the place

The past couple days I was taking some pictures of our place for the insurance company. Yes it takes me two days to complete a task like this not because our place is a mansion, but because I am motivationally challenged. Anyway, I've had some requests to put up some pictures of it so...

Below is the front entry way and two pictures of the kitchen...
... and here are two pictures of the living room including my new TV! High Def is the only way to fly. Third is our second bathroom which my lovely wife just painted because it was a terrible violet/purple/crappy color...... and finally a picture of our guest bedroom and master bedroom and bath. Our bedroom obviously needs some work and Kirsten has all sorts of, um, wonderful ideas for it. In the reflection in bathroom you can see her favorite thing of all, the big soaking tub.

Hope you enjoyed the show! Have a good weekend.

nice day for a run

Happy Thursday everyone. It looks like we Milwaukeeans have pushed through the hot and muggy streak and entered a nice, clear and mild day. Perfect day for a run. In fact...

Tonight is the annual Bastille Days 5K run that Kirsten and I will be participating in. Not only us but thousands of others including special guests, my sister Gina and her husband Chris making the trek down from Green Bay for the event. As much as I despise running, I'm looking forward to this one. It doesn't start until 9:00 PM making it a nice nighttime run through the city streets. Should be pretty cool. PLUS, we'll be at the festival for a little while prior meaning I can hydrate and prepare myself with a couple tasty Millers.

For a little added running motivation, which is a nice way of saying there is a new toy out that I want, I picked up a new iPod Nano (8GB) and along with it, the Nike+ chip. It just came the other day so I haven't gotten to use it much yet, but I'm looking forward to giving it a good test run (pun intended) tonight. Any excuse to buy a new gadget.

So there you have it. Make your way down to Bastille Days tonight and say hello. And if you see me passed out a mile and half into the race, please don't step on me.

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Well we're pretty much moved into the new place which is sweet. More on this later when I can get pictures posted which means I have to write these posts at home instead of here at work, I mean, the coffee shop. Cable service shall be turned on on Monday. I still hate you Time Warner.

So long home, screw you Time Warner

Well this is it. The final post from the first home (condo) I ever purchased. Definitely excited about moving to the new one but like other things, you never forget your first.

So tonight the truck gets packed up and tomorrow the movers come and unload it all. A few hours later I should be up and running ready to fire off blog entry #1 from the new pad. If only I had internet service ready to go. Ok, so the Fourth of July holiday is coming up. I guess I can go until the week after that before having internet access. If only I had internet service ready to go then. Nope, not until July 16 and to that I say "screw you Time Warner."

What a fiasco. It started with the dude that is buying my place. He wanted to set up a transfer service but apparently I had to call TW to give them the "ok" to go ahead and schedule it. Fine. Even though that guy was a tool while we negotiated price on the condo, I'll take care of that. So I call up, give TW the ok and think while we're at it, I'll have them schedule my new place. Nope, can't do that because people still live there. Soooo can I have them call and say it's ok? Nope. How is that different than what I'm doing right now?? Back and forth going no where I say forget it. I'll call back.

Last week I call up and they say "no problem" we'll schedule you in. How about July 6? Fine, I can go without internet for a few days. Case closed. The next day I get a frantic call from our realtor. "I'm so sorry to bother you, but Time Warner has shut off the service to your new place and now the people there don't have a phone!" Apparently TW can't turn it back on because due to my July 6 appointment, I'm the "owner" of that address now.

Back on the phone I go. "Please turn their service back on [you freaking idiots]."

"No problem sir, but to do that we need to cancel your reservation on July 6 and you'll have to call back to reschedule." WTF? How does their screw up lose my place in line?! Bastards. Long story short[er] my new appointment is for July 16. Ridiculous.

I hate you Time Warner.

(I'm just kidding. Please don't turn off my service because I said that)

sold!

Well, my first ever home purchase has now been bestowed upon someone else. We've sold my, er, our condo so the biggest hurdle has been overcome. We can now sit back and relax (and save money) until June 29 when we close on both the current condo and the new, more pimpin' one.

We are very excited to get to the new one. I'm sure June 29 will sneak up on us quick, especially since it's so soon after we get back from Bonnaroo!

Sorry for the short post, but today we were in Indianapolis for the Mini-Marathon (5K for me) so I'll be posting about that shortly because there is a ton of material from this 24 hour vacation.

time to park the corvette

Big news from the DeGroot household. We've just been informed that the offer we placed for a new condo has been accepted! We are now (almost) the proud owners of a condo in the Brewer's Hill area of Milwaukee right near the restaurant, Roots.

It's not far from my current place, but the condo is pretty slick and a little bigger with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths (and 2x what anyone should be paying for taxes) and a little over 1400 square feet. Plenty of room for me to be able to lock myself in a separate room when I need a little "Derek Time" away from the family. Of course, I never really need that given how wonderful of a family I have. (whew, I hope that made up for the previous sentence).

One sad note is that my first ever home purchase, the place once referred to by a friend of mine as the equivalent of Sam's Malone's corvette from Cheers, will be sold to another to enjoy. The place where I first stretched my legs feeling a huge sense of pride that I was able to afford a place and take the big step of aquiring a home mortgage. It seems like only yesterday I moved in there with no living room furniture except for a used recliner which I placed in the middle of the huge living room with nothing but white walls and windows around me. Countless people used to walk by on the Riverwalk laughing at me (I had no window treatments at the time) as I sat there, reclined, with a big smile on my face having a High Life. Ahh, the good old days.

Now, the place has a woman's touch and is much more "homey" because of the addition of many things like paint colors, pictures, candles and of course, donating most of my things to Goodwill without my knowledge.

It's very exciting but now the fun begins...we need to sell our place! Who's looking for a new condo?

Contact me immediately and if we complete a deal, you will not only be buying a pimpin' condo, but also you'll be purchasing my love...which lasts a lifetime.