es·crow [n. es-kroh, ih-skroh; v. ih-skroh, es-kroh]
1. noun: a contract, deed, bond, or other written agreement deposited with a third person, by whom it is to be delivered to the grantee or promisee on the fulfillment of some condition.
2. verb (used with object): to place in escrow: The home seller agrees to escrow the sum of $1000 with his attorney.
3. Idiom: in escrow, in the keeping of a third person for delivery to a given party upon the fulfillment of some condition.
4. Rosie Idiom: to be in limbo, unable to blog or broadcast news, while compulsively drawing floor plans for furniture arrangements, plotting terracing schemes, browsing washing machines and clothesline set-ups and simultaneously trying not to get too attached to the idea.
The idea in question being a house we put an offer on late last year, and we have been in escrow (contract negotiation) over the holidays. Last Thursday we signed all the closing paperwork, so now it's just up to the selling bank (it's a repossessed foreclosure) to process everything and fork over the keys. Until we got the closing paperwork we did not feel we could count on the sale going through. Now we feel we can tell people, and start packing. Or at least thinking about packing.
It's a south-facing single-story "ranch style" house built in 1970, which almost counts as old here. It's in a safer neighborhood than our current place, a more residential area and is on a street that is not a handy shortcut for people getting bored with waiting for traffic lights on the nearby parallel main road. We are gaining 2 bedrooms (4 total, all on the small side), a garage, and our own garden. Front and back! the front garden has a large long-needled pine tree, some decorative palms, and a lawn, the back yard is lawn and a fence, then a steep hill behind the fence with another large long-needled pine tree. We get the hill too, but it's going to be much more useable once we get a chance to terrace it. We'd really like to put a deck up at the top and make use of the view out over the valley.
We are very excited to have space to store and practice our hobbies, and to grow things. The weather here means we could have everything from guava and citrus fruits to lettuce and spinach. I think my parents are particularly excited that they will no longer be sleeping on the futon in the living room when they visit. Some days I'm most pleased about the prospect of a dedicated craft room, others it's the ability to install a washing line and take advantage of the giant natural dryer known as the Santa Ana winds. Condo complexes here don't allow drying of laundry out doors, it's seen as "trashy" to display one's freshly laundered underthings.
Here is a short video I took the first day I went to view the house. Matt was away on a business trip so I was filming it for him. Hence the emphasis on the existence of a coat closet. It was one of his criteria. The man in a black sweater is our Realtor.