A Restful Week -- HA!

Some families are . . . how do I say this . . . um, just plain nuts! It turns out that WE are one of those families.

Basic Background information:

• ·       I have cancer and am in the middle of chemo treatments.
• ·       Eric and I decide he should take a job offer in Atlanta.
• ·       Our insurance out-of-pocket will now start over . . . in the middle of my cancer. (Great idea! :-/)
• ·       We have to get our house ready to go on the market.
• ·       We have to find a house to buy in the Atlanta area in time to get the kids signed up for school.
• ·       My current job is supposed to be “Rest, and get better.”

So, the last week has been a bit insane. Here’s why:

Saturday

Before the chaos begins, since I’ve been so tired and the family has been working feverishly for a week to get the house ready to go on the market, we decide to go see the movie Inside Out. Um, let me just tell you, when you are moving your children YET AGAIN, and they have to start in a new school YET AGAIN, this is not the best movie to see. Just a little friendly advice. Eric and I both cry during the movie. (Ugh! This is an ANIMATED movie . . . a kids' movie! So embarrassing!) Eric's crying is not that noticeable, because my sniffling is so loud and my weeping so shakes the entire row of seats, that I think he was able to still walk out without losing much of his manly reputation.

Sunday

After getting the house ready to go on the market, Eric leaves Sunday afternoon to see a couple of houses that night before he starts his job the next day. He and Kelly, our Realtor and long-time friend, see a house that seems like it might be what we’re looking for. Third time’s the charm, right? (We had already been on two house-hunting trips and made two offers on houses.) So, we make an offer on a third house I haven’t seen.

Monday

Eric goes to his new job. He’s never been in the building, never met his team, and his team only finds out they’re getting a new boss on Friday, right before he starts on Monday . . . a bit stressful for a first day. But that’s not enough stress.

On top of that, our house officially goes on the market in SC on Monday. In addition, we find out at 4:00 p.m. as we’re walking out the door to the library that there are multiple offers on the house we made an offer on in Atlanta, and we need to know if we want to be in a bidding war. I can’t decide, because I haven’t seen the house, and Eric thinks there might be a couple of things I wouldn’t like about it. So, at about 4:15, I text a friend in Atlanta to see if we can bring our dog and leave her overnight. My friend says yes, and the kids and I are on the road by 5:00 p.m. heading to Atlanta. (Note: I’m not physically very strong right now . . . and evidently not very smart, either. Multiple times, I ask the kids what I was thinking. They mostly just stare at me wishing we had actually gone to the library.) 

In the meantime, an agent makes an appointment to see our SC house on Tuesday morning. Aaaahhh! Our first showing! Exciting! The house is not in perfect shape, but we left it in mostly showing condition. 

We arrive in Atlanta at 9:00 p.m. to see the house. After all of the craziness it took to drop everything, none of the three of us really likes the house, so we decide not to get in the bidding war. Sigh . . . . We end up getting to Eric's hotel at 11:30 p.m. I wouldn’t exactly count this as one of my resting days, and it wasn't quite the restful night before his second day that he had envisioned.

Tuesday

Kelly shows the kids and me more houses, even though we were not on her schedule for the day and I’m pretty tired and weak. We find a couple of houses that might be okay options. Kelly says she can meet Eric that night to show him those two. 

Meanwhile, we get an OFFER on our SC house at 1:00, three hours after our first showing!!!

We visit two schools in Atlanta (the schools the kids would potentially attend depending on the house we end up in), pick up our dog from our friend, and drive back from Atlanta during rush hour on 285. That’s a neat experience. :-/ We arrive at home at 10:00ish. Nope, not restful.

Wednesday

We have more showings while we negotiate closing dates on our SC house. We settle on 7/31/15. So, we now have to be in a house in GA by 7/31. Did I mention I’m in my final inpatient chemo from 7/28-7/31? Yeah . . . not good. We put Daisy in a kennel to prepare for what’s next. Did get a little rest.

Thursday

The kids and I get up and drive back to Atlanta to look for houses one more time. We meet Kelly to look between 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. Eric leaves work a little early and joins us for some of that time. We don’t find the perfect house, but we see several we like. By the end of the day, I can barely walk without someone with me. Now, we have to decide which one to make an offer on first. Kelly starts collecting property disclosures while we drive two separate cars back to SC. (Yes, I drove eight hours round trip in one day.) We arrive around midnight. Failed at my job of resting today.

Friday

We sleep late and then try to decide which house to make an offer on. We can’t decide.  The girls want one house; the boys want a different one. We pray and then flip a coin. The boys win. :-/ (Our agent asked if that means God loves the boys more. Hmmm . . . :-/)

Then we pack and get ready to go for an overnight (previously planned) to Hilton Head. We drive through some rain and arrive about 5:00 p.m. instead of the originally planned 10:00 a.m. Oh well, we at least are able to go straight to our little condo and check in. We have a lovely view of the ocean from the balcony, so we all sit out there for a little while, soaking it in. Then we decide to go out to eat and proceed to head back into the condo. Only problem . . . the door has locked behind us. 

Yep, the four of us are locked out on the approximately 5’ x 8’ balcony. We call the owner, and he doesn’t really know what to do. He suggests flagging down a neighbor to come through the condo and open it for us. Problem is, everyone is on the beach. We call the HOA, but it’s a holiday. They were going to call maintenance to do an emergency visit, but at the last minute we are able to find a teen on a neighboring balcony (who looks a little terrified by the crazy family yelling at him) who finally understands our situation and rescues us. We end up having a lovely, relaxing dinner and wait to hear about the house. Awakened by drunk neighbors having a fight at 1:30 a.m. Can’t go back to sleep for two hours. No . . . not much rest today.

Saturday

We get a counter offer that is not as reasonable as we hope it will be, so we make an offer on the girls’ favorite house. We think the house is overpriced but the agent had said the sellers were motivated, so we are hopeful. We enjoy a couple of hours at our tiny square of the beach, along with 50 bazillion of our closest fellow-vacationers. We decide by 1:00 that our 2-day trip of sand and salt-water that turned into a 20-hour trip is enough to satisfy us this go-round. We head home and decide to top off our stress-relieving weekend trip watching Jurassic World. (PSA: I didn't find a movie where dinosaurs eat innocent victims to be quite as endearing as Inside Out, but at least I didn't cry . . . wait, is that bad?) Got some rest today.

Sunday

We get a counter that is, again, not as reasonable as we hope it will be, so we make an offer on our third choice house. Yep! This is offer number SIX, people! SIX! We start to become afraid that our Realtor/friend is going to fire us . . . as clients AND friends. But again, we remain hopeful, even though we have to close on 7/31 or live under a bridge.

Monday (Today) 

Men show up to rip up all of our defective hardwoods. The kids, the pets, and I sit in our bonus room the entire day, while we listen to the background music of non-stop banging and throwing of wood. We get a counter on our sixth house that is only slightly higher than we want to go. But truly, all three of the last houses are pretty equal in our eyes, all with pros and cons, so we decide to go back verbally with our final offer on all three and see what they say. At the time of this blog writing, we still do not have a contract.

In the meantime 

I have my 5^th chemo treatment tomorrow, IV fluids and my Neulasta shot on Wednesday, our buyers’ inspection on Thursday, and hardwood installation throughout the rest of this week.

I have determined that we are nuts, and our children appear to be rolling with it, at least the best we can tell. At some point, we will probably take up donations for their therapy, so let us know if you’d like to contribute. 

For now, here are some specific prayer requests for those who are willing to pray for our insane lives:

• My chemo treatment tomorrow and my ultimate healing.
• Eric’s new job to continue to go well, in the midst of our craziness.
• That we’d be able to finalize a deal on a house that can close by the end of the month.
• That the inspection and appraisal on our house in SC would go well.
• That the hardwood installation will be right for our new buyers.
• That we get the logistics worked out with the moving company.

Finally

I apologize for all the emails, calls, and texts I haven’t responded to. I’m also not on Facebook much because I just can’t keep up, and my hands are bothering me too much to stay on there very long with all the other online stuff I'm doing.

All right, in case anyone has read all the way to this point, I’ll update when we know what happens next. Until then, I’m sure I’ll be resting. :-)