Settle

Last year's word was Complete.  This year's word will be Settle.

We need to settle.

There was a lot this year.

Around April, I decided I wanted to put our house, our first house, on the market.  I wanted to see if we could sell it and I was ready to move on.  Husband wasn't completely on board.  I told him I'd handle everything.  I'd call the real estate agent.  I'd get the house staged.  I'd handle the showings.  I'd handle seeing new houses (at least initially and I'd call him in if it was something worthwhile).  I'd handle most of the running around and craziness if he handled the financial end. 

We all have our strengths, right?

So, I did my job and I did it well.  We had a contract...a solid contract...within four days.  Wow!  Things were moving quickly.  So, I got on the house hunt as soon as possible.  We wanted to stay in our little town, so our choices were limited.  I saw a few houses and there was something wrong with all of them. 

Believe me, when I saw "wrong," I don't mean they were falling apart or anything.  They just weren't right and we decided that we weren't going to settle.  We were going to find a house that suited our tastes and needs and would take us into the future of our family.

So, one day I was browsing through Zillow on my phone at 6:30 in the morning.  Rather than blogging like I used to, the real estate search had taken over my life.  Husband would be bombarded at work with possible houses between 6:30 and 7:05 (when the Crazies woke up).  There was one house that had been on the market for over 30 days.  I couldn't really figure out why.  It was a little outdated, but nice enough.  The one thing that caused me to shy away from even looking at this house was that it had a HUGE finished basement that had been set up like an apartment.  All I kept thinking was "what in the world would we do with all that space?"

Husband was discussing real estate options with a guy at work and the guy happened upon this house.  He mentioned it to Husband who replied that we didn't really need all of that room.  Then the guy showed him something that we hadn't really looked at...the location.  It was at the end of a court with nothing behind it and no possibility of anything being built behind it.  It was in a great neighborhood.  It was in a great elementary school zone.

Location, location, location...the number one rule of real estate, right?

What about all the extra room downstairs though?  Well, you could turn the kitchen area into a bar eventually.  It would be perfect when the Crazies are older to hang out with their friends.  If our parents needed a place to live, they could use that.  When people came to visit, they'd have their own little suite.  Once we opened ourselves up to this house, we realized it was perfect. 

We put an offer in and it was accepted.  We were moving.

Holy shit...we were moving.  We have to pack up the entire house, every Lego, the entire shed, the whole basement, all of our clothes, all of our furniture, everything...we were moving.

I told Husband I would handle that too.  I interviewed movers.  I started getting boxes together.  I was on the move.  Things were moving ahead!

Then we had our appraisal and it was way low and the buyers (even though we dropped the price) pulled their contract.  We had to go back on the market and so did the owner of our new house (which was no longer ours...boohoo).

We were back on the market in July and sold in August.  Husband was ripping his hair out b/c it was just all up in the air and he'd already seen it head south.  There were no guarantees and now we knew that better than most people.  It was scary...and unsettling.

We settled on both houses in September after appraisals and inspections and all that jazz.  We were all very happy to have this entire thing behind us, but we were still unsettled.  All of our stuff was in boxes.  We couldn't find things.  We had a new mortgage to contend with. 

I'm sure everyone feels unsettled after a huge life upheaval like that.  You just need some time to settle and that's what I plan on doing in 2013.  I want to settle into our house.  I want to settle into our life.  I want things to just settle down. 

Interestingly enough, we aren't even through our first week in 2013 and we've already decided that I will go back to work in the Fall (and had a call from the HR department on the first day back from Christmas break asking me to start sooner...not gonna happen).  We have also decided that even though the Crazies don't make the cut-off for t-ball, Husband is going to coach anyway (hello, every weekend commitment!).  Hailey is going to play softball though b/c the cut-off is different (stupid, right?). 

So, settling for us may hold a different meaning for other people.  We want to settle into our routine.  We want to feel settled with finances.  We want to settle into the community.  We want to settle into our home and see how it really works. 

If this means me going back to work, Husband coaching, Crazies playing different sports, and weekends spent unpacking, then so be it.  That is our form of settling.  I'm really hoping that when 2014 rolls around, our entire house will be unpacked.  If it's not, so be it...I'm sure other areas of our life will be settled and that's what it's all about. 

So, Happy New Year to you and yours...if you want to share your word in the comments, feel free.  I'd love to see what you're all doing this year!