hopefully no poltergeists either

The cabbbiiiiiinnnneeettttssss, you guys. Let's get back to the cabinets, please. My children crawled around TOGETHER inside one of the cabinets. Shrieking and carrying on and climbing shelves and then getting down and passing each other from side to side. I think Josh and I could probably fit inside these kitchen cabinets. Tightly, but still. Now, don't get me wrong, the look is a bit dated (understatement of the year) but who cares?! All my stuff fits! I have drawers up the wazoo! I keep putting stuff away and then not being able to find it because there are so many possibilities for locations. I'm in lurve.

I feel like I'm living in the Amityville house, and every little creak or sigh I'm waiting for the ghosts to pop out and say, what? You thought you were getting a legitimate deal? There has to be a reason we could afford this house, and I'm just hoping it isn't because it is haunted by demons or something. I'm only half joking on this one. Have you been to see Paranormal Activity yet? You'd understand if you'd seen it.

Last night I was rocking Josie in her room for bed and kept hearing what sounded like footsteps, so I'd jump up and go into the hallway and then nothing. I'd sit back down, hear the footsteps, jump up again. Rinse and repeat. I called Josh at work and made him stay on the phone with me while I searched the house. Finally, I figured out that the sound of footsteps? Was the ROCKER. I'd get up and the rocker would keep rocking for a few more seconds and then stop.

Funny, but I really am waiting for the other shoe to drop. The house isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and needs tons of cosmetic work and I haven't even shown you pictures of my hideously pink on pink tiled bathroom, but on the whole, it is amazing and perfect for us. I'll get sick of talking about it soon, I promise. Just give me a few more days of rolling around naked in the laundry room.

In other news, big day for us today! I found my hairbrush! For the first time in 6 days! Also, the silverware! You don't appreciate spoons until you live without them for a week! Let's hear it for spoons! And brushed hair!

I'M BACK!

So much for Nablopomo. That whole moving out, closing on one house, then closing on another house, then moving the same afternoon, then starting to unpack, then shopping for appliances (because did I mention the new house has no appliances? NONE!), then dealing with sick kids, and then breathing, kept me from blogging. It has been... well... an interesting weekend. That is the mild way to describe it.

We're here, though, and the new house is fabulous. Except for the no appliances situation, which is fine, albeit stressful because I have no garbage disposal, no oven, no cooktop, no fridge (because our fridge didn't fit despite Josh measuring the opening 3 times). Yes, with two children this has been challenging. The no appliances thing also makes unpacking challenging because I have to spend a good amount of time out shopping for new appliances. You'd think that wouldn't take that long, but you would be wrong. We have very specific measurements for the new appliances, and it is darn near impossible to find appliances to fit those sizes. It'll work out, though, it is just taking longer than we'd anticipated. We'll all be sick of microwave cooking and takeout by the time our kitchen is suitably dressed.

The best thing about the house (and there are a lot of wonderful things) is the CABINET SPACE. Oh lordy, the cabinet space. What a glorious pleasure it is to have more than enough cabinets to hold all of your shit. It is enough to make me lie down on the kitchen floor among my gaping non-appliance holes and weep. Also, separate bathrooms for adults and children. Another amazingly selfish and decadent feature of the house. Also, a walk-in closet for me! Well, Josh and me together. Still! Walk-in closet!

We're finally home. And it feels great. We are so lucky.

move out day!

I was just informed that our internet provider won't be able to come to the new house until next Tuesday to set up the Internet!!! This is going to make Nablopomo very difficult, I can tell.

Anyway, I'll do my best.

Today is move-out day on the old house, and I am stressed and sad and sick as a dog. An ugly combination for sure. I feel fairly certain that I have a sinus infection and possibly an ear infection and no time to go to the doctor. Additionally, I'm also fairly certain Josie's ear infection is not getting better, since she threw up, had a fever, and has been uber-fussy since yesterday. Sigh. I feel like all I ever do these days is bitch and moan!

Forgive me. I promise it'll get better next week.

sexy shoes

The theme of my wedding shower was "Sex in the Kitchen", and my friends asked guests to bring something hot and heavy as well as kitchen appropriate as a gift. Consequently, I have an indecent (tee hee) number of sex books in my collection. This gifts were hilarious, and it remains the best wedding shower theme I've ever heard (in my unbiased opinion).

I just packed a box full of shoes and sex books, and for some reason that combination seemed totally fitting. Don't you think so? Both can be passionate, I guess.

decluttering

Packing is a strange thing, I think.

The first pass was fine- I pulled out clothes and books and videos and small appliances and other items and packed them away. The first pass covered our most used and most needed things. The second pass was also pretty much fine, although I started to touch on some of those strange parts of packing, where you come across all that stuff you have that isn't essential to your day to day life. The old letters and cards, the clothing you haven't worn in months or years, the old school books and papers left over from college, Josh's snowboard and rollerblades. Many of these things are sentimental, or are used rarely, but we're still unwilling to get rid of them.

And then there are those items in perfect condition, gifts or something that cost a legitimate amount of money. I don't need them, but how could I possibly get rid of them? I need a professional packer who would come over and point out what is junk and what isn't, and what I'm holding onto for the wrong reasons.

I'm trying my best to weed out the unnecessaries now, rather than move them AGAIN, but it is hard hard hard. I'm sure I won't miss whatever I give away, and that is my mantra as we near the final stretch.

always looking forward

My mother in law is coming this afternoon to help and I may fling myself at her feet in gratitude when she walks in the door. I'll be doing the packing, but she has agreed to watch the children and also to patch up all the holes left by paintings and drapery rods. I also talked her into raking all the leaves that we are never going to have time to rake before the move on Thursday.

This is crazy! We're so close!

I took a book out of the library for Gabe about moving called "Goodbye, Hello" and it tells the story of a little girl's move from her old apartment into a new house. I sat down and was reading it to him while the little girl said goodbye to her old room and her old walls and her old friends and her old neighborhood and on and on, and then she moves and is very sad.

Gabe was paying attention, but really could have cared less because all he can talk about is his new playroom and his new room and his new big rock in the front yard and the swing set I promised him. Anyway, I'm reading through all the goodbyes and then... I started BAWLING. I'm totally crying through the book and trying to hide it and Gabe is looking at me like, what is your problem lady?

It turns out that amidst all of this excitement is a lot of sadness too. I can't wait to move, but this is the house where I brought home my babies! This was my first home with Josh! Gabe and Josie both took their first steps here! I love it! It is a lovely, wonderful, happy home, and I'll be so sad to leave it. I'm consoled by the fact that my friends have told me that once I move, I'll never look back, but still. For now, I'm sad.

So I'll be putting the "Goodbye, Hello" book away for now, not because of Gabe, but because clearly it is too traumatizing for ME. He's not the looking back type anyway, like soooo many other moments in life, Gabe is ready before I am.

packing is my nemesis

OH MY GOODNESS, the packing, you guys. The packing is going to KILL ME. I have been nonstop packing for weeks, or at least that is how it feels, and there is no end in sight. I guess I can see that some progress has been made, but holy smokes, why do we have so much shit? I'm considering packing a little more and then calling the new owners and telling them we'll throw the rest in for free. They'll totally want all our junk, right?

Plus, Josh is wandering around the house and starting boxes left and right and then wandering away, and is currently outside the house looking in the shed doing God knows what, and I can't even yell at him because he has threatened to stop packing because I am too critical. I didn't know that asking someone to finish a box was critical. I also didn't know that asking someone not to dump out all their drawers on the bed and leave was critical. For your information, it is also critical to ask someone not to take all the pictures and mirrors off the walls until we have some boxes and/or open space in which to put them. FYI. All critical and not to be tolerated.

Oh lordy. This is going to be a loooonnnggg week.

jinx jinx jinx

Our luck may finally be turning around.

Our buyers got confirmation that they have a mortgage, a real concern these days because so many people are being turned down by the mortgage companies. There are so many steps these days, including very difficult appraisals, very high down payment requirements, and very high income demands. Thankfully, they got their mortgage and we are set for the sale of our house.

And (drum roll please)... we found a house! Just when I was scraping the bottom of the barrel morale-wise, a house came back on the market that had been under agreement. It was way out of our price range, but I've been desperate, so we asked for a showing anyway. I was in the house for about 3 minutes before I realized that this was it- this was our house, so I called Josh frantically and tried to convince him to let me make an offer without him seeing it. Understandably, he was a little nervous, but he did agree to rush home early from work and meet me there. 3 minutes into his own tour, he turned to me and asked, "Why didn't you make an offer this morning?"

Of course, as these things always seem to go, by the time we'd put together an offer just a few minutes later, the owners had received another offer. The other offer was for more money, but we were offering better terms (dates, mortgage, etc). After some haggling back and forth, they went with our offer! Since then, things have been flying smoothly along. The inspection was great, the seller is actually an estate so they've been very flexible, and we are set to close on the same day we are selling our current house.

All of this means- we're really moving! For real! I need to start packing! Like yesterday! We have less than a month to go, and I am only now realizing this is actually going to happen. I love the house, and although the particular town wasn't my first choice (more on that later), I'm sure I will come to love it. I had my heart set on staying in our current town, but this town is close by, the schools are excellent, the neighborhood is lovely and very family friendly. I'm confident it will work out.

Now, does anyone want to come over and help pack? I can provide the cookies and candy corn.

whine fest: you might want to move right along

I'm restraining myself from writing this post in ALL CAPS because I am in a yelling mood, but I'll try to keep myself under control.

The universe. is. conspiring. against. me.

My child, she has stopped sleeping and is a fucking basket case all the time. We are talking whining and moaning and crying and general annoyingness all the freaking time. I'm assuming she is finally (FINALLY!) getting some teeth since she is 9+ months old with no teeth, but at this point I honestly don't care, I just want her to cut me a break. Yesterday I actually walked upstairs and put one crying toddler into his room and one crying infant into her room and locked myself in the downstairs bathroom, which was the only room in the house where I couldn't hear the screaming.

I stayed downstairs for 10 minutes, seething over what jerks both of my kids were being, and then I walked upstairs and pasted a smile on my face and brought them down for dinner. I paid for those 10 minutes by having to calm Josie down for the next 45 minutes. She has been doing this thing where as soon as something doesn't go her way, or you don't entertain her, or you try to put her down, or you try to drive in the car, she goes from 0-OHMYGODITISTHEENDOFTHEWORLD. Complete with tears and great, heaving sobs and shaking. It is exhausting.

Then, THEN, the dog (Murray) has started shitting and peeing in the house again. (I am banging my head against the desk for effect right now). Again. I can't even begin to discuss how this makes me feel except to tell you that yesterday I screamed out loud that I was calling the breeder to ask her to take Murray back. I just don't know what to do. I am completely, utterly, totally SICK OF THIS. I am sick of finding poop on the living room rug, or poop outside of my bedroom door, or pee on the dining room rug, or having Gabe leave his clothes on the bathroom floor for 5 minutes and having Murray pee all over them.

I don't want to be that person who can't take care of her dog, but I also cannot be this angry and frustrated. I cannot have a dog who is 6 years old and continues to have accidents. I take him for walks and he won't go to the bathroom on a leash, or in front of me. I let him into the backyard multiple times per day and watch him through the window while he stands there and looks around him for 20 minutes, or stands at the back door scratching and whining and barking to be let back in, and then has an accident on the floor 10 minutes later.

I have trained him, and retrained him, and retrained him, and I know I am opening myself up to people saying that I am an idiot that cannot train her dog, but I swear, this dog was trained for YEARS and it is only over the last year that this has started again. Plus, we go through weeks or months where he is fine, and then something sets it off again.

I'm just sick of this. I'm done. I do what everyone suggests and keep them fenced into the kitchen where at least the messes are easier to clean, but seriously? Is this a life for the dog? He hates being outside, so he can't even hang out in the backyard, and all he wants is to sit on the couch with me, but I don't want that because I don't want pee and poop all over the house. Oh geez, I could cry right now just thinking about this. Plus poor Tango pays for Murray's accidents because he also gets caged into the kitchen and he jumps all over me in excitement everytime I come in to the room. I just don't know what to do anymore.

Josh is also working, ALL THE TIME. He was in San Francisco on Monday through Wednesday, then in New York on Thursday and today, then Chicago early next week, then Indiana at the end of the week. He works through most of the weekends, and doesn't see an end in sight until October. I haven't had a break, no time away from the kids, in weeks. My only breaks are naptimes, during which I house hunt, call inspectors, and moving companies, and organize and pack, and keep the rest of our household floating while Josh isn't here. The working situation is beyond absurd, honestly. I'm grateful for a job and a paycheck and the opportunity to buy a house and all that, but I miss my husband. I miss my partner. I'm tired of being alone.

And then, of course, there's the house situation, which is shitty shitty. No good houses on right now, and no sellers who are willing to budge. We made another offer on a house that should be priced about $50K less, and the seller doesn't want to move. At least the Fed is going to keep the rates low for a little while so I feel a bit less pressure.

Rounding this all off, is the packing, of course. I started this week, because my mother in law is coming to visit on Tuesday through Sunday and she expects me to be prepared to do a massive packing spree while she is here, and I am thoroughly overwhelmed by the process, but everyone does it, and so will I.

My one bright shining spot is that I pulled out some Halloween decorations and the leaves are starting to change and tomorrow we'll go buy pumpkins and I'll bake apple muffins and applesauce cakes and I'll pretend I'm not ready to crawl under the bed and cry.

Tell me some terrible moving and packing stories please, so I'll stop feeling sorry for myself. Tell me it could be worse than this.

taking all the joy out of buying a house

If I could record myself to this post, you would hear HUGE SIGHING throughout. I'm emotionally exhausted just thinking about everything that's been happening since last Tuesday. I mentioned that we found a house. A big house in a great neighborhood with 6 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms and 3 floors and a little playroom off the kitchen and a tiny, but flat, backyard with a cute little deck and lots of space. Lots and lots of space, which is precisely what has been lacking in our current house.

This house, let's call it pseudo-dream house, or PDH for short, needs work. A lot of work. Lots and lots of painting and sanding and repairing and replastering, and all new kitchen, and 3.5 new bathrooms and basement repairs and general cosmetic work. Clearly, this terrible shape is the only reason we could afford a house like this. I should call it pseudo-dump instead, but whatever, let's be positive about the situation. We haven't had an inspection yet, so we have no idea if anything structural is wrong with it, but we don't have high hopes. In fact, we're scared silly over what might come out in an inspection.

Regardless, we love the house. It is enough space for all of our bedrooms, plus a guest room for our two sets of parents that live out of town, plus an office for Josh, plus maybe even another kid (or two, which is my secret hope). Fixed up, it would be great. Really perfect for us.

Starting last weekend, we decided to make an offer, but a really low offer since all of this work would take the house way out of our price range. It took us all weekend to come up with a number and get together with our broker, so Tuesday morning we made our offer, and within an hour, we'd been back and forth with the seller 4 times. In the end, we stopped bidding because it was happening too quickly, and we were getting too close to our absolute maximum. We took a step away, a day off, and asked to see the house again. In the meantime, the seller offered to repaint the inside and refinish all the floors before we moved in. That would have been a huge expense for us, because we were planning two moves. One move out of our current house and into storage, another move from storage into the house while the floors were being refinished. We finally came up with our absolute maximum and sent him a lovely letter telling him how much we love his home and that this was the most we could afford- really and truly. We were only about $9,000 apart, so we really believed it might actually happen.

And he gave us a big fat no.

No no no. He wanted his $9,000, and he wouldn't move on his price. For 24 hours, we were stalled out here, with much hand wringing and tears and spreadsheets, trying to figure out which kid would fetch the highest price. Finally, we figured out a way to meet his price, and sent our final offer accepting his number.

And he sat on it and hemmed and hawed, and I swear, I know he wanted to ask for more, but he finally said yes. Success! We'd agreed on a price! We drafted up the paperwork and started to send it over and asked for it to be returned to us within a couple hours.

Then the fun really started.

1. First the broker said he was going to a college football game and couldn't deliver the offer. Fine, my broker was happy to drive it over to the seller.

2. The broker said he didn't know where the seller lived and wouldn't be able to find out until tomorrow.

3. Also, the broker said our low offer PUT THE SELLER INTO THE HOSPITAL, and now he was home recovering. He couldn't possibly ask him to sign today while he was resting in bed.

4. Then he decided he wanted to have quotes done on the refinishing and painting and ceiling work he'd agreed to do before he signed the offer. The work he'd already agreed to do, regardless of price.

5. Then he couldn't get us the offer first thing in the morning because the broker likes to sleep in.

6. Also, the seller wanted to change all the dates upon which we'd already agreed.

My broker sat in our dining room on the phone arguing with the seller's broker until a tentative truce was reached and a time of 9:30am was set for Sunday (yesterday) morning. The next morning, on pins and needles, 9:30am comes and goes. At 10:30am, my broker called the seller's broker, who said he was still in bed. Still in bed. Are you feeling my tension yet?

He and the seller had an appointment at 1:30pm and he'd sign it then. 1:30pm comes and goes, and at 2:45pm, my broker calls to ask what the hold-up is, and the broker claims they are working on it but want to talk dates again. My broker says that we'll talk dates after the inspection, at which point I'll ask my buyers to move their closing forward also. At 6:30pm, we still haven't heard anything, so my broker calls and demands an answer.

At this point, I was a basket of nerves. We've been waiting for responses for days, dealing with crazy excuses, and I've taken to doing drive-bys on the PDH to make sure they aren't doing mass showings in the hopes of soliciting higher offers (I am POSITIVE this is what they are doing by stalling). I finally called my broker and told her to tell the seller that I don't care anymore what they do, they can accept or reject the offer, but have the decency to give me an answer once and for all.

When she called to deliver the message, he simply said, "Oh, it's signed already." No phone call, no fax, no email, nothing. And he wasn't even apologetic. She asked for him to fax it, and he said he didn't have a fax machine, so she had to drive over to pick it up this morning.

To add insult to injury, he also flagged the property and put in caps on the listing sheet, "LOOKING FOR BACKUP OFFERS. PLEASE BRING ALL YOUR BUYERS!!!" Complete with exclamation points and everything. Plus, this morning he already lost my deposit check and has made all these ridiculous demands about mortgage letters and the like.

Asshole. My broker is at a loss to explain his behavior, although she has stated more than once that she wonders whether the broker might be on drugs. He's on something, that's for sure.

So all this to say that we do have an accepted offer on PDH, and an inspection scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and I'm trying to keep my hopes very very low, but you never know. Maybe this will work out and we won't have to rent and we'll be able to do this seamlessly. Ugh, it's a longshot, but you never know, I guess.