We got the keys to our house yesterday!!  I was in there today cleaning a little bit before the movers come tomorrow & the next day - thankfully the old owners really cleaned up nicely and had the kitchens and bathrooms professionally cleaned.  We will just need to do some touch up painting, but other than that, it is ready to move in!

A very quick update to the rest of what has been going on -  I just got back from NYC and visiting my friend Amy. It was a last minute trip, but it was a great way for me to get my mind off everything that is going to happen this week.  While there we drove down, with our friend January, to D.C. to stay with another friend, Sara, and attend the "D.C. Big Flea". This is my second time, but the rest are all experienced flea-ers and we made it through two HUGE warehouse-like buildings in one day. I found a few treasures and can't wait to see what they will look like in our new house.

This week is going to be crazy but I will try and post some new pictures soon of the new house!

Yesterday I caught the Oprah show and it made my design encounter with Nate Burkas make sense!  The show was on a whole house make-over for a deserving family in none other than Kirkland, Washington!! This is the community just North of Bellevue, so Nate & friend must have been looking for a few accessories to go with all the Pottery Barn furniture which was featured in the show.

Interesting to think that was just a couple weeks ago and the show just aired yesterday - that is some quick production!

I was running errands and I threw my handbag onto the seat next to me, like I do everyday. This time, however, my car started dinging at me.

I was unsure at first what my car was trying to tell me since it is a new car, but then I noticed the "passenger airbag light" was illuminate - so being the math genius I am, put two and two together and lifted my bag off the seat. 

Needless to say it stopped dinging at me and I start laughing at myself. 

Guess I need to stop carrying around all those errands with me!

This past Sunday, as Reeves and I were browsing around the local Bellevue Crate & Barrel for furniture ideas for our new home, I heard this voice behind saying something innocuous like "what about this one" or "no, that one over there" - turning around, as I am always curious what other people are shopping for, I first saw this tall stylish man (obviously gay as few straight men dress that well, especially on a Sunday morning) then I heard the voice again from the other man who was with him, but had his back to me, which sounded strangely familiar. Since it had to be a couple, I though hmmmm....I want to know what they are buying so I can get ideas on what they think is worth viewing. 

I heard the voice again and in that instant, the shorter of two men turned around. If it wasn't for hearing the voice first, I don't think I would have recognized him as he had a knit cap pulled down, was in a bit of a scruffy coat and had about a weeks worth of stubble going on. It was Nate Burkus the interior designer made famous by Oprah!! 

We made eye contact (and he has great eyes) as I almost ran into him since he tuned around about 3 feet in front of me. Not wanting to do an obvious double take, I walked past him trying to pretend to look at more furniture, whispering to Reeves who he was - from which Reeves said "who???" :) 

I really wanted to subtly follow him around to get some free design direction, but they soon went down the escalator and I am sure kept moving so not to be recognized. 

I was really impressed I actually recognized him as I am really bad about celebrity sightings - usually I am too into getting done what ever it is I need to get done to worry about who is around me!

I also am wondering what Nate was doing in Washington?!?!

For the past two months we have spent WAY too much time on Redfin looking at houses.  Being in Ireland and having no way of "looking" at homes till last week, it was our lifeline in starting to determine what we wanted out of a house. 

Since Redfin aggregates home listing, using the MLS as its database source, it is the best way for the average home buyer to see basically everything that real estate agents can see. (including the $36 million property on Mercer Island overlooking Lake Washington!)

Needless to say Redfin has been a daily obsession seeing what is new on the market, what prices are changed, and if the status of the house has changed from being "active" to "Subject to Inspection" - basically this means the house is under contract and unless something extraordinary happens, it if off the market.

Well, just in the past few hours our house went "subject to inspection" - YAY!!!!!  One more sign we are on the way there! :)

After a very busy and stressful week, we had a nice and relaxing weekend recuperating.  I can't believe it is only week two!

Today I started getting into the swing of things and went to Whole Foods for the first time in a year and a half and I have to say I really had missed it!!  We are so spoiled here by all the wonderful selection of foods - from the bounty of fresh fruit and veggies to the vast selection of every boxed product you can imagine. 

In Ireland, it was not unusual, in fact it was usually the norm, for me to not find several items on my list because they were out of stock.  To qualify this, it was not that I was just picky about brand, many products only have one brand stocked - for example, I wanted to buy yeast to make some pizza dough - they were out and wouldn't be getting any in for two weeks! (and this is at Tesco - equivalent size to a Safeway)

I am excited to settle in again and start a routine and get into life, including even the grocery shopping!

After a week, where we didn't think we could possibly fit in any more life changes, we ended up going under contract on a house we are totally excited about moving into! 

As of last night about 11:30 pm (we LOVE our real estate agent - let us know if you need one as he is so great) we accepted the counter offer and we were under contact.  Due to the extra-ordinary ability of Ken (and his partner, aka, wife, Lauren) we were able to get the paperwork back into the other agent last night and be under contract by this morning, with an inspection scheduled for 9 am today. 

We met with the inspector (he was also the best with which we have ever dealt - go Steve of Home & Building Services, Inc.!) and he had nothing but a glowing report of the house - in fact, he said it was in the top 10% of homes he has inspected in a while (in regards to quality). And this is the same inspector which flat out told our real estate agent to not buy a house he really wanted.  So, needless to say, we are really stoked about the house, the location (which does have some nice views of downtown Seattle) and the quality of the fittings. 

While we don't want to count our ducks till the fat lady sings, we are ecstatic about our choice and looking forward to moving in on March 3rd!

Here are a few pictures of the house:

The Living room (the kitchen is to the left)

The beautiful kitchen - living room is to the right

  Not so good exterior shot taken through the windshields of our car

After a very arduous journey to Seattle (29 hours of travel from Dublin - OYE!) we are safe and sound and getting our lives in order.  I really can't believe how much we have fit into the past six days.

On Saturday morning (after getting to bed at 2 am since our plane was so late) we started looking at houses - almost 30 over two days all across the greater Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond/Kirkland/Sammamish areas.  We have narrowed it down to two at this point and the next few days will be telling as to what happens and what we decide...stay posted.

We also ended up with two new (used) cars as of last night! We had only stopped by the Audi dealership on Tuesday for Reeves to look at the color of a car - well, there was this beautiful, shiny A4 sedan on the showroom floor that I fell in love with - I wasn't even looking to get an Audi, but after two previous days of snow and ice, the all-wheel drive was looking very good.  So, we went back yesterday and I test drove the car and by the end of the evening we were signing contracts for my new car and a new car for Reeves, specifically their Avant wagon.  We are now an Audi family!

We are still, however, waiting to pick up our cars since we are still waiting to have our funds transfer here - a whole other series of events I don't need to repeat anytime soon.  While we are so happy to be back in the land of customer service (and we have had some great people working to help us) it is amazing how much paper work, phone calls, faxes and snail-mail it takes just to move our own money from one place to another!

I will be very happy when we can slow down enough to reflect on the fact we are in a brand new city.  We are, however, very much looking forward to enjoying all the Pacific Northwest has to offer, maybe after we can get a full night sleep first! :)

We have been doing a round of "lasts" here in Dublin. Last Thursday night we met up with all the Microsoft people, plus spouses and friends, to have "last pints" at McSorley's in Ranelagh (closest little village to our house).  We had a grand time and we will really miss the friends we have made here - thankfully several are transplants from the greater Seattle area so we hope they will move back in the future!

This week we have had the movers come and once again pack up all our worldly possessions. Our cute little Dublin "semi" is now an empty shell waiting for its next set of memories to impart on another family.  Today we finished cleaning and tomorrow we will be handing our keys over to the landlord, the final step in our Dublin house adventure.

On Monday evening we met our Irish friend, Seamus, for some fun food and chat - we will miss his funny and witty banter!

Wednesday evening, we were graciously hosted for dinner by Ben & Chistiana - Reeves worked with Ben here in Dublin and since they are from the greater Redmond, we are looking to them for lots of great info on the place we are about to move.

Today, our last day in Dublin, we started the day with a latte and pastry at our local Cafe Inna, after which we met our landlord at the house to finalize all the details. We then went downtown to a wonderful last lunch at Elephant & Castle which has some of the best spicy wings we have ever eaten. 

We then proceeded to do our last retail experience at Avoca, picking up a beautiful Irish woven throw and cookbook from their restaurant. Reeves then surprised me by stopping by a jewelry store and buying me a "History of Ireland" bracelet- it is a hand made line of jewelry which depicts, in little pict-o-grams, the major point of Irish history.  We had seen these awhile ago and it is a fun reminder of our Irish adventure.  We also picked up a "traditional cap" for Reeves which really makes him look like a little Irish man!

For the afternoon, we tried to keep ourselves awake, since we had both had a rough night's sleep worrying about all the final details. So, after spending 1 1/2 hours in the business center finalizing the last of our bills, we had some lovely cocktails in the sitting room. We have been staying at the Four Seasons here in Dublin which I have to say has been the best customer service experience in our 1 1/2 years living in Dublin.  We have had a lovely stay and after relaxing in the suite and room service we are ready for our last night as residents of Dublin.

Here is to our new American adventure which starts tomorrow!