Finger's Are Crossed

Well, it's official - we're moving.  Hmmm, I mean it's as official as these things are before the close of escrow (which is scheduled for April 25th...finger's crossed).  This is a very exciting time in our lives, but as with these types of things, it has been a very chaotic time.  Here's a little background on the process...

We have been "looking" at homes for quite a few months now.  At first we didn't really discuss our house-hunting with anyone.  It was just easier that way.  We didn't have to try to explain the Orange County real estate market to anyone.  We didn't have to commit or feel a sense of urgency to move.  We could just look and if we saw something we liked, well, we'd cross that bridge when we got there.  Our agent understood this about us when we began the process, and to her credit, never rushed us.  She signed us up to receive MLS emails and left the ball in our court.

It wasn't until February that we finally saw a house we really liked.  It had all the elements that we were looking for - space (boy do we NEED it), big yard (by Orange County standards), it was remodeled and was in turn key condition, but still had room for us to make some changes/improvements and put our stamp on it.  We liked it and decided to submit an offer.

In the meantime, we had been debating whether or not we should sell our current home.  Besides our attachment to it for sentimental reasons (this was our first home together, this is where we got engaged, celebrated holidays, brought our babies home, made friends, etc.) it's size and location make it an excellent rental property.  It is 1 mile from the beach, within walking distance of bars, restaurants, clubs, gyms, parks, etc.  It is located in a transitioning neighborhood, but we've grown accustomed to the eccentricities of our surroundings and have even learned to appreciate them, to an extent.  It is a gem, for those who like living in an urban, diverse location (those who prefer living in a more suburban area don't appreciate the location quite like we do).

Given our uncertainty on this, we started submitting offers on homes that we liked with no contingencies.  We decided that we would go for it and decide what to do about our house after the fact.  We didn't initially get the home that prompted us to make that first offer, but we continued searching and in the end made offers on a total of 4 homes.  Then, we decided to take a breather.  Lo and behold, the sellers of the first home contacted our agent to see if we were still interested.  It seems that it had fallen out of escrow and we were their first choice of the back up offers.  We said we were no longer interested.  However, they returned to our agent, lowered the price to a number significantly lower than their asking price and agreed to replace all the windows and sliders in the house with new dual pane, vinyl windows and doors, and asked if that would make us interested.  It turns out it did - it interested us so much that we went into escrow on that house the next day.

The front door (and Laurel cuddling with our terrific agent)

The front yard

The entry

The living room and dining room

A guest room (Clare was pretty tired)

Say good riddance to the ugly gold - new windows and doors are on their way in.

The kitchen

The family room

Two weeks into the process, we were driving to Las Vegas to visit some family.  There's nothing like a long drive to give plenty of opportunity for the much dreaded "what do we do with our house" conversation.  We had pretty much decided that we needed to sell it.  We both agreed that we didn't want to sacrifice our ability to travel whenever we want, to have me work part time so I could be home with the girls, or the peace of mind that we are alright should some unexpected circumstance come up, especially with two youngsters and a dog running around.  So we called our agent on Saturday and asked if we could do an open house the following Sunday.  She said she'd make it happen.  We got home the following day, staged our house, had professional pictures taken and it was on MLS by Wednesday night.  We had agreed that we wouldn't show it Thursday and instead would start moving a bunch of stuff to storage to ensure the home was as open as possible.  Thursday morning my phone was ringing off the hook, and my text messages were blowing up.  Agents wanted to get in early and show our house RIGHT THEN.  I explained that wasn't possible, but they could make an appt. to see it on Friday.  Finally, our agent asked if we would vacate the home from 9:00 - 6:00 on Friday because so many appointment requests were coming in.  We received 2 offers on Friday.

We aren't winning parents of the year.  We were super busy organizing and noticed Laurel was suspiciously silent.  Poor baby!

Saturday, the same thing happened, we were asked to vacate for the entire day.  5 more offers came in. Sunday was our open house from 1:00 - 4:00.  We were asked to vacate by 10:00 to accommodate early appointments (people wanting to get in ahead of the open house).  We told everyone we would be reviewing offers Monday evening and at 12:45 people were literally lined up waiting for the open house.  We were overwhelmed by the response.  By Monday evening we had 12 offers on our home.

When you are kicked out of your home for 3 days straight you tend to drink a lot of coffee, smoothies, etc.

Kean saw us through those tough days of virtual homelessness

And it was nice that Meghan let us impose on her (even at 7 months pregnant) and spend a day at her house

Needless to say, this house is in escrow, too.  We are still in a state of shock as to how quickly this has happened.  We are excited for this new chapter and anxious to get into our home so that we can start making it FEEL like OUR home.  We have been blessed with emotional and physical (mom and dad Dease are professional packers!!) support from our parents, and we are trying to stay calm and enjoy this process as much as we can.

Now you know why we've been MIA for a bit.  We even cancelled a trip this weekend (boo-hoo) to stick around and work on packing, fixing and dreaming because this process takes up so much of our time and attention.  However, we'll be back to normal soon enough, and future posts will probably include fun stories of trying to move out of one home and into another with a 3-year old and 11-month old in tow.  Fun times!