Today I got an email from the realtor. Our closing documents and down payment was recieved and if all is good with the bank, we will be homeowners by tomorrow!

We’ve been stuck in limbo since we returned from househunting. There were weeks when we heard nothing from anyone and we were worried that we wouldn’t close on time. What was especially difficult is that we are here in Japan and the current owners are not in Washington either so everything had to be sent to the east coast and Japan. To top it off, this is our first (and hopefully, our only) experience at home purchasing. I can’t imagine why people would go through this more than once in their lives.

Now that we’re so close to closing, we can start concentrating on downsizing. I didn’t realize the size of the house was only 1333 sq ft. The house was vacant and it has vaulted ceilings so it appeared to be much larger than it actually is. I don’t mind that it’s that small, we would’ve eventually moved into something this small as we got older. It’s easier for us to maintain. Anyway, because of the size, we need to get rid of as much stuff as possible. What we have here in Japan is only a portion of what we have in storage so we’ll have our work cut out for us when we move back.