Because of paying-for-nursing-home shenanigans, my parents pre-paid for their funerals, which means they made a lot of those decisions already, and I'm SO GLAD. All that stuff is hard.

Good luck, Hec and JZ!!

I am sad to report that the $10 puzzle mat is not magic, so it doesn't work great with a barely-done puzzle, but I think it will work out OK. Buddy was really wanting to get into those pieces, I tell you what.

Hec that is a lovely house. I hope y'all get it. I love the color of the kitchen and the attic bedroom is like a secret hideaway.

Exactly so! That attic bedroom is really isolated from the rest of the house, and has a pretty big space outside the bedroom itself. We also loved the colors she had painted, and would not be in a big hurry to repaint anything. It gets amazing light in that turret corner.

We just got off the phone with our financial advisor, mortgage broker and TJ, our brother in law (who used to work at Fidelity as a financial advisor and was a SVP at Citibank Mortgage. So our in-house finance expert.)

And we went over all the numbers and...we can make a bid on it. Even leaving a little room for an overbid.

Now I really want it.

I can already picture you cooking in that kitchen, Hec!

I can already picture you cooking in that kitchen, Hec!

It's a really good space!

Hec, I have absolutely 100% walked past this house multiple times in recent months and yet failed to notice the turret! Next time I will look up.

{{{Steph}}}

Because of paying-for-nursing-home shenanigans, my parents pre-paid for their funerals, which means they made a lot of those decisions already, and I'm SO GLAD. All that stuff is hard.

Tim said everything was pre-paid, but they still had to pick out the color of the casket, and what picture should go on the prayer card, and then they had to pick out all the readings and songs and such for Mass, so it was still a bit of work. (Tim's mom, on the other hand, had basically scripted her entire funeral Mass -- she had selected all the readings and songs and I think even the intercessions for the faithful -- so all we had to do was hand the information over to the admin at the church.)

Everything crossed for you all getting the house!

Tim said everything was pre-paid, but they still had to pick out the color of the casket, and what picture should go on the prayer card, and then they had to pick out all the readings and songs and such for Mass, so it was still a bit of work.

Oh yeah, we did have to do that stuff (save the casket). Sucks!

The best ("best") was after my grandfather died, my mother and grandmother went to the funeral home and just bought the cheapest of everything, basically, and got in the car after and laughed until they cried, because the funeral home people must have thought they didn't like him much! But no, we're just not spending extra on stuff for that.

JZ and her brother had to pick a special steel lined casket for her dad because Plague Death. They were tempted (okay, amused) by the Ultra Mafioso number the funeral home had.

(((((Teppy and Tim and his brothers))))) It's always been obvious how close his family is and how much everyone loves his father, and my heart is aching for all of you.

I'm so glad they're all working together and supporting each other--I remember in the utter catastrophe of my dad's death, the total comfort of one brother being able to be there for the whole surreal funeral-planning/casket-choosing/burial-spot-finding mishegoss and all the associated crying and laughing and "Seriously, WTF, how is this real"ing.

As Knut and brenda noted over on FB, it's like trying to plan a BIG wedding except you have less than a week to do it in and also it's approximately 14,000% more upsetting.

ION, we get a Scola! I AM EXCITE.