a cheese plate, more sweet potato fries, whatever. We thought it only right that we celebrate our first night as homeowners with takeout from Alto Cinco's and a bottle of Herman Wiemer wine while sitting on blankets on the floor of our future bedroom.

This has already turned into a long post - and there's so much more to tell! Stay tuned for more pictures, more stories, the gory details of our whole-house clean-up!

Love to you all
Caitlin and Jesse