Up to my eyeballs in paperwork and deadlines

Selling a house and buying a house at the same time is a lot of stress :(  Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Then there's the negotiation at every step in the process, setting up appointments with mortgage brokers, house inspectors, attorneys, and other professionals for EACH house and EACH set of buyers and sellers. I don't remember our first mortgage application being this complicated, but our finances were simpler then and we weren't on a 30-day possession timeline. By the way, 30 days is very little time.

Maybe the process has changed, too, in the last 6 years :)

In related news, Bobby and I were there in the maple leaf house when the inspection was being performed. I really, really liked that experience. I could see how thorough the inspection was: every window, every doorknob, every light switch...every single thing in that house was tested. He measured the moisture level on suspicious-looking ceiling spots. He answered every question I could think of. It was an enlightening experience, and actually pretty fun. At one point, I asked if the kitchen was rigged for a gas stove. Our Realtor just pulled the stove from the wall himself so we could have a look! The inspector called him a stud for it. Cracked me up.

All in all, the interior of the home is in good shape. It's much larger than I had remembered. Each bedroom has its own enormous closet. The tile work isn't as hideous as I had remembered, either. And I just kept looking out that sliding glass door at the expanse of the yard..."fruit trees here, garden beds there, there, and there, chicken coop back there, compost bin definitely right there...and maybe the kids will play out there every once in a while, too" ;) The interior was comfortable, but I was drawn to the windows wherever I went, just drinking in all that new green space to play with.

An oak tree in the north east corner of the yard suggests we will be battling squirrels quite often. I may end up renting a few plots in the community garden across the street just so I can harvest some sweet corn  and tomatoes every once in a while. My poor, future peach trees. Will I ever get a harvest from you? Or, *gasp* we may need to acquire a dog to keep those squirrels out of my orchard. I swore off pets long ago, but a farm dog is a totally different story.

The attic and crawlspace have had some serious water leakage and will need repairs and professional treatment for mold, but those aren't deal-breaking problems. Also, the furnace can't seem to get hot air to any of the vents sooooooo far from it. There are affordable fixes for that, too. We're moving ahead with our offer and application.

Now if I could only find the motivation to start packing!

Paintrlite

Alice created this masterpiece on Bobby's smartphone while I was dozing next to them in my bed. I never thought I'd be so tired as to sleep through something like that.

It's a picture of me after I've eaten a grape popsicle. Purple juice all over my mouth and dripping down my legs. I'm, um, flattered?

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well, lets see.  It has been a while since I last wrote and a lot has happened since then.  First Susan left for a quick trip to California.  She was gone for about a week and I got to go solo with the kids.  While she was away we got an offer on our current house and consequently made an offer on a different house. So there was a lot of paper signing and scanning/e-mailing that happened that week.  Hopefully the financing will all go through just fine and we will be in our new house by Christmas.

One of the big things that happened while Susan was gone is that Robert started getting very nervous when we leave him anywhere.  I think it has something to do with Susan leaving.  He is doing fine now, but he has really bonded with me and now will cry out for me before he asks for Susan.  This has become a problem in church, where he can see me sitting on the stand, but cannot go up to hug me and get some comfort.

Thanksgiving was fun.  We got together with some friends.  It was a fairly laid back holiday.  We did the turkey, gravy, stuffing, and a pie.  They did rolls, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and two other pies.  Neither of us felt overwhelmed and the kids played together very well.  It made the whole experience a good one.

BOUGHT!

With just a little negotiation, we find ourselves newly betrothed to the "maple leaf" house. So happy! So much work to do in such a short time. If all goes well, we'll be closing on it the week before Christmas. I've already planned out the garden and orchard out back, I know where I want to put our Christmas tree, and I'm mentally setting up the guest bedroom for Bobby's parents :)

It's bigger than we were originally looking for, but the location and lot are spot-on. The house itself has a brick exterior, bay windows in front, 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, separate family room, and a wide, sunny, green back yard with decent-sized patio. We have friends already living just a few doors down from it. They tell us there's another family next door to us with kids our kids' ages. It's a quiet neighborhood, mature, and closer to everything we do most often. I am very, very pleased.

A couple drawbacks: 1) needs new kitchen appliances, washer, and dryer, 2) bathrooms chock-full of colored porcelain (avocado and mustard, mostly). We'll want to update the kitchen and light fixtures in many ways, but that's all cosmetic. Purely aesthetic. It's a functionally sound house. We'll let the inspector determine how structurally sound it is :)

Now to start the not-so-fun part: packing, cleaning old house, cleaning new house, moving stuff, unpacking. Maybe it's time for another purge.

SOLD!

I was casually packing for my pre-Thanksgiving trip to California, realizing I would have another 6 hours of leisurely waiting at home before heading out, and the thought actually crossed my mind, "Wouldn't it be funny if someone called to see the house this afternoon? I might actually have time to clean it." Ten minutes later, the phone rings and schedules a showing that evening at 5:30...right when I had planned to leave. That was okay, though, since I had oodles of time to clean and it turns out the first leg of my journey was flexible.

I cleaned out the fridge first...why? I don't know. I guess I didn't want to start the real work too early. Kids have a way of messing it up again if you give them enough time. We cooked the rest of the gingerbread dough into Ninjabread men. I even had time to decorate them. Then I started the hard work of putting everything away and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. It had been a couple months since someone came to see the house. I made spiced apple cider in the crockpot. We watched Baby V again, which kept Alice well-occupied during the last part of the cleaning and organizing marathon. I bundled up the kids, dropped off Baby V, met Bobby for dinner at the Apple Dumpling, and took off towards Chicago. Bobby tells me the young couple was still there when he got back from dinner at 6:15pm. I took that as a good sign :)

The next morning, we had an offer. An insultingly low one, but we still countered. And over the course of a day with emails and phone calls across two time zones, we agreed on a price. It sold!

Still can't believe it. Really. Not our house anymore. It's what I wanted, right? The immediate joy has passed, leaving a lingering solemnity in its place.

And now it's time to get to work.