Highs and Lows

That's what life's like these days.

High - I am in my third trimester! The arrival of our baby is in sight.

Low - I suddenly feel like s**t a lot of the time. Swelling has set in. Contractions happen when I bend over or lift anything. I am a hormonal crazy lady about 60 percent of the time. CRAZY. My husband might suggest that estimate is a bit low.

High - We have unboxed 80 to 90 percent of our main floor. Some pictures are on walls. Lamps are setup, with bulbs. Kitchen is functional. Matthew seems relatively unfazed. Dog 1 and 2 finally settling in.

Low - Realizing our dogs aren't the problem. That would be the neighbor's dog who was inexplicably left outside all Saturday night. Barking at 12, 1, 2 and 4 a.m., respectively.

Oh, and our CAT. Who is apparently protesting our move by relieving herself in various parts of my house that are not her litter box. Tonight it was my son's basket of baby blankies. Sweet.

High - Our buyers have stopped calling us every five minutes with some other f'ing complaint.
It's officially their house and not our problem.

Low - It's their house. Not ours.

High - Driving Saturday nighth to pick out of big flat screen LCD TV we promised ourselves for two years that we'd buy as a treat when we moved.

Low - Driving to Best Buy and Sam's, we took our old Murdoch exit. Matthew gets excited look on face and says, "Home! Mathew's house!" Oh God. He's seemed happy, but only because he thinks we were on a trip, and that now we are finally going home.

Mike and I just look at each other, and I want to cry. We force ourselves drive right on past our street, with Matthew craning his next to look down it, and us talking excitedly about "new house! new house!" But with our little hearts broken.

High - Having move behind us, which means time to blog, read blogs, surf for crib sets, think about my new baby, and just flipping relax on the couch. Mike having time to go hit golf balls. Our boy really honestly enjoying his "new house"...snuggled in his crib happily every night since we've lived here, including tonight. And me having the house/TV/computer to myself peacefully for a couple hours tonight. And not one box in my immediate eyesight.

We'll just end on that note, shall we?

P.S. One Thing That Doesn't Blow About Moving

When your mom drives 7 hours round trip in one day, JUST to help you clean, lend moral support with the movers because your husband had to work, because she just wanted to see your new house so badly, and mainly just because she's my mom, I'm her baby, always will be, despite being a 33 year old preggo mom myself.

Oh - AND she brings two giant boxes of Crispy Kremes with her.

Moms ... are amazing. They just love you THAT MUCH.

My House: Love it or Leave it? Both

Here I am spending the last night in my house of the last seven years. Tomorrow will be the first night in the house that will keep us for the next seven, or more. I still can't quite take it in despite sleeping on an air mattress surrounded by blank walls, no furniture, no dogs (kennel) and no husband (the poor guy is STILL out dealing with unloading the garage onto our trash heap and/or into our SUV).

I feel I should post pictures of our house filled with boxes and mess. Or maybe all empty and sad. But I have none - damn batteries died and if I even had any, they're packed on a truck a few miles away, waiting to be delivered to our new side of town. A sad yet appropriately disorganized ending to our last few months here. (Read: moving really blows.)

I can't really get into all I want to say about the move. Exciting for what it will bring - our new daughter to her new home in 3 months. Sad for what we're leaving - the house I brought my son home to, had countless nights with friends, had countless beers with friends (and apparently spills - hello, my poor carpeting that was hidden under the furniture until now!), and to kick it off, the house I moved into with a different last name, just 3 short months before we got married and began building the family of seven (yes I count the cat) we have now.

This afternoon I got emotional saying good-bye to a neighbor. Thinking I won't live on this street - my street - anymore tears me up. I am happy I'll remain part of it a bit, as we'll continue bringing Matthew to our neighbor's for our shared daycare several days a week. But also scared I'll be jealous its not me living here...

And yet I know that soon I'll probably grow to love my new neighborhood just as much. After 3 months off for maternity leave, hopefully I'll know the streets intimately from walking with TWO kidsm in beautiful fall weather. Once our basement's finished, we'll definitely feel we've gotten the step up house we've waited a long time for. Having the kids in rooms where they have space to have a crib AND turnaround without bumping into something will be neat. And, it'll just be fun to pick paint colors and rearrange furniture again - to start fresh.

But walking out of here tomorrow is gonna hurt like hell.

Buying a House Rocks!

What a difference a weekend makes.

After lots of looking...hours of discussion amongst Mike, Kevin our rock star realtor, my mother-in-law Dale (who had the mistfortune to visit this house-a-thon weekend, poor woman) and I... two offers on two different houses on two ends of town...one counter offer on the one...and one happy phone call from our realtor...we have purchased a lovely little three bedroom, two bathroom ranch house in south Webster Groves on Old Watson Road.

We close on both houses - this one and ours - well I guess both are ours - so we'll say House 1 and House 2 - on Wed. May 28. As in next month, before June, within 30 days, just a few weeks away - and icing on cake - the day before Mike's last day of school.

"AH!!!!!" doesn't quite cover how I feel.

I am already plotting our Pod strategies to get out of the one house, store our stuff, then into the other one. And am very thankful that Memorial Day weekend gives us a leg up on packing said Pod.

I am already stressing about inspections. Worried, what if closing costs are twice as much as I'm estimating and it cuts into The Basement Fund, otherwise known as a portion of the proceeds of our current home sale that are earmarked for building a 4th bedroom and a family room/play room/recreation room (aka drinkin' room) in the currently unfinished basement.

I'm already mentally listing who we'll shamelessly recruit to help us move. I'm fretting that the Simple Moves costs - they move the heavy stuff - will be as reasonable and worthwhile as I hope they'll be.

But for one brief moment - I am also realizing it really is okay to be excited, and happy. We bought a house! We will not be homeless May 28! And, we will not be stuck here August 29 and forced to move with a screechy, crazy newborn!

Mike and I agreed on the house! Our moms agreed with us! We managed to keep our buyers, but still land a house that we didn't feel we "settled" too much for!

We don't have to keep our house clean anymore, waiting for the next showing! We found something ready to move in, but with enough projects to make it out own! That we can actually imagine staying in for five or more years! That is close to 44, the Rec Center, Walgreens, the Chinese buffet!

That we like, a lot.

Me happy, me a homeowner once more.

Househunting Sucks

Did you know Webbie Groves is filled with houses that look reasonable but then have the master bedroom on the basement or off the kitchen? Or the Brady Bunch green tile upstairs bathroom that you can't stand up all the way in for fear of poking your head through the 6o degree pitched ceiling? Or rotting wood peeking out underneath the "new siding" it looks like someone added with their arts and crafts staple gun last week? Or is located next to major construction? Or appears to have a chicken coop next door?

In other words...there is something wrong with every one of them. At least in our price range.

If there's not, you can bet it's on the wrong side of the tracks. Or adjacent to the tracks - and both trains come through every ten minutes. Making the earthquake look like a heavy door slamming.

Now that we've sold our house - oh, did I not mention, we've sold our house and have 7 more days to find one to make the deal happen? Yes. Yes yes. So, now that we've sold our house - its as though realtors throughout 63119 have gone on strike. NOTHING in our price range is even popping UP the last few days.

"This is a good problem to have" will be my mantra.

"$&"%*'ing house better come up soon" will be my reality.

We Wouldn't Even Have to Forward Our Mail

...If we moved across the street to 7617 Suffolk Avenue, one number up from our address, to the big house across the street that's for sale for a pretty great price.

It leaves a bit to be desired on the outside. But the inside is 2,000 square feet (that would be about 70% more house than we have now) and its FAB. It's got a great lower floor plan, it's sort of circular and just flows nicely. From the entry you see the little sitting room (aka playroom, aka office, aka place for the piano) on the right, and to the left, you go from a nice living room with fireplace, to the dining room (all of which is light and updated with redone wood floors and white trim) back to a big kitchen with big pantry and big eat in, and room for an island.

There's a little back porch that's covered in this cute red trellis, but you could screen it in also. That's IF your dogs don't repeatedly ran their heads against it like current owners' did. Wait, what am I saying ... Bogey would be coming with us, wouldn't he ... Anyway, it has a fully fenced yard, leading back to a two car detached garage.

Back inside on the main floor, there's also a master bedroom downstairs and (here's one hitch) the one full bath that's in the finished part of the home. Upstairs, no bath, but three bedrooms. One's big, one's medium and one's smallish (but oh so perfect for a nursery or my eventual home office; sadly, does look across the street right at ours which COULD give me mental problems, but I'm willing to risk it.) The bigger BR's have two closets each. Plus there's a big crawl space (supposedly a "selling point" because apparently lickety split - at least, according to the agent - you could just whip up another bathroom right there. I'm sure.)

In the basement, there's another full bathroom with shower but that's the only finished part. The rest is huge but unfinished, with that cellar feeling thought it's painted a clean white. There is some "dampness" that comes in during heavy rains (aka, you could easily see the wet spots, but to Tim's point, this sucker's 85 years old. She'll have her little issues, I imagine. At least it's got copper not knob and tube wiring. It's a start right?)

Okay, so ... I don't know why I'm typing all of this. It's not like we're going to run out and buy it. Timing wise, this is all wrong. We are supposed to fix ours up to sell ... all the while continually St. Louis neighborhoods for a potential fit, and fine tuning our list of "must haves," by visiting open houses for a few more months. Then list ours next spring and THEN find our perfect dream home in the Shrewsbury/Webster/Kirkwood area. Right? That's how it'll go, RIGHT?!?

In any case, we are NOT supposed to find something now. Someone took that order down wrong.

Anyone who knows me knows I love my street and wish I didn't have to move from it. I've said before, if I could wake up tomorrow and have a much bigger mortgage and a second story ... or an add-on master bedroom/bath where part of our backyard/patio are now ... I would be a very happy camper. But I also know there's lots of nice neighborhoods and I shouldn't be so attached to this one just because i'ts familiar.

I just, well, am, and so when this house came up (which I'd always threatened to Mike that I'd want to snap up the minute it went on) I was like, OH! Course, I was always half kidding, because I figured it'd be kinda dated and "okay but not great" inside like the outside. But now of course (like so many Sunday open house "browsers" have fallen into the trap before me) I am thinking, I sure wish we could do this house.

It would just be, er, challenging financially to take on a bigger payment, just yet. We'll be in a much better position by next May once our ginormous (for us) car payment ends. And semi-better even after December when my GE Penance Payments end. (Sidebar: The story is that GE kept paying me for a couple checks after I left. Because despite bringing good things to life, they are apparently idiots. I convinced myself (against my goody goody nature) that I was justified to, well, keep it. Because they also sca-REWED me on my incentive comp when I left and basically didn't pay me according to our gentleman's agreement of a comp plan that never got nailed down. (Hint: Don't ever do that. Make people write things down.) So natch, once they realized they overpaid me, we all had a difference of opinion, with their opinion being I owe them every penny and mine being I sure don't want to pay them but can't remotely think about hiring a lawyer to fight something I am probably on paper in the wrong about anyway.)

And so we've paying basically the value of an extra ginormous car payment since spring, through December.

Oh little house across the street. I wish no ill on you or yours. But maybe you will CHOOSE to sit stagnant on the market, for at least a few months ... the owners are just downsizing because all the boys are in college now so they're not necessarily in dire straits.

Maybe they will be hit by a giant wave of nostalgia and wrestle with the idea of really selling it, their sons' boyhood home (well, kind of, they moved their in high school. NONETHELESS!) and turn down all the reasonable offers that come in. Right up until the moment they realize, crap, we must sell this albatross. And to who better than that lovely young couple across the street, who really do look a little cramped but like they'd take great care of our former home ... and who clearly could use about, oh, a $30,000 discount. "Krisantha (yes that's their agent's real name), write up the papers!"