So...here's what our summer has been pretty much all-consumed with: We sold our house. It was an adventure, to say the least. We have been talking about moving closer to work, family and friends for the past couple of years and finally decided to bite the bullet! Admittedly, I think we dragged our feet as this was our first home. We brought both of our babies home from the hospital to this house. We bought it only two years after we got married, so really, most of our married life had been there. And we just loved the house itself - we always joked that if we could pick the house up and move it, we would've (although we probably would've added a room or two if possible :)).
Anyway, we listed the house at the end of April. The day the listing went live on MLS, we got a call that we had a showing. We got an offer that evening, and after a weekend of negotiating, we had a contract! Whew! That was easy!
Or not.
We should've known from the get-go, really. The buyer/lady-who-was-going-to-live-there (who was around our age) was having her home bought for her by her mother. Hm. That was interesting in and of itself. Not to mention that the buyers had pretty much asked for the moon. By the way, Mimi and Nana, we are still waiting for y'all to offer to buy a house for us (HA!). So we began the househunting and made an offer on a really pretty home and had it accepted. Woohoo! It was all going well...
BUT, long story short, the evening before we were supposed to have the home inspection (which was also about two hours after we had our offer on the other home accepted), we found out that the mom wasn't able to get financing. Apparently she had bought all of her children's homes and although she had a good job, she was stretched to the max. She even tried to get her elderly parents to co-sign for her. No luck. So there went both our contracts.
Back to the drawing board! And back on the market.
Less than a week later, we had another showing and immediate offer. Yessss!
(I'll cut to the chase and let you know that this one fell through, too - buyer financing again. By the way, those "commitment letters" you get from the bank? They don't mean a thing.)
So, there we were, 50 days on the market, 40 of which our house had been under contract. We got another dud offer a couple of weeks after that. We countered and the buyer walked. We got an even MORE offensive offer the next day and we countered back with full price (with us paying a portion of the buyer's closing costs)...and...the buyer accepted! Hooray!
The third time was the charm! We kept househunting, and the house we had initially loved was even back on the market! It was like it was meant to be. Except that it wasn't. It turned out that house had a mold issue. Although it had been remediated, the underlying issue hadn't been fixed, so it was possible that it would return. After having good friends just go through this recently, and having two kiddos with asthma, we decided it just wasn't worth the risk.
When we first started looking for houses, we saw a development near where I grew up where new houses were being built. We kept it in the back of our minds as a "fallback," as we didn't want to have to make two moves, and it is also about the same distance to my job (20-25 minutes). After looking at countless houses, and feeling a little bit like Goldilocks (too big! too little! not enough yard! too much yard!), we ended up back there and signed a contract to build on July 4! Our home should be ready sometime late 2012/early 2013. And although my commute will not improve, John Michael's will drop from over an hour to about 15 minutes.
We decided to stay near our old house and rent an apartment (the rental price for apartments is significantly cheaper here than elsewhere) but had a two-week delay in between the closing date for the sale of our home and when our apartment was available for us. After a two-week stay with my parents (which was a lot of fun!) and putting nearly everything we own into storage, we embarked on our SECOND move within a few weeks. Remember how we didn't want to have to make two moves? HA! There will be three total when all is said and done. :)
So that's that. We have been in our two-bedroom apartment for a little over two weeks now and it is going well so far. It is cozy, of course. We had outgrown our cute little home as it was, and then going down to a smaller two-bedroom apartment has been a challenge. When we moved from the house, we had five storage units holding all of our things and John Michael has gotten us down to two, so to say that we are living in clutter is a bit of an understatement. But it's an adventure!
So what do I miss most about our house?
1) Our dog. He began staying at JM's parents' farm while we were showing the house so we wouldn't have to hurry home to get him packed up for showings, and also to not have to sweep/vacuum/mop twice a day. We decided an apartment with no yard just wouldn't be fair to him. We are kind of going crazy without him. Also, I am prepared for the potential custody battle that may ensue when we try to get him back from Nana and Papa ;)
2) Our travertine kitchen floor. Yes, it is material. But it was something we saved for and we were quite proud of it.
3) Our yard. That needs no explanation.
4) Our recycling bins. After a week of horrible guilt of throwing stuff away, we rescued one from storage, but we aren't able to sort so I am already dreading the trip to the center. Blah!
What am I loving about the apartment?
1) The kids are definitely growing closer. They are doing GREAT sharing a room and although they are somewhat forced to play together since there isn't really space for them to "escape," they are loving it. I anticipate that they will have some problems going back to their own rooms when we move into our new home.
2) Paper plates. Yeah, I said it. Disregard #4 above and pretend I am not being hypocritical. We decided to not pack/unpack/repack/unpack our dishes, so we are using paper plates and plastic cups. I love this when it comes time do to the dishes in our very small kitchen.
3) It's cozy. We have gotten a crazy amount of family time (again, there's nowhere to "escape"!) and I love it.
4) (Can't think of a fourth right now but I'm sure there's something :))
So that is that! Updates on the new house to follow as progress starts being made...
Our first home:
Under construction - Winter 2004
Getting closer!
Cute little house - our first summer there
And on our last day
Bye bye, house!
And hello to our new house-to-be!
(Too sunny for a photo, apparently :))
