SOLD!

I haven't been the best with keeping up with life on the old blog. We're been busy and will continue to be really busy for the next month as we prepare to move as our house sold already ! Yea!

Within just a week and a half on the market we had not one but TWO offers on our house! We've been negotiating between the two and now have a GREAT primary offer in place and are still waiting to hear back on our counter offer for a backup contract. We really couldn't be more thrilled.

Truthfully we're getting quite a bit more for the house than I thought we would. Being a Realtor I had prepared Steve as much as possible when we put it up for sale by telling him that with this market it might take months before there's even any interest (actually my words were "I wouldn't be surprised if we were still here at Thanksgiving"). All that to say I was beyond excited last weekend when within 24 hours we had 2 offers on the house! God really did provide for us and I know that without him we wouldn't have these offers in place. It really is a miracle!

So....the big closing date is set for July 22nd and we're praying that everything goes smoothly between now and then with inspections and such. After we close we'll move in with Steve's parents for a month or so before we make the big move. We're not exactly sure of our moving date yet as we've had a few things come up that would require one of us staying in St. Louis until September 14th. I'm thinking that I might move up there towards the beginning of September and start looking for a job (and hopefully will find one quick) and then Steve could come up a bit later. That way at least one of us is working at all times rather than we both just quit our jobs and leave.

The jobs and the housing situation in Madison are our 2 main hurdles to cross next. We found a condo we liked a few months ago when we were visiting town but unforunately it sold and we're not seeing too much else that we like so that (along with the much higher housing costs there) has been discouraging.

just a little update....

Blogging hasn't been my forte lately. I was so excited to get our house on the market in the hopes that life would slow down a little. In reality though, ever since we finally got the house up for sale we've been super busy catching up with all the friends we've neglected over the last 6 weeks while we were working so hard on the house. Someday maybe we'll get to sleep in on a Saturday.

Not this Saturday though cause we're going camping with friends! I'm excited cause I LOVE camping!

On to the house update though....we've had quite a bit of interest! We had a couple look at it a few days ago that according to their agent LOVED it! They're coming back tomorrow and will bringing their parents to get their opinion on the house and then will hopefully be writing and offer.
We also have another couple coming this afternoon to check it out who consequently will also be looking at my best friends house that's up for sale down the street right after ours. I wonder if it will creep them out a bit to go to two different houses and see pictures of the same kids hanging up on the walls in both houses?

I'll be honest it's been a little hard for me to relinquish control with the sale of our house. I'm a licensed Realtor in the state of Missouri, but that doesn't really help me much for our house since I'm living in Illinois. A Realtor friend of mine has our house listed, but being the control freak that I am it's been a little harder for me than I thought it would be. I really thought about forking over all that money just to get my license in Illinois so I could list and sell our house myself, but really that's a ridiculous financial decision...especially since my friend that is listing it is being so generous by giving me half of her commission on both mine and Dale & Missy's house sale as a referral fee as well as she's reduced the listing fee. The norm is just 25% (which really still is a lot for not really having to do any work but refer someone), so I feel very blessed! When I start to have those control moments where I just want to sell the house the way I think is best I just try to remind myself that really God is the one in control after all.

Hopefully by the beginning of next week we'll be under contract, then it's off to live with the in-laws for the next few months until we make the move. I'm sure those few months of living in the boonies will give me lots of opportunities to blog more and lots more topics too! Life should be interesting in the upcoming months!