We are for sale!

Our house was listed today and the first open house is in just minutes (1-4).
We think the house looks great, and today is a beautiful day!
Check out the listing at:
http://www.windermere.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Listing.ListingDetail&ListingID=18184150

Tell your friends to come and buy!

Good News!

Good news today, we had our appointment with Dr. Hasselquist the OB-GYN and we discussed the results of the Quad Screen--all tests came back negative which means the baby has less than a 1 in 5000 chance of spina bifida, Down's Syndrome, or other genetic disorders.
We'll schedule an ultrasound for sometime in the next 1-3 weeks to check the baby's anatomy and also hopefully find out the gender.
I've gained 6 pounds in the first 17.5 weeks; the target is supposed to be 5 pounds in the first 20 weeks, so there's certainly no need to worry about me not eating enough! Now that I'm not so nauseous I'm trying to eat healthier and exercise more to make sure that the weight doesn't get too out of control.

We're putting the townhouse on the market this weekend, with the first open house on Sunday. I'll post the listing when it comes up. Also, the bamboo floors have been installed at the new house and they look great. The kitchen cabinets are coming on Saturday morning, and everything in the kitchen (cabinets, appliances, countertop) should be completely finished by July 15. Yay!

I've taught 2 out of 7 of my killer Evening MBA classes (Mon & Wed from 5-10 pm), so only 5 left to go. Next week I start the GMBAs, an executive program, and I'll teach them 8 times (1-4:30 pm) in the next 3 weeks. I have 3 killer days of teaching from 1-10 pm, so wish me luck that me and the baby survive!
That's it for now!!

Week 16 Update

Hi everyone,

Apologies for our silence; a few friends have yelled that the lack of regular posting had them worried, so here's a quick update on what's happening:
-My mommy spent a week with us and whipped both the townhouse and the Inverness house into shape! We packed up all the junk from the townhouse and staged it so that we're ready to put it on the market this weekend. She also found and hired a crew of Chinese men to finish the remodel of the downstairs of the new house. They're re-sheetrocking the family room to be, replacing all of the downstairs windows, and painting, so that the whole downstairs will be ready by the time we move in. Thanks for all the help, mommy! I miss you already.
-I'm gradually feeling better, only threw up about 3x in the last week, which is a huge improvement. Have slowly started incorporating some more protein and veggies into the diet, though it is slow going.
-Went in this morning for the Quad Screen blood test, which screens for any genetic disorders (like Down's Syndrome) in the baby. We get the results next week, so keep your fingers crossed!!
-My mom also bought me a ton of maternity clothes, and we shopped for my new teaching clothes as well.
-Start teaching on Monday, and will be pretty busy thru July 23 when I'm done with most classes. Wish me luck!

I'll try to post something more entertaining later....just wanted everyone to know we are doing okay! Lots of love....

Week 13 Update (May 28-June 3)

Pregnancy update:
-I told my department chair, teaching coordinator, and select colleagues at work our big news. I'm happy with my teaching schedule for next year (teaching from Sept-early November, then not again until June 2008).
-Had my first vomit-free day in a long time-on Saturday. yay!
-Mommy bought me some maternity clothes in Fla. Thanks Mommy!

Inverness house update:
-Kitchen gas, electrical and plumbing all went in this week.
-This week we hope to start sheetrock and paint, and hopefully to schedule the flooring for in 2 weeks.

Townhouse update:
-They are almost finished with the painting.

Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you!

How did we get here? Old house

Finally, the last topic that needs a bit of background is our old house, commonly referred to in Seattle Indochine as "the townhouse."

We bought the townhouse that we currently live in, pre-construction, in January 2004. As most of you know, we've been dealing with problems with the common garage; the roof of the garage is our deck/patio. Namely, the tile deck that serves as our balcony and the roof of the garage was tiled with the improper type of tile, and some internal problems with the construction were revealed as well. As a result, the 6 unit homeowners engaged an attorney to help us obtain the funds for the necessary repairs.
After more than a year of going back and forth, we finally settled with the builders and they agreed to provide us with a large sum of money to finance the repairs to the common garage area and cover our legal expenses. A company that specializes in fixing other peoples' mistakes is performing the repairs. Turns out that the type of repairs necessary are very sensitive to weather--for most of the repairs, the temperature would need to be consistently over 40 degrees F, and it couldn't rain for 2-3 days at a time. As a group of 6 units we decided to wait on construction to mitigate the weather issues. So, we didn't begin construction on the repairs until early spring 2007.

Since that time, things have been moving at a snail's pace. All of the existing tile was demolitioned, and replaced with proper outdoor tiling. However, several weeks went by as the crew tried to chase and repair a number of other leaks found around existing gutter systems, door thresholds, and other technical things that are difficult to follow.

Once we realized that the townhouse would be under construction for quite some time, we decided not to put the townhouse on the market. We were afraid that the construction and associated damages would hurt the sale of the home (and this fear was reinforced by our neighbor whose home sat on the market for 4 months, finally selling at 40K below the original listing price). It seemed easier to live in the townhouse (which is completely fine inside, the only inconveniences occur at the exterior) rather than moving to the new house and living in it during construction.

What remains to be done? The crew tells us that there are another 2 or so weeks left of construction. They need to finish all of the painting, and complete some "punchlist items" (e.g., cleaning up mistakes or messes they made during construction). So hopefully by mid-June we will be able to put the house on the market, and it will sell relatively quickly. With a 30 day close, that would give us about 2-3 weeks to sell the house before we'd move into the Inverness house right on schedule in August.

Keep your fingers crossed!!