Now All I Need is the Keys to the Condo

After a shaky start this morning with the Zipcar I did end up having success with the furniture adventure today. I got to the car, plugged in the handy dandy GPS and low and behold no power to the device tried everything a could and no luck. Called Zipcar and they were able to change my reservation to another car which was good. The new car was a mini - never having driven a mini before I was a bit unsure on how to start the silly thing. Luckily the owners manual was there and I found out that you have to depress the brake as you press the start button. Now that the car was powered on I plugged in the GPS and again no power. The irritation really started to set in. I looked into the lighter and it appeared to be broken after some fiddling around I finally got a charge so I was off.


In the end I decided to go with Bassett as I was able to get custom order on fabrics in only 30 days. Other places I would either have to go with what was on the floor or wait 8 weeks which just wouldn't work with my schedule. I opted for a sofa, love seat, occasional chair and a storage ottoman. They tried to talk me into a $900 area rug which was just a tad pricey I know I can find a cheaper rug elsewhere. So here's the pieces and color scheme I decided on in the end.



The colors: Sofa and love seat brown ,throw pillows and ottoman - pattern, occasional chair - blue

Occasional Chair

Storage ottoman

Sofa and Love seat

Independence Day

Another milestone in my repatriation today. My first 4th of July! To celebrate the long weekend I am spending lots of money. Yesterday I went with a friend to Fry's and bought a snazzy new Samsung 46" LCD HDTV quite drool worthy. I was torn between the 40 and 46" but in the end I decided the space is large enough that it can handle the larger TV. I am so tempted to open the box and set it up now but then it would be harder to move - who knows I may cave and do it anyways.

While at the store I realized I can't really do a surround sound system for a number of reasons this was a little disappointing but the disappointment didn't last long because actually make speakers now that simulate surround sound. I think I'm going to go with this Polk Surroundbar I just need to measure the bookshelf to see if it will fit on the shelf. Looking at the picture of the shelves I think it will but just need to make sure. I also was a little surprised that the cost of the speaker online is much less than at Fry that is highly unusual so I'll be buying that online a little later.

Today I'm going to kick back and relax before I go out tomorrow and spend more money looking for furniture. I'm excited to use my zipcar for the first time and yesterday I also invested in a GPS so I don't get lost.

Phew- What a Relief

Today an electrician came and inspected the condo I was hoping to buy and good news. Everything is fine, this means all systems go YEAH! The sellers are very motivated to sell and actually had an electrician in earlier this week to fix some of the minor issues with GFIs not installed and broken outlets. The agent also relayed information on how the arcing in the fuse box happened. It has nothing to do with bad workmanship originally but rather the homeowners trying DIY and screwing it up. If you don't know anything about electricity don't try to fix things at home!

I meet with the bank this afternoon but it looks like everything is in order. Of course the bank has loads of questions and needs all sorts of documentation since I've been living overseas for 2+ years hopefully there are no major problems there.

This weekend I go furniture shopping if I get the membership information from zipcar. I should have it by tomorrow so fingers crossed.

Onto the details and pictures of my soon to be new place. 2 bedroom 1.75 bath - that's right I have a master bathroom. Washer/dryer in unit, and loads of storage space.

The most important thing - MY VIEW:

Second most important - The Kitchen

Living room with working fireplace and built in shelves

The second balcony is mine

Two Weeks In

It's really hard to believe that I've only been in Seattle for 2 weeks, ok to be precise it's been 16 days. It seems like it's been so much longer, probably because I've packed so much into this time. Before I go on any further here are some of the pictures I've been promising.

The apartment I'm currently staying in:

The hill I have to walk down and up every single day, I probably should have taken a picture from the bottom instead of from the top it really is steep:

You may notice that I haven't put up any photos of the place I'm looking to buy. I did take some yesterday during the home insepction but am holding off an posting them. The home inspection yesterday revealed some electrical concerns which need to be addressed hopefully I can get some answers early this week and everything will continue if not it's back to the drawing board - ugh! I'm keeping my hopes up but realize I may need to walk away from this if I don't get a good answer from the electrician.

The other not so good news I got on Friday was in regards to moving my stuff from storage in Boston. They've given me a time estimate of 7 -22 days, quite a wide range and you need to accept delivery if it's there within 7 days otherwise there are considerable charges. If the sale on the condo doesn't go through I may need to find a storage place and then bribe friends with food and drinks to help me move the stuff once I do find a place. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

The one good thing is in my wandering around today I stumbled across a furniture store that is going out of buisness so there are huge discounts. I was pretty impressed with the price and quality of stuff. I'll keep my eye out for other sales but I like the idea of a liquidation as there is no need to order and wait for stuf to arrive. I have to say I'm looking forward to going on a nice shopping spree.

That's it for now will keep you posted on what the electrician says.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow it seems like I've barely had any free time and that's probably because I haven't between trying to find a place, work and travel I've been going crazy the last week. I had to go to NYC for meetings earlier this week and had an impromptu visit with some family. It was great. I hadn't been to NYC in about 3 years, since then travel has sure changed. Taxis in NY now accept credit cards it was quite shocking. I was also surprised to see that Delta offered in flight wi-fi access. The cost was only $12 not too bad for a 6 hour flight. I didn't take it as I had somehow forgotten to pack my power supply so I would have run out of battery power very quickly.

Before I left I had seen a number of condos on Saturday and decided to put an offer on one. The owners countered and I accepted this evening, by the end of July I'll be in my own place - yippee! A lot of people have commented on how quickly I moved and I did but then again I've been looking at a lot of places on-line and in the end I knew what I wanted. There was a lot of fixer-uppers out there and unrealistic prices on tiny places I think I really lucked out. I'll be doing the inspection on Monday and will take pictures. Speaking of pictures I know I promised them in my last post but haven't gotten around to that yet. I'll get that taken care of this weekend.

The house buying process in the US is quite different from the UK from what I've been told. There's no need to worry about chains and wondering if somebody is going to drop out. I will be in the condo no later than July 30th, potentially sooner depending on how long it takes the financing to come through. There is also no need to worry about gazumping or gazundering they've agreed to the deal and there will now be penalties if they decide to take another offer.

It's surprising the things that I'm having to re-adjust to being back in the states. As I was signing and dating the offer for the condo today I was writing the date sometimes the British way and sometimes the American way. I very frequently have referred to condos as flats, luckily people know what I mean. The strangest thing though is the money. I've gotten so used to money being different shapes and sizes for different denominations I find myself spending much longer trying to figure out how much money I have and if I have the correct amount to pay for things. I've also found myself opening my change purse when I'm expecting less than $5 change so I Can put the coins away. I then realize that I'm getting dollar bills back. I'll get readjusted eventually.

I Made It

Wow my first blog as a re-pat. That just doesn't have the same ring to it as expat. First off let me apologize for not posting sooner but the Internet connection at my apartment is absolute crap. If you are ever tempted to go with a service from Clearwire run away don't do it. The speed has been worse than dial-up if I can even get a connection. Last night I did go out and get a Verizon wireless card and that works much, much better. Now on to the fun and exciting stuff.

The flight over from London was good I actually managed to sleep for a couple of hours on the plane and arrived feeling rather refreshed. I thought to myself this is good maybe I won't have jet lag. No such luck I've been getting up at 4 or 5 am every day since I arrived. Today I was shocked I actually slept in until 6:30.

The place I'm staying is very nice, I'll take some photos one of these days and get them uploaded. The only drawback is that the place is on top of a very steep hill. The last 3 blocks are the worst and am usually out of breath by the time I get to the apartment door. Of course by the time I get to the door I have also walked quite a distance. As I didn't rent a car I've been walking everywhere - earlier this week I was in training that was 1.7 miles from my house a nice 40 minute walk in the morning. I did cheat in the evenings and take either the bus or monorail to the Seattle Center and then walked from there.

Some of the many things I've been up to:

• Unpacking
• On Monday I traded in my UK mobile for a US mobile
• Finding the important places grocery stores, restaurants, bars, etc.
• Looking at condos a rather discouraging endeavour - there are a few possibilities though
• Getting pre-approved for a mortgage
• Figuring out the buses

Today was my first day officially in the office. It is a little odd being in a cube. I haven't worked in a cube ever! All of my previous companies I was either working from home or there was an open or semi-open floor plan. Some of the perks of being in the office today I was given a $10 gift card to the cafe across the street as a new employee.

2 Years 4 Months 3 Weeks and 1 Day or 75,533,627 Seconds

Today's the day in a couple of hours I'm off to the airport thus ending my adventures as an expat. I've thought for a while about what I could possibly say to summarize my time here and the words just don't seem adequate. It has really been an amazing time and I am so glad I had this opportunity it is sad to see it come to an end. There are still so many places I didn't get to see, but I guess that just means that I have more reasons to come back.

My adventures by the numbers:

253 Blog posts
20 New countries that I had never visited before
4 Different continents
50 Different cities
112 Passport stamps and visas

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have visited places that I never would have dreamed possible. Some of the highlights:

• Safari in South Africa
• The Great Wall of China
• The Pyramids

There are definitely things I'll miss and thing I won't miss about living in London. What I'll miss:

• Nando's
• My masseuse - I'll just have to find a new one
• Jetting all over Europe
• British Music
• Richmond Park and The Thames
• All the great people I've met

What I won't miss

• British customer service
• The sound of planes constantly flying over my flat

And of course there are the things I'm looking forward to about being back in the states:

• Watching the Superbowl at a reasonable time
• Exploring the west coast
• Being able to get Diet Dr Pepper whenever I want
• Finishing my state quarter collection (The Denver Mint)

Thanks to everyone that's made my time here so much fun. I must go now before I get too emotional.