Moving For Real!

About a year ago (or longer?!), I wrote a post about how things were going to change in the next six months.  We were putting our house up for sale; we were hoping to have another baby.  Those plans didn't work out.  Our house has been on the market since March, over eight months.  We'd have so many showings and wonder, "Is this it?!"  We were continually let down.

We didn't realize just how bad the market was in Lynchburg.  While the rest of the country seems to be recovering slowly, Lynchburg is an isolated market.  Everything was selling for less than when we bought three years ago, which was after the first housing "crash".  When we listed our house, we thought we were going to make a lot of money, especially since our next door neighbor's house sold way above city assessment--this would be the source of our downpayment on our second home.  Months later, we learned that we'd be lucky to walk away clean.  So, we spent the summer saving up and now have enough for a new downpayment.  Since we're moving back home to Chesapeake, houses are much more expensive.  Like, double or triple.  So our downpayment had to be much, much more than for our first house.

Selling our house has been stressful.  So much emotion goes into your home, especially when you completely renovated it like we did.  We grew offended by each person who said it was too small or too big or "incomplete" (WHAT?!) or that they preferred a ranch.  "Why did they even look?!" we'd always shout.  We didn't understand.  It is hard not to fall in love with our house.  Why was no one else seeing that?  And getting the house spotless and packing a toddler and two dogs into a car for an hour is no easy task.

Somehow, though, we just found the right people.  Or they found us.  Or found our home.  And they fell in love with it.  And they put in an offer yesterday afternoon!  We spent the evening getting the contract settled.  Here's the thing:  they want to close December 20.  That is really fast!  I feel like we won't really have Christmas this year, which makes me really sad because Eliot is getting to the age that he would really enjoy it (I'm not saying he'd completely understand it, but he'd have fun).

And where are we going to live?  Fortunately, we had found the perfect house for us last weekend.  Actually, we have been staring at it since it went up in July and watched the price drop slowly.  We knew it was just right for us and got to be such a good deal that it would go fast.  We were so afraid that we'd miss it that Chris wasn't even going to look at it with me--it was just going to be me and my mom--but he changed his mind last minute.  I'm glad he did!  It is a large, open, updated ranch with everything important new (AC, roof, tankless water heater, and so on).  And it has a pool, which Chris really wanted!  Best of all, it is priced very low for the area.  We are dealing with a re-location company instead of an individual (that is what makes the house so affordable), so there is a lot more paper work and strict rules to work through.  In fact, they were not too excited about our offer being contingent on our house selling (even though we have an offer), but somehow they accepted it anyway! 

Honestly, I think our house didn't sell earlier because it wasn't the right time.  Our "right" house wasn't at the right price yet.  Earlier in the process, we looked at a home that was $50,000 more than this house.  I didn't feel good about it, but it was such a deal that we might have made the wrong choice and put an offer on that instead.  We could have made it work financially, but it would have been hard.  It wasn't what we were supposed to buy.  However, this house is absolutely perfect for us.  I even prefer it to the more expensive home!  Even if it is hard to understand at times, you just have to rely on God's plan, not your own.  This is a lesson that I am constantly re-learning.

Amidst all the excitement, I discovered from my credit report that Target thinks I have a card with them.  And I don't.  And they think the card was opened in 1996--when I was 10.  Not possible!  I called about it, but they said I have to send them something in writing.  That has been a whole different set of stresses and worries.  Fortunately, it is not damaging my credit because the person has been paying the card off, so I think it was an honest mix up, but I do not want to be connected to an account that is not mine.

I am sad to leave Lynchburg.  I do not regret buying our house.  We loved our time here.  It is a beautiful little cottage.  We learned a lot.  We built memories.  We brought our baby boy home from the hospital to this house.  About two weeks ago, someone knocked on our door.  The lady explained that she had lived in our house in 1978.  She said they brought their baby girl home from the hospital here too.  Chris offered to let her come inside, but she said no.  Chris and the lady chatted about how the house used to be.  In our time here, we pulled out this giant, horrible hedge with poison ivy entwined.  The lady told Chris that they had pulled out a nasty, thorny hedge too.  As we prepare to leave, we were a part of something in the history of this house--more than we'll ever know.  That's the thing with historic houses:  we added to it and it added to us.  We made it better.  And maybe it made us a little better too.  One thing is for sure--we will never find a neighborhood hill as awesome for sledding as the one in our neighborhood here!