The Countdown

We are under contract with our house! YAY! The buyers made an offer the first week of November, we didn't sign paperwork until the 16th. They want to close on December 30th, which happens to work out great for us. Dave has the week between Christmas and New Year's off, so it fits perfectly into our little life. The contract was contingent upon inspection. That happened a week and a half ago, and we just got their requests on Tuesdays. We've negotiated that, and managed to give away all the animals with the farm, too! Now we're just waiting on the appraisal, and praying and hoping that it comes in at the agreed upon price. I can't pack until the appraiser comes. Which means there's a whole lot of waiting with this big, HUGE, thing looming in the back of our minds. Meanwhile, there's a rumor that Christmas is happening in 21 days.

We made an offer on a house the night of the 16th. Iit had been on the market for 10 months, and vacant for 9. The exact same day we made an offer, another offer came in. The other offer didn't have a "contingent upon selling their house" clause, so the sellers went with them, not us. That whole process took five days, and the clock still kept ticking. We scrambled and went house hunting in our little three-block radius we want to be in and found another house. Five hours after we left the showing, the owner lowered the price $11,000! I love it when people give us that kind of money, and it's not us giving those big donations to prospective buyers. Since we had given away the farm, and the horses, we had to ask for it from the seller. Wouldn't you know it, we even got some sheep, too! The house is really beautiful. It's something we can live in for a very long time. It's actually about 50 square feet smaller than what we have now, but it's on two floors instead of three. The storage in the new house is amazing and there are extensive California Closets in every closet. The house is only five years old and has been really cared for. The paint color is perfect. I can totally live with it. I know that shouldn't matter, because it's such an easy fix, but somehow, right now, it really does matter to me. I'm SO DONE with home improvement projects. The only thing we're going to have to paint right away is Lucy's room (we promised she would have the same color in her new room). Dave negotiated for the refrigerator, washer, dryer, three bar stools, the 26 inch flat screen, and the 42 inch flat screen. We didn't get the patio furniture, so instead she gave us a grill (we didn't ask for it, she offered, we accepted), and $6,000 in closing costs. We'll have a few extra televisions and grills. I see some craigslist postings in my near future. We had the inspection on the new house yesterday. Nothing major, just little things came up. Now we have the appraisal, which we're not too worried about.

Meanwhile, I've gotten the Christmas cards done. About 90% of the presents have been purchased and wrapped. The next 26 days are going to be very exhausting. I can't wait to sit in our new house and sigh a big sigh of relief.