5 days and counting...

The house has sold and move day is Friday, May 29th. Life as I have known it is rapidly changing.

I have been silent on the house because we have been holding our breath. The "For Sale" sign went up on April 9th and by April 24th we had a serious offer. After a weekend of phone calls back and forth between agents, we settled on a favorable price. A few days later the required home inspection occurred and we agreed on a few "must fix" items. Things appeared to be moving smoothly until a period of non-communication on the part of the buyer began. Some expected paperwork did not come through and my agent would not list the house as sold.

Meanwhile John's house had become unlivable so he moved in with me. We spent several unsettled weeks, uncertain as to whether to pack or panic. We had a couple of short notice showings and some hours of scrambling to clean things up. While we had the potential for some backup offers, our hearts just weren't into the showings. We were ready to be done with this process and move on.

As it turns out, the buyer is paying cash for the house so the usual loan paperwork did not materialize. The silence was due to the buyer researching options to put the house in his son's name so he could take advantage of the O'bama first time home buyer tax credit of $8,500. Oh, and the son just graduated from high school, will enter UT this fall and own the house.

We are frantically packing now, 4 more days to complete the deed. Move day is Friday, closing is Monday week and John's house is running behind schedule. The kitchen will not have a sink or stove, or counter tops for that matter. We will be on a steady diet of sandwiches and whatever we can muster up on the Coleman camp stove (our backpack stove is just too small). Anxiety levels have been high around here but we have stepped up our exercise and acceptance of the situation seems to be settling in.

Boxes are stacked up everywhere. While we have had some discussions regarding combining our stuff and have dumped a lot of stuff, we know that more stuff is going to have to go. We are combining two houses with the same square footage.

My once restful den. The brown down couches have been sold to my real estate agent and we are using folding chairs for furniture. I have lost 2 pair of reading glasses in boxes. I expect they will surface one day when I am unpacking. Things keep disappearing and reappearing.

This is our "new" kitchen as of today (the cabinets are in the basement ready for installation). We had hoped the floors would be honey color (like the rest of the house) but right now they appear really red. This is a misstep on the part of our contractor. A floor finish and paint need to be applied before the cabinets can be installed.

While the houses are all consuming for us, we have been doing other things. I am re-establishing a run routine and John is becoming good friends with his bike again. Yesterday John rode laps around Cherokee Blvd while I got out for a nice run. When I completed my run, I hopped on my bike for a lap or two with John. It turned out to be only a lap...my legs were on fire! The early heat and humidity is challenging for me.

And finally, we booked our plane tickets for a trip to Iceland!! We leave mid-July and will be traveling with our good friends Will and Kim. We consider this our honeymoon trip although I am not sure we will be married at the time we depart. We are renting a car to drive the ring road around the island. We will overnight at farm lodges along the way. I have wanted to do this trip for some 9 years now! It is going to be a lot of fun!!