Catching Up

So I decided to sell my house so Craig and I could move on with our lives.  It was not an easy decision as I love where I live and it’s my first house.  But it’s just a house so it’s no biggie.  I will miss my back yard and the beautiful Manzanita bush, the horses, the cooler weather and a little bit cleaner air.  The smell of the pine and oak trees, less traffic…ah let’s face it I am really going to miss home and the country.   Where I am living now to me is city and it’s quite the adjustment.  It’s crowded, full of rude people, noisy and it’s not home.   This is all brand new to me as I have never dwelled with a boyfriend, but we are adjusting just fine.  I do feel like I’m invading his space, but he says otherwise.  He does acknowledge the huge sacrifices that have been made and makes sure I know he’s aware of it.  We are going to have a great life together.

The Selling Process and Moving
This is a process that I am so very glad it’s over with.   I was not keen on the idea of having complete strangers have full access to my house looking through everything while I was not home.  A couple of the realtors left my house unlocked, didn’t call to let me know they were showing my house like they were supposed to and one even locked my cats out of the house.  The only one who was completely respectful and left the house the way they entered it was Jim who originally sold me the house.  Jim was awesome, I really liked him. 

The house was only on the market for 2 ½ weeks before we got an offer. Which was great because I knew it wouldn’t take that long, but didn’t think it would be that quick either.  The gal was moving up from the Bay Area (transplant) and was paying cash.  So the whole process was rather quick.  She wanted a 21 day Escrow, but tried to shorten it a few times.  I told my realtor that it was just not possible; we were going to stick to the 21 days.  That was short enough it was getting really stressful. The home inspection was my breaking point and where Craig took over since I was done.  The inspector came back with things the things that needed to be fixed and the buyer came back with her list of things that she wanted me to fix. For example:  replacing the door hinges to actual gate hinges (uh…door hinges are not welded to brackets), re-label the breaker box, replace the gutters because they were rusted and in certain spots rusted through, replace the screens, repair certain parts of the firewall in the garage from past repairs that I did not do, along with a bunch of other items.  So we agreed to fix the hole in the gutter and replace the small spots of the fire wall (I hope she likes purple sheetrock).  OH and re-label the breaker box.

A storage unit was acquired and the packing mess began.  I went through at least one to two rooms a night and when a closet was emptied, it got a sticky.  When a room was done, it got a sticky too.  The house was fully of bright yellow stickies that said either Empty or Done.  They laughed at me, but a few thought it was a great idea.  All addresses were changed, utilities shut off and things shipped back.  Boxes were sorted Storage/Craig’s and small loads were taken before the big move day.  Craig cleaned out a bedroom for me and the furry children, the stage was set.  I took the furry children down before the big move day and that was a stressful ride for them.  Fabio hates his carrier as he gets so nervous he potties.  Bluka hates it too, but seems to tolerate it more than Fabio does.  This was the longest car ride of our lives.  Fabio clawed at the door so much he bloodied two of his claws and Bluka was meow crying pretty much the whole ride.  I felt so bad for both of them.  Finally get to Craig’s and I brought them both in the bathroom for a wet butt check.  Bluka was fine; Fabio got a bath which added to his unhappiness even more.  Once he was dried off he ran under the bed with Bluka.  
Moving day was interesting and hectic as moving days usually are.  Not only are we moving crap out of the house, but we are doing repairs in the process.   We started at 8:30am and everything was done and out by Noon.  First stop was the storage unit, then off to the new home.  My last night in my house was hard.  I sat outside for a few hours and enjoyed my backyard, my last commute up and down the hill was slow and I soaked it all in.  The cats enjoyed their last day and night of freedom to go in and out.  Bluka enjoyed lying in her favorite spot on the flowers while Fabio lay on the sidewalk with a very content look on his little face.  Now they are confined to the boring indoors getting used to their new surroundings and people.

New Life

Never ever in my life did I think I would be in the place where I am at.  I had always kept hope that this would all happen, but was okay if it never did.  I had my crazy cat lady plan to fall back on.  This is still surreal and none of it has fully sunk in yet.   I don’t yet know if I am fully ready for  this next phase in my life, but I am going to give it my best and if all else fails, I know that I am not afraid to be alone and can handle anything that life throws at me. So now starts the next phase in our life.  We find out how much we qualify for and start looking for a new place to call home.  I feel like I’m in transition as my life is in storage and I hate this part.  But I know it’s only temporary and everything is going to work out as it should.  But the way I look at all of this I’m getting another house J