I'm currently feeling all the feelz that a body can feel. But I'm MUCH better than I was the other night. My frustration level is down a bit, but I still feel frazzled. Excited. Tired. Overwhelmed. Determined. Worried... so yeah. ALL. THE. THINGS.
Moving is rough stuff. Throw in selling a house, trying to buy a new house, and being separated from your partner for weeks on end. All hard. Not to mention I've been doing all the work and daily life, too. I don't know how single parents do it. Do you just get use to having help so when you are alone it seems like so much more? Is it personality driven? I just don't know. I just know that I feel like I've been through the gauntlet! I was so emotional and exhausted last night that I fell asleep at 9:30 and slept until 9 this morning! Which means the oldest missed school because I slept through those alarms, too! I think I have only ever done that one other time. UN. REAL. Anyways, I was worn out and feel much more stable today. I even let oldest play hooky and stay home. BWHAHAHAHA! Parent. OF. The YEAR!
Things on the home selling front have been busy, but not a single offer, yet. I'm a bit bummed. I had hoped to have one offer even if it was low. But... nada. People keep saying it's too small... not enough bathrooms, etc. Things we already know, but can't do a thing about. Along with the complaints, there have been compliments of lovely open floorplan, conscious updates, and other things. But the way the floor plan is cut up and the lack of a master ensuite is hurting us. We know it is. But... to be VERY honest, I'm not sure what people are expecting at this price point in this area. We live in a very nice area and many of the newer and bigger houses run about 300k and higher. Considering ours is under 200k, I'm not sure what they are expecting from an older home in a well established area. We are around 1800sf and 4bd. 2ba. But... the floor plan kills us. It's a split foyer. *sigh* I know that just like we were the right buyers for it, another one will come along. I just hope it's fairly soon....
We have, somewhat, chosen a few houses to go look at. One is at the top of our list. But it's somewhat pointless right now until we get this one sold. :/ Hubby has found others, but they are SO out of our reach. I wouldn't mind going higher on a done house, but if I am going to have to do work, I want it MUCH lower to leave us a decent budget. So, hubby and I have been arguing just a bit over that. He feels like I am picking at his income. I'm really not! I'm just trying to keep him on track with spending now that our budget has changed. I think it will help tons when we sell this one and can get a written pre-approval. If we can get that and figure out what a possible payment will be, it will help us a butt ton when we are talking. Right now, I feel like he growls more than talks. I understand his frustration, but I don't think he understands my fear of being super tight and uncomfortable. I just don't want to be in a home where it's such a struggle we are miserable. I don't mind a little stretch, but a big stretch is just out of the question. As an example, if a house is 225k and we just move in and live, that's fine because we could put all of our money down and be fine. But if a house is 225k and needs an ass ton of work, we can't put all of our money down -- making the monthly payment not doable, IMHO. I'd much rather stay lower, put the minimum down, and use cash to do all the repairs. One of the houses we are looking at is only 175, but I think we could get it a bit lower at 155. That means only about 15k down. Leaving PLENTY of money to do any repairs, updates and upgrades. AND a more than manageable payment. I know it's a 50k difference and we're back in a remodel situation. I get it. But is it worth that for me? YES. The house sizes and benefits are similar. But one is just much lower. The more expensive house also has much higher taxes AND an HOA. Financially it just doesn't make any sense. But he seems to think I'm fussing about his income. Far from it -- I'm just really excited that he has found a job where he is happy and feels fulfilled. Before, he was so miserable... it was really taking a toll on ALL of us. Yes, more money would make life easier, but money isn't everything. We had it before and it wasn't a happy place due to not feeling well and the general yuck of a crappy work place.
That's another thing... we've been paying off debt like crazy. We got a little windfall and we decided to go ahead and knock out any little debts. The big one was that we paid off our HVAC loan. It ended up being less than I thought! But I was tickled to be done with it. That leaves our only debts our car, the house loans, and of course our revolving credit card. I am really thinking of buying a new car. Mostly because mine's value is good now, but it will soon start to drop. I'm thinking of using the high trade in now, get one a few years old but new to me with ok mileage. Then in a couple of years I can trade up again. Anyways, trading now, I get the good trade in and the new car will actually be LESS than what I'm paying now! If I trade up again, after this, we may not have a payment at all! :D
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