Home update

I'm not holding my breath, but it seems as if we officially sold our home. Déjà vu...I feel like I've done this before....oh, I have! Here's a summary of all that's happened recently:

• Our original buyer sold, but their buyer backed out in the 11th hour, so we had to start over from the beginning. That was back in March!!
  
• Our original buyer still desperately wanted to buy our home from us and worked hard to sell their home. They had 27 showings in 2 weeks but no decent offers. Pretty sad.
• We still had a Hubbard (contingency) for those buyers, so as much as we wanted to dump our current Realtor and get a new one, we couldn't. Bummer!
• On Saturday, we sat our Realtor down and told her she wasn't doing ANYTHING to sell our home for us. She not once brought a client to look at our home, didn't advertise it well enough, had lousy photos of our home online and was not a go-getter. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands. I took brand new photos of the house (don't want to brag, but they are MUCH better than hers!!) and put them up on a new listing...new words, measurements of the rooms, and a new lower price. It looked great.
• On Monday morning (last week), Edward and the kids moved over 100 boxes from the in-law suite down to our basement so we could once again stage our home for showings. What a pain!! We were 2/3 packed and getting ready for the move when things fell through. The house was a disaster, so we had to set everything back up and remove boxes etc. The house looked wonderful and clean once again - ready for more showings.
  
• We had a call Monday afternoon that someone already wanted to come see the house on Tuesday. We had plans on Tuesday to take the kids to the aquarium, but we had to change those plans for the showing since we have Cody, the dog we rescued who can't be left in the house for showings. He gets extremely nervous if people show up without us around, so we have to take him with us. So, no aquarium trip. We decided to go Wednesday.
• On Tuesday mid-morning, we got a call saying those people couldn't make it for the showing, so they would come on Wednesday. UGH! Change plans again and miss out on the aquarium for the 2nd time. Poor kids...this is what their lives have been like lately.
• Wednesday comes and we get a call that morning...our original buyers sold their condo!!! We weren't sure how serious this was, but we knew that if they sold, then we did as well! Now what to do?!? It's too late for the aquarium, so that's still out. The people who wanted to come see our house were told it sold, so they obviously didn't come. The downside in this is that in order for our buyer to actually sell, they had to lower their price a lot more, so we too were put in a situation to lower ours. We all just want this done and over with, so we all compromised just to put an end to it. We're not thrilled about it, but at least we are selling our home now!
  
• Things progressed along quite well this time around. Our buyer now has their mortgage approved. Their buyer is almost approved - any day now...they had their inspection and appraisal, so it's moving right along. It's up to us now.
• We ended up purchasing a different home than originally planned. This house is 2 doors down from the original home we wanted. It was less expensive, yet it's still new. Funny thing though...it's got 8 rooms, where the other had 7, and this one is also a 'green' home...meaning that it's energy efficient so we should save money each month.
  
• Yesterday we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off! We had to get signed contracts to the bank by a certain time (since it's a holiday weekend) or we wouldn't get our mortgage on time to close. Since we're purchasing a different home, we had to start the whole process over. What a pain!
  

So, there you have it. It's been a crazy mess, this whole house thing, but we see a light at the end of the tunnel. If all goes well...we will be closing on June 30th! Only 38 days away!! Here's a photo of our new home. It's a beautiful home and we are excited that God led us here, even though it's been a long road. Things aren't 100% certain yet. I won't be comfortable saying we're moving until we sign our names at the closing! We are hopeful though, and are looking forward to things finally settling down in our lives. Pray with us that nothing will go wrong this time around!! Thanks!


P.S. If we ever get to that aquarium, I'll post photos. =)