I can’t say that I know a lot about babies. But, coming into contact with my niece Chloe I have learned a few things. One of the more profound things I have learned is that babies cry a lot. When I say cry I mean they just make the cry noises, but that’s really just her way of getting attention or letting someone (hopefully not me) know that she needs something. But when she actually cries, like tears streaming and a solid, ear-melting wail, you know that she’s really upset.

On the other hand, as I have recently experienced with a sick and very whiny wife, that adults are the opposite. Because I know that Leah has the energy to whine and complain and be extra needy, I know that she is sick, but it’s not the end of the world. However, if Leah was so sick that she was really unable to whine and complain then I would know there was a real problem.

And just in case someone thinks I am unfairly picking on Leah, remember that I posted this.

After, I don’t know, 3 months (maybe 2), 3 other offers, probably 30-40 house viewings and a lot of stress, we finally got a house.

Last weekend, we scheduled time with our realtor to go see two condos in an area just east of where we live now. I really didn’t want to live in a condo or a townhouse, but after so much time we thought we should explore all options. There was nothing in the areas we could afford (or if there was we put offers in, but they were not accepted) and the houses that we could afford were 100 years old, needed a ton of work and were at the top of our price range. So, we thought we might have to settle for a condo. That would be our compromise. We would have to deal with a condo board, little outdoor space, basically the same size as our apartment now and we’d hear the neighbours coming and going constantly. We took a couple steps around both condos and just said—nope, can’t do it.

But, not all hope was lost because our realtor had an idea. He had a listing in the south that we might like. We had briefly looked into the south, but it would require a longer transit period and most of the places were just cookie cutters. House after house of the exact same architecture. But our realtor rarely suggested anything (which was fine), so we took him up on the idea (if only to encourage more suggestions).

There is something about buying houses that I didn’t know—it’s a lot like playing poker. I do not have a good poker face. The place was amazing and I was running around the place, from room-to-room, giddy and hyper like I had drank too many cans of coke. That’s a pretty good simile for quarter to eleven on a Sunday evening, wouldn’t you say?

The house was part of an estate sale, meaning that the previous owner had passed away (hopefully not in the house) and his children were selling the property. In this case, our realtor was representing both the buyer and seller (so he got double the commission). Let me just say now, that I completely trust him and that he had told us on numerous occasion that we weren’t interested in houses before Leah or I had even formed an opinion. If he were just in it for money, he would have gotten rid of us a long time ago. The fact that he represented both sides and that this was an estate sale made the whole process a lot easier. Frankly, we didn’t have to play poker, which is one of the reasons I felt more comfortable to show my emotions when viewing the property (but I still did due diligence and asked all the important questions). We gave Bob our fair offer, Bob presented it and…

As I said before, we had put three other offers in prior to this one. So, even though I felt confident, I had felt confident before and it didn’t go through. For this estate sale, there was one child (of five siblings) in charge of selling the house. He was authorized to sell at a set price. We offered below that price (which was fair considering some of the work that needed to be done on the house). Therefore, the other siblings all had to agree on that price. We gave two days for them to return with an answer just so they had time to track each other down, etc. We made the offer last Saturday. On Sunday morning, our realtor called and 4/5 siblings had agreed and the last one wouldn’t be a problem. I couldn’t believe it. We were going to have a house.

Well, this week we had an inspection done and the financing is all setup, so I feel comfortable telling you that we are well on our way to home-ownership. During the inspection I took some video of the house, it was with our camera so its a bit shaky and I walked too fast. But take a look. I will get some better quality video when we move in and as the renovations begin.

House Walkthrough from Rhett Soveran on Vimeo.

I told you I was going to switch names and now I have begun the process. I bought this domain over a year go and I have never had a solid idea of what to do with it. When I first got it I thought about doing some sort of Christianity-critique blog, but I didn’t have enough time for one blog, let alone two. I think at the time I was thinking I would be trying to save the sinking ship that is Christianity. Because I am the number one candidate for that job…

A couple months ago, I thought about starting (again a second) blog focused around being green and environmentalism. Something along the lines of the earth is sinking man and I don’t want to swim. It’s very clever because I am both ripping on the Tragically Hip’s “New Orleans is Sinking” and the fact that the polar ice caps are melting. But, again, I realized that I don’t have enough time for a second (now third actually) blog and I really don’t know enough. At least with Christianity I know I could bullshit for a while.

So, over the last month I have been wrestling with wanting to give up rockstarpoet and now I have. I was thinking, at first, that a good tag line for this blog would be something like Rhett’s ready for trouble or Rhett’s getting into trouble or something like that. But that just seemed far too clever for me. Then I thought of a splash of blue and I liked it. It’s subtle and has no direct meaning, really. Neither does bailing bucket. But I like them both, but I think you should be ready for me to change all that. Plus the other downer with rockstarpoet is that I didn’t have the .com. I have all the domains with bailing bucket. I am the sole proprietor of bailing bucket goodness online. If anyone wants to use this they will have to go through me.

I don’t know if personal re-branding is risky business online. But here’s to hoping it’s not. Oh and if you are a RSS subscriber from rockstarpoet, you don’t have to switch. Many thanks to Feedburner for that.

I have a lot more work to do around here and so you will see things changing, adapting and growing. Please leave any feedback or comments. I hope you like this theme as much as I do. It’s different, it’s dark and it works for me.

Photo by haveyouseenthisgirl