We might have had a little bit of gelato while in Rome.
Rome: Gelato
Rome: The Pantheon
The Pantheon is an impressive structure: large, cylindrical topped with a huge dome. It sits on one side of a good sized piazza with restaurants and shops and lots of people.
Inside, the space is equally large, and wide open. As you walk in, there is the main altar straight ahead.
The dome of the Pantheon is quite impressive, especially considering how large the building is. There’s also a big hole in the roof, so if it’s raining outside, it’s raining inside too.
The High Altar has candle stick holders that are as tall as the person that was lighting the candles when we were there.
In addition to “newer” mosaics and sculptures, there are much older ones on the walls of the Pantheon, such as this fresco. Pretty remarkable that something like this has managed to survive so long.
The Pantheon isn’t just a tourist attraction though. It’s still a functioning Catholic church, so about 10-15 minutes before Mass starts, they start shooing out the people who aren’t planning to participate in the Mass.
If you’re visiting the Pantheon, stick around for the Mass. Afterwards, you’ll have a little bit of time to wander around while it’s relatively empty before they let the tourists back in.
Mah house is under contract!
Sold!
In the space of 49 hours, our house went from listed on the market to signed contract from a buyer.
Holy crap.
We weren’t expecting this to happen quite so quickly. I was expecting a couple of weeks, maybe a month or so. Not 2 freaking days!
There were 9 showings over 3 days and according to our realtor, three potentially interested buyers.
There’s still a bunch of things that need to happen before everything is final but if everything goes smoothly, we’ll be closed and done with the house next month.
That will be a huge relief and we’ll be able to focus on the new house a lot sooner.
Woohoo!
BTW, if you’re looking for a realtor that’s easy to work with, talk to Melanie. She’s pretty awesome.
New house progress
Paid our first visit to the house since just before the slab was poured some time in December. The builders have made pretty good progress on it. After the slab was poured, the house was framed and enclosed within just a few days.
Inside, pretty much all of the gas, electrical, plumbing are done. From the garage, you can see clear through to the other side of the house!
No idea if a car will ever see the inside of this garage. At the front of the house is the future ham shack/office.
We’ve got plenty of electrical outlets, and soon there will be a conduit leading to the outside for the antenna feed lines.
The other bedroom will be our library and Connie’s work space. It’s a little bit bigger than the shack.
The kitchen isn’t much yet, but you can see where things will be going. One wall for the island is in place and you can see the plumbing and gas connections for the sink and stove. Really looking forward to having a gas stove to cook with.
The master bedroom is a pretty good size, with a large bathroom and two big walk-in closets.
Finally, out back we have a ginormous patio to hang out on. Unfortunately because of restrictions on where the house can be placed on the lot, there’s not a whole lot of back yard. Plenty of side yard, but it will still be a good place for the dogs to run around in once it gets fenced in.
New house is looking pretty good so far. Looking forward to moving in soon.
House for sale
After several long weeks of work at the house, we finally got it cleaned up enough to get it listed for sale!
(Photos below taken by our realtor, Melanie DeHaven)
New carpet, new vinyl floor in the kitchen, and a fresh coat of paint. The dishwasher is a few months old, and the HVAC system is pretty newish too (installed in 2013).
The house also survived The Great Flood of October 2015 with water just barely reaching one corner of the house. It’s going to take some pretty epic raining for water to reach this house.
All of the bedrooms have hardwood floors (I put them in myself!) and the windows let in a lot of light.
The room over the garage never really got used much at all except for storage. Just never really needed the extra space. It has a nice view of the street that Mischief can attest to.
The back of the house has a large screened in porch, and a big concrete patio offers plenty of room to hang out. The back yard has tons of space for letting the dogs run around in.
The house has a 2 car garage with one door on a garage door opener. I built and installed a flexible shelving system on one side of the garage and for a little while, even parked my car in the garage. The garage eventually evolved into storage and workshop space, like most garages tend to do.
For more info and pictures,check out the MLS listing for the house (MLS listing number 16003463)