Holy crap It’s Happening
Every time we reach another milestone, another stage of this journey I think, “wow, now it really feels real.” And though i’ve said it numerous times, this one is definitely a biggie.
WE ARE UNDER CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE!!!!
We got an offer last Monday night (8/17) that was so good we accepted immediately. It was for full asking, seems like a great family who absolutely fell in love with the house and will be a great addition to the neighborhood, and they want to buy our furniture. Win-win-win.
The inspection was today and the appraisal is on Thursday, so we’re crossing all of our fingers that the upcoming negotiations over repairs are easy. But we couldn’t be more excited.
This means we have been able to start finalizing dates. Assuming all goes well (pleasepleasepleaseplease), we will close on the house on September 22nd and begin our car trip across the country a few days later. But mid-October, we will be in Hawaii.
So now it really really REALLY feels real.
Check out those bathroom floors. Blood, sweat and many tears poured into those.
The reason I haven’t updated before now, or gotten on here to say thank you for all the wonderful comments and support I got on my last blog post (seriously, thank you so much), is because in the midst of the chaos and excitement, Chris made 3 more trips to the ER last week with unexplained abdominal pain. Still don’t know what’s causing it, but we’re hoping we’re on the right path to getting answers now.
Now we’re on to the nitty gritty details. For example, the things I’ve done today are: finalized the day the dogs fly out of LA (October 7th), found a place that I think we’re going to sign a lease for to live starting October 8th (it’s less than a block from the ocean!!), finalized our reservation for our Pod shipping/storage container (it gets driven from NC to San Diego, then gets put on a ship for a 2 week boat ride to Hawaii), and officially given notice at my job that my last day will be September 18th (not letting myself think about those goodbyes yet).
Chris and I still aren’t living at our house, but we spent the night there last Thursday night. He got there before I did and when I walked in, he was sitting on the couch with a weird look on his face. “What?” I asked him. “This house is weird, I don’t like it, and I don’t want to be here.” I started laughing and actually felt relieved because that’s how I’ve felt whenever I’ve gone by there since we put it on the market. Whether it’s because so much of our stuff is gone, there’s no art on the walls, or just that we know we’re leaving, it just doesn’t feel like home anymore.
My favorite room in the house. So glad our realtor said the red walls could stay.
We will probably be moving back in this weekend to start the final packing and making decisions on what is actually going to go (versus what we think/want to go). Our shipping container is 7 ft x 7 ft x 8 ft tall so that’s one constraint. But more than that is we both are committed to doing this right and getting rid of as much as we can.
So there are a lot more little steps ahead of us. And I’ll probably say, “now it REALLY feels real” a dozen more times. But there are moments, amid the chaos, where I stop and think, “we are actually doing this.” Part of me is shocked. And part of me just wants to go back 3 years when we were in the middle of our fertility journey and where I was convinced having kids was the only way we could be happy. I would love to tap that Caroline on the shoulder and whisper, “it’s going to be okay. The future is not at all what you expect and the journey is excruciating, but it’s going to be worth it.”