Knocking Things Off the List

This has been the move that never ends.

It's gone on and on and on and on and...  Well, you get the picture.

Finally, we have the house we were renting all cleaned up.  The last thing we have to do is haul the trash out of the garage.  Thankfully, that is an easy job.

It felt good to walk out of there today and feel like we've checked something rather large off the list.  I couldn't have done it without my kids help, so for that I am also thankful.

When we first moved here, we couldn't figure out where we wanted to buy, so we rented for the past 18 months.  The management company informed us in April that at the end of our lease the owner wanted to raise the rent $400 more per month.  We had already been looking for a new home at the time, but this news accelerated us and gave us more motivation to get out of the house.  We found a house that we thought would be our home, made and offer and then felt it just wasn't the right place for us, so we pulled our offer.  In the mean time, we thought we could go month to month on the house until we found the right house.  That thinking was quickly squashed, as we received a notice from the management company that they weren't going to give us this option since we said we wouldn't pay more and he (the owner) hadn't formally sent it in writing that we had to do so.  His best option was to get us out so he could legally ask the higher amount of someone else.

Nice, eh?

Very quickly we started looking, this time without a realtor helping us.  We found a house on the market one day, and I represented myself, went and looked at the place and wrote up and offer on our own.  Unfortunately for us, there were multiple offers on the house the first day it was on the market...but, fortunately for us, ours was finally accepted in the end.  The only downfall was we got a messy house with rooms that needed painting since we couldn't ask them to fix anything or clean anything.  They felt they didn't need to do anything else since so many people were fighting for the same house...

Closing didn't happen when it was supposed to, so everything that should have been done prior to us moving in was happening as we were moving in.  It was slightly stressful, and I was told not to lift a finger to help.  That was tough and impossible.

So, a major undertaking has happened for the last two weeks, and we finally got moved.  I'm telling you cross country moves are easier than in town moves.  I've done a lot of both, so I feel I am a pretty good judge on this subject.  I also do not recommend moving in the 8th month of pregnancy.  I couldn't keep things in as much control and cleaned up as I would have liked.

Biggest thing on the list:

This house needs to be ship shape before the wee babe arrives.  It's a necessity!

As soon as it's all put together and beautified, I will post pictures.  :)