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March 29, 2004 Packed all day yesterday and I'm about 1/3 of the way through. I've got to pack like mad today and we're loading the truck. First night in our new house is tonight! Here are the last pictures of the calla lilies:
There are so many blooming! There are a few more yet to blossom, so I'm praying those are for the closing costs to be covered at the end of the month. I can't even think ahead to that one yet. I can't take any of these main callas. They are just too huge, too think and too deep, but I am taking all of those small ones that popped up and heralded in this amazing change of life!
And the Native Eric in his natural habitat. My Sweet Baboo.
OK, I'm off to pack some more. The next time you hear from me, it will be from Grizzly Flats! (and on dial up!) OH and check this out... NO TV, at least until DirecTV can set up in a week or two. Hope for at least some sketchy antenna reception! Wish me luck! I have SO much packing to do and only these two hand to do it!
Love, March 26, 2004 (Part 2) OK, we got the low down and it's good, but it's challenging. When has anything not been challenging? I can't remember a time in my life when there wasn't some kind of challenging issue going on. I look forward to a quiet life at some point, hopefully soon. So we heard from our loan officer that he has been able to work out the financing on the house so that we can buy it right away, but because it has to start a whole new escrow, we will need to rent the house for a month before the escrow closes and the money for the loan is released. What is a little breathtaking is that we will be moving on Monday and Tuesday! It's so soon! I already have dual phone lines set up to be installed on Monday, so they will already be in place when I get there. I've downloaded a dialup program to the computer, so the only lapse in computer use I should have is related to time spent packing, moving and unpacking. I have made arrangements for my column, so all I'll have to do for a while is post the work of my other wonderful writers. I probably won't update this column for a little while, so this will mostly likely be the last update for a few days. Don't worry. I'll be fine. :) The big challenge is that in order to make the loan work, the loan officer had to shift it out of VA status, which makes all of the closing costs revert to us instead of the seller, as it was previously. Because the escrow closes the end of April, we don't have to pay that amount until May 3rd, so we have that long to come up with the $3000 or so it will cost. (Did I mention Yikes?? We haven't made $3000 in a month in, well, months, but we're confident we can find a way to make this happen!!) Also, because we're going into a new escrow, our deposit will carry over to the new contract rather than being released. That is challenging enough, but since we are renting for the first month during the escrow, we also have to come up with this month's rent... now. Like, by Monday! That's $1500!!! We counted on rent or costs associated with moving, but not both! Good news is that I can get the phone turned on with no initial outlay and the dial up was only $10.97 (earthlink was having a special). Now I have to get righteous with PG&E (that's right, the very company that Erin Brockovich bested) to set up the gas and electric. They handle our natural gas here at this house, so I hope the 3 years of history with them will let us just transfer right over. I'm doing my best to breathe through this, but wow! Talk about a trial by fire! Poor St Jude is having to work harder than a pimp on Saturday night! The other option is to do a lease option on the house for a year, then buy it at that time, but the way the market is climbing, I'm afraid it will then be out of our price range! Everyone keeps saying that the housing market is slowing down or topping out, but I was hearing the same thing about 6 months ago and people who bought back then now have about $30,000-40,000 of equity in the houses they purchased! So you can see the dilemma! Eric's unemployment benefits are temporarily halted because of the clerical error. They are re-instated soon, but aren't here now. His company is owed money from three different clients who have been billed this week, but haven't paid yet. When that happens, he'll get a little money from that. So there are inroads for miracles. I'm trying to be cool and not sweat this. The whole thing seems so blessed and perfect that I know there has to be a way for it to work. I have total faith, it's just (as usual) right down to the last minute with a month of working hard ahead of us! The good news is that since our escrow closes the end of April, we won't have any mortgage payments for a couple of months, so that will help us to recover. It's been a crazy month. It was exactly one month ago today that we learned that this house is going on the market. It's amazing not only that the house hasn't sold yet, but that we have only had one potential buyer look at it! We had the troupe of real estate agents come through, something like 30-40 in 15 minutes' time. Other than that, all we've had are people calling to make appointments and then not showing up. I am so grateful I was given that reprieve and my privacy was respected as much as it was. As I mentioned before, the average sell time on a house in this area is 5 days after going on the market. I've had other tenants whose house were being sold tell me that they were having to set up 2-3 viewings a day!! Miracles, I'm telling ya. I am quite sure that I haven't completely processed how different my life is going to be. It's going to be crazy for a city girl like me (OK, born and raised in the country, but in the city since I was 16 for the most part) to live in the mountains, an actual drive from anything like a grocery store or department store or movie theater...a "trip" into town. Good god. This is going to take some getting used to. I think I'll like it, but it's going to be very different than what my life has been! OK, Star Trek is on and I need to go canoodle with the hubby and get my Trek fix. I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I'll be packing like mad this weekend and on Monday, we head up the mountain! Lastly, I want to do something not of my own volition
necessarily, but only (I swear to God, ONLY) because I've had several
people write to ask me to do it. A number of EOS readers
have written to ask me to place a link on the site that would allow them
to make a donation to the moving fund. I'm in no way asking or
coercing you into doing this. This is purely for the benefit of
those who are interested in doing so and have made the request. I
wasn't going to do it because it seems so tin cup (bleh), but I got a
few more letters about it and thought, "What if this is one of the ways
that St Jude is trying to help me do this and I'm turning it away!!!"
So don't think less of me or anything, OK? I'm just doing what I was
told. Please don't feel in any way pressured to do this. I'm just making more inroads to help this miracle to happen. With that, I'm going to curl up in bed, eat ice cream, cuddle my husband and enjoy the last few days before Hurricane Moving Days hit. I'll be thinking of all of you and the prayers and well wishes that we're enacting here! We knew it could happen and it is doing so! THANKS AGAIN to everyone who has breathed a prayer for me through this process. I'll be back again soon, God and Goddess willing!! Love,
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