Closing Day!

Today is closing day!! We closed on the sale of our house and the purchase of our new house earlier this morning, and oh my, what a relief! Yippe! Hooray! Time to celebrate! Especially since, although we had movers, we left more than we realized for us to finish, and spent 7 HOURS last night, packing up cars and bringing things to my parents garage. Into the wee hours of the morning, we did laps around our house, getting every last piece of us out of there. I got very teary when I first got there last night and saw all of our furniture out of the house. However, by 2am, I was far too tired to be emotional. Certainly a bit bittersweet because that house was an amazing opportunity for us, and at such a important time for our family - we made wonderful memories there. 

Again, we had an interesting home buying experience, that we feel fortunate about. I've talked about my love of houses, real estate etc, and sometime in January I came across our new home online. I love to look at what's on the market, how people decorate, etc. Offered at a very attractive price, on a cul-de-sac with lots of space, this house was immediately appealing to me. When the first open house popped up, I twisted Brian's arm for a visit. I had to know more, and see for myself, if it was as good as I thought...  The girls immediately went running through the house, as if we owned it and I was very drawn to it. It's called a colonial split, and the floors go from front to back, rather than sideways. It needs mechanical updates, A/C and a new roof... but I loved the unique floor plan and space. Brian, on the other hand was very quick to dismiss it... he called it a "triple-split" and said "no way, don't like it."

As winter turned to spring, almost weekly I watched the house online for updates. There were open houses often, as the owner had moved and the house was empty, and then the price went down. Sometime in early June, I bugged Brian to go back so I could get it out of my head. I wanted to see if I felt the same pull towards it, and if it was as great as I remembered. It was, and to my surprise Brian's attitude on did a total 180. This time, he walked out saying... that's a really great house. If we could sell ours, I'd buy it. Hold the phone... really? I couldn't believe he was interested. 

The next few weeks/months were a little insane. Connecting with a realtor, the paperwork, the prepping of the house for sale, listing our house and 2 different offers falling through on the house we wanted. Everything was happening at the right time, allowing us to actually make this possible. Sometimes, it's truly amazing how things work out and it reaffirms my faith that if it is meant to be, it will be. We put an offer on our new house, with a contingency that we had to sell our house first. Typically these offers aren't strong in a buyers market, because there is competition. Our seller was an older woman, recently widowed - who lived in the house for 50 YEARS and raised 5 kids there. Amazing right? Anyway, she learned some about us and our little ones, and I think the idea of a "young" family was appealing to them. They agreed to our offer and very patiently waited as we anxiously hoped ours would sell. 

And here we are :) We had the chance to meet our seller last night at our walk through, with one of her daughters and for some reason I was so teary (yet again) when meeting them. Their love for the house and obviously all the wonderful memories they had there, was written all over their faces. I think its so neat when there is history like that, and I'm so excited that we're the lucky ones to get to make memories there too! It's like the passing of the torch :) So much potential for this house, I can't wait to get started. Although, I keep being told "you dont have to do it all at once, wait to live in it for a while." Wait? Nope... I'm not good at that. Tomorrow is a big day, painting bedrooms, hanging all new light fixtures, getting cable and all of our furniture... and hopefully this weekend we can start to settle in. Next Tuesday Miss M turns FIVE! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh - so my goal is to be fully moved in and ready to celebrate her - because she is SOOOOO excited for her birthday. 

Don't you worry - I'll be (over) sharing lots of pictures and before-afters of any projects we may do in the (hopefully) near future! Until then, I'll be buried in boxes :) Have a great weekend! 

XO

A Gergi Update....

Have you missed us? It's ok if you no... but I've missed you! The reason for my little hiatus is life got a liTTle crazy (more like insane!) at the end of the summer... and suddenly now it's fall! Next week, we are MOVING! Shortly after my ho-hum posts about being in a crummy mood and things being kinda blah...we got some good news - starting with an offer on our house, and things really took off from there.

We were very aware that we were listing our house at a slow time.  For our family specifically it was challenging timing because if we were to move, it would mean changing schools after a few weeks of the big transition into Kindergarten. We just sort of felt like if we were going to move, we might as well try it all out now when Madelyn was 5, rather than in 3 or 4 years when she was more settled into a school. So, we roughly put an end date of 8/31 for the listing of our house. As that day approached and we had lots of activity and interest, we were torn on what to do. But, sometimes life just has a way of playing itself out... and you have to just hold on and hope for the best. We left it on for just a few days past that and sure enough, we got an offer!

So, the negotiating, the inspections, and all the mortgage "stuff" has been a little consuming over the last few weeks... and finally we're almost at closing time. We found a new house that'd we'd been eyeing for some time, and again as luck would have it, she "waited" for us, and the seller accepted our offer. We had a very unique and nice experience when buying our current house, and oddly enough a similiar experience with the people we're buying from next. More on that another time, but that cliche saying rings true - if it's meant to be.... it will be.

On another good note, my second month of PT was more successful than anticipated and I actually got cleared from my orthopedist last week - no surgery! Phew. My arm is essentially back to full motion, with some pain here and there... but I'm SO relieved to have most of that behind me and to not need surgery is a big relief. I've also wrapped up my twice-weekly PT appointments that I'd been doing for the last two months. It may never be back to normal, but I'll take it. So, I have both hands and my strength, in time to do lots of packing, moving and unpacking :) Perfect timing!

Madelyn has LOVED Kindergarten, and everything about it. Her very first day was a little rocky with a few tears, but she really settled in well at her old school. We went to a few birthday parties, and she made a few sweet friends. Then, just two weeks ago, we got the clear from the Superintendent, to switch her pre-move, to her new school. It was honestly gut wrenching... I felt terrible for her, and that she had to go through such a confusing time, just after getting so settled and acclimated to her first school. Especially for little ones like Madelyn, who need consistency, who need things explained and like to understand all details of things going on. We did it all over again - got a tour, met her teacher, and then poof - we just showed up on a Monday and off she went.... never.looking.back. She has impressed me beyond words. Kids... you just never know sometimes :)

With all that's been going on, our time at home has been trying on everyone. We've managed to keep the girls bedtime routine right on track, which is awesome. Otherwise though, more take out than normal, the house is a mess, Mommy and Daddy are stressed, and tired... the kids are emotional, nervous and all that fun stuff. Poor Quigley just paces all day and night, literally. So, I am very, very much looking forward to our closing next week, and getting the move officially underway.

As it is nearing though, I am more sentimental than I expected about leaving this house. I totally pinned for this house, I thought about it all the time and was elated beyond belief when the dream was a reality and it was ours. Even though I have poked fun of it over the years, it has been so good to us. The character, the charm, the extra space we wanted, the opportunity for projects that I love and the proximity to our family, friends and work. This house meant SO much to us in our 3 short years here. I remember when we moved out of our 1st house, I thought - there will never be anything like our first house. However, I'm pretty sure this house will forever hold an extra special place in my heart. There is a young couple moving in, and they are equally as excited as we were (I think!) to be able to move into New Canaan. I am happy for them, and hope they enjoy it as much as we did.

Probably not the best timing (or maybe so, depending on how you see it!) we have a jam packed weekend of F-U-N coming up. Who knows when the rest of the packing will even get done. I wanted to do something fun for the girls since they're weekends lately have included a ton of time at Home Depot, Benjamin Moore, and furniture stores. So, we're going to the Circus tomorrow, catching up with cousins tomorrow, and then having school play dates, a visit from Gramma and Grandpa AND a visit with Uncle B all on Sunday!

How's that for a novel? ;) It may be 2 months again before I can find the time to write, hopefully not though. Hope you and yours are well - and have a great Fall weekend!!

XOXO

Some pictures of recent shenanigans :)

Hanging with our newphews- how cute is he?

Cousin time!!

Dinner at the park!

Our adult weekend in Lake George - so.much.fun

Anna is 2 1/2!

Previewing the playground at her new school :) 

It was maybe 50 degrees out - I turn my back at the playground and Anna was like this! #totalham

It's really happening....

Obligatory front-stoop photo