No time for blogging, I’ve just become a homeowner. Yesterday was closing — the first time in my life I have ever hired an attorney. (Before, I just knew them as those really competitive people in the intramural basketball league.) Today I actually moved, although much remains to be done. A phone/DSL line, for example; this is being typed from an internet cafe, where I have escaped to after discovering that none of my telecommunication services were working yet.
Another change wrought by my new status: until recently, I’m pretty sure I had never actually set foot inside a Home Depot. Now I am practically friends with all the staff. And I have designed a truly ingenious way to use my bookshelves as a CD rack, of which I am undeservedly proud.
The whole process involves so many failure modes that it’s very frightening to contemplate. (For example, don’t just park in the alley and leave your hazard lights flashing for too long, as you might drain your battery and be unable to start your car — not that I know from experience, you understand.) The key is a good real estate agent, and I was lucky enough to have a true genius on my side — Ed Jelinek, whom I heartily recommend to anyone looking to buy property in Chicago. Putting yourself in the hands of someone who really knows what they are doing, and makes extra efforts to look out for you and set you straight when you are about to make a horrible mistake, makes an intimidating process immeasurably less scary.