So.......we got it. Eeeek!
All my mental decorating paid off more quickly than I even expected. After spending half a day feeling like I was going to throw up with anxiety about whether or not someone else would bid on our house first, and then worrying whether or not our bid was too low and the sellers would decide to wait for a better offer (we bid twelve thousand below the asking price!) they accepted our offer the very same afternoon.
Of course, there is still plenty of time for things to go horribly wrong. We could get an inpection and find that the place is riddled with termites or on the verge of blowing up with bad wiring or full or radon or whatever else things can go horribly wrong. But barring any of those things, we will have a house on or around June 15th!

Now, I want to talk a little bit about violent crime. As I may or may not have hinted, our house is not in a "good" neighborhood. Most people I've told have mentioned being worried about me walking to and from work. Even rebby is concerned (though she feels better about the idea of me riding a bike) Yet, here's the thing...I've known at least four people who have been mugged in the NICE neighborhood where I live now. I've read about purse snatchings and car theft and car smashing in Bloomfield. I've heard about shootings in Lawrenceville, burglary and rape in Shadyside and Point Breeze, and not too many months go by without a smash and grab in North Oakland, despite the more or less constant presence of Pitt patrol cops.
Yet, despite three separate tries and a combined total of about 2 hours of searching, I have been able to find NO mentions of violence in my new neighborhood in any news archives. I found a story about the gang violence that occured there in the 80s that decimated the business district, but that was in a nice story about the guy who owns the carribbean grocery who put up bullet proof glass to stay open. I read about how the mayor's tax abatement program for new development was going to include my new neighborhood. I read about the old Italian businesses, a few of which are still hanging on, and the jamaican woman who had a "restaurant" in her backyard right on the corner of my street (I don't think she's there anymore)
Now I guess you could make an argument that violence in a neighborhood like mine is "not news" and so doesn't get published, but I think that's cynical. And it really is beside the point---the point that living in a "nice" neighborhood doesn't necessarily make you safe, just as living in a "bad" neighborhood doesn't mean you have to live in fear. There seem to be some very concerned and active residents working to make the neighborhood safer and cleaner and more populated, and I am really looking forward to being a part of that.
I am also really looking forward to going paint shopping. And scouring thrift stores with a whole new eye (we are going to try really hard not to buy any furniture new)
Though I know there is probably no chance, I have been dreaming of the gorgeous sage green brocade sofa we saw in the St Vincent de Paul thriftstore in Millvale. And the small dining set in the window at the Merton center thrift store. Mostly, I can't wait to get going on those bathrooms!