I'm buying a house! I'm buying a house! I'm buying a house!

Yup, I'm seventy-five percent excited, twenty-five percent apprehensive. After signing papers about the possibility of mold in any structure, and the problem with stucco, I've got this feeling that my good luck in the last few months will turn to bad as soon as I've got that debt tied around my neck. Remember the movie The Money Pit? (except of course there won't be a Shelley Long in my story.)

On another note, I notified my apartment complex today that I'd be moving out in a little over 30 days. I signed a paper with them, and they told me about things they'd check out after I moved out, and gave me a checklist of things they check so I'd know how to make sure I get my full deposit back. This checklist has the normal things you'd think of: repairs to sheetrock, vacuum carpets, patch holes, clean blinds, clean bathtub, shampoo carpets (due to pets), exterminating (pets), clean stove/oven, ... WAIT... exterminating? Pets???? Is there a major problem with people leaving pets in their apartments when they move out?

"I'm sorry sir, but you left your siamese cat in your apartment when you moved, can you come pick it up?... You don't want him any more?... Oh, you'd like us to exterminate him? We'll get right on it." And you thought you had a bad job.