Ivo Janssen

Two and a half beautiful years in Tonkawa Trail are coming to an end, because we're moving back North, to Milwood aka the Cowhouse Neighborhood. After we got back from our engagement trip to the Netherlands in November we started house hunting. We probably looked inside about 10 houses, but in the end we picked the second house we looked at. See, before we started, Chantal and I had drafted a list of about 30 requirements that we wanted in our future home. This place had 26 surrounding "yes", 4 "kinda" and no "nope" answers, so really that's about as close to your dreamhome as you can get. It's the ideal layout for us, in the ideal location, for the right price! 2 story, 2564 square foot (240 m2) on a 40x40ft foundation, 2-car garage, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (2 full bathrooms upstairs and a toilet downstairs) and lots and lots of huge oak trees overshadowing the house.

Buying it took a bit of effort. First, when we were ready to put out a bid back in December, it turned out the house had just gone into foreclosure. So we had to wait a few weeks before the bank who repossessed it, put it back on the market. Then, bidding with a bank requires patience, each bid and counter bid will take about one to two weeks. Finally, on January 19 we had an agreed contract and price so we could start looking for loans. (by the way, got a great interest rate exactly on the day that the Fed cut the rates with .75%!) Closing was scheduled for February 7, and I signed literally a hundred pieces of paper with lots of fineprint. But to our amazement, on the next day, Friday, when we were supposed to get the keys, the mortgage company refused to fund the loan citing some new policies that would prohibit them from sealing the deal. Chantal and I were incredulous, after all, we signed their loan offer already, and the deal was sealed! After an excruciatingly agonizing weekend, we got word on Monday afternoon that the loan had been funded after all and we took possession of the house with a champagne toast.

We'll be cleaning and patching up the house every night this week, and the movers will come in on Saturday. Sunday we'll wake up in our new home.

We're excited!!! Oh, and we have wonderful neighbors!

(more pics and a movie)