Home.

The last post said two out of three, but unless something goes terribly wrong in the next few days, it could now say three out of three. We got the house! I hesitate in saying that because although we had our offer accepted, we survived both the inspection and the FHA assessment, and the sellers have already accepted a bid from a contractor to do the necessary repairs (supposedly they are starting in the next couple of days), we have not yet closed and until we sign on the dotted line, anything could happen. Like I said, something would have to go very terribly wrong to not close, but I always worry about jinxing myself.

Now it is just an issue of timing. It is the 20th. We have to be out of our rental house on the 29th. That means that within the next 9 days all of the repairs need to be made AND the FHA needs to re-inspect AND we need to set up and hold our closing meeting. Yeah, that seems far-fetched to me too. The more likely scenario is that repairs will still be underway, but the selling bank will either allow us to move in early (best option) or at least move our belongings in to a room or the garage, and we and the puppies will crash with friends (next best option). The worst-case scenario is that they won't allow us or our stuff to move in, and we'll have to move everything into a storage unit and crash with friends. That, of course, means moving our stuff twice, so that gets a huge thumbs down. But we'll do what we have to do.

All of this uncertainty, of course, is making it a little difficult to do simple things, like pack. Are we packing tightly to fit it all in a storage unit? Or just throwing things in boxes and loose in our vehicles since it's just a cross-town move, versus a cross-country one like this time last year? What day will we be moving? Therefore, what we should we leave out? How many dishes should we leave out for the time being? Should we pack a suitcase or two of clothes if we'll be staying with friends or just put them all in boxes? It's getting late enough in the game that we're probably just going to have to buckle down, stick everything except a few changes of clothes in boxes, and hope for the best.

However, we are very excited about the fact that it's very likely within the next two or three weeks we will be homeowners -- although I suppose we are still homeowners since we own the condo in Bloomington, but a condo seems so different from a house. I can't wait to have a fenced yard to let the puppies run around in. I can't wait to siesta in our new hammock, a glass of iced tea in hand. I can't wait to be able to pull my car into the garage when it's raining. I can't wait to host our first dinner party or backyard BBQ. I can't wait to light a fire in the fireplace on a cool winter day and watch the Colts play. I can't wait to organize all my clothes in the ginormous walk-in closet. 

I CAN wait to strip wallpaper, paint every wall and ceiling and piece of trim in the 1816 square foot house, put up wainscoting, replace the flooring in 2/3 of the house, buy and install kitchen appliances, rip out the guest bathroom counter and mirror and install new ones... Yes, all of these things must be done right off the bat. Not because they're in such bad condition -- the house is in pretty great condition -- but because these are our non-negotiables as far as our personal taste/aesthetic preferences are concerned. It will be so much easier to do things like paint and wainscoting and flooring before we move in and situate all of our belongings. And, of course, we have to have appliances if we want to be able to eat! I suppose we could order take-in every day, but...

Gearry has gone back to the house a few times since our offer was accepted, for the inspection and just to nose around and take measurements and such, but I haven't been since we toured it and put in the offer. I am thinking I definitely need to venture down there one evening this week and take another look around, to make it seem more real. It still really hasn't hit me that we will be handing over a check for a crazy amount of money and moving into our place within days to weeks.

Ahhhhhh! So excited. So anxious, but so excited.