Well, dear friends and fellow bloggers! I have great news on all fronts to report.
First, and most important, WE. ARE. DONE. It was two solid months of absolute insanity, but the house looks simply *amazing* — far exceeding even our wildest expectations; see for yourself at the Web site we built for the house, 552gillespie.com — and, soon, will feel well worth the effort, I’m sure. (Or hope.) We listed the house last week, in a frantic fury of finishing up. The yard sign went up on Wednesday, and the listing went active in the MLS system Thursday.
Then, Thursday afternoon, Daniel got two calls saying realtors were going to show the house later that day. All told, there were three showings on our first official “on the market” day, and around 6 p.m. (while one of those three was wrapping up), our realtor called me, saying, “I need to talk to you!”
Indeed, we got an offer on the very first day the house was listed. The work started to feel worth it at that precise moment! 🙂 It was lower than we’d hoped for, but we counter-offered a bit higher and they accepted it on Friday. We’re moving forward on a fast track, hoping to close in the first 10 days of June (basically whenever the paperwork on their end is complete).
The fact that this means we have < 30 days to get all of our crap out of the house hasn't really set in yet, but will soon, I'm sure. We have been taking some time off from manual labor (a) because we freaking need a rest, and (b) to wait out the "option" period when they can basically walk away for any reason. Let's not forget that the deal could, in theory, fall through anytime, and it would be foolish to start packing up the clearly fabulous staging that brought us such a quick offer in the first place. Non? So that’s the biggest news. In other news, our house in Nashville seems to be pretty much completely framed (see pics here) and the sales guy at the builder’s office did us a huge favor today (details unimportant), so that seems to be moving forward well. They assure us we will close as planned on July 22nd. We’ll see.
Of course, this begs the obvious question: Where will Liz and Daniel live between early June and July 22nd? Funny you should ask. Our plan, not exactly well hashed out, is to crash at his parents’ house (handily located near ours) for the balance of June, and then wing it from there. In July, I am not teaching or otherwise (currently) scheduled to work at all, so I thought about going up and spending a couple of weeks with my parents. We could technically go on vacation, although Daniel has taken a lot of time off in the last two months already and will need to take more off when we’re relocating to Nashville.
So I dunno. I have to say, it’s been ages and ages since I had nearly an entire month off with no responsibilities or home base. And, thanks to the way the community college does payroll, I will have incoming cash throughout that time, so it’s not like I will be without resources. I have been so busy for so long that this prospect is damn near overwhelming… what to do for 20 days?
Ahhh… another dilemma for another time. Another one of our options is to go out to Nashville for the 2-3 weeks prior to actual moving day and stay at an extended-stay place to watch the final steps of the house construction. Daniel would love this. I wouldn’t mind having some time to acclimate myself to the city before needing to unpack and start school, and it would be really fantastic to get a head start on some of the research I want to begin this fall using Vanderbilt’s completely awesome television news archive. So, not a bad option. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, I have completely wrapped up at UTD, have started my Maymester government teaching gig (very exciting) at the community college, and today bought a fiction/for pleasure book that I can actually imagine reading soon! It’s a banner month here chez Clausen. 🙂