I think we have a house

Sometimes I wonder what possessed us to move in the first place. I mean, all in all the process is going quite well, but it is so stressful. (If there were a way to virtually knock on wood, I would because I don't want to jinx us, but I'm going to share anyway because I'm kind of excited about the status.) We accepted an offer on our house less than a month after we listed. I think it was last Saturday night, and we listed March 6. I know our realtors would kill me for not knowing the exact days on the market, but I don't. I've started delegating remembering details to as many people as possible. Anyway, it only took 6 counteroffers, but we did it with a relatively small amount of pain. There is still a long way to go before the house is really sold, but all signs point to yes at this moment.

On the buying side, we went to see a house that we really liked last Sunday. We decided to go back and see it and a couple other favorites on Monday evening. We still liked the house on Monday and decided to put in an offer sometime on Tuesday. Tuesday around noon we heard that there was motion on our desired house, so we really had to rush to put together our offer. We also had to increase our offer to make it more desirable because now we were competing for the house and they were offering a lot more than we were. Meanwhile Daniel and I were displaced because of a showing. Peggy graciously watched Daniel and put him down for a nap while I drove to the First Weber office to sign the papers, looking fantastic I might add in my post-swimming wet hair, no makeup look. It's really how everyone should look when trying to make major purchases. So we got the offer in, and Daniel and I returned to our house to finish out the day. Now keep in mind that it took about 10 days of counteroffers plus countless phone calls to sell our house, so I was not expecting anything to happen too quickly on our offer.

So at 5 pm I get a phone call saying that the sellers drove in from Milwaukee to hear the offer and their agent thinks they will be interested, but they have the other higher offer on the table and someone else (a third person) is at the house to see if they want to make another offer that night. Great, we are low man on the totem pole, and now I get to wait more. It's a wonder that I didn't eat all the desserts in my house. At 6:30 pm I get another phone call asking if we will accept a counteroffer at $1,000 above the price Matt and I had set at our top limit. When you are talking about a house, $1,000 really is not that much. I was so excited that a few tears welled up in my eyes. We said yes, and by 9 pm we had signed the papers accepting the offer. 9 days for one deal, 9 hours for the other. Talk about anxiety! It took my chest days to relax.

Matt and I really feel like we got this house for a great price, and it has everything we want. It is in a great neighborhood, has tons of space, and needs minimal work. We will have to do some painting and flooring, but nothing major. Honestly, I never thought we would end up in a house this wonderful. We still have the inspections and appraisals on both houses left, so nothing is certain. The closing date for both deals is May 15. We will know a lot more after Tuesday when we hear back from the inspection on our current house and have the inspection for the new house.

I really think that God was on our side for this deal. We found out that the owners of the new house are a super Catholic family, and they were really happy to hear that another Catholic family would be moving in. They have five children. I wonder if they think we will have five, too? I really think our Catholicism is part of the reason that they have been so easy to work with on the sale. They are even willing to let us paint and possibly move some stuff in before the closing date. My Papa got a house in a similar situation when my Dad was a kid. Funny huh? The other strange thing is that this house has been on Matt's list forever, and I've never been willing to go see it. For one reason or another, we just never made it there. I was finally willing to go see it, and the timing was right. I can't wait to post pictures of the new house, but I'm going to wait just a little bit.

Anyway, this whole house selling and buying has made our life a total mess, not to mention Daniel's 1st birthday and Easter with my family here. I feel so guilty about all the time we have drug Daniel around to houses or had to leave him with someone while we are doing house stuff. If we do in fact get this house, we shouldn't have to move for a long time. All the guilt will be worth it. Also, thank goodness for my inlaws! I don't know how we would get through this without them. It is truely a blessing to have people who love Daniel so much and are willing to help out so close by. The sad thing is that I think we are just at the beginning of the process, and I'm already feeling guilty.

By the way, Matt is out of town and has been since Wednesday, so I could make this post go on forever if I wanted to, but I'm going to stop now. He was supposed to be home tonight, but got stuck because of weather. Hopefully he will make it back early tomorrow.