We Closed

Our last night together in our house.

We officially moved out of our house the weekend before Christmas but we didn't close on selling the house until Saturday. And today we received the official confirmation from the relo company that our part of selling the house is done. Yahoo! Here are a few pictures of our last day at the house as a family.

 Jack's choice for his last breakfast at the house was peanut butter from the jar. 

Jack had fun with his birthday train while the house was packed up.

 Jack is practicing with the tape measure while his Daddy 

works on adding a rail to the stairs on the front of our house.

 Watching his Daddy work on the steps.

 Daniel working on adding the necessary stair rail so that we can close on the house on time.

Our last time riding our four wheeler on our property.

Packed up. Everything will be in storage through February 20. 

Hopefully we will find a house by then!

Our last family photo at our Hollywood house. 

Sad to say goodbye, but looking forward to our next phase of life 

in whatever home we end up buying.

Goodbye House

I don't think that moving will ever be an easy thing. I have moved more times than I care to count and it is still a difficult task. And I'm not talking about the packing and unpacking.

It's emotionally difficult, even if you know it's time to move on.

When we moved from Charlotte, Daniel and I made sure to visit our favorite restaurants one last time. We also did any activities that we could squeeze in that we knew we wouldn't get to do again for some time. It was therapeutic and a good way to say goodbye to the city where we officially became "adults."

This move has been of a different sort. This time we are leaving the house where we became parents and the process has been rushed and crazy. There has been no time to feel like we are "saying goodbye" to this home. We started the goodbye process in June, but that dragged on until we abruptly sold our home over Thanksgiving.

The week of our move (last week), we kicked off the crazy by being in different states. Did I mention it was also our anniversary? Daniel was in a hotel in Chattanooga and was lucky enough to get upgraded to a room with a great view of the Tennessee River. Too bad he was alone. I, on the other hand, was home in Alabama with Jack. We shared Japanese take out. Not exactly romantic.

Tuesday was a flurry of house hunting. We were generally disappointed by the search. We also received a phone call from the realtor selling our home informing us that we had to add a rail to the stairs leading to our front door. As if we didn't have enough on our plates...

I had hoped that we could have a last dinner as a family at our favorite local Mexican restaurant but with everything we had to do, we ate leftovers instead.

To make a long story short, our packers showed up on Wednesday morning. I finished packing the items we will need for the next two months while our belongings are in storage and Daniel worked on the new rail and figured out what he would be responsible for moving aside from the movers.

After the rail was in place, Sophie, Jack and I left town. While the movers packed and loaded our belongings, I hung out at my sister's house. Meanwhile Daniel stayed behind to oversee the move. Hopefully everything will make it to whatever house we end up buying, unscathed.

Daniel and I have barely seen each other in the last couple of weeks. We briefly had time to ride the four wheeler with Jack before Jack and I left. I found myself crying on several occasions during the last day at our house. Leaving is always sad. There is also the emotion of not really feeling like we are experiencing Christmas, basically skipping our anniversary, and not knowing where we will be living in February. 

To say there is a lot on our minds would be an understatement right now. To top it all off I have had the joy of a wisdom tooth making its painful appearance. It's been a rough couple of weeks to say the least.

The Best Black Friday

I can only think of one time that I have participated in Black Friday shopping and I didn't particularly enjoy it. To be honest, shopping of any kind, but especially shopping with the masses gives me a bit of a panic attack. Daniel will occasionally get up really early to brave the crowds for a good deal on select items then come back home and go to bed, but I am happy to sleep in.

The week before Thanksgiving (after many weeks of cleaning and prepping and decluttering) we finally put our house on the market with a local real estate agent. We got off on a bit of the wrong foot and were feeling frustrated with the process... the realtor listed it on MLS with the wrong square footage (too low) and it took an additional three days for her to put pictures online. We would have preferred that she didn't list it until she had all of her ducks in a row. 

Since it was Thanksgiving I tried to put the frustration with our realtor out of my mind and resign myself to the fact that it was going to take a long time to sell the house. Seriously... who would really want a house in Hollywood, Alabama right before the holidays?

For the first time in over five months (when Daniel was first restationed to Tennessee), I didn't worry about the house. It was so far out of our control, that I just let it all go.

That being said, it was a bit of a shock to receive a call from our realtor (on Tuesday as I was packing up to go to Nashville to celebrate Thanksgiving). She had someone who wanted to come look at the house the next day. I said that was fine and then proceeded to not only pack for my trip but also clean my entire house. I did both of those things with a toddler and a dog underfoot since Daniel was working in Tennessee for the week.

I was nervous, but also starting to feel a glimmer of hope about selling our house.

During the time of the showing, I busied myself to keep from staring at the clock or my phone. Halfway through the showing, our realtor texted me a couple of questions and I tried not to get too anxious. After the showing, she texted to say that the buyer was interested and that she would be in touch.

After that last text, I waited for Daniel to arrive at my sister's so that we could fully enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving. We both tried not to get our hopes up too much.

On Black Friday, I offered to help watch my sister's kids so she and her husband could go shopping. We were busy playing when our realtor called. My mom kept watching the kids while I raced upstairs so that Daniel could be there to hear whatever we were going to hear.

The first thing our realtor said was, "Happy Black Friday" and I questioned if it was going to be a good Black Friday for us. Indeed it was.

The buyer had placed an offer (before his wife even saw the property!). They would be returning that afternoon together to look at the house. Additionally, they wanted to close in 3 weeks.

What!?!??! Less than a week on the market (and without pictures for part of the time) and we already had a good offer! We are still in shock.

This past Monday we countered the offer and proceeded with signing papers and getting this process started. We are scrambling to find temporary housing until we can find a house to buy. We are moving out on the 18th of the month. I'm a bit sad that we don't really have time to make the effort with our Christmas decorations, but it is such good news that it doesn't matter. 

For the first time in five months, God answered our prayers in less than a week, without me worrying about it. It was the best Black Friday deal ever. Though now we are homeless until we can find a new house...

Thursday Things

1. I celebrated my 33rd birthday this past Monday. 

2.  Daniel and I went on an ACTUAL DATE on said birthday.

3. Jack had a blast hanging out with our friend's kids while we went on said date.

4. Our house will be on the market soon.

5. Once upon a time, we naively thought it would be nice to be able to make an offer on a new house by my birthday.

6. Obviously that didn't happen. Not even close.

7. We haven't even started looking yet. Not really, anyway.

8. We need to find a semi-permanent place to live in the Chattanooga area by first of the year. gulp.

9. We have even discussed living in a camper again. It's definitely not off of the list.

10. I think we should live on a houseboat. That would be awesome.

11. Daniel is too frugal and thinks boat slips are too expensive.

12. We finally stopped using our cloth diapers. Staying in a hotel and carting dirty diapers home every weekend was too much of a hassle. 

13. Now if only we had the time to get a certain little toddler potty trained.

14. I have lost track of how many words Jack knows. He pretty much parrots anything we say. Recently he has begun to add an "s" on to many words. He wants to drink "waters" and eat his "yogurts." It is incredibly adorable.

15. Speaking of Jack, he turns two on Monday. TWO! We are planning to have a party the Saturday after his birthday. I'm a bad mommy and haven't found time to get the invitations done yet. 

Together Again... At Raccoon Mountain

I realize that I have been MIA for the last week, here is a brief overview of what has been going on {as Daniel informed me, he had no idea what was going on in our lives, because he hadn't been reading about it online}.

The biggest bit of news is that after 152 days of living in two different states, Daniel and I are back to living in the same place again.

The closing on our house in Charlotte happened without a hitch. I was even allowed to bring Sophie into the conference room at the lawyer's office. Three days after signing the papers {and getting our check}, we found out that after the buyer moved in, there were a couple of outlets that were not working in the bedrooms. This led to a discovery that a circuit breaker was tripped. When they flipped the circuit back on, it caused sparks. They had an electrician come out to assess the situation, and they think that the siding crew must have hit an electrical wire with a nail when installing the siding. By that time, all of our stuff had been moved out of the house and I was not using the outlets, so there was really no way for me to know there was a problem. Anyways, all is well and we don't have to deal with selling a house any more.

After the closing, I drove a fully-loaded car {with Sophie crammed in the front seat} to Chattanooga to see Daniel {briefly}. We unloaded the car, spent the night and then pressed on to Searcy for a visit with my parents {I was able to stop in Nashville for lunch with my brother at the Yellow Porch - good food, poor service}.

I had an amazing visit with my parents. I love them so much. They have such a wonderful marriage and have been such good parents to me and my siblings. I am so thankful to have them in my life. It was nice to sit around and discuss books and play scrabble and visit. 

Friday I headed back to Nashville. I spent the evening with one of my oldest friend's, Kristalynne, who was married back in May. I am so happy that Nashville is only two hours away from Chattanooga and we can have more of these visits in the future. 

Friday night I crashed at my brother's apartment. Then Saturday, my sister and her husband and my niece came over and we made Chicken Cordon Bleu, Fried Okra, a salad, bread and these amazing Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chip Bars. 

Saturday evening, I headed back to Chattanooga. Daniel's aunt and boyfriend had brought their camper over to Raccoon Mountain on Friday to set up. When I arrived on Saturday, everything was ready to go. Daniel had been cleaning and had started the unpacking process.

We spent all day Sunday unpacking {it is kind of nice that we were able to unpack ALL of our belongings in a day}. We made one trip to Chris and Courtney's to get a final load of boxes {we are probably the only people to move INTO our camper AT the campground}. 

Everything is now unpacked. We are making lists of things we still need and have a load of things we DID NOT need to take to storage later on.

The campground is nice and quite. The views are fantastic. There are go carts to ride. Caves to explore. Trails to hike. A pool to lounge by. A laundry mat. Internet. Cable. We are pretty content here. The quarters are tight {about 300 sf to be exact}, but we are thrilled to be back together.

We could not have made this transition without the love and support from our family and friends. Thank you all, but especially to Chris and Courtney, who took Daniel into their home; Benjy, who helped Daniel finish our house renovation and then also was available to walk Sophie any time the house was being shown; Sally, who invited me to dinner {for all of the drinking holidays}; Rob and Amy, who let me and Sophie stay in their garage apartment the final week of our house selling; Trine and Corey, for letting us use their camper. All of you {and many others} made this separation and transition bearable. Thank you all!

Porch Repair

Today we had a crew come by to take care of our porch foundation. It need to be reinforced as it has slowly been sinking and there were visible cracks in the porch. It is a 30+year old house, but as part of the sale, we agreed to have it fixed.

The crew from Carolina Foundation Solutions was great. They let me watch and photograph their process - not to mention answered my questions about how it all works. It rained part way through the afternoon, but they were able to get the work done.

 

 Prepping to dig three holes to insert three piers under the porch 

to stabilize it from sinking further.

Bush #1 out.

 

Bush #2 out.

Piers ready to insert.

Base of pier screws into the ground.

Pier #1 was 14 feet. Piers #2 and #3 were 21 feet.

An auger is connected to the track hoe and used to drill the pier into the ground.

Top of the pier is cut off with a band saw.

Heavy-duty L-Bracket that is attached to the top of the pier. 

This clamps underneath the porch and then a {hand-pump} 
hydraulic system is used to raise/stabilize the porch.

L-Bracket being attached.

L-Bracket secured.

Hydraulic hand pump used to stabilize L-Bracket and pier.

Porch repair completed and bushes back in place. I hope they live.