whoops, it’s been a while. big news! dave and i bought a house! it’s a pretty intense story, so let me begin with…

…it was a dark and stormy night. but really, it was a fairly warm pre-summer day in vernon, bc. the date? friday, may 11th, 2007. our first contact with our realtor. he emailed dave a large amount of mls listings in the vernon/kelowna area. one particular number grabbed our attention: 9170518. a small middle-unit townhouse in a four-plex in north kelowna, being completely renovated for its soon-to-be-new owner. as we were going to kamloops for the weekend for a busy session of orchestra concerts, we asked to view it tuesday afternoon. the realtor said, ’sure! i’ll confirm with you on monday that it’s still available.’

we quickly decided we would rush back from kamloops to view it on sunday evening.

when arriving on sunday to the location, we learned that all four units were being redone, and two had already sold: one end unit and the other middle unit. the other end unit was not yet listed. these places were gorgeous on the inside, and had a nice yard. we decided that we’d be most interested in the other end unit because, well, obviously an end unit is better than a middle unit. plus there was way more yard with the end unit. since it was the first place we had even looked at, the realtor offered to show us more places on tuesday so we could compare.

come tuesday, we learned that another couple wanted to put an offer on the end unit. luckily for us, our realtor’s a nice guy and he told them he wouldn’t sell it until after showing us more properties. awwww….

so after looking at more properties in the same price range, we decided the end unit, and even the middle unit, were the best bang for our buck. we decided to make an offer on the end unit, and if the other couple won, we would go for the middle unit. originally, we had decided that if we lost the end unit, we would be resentful living next door in the middle unit, but, like i said, after looking at the other places, the middle unit was looking pretty hot. the other places we saw had at least 3 neighbours, didn’t have nearly as many upgrades, and were about the same size.

the realtor told us that the most fair way to go for the end unit was for each party to make one bid without knowing what the other party was bidding, and the seller would pick the best of the two (long story, the realtor is also the seller). our appointment was set for 8pm, Tuesday, May 15th.

dave and i agreed on a price before going in. we decided to offer the amount we would have gone up to if it were a sort of counter-offer bidding war. we arrived as the other couple was leaving. it was a bit awkward. just a little.

after filling out the paperwork we returned to our apartment in vernon, anxiously awaiting ‘the phone call’. we knew the realtor was going to phone both parties. around 945pm my cellphone rang. dave’s phone was dead, as usual. i made dave answer.

and we won the bidding war! the end!

Okay so altering dresses is not nearly as easy as I thought it would be. I got my bridesmaid to try on the top without the boning. I wanted to save myself a lot of stitch-ripping because I knew I’d had to take it in (and hopefully not out) in places. I was right. So I took it home and sewed it smaller, added the boning/lining and got her to try it on again. Too small in the top, too large at the bottom.

On the plus side, my zippers look amazing. Somehow.

Dave is becoming quite the experienced stitch-ripper.

I did the unthinkable a few weeks ago: I decided to make my bridemaids’ dresses for my wedding in exactly 1 month. I picked an easy pattern which was fine. However, each peice includes a zipper. Zippers are my nemesis when it comes to sewing. They usually take me about 1 hour each to put in an article of clothing. If you’re 1mm off, they look terrible. The final product of a good-looking zipper requires PERFECTION of each previous step. Seeing as I haven’t really sewn since high school five years ago, my sewing skills are far from perfect these days. Therefore, tonight I am griping about zippers because THEY SUCK. I made 3 attempts at a zipper on the skirt tonight and somehow the final attempt came out fairly decent. I honestly think it’s the best zipper I’ve ever done. I’m pretty sure it was a fluke.

So, people, next time you zip up your sweater, or skirt, or pants, take a moment and appreciate the time and effort someone (but most likely some machine) put into it.

I fit my first bridesmaid tomorrow. I hope it fits.

I have temporarily become an investigator at work. I cannot tell you more, because I’d have to kill you.