Life Changes Galore

So from the previous post, it's obvious that we have some life changing events coming up. A new baby definitely qualifies for life changing. Life improving, yes. But life changing. Well we have more than one big event in the works. We have to soon get a new vehicle-one that will fit THREE car seats. Those things are pretty expensive.  How ever will we pay for said vehicle? Well we decided we'd just sell our home to get the cash. Just kidding! That isn't EXACTLY what we thought. It is, however, actually happening. We won't sell our home JUST to buy a new vehicle.

With this third baby we also find ourselves in need of a bigger home. Our current place is pretty great. But. It only has two bedrooms. Rick and I claim one for ourselves. We won't share. We're selfish that way. That leaves one room for Chelsea, Brienna, and coming baby. I know it has been done by other families before. I don't see it working out for us. Chelsea and Brie wake each other up early enough and often enough as it is sharing a room. It is also necessary for Chelsea to be asleep before Brie goes to bed, otherwise neither kid sleeps. They talk and play and make noise and bug each other. That's dandy enough except Brie is ready for bed at nearly the same time as Chelsea nowadays. Hallelujah! That is a great thing!

(Our solution for this sleeping at the same time is simple: Chelsea goes to sleep in her new big bed in the bedroom. Brie will not stay in the toddler bed unless she is unconscious when you put her in it. And it doesn't last all night usually. So. We moved the crib downstairs when the new furniture arrived. Brie just sleeps downstairs, sort of in exile in the crib, but not really. She seems to be happy in her crib and doesn't mind being alone. It works out peachy. And now we are spoiled by having had them separated and sleeping so much better.)

Less than a week ago we contacted the Realtor that helped up buy our condo. He's really great. We met with him and two days later he was showing us a house he knew about but was not actually ON the market yet. That is why we called a Realtor. The housing market has such a fast turnover rate here that the good stuff disappears IMMEDIATELY. Realtors have insider status and can do such things as showing us a house that hasn't even hit the market yet. Any of you that follow us on Facebook (which I realize is most of you, so just bear with me as you hear this all again) you've already heard about the results of said viewing. It was quite nice but seemed too small and a little dated. A couple days later we looked around at some more houses and lots for new construction. The girls LOVED looking at the houses and running around and sliding on the bare floors. Chelsea was definitely NOT impressed with the partially built ones. They were too messy. Ha!

Now keep in mind that the mortgage insurance rates are going up in two weeks, so it would be advantageous to have an offer made by then in order to keep the lower rate. So that is the general timeframe we are working with. I've never been concerned about selling our place. It's in a price range many people want and can afford and it's pretty good quality and better than many of the similarly priced options out there. (Which is why we chose this place in the first place!) We expected to have to put an offer on something going up in order to get something decent. So after looking at our options, we decided that we did after all want to go with new construction. We had one picked out, had visited the lot and found it satisfactory, and were prepared to go forward. (This is still less than a week ago. It still hasn't even been a week since contacted our Realtor. Can you say whirlwind?)

Well Realtorman was made aware of one house that came on the market the very day that we were going to go ahead with the construction deal. Ok. We wanted to see it. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal. It was three bedroom, one full bathroom, one 3/4 bathroom, double garage with a triple wide driveway, room for two more bedrooms downstairs complete with egress windows, etc etc etc. And it was only six years old. AND just under our peak affordability. Sweet!

We looked through it. It was found satisfactory, despite a semi finished basement. That part has great potential. The whole upstairs is complete and beautiful along with a huge family area downstairs which will meet our needs for the time being quite nicely. What did we do? Well. We finished our paperwork for selling the condo, cleaned and took pictures, listed the condo (which may show up on the website tomorrow), and made an offer on the beautiful six year old house with a semifinished basement.

We're almost current here, sorry for my long windedness. The next day (which would be today) the owners of said beautiful house gave us a counter offer. (We offered a lower price and asked them to pay closing) They asked for $3000 more than our offer (which still puts it lower than the initial asking price) and agreed to pay all the closing costs (which will be about $6000 so that is pretty cool.) Did we accept it? BOY HOWDY! Of course! So. Now the thing to do is sell our condo, and the deal is sealed. At this point, the pretty house is still on the market but with a contingency note on it. We can only buy the house if we use the money from our condo sale, so we have to wait until our place is sold to actually pay for it. Thus, it is still available for other folk to view and make offers on. We are counting on the fact that the contingency notice tends to put off Realtors from even showing it, since it's as good as gone. Hope, hope!

We had one viewing of our condo already, yesterday, the first day of even being listed. Realtorman had a client who he thought would be a good match. The guy DID like it and was very excited about it, but after going home and consulting with his parents, he decided he wouldn't be able to afford it after all. Bummer. I was really hoping this would be THAT easy and quick. If he had made an offer, we would be guaranteed the new house as of this moment! But no offer. Grumble. Oh well. So that is where we sit.

How do I feel about all of this? I feel really good. I feel excited. I feel nervous. I feel IMPATIENT. I feel sleepy. Why sleepy? Funny you should ask that. For most of last night I laid in my bed wide awake deciding how big I want my laundry room to be. Should we make a half, 3/4, or full bathroom in the basement? Walk in closets in the new bedrooms? And we hadn't even heard if the owners were on board with our offer! Now that they are, and we are stuck playing the waiting game, I'm going NUTS! I haven't even gone to bed and it's pretty much all I can think of already. I've been obsessive (almost) about keeping the house ready to show at any moment. (Yeah, it's only been a day and a half. I hope it sells soon so I can regain my sanity and loose my OCD tendencies.)

So there we are. I'm really glad I'm going to be gone/working/busy most of the next four days. We gave Realtorman free reign to come over any time, especially if we don't answer the phone. The Realtors are going to have a viewing on Friday, which I think is pretty darn cool. I didn't know they did stuff like that. It WOULD be a lot easier to sell a place or recommend a place that you've actually SEEN before. So I will leave the computer now and pace around making sure there's nothing dirty or gross showing. No bad smells anywhere, dishes are done, sink clean, toothpaste rinsed from the bathroom sink/counter, etc etc etc. Shall I rest? I am having doubts. I'm still really positive and optimistic about a quick sale, but the impatience and the not knowing for sure yet is maddening! Here is a cute photo for you to look at just for getting to the bottom of this wordy post. Enjoy and please say a prayer for us to sell SOON!!! We'd be much appreciative.