A Love Story

(Oh hey, I have a blog??)

Once upon a time in a distant land lived a little family, in a little place.
They were (mostly) content in that little place.  But they also had plans.

The plan was to wait until the end of golf season 2010, and then to move - either to a house in the vicinity, or to somewhere else - depending on what happened with the golf course.  This plan was held on to for months and months, even over a year, and even when unforeseen events rocked the foundations of this plan.
(See: here, here, and here, and here, and read between the lines.)

In the meantime, the Good Wife was checking Realtor.com several times a week for houses in Roosevelt, Texarkana, St. George ... even Arizona.  She wanted to be ready for whatever was coming.

One fine day, the very week the little family decided to stay in the Basin (for now) - and also not even a week after writing this post -  the Good Wife found a house listed in Roosevelt.  One that met and exceeded all of the pre-determined qualifications AND was in our price range.  I sent the link to Slice immediately.
It had been listed just that day.
The next day Slice had off work, and we were trying to decide what to do.  I told him how much I loved the house, and how it was going to get snatched up quickly, there are never decent houses in that price range on our market, and why don't we at least go look at it?  He reluctantly agreed.  An hour later we were waiting at the house.

It was a quick walk-through.  Liam was fussy, we were just taking a look, we hadn't even pre-qualified for a loan.  But it was love at first sight.
(I believe in love at first sight!)

So, we pre-qualified.  We put in an offer that same day.  We had a yard sale while waiting for the answer.  We upped the offer.  We waited some more.  We prayed.  We felt good about it all.
And they accepted.
And we waited some more.

Turns out, quitting a job isn't the best thing to do right before trying to qualify for a mortgage loan.  Neither is having an 8-month seasonal job.

But we packed and planned anyway.  I stopped watching TV.  I also stopped blogging, and reading books, and cleaning .... and doing anything but dreaming about colors, furniture, bookshelves, dishwashers, kitchen counters, bedrooms, unpacking all those boxes that have been packed SINCE MY WEDDING.
Okay, so I went a little crazy for a while.  Like six weeks.  I was nesting all over again.

Lo, it was not in vain!  With a little extra finagling, our loan came through; we signed our lives away.  It was so exciting.

The evening after the previous owners moved out, we came to examine the place.  Of course, they left it a mess.  Dog hair everywhere.  Gross bathrooms and fridge and pantry.  Unfinished coving in the basement (that was in the contract!-- ). A wall of MOLD behind the Grand Bookshelf.
We had to clean for two days before we could even move in.

Four years ago, the program director for Vienna Study Abroad told us that when you move somewhere new, you go through four stages: Honeymoon, Hate, Habituate, Home.

Guys, we are totally honeymooning it.

(Pics coming soon.)