Whew!

We closed yesterday and I paid off $190,000 in debt in a single day. What a weight off our shoulders. This is huge for us because it means that our first project was profitable, albeit only slightly so. But for a first try I think we survived well.

We had some issues with open permits and were afraid we weren't going to be able to close, but we worked it out with the buyers. We've had $5000 held back until we can get the permits closed, which we have until the end of the month to do. That shouldn't be a problem.

So we are breathing a big sigh of relief. Now that we are back in the money, we've paid off all our debt aside from our mortgage and we funded our Roth IRAs for the year, and now we can get back to working on our own house a little bit.

We are going to finish the TV room, including new TV, new home theater, new TV stand, new carpet, and new light fixtures. We are also going to redo the downstairs bathroom - get rid of the chocolate brown fixtures and get back to white. Also new tile, paneling, light fixtures, and paint. We have to get that bathroom into usable condition so that we can rip off all of the upstairs bathrooms and start over up there.

Which finally leads us to the plans for the addition. We are meeting with the designer today to get started on the plans to replace our addition which holds all of our upstairs bathrooms. I've posted my initial plan for the addition below. Both of the tubs will be clawfoot tubs. One is original to the house. The guest room will get a little bit bigger, which will allow us to put a queen bed in there instead of just a full. We'll move the laundry room upstairs. All of this is just the initial plan, though, and will probably change. And then of course we have to figure out how we're going to pay for it. But any of you who have actually seen my bathroom the way it is now (leaking roof, plywood floors, shower out of a horror movie) will understand why we will find a way to do this.

Other notable recent events: My friend Stephanie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last week, on the 30th. I went to visit on the 30th and the 31st and mother and baby are both doing very well.

Also Andy and I made the annual trip to family camp. Those nieces and nephews of mine have really grown up. They are much more interested in hanging out with each other than with the adults. I guess they have to stop being kids some time. We did have a lot of fun playing ping pong and euchre, and since I lucked into getting Dave Murray (my stepfather) for a partner, we ruled the euchre tournament. It was not as hard to be there without dad this year as I thought it would be. I sure would have liked to have been able to call him yesterday and tell him that we actually closed on the house, though.

Anyway, that's mostly what's going on with us. The Edgefield home tour is this weekend, so we will be volunteering for the entire weekend. There's also a roller derby bout on Saturday night that we're very much looking forward to going to (www.nashvillerollergirls.com). Nashville vs. Athens, GA. I guess we might go shopping for a new TV, too :).