Since my last post, here’s what has happened…

• The US Supreme Court said that the proponents of California’s Proposition 8 did not have standing to contest the overturning of the law by US Federal judge Vaughn Walker. Once the law was overturned, same-sex marriages could resume in California. SCOTUS also overturned parts of the Defense of Marriage Act, which allows federal benefits and recognition on same-sex marriages that are legal in the states where they are performed.
• On August 11, 2013, we renewed our vows in the courtyard of our church (Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento) so that we could get a legal California marriage license and finally be able to call ourselves legally married.
• In September 2014, we sold our lake house in Kentucky to dear friends Kyle and Becky. We loved the place, but having a vacation home 2000 miles away wasn’t very practical. We are grateful that it has stayed with family. A month later we bought a fantastic home in Clearlake Park, California, which is just 2 hours away. The new house has great views of the lake and surrounding mountains, and it has been a successful vacation rental home for us. This is our view:
• In February 2014, we took a trip to Costa Rica with Mom & Dad Wylie. Beautiful sights, and we did our first zip line. I enjoyed it much more than I expected.
• On April 5, 2014, we said goodbye to our beloved Samantha. She was 15½ years old. We still go through periods of sadness thinking of her.
• On May 2, 2014, I (Steve W) was riding my bicycle to work and was hit from behind by a car. I ended up with a broken pelvis on the left side, plus a dislocated shoulder (torn rotator cuff), broken thumb, and broken wrist with torn ligament on my right arm. I was hospitalized for 9 days and had 3 surgeries to repair the damage. I was grateful that there wasn’t more extensive injuries, and of course, that I survived the accident. I have been on disability since the accident.
• To add insult to the injuries (so to speak), my job at BareBones WorkWear was eliminated shortly after I was released from the hospital. I wouldn’t have had a job to go back to, even if I had been able to work.
• I was in a wheelchair for the first 12 weeks after the accident, and had a cast or splint on my right arm for a total of 14 weeks. Physical therapy continues, and my recover is around 80%.
• October 2014 – we unexpectedly adopted another dog when Stella Stevens joined our pack. She belonged to our neighbors next door, but even with 10 people in their house (6 of them children and young people), they couldn’t be bothered to walk her or play with her or even take her to the vet. The poor thing was left in the backyard to bark at anyone and everyone that walked by. When we mentioned that the barking was a little bothersome, Kathy mentioned that they were planning on getting rid of the dog before winter, because they didn’t want to leave her outside in the cold. Steve G mentioned that we would give her a good home, if they went forward with that plan. We got her the next day. She’s a 5-pound chihuahua that now has updated vaccinations and has been spayed. She loves to play, and tries to get Sherman to chase her any time she can. We’re still working on potty training (another thing she didn’t learn when she lived next door).
• The above photo was taken as part of our new church membership directory. Of course, Sherman also had his picture taken and would be upset not to be included in this post.

It has been quite a year. We have much to be thankful for, but we also hope that 2015 has more joy and less sorrow.

Peace to you and yours this holiday season!

The Supreme Court may rule this week on two cases regarding Marriage Equality. We hope for a vote to overturn California’s Proposition 8 as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

We feel like we’ve been married for 13 years, but in the eyes of the government, we are two single men (although it gets complicated because of California’s registered domestic partner laws). We hope this year we can tie the knot, officially and once-and-for-all.

We are relaunching our blog with a new platform and some new functionality (coming soon)! Our old blog is still around, and can be found here.

We’ll be back shortly with more news!

The Steves

We are happily settled into our new home now. We’ve had a couple gatherings for the neighbors, co-workers, and church friends, and are looking forward to having more guests come once the summer heat has subsided a bit. We enjoy our neighborhood and meeting the neighbors. The dogs enjoy walks around the area too, although with the temperatures around 100, we’d all much prefer to be inside.

We are both working full-time now. Steve W is starting to see some results from changes that are being implemented, all positive, of course! Steve G now has a nearly-full-time job as a deliverer for a local funeral home’s floral division, plus working a half day per week at one of the laundromats owned by our sister and brother-in-law. He was also just ordained and installed as a deacon in our church, which was a very proud moment.

It is hard to believe that we arrived here in Sacramento eleven months ago. The time has flown by, with lots of activity and excitement with the house purchase and job hunting. We have no regrets about the move west, although we miss our friends back in Indiana. They know that they are welcome to visit any time!

It’s amazing what can happen in two month’s time… We closed on the new house a week ago. No, it’s not the house we wrote about in November. In fact, we were in contract one more time after that house before buying this one, but that’s a story for another time…

The good news is that we did buy a house. It’s near the first house, but in a different zip code. A little farther away from the folks, but very convenient for work. It has a 3-car garage, which was high on our wish list, and a cement tile roof, which is supposed to last a long time… We are thrilled and excited, and cannot wait to move in!

We have had painters and flooring people in, and unfortunately had to replace the furnace after only 5 days, but it will all be worth it in the end. We will move most of our stuff in tomorrow, except for what’s heavy in the apartment that we’ll have the professionals take care of. But at least we have a house with a yard, somewhere that we can enjoy and relax in and have friends over. When are you coming for a visit?

Well, buying a house in the Sacramento market is definitely not as easy as it was back in Indiana! We are still in contract, but have had to deal with picky lenders and a lot of paperwork to make this happen. The good news is that it looks like we will close a little after Thanksgiving. The bad news, it’s only about 4 weeks later than we expected.

The inspections went well. There was about $4000 in damage, mostly to the exterior of the house, that the seller is paying. Overall, the house is in good shape structurally. The furnace, which is in the attic, needs to be replaced, but we will deal with that after we move in. It and the air conditioner unit both need to be replaced, but there are some great deals out there for new systems.

The only thing left is the financing, which has hit a few bumps. We have had a few lenders show interest, then turn us down at the last minute. That has caused our delays. We have a new lender who has signed off on the income requirements, but has asked for a new, independent appraisal. So we are waiting for the appraiser to do her/his job and report the results. Then it should be a couple weeks before we close. The seller was gracious enough to allow one extension, and now we have to ask for another. (The house was previously under contract and went through four extensions, then the buyer backed out, so he is understandably concerned about going through that again.) We are very confident that the appraisal will come back fine, so we know that we only need a little more time. Keep your fingers crossed!

Well, it looks like we’ve bought a house!

We put in offers on four different properties, and considered offering on two others. One house had 14 offers, another had 5. One of the houses that we wanted to write an offer had already received 73 offers, but the bank wasn’t responding to any of them. One of the others was not hosting any showings – if you wanted to see the house, you had to submit an offer first. Who wants to put in an offer on a house that they’ve never seen????

Well, we found a house that was not a foreclosure or short-sale, and we managed to get in an offer before anyone else, and it was accepted! So now comes the inspections to see if this really is the house for us. It is in a great location and has the right layout for our lifestyle. We think it’s the right one, but will need to make sure!

Househunting in Sacramento is an interesting process. You go and look at a bunch of homes, see one you like, write an offer with the help of a REALTOR, and submit it to the listing agent. By the time you drive home from the agent’s office, the house has already sold to someone else…

Our price range seems to be the one that everyone else is looking at too. It’s hard to tell whether we’ll find the house that is perfect (or even semi-perfect) for us, but we will keep looking!

Steve G took the dogs out this morning for their walk after breakfast, and when he came back in he said, “Come look at the crawdad!” Thinking he had lost his marbles, I went outside to take a look.

Sure enough, there was a crawfish, about 4 inches long, wandering around the parking lot looking extremely lost. The dogs were sniffing it, and one of the stray cats around the apartment wanted to check it out too, but wouldn’t come near while the dogs were nearby.

I had to run to an appointment, so I pulled out of the parking spot trying hard not to avoid the poor thing. There aren’t any streams or ponds nearby, or else I would have taken it somewhere safe.

When I returned about an hour later, one of our neighbors was washing his car outside our apartment, and he was hitting the crawfish with the water from the hose. When I got out of my car, he asked me what it was. I told him, but I am fairly certain that he still wasn’t too sure that it was an alien creature from another planet. Then he sprayed the hose on it, sending it down the storm drain. Since the storm drain runs into one of the many creeks around the area, hopefully the little guy is now cavorting with some new playmates.

We still have no idea how he ended up in our parking lot.

Tomorrow is moving day! The truck arrives tomorrow morning, and we have professionals to load it for us. It’s a 26-foot UHaul truck that is supposed to hold a 3-4 bedroom house (well, not technically the house, just the contents). We have also reserved a 6-by-12 trailer to pull behind the truck if we need it. The last time the moving team looked at the house, he thought we should be able to get it all on to the truck. That’s what we’re hoping!

Once the truck is loaded, we will drive it across country. Our plan is to stop just west of St. Louis on the first day, then drive about 700 miles the next two days. The last day should only be about 400 miles, allowing us to get to Sacramento early enough to unload the truck and start unpacking! Our sister and brother-in-law have a big workshop building on their property that will hold some of our stuff that won&rrsquo;t fit into the apartment. We have tried hard to separate the storage stuff from the apartment stuff!

Steve G’s half-brother Rod and Rod’s half-sister Becky (let me know if I need to draw you a family tree) are driving out with us, two in the car and two in the truck. We are excited about the journey and the start to our new lives! Our next post will be from California.