Thank you

 Thank you for the kind comments. Yes, this is only temporary. And how blessed am I that I have family resources to gift us with the luxury of time. In the past, buying a house has meant looking at 3-4 in a day and picking one. This time we can be more intentional. 

I have been using the heck out of both my amazon kindle (thanks kindle unlimited!) as well as my bath tub. Mom's house only has a step in shower - alas I am a hard core calgon girl. Oh well.

So yes, some things I am doing well - others not so much. This is temporary and every period has its blessings and stressors. My feelings have been up and down, but I am slowly getting excited. One big plus (in addition to being close to family) is being close to my bestie. I'm not a person with a large social group - living near friends is going to be wonderful!

Take care.

Waiting for my life to start

 Things are weird. Our house is box central, a bunch of furniture is sold/ gone, and its basically chaos. We will be packed up on time. T still hasn't found a job and honestly we've been eating out a lot. I just don't feel like I have the energy or motivation to cook. I'm not exercising beyond walking the dog. I feel crappy. It's not good. 

House prices in Wilmington are coming down slightly, so we plan to stay with my mom while we take a time and find a house. I'm glad ours is sold - that's a huge weight off our mind. And I know we'll find a house, but putting my stuff into storage for an unknown period of time (again) just feels sad. My logical mind knows all the reasons this is the logical choice, but it still feels sad in a way. I don' tknow if that makes any sense. 

Anyway, just mentally struggling right now.

Take care.

The end is in sight

 Packing has slowed down this week, as we have focused on some cleaning & making it feel less crazy. And donating. This weekend we are headed out of town to go to an event and hang with some friends.So we well deserved break before we focus back down for the final dash to the finish line. Moving truck arrives morning of 19 November.

Take care.

Shifting Market

 The housing market is definitely changing. We sold our house just under asking, they came back with concessions after inspection, which we countered, which they accepted. It sold fairly quickly and painlessly, but I feel like we squeaked in under the wire. Still in packing purgatory.

Still waiting

 No news on the home sale front. I got on the scale this morning. Not happy.

Ugh

 So the buyers want a plumber to scope some of the pipes due to the inspector saying some are deteriorating? UGH

Update

Things progress. The home inspection and appraisal have taken place - the termite inspection is tomorrow. We continue to pack up. We've reserved a moving truck. It's getting real.

We continue to be impressed with Hungryroot. I can only speak to the vegan menu since that what we've been ordering, but 2 weeks in and we love it! I can send a code for $50 off if anyone is interested in trying it.

I'm tired, but I'm managing.

Take care.

Changes

Change isn't easy for me. I thrive on routine. I've just been putting my head down, focusing on the next thing and not thinking too hard about the somewhat vague future.

If you live in the U.S., then you know that the housing market has been insane. The prediction is that prices will fall into 2023, which is kind of what we are betting on. The market in our area is already slowing down - we had 6 showings in 7 days and 1 offer. That's still great, but its not the bidding war that was taking place a few months ago. I'm not complaining - just recognizing that I think we sold at the right time before missing out on a great market. I can say we sold our house for double what we paid for it 6 years ago. I can also say we put a fair amount of money and sweat equity into it!

So what's next? Our plan had been to build on land next to my bestie. We found a great builder and even put money down. But as we looked into it, we realized that land plus the house plus a garage, fence, etc. was going to be about $100k more than we wanted to spend - without any landscaping. I didn't want to spend my golden years house poor.

We're betting on the shifting market. We're already seeing houses near our target price range in the Wilmington area. So for the interim we're putting our stuff in storage and staying with my mom while we look around. I recognize we are extremely fortunate that we have a family situation that allows us to do that - my mom is excited about us staying with her for a while. We're moving our furniture into her guest room so we have our bed, her 3rd bedroom is becoming a sitting room so we can watch UFC and she can watch British mysteries. It will feel a bit cramped, but honestly? Three people in a 1800 square foot house with an outside area isn't really cramped. 

I've taken a step back from some things that matter to me (like my kettlebells) to focus on the here and now. My plan has been to focus on eating healthfully and walking the dog often. Hungryroot has been super helpful - it's been hysterical to see my husband excited about vegan food. (That's the option I chose for our boxes and so far its been amazing!). 

Friday I will climb on a scale and see where I'm at, but I'm going to try & focus on healthy mental and physical habits for now at least. If I see something too out there that plan may change.

Home inspection

 Home inspection is scheduled for Friday. Fingers crossed! We are headed back home tomorrow. Mom is going with us since she has an appointment with her surgeon. We'll likely be up there until closing, other than bringing mom back down here.

I feel like I'm in a holding pattern here - so I've bene playing solitaire and doing puzzles. :-)

Meal planning

Things have been pretty hectic. Inspection scheduled for Friday - fingers crossed! So meal planning has been ... non existent. So I decided to sign up for hungryroot. They describe themselves as being somewhere between meal kits and grocery delivery. I ordered 3 entrees, a couple of breakfasts, and we got some snacks. Overall I've been really impressed by everything we've tried!

We have a date

 We are officially under contract. Closing date is Nov 21!

Maybe baby

 We verbally accepted an offer last night. Just waiting for the paperwork. Fingers crossed!

And before

 Just for comparison, these are the pictures from the listing when we purchased the house 6 years ago.

Holding pattern

We had 2 showing requests for Friday - one with 20 minutes notice and one with 5 minutes notice. So we packed up and came to the beach. 

I declined one of those showings (I was about to start a meeting). So 1 showing Friday and 1 yesterday. Le sigh. I hope we didn't leave it too late.

In any case, mom and I are here with the dogs and T went back home to do some yard work etc. So I'm not set up down here (because once the house is under contract we'll be living there to pack up), so everything just feels in limbo. I'm not sure what to do about joining a gym or anything since I KNOW at some point I'll be gone for 6 or so weeks. 

We'll be fine, but the limbo stinks. I did sign up for hungryroot - a sort of grocery delivery/ meal kit hybrid. Trying to plan meals is a bridge too far. I'll report back.

Take care.

Listing pictures

 

In no particular order....

And we're live

 My house listing is up. So now we wait! I don't have control over what happens next, so we'll see what happens. It feels kinda like walking out of a big test, knowing you did the best you could, and just waiting for the results.

As much as I was excited about building a house near my best friend, I am now rethinking that. We aren't making any decisions right this minute, but the reality is that building what I want is going to be about $100k MORE than buying similar - and that is no paved driveway, no landscaping. So.... I dunno. It feels like I can have my dreams or a brand new "dream" house (and its not my ideal), so I'm wondering if that's the right choice.

My husband still hasn't found a job. We are toying with the possibility of doing a road camping trip prior to buying a house because it seems like a good opportunity. So much is up in the air, but that also means so many opportunities.

T minus 5 hours

 The photographer will be here in 5 hours to take the photos for our house listing. The past few days have been beyond exhausting.  Minor repairs, yard work, some painting, and of course decluttering and cleaning! But I hope it pays off in the form of a solid offer that comes in quickly. Fingers crossed.

If y'all are interested, I will share a link to the listing once it is up. I think I'd prefer to email that rather than post it on my blog though. What you you guys think?

Making progress

My son and his girlfriend came for a couple of days and helped with some maintenance type chores around the house. We've continued to pack up some extra stuff and now comes the big push to deep clean and stage before the photographer comes Tuesday afternoon. The appraiser came this past Tuesday, and the house should be listed & on the market come next Friday. So scary and exciting!

I'm not rushing the process on the new house, I know that adds time but right now I don't have the bandwidth for keeping that ball in the air.I will think about it soon. All of this has been very stress filled to say the least. I'm beginning to do a bit better, but its been a struggle. I spoke with my doctor about an antidepressant to help deal with things - especially going into winter (which I hate).

So not great, but not terrible.

Friday reflections

Good morning and happy Friday. Weight is down 2.6 pounds from last week, which is a miracle. Still no intentional exercise beyond walking the dog.

As I am packing up and getting ready to sell this house, it feels like a right time to reflect on being intentional in creating the next stage of my life. The goal is for the next house to be the last house, so beyond some obvious choices (one story & other aging in place choices), things like size of house matters as well. 

I am aggressively down sizing my furniture to minimize what gets moved & stored. While I'm keeping important family items, things I've collected and like but aren't emotionally attached to are going to go. The house we've looked at is roughly the same size as this one, but I'm wondering if we would be comfortable in a smaller one. Given that I work at home, I do need an office space, so maybe not. But size affects price, and price matters! Thankfully that isn't a decision we need to make right away.

My ideal is that I have a new house that is decluttered, which will translate to less maintenance.  The reason is that I want to be able to do more traveling - which requires money, so mortgage size matters!

The other reality I am dealing with is my husband's health. He has gained a fair bit of weight since his knee replacement surgery (much more sedentary role plus stress plus depression) and his weight definitely affects his activity level. One reason I went to Alaska alone was the simple fact that he would not have been able to do the things I wanted to to. I'm not trying to throw stones - my fitness affected what I was able to do in Alaska! 

I don't want to sound mean, I love my husband. But work demands, raising a child, etc. has meant certain dreams of mine have been deferred. I'm ready to stop deferring my dreams. If that means I do trips with women's groups or other organized travel groups or other family members and T stays home - well, that makes me sad. I'd love for him to have adventures with me, but I can't control the choices he makes around his health. We've had that discussion.

I don't know what that looks like. I need to think through that. I do know I need to set myself up for success - and that means creating a lifestyle that prioritizes physical activity and minimizes the constant sorting/ cleaning/ organizing that takes up a lot of my time now.

Have a great weekend!

Uncertainty

 I feel like I should be using this blog more than ever, but I feel so frazzled that even sitting down to write seems like an effort.

We've made some progress on packing up some stuff to declutter for photos. My son is coming Sunday to help with some of the "work" - we need to paint any exterior peeling paint, mainly the ceiling of our 3 season porch. Plus wash windows, tidy up yard, etc. A lot of manual labor, but we've been primarily focused on the interior.

It's just so huge. I'm trying to just do a bit at a time and not freak out. My goal is to have the house listed by the end of the month.

I had major sticker shock when we went to talk to a builder. Our new mortgage is going to be higher than I would like, that's for sure. But I still feel now is the time to do this.

Anyway, some days I do pretty good, other days not so much. Exercise is out the window for now, unless you count packing boxes.

Take care.