2.22.2005
Just a little update... tomorrow we go down to Raleigh for the last time (as homeowners anyway). We're taking the afternoon off so we don't have to arrive in the middle of the night. The packers will be there between 8 and 9 Thursday morning and will spend the whole day packing. The truck will be loaded on Friday. Sometime during all that (probably Thursday) we have to go to the lawyers' office to sign papers. Yay, one person stays home with EK while the other drives over to Creedmoor Rd., then we switch. Fun. Our plan is to spend Friday night in the house on my parents' Aero bed so that we can clean Friday night and Saturday morning and not have to drive back to Roanoke in the dead of night. And then after that we will officially be ex-Raleighites.
In case you can't tell, my mood about all of this has gone kind of sour. We've spent the last two weekends in Raleigh, and ever since we got back Sunday night I have felt low. I don't entirely know what it is - I guess it's just the moving blues. I can identify parts of it - especially that I'm sad to leave Emma Kate's first home behind, and especially her happy bedroom - but a lot of it is just a big swirling sense of anxiety and dread. You'd think that since I've been through this more times than I can count, and since we haven't been living in Raleigh for four months now, that this would be a non-issue. Leave it to me to make it one, I guess.
Our stuff is going into storage here in Roanoke. We have opted to have the moving company store it in their warehouse so that when the time comes, they will be the ones to move it out of storage and into our house. Starting on Sunday we can finally devote 100% of our spare energy (yeah, like there's so much of that floating around) to finding a house up here. I know I will feel better once we have a house here, but right now I don't even have a lot of optimism about that process. Man, I'm a real downer today. :(
In case you can't tell, my mood about all of this has gone kind of sour. We've spent the last two weekends in Raleigh, and ever since we got back Sunday night I have felt low. I don't entirely know what it is - I guess it's just the moving blues. I can identify parts of it - especially that I'm sad to leave Emma Kate's first home behind, and especially her happy bedroom - but a lot of it is just a big swirling sense of anxiety and dread. You'd think that since I've been through this more times than I can count, and since we haven't been living in Raleigh for four months now, that this would be a non-issue. Leave it to me to make it one, I guess.
Our stuff is going into storage here in Roanoke. We have opted to have the moving company store it in their warehouse so that when the time comes, they will be the ones to move it out of storage and into our house. Starting on Sunday we can finally devote 100% of our spare energy (yeah, like there's so much of that floating around) to finding a house up here. I know I will feel better once we have a house here, but right now I don't even have a lot of optimism about that process. Man, I'm a real downer today. :(
2.10.2005
Well, the house selling euphoria lasted about 2 days. Now we're back to your regularly scheduled "getting it from all sides" treatment that we seem to be experiencing regarding housing.
We've done some house-hunting here, and it hasn't been pretty. My personal opinion is that houses are overpriced by 20-30K. I cannot believe the state of these houses. Did no one ever tell these sellers to declutter or clean their carpets? Some of these houses are vacant, so there's absolutely no excuse for the house to be dirty. But apparently it doesn't matter - they're going like hotcakes. In my mind, though, if what I can see of the house is poorly cared for, then I can't help but think that what I can't see has been poorly cared for as well.
And then there's the fact that everything is 40 years old, and in a style I don't like. Split foyers (the #1 favorite around here) are such RUDE houses. I mean, you want your house to be a welcoming place, right? Then why force visitors to make a decision the instant they step inside? Do I go up, or down? Hm, let me stand in this small space and let the door whack me in the backside while I try to figure it out. Not to mention the upper floor is at eye level - so you'd better not have any dust bunnies in the corners, or they will fall on your guests as they enter. Other houses we've looked at have been 4-level splits. Yes, 4 levels. I have lived in a 3-level and it wasn't so bad, but these 4-levels blow my mind. What floor am I on? Do I go up or down to get to the kitchen? What about the den? Uh, where is my bedroom?
We saw one house with a master bathroom (if you can call it that, because it was shared with another room) that was, I kid you not, about 3 feet by 8 feet, including the space taken up by the shower stall. The door to the shower stall opened inwards, because if it had opened out like normal shower stall doors, it would have hit the sink. The sink had no storage space underneath and no vanity around it. There was barely room to move in the bathroom. I've lived in an apartment with more bathroom space that this - and this was supposed to be a MASTER bath! And let's just say the price on this house was already out of our price range. Totally not worth it. I just don't get it. Who are the buyers that are allowing this to happen? I think we need to band together and revolt.
We're encountering some repair expenses on the selling end of things, too. I won't go into detail, but as I mentioned, it just feels like we're getting it from all sides. When are we going to catch a break?
Anyway, I've been in the depths of despair about all of this for the last couple of days. I'm really not sure how it's all going to shake out. I guess we'll get out of our old house one way or another, even if we have no money left when it's all said and done. And the one thing we've got going for us here is that at least it's that time of year when the listings are starting to pick up. We can take a little time - as much as it takes for me to put my principles aside and get off my high horse, I guess. I just feel like any house we buy is going to feel like a bitter pill. I just hope we can find one that's a little less bitter than some we've already encountered.
We've done some house-hunting here, and it hasn't been pretty. My personal opinion is that houses are overpriced by 20-30K. I cannot believe the state of these houses. Did no one ever tell these sellers to declutter or clean their carpets? Some of these houses are vacant, so there's absolutely no excuse for the house to be dirty. But apparently it doesn't matter - they're going like hotcakes. In my mind, though, if what I can see of the house is poorly cared for, then I can't help but think that what I can't see has been poorly cared for as well.
And then there's the fact that everything is 40 years old, and in a style I don't like. Split foyers (the #1 favorite around here) are such RUDE houses. I mean, you want your house to be a welcoming place, right? Then why force visitors to make a decision the instant they step inside? Do I go up, or down? Hm, let me stand in this small space and let the door whack me in the backside while I try to figure it out. Not to mention the upper floor is at eye level - so you'd better not have any dust bunnies in the corners, or they will fall on your guests as they enter. Other houses we've looked at have been 4-level splits. Yes, 4 levels. I have lived in a 3-level and it wasn't so bad, but these 4-levels blow my mind. What floor am I on? Do I go up or down to get to the kitchen? What about the den? Uh, where is my bedroom?
We saw one house with a master bathroom (if you can call it that, because it was shared with another room) that was, I kid you not, about 3 feet by 8 feet, including the space taken up by the shower stall. The door to the shower stall opened inwards, because if it had opened out like normal shower stall doors, it would have hit the sink. The sink had no storage space underneath and no vanity around it. There was barely room to move in the bathroom. I've lived in an apartment with more bathroom space that this - and this was supposed to be a MASTER bath! And let's just say the price on this house was already out of our price range. Totally not worth it. I just don't get it. Who are the buyers that are allowing this to happen? I think we need to band together and revolt.
We're encountering some repair expenses on the selling end of things, too. I won't go into detail, but as I mentioned, it just feels like we're getting it from all sides. When are we going to catch a break?
Anyway, I've been in the depths of despair about all of this for the last couple of days. I'm really not sure how it's all going to shake out. I guess we'll get out of our old house one way or another, even if we have no money left when it's all said and done. And the one thing we've got going for us here is that at least it's that time of year when the listings are starting to pick up. We can take a little time - as much as it takes for me to put my principles aside and get off my high horse, I guess. I just feel like any house we buy is going to feel like a bitter pill. I just hope we can find one that's a little less bitter than some we've already encountered.
2.03.2005
