Oh my gosh, it’s been a while since we posted anything! Maria and I have been going absolutely CRAZY together (get it?!) over the past few weeks. We have been dropping a few hints on our Instagram page, but so many of our friends and family have been wondering what we have been up to. I will get right into all of our news.
The Condo
I moved into the condo a few weeks ago! It is rather sparse right now as I have very little furniture (I gave some to family and friends, but much of it was donated as well). But fear not! We will be using most of Maria’s furniture, which is much nicer than the furniture I gave away. The condo will fill up over the next few weeks.
There were a few rough days as Maria was overwhelmed by the large amount of work we would need to do in a short time to turn the condo into our home before the wedding. As I said before, Maria wants our house to be painted white to maximize the natural light. Our condo was decidedly not white.
Most of the condo is painted now, with the exception of the foyer with its really tall ceiling and a couple other places. Maria did the vast majority of the painting, along with my brother Michael, for which I am very grateful. We shared this photo of the painting progress on Instagram a few days ago.
Because of all the painting, we have only brought over a few things from Maria’s apartment. I expect that to change in the coming weeks as we get the condo more organized. I know that Maria is fantasizing about getting all of the wedding clutter out of her apartment bedroom!
Closed on the House
As of April 28, I am no longer a homeowner. As Maria mentioned in our earlier update, I had sold the house and we needed to close by April 30th. We clearly made that deadline and the home has been passed on to its new owners.
At the closing, I finally got to meet the buyers, who were a wonderful young couple with brand new baby. We chatted a bit during closing while I told them about the neighborhood and some of the restaurants they should try out in the area. Just thinking about the greasy spoon near my old house makes me hungry for some sliders. Mmmmm …
Paid off a BIG Chunk of Debt
And now for the moment so many of you have been waiting for. Right after my closing, I immediately ran to the bank to deposit the check. I think it was the most money I’ve ever held in my hand (or in my bank account). Later that evening, Maria and I logged in to my student loan accounts and got to work paying off over $53,000 of my loans! Look at this huge amount colored in on our debt chart!
For comparison, here is a zoomed-in photo of the tiny bar I had colored in just before selling the house.
If you’d like your own version of the “On Our Way to Debt Free” chart, you’re in luck! Maria made a customizable, free version of the chart for you to download. Just click on the image below to start tracking your debt-free journey.
We’re so excited to be making big strides, but we still have more work to go. We still have $120,000 more left in loans to pay off. As Dave Ramsey always says, we need to have gazelle-like intensity so we can pay off the rest of my debt. And the wedding is less than SIX WEEKS away! Lots of fun stuff is coming up in the very near future!
Good for you! I admire what you’re doing :)