We put an offer on a house. Not just any house, but The House Skye and I have been conjuring up in our minds for eleven years, exactly the number of years we’ve lived in this house, after we realized there wasn’t any access to the backyard from inside the house, which was minutes after the closing. That was something neither of us noticed when we were shopping. I can’t be blamed. I was six months pregnant. I had pregnancy brain.
I wasn’t exactly ready to put our house on the market when I found The House. It looked like an ordinary house when I found it online. But I made a mental note to try to make it to the open house on Sunday. Maybe I’d remember to go.
Sunday came and I remembered to go. It was love at first sight. I went to every corner of the house looking for something I couldn’t live with, something I hated, and I couldn’t find anything. NOTHING. It was in great condition. Move in ready.
Skye and I weren’t even talking about buying a new house. It was just something that popped into my head when I was weeding the backyard last week and bumming about the fact that I couldn’t get to the outside from inside the house and how that puts a damper on entertaining and limits us on having quick and easy dinners on the grill that we can’t get to very easily, not to mention what a pain in the ass it is when the dog needs to go out.
Usually when I come home from an open house I decide that I like my house better. But the day after this open house I still couldn’t get The House out of my mind. It has a three-season room off the dining room with a dog door leading out to a fenced in yard and a laundry room off the kitchen. It has a finished basement and a workshop for the men/boys. It has everything EVERYTHING we want. Even a good friend living RIGHT NEXT DOOR (unbeknownst to me when I was looking at the house).
Monday afternoon, Skye took off from work mid-day to see The House because my realtor told me there was a couple in that morning for a second showing and they wanted to put an offer on it.
Monday night at 9:00pm we found out the owners accepted our offer. Four families were interested in The House.
Monday night at 3:15 am I woke up in a panic. This was all happening so fast! We weren’t prepared! Our house isn’t even CLOSE to getting ready to put on the market! AAAAHHHH! What if it comes to having to carry two mortgages! Skye is telling me “Calm down and meditate.”
“Meditate!?? How can I meditate!!?? I want to throw up!”
I was nauseous. I was pacing. “Skye, we have to talk! We have to get out of this contract!”
So we talked about all our options and we resolved to get out of the contract. His work was done. He jumped in the shower to start his day now that this drama was behind him. The water is running and I’m in the bed alone, thinking about the house and suddenly I do a 180. Skye comes out of the shower to “Let’s get that house.”
I tell him, “Remember when I saw the two blue lines on the pregnancy test and I was elated and then freaked out and then elated and freaked and elated again??”
“Yea…” Not something he would ever forget.
“I might go up and down a couple more times on this. I just want to warn you.” I was right. I did. The dial is finally set on elated.
I get up in the morning and imagine letting the dog out the doggie door while I’m having morning coffee in the three-season room with the sky lights and the cathedral ceilings and the sun shining in and my neighbor waving over the fence, “Good morning, neighbors our age who we already know and like!”
So I’m packing like a mad woman to get our house ready to list. I’m making executive decisions in my sons’ rooms. Three piles – trash, give away, keep.
St. Patty’s day comes. Vincent says, “Have you seen my green beaded necklace?”
“Um…yea?” I can’t believe he remembers he owns that thing!
“Did you pack it in the keep box?”
“Um..no?”
“Did you pack it in the give away box?”
“Nooo?”
“Did you throw it away?”
“Ummm. I might have.”
I dug through the garbage bag in the garage, found his stupid necklace, washed it off and gave it to him.
Next day: “Who keeps throwing away my tin foil ball!!!!”???
AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
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