Where have I been? What's been going on?
Where do I start...
After someone bashed the windows out in my sisters car... and then two guys attempted to break into our basement, we collectively decided to put our house up for sale. It's not the best area in the world to live, although there are certainly worst places. But I'm in love with the inside of our house... and all the work we've done, but if someone bought our house, it would be our ticket out of here.
So in March, we found the hardest working realtor in the world, and knocked out a few projects so that the house "showed" it's best. This included re-plastering the kitchen ceiling, both bathroom ceilings, installing bathroom ceiling fans, putting up new kitchen back splash, painting the cabinets, installing a new front door, and fixing a crack in the basement foundation. Sounds easy right? Just to add some fun into the mix, I asked my sister to help with other small projects. Read what happened here.
Mind you, we did this all in two weeks.
In reality, we were thinking it would take about a year for our house to sale. There are a lot of foreclosures, houses that are for sale are not moving, and home values are going down... Chris is also interviewing for different schools, so we were thinking that we would know where he would be teaching in the fall before we moved.
So this is what happened...
Dumped a bunch of money into the house to get it on the market.
Got a great offer in 6 days.
Failed our county inspection because of an old retaining wall that supports a patio.
Get 100+ bids to fix the wall because we can't move until it's fixed.
And they are only giving us 60 days to fix it before we're fined.
And then taken to court.
Mind you, it passed inspection when we bought the house 18 months ago.
I'm livid.
I kick the inspector out of my house.
Then, I deeply regret it because I know he has to eventually come back to inspect the work.
Find a contractor with a descent bid.
He can't get approved for a permit.
At this point we have two weeks until we close.
We still haven't found a place to live.
Chris is still interviewing.
New wall plans look promising.
We find a place to live.
I throw away 1/2 of my Christmas decor because I know we won't have this much space.
The tenant in our future villa wants to stay another month.
I just donated a bunch of Christmas ornaments for no reason.
Now we're down to a week before we close.
The wall isn't done.
I'm not sleeping.
I'm not working out.
I'm consuming unhealthy amounts of Diet Pepsi and Taco Bell.
A lot seems to be going on but nothing is happening.
It's raining every single day.
Our house gets appraised for $500 more than our selling price.
Thank god.
But it's still a lot less than what we bought it for 18 months ago.
Plus we've done so much work.
But I'm still happy.
Until the contractor still can't get a permit.
The county wants new plans- a complete reno.
I'm eating my feelings.
Then, a tornado happens.
I pray to God to please take down my wall.
I will go to church three times a week.
Just take down my wall.
I'll stop sending nasty-grams to STL County.
Just take down my wall.
No, you don't want to? Ok, fine.
48 hours before closing, the realtor wants us to pack.
We have no help because everyone we know works.
And the wall isn't done.
And we don't have a place to live.
Day before we are going to close, the contractor stops by.
He can get a permit, if we spend $1000 more on limestone rock to backfill the patio.
Someone put me out of my misery.
The closing date gets pushed back a week.
It's still raining.
They can't work until the land is dry.
The contractor still doesn't have a permit.
Our buyers financing is only locked in for 5 more days.
At this point, I'm 5 lbs heavier.
My face is broken out.
I don't want to move anymore.
I just want to get the wall fixed and stay.
And get a security system installed.
And perhaps water-board the person who thought this wall was a good idea.
All bitterness and humor aside, I am actually looking forward to staying... and not giving away anymore of my Christmas decor. It's what's best for our family... and we'll try again next summer.
