We got a new car!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Poor Beaker (the yellow car) has been traded in for a much cooler, much more exciting, much FASTER Audi TT Quattro convertible. Here's a picture of one. This isn't OURs but it's pretty darn close. We'll definitely be posting pictures of our new baby soon. :)
I am having so much fun driving it all over!! I have never enjoyed driving a car more than I have this one. Yay!!! Happy to have a convertible again!!!
Friday, July 15, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Day of Car Shopping
Yesterday resulted in a couple great test drives at the BMW and Audi dealerships in Seattle.
First stop was at a boutique car dealer in Bellevue, Park Place Ltd. I think it was called. We took a peek at a TT that was all blue on the exterior, and had the "baseball"” interior package.
Second stop was our 4pm appointment with Knight at Seattle BMW. Great guy &– very nice salesman. Went out with us on the test drive to show us where the cool “curvy roads were. Prime experience driving the two roadsters. They'’re very pleasant cars to drive.
On a lark, we decided to try and find University Audi, a dealer we saw across from a restaurant we'd dined at weeks ago. It was past 6pm, so we weren'’t sure that it'’d still be open (it was, till 7) or if they'd have any TT's in our range (they did).
The test drive was the last of the day, and it was on an '‘02. CPO, metallic black on black interior, premium audio, the works, black italian leather seats TT quatro roadster.
It was pretty much the only test drive that made Lisa giggle, so we had this vehicle as our 1st choice at the end of the day. I convinced Lisa that we should go home and sleep on it, and if she still felt as strongly the next day, we could go back and make them an offer.
It was a little bit out of our price range at their asking price, but if I can get them to come down a couple grand, then we should be able to do the deal.
The next step will be the fun part, negotiation...
Thursday, July 07, 2005
4th of July
We had our first visitor this weekend! Jim made his first trip to the west coast and we did our darndest to show him a good time!
We spent Saturday perusing cars and narrowing down our list of convertibles we're interested in. Jim knows his stuff when it comes to cars so it was a lot of fun having him along for the ride. (har har har!!) That evening, Jim got his first taste of Thai food at a nice little place in downtown Bellevue. We finished off the evening watching "In Good Company."
Sunday we were pretty lazy in the morning, but finally got moving and went to visit the 2 wineries in Woodinville (about 20 min away). We had fun tasting different wines and even got to take a tour at the Columbia Winery. It was pretty neat seeing thousands of barrels of wine in the cellars. Afterwards, we went into downtown Seattle and Rode the Ducks! Sounds cheezy, I know, but it was actually really neat! The "duck" is the land/sea vehicle used in WW II. They've converted a lot of them into vehicles used for tours for folks like us. We got to cram in a lot of the sights of Seattle AND got to cruise around in Lake Union and they even pointed out the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat! It was a really neat tour, and I'm glad we did it!
On Monday, we headed back down into the city and staked out our spot for the fireworks at Gas Works Park in the Freemont neighborhood which is right on Lake Union. We were there by 3pm (seriously!) and it was already pretty full of people! Since we didn't want to spend the next 7 hours laying in the sun, we hopped a bus back into the downtown area and showed Jim the famous Pike Place Market. It was pretty close to closing so we didn't spend too much time there. We did make it back to the park with plenty of time and were relieved to see our spot was still in tact. We wound up with a pretty sweet spot and were quite impressed with the fantastic show they put on! I'll have to post some pics of our view sometime soon. :)
We spent Saturday perusing cars and narrowing down our list of convertibles we're interested in. Jim knows his stuff when it comes to cars so it was a lot of fun having him along for the ride. (har har har!!) That evening, Jim got his first taste of Thai food at a nice little place in downtown Bellevue. We finished off the evening watching "In Good Company."
Sunday we were pretty lazy in the morning, but finally got moving and went to visit the 2 wineries in Woodinville (about 20 min away). We had fun tasting different wines and even got to take a tour at the Columbia Winery. It was pretty neat seeing thousands of barrels of wine in the cellars. Afterwards, we went into downtown Seattle and Rode the Ducks! Sounds cheezy, I know, but it was actually really neat! The "duck" is the land/sea vehicle used in WW II. They've converted a lot of them into vehicles used for tours for folks like us. We got to cram in a lot of the sights of Seattle AND got to cruise around in Lake Union and they even pointed out the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat! It was a really neat tour, and I'm glad we did it!
On Monday, we headed back down into the city and staked out our spot for the fireworks at Gas Works Park in the Freemont neighborhood which is right on Lake Union. We were there by 3pm (seriously!) and it was already pretty full of people! Since we didn't want to spend the next 7 hours laying in the sun, we hopped a bus back into the downtown area and showed Jim the famous Pike Place Market. It was pretty close to closing so we didn't spend too much time there. We did make it back to the park with plenty of time and were relieved to see our spot was still in tact. We wound up with a pretty sweet spot and were quite impressed with the fantastic show they put on! I'll have to post some pics of our view sometime soon. :)
Sold!
So it is official. We have sold the house. It kind of strikes me as odd that we closed on the same day as Dad's birthday. He must've been watching out for us. :) It doesn't seem very real to me yet for some odd reason, but it's true. I'm feeling something of a bittersweet relief right now. I'm very sad to see it go, but at the same time very relieved to have the worry off of my shoulders. I can't believe we got if off of our hands in 5.5 weeks--3 weeks really from when we got the initial offer. I thought for sure it'd be months before we sold. So yay! for not blowing thru our savings!
Although, I have to say, it certainly does seem like the universe is telling us that we made the right choice. I mean looking at the obstacles we faced in making the decision to move out here, it seemed like we really had some challenges ahead of us. But within 6 weeks, Brian found a job, we found a place to live and now we've sold the house. All huge things that could have easily taken a heck of a lot longer than 6 weeks. So did we make the right choice in coming out here? Judging from this recent series of major life events, it certainly seems like we did. I still say that decision was the hardest choice I ever had to make, but so far it looks like it's been a good one.
So what's next? Well, we can relax a little bit about our financial situation. There's rumors rumbling about those crazy Ducheks thinking about trading in their Lancer for a convertible. Mmmm....I do miss my Eclipse. We've also booked our tickets for our trip back to Chicago at the end of July. We hope that we have the chance to visit with everyone in IL!
Although, I have to say, it certainly does seem like the universe is telling us that we made the right choice. I mean looking at the obstacles we faced in making the decision to move out here, it seemed like we really had some challenges ahead of us. But within 6 weeks, Brian found a job, we found a place to live and now we've sold the house. All huge things that could have easily taken a heck of a lot longer than 6 weeks. So did we make the right choice in coming out here? Judging from this recent series of major life events, it certainly seems like we did. I still say that decision was the hardest choice I ever had to make, but so far it looks like it's been a good one.
So what's next? Well, we can relax a little bit about our financial situation. There's rumors rumbling about those crazy Ducheks thinking about trading in their Lancer for a convertible. Mmmm....I do miss my Eclipse. We've also booked our tickets for our trip back to Chicago at the end of July. We hope that we have the chance to visit with everyone in IL!
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