Yeah!

We officially own our first house! On January 23rd, only 15 days late, escrow closed on our house. We have spent the last 6 days, and the next 2 or so, painting every wall and ceiling in the house, ripping out carpet, laying wood floors, having carpet laid, cleaning and moving boxes. I'll post pictures as soon as everything is done... It won't be long now!

Zip Codes

	Did you know: ZIP codes in the United States entered use on July 1, 1963.
	"ZIP" stands for "Zoning Improvement Code". It refers to the fact that ZIP codes were an expansion on a system of postal zones that were used in larger cities starting in 1943.
	Decoding a zip code: The first digit designates a broad geographical area of the United States, ranging from zero for the Northeast to nine for the far West. The next two digits specify population concentrations within those areas. The last two digits designate small post offices or postal zones in larger zoned cities.
	ZIP+4 was introduced in 1983. The extra four digits further specify the location. According to the US Postal Service "The sixth and seventh numbers denote a delivery sector, which may be several blocks, a group of streets, a group of post office boxes, several office buildings, a single high-rise office building, a large apartment building, or a small geographic area. The last two numbers denote a delivery segment, which might be one floor of an office building, one side of a street between intersecting streets, specific departments in a firm, or a group of post office boxes."
	Some interesting zip codes: 22222 is Arlington, Virginia; 44444 is Newton Falls, OH; 55555 is Young America, MN and 12345 is Schenectady, New York.

When you address an envelope do you ever think about the 5 digit code at the end? No? Well I do now because Jake and I had to RE-SIGN all of our house documents because the USPS is changing our zip code to 86315. Go figure.

I'm Baaack...

Whew... it was a lot of work to get my blog background up and running again, but I did it!

Uh Oh...

Well, I went to change my background and was in a hurry and deleted the last one before I figured out that my favorite blog background site was down for maintenance. So, until they get up again, I'll be down. Bummer.

Extension

Well, our house papers haven't been signed yet. We were supposed to sign them Monday but that was delayed because there was a judgement, aka lien, on the house. That had to be cleared up before we would sign the papers and ultimately accept the debt. That was cleared up Wednesday morning. We then found out that our loan papers had not been sent and still needed a few things to be completed. We got that cleared up and now the papers have to be sent here from CA. So hopefully we can actually sign them tomorrow. It will then take 3 days for the selling bank to sign which means that with the weekend, that will be next Tuesday )-: Jake and I had taken a week off of work to paint and get the fencing and flooring done and now that seems to have been a waste so we will probably go back to work so we don't waste vacation time. Bummer huh?

2009 Already!

I can't believe that last year went so fast. Here we are starting 2009 and Jake and I are getting our house next week! We have so much stuff to do: painting, carpet, wood floors, etc. Whew! I still have to pack too! I'm starting to get very excited, a little nervous since there is so much to do, but mainly excited! Stay tuned for updates!