What’s been happening
The general inspection came through and the sellers agreed to fix all the problems. (Some were substantial, like no junction box and lose wires hiding in the scuttle.)

The sellers agreed to pay for most of the foundation problems. We’re paying $650 over what we originally offered to have a house in “perfect”-ed condition. Not bad at all.

So, we are buying a house. We are actually closing a lot earlier than we had planned. The sellers found a house and they want to move on quickly. So I have to return on June 21 to take possession. … Which means I need to get insurance, call the electric and gas companies, and lots of other stuff I am too emotionally tired to think about right now.

We are buying a house! (I’m trying to get really excited about this.)

Great things
The house has the most amazing kitchen. Really. It’s amazing. It makes you want to stay in there forever and there’s actually enough room to do that, too. We told people about the foundation issues and they were, “Oh let the house go.” Then they saw the kitchen and said, “Never mind if it tilts later. Buy that kitchen!” It was pretty funny how unanimous the votes were. And, though the range is high end, the rest of the kitchen was fairly simple fixes to what was originally a wonderfully large, but very bland, space.

The house also has two living rooms. I can take the Civil War era pool table which was my mother’s, if I can afford to have someone who knows what they are doing come and disassemble, move, and reassemble it. I’m so freaked about that $$ I haven’t even called anyone to ask. Yes, I know. That’s not the way to get around problems, but I couldn’t call about it when I didn’t know if I could move it. Now it’s a holiday…

Moving issues
The bedrooms are tiny. Well, tiny for us, here in the land of spread-out-houses. I kind of have anxiety about fitting stuff in there.

Of course, I have anxiety about fitting stuff into the house totally. (Moving from a total of 3600 sq ft–not all originally ours–worth of stuff to a 2200 sqft house with no garage.)

I think one of the reasons I’m working on the books is that I can actually do something about them right now. We are planning to leave all the furniture we are not taking with us in the house here, since R is staying for two more semesters. Plus, we are planning on using that stuff to “stage” the house when we get ready to sell it. So I can’t just get rid of furniture we aren’t taking with us.

When I’ve tried to make to-scale drawings, they haven’t worked. I’ve even done some software programs, but I’m doing something wrong or just not scaling right or something. So I’m not really sure how much stuff I can take with me.

I don’t want to take a bunch of stuff up there and have to get rid of it there, especially not when I am paying to move it. (Although I know good and well that every time we move I purge a lot of stuff and every time we arrive, I have more junk to get rid of.)

I would prefer to have the house too empty than to have the house too full. However, the idea of de-cluttering and downsizing sufficiently to make that happen, especially when R has already mentioned he would like to purchase a new couch (either a futon or a hide-a-bed) for my home office, so that we could have two guest beds if needed–which they will be, since we have two sons–is hard.

I’ve made long lists of furniture to take and furniture to leave. I’m trying to figure out how much furniture I am going to need to store (family pieces that I want the boys to have but no one has space for right now since they are in dorms). I’m trying to not fixate on taking only my favorite furniture, but I am taking furniture R doesn’t like because it is family furniture. Some of that could probably go in the storage unit.

I have two pieces that I like but he doesn’t and I think that if I had one recovered and one restained he would like them. But that means having them recovered and restained. Do I do that here? Or do I do it there? I don’t really know people either place to do it, so I’ll have to find out. Plus, one of the pieces really won’t fit in the new house if we are going to buy a hide-a-bed for my office. So I guess I am leaving it here. I should ask my sister if she wants it back, even though it is terribly plain, because she gave it to me originally.

Plans
Yes, I am having movers. No, I am not doing it myself. Well, when R moves, we’ll take a single big truck with all his stuff, including his incredibly large and very heavy desk, ourselves, but most of the stuff is coming with me and being brought by movers. This is far more anxiety ridden than I expected it to be.

Both R and I are second-guessing ourselves on leaving This City, with its wonderful opportunities and all his friends (all of mine are in the new town, even the ones from here), my great non-tt job with my wonderfully supportive colleagues (they are already planning a We Got Tenure! party), and our home for 11 years. Plus, how things are working out, this move is costing more than we had budgeted. (Doesn’t that always happen?) So it’s stressful that way too.

Today
Today I cleaned off my at-home desk. That is amazing. I only have a rice dish (with stamps, change, and business cards in it) and a mug of pens. Then there are two of the four books I am reviewing this summer on my iPad. I also have my new and old passports, which R had looked for and not found because I needed them for something and had hidden them in the big bowl which I used as a catch all. The bowl has been emptied, cleaned, and placed for “viewing” on a bookshelf in the living room.

I also cleaned out the flower vase that E had given me for Mother’s Day about 12 years ago. It’s been grimy for years, from the water residue. The book R bought me when we were in New Town said to clean it with vinegar. Worked like a charm!

I also picked up all the mess that I (and the rest of the family) had assembled on the dining room table, and did a general clean up of all the public areas in our house. The dining room is still stressful because all my office boxes are in there and most do not have tops and aren’t stackable because of sizes or breakables or my lack of a packing gene. Maybe I could get R in there to help me re-organize in a way that would put all the odd sizes together and only leave a single open box that isn’t stackable.

I also took the dry cleaning in and left it (even though since it’s a holiday it won’t be ready until Tuesday) and pulled the bag and stack of clothes for give-away out of our bathroom. (Now it’s in the entryway instead, but I am thinking of having M do a give-away run in R’s truck this afternoon.)

I am sitting here thinking that there are other things I could/should do, but right now I just want to vegetate and think about all the stuff I did get done.