Moving on

I hadn't shared that we had moved to a new house early this fall. Perhaps because I was traumatized by it all.

Our home was small, but we loved it. We knew, however, that we had to say goodbye to it. We were outgrowing it quickly and couldn't have friends and family over often, because it ended up being an uncomfortable standing room only wall to wall gathering.

With 3 of the 5 of us having winter birthdays, it was becoming frustrating having to set limits on who exactly we would invite to celebrate with us. Any edits or restrictions we placed on our party lists never seemed to be quite right.

Anyway, after a few months of limited effort to sell our house, we decided to actually de-clutter the very small house and have an open house. We really were only trying to prove to ourselves that there was really no interest out there. I mean, the housing market is what it is. So, much to our surprise, a few days later one of the people who walked through the open house actually made an offer. Our plan had been to take the house off the market and get creative about how we could continue to make the house work for us.

Of course, all this came right before our church's tenth anniversary. Something hubby and I were coordinating, as well as hosting the special speakers that we had lined up. I was also leading the choir for the event and was directing a youth drama. Needless to say, that along with the everyday business of taking care of three little ones, a household and a near full time job, well it was a lot to handle in a short period of time.

We received the offer, accepted, got serious about finding a new house, made a few offers, entered into some negotiations, bought a house, packed and moved all within a period of 2-1/2 weeks. Our realtors were so great. With hubby's odd work schedule, they were actually showing us houses at 9-10pm and trying to get us everything on our wish list. Quite honestly, knowing how the market was, they encouraged us to look higher than our price range so that we could get the best house. Ultimately we really did get a house that we just laughed about when the realtor first asked us to go see it. Really, it was above what we would have ever looked at.

But having been on the market over a year, the sellers were very very motivated. It was truly a blessing that they met us on an offer that was much, much below what they were asking, and what the house is worth but within the price range we had decided could work for us.

We ended up moving in a two day period. Closing on both houses on Wednesday morning. I wouldn't have closed on our new house, without the old house sale being sealed up. There are just too many horror stories about deals falling through out there. Our buyer was gracious enough to allow us a few days, fee free, to move out of the house.

But with 9 years of accumulated stuff and 3 very little kids - I had to wonder what we were thinking! I spent the entire summer clearing out every corner of the house. We had rummage sales and made countless trips to the goodwill and other second hand stores. But it seemed to be endless. Even while we were moving, there were some truckloads where we just left boxes in the uhaul to just go straight to donation.

I must be the ultimate pack rat - it drove me crazy to think of everything that we gave away. I hope someone is enjoying it all.

By the end of it all - I thought my feet were going to explode, and we were exhausted from head to toe.

It's nearly two months since we moved now, and I think we're finally getting settled. We've only hung pictures in one room, and there are still about half a dozen boxes sitting around the house waiting to be unpacked.

We've gained more than twice the amount of square footage and with that our mortgage has grown about that as well - a little scary and something it will take a bit to adjust to. Half of the rooms are empty and so are the closets, so we have room to grow.

The house is in great condition, and is basically a blank canvas for us to put our own touches to. It's definitely a place we can make home over time. Already the girlies and the boy are very comfortable here. And we can't say enough about the additional bathrooms here which are already invaluable with two girls in the house.