Change of address

I am back at it once again.  This time from a whole new house.  During the last month things have change drastically for us.  Everything happened so fast that I am just barely starting to recover.  Here’s the breakdown of the last 30 days or so.

Monday August 20th- Our house was officially listed for sale.  (this happened while we were still in Utah for a mini Johnson reunion and then a mini Garvin get together.)

Wednesday August 22nd-  By Wednesday, the house had been shown three times.

Paul had flown out of Utah on Sunday for a trip. I returned home from Utah with the kids late Wednesday night.

Thursday August 23rd-

8:30 am- Call from Marci letting us know that someone wanted to see the house in 30 min.  It was someone wanting to have a second showing.

Mad dash to do a quick pick up before flying out of the house.

9:00 am- Dentist appointment (filled with nerves about someone seeing our house and anxious about the possible outcome)

3:46 pm- Offer received for our home!    

Saturday August 25th- small counter offer

Monday August 27th-

8:50- Kara’s first day of school

9:05- Allie’s first day of school (more on the first days of school soon)

10:00- Buyer excepted counter offer.  Home is officially in escrow!

The next 10 days is called the ‘due diligence period’.  This is when the buyer does inspections and appraisals and checks to make sure there are no problems or liens on the home.  This 10 days for me should have been called the ‘denying reality period’.

Up to the point of listing our house, I had been on the fence.  One day I would think it was a good idea, and the very next day I was convinced that we could never live anywhere else. So the fact that the offer was excepted on August 27th and they wanted to close on September 28th was kind of shocking for me.  I was sure that this couldn’t really be happening.  Something was going to get in the way of it actually closing.  I didn’t want to tell people until after the 10 days just to make sure it was really going to happen.  Shortly after the 10 days was over,  the buyer requested another walk through so they could measure for new flooring.  That is when it became real for me. 

Now I had a new set of worries.  Where will we live?  Is it possible to find a home to buy and then close on it in less than month?  Should we rent for a while?  How am I going to get the house all packed up?

The month of September was absolutely crazy for us.  School had just started, I  had a few weird health things going on and then had a really bad reaction to some medication that left me feeling pretty terrible for more than a week,  Paul had to have a very deep suspicious mole removed that required internal and external stitches, and he had a very tight travel schedule for work as well.

But some how we managed to find pockets of time between field trips, auditions, retreats, friend birthday parties(which I mistakenly packed the presents and after an hour of trying to pin point which box they were in, went with the lame old cash in a card gift instead), line leader and snack provider, picture days and lots more fun everyday life stuff- to pack up our belongings. 

We had help from friends, church friends and family members that made things all the more bearable. 

Monday September 27th- Went to the title office to sign away our house!

Tuesday September 28th- fabulous friends from church came over for several hours in the morning and packed up the entire storage room and kitchen.  Its amazing how much stuff just kept coming out.  I thought it would be a small job and thankfully because of the many hands that helped it wasn’t too bad.  It is a humbling experience having other people go through your stuff and help you pack it away. 

-My mom and dad arrived late Tuesday night.  I was feeling particularly overwhelmed and tired.  Just the sight of them walking in almost brought me to tears.  Nothing like having your parents around to bring you comfort, no matter how old you are.

Wednesday September 28th- the crunch is on!

My dad and I moved all of the kitchen and storage room boxes over to the rental.  My cousin Heather kindly brought us dinner (one of the THREE she provided for us during the move! Amazing!) and moved over the kids hanging clothes to the closets at the rental.  Mom worked through the boxes in the kitchen finding new homes for all of our items.  Dad and I continued making trips from the ‘old’ house to the rental.   Marci, our multi talented realtor, helped me bring over the entire master closet and bathroom boxes.  She then worked with amazing speed at unpacking, organizing and even slightly decorating the closet and bathroom at the rental.

We got so much done that there wasn’t much else to really move except the big stuff and the stuff that was going to storage.  So Dad talked me in to moving over all the beds.  That hadn’t been my plan at all.  Now having done it, it was totally the right move.  Thanks for that Dad! 

I left to pick Paul up from the airport around 7pm.  We went to the old house and put our king bed and small kitchen table into Dad’s truck and then drove away into the night.  My ‘last night in the nursery’ (peter pan reference) had happened and I didn’t even know it until it was over!  But we are moving on to new adventures now.

The kids have been real troopers during this whole experience.  They loved to ‘help’ how ever they could.

(cell phone pics :()

Thursday September 29th- I don’t even know it was just a blur!

We worked all day doing last minute things.  We thought we were prepared.

And then the men from the ward (the geographical area that makes up the people who attend our church) came.

Wow! 

It was absolutely amazing to see them in action.  And like I said, I thought I was prepared.  They worked so fast, that I would turn around and someone would want to know what to do next.  We ended up moving the fridge with food in it because I couldn’t keep up.  We actually had the last load of bathroom rugs in the dryer that we snatched out so they could pack up the washer and dryer!

This full trailer (and truck with the washer and dryer) went to the rental.

This full truck went to storage.

Yes, it blocked the whole street.  And yes, it is 53 feet!

It is truly wonderful and hard to receive help from so many people.  But the truth is, no matter how much I had prepared I could never have done it in this tight of a timeline with out the help from others.

I am so humbled and grateful for all the help that we received this last month.  I can’t even begin to thank everyone enough.  Especially my parents. 

The rental is awesome and really working out perfectly.

The only damper on this whole experience is the fact that we will be doing this again sometime again in the near future!

Oh well, for now we are happy, healthy and grateful for a place to live.

I have learned some good tips and things from this move so next time should be a breeze! :)  So we’ll just cross that bridge (moving again) when we have too.