Monday, January 2, 2012

One down, eight bazillion to go...

We got a house.

Man, it feels good to say that. It was getting a bit dicey there for a second. Our new town is small, but about 30 highway, traffic-free, minutes from a pretty large city. In my own version of "convince myself the world is fair" I had decided that since I had to move, and since my new prison is actually in a decent town, I was not commuting. We set our max distance at 15-20 minutes. C and I drove up there last week to look at areas and get the ball rolling, and found that our choice 1 of suburbs (not the prison city but close, and more affordable) was too far away. It was easily 30 minutes, on surface streets, in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. And it wasn't cute. Prison city is cute. It's got an adorable downtown, lots of walking paths and hiking trails, and is one of the safest cities in California. It just felt like a good fit. BUT. There were only two houses in the whole city that 1) would fit us and 2) we could afford. One was right in the middle of our budget and literally four minutes from work. The other was at the higher end of our budget, a little further away, but much nicer. Much, much nicer. We couldn't get ahold of the agent but left several desperate messages about how much we wanted to talk to her about the house. She called just as we hit the half-way point home, so the kids and I went back on Saturday to look at the house/charm the agent. She warned me that she had two other applications and was not a huge fan of the dog, but we went ahead and put in an application. I drove home with the worst pit in my stomach. If this house didn't work we could try for the much older, but cheaper house, or we'd have to start thinking about looking at smaller or further away. I think defensively, I started to simultaneously degrade the house and characterize it as the best. house. ever.

This morning she called to tell us that it's ours if we want it. C and I both let out audible sighs of relief, then led the whole family in a very dignified, definitely not involving booty shaking, happy dance. It just feels so. freaking. good. to be able to cross that off of our list. I still have to pack, register Eli for school, change addresses, set up utilities, sell my swingset, scrub my house, use up all the food in the freezer... but we have a freaking house! And it's a pretty sweet little place.
I went to get my haircut today (with my whole family, because we're awesome and now we look super cute) and was talking to the lady about the new year. Despite the hassles and uncertainty with all the layoff/transfer stuff, I think it's pretty cool that we get to start 2012 with a new town, new job, and new family dynamic (more on that later, not pregnant.)

2 comments:

  1. That is great news! Even though you have bunches more to do... Having a place helps a ton! Especially if you LOVE it :) Best of luck with everything else on the list. Love your updates.

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  2. THIS IS AWESOME NEWS! Now how to visit you, and avoid Joe's parents...hee,hee,hee

    On a serious note this is super encouraging to me as all of a sudden I am having major anxiety over finding a place (in our unknown town UGH!) perfect for our family-safe town, big enough, craft/guest room, in our budget, J getting to quit the big L FOR GOOD...Basically your life :-) So thanks for reminding me that this can happen perfectly and miraculously. I CAN"T WAIT TO SEE YOUR NEW PLACE! And I seriously think you will ALL be much happier there.

    Did I mention all the super fun Gold Rush stuff right around there? Eli WILL LOVE IT.

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