Oh, wow! That sounds so stressful! I hope it all works out for you....keep us updated!

Oh, also! Grass is growing in my forest! I didn't quite believe it would actually happen, but we got the super shade mix, and it's coming in really well. The soil was pretty incredible out there, when we started digging into it, between the chicken poop and all the leaves composting over the years :). It's kind of hilarious to look out there, though....there's our fence, with our grass seedlings and pine strawed sections (where it was way too rooty for grass) inside and then nothing but super dense woods right on the other side of the fence....like we're just barely holding back the wilderness with our fence.

That's SO frustrating. Yeah...especially in your part of the country, no garage would be a dealbreaker for so many people.

Inspection went well! I think....I just read through the report, and it SOUNDS terrifying...but when we were actually there talking to the guy he did not sound alarmed. Nothing we didn't know about other than minor things here and there. He referred to the attic as "phenomenal," which sounds like a pretty good thing. I'm not sure I've ever had a phenomenal attic before.

wow--that's incredible! congratulations...and good luck with the inspection, et. al.

Kitchen is finished! Well, mostly. DH is still working on the backsplash. It looks really great, though....black cabinets, butcher block, brushed nickel hardware, and a backsplash that's plastic but looks like pressed tin. We also got a new kitchen table, because our old one was looking pretty ratty (my mom bought it for us for the new house, but we went and picked it up early). A big improvement over late 80's oak, builder brass, and worn out laminate! There was a flurry of activity yesterday because our agent showed the house to someone who needs to do a lease purchase. DH and I talked about it all day and had pretty much decided we didn't want to do it, when she e-mailed me this morning to tell me the woman decided she wants to look around more anyway. So I did a lot of worrying yesterday for nothing. But that's two people now who've ALMOST wanted the house, so that's something. Tomorrow's the inspection on the new house (it was supposed to be last week, but we had to push it back because the utilities weren't turned on yet). We already know that both the furnaces are broken, because the gas guy left a note about how he couldn't turn them on. Not a surprise...they're both original to the house (built in 1985), and they haven't been turned on in 2 years. It's a big expense up front, but in the long run it will save us money to buy more efficient ones now instead of trying to get the old ones to hobble along for awhile. Anyway, once we're past the inspection (assuming nothing devastating turns up), we do the price drop here and put up the new kitchen pictures. I feel like the history of selling this house has been to put more and more money into it, expecting to get less and less out of it. At some point, that will need to stop! But we've heard that $150,000 is where we should be from 2 different agents who've shown the house now, and we're going down to $149,000, so I'm hoping that, along with all the work I've done this week, will get it sold fast!

Yay! sounds like a much better fit! Isn't terrible how the windows always need to be washed again? I had a friend over helping me with the kitchen last week, and she was wiping down my baseboards. I was like, "I PROMISE I did all of this before we listed, but now it's been 6 weeks and everything needs to be done all over again!" Sounds like you're off to a pretty good start! Good luck! Oh, Saille--I SO want you to get that house sold and get to move on! Praying that this is your week! Ugh! That's so frustrating! I've always heard that, even if they do an inspection, it's pretty much an easy out anyway, because there's always SOMETHING that comes up. So if he is trying to get out of it, it's better he does it sooner rather than later, at least!

We're paying a $35 recital fee, and I think a $55 costume fee. DS is taking two classes; the recital fee covers both, but I had to pay two costume fees. We get 2 free tickets; others are $7 each. The classes themselves are $50/month.

I love trees, and right now I live in the middle of the woods. We're about to move to house on a nearly treeless (there are a couple of ornamental trees in the front yard) lot, though, and I'm kind of excited about it. I'll probably plant some trees (maybe some fruit trees), but, yeah...disadvantages of having lots of trees to deal with: *trees mean squirrels, who can get in your attic (although we haven't had this problem) *lots of leaves to rake and deal with *branches falling *branches rubbing against roof and damaging it *allergies *branches and trees falling and causing damage. *pine trees especially I worry about with tornadoes. *lack of sun for gardening

I love Owen, but my issue with it is that it's TOO common....to go with my other boys' names anyway. Not that I have anyone to name at the moment. But I'm always thinking about baby names.

Well, sort of. My mom worked until my little brother was born, then she stayed home until my parents got divorced. So, you know, they WOULD have kept living on one income. My grandparents...hmmm....my mom's mom MOSTLY stayed home (she had 8 kids), but by the time I was around and my youngest uncles were 8 and 12, she was working at least part time with my grandfather in the family business. My dad's mom stayed home, but she also ran a "beauty shop" from her basement...mostly she permed old ladies' hair.

I did! I had help...my agent came over both days to help me, and some friends came the second day....but it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. I had already done all the bathroom cabinets, so I knew pretty much what I was getting into. I took the doors off, scrubbed everything down with a degreasing cleaner, then a coat of oil-based primer and two coats of a high quality black paint. It's a small kitchen, but I did all that in two days, then let them dry for a full day, and I'll spend a few hours putting the new hardware on and rehanging today--so not bad! ETA: I was really intimidated about cabinet painting, but now I wish I'd done it years ago. We still had our builder grade, 1989 oak with brass hardware, so it makes a huge difference. The kitchen was the only thing left in the house (well, other than some of the light fixtures) that screamed late '80's at you when you walked in.

sounds like a big week for home improvement! DH and the kids are in CA this week. I spent all day Monday and Tuesday painting cabinets. They go back up with their shiny new hardware today, after the counter guy finishes putting in the butcher block. And at some point I need to get the new backsplash in. It's going to look awesome. I like it better than my new kitchen, actually (the new kitchen is very nice, with higher end cabinets and granite and all that; it's just not what I would have picked, you know?). Maybe I won't leave! Suddenly, even before the official price drop or the pictures of the new kitchen go up, we have lots of interest. We have three showings lined up...our agent's been putting everyone off a couple of days until the kitchen is put back together. I know this is the right thing to do, but it makes me nervous. What if they find other houses TODAY and never come look at mine?! The inspection on the new house had to be pushed back to next week because we're still waiting on the bank to get all the utilities turned back on, so that gives me a few days more to worry about that.

DS6 is on allegra, flovent (he also has mild asthma, but word is this helps with allergies, too), and we do a nasal rinse as needed. This seems to keep things pretty well under control for him. He was on flonase for awhile, too, but it was really irritating his nose, so we cut it after a bit. It did help a lot with the nighttime congestion, though.

My '99 toyota Sienna just hit 200,000 miles with no sign of stopping (knock wood; it needs to last the rest of the year and take us up the east coast and back one more time!)

Big plans for the week on the house selling front. Tomorrow DH the kids leave for CA to visit his family. I'm staying here, since we had no idea, back when we booked, what would be going on with the house. Turns out what will be going on is me working my butt off! Today DH is going to seed the backforest....uh, sorry, the backyard. Tonight we go get butcher block countertops from Ikea. Not granite, but I actually am in love with them...they're what I'd do if I were redoing the kitchen for ME, I'm pretty sure. So then while he's gone I paint our kitchen cabinets, have the countertops installed, water seed, and take care of some other little things (is there no end of little things to take care of?!) And, then, after I spend my whole kid free week working....we drop the price! This seems counterintuitive. Really, our agent's been signalling to everyone who's looked since we got the contract on the other house that we're negotiable anyway, but an official price drop will put us just under $150, so we're hoping the listing will pop up for a lot of people who haven't seen it yet that way. Meanwhile....we're waiting on the bank to have the lights and water turned back on at the new house, and then we do the inspection. I'll feel better once we're past that....the house has been empty for 2 years, so we're hoping no big hidden issues will pop up.

Oh no! What do PARENTS know, anyway? Have they definitely decided against yours, then, or are we still hoping they have a rebellious streak and will go against the parents?

My husband has run a Math Olympiad team for DS and a few other kids for the past two years now. He's a high school math teacher. It's pretty informal...this year we had about 10 kids (it's best if you have at least 10 because they calculate the team score based on the top 10 kids, but it still works with fewer...you just focus on individual scores). They got together once a week to work through problems together and then 5 times a year there's a test that they work through individually and then DH submitted the scores.

Well...we actually had an offer yesterday. I can't go into it too much, as it was someone from this board (!)....but it ended up not working out :(. which is especially sad because yesterday was my birthday. But we're no worse off than we were a couple of days ago. So. Onward!

Yeah, I don't know how it worked out that they didn't already know before they went....I know that he had worked there for several years, so it may have been more of a trip to visit friends and see what was up and whether it would work out. FWIW, they already had 2 biological kids when they did their domestic adoption....I believe she was in her early 30's and he was in his late 30's. I hope something works out for you!

I don't know much, but DH's cousin and his wife dealt with this recently. She had breast cancer a few years ago, and then they were hoping to adopt a child from Georgia (the country, not the state). They even made a trip there, but it wound up not working out, because of her history of cancer. They ended up adopting domestically, though, and have an adorable little boy now.

you DO want to go! :D I definitely wouldn't do deluxe dining for a first trip...it would take away too much time from being in the parks. Basic dining will be PLENTY of food. You can do a buffet for your table service meal every day to fill up your husband if you want. ETA: I love touring plans. And, yeah, you need to be making dining reservations like yesterday. Nah, really, it will be fine. but don't put them off too long.

sure...I kind of made it up, though I'm sure it was subconsciously inspired by a lot of recipes I've seen online... 1 tbsp butter 1 egg 1/2 tsp baking powder pinch of salt 1 heaping tbsp coconut flour 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (or so) Spray a ramekin (or you could probably use a small mug) with cooking spray. Melt butter. Mix together butter and egg in a small mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients and whisk until the lumps are gone. Add cheese and mix. Spoon into ramekin and cook in microwave for about one minute. Cheese is optional, and if you need dairy free I'm sure any kind of oil would work in place of the butter. Or you could add in other things to flavor it with. It does have a pretty strong coconut flour taste, which I don't mind, but I was pretty pleasantly surprised when ALL THREE of the kids liked it!

Okay! I finally have some news! The bank counter-offered...the price is very close to what we offered, but they want to move the closing date up to the end of April (we asked for early June). This puts the pressure on to find a buyer here, but I think we're going for it (still waiting to hear back from DH, but we've talked through this sort of scenario before, so I'm reasonably sure he'll be on board). Yay! And scary! I have to figure out when to actually move...there's some work that needs to be done before we can move in, but not much. Okay--so out of superstition, I've been holding off, but now that it looks like we're actually getting it, here's the house!

Welcome! And good luck!