Sold

Over the past two years, I had almost decided I would never be able to see that word on the real estate sign in our yard. Two years. It was so stressful, I can't even explain. During the time we had our house for sale, I got pregnant, had the baby, and now he is almost 14 months old. Having three boys in a house for sale was no fun, to say the least.
I don't want to revisit the whole situation right now. We closed this afternoon, and we are so relieved. We have about 3 weeks till we move. The rental is still in final negotiations. "Onward and Upward," as my husband has been saying all week.

living with a landlord

Oh yeah. I just realized that when we rent a house, we are gonna have a landlord. Hmmm. I don't know if I'm gonna like that too much. I still haven't heard about the house I want to rent, so today after school, I rode by. The owner was outside and waved at me, so I stopped. I got out and explained how much I wanted his house. He had another appointment coming today to look at it. I began a speech about how neat and clean we are even though we have three young kids, etc. He responded that he believed me because he had looked in my car yesterday while I was going through the house. Ewww. I have to admit that it was a little weird. Then again, he is considering letting my family live in his house, so I don't blame him. I passed. He said, "you can tell a lot about a person by their car, and yours was spotless." Thank goodness.
Then he went on to say that he may want to retain access to half of the basement for storage. He said he wouldn't go in the house, but he may go into the basement. Honestly, I'm not cool with that. I don't like the idea of somebody coming into the house in the middle of the night (or day) while I'm living there. Plus, I want that house specifically because of the basement. I plan to use it. I'm squeezing 5400 square feet into 3800 square feet. I know, it's still big, but we are a family of 5, and I work from home.
So, the dream rental may not become reality. I may have to spend tomorrow lining up something else, and I will be sad. But I did hear from the attorney's office today, and we are scheduled to close at 4:30 tomorrow, unless I hear otherwise. ALMOST there!

almost there

Today is the last day of the buyer's three day due diligence period. We are almost there. At 8am today, we are having a heating and air man come out to figure out why one of our units is "making a noise" that has the buyers "concerned." Even the inspector can't figure out why they cared about this. He simply recommended a service. So, that's what we're gonna do. Otherwise, the inspection was "perfect." Gotta admit, when I first heard that I freaked out a little that the sale was gonna go bust because of a noise from the air conditioning unit. My agent is slowly realizing that I'm a little bit crazy and a lot insecure.
The rental market around here is bleak. There just aren't many rentals with at least 4 bedrooms, room for me to do my massages, room for our workout equipment, a fence, and access to a neighborhood pool. All for the relatively low price I wanted to pay. Go figure. I have driven the streets for 3 days and my agent has been searching too. I almost decided to pay too much for a house that fit most of our needs when I got a call yesterday from the agent. She had just found a house with every single feature I listed! It was just available for rent (was for sale), and someone was going to see it at 6pm. So, of course, she had gotten us an appointment for 4:30. I made the offer on the spot. Now I couldn't sleep last night waiting to hear. The couple wanted to talk it over last night and let us know today. I'm a little scared because I took my baby with me. They are middle eastern, and we, first of all, forgot to remove our shoes. Then he mentioned how baby's "eat cereal everywhere" and he has white carpet. My agent insisted repeatedly how spotless my house is, and I threw in the fact that we are very strict and I own my own carpet cleaner, etc. Guess we'll have to wait and see. Still, I give props to my agent for even finding it. That's why she's got the reputation she has.
When I can, I'll update about today's events. It will be a big day. Hell, it's been a big week. Best birthday ever.

Suck it Monkeys!

Sorry. That's what I plan to say to the owners of this golf course when my house finally closes. That's right, our house is finally under contract! I'm still in disbelief and shock, but the agents feel sure it will close. I've been keeping it a secret until I felt sure. It was all so weird and sudden. On our bike ride Saturday, I had talked to hubby about just taking it off and forgetting about it. Then, I got a text, A TEXT!, from our agent with an offer from a couple who've not even seen it. They wanted to close this week. After that, it all happened so fast. They couldn't come, and their parents were buying it anyway (I know. I know!), so the parents flew in and out of town Sunday to see it. Loved it, made the offer, and Monday morning my phone rings off the hook with appointments. Got the inspection done, the appraisal done, both agents finding us rentals. If all goes well, they want to close tomorrow. That's 4 DAYS from first contact. My head is spinning, and I'm a little nauseous. It's not anywhere near the price we wanted, but these days, it is acceptable. If we didn't take it, who knows how long it would be before a great offer came along. And these people are a dream to work with. No contingencies. They are letting us stay till the 25th without paying rent. They offered to pay all the closing costs. And they are quick and decisive, which we love.
So, that's (hopefully) the end of my real estate saga. I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is bright and happy.

Our first real bike trip

We have a great bike trail about a 40 minute drive from our house. For my birthday, instead of dinner, I asked my husband to take me on a bike ride. We got great bikes last summer, but we haven't made the time to go try out the trail. Mostly because we never leave our kids. But, my mom agreed to keep them, so we were off! Wow, we had a blast. We rode about 16 miles, and it felt so good to get so thoroughly exhausted! We aren't exactly in top notch shape. Now we know that part of the trail is flat enough for the bike trailers, so next time we can take the kids with us. Today, though, was so good for us to get out by ourselves and just have fun. It's something we just don't do enough. Yes, we missed the kids, but I think we needed it. We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home, bike shorts and all, and ate like pigs! It was great!

I've had the best two days for my birthday, and I really needed it. Feeling much better. I'm gonna try to keep it up.

Happy Birthday to me