Things are moving so quickly. On Friday, I made an offer on that house I looked at Thursday. They had four offers they were considering, and on Saturday I got the word that I got the house—the one that’s basically a cabin in the woods on the edge of downtown.

Yesterday was the inspection, and this time the inspector didn’t find anything too scary. I also didn’t see anything alarming about the neighbors—no kids setting fire to anything next door, and it’s even spring break, so the kids are home.

I did discover that a lot of the trees in the backyard are redbuds. I also found that I can see the Blue Ridge Mountains from the front porch and from the room I’m going to use as an office. When the trees leaf out, the mountains may be blocked, but I may be able to get glimpses through the leaves. I now know where I’m going to put my desk, so I can look out the window at the mountains.

So, I guess I’ve got a house. The seller still has to do a termite inspection, and then there’s closing, but I should be fully moved in before my lease in my apartment ends in May, so it’s perfect timing.

I have Rydding Village book 3 about ready to publish, so I need to get that done. Then I may not be getting much writing or other work done for the next month or so while I get moved and then get the new house set up. I got rid of most of my office furniture, so I’ll have to set up an office from scratch, and I have to get a new sofa — well, in that living room, it’ll have to be a loveseat. The rooms in this house really are rather small, and the closets are small, so I’ll be coming up with some storage solutions. There will likely be a road trip to the Ikea in the D.C. suburbs for an epic shopping trip.

I’m trying to decide what look to go with in my office. The floors are pine, a lovely golden color (the original hardwoods from 1945), the walls are a pale gray, and the woodwork is white. It’s a corner room with two windows, so it’s very sunny. I’m leaning toward white furniture to keep it looking bright and open, but I also like the idea of making it darker and cozy, sort of an eccentric professor’s study look. I think I’ll use my laptop stand as a desk for a while and move it around to find a good desk position before I start shopping for office furniture. Then I can decide what mood I want to go with.

The nice thing is that this house came in significantly below what I’d budgeted for buying a house, so I can spend more money fixing it up. It’s just been renovated, so I don’t have to do anything to the house before I move in other than put up some blinds and curtains so I’m not putting on a show for the neighbors. All the appliances are new, the kitchen and bath are totally new, it’s been freshly painted and the floors upstairs have been refinished, while the downstairs floor is new. So I just need to buy furniture and storage type stuff for the closets and the basement (the back half of the downstairs) and landscaping.

In the meantime, I have so much to do!