Our search for a house continues. To update, our house is officially under contract, so we are all set with selling our house on Bails Place. However, we still haven't found a house to move into yet. We've looked at lots of homes over the past month, and we've narrowed it down to three. They are listed in order of preference:

1. 9140 E. Eastman Ave: This house looks like a barn from the outside, but the inside is absolutely beautiful! It's got a great kitchen, hardwood floors and carpet, and the place is split into four levels. When we looked at it today, it was as if a surprise was around every corner, making the place seem MUCH bigger on the inside. The price is listed at $319,00, which is $19,000 above what we can spend, so we're hoping they can come down in price. If not, we have other options.
2. 7453 E. Jefferson Dr: This house is in a great neighborhood, right behind Tamarac Square, and features some unique architecture. It needs some work to update it to a more modern era (a little old lady lived their into her 80's, and the house shows it in some places), but Leah and I both love the style and openness of the interior. The price went down from $319,000 to $312,000, but that's still out of our price range, and we're hoping they might come down in price if we make an offer, which would mean the Eastman house fell through.
   
3. 2231 S. Poplar St: This house needs the least amount of work (other than some yard work, cutting trees, putting up fences, etc.) and has new windows, remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, and new siding. The price is $299,000, which is in our price range. It's just that the neighborhood is much more "urban" and surrounded by businesses. Leah and I can see ourselves living in the area, just maybe not as long as the other two houses.

CLICK HERE to view a Google Map of the three house that are at the top of our list, to give you an idea of how far they are from each other.

This has been a busy couple of weeks.

Opening Day: It started on April 4th, with tickets to Opening Day. My friends Matthew and Spatz go to Opening Day every year, and when they can remember to get me a ticket, I sometimes get to join them. This year, Spatz remembered me, and since Opening Day fell during my Spring Break, it was a done deal all the way. The buzz around Coors Field was different from years past, since this year the Rockies were beginning the season as the National League Champs. Even though the Rockies lost, it was a good day nonetheless.

Professional Development: In an effort to try to acquire more credits so I can get a pay increase, I signed up for two classes offered through Diane Morrison Consulting. One course was called "Digital Photography" and the other "Writing with Focused Intent. The photography class was a good one, since it helped me learn how to use my digital camera, and become more familiar with its features. Here's a sample of using macros and focus points for a professional-looking result. To view more sample photos I took from this class, CLICK HERE.

Passover: Last weekend Leah and I hosted Passover Seder for 13 of our friends. The crowd consisted of mostly the St. Patty's Dinner folks, plus my friend Fred, Bonnie, and Shelby. Luckily, Fred is a fellow MOT ("member of the tribe") so I wasn't the only Jew in the house. Everyone contributed a kosher for Passover dish to the meal, and a good time was had by all. The wine was flowing, along with the matzoh ball soup, brisket, salad, potato pancakes, spinach-artichoke casserole, mushroom onion kugel, and more. For most of the attendees, this was their first Passover, so it was a new experience and exposure to Jewish tradition. Good times!

Phillies vs Rockies: The Phillies came to town two days later, their only appearance in Denver of the season. This was the first two-game series I can recall, since usually they play 3 or 4 games when a visiting team comes to town. But I was prepared, and made sure I got tickets to both games, even though it meant missing my second week in a row of softball (I was teaching a class for CCSD the week before). Monday night's game I went with Matthew and sat 7 rows behind home plate, thanks to Brian from softball, who manages to save me one of his season tickets for the Phillies, since he knows I want to see them every time they come to Denver. The second night I went with my Dad and Jake, and we sat in Club Level. I got these seats from StubHub, since April weather tends to be cold, and I wanted to make sure Jakey could have a shelter close by if needed. I was so proud riding the train with my son, as we wore matching Phillies jerseys (thanks, Matthew!). It was also a momentous occasion because this was the first time that three generations of Solomons attended a Phillies game together. 
Once the game started, Jake couldn't sit still, and I wound up walking him up and down the stairs from the Club Mezzanine and back to the seats again and again. We left after singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" after Jake wore me out! The good news, though, is that the Phillies came from behind to beat the Rockies in the 9th inning, making it a nice little 2-game sweep.

Kraftwerk: The day after the Phillies series, Leah and I met up with Matthew and Spatz at the Filmore Auditiorium downtown to see one of my favorite bands from the 80's: Kraftwerk. Being the nerd that I am, I bought tickets to this show the day they went on sale, even though it was only 3/4 sold out the night of the show, and Matthew and Spatz wound up getting free tickets while I paid almost $100 for ours. Oh well, it was worth it, especially when considering that Kraftwerk is only playing FOUR dates in the United States. Check out their website, it's pretty cool.

FOR SALE: Finally, the biggest news of the month is that our house is now officially for sale. We signed the papers on Friday, and have had four showings over the weekend. We have been working hard to keep the house looking "show-ready" at all times. We've taken down all personal photos, painted, and moved out a bunch of furniture into storage, which really makes the house look nice. CLICK HERE to view the official listing or take a VIRTUAL TOUR. With a little power of positive thinking and visualization of ideal circumstances, we hope to be in a new house by the 4th of July.

After our origial fiasco with the basement flooding, we wound up pulling up the entire carpet and padding in the basement. We lived like we had just moved in, with stuff sprawled everywhere, things packed up in boxes, and a concrete floor that give us cold feet. It was a drag!
After running fans and drying out the floor, we went to Home Depot and had them install an whole new carpet in the basement. This took a little over a week, what with scheduling a measurement first, scheduling a day to be home for the installation, and finding a time to do this. Finally, at the beginning of May, we got our new carpet put in. It's a lovely Berber-style, and it looks good.

Now comes the good part. Last week, we had another torrential rain and hailstorm in Denver. Every time it rains nowadays, Leah and I cross our fingers, hoping the basement won't get wet again. So Monday night it rained HARD for about an hour, flooding streets and creeks. The next morning I was awakened by Leah's screaming from downstairs, "JOEL! THERE'S WATER IN THE BASEMENT!!" Our hearts sank as we found the same thing happening to our new carpet. It wasn't quite as bad as the first time, but knowing that our new carpet was less than two weeks old, and here we go again, using the wet-vac and sucking up water. Luckily, I was home Tuesday for jury duty, which I didn't have to do, so I could devote time to getting the water removed....again!

In the meantime, my friend Mark and I decided to cap off two of the gutter spouts that were going directly into the ground, and re-routing them away from the house. I also cleaned out the gutters around the house, and noticed several were blocked with mucky leaves and mud. Between the new drainage and clean gutters, I think we may have resolved our flooding issue. Let's hope so!

It's been quite a harrowing few days. Although it's been almost three weeks since I've last posted, the biggest events occurred in the last three days. It all started Monday night, when it began to rain...and rain... and rain. It rained all day Tuesday and into the night. Out in Aurora it was snowing for most of the day. We didn't get much snow in Denver, only rain.

By the time we came home from work Tuesday evening, Leah and I were both glad to be out of the miserable weather. Or so we thought. At around 6:00 that night we heard Jake crying after being downstairs in the basement. We saw his pants were soaked, and it wasn't from going potty. He walked into our newly finished downstairs bathroom and slipped in a giant puddle. It was then that we realized that water was seeping in through the walls. And it wasn't just in the bathroom, but all over! The worst was the base of the toilet and along the wall to the back of the house. Leah started getting towels out to soak it up, but it was coming in too fast. I ran to Home Depot and bought a wet/dry vacuum. By the time I got back, it was getting worse. We must have emptied over 50 GALLONS of water over the next 6-8 hours!

We realized that neither of us was going to be able to sleep Tuesday night. Who knows what we'd wind up waking up to in the morning if we just let the water leak. So we took turns running the wet-vac every 5-10 minutes around the bathroom. Unfortunately, we couldn't do anything about the carpet getting soaked, which was getting worse by the hour. I stayed up until 2:00 AM, trying to soak up water in the bathroom and back room as much as possible. Leah then got up from 2:00-3:30 AM while I tried to sleep, but the thought of a flooded basement kept me from sound sleep. We both stayed up until 4:30 AM until the water finally started slowing down, so we put as many towels as possible around the floor and slept for almost 2 hours, at which time Jake woke up.

Working the next day was a challenge. Leah stayed home and tried to suck up our waterlogged carpet, while I canceled my morning appointment, but worked the rest of the day, which was like running on fumes. Our basement is still in disarray as we attempt to salvage our carpet and pad. Not fun.

Looking back now, this has never happened in the four years we've been living here, and we can't help but think that the next time it rains for an extended period, are we going to have to go through this again? It's not often that it rains for 24 hours straight, and hopefully it won't happen again. This has been one crazy weather season, from the Christmas blizzard to mammoth rainfall. I just want our basement back, since that's where we spend most of our time.