Episode 12: The first feathers

Recently I was reading a real estate website written by a realtor. I was researching what happens at a closing (Me? Doing internet research?! What a surprise! :P) and at the end of the article, the realtor said something that really opened my eyes. He said that after a closing is complete, a buyer will often say, "Well, it's not like I really own the house. The bank paid for most of it!" But he said that no, that's not true. When you sign that paperwork at the closing, you become a homeowner. You own that house. You just happen to owe the bank a lot of money!

All this is to say that we will be homeowners in less than 48 hours. See those bricks? Those will be ours. Same with the windows. And the deck. And the oodles of trees and bushes. I'm still totally stunned by this. I think I will be for a long time.

Of course, the problem with buying a nest is that then one must feather it. Today we bought our first feathers (although they will be extraordinarily useful feathers); we bought a washer and dryer. The current owners of the house - being the sweet eccentric Europeans that they are - own one of those combo washer/drier all-in-one machines. I cannot understand why they did this to themselves. I've used those machines before (in Scotland and England) & I've always found them to be complicated and slooooooooow. Slowslowslow. It could easily take a couple of hours to wash a load of laundry. And the drying cycle? Forget it. There's a reason why the current owners have drying racks all over the scullery; it's almost faster to air dry your laundry than to use the pathetic dryer that comes in those all-in-one jobbies. No disrespect to the current homeowners (because, honestly, I love them dearly), but I thought one of the few joys of leaving Europe was that you could use a decent washer & dryer set! Luckily for us, they are taking their wacky little contraption with them, giving us the opportunity to buy a fancy schmancy top-o-the-line set.


But what did we get, you ask? Well, ya know those TV ads for the fancy LG washing machine with the steam cycle? That's what we got. Consumer Reports gave them fabulous ratings and Sears was having a sale, so we went for it. We just went with white machines, though, because the fancy colored ones cost extra (and I knew I'd get sick of the colors anyway). But these machines are GORGEOUS. Sleek & sturdy. They have LCD screens, for heavens sake. My washing machine will talk to me in French if I want it to. How freaky is that?!? I'm sure my mother-in-law will be rendered speechless when her sweet little English eyes fall upon the amazing works of modern engineering that will soon find a home in our scullery.

Mkay. Must go. Time for din-din.