This update is overdue!

It's time for a little catch-up! Since I last posted, our old house sold! The initial offer came after the house being on the market for only 7 weeks. We know this was truly a blessing. It was very, very stressful - the buyers were challenging to say the least. When the title finally transferred, we felt such a burden lifted, and still do! Since that time, we've begun to keep our sweet grandson one day a week again. We've celebrated both kids' birthdays and as we celebrated, we continued to give thanks for being back in OH We are still plodding through challenges...... the new house is still not completely finished out. We don't feel that the contractor is being fair with us in terms of the final details. I think the hardest part for me is that once again, a person I trusted to be fair with us isn't doing so. Must I really distrust other people??? I'm resistant. We're trying to stay calm and positive - another meeting is scheduled with the contractor next week. Some workman are scheduled to come on the 16th. In the meantime, the mold remediator reinstalled our laundry room cabinets (they had to be removed because of water problems). He declined to charge us for the work. We've gotten fallen limbs out of the woods and it looks great. A really nice young man is coming tomorrow to work hourly to do odd jobs, including painting the utility room cabinets. I will post a picture later. The most important thing we haven't had time or emotional energy for is to reconnect with the attorney to try to get some reimbursement for our reconstruction costs. We seem not to have enough energy to go around, but we CAN see progress in terms of how far we've come since March, 2008.

We're thinking positively!

We have two (2) !!!! prospects who seem seriously interested in our house that we have on the market. We are so excited - and amazed - since it's been on the market only 5 weeks. Realistically, we're acutely aware that the prospects could both fall through, but we're buoyed by having GOOD news for a change. Just wanted to share our news - it would be great if you could cross your fingers, say a prayer, send up a balloon - whatever. I'll keep you updated.

One of these days soon.....

One of these days soon, this blog is going to change to a blog that doesn't center around a housing crisis! We are definitely moving along, and I think the blog should reflect that. At this point, we have our old house on the market (and we have a prospect!). Cross your fingers, send up a prayer, whatever......we are hopeful that perhaps this person will send us an offer. At the new house, continue to unpack and settle in. Our energy has been limited because of the year + scope of this housing effort, but we're getting there! There are still details (many, many) to be finished by the contractor. His crew will be coming in soon. We're in the beginning stages of working with our attorney. All in all, I'd say that we're doing very well. Another "return to normal" sign is that we'll be having Evan (our grandson) each Wednesday beginning the end of this month. We had to take a break from keeping him because of the move. Can't wait for his smiling face to be in our home again! One of our first goals after the old house sells and the finishing is done on this house will be to take a vacation. It hasn't seemed at all like summer to us, as we've been stuck right here dealing with one project or another. We'll probably opt for going to New Mexico and checking on our house there. Hope to hear from you too!

Progress, and it's exciting!

Late last week we finished all the updating on our old home and finally moved the last things out - those last pesky things that remain after all the essentials are gone. Then we listed the house with an agent. It hit the MLS yesterday and we had a showing today! We sure hoped to have it on the market earlier, but perhaps we can still catch some of the summer home shoppers who want to have their kids in school this fall - or just are looking for a home during nice weather. The house looks great. Now we can concentrate on unpacking and settling in to our new home -- we're ready!

No boredom here!

There's certainly no boredom around the Wardlaw house. We have more to get done than can possibly be done in each day. Our focus continues to be getting the Butternut Circle house ready to put on the market. It's been painted and had many upgrades put in. We've hired workers to tear out the old carpet. The upstairs is out - today the downstairs will be done. I believe that the carpet layer is ready to come in when we are ready. We lucked out on the carpet.......we'd met Lou, a Shaw carpet inspector months, ago during the water damage phase of our adventure. When we needed carpet for Butternut Circle we called Lou. Luckily for us, he'd just finished carpeting a seven story building and had a roll left over. So we got a good deal on good carpet, and we're sure the installation will be good. When we're able to be at our new home, we're finding it to be wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable, just as we'd hoped. There are still final finish details to be done here, but we're enjoying the house a lot even though some things still need to be done.

Things are moving along!

We still need to unpack at the new house so we can take pictures. Can't wait to post some for you to see. Thus far, our time has gone into continuing to move and unpacking has had to take a back seat. A friend gave us a couple of awesome lounge chairs for the patio --we hope to spend many peaceful relaxing moments in those - out in our wooded back "yard" - not really a yard since there is no grass. We continue just to work and make progress toward getting Butternut Circle on the market - it will be such a relief when we're finally able to list it. Hope you're having a fun beginning to the summer!

Multitasking

We have been in the new house for about two weeks now.  We're still living surrounded by boxes since our primary attention must go to clearing out the basement and garage of the old house.  We need to get it on the market very soon.  We've met with a realtor we like a lot - and will probably list the house with him.  For the last 10 days or so, painting has been taking place there and it looks great!  Next is a new kitchen floor, new bathroom floor and carpet.  We hope that these upgrades will make the house attractive to buyers and it will move soon.    We don't want this house sitting around - we want it sold!  Because of all this work, we're trying to balance getting completely moved out, supervising the work, and trying to unpack a bit at the new house.  The latter isn't happening very fast.  Our next goal will be to get to work with our attorney and try to get recovery (of damages) under way.  So, life is good.  We're loving the feel of the new house and how it works for us.  We're both feeling very overwhelmed with way too much to do.  It's just been such a long process and it still seems that it will never end.  On the other hand, we can see progress.  Thanks for visiting our blog and keeping up with us - we appreciate your interest, good thoughts, and prayers!