Home By The (well, closer to the) Sea.

We put an offer on a condo today in Seattle. And it was accepted. I think this is really happening. The small (ok, tiny) one-year-old, one bedroom/one bath condo is about 800 square feet and is located on Seattle’s Capitol Hill at Denny & Bellevue. I think it will be a great second home for us and hopefully a great investment.

During my last interview trip with Safeco at the end of April, I had spent an afternoon with our realtor and looked about 10-12 properties. I was disappointed because I was not finding anything I liked that would permit us to maintain two homes: one in Denver and one in Seattle. This past weekend Jon and I spent an entire Saturday with our realtor, looking at about 15 condos. The one we purchased was actually the first one we looked at. It became the benchmark from a location, design, and cost perspective.

The inspection was this morning and considering it is pretty much brand-new construction the inspection was thankfully uneventful. We close on June 18 and hope to move in that same day. Jon will be up in Seattle that week of June 18 to participate in the closing and to help with the move. And to keep me sane. He’s good that way.

Go West.

This week I accepted a new job as an HR VP with Safeco Insurance in Seattle. I will finish out this week with Qwest and start at Safeco on June 4. It is a very exciting opportunity that found me-- which is the way these things are supposed to happen. While the Seattle Mariners (THE west coast rival of my NY Yankees) play at Safeco Field, I still think I can make this work. Jon will stay in his PR job with Qwest in Denver and always look for excuses to find projects in Seattle.

Jon and I are keeping our home in Denver and will find one in Seattle. We'll spend lots of time between the two cities. In fact, we're headed to Seattle on Saturday morning for a few days to look at condos. I'll remain as Board Chair at Colorado AIDS Project through 2007, I've even negotiated with my boss-to-be the flexibility to attend monthly board meetings. I plan to stay engaged in the Denver community as I want to to get a great volunteer gig at the Democratic National Convention, hosted in Denver in August 2008. Ok, that was a shameless plug.

I promise to be more consistent with updates to my blog as I think the tale of two cities will give me lots to write about.