keys in hand

We met our realtor at the house last night and got the keys. After our agent left we spent some time walking around the back unit where we'll be living, talking about colors and inspecting window hardware and things like that. Our plan is to come up with a color scheme and paint the house (interior) this weekend, and then move next weekend.

We also noticed some things that will need near term attention:

• we can't open the mailboxes (didn't get the keys)
• there's no cat-door for Chloe (though we want to make sure she's comfortable inside and can hold her own outside before we install a door that might let other cats inside....)
• we need to paint over some termite work.

This is in addition to our big list of mid-term attention items, which I won't go into right now. Yesterday I called around and set up our utilities:

• Gas
• Power
• Water
• Internet (Time Warner Cable, but no phone line or cable TV service)

And then today I got an email from LADWP saying that they don't service Hawthorne, so I had to set up water and power again. I went ahead and set up service for both houses. I'm not really sure how that will shake out yet, because I don't know exactly how they're set up in terms of meters. More stuff to learn.

Speaking of which, our agent recommended a book to us, Landlording. When we decided to buy a 2-unit property we talked a lot about what kind of land lords we wanted to be. Specifically, we don't want to be the evil/greedy kind. Which to me means that we need to be careful not to over-leverage ourselves, so that we don't depend on getting the rent in order to pay the mortgage. I suspect that reading this book will be difficult, morally strenuous, but also valuable.

...

Also, pictures coming soon, probably this weekend.