November 24, 2015 - See Sally Go Up!

It turns out not only is my house delightful and sells in no time flat, evidently every house I want to buy is equally as delightful. Every time we think of making an offer, we find out it went under contract earlier that day or the night before. Case and point yesterday when the most delightful house (one of the few that hit all of our check points) went to a “johnny on the spot” bidder. Heaven forbid you take 4 hours to see if the commute is a problem. Or maybe you want to take 2 hours to run the numbers and see how it works out. Not in this market! Houses that need new roofs and complete siding replacement ($$$), not to mention interior efforts, have 3 offers in 24 hours. This is challenging me in new ways, my friend.

We’ve entered the time window where we can’t close on a new house in the time we need to be out of our current house (January 5th) so we went ahead and secured an apartment to have on hand to live in and store our stuff in, thus circumventing the whole storage unit process.)I do have some excitement in that step! I can already picture myself stirring the spaghetti sauce in that kitchen. I feel accomplished in this task, but not much else. God (Satan/me/every buyer competing with us?) has me on a see saw. See Sally go up (she found a great house)! See Sally go down (oops, they already have an offer)! See Sally loose her sanity (what an emotional roller coaster). Working hard to not See Sally Run (Duct taping myself to my current garage door)!

In many ways it has been less stressful than I imagined. I hear the inspection went swimmingly well, though I am waiting on the actual report before I put all of my eggs in the swimmingly well basket. Finding an apartment was successful in one day (though maybe a bit more expensive than I remember from 15 years ago!). We get to move in mid-december to give us 3 weeks to slowly turtle-like our boxes from one garage to another. That is a huge not overlooked benefit to not finding a house yet. Closing day will be laid back instead of frantically moving from one house to another in a 6 hours span. Ron and I remain civil and jovial with each other after having packed up our kitchen and parts of the bedroom. We have secured a ton of FREE boxes from 3 different people in surrounding neighborhoods thanks to “Nextdoor” posts, and we don’t have to buy a single box or packing supply. Oliver doesn’t seem the least bit mad at us for the pending relocation despite boxes covering our living area. Though he did just have a near-death event and maybe doesn’t realize what is up just yet. To be determined.

What is stressful is this emotional roller coaster like seesaw. Every night (and I mean every night) and every morning you plant yourself on the sofa to see what listed in the last 12 hours. Reminder, 12 hours matter in this market! You see something that hits >7 of your 10 check points, you get super excited picturing this very sofa you are planted on now situated up next to the their fireplace next to the staircase leading up to a second level of bliss. You touch base with the realtor… only to find it already has 4 offers. Alternately, you find the most delightful little cottage (ok it’s just a house, but terminology helps my excitement) and schedule a visit only to find out they must have been taking pictures of their neighbor’s house instead of the one you are standing in wondering how that kitchen came to be 3 x 2 and without a stove. Is a spot for a stove too much to ask for? See Sally go up! See Sally go down.

Finding this apartment has eased my soul a bit minus the mishap of the seemingly perfect house going to the johnny on the spot bidder yesterday. Congratulations, Johnny, I’m relying on the fact that you surely need that house more than I do. Yes, I know that just means it wasn’t the house for us, but God should have let me know in foresight instead of hindsight, right? Often we humans think God owes us something, don’t we? Maybe God had perfect timing in that plan of us still not having a house before we have to move out, though I find myself complaining about having to move boxes twice. I’m the first one to slip off the grateful ship, you know.  Still, I am relishing in knowing I have a place to live (and for 4 months mind you!) allows me to be less concerned about what is not yet on the market for me to move in to, in my budget, without either of us having to drive across 4 counties, with a master down and at least a spot for a stove. Campfire, anyone?

I still faithfully believe God brought us here and he will provide the house in his timing. He’s yet to let me down in life, even if things don’t unroll the way I would wish up front. Somehow that doesn’t negate the responsibility of doing our part to search and secure the “ark”. In in the process the see saw takes hold of me! So thankful for a husband who is right there with me in the process and that we are fully trusting that God will do what God does...in his timing.

Each morning, I wake up with a new address memorized. I wonder which one will end up sticking?


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