A Few More Hours - AKA Big Day #2

It's just a few more hours until we get to sign the papers and receive the keys to our new house. Then the real work begins. I will probably spend most of today cleaning. While we had hoped to be able to get in the house and do our cleaning over the weekend, it didn't work out that way. Though the current owner did finally get all of his stuff out on Saturday evening, he decided not to be overly cooperative. He basically told our agent, if we cleaned before Monday, he wanted compensated for the utilities we would be using, since they would not be transferred to our name until today. So we chose to wait and do it on our dime, so as not to inconvenience him (ha ha).

I do not look forward to spending the day shampooing carpets, cleaning toilets, and wiping down all of those kitchen cabinets, but it will be well worth it. It wouldn't be so bad, if the current owners had not had a cat, but with our allergies, we really can't take any chances. So, we will spend the day cleaning and moving what we can, and hopefully we can spend our first night in our new home tomorrow.

Big Day #1

Today is the first of two big days in our quest to buy our new home. In just a few short hours we will officially sell our home. While I am more than ready to move to our new house, I have so many fond memories of our first home. When Brian and I married, almost 15 years ago, we lived in a small duplex - ironically it is only a mile from our new house. We stayed there for almost a year before moving to my great-uncle's rent house north of Morrilton. We loved it there, but after I graduated from college and got a job we knew it was time to stop throwing our money out the window by renting.

We first looked at our current house on March 1, 1997. We closed on it a month later and became homeowners. We have had so many blessings during the last 12 years in this house. It is the only home either of our children have ever known. We have celebrated a lot of birthdays and Christmases there. We have entertained our friends and family there. And though there are things I will miss about it, it now it is time to move on to bigger and better things. Mostly bigger...I can't wait to have space to invite people over and not feel like we are all on top of each other. I get claustrophobic when we have company now. I look forward to Monday, when we get to start making new memories in our new home.

Quick Update

Well, if everything goes as planned we will be selling our house at 1:30 this Friday, and purchasing the new house at 10 on Monday. We have spent most of the last month packing and sorting. We have weeded out some stuff, but probably not nearly as much as we should have. Maybe we can part with more of it as we begin to unpack next week. We are all tired but super excited. The kids are anxious to get their rooms back in order, and to get their own rooms again. Almost two weeks ago, when we were running out of space to store the packed boxes, we decided to move Skylar's bed into Stephen's room and store the boxes in her room. That has worked pretty well, but you can sure tell they are not used to sharing their space. It will be a real treat to get to spread out again.

Our Soon to be New Home

Here are a couple of pictures. The first is the front of the house. The second is the view from the front deck.

Neglect

Wow I have really neglected my blog. And it probably won't get any better anytime soon, since tax season has officially began and...we are moving!!!!! After six months of waiting we are finally getting to buy the house we looked at back in July. We should close in about a month. Maybe my posting will get better then as I will have something other than slooooooow dial-up Internet at home. I will try to keep you all up to date on the big move.