Tuesday, February 21, 2017

New Home, and Atticus is 2!

Two weekends ago I woke up, and did my usual check to see if any new houses had been posted to the realtor websites.  I saw one that caught my eye, showed it to Andy, and then sent our realtor an email saying we wanted to see it that day.  We have looked at a lot of houses over the past six months, but when we drove up to this one I think we both knew it was it.  Andy and I debated on the back yard which is a little on the small side, and on the fact that it needed some updating, but in the end we decided it just felt like home.  We put an offer in that afternoon along with four other people, and played the waiting game until Sunday night.  We really did not believe we would get the house, after all we did not ask much more than the asking price.  We thought for sure someone would have bid over us so we were both a little surprised when our realtor called with the good news.  We had been chosen!  We popped the champagne, and celebrated.

Andy took Monday afternoon off, and we began boxing and moving things to a storage unit.  That night we had the kids parent teacher conferences, and then came back to do more work.  The conferences went well, and I love the opinion writing piece that Briley's teacher shared.
Tuesday was Valentine's day, and I went to school to the kids parties for awhile, and then Andy came home early so we could continue to declutter the house.  That night we gave the kids cards that said they were going to see Lion King when we go to St. Louis, and they seem excited about that.  Baylor was acting like he was getting sick so we put him to bed early, and the others got Smallcakes cupcakes before going to bed.


Wednesday was the inspection so we spent the morning over at the new house, and then I had to leave to get Baylor.  The owner came home at the end, and Andy got to meet her.  She and her husband built the house, but are now moving to Charlotte to be close to their kids.  He has had some strokes and is in a nursing home.  She seems to be happy with a family moving into her house.
Andy left later that day for a business trip, and I put the kids to bed that night and cleaned our house for pictures the following day.  I staged things Thursday morning, and then made the kids stay outside as much as possible so they didn't mess up the house  before she came to take the pictures.  It was a bad time for the kids to all be home from school!
Baylor got his room all ready for the showings;)  He was very proud of his decorating.  He taped his paper chain to the wall, and displayed his train book on one nightstand and his 100 days certificate on the other.

It has been a whirlwind since that moment, and Andy and I really have lost a lot of sleep worrying about what needs to be done for our house, and what needs to be done for the new house.  We cleaned and decluttered all week, and our house went on the market on Friday night.  We got a hotel room so the kids didn't mess up the house that night.
The next morning we got up and dropped Viva off at our neighbors house.  There was a showing at 9:30 so we drove around and waited to see what kind of people they were.  A young couple pulled up with a little baby, and I burst out crying.  It wasn't exactly sad tears, but tears of joy for the next family that would be moving in.  The couple reminded me so much of Andy and I with Briley when we first looked at this house eight years ago.  It was in that moment that I realized the house really wasn't ours anymore. I think I had been so busy dreaming of the new house, and cleaning this house that I didn't have the time to be emotional about leaving.
After we drove away we went to a park for awhile, then Baylor's game, Menard's, lunch, another park, and then Briley's game.  It was so hard not to be able to go home and let the kids relax for awhile.  Poor Briley was in a trance by the time she began her game at 4:30.
After her game we picked up Viva, and got the lowdown on all the people who had came to the house throughout the day.  There was couple in our house as we were next door.  It was so hard not being able to walk into our house.
That night we drove to Kirksville to celebrate Mr. Atticus.  I'm glad he is two, and didn't get the concept of birthdays because he certainly did not get the usual birthday celebration.  The kids were excited to see their cousins, and Andy and I finally was able to relax somewhat since our part had been done.  We then just had to wait for the offers to start rolling in.
Sunday morning I got up, and began getting things ready for Atticus's party. We just did pizza, and kept things low key.  It was a beautiful day outside, and the kids loved playing outside all day.  Atticus got a lot of fun gifts, but the hit was a microwave from Lissy.  All the kids were fighting over that.  Since it was so nice we did cake outside after presents.
The rest of the day was spent reviewing offers on our house.  We ended up having 27 showings with nine offers come in.   They came with letters and pictures begging us to choose them.  It was such a hard decision, but in the end we had to go with the PE coach from Blue River, and his family.  They put in a great offer, and we didn't want the kids to have to face him at school if we didn't choose him. He actually said we better choose them if we want our children to pass this year.  They are a cute little family, and I think they will be perfect for our house.  It is kind of nice to know who is moving in. Everyone was rooting for the coach, and I'm happy we were able to choose them.














Lissy bought champagne to celebrate the selling of our house, so we popped it open Sunday night.  The kids got sparkling grape juice too.








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