Friday 21/8/2015 - New House, One Last Assignment, & This Week's Wristwatches.

Last Saturday was sunny! Spring is on its way and I can't wait. I was still wearing the Seamaster 300;

 

Monday

              Much to do. Serious household admin tasks to be dealt with. I had to get the kids to school by eight-thirty-five am, then I had to get back home, shave, shower and breakfast before heading to the bank. I wore a pair of dark blue Gap cotton jeans, a Uniqlo SlimFit white cotton shirt, a blue silk cross-patterned tie by Industrie, and a black Pure New Wool V-neck jumper by John Smedley. It looked like it might rain, so I busted out the H&M beige twill cotton trench coat. Just in case.

On my right wrist was the vintage sterling silver curb-link bracelet. On my left wrist went the circa 1969 Omega Seamaster Chronometer with black leather strap. I was all set.
I looked sharp enough for what I was about to do.

I was going to pay for a house;

I had to make out a total of fifteen different cheques! These included the vendor's final payments for various utilities and other sundry expenses of theirs. I felt like I was their personal secretary. Although, they are a lovely couple and, as long as I checked the amounts carefully (twice!), there wouldn't be any issues with it all. The cheques all added up to the total amount that I had to pay for the property, so all's well that ends well.

Once the cheques were printed out at the bank, I had to head across town to see my solicitor. He had the appointment with the vendor's conveyancer scheduled for later that day.  My cheques would be handed over, papers would be signed, and my solicitor would be given the Deed to the ranch and Number XXX XXXXX Street would be mine.

I got a call from the real estate agency around  two-thirty. The keys to the house were waiting for me.

Now that this transaction was over with, I decided to switch watches in order to bring closure to this whole endeavour. It all happened so fast. Looked at the house on a Thursday, made an offer the next day, and got confirmation that our offer had been accepted the following day.

Wednesday & Thursday

                                     We went looking for carpet. The new house is in very good condition for its age, but the flooring has endured a lot of footsteps over the years, and Mrs Teeritz thought it would be good to put our own stamp on the place and make it look and feel a little fresher. We'd agreed that we wouldn't go to too many carpet stores because it would start to get confusing, so we visited four places over these two days. First place was good, but they didn't have much in the way of colour. We wanted something in a mossy green, in keeping with the 1970s vintage of the house. All they had was fifty shades of grey, brown and bluey-greys that all tended to give off an 'Eighties regional accounting office' vibe. Nope. We wanted a little more dash. 

The next place had some nice shades of green in a nylon twist. The nylons weren't as plush or thick as the wool carpets, but they would wear well over time and would be easier to clean in the event of spills. We arranged to have somebody come over to measure and quote.

The third place...well, my wife didn't like the salesman's overtly sexist tone. He basically addressed me only for the entire time we were there. His price was about eight hundred dollars more than the previous store, but that's not why he just lost our business.

The fourth store was okay. The salesman was friendly and helpful, but again, nothing in the range of greens, and his stock was a tad pricier than we were willing to go. 

I had switched over to the Sinn 103 St Sa chronograph, because I wanted something with the date on it. Getting back to the Bond books, I figure I may as well put in a few more photos before they get boxed up for their trip to the new house. 

See here is a 1976 copy of You Only Live Twice (1964) and a 1974 copy of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963). Again, the composition of items in these cover photos shows that somebody went to a bit of trouble. Brilliant. 

I have one final assignment left to do for my studies. It will involve using a library database (designed for training purposes only) and ordering a fictitious book. I'll have to take some screen-captures as I enter information in each field. I'm thinking it will wind up being about three or four pages long by the time I'm done. After that, a ten or fifteen question multiple choice quiz and that will be that. This course of study will be over.

Today
           My wife had the day off. We planned to get all of our stuff out of our storage locker and bring it to the house. The carpet guy would be there sometime between eleven am and midday, so we had a little time up our sleeves. To prevent any potential damage to the Sinn, I switched over to the Seiko SKX031 on black ZULU strap. We began at around 9:45am and it took us three trips, using the storage company's van. By the time we were done, at around 4:30pm, my back felt a little shredded. We were both careful with the lifting, but I suppose I'll find out tomorrow if I overdid things today.
Anyway, the carpet guy called back with a quote. A little less than we thought it would be. Good.
The Sinn is back on the wrist, too. Another week done. Now, if I can just get this last assignment out of the way.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!