Dear Brain, please turn off

It's 4:06a.m. as I type this.  My brain is officially working overtime these days!  I woke up at 2:15a.m. with about 15 things on my mind...  15 things that I have to get done.  At 3:00a.m. I couldn't stand it anymore, concerned I would forget them all by morning so I got up and wrote down 12 of the 15 things down that I could remember.  At 4:00 I got up and jotted down the remaining 3 things I had earlier forgotten plus 3 more that I managed to think of in that last hour!  HA!! 

Our home has sold and we have bought a new one.  It went under contract in late November but I haven't mentioned it on the blog for fear something would happen and it would fall through, but it appears all is moving along and we're scheduled to close January 12th.  I can't imagine not living down the street from the Waynes anymore because that has been such a huge part of our lives the last 3 years. 

I will miss...

...hopping on our bikes on a whim to ride down to see KK and Allison

...running out of spaghetti sauce (or let's get real... WINE) and running over to Sarah's to borrow some

...stopping by their house on my way to work to get Sarah's opinion on the outfit I'm wearing

...my early morning walks with Sarah (great conversation)

...the idea that if I think I've left the house with my curling iron (yes, I still use a curing iron) on that I have someone to call to go check for me

...my very best friend in the whole wide world living 10 doors down

All this to say, we feel it's the right thing to do for our family.  We need more space and our current house is a 23 minute drive to my office which has proven to be a big deal on weekends, especially, when I'm working.

A really cute, young couple with 2 small children have bought our home and they're super excited about moving in.  That makes me feel good.  Come to find out, the kids go to Adrey and Charlie's school too, and I see the mom now a lot when I'm there.  Small world.

The whole process of finding a new home was daunting.  I did most of the searching since I can gain access to the homes easily (given I'm a Realtor) and then I'd make a "short list" of properties I would consider for John to take a look at.  We found a home we "loved" and made an offer on it.  It had two short-comings (no pool, no view) but we were willing to move forward with it anyway because the home itself was exceptional.  The owners verbally agreed to a price but kept delaying signing the contract.  They were playing a game and at the end of every day would say "we'll have it to you tomorrow".  All the while, we were still looking at other properties because we were catching on to their little "game".  We found a neighborhood (different than the one where we made the offer) that we LOVE but everything that was on the market in that neighborhood was tired and needed a lot of work (and money) to get it to what we would want.  I decided I would write a letter to ALL the homeowners in the community and ask if they'd be interested in selling.  The letter went out on a Friday and by Monday morning I had received 10 calls on the letter.  We were shocked at the response!  As the calls came in, one by one I'd go take a look at them.  Same old story... homes needed a lot of work, but were priced as if they didn't.  It was discouraging.  Meanwhile, we're still waiting for the Sellers of the home we made an offer on to sign the darn contract, but things weren't looking good.  Monday I received a call from a woman in the neighborhood who said she got my letter and invited me to come take a look.  She described her home to me and it sounded picture perfect... like just what we were looking for.  But then she quoted a price.  It was way more than we wanted to spend.  Ugh.  So I told her I appreciated the call but that we were unable to pay that price.  She asked me to come anyway.  So I did.  And I fell in love with the house.  It was EVERYTHING we'd been looking for.  I mean EVERYTHING.  This lady bought the house in 2010 and completely gutted it.  Everything is brand new top to bottom.  She told me to bring John back to see it.  That night I told John about it and asked him if he wanted to see it.  He told me "No, not really.  I don't want to fall in love with a house we can't afford."  And he was right.  He was so right, and although I was disappointed, I got it.  So I called the owner back the next day and told her.  When I told her she came back with an offer we couldn't refuse.  I got off the phone, called John and we were at the house within the hour. 

Before going in the house, I told John not to act too excited because we didn't want the owner to change her mind.  The owner, which I have really, really come to like and can see us being friends for a long time, gave us a tour of the house.  After the tour she said we could go on our own and look around and to just let her know if we had any questions.  John and I were in the master closet admiring the shelving... I peeked outside of the closet to see if she was there, turned back around to John and we both started jumping up and down IN THE CLOSET saying "This is perfect!  This is perfect! This is perfect!"  It was so funny.  I haven't been this excited about something "material" in a really long time.  The house is 4 minutes from the boys' school and 8 minutes from my office.  It's so great.

Closing on the new house is also occurring on January 12th.

Hence the reason for being wide awake right now!  My "To Do" list grows by the minute.  I love this kind of "stress" though.  It's exciting stress that will be a reality in just a couple weeks.  All very fun stuff! 

Off to the gym now.  Super busy day at work too.  Should be fun...