Well, things are really moving along. We have a signed contingency agreement on the house we want, which means we've put up earnest money. On Wednesday we did an inspection of the new house. It's in pretty good shape, but there are some issues. The roof is 15 years old and will need repair or replacement soon. The cooktop in the kitchen doesn't have a shutoff switch. There's a support beam that needs repair. Nothing that can't be fixed, but we're likely to do some further haggling on price.

The owners of the house now live in Michigan. A former neighbor of theirs, a woman who buys fixer-uppers and renovates them for resale, is currently housesitting. She gave us a lot of practical advice about the place, which we greatly appreciated. She also told us that there hasn't been an offer on this house before ours, which makes me more confident about further price negotiations.

In the meantime, our house is now officially on the market. The For Sale sign went up on Tuesday, and the first prospective customer came by yesterday. Dealing with the dog is an issue, since Tiffany and I are both at work some 20 minutes away during the day, but our broker has a good relationship with Harry and has volunteered to swing by and take him for a walk when the house is to be shown. Harry is fully recovered from his little accident though he did have some nausea from the anesthetic.

We've had to reassure a few neighbors that we're not leaving the area. Everyone knows the house we're buying, and they've all expressed happiness for us.

Today our broker put out pull sheets for the house. He told us that the first few dozen would be taken by people in the area, but we knew that from our own experience. Looking at houses and going to open-house showings is practically a spectator sport around here. It's a bit weird looking at advertising for your own home. There's something unreal about the pictures. I can't put my finger on it.