closing on the new condo

the closing is tomorrow! and we move in on Saturday... lots of stuff going on over the next few days. project manager that i am, we pipelined the whole weekend so that we could take advantage of the weekend and take minimum time off work. so we just completed all the waivers on the offer, financing conditions, condo status conditions, etcetera etcetera ad nauseum... i've signed so many papers it's starting to all just look like arabic to me. and tomorrow's the final closing and we hand over the hunka money to seal the deal... *sob!*

i heard in quebec they still have this archaic law that on every real estate transaction, you close with cold hard cash. yes, that's right - everyone sits around the table and do the exchange of the full amount in cash, sounds to me like a mafia deal or something. haha, too weird. guess they've got to have lots of currency in 1,000 notes or 10,000 notes - otherwise, you'd be lugging around a suitcase full of money! i hope they've abolished this by now, but i heard from a colleague that a few years back they were still doing this. yikes!

anyways, we're really excited to be moving in this weekend... the anticipation is building! i haven't had much time to think about it till now, it somehow hasn't become quite real yet. oh, i think it will solidify once we get to the lawyer's office tomorrow.

more to come, hope to get our internet hooked up soon so we can post pics of the mess i'm sure we'll make moving in. and the empty place without furniture - think of all the possibilities! :-) kewl.

lofty goals...

we bought our condo! it's taken a while, but worth the wait for a lovely top-floor unit in the exact location we wanted (granted, we had picky tastes and only a scant few square miles that fit our ideal location)... we homed in on the King West neighborhood for its residential feel and high concentration of restored lofts and loft condos this part of the world. this location is surrounded by great restaurants, walkable to the downtown chinatown and just minutes away from the core of downtown.

so anyways, the offer got accepted and we're going through the last rounds of legalities and other boring financial stuff - but we close on March 23! oh-ho, let the furniture shopping begin! i can't imagine how LONG it will take us to buy furniture, given that it took us a freaking 7 months just to settle on a place. i think we're too anal for our own good.

here's some pics from the real estate listing, furniture not included... :-)

(ours is the far building on the right)

procrastinated london pics

ok, i know it's been over a month, where the heck did i go, right? i promised photos, and have been just sitting on them for too long. i think i'm starting to realize how deep the workaholic nature really goes, i have no excuse.

anyways, here's a smattering of pics from the Thames fireworks display, as seen from the comfort of our fantabulously located hotel room. and some other standard touristy frames, bring out the popcorn and souvenir chocolates.

the traffic jam towards the Thames started
way before the midnight countdown,
this was around 8pm at night...
* note the London Eye was demurely lit but dormant

midnight fireworks, happy 2007!

waaah...

harrods food hall - they got away with lots of my money at this place

mmm, caviar!

breakfast at harrodsthe requisite Tower Bridge homageLondon is a wonderful place for bookworms like us...one of the countless museums we went to

... we took a lot more pics than these obviously, but i do think the fireworks ones were the best. we even put the video camera on autopilot and got some really cool footage of the whole 2007 fireworks program.