June 23, 2015

Life as I know it has changed irrevocably...

Remember back when I hinted that life at work was about to face some big, BIG - no, HUGE changes?

Well, they have occurred.  Whether or not this is going to be a good change has yet to be seen.

I hate to be so vague but all I can really say is this...The Good Ol' Boy company is no more.  *let's bow our heads as we mourn the passing of this good, solid company*  Still, I'm confident that my position is safe.  And that this new company, which is SO new that it hasn't earned a nickname yet, seems to have a plan.  One that may prove to be viable...hopefully.

But all that aside; that is not the sole reason that my life has changed so drastically.  No, the reason for that is this...

One of my dearest friends - one of my soul sisters - has decided not to stay on with the new company.  I have worked with this woman since 2005.  TEN years!  Our children have grown up together.  Man-Child fell right between her two youngest...we raised them together in our many discussions of "Oh MY God!  Can you believe he did THIS?!" and "I'm SO proud of *this one* for doing THIS."  We discussed our marriages, our mother-in-law's, our ambitions, our design disasters...you name it, we've talked about it.  All of us...

She, along with another co-worker, and I were tight.  We were all soul-sisters...interestingly enough, none of us actually have sisters - but what we all feel for each other is what we would feel for real sisters.  So, needless to say, the other co-worker and I were inconsolable on Friday, our dear friend's last day at the office.

After shedding copious amounts of tears between the three of us we all went home.  And then came the group texts, where we all swore that we wouldn't lose touch.  That we'd have lunch at least once a month...despite the fact that we all live at least forty-five minutes away from each other.  That we loved each other.

Will we continue to have group texts?  Will we have a monthly lunch?  Who knows.  But, I certainly hope so - because I love these two women more than I ever thought I would when I first met them.  When I first met them, we were three very different women; with very different views on various issues.  But, despite our differences, we found a bond.  And our soul-sisters.

And now, we face the future together.  Although, it will be a different future than we could have imagined...one walking off into her new future alone and the two of us left to face our future.  I'd really like to think that though we are separating we won't be truly facing our various futures on our own...that we will still support each other after we have found on our footing on our different paths.

June 8, 2015

And just like *that* the deal is dead...

We walked away from the house today.

Was it the right thing to do?  Who knows?

All I know for certain that today was D-Day at the office.  Announcements were made that kicked off a flurry of activity that HAD to be done by 5:00 pm.  AND that our due diligence period was also over at 5:00 pm today.

Sometime around lunch, we received the Seller's response to our requests.  They basically said, "No.  We won't do any of this.  But we'll give you $1,500 in closing costs."  Which, in my mind, was basically as slap in the face and I was done.

After I had calmed down some, we went back with a VERY reasonable request.  To which, they came back with, "I'll give you that...but you won't get this."  And we said, no.  That we were done.

Then they came back at 4:45 pm to give us what we had asked for after their first refusal - and being that the office activity and the due diligence activity was all set to explode at 5:00 pm; I said no.  Then the realtor called and tried to talk me into this deal stating, "But they are giving you what you asked for..."

Yes, but I still thought they were being unreasonable AND the fact that they screwed around until the last second - hoping that would force us into this deal - ticked me off to no end.  Along with the panic I was feeling over completing the work thing.

And so we walked.

Now we are back to searching.  And, in the coming days, life as I know it at the office will be irrevocably altered.

Wine tonight?  Yes, definitely.

June 6, 2015

Cold Feet...and a random aside...what? That's how my mind works.

I'm beginning to think it might be a mistake to buy this house...

We are currently in due diligence, of which we actually lost a couple of days since the inspection report landed in both of our spam files on May 29th but we didn't find it until June 3rd.  Once we found it, I sent an email to the realtor explaining what happened (while wondering why she hadn't reached out sooner to see if we had received it).  She wanted to meet that night to discuss it, but we hadn't even had a chance to look at it; so we said no.  Then she informed us that she was out of town Thursday through Sunday and that our due diligence period ends on Monday!

So we worked up a list of things that must be done.  Somehow the Husband was able to scare up a couple of rough estimates for the cost of replacing both the air conditioning units (they are as old as the house!) and the hot water heater (the inspector said, "It's shot.") on Friday.  We emailed the list to her and also explained that we either wanted the current homeowner's to agree to pay for half of the ac units and water heater or deduct that amount from the house.

As of right now, we haven't heard back.

But after thinking about the logistics of this move, I'm beginning to panic.  In fact, I'm beginning to hope that they come back with a flat out "NO WAY."

Why?  Because this house does not have a garage.  Or a shed.  It has a teeny-tiny, closet-like space on the back of the house that is large enough to house a push mower and not much more.

Sure, we can build one (and had planned on doing so anyway) but...we currently have a two car garage chock full of garage type stuff.  WHERE would we store that stuff while building the garage?  In the dining room?

We've never moved into a house without a garage or, at the very least, a shed.  I'm flummoxed.

Add in the fact, that if this deal does go through, we close on June 22nd.  We need to have work done before we move in AND we need to be out of here by the 30th.  So we would have a little over a week to have the work done and move and figure out what to do with the garage stuff.

I actually voiced the fact that I am thinking this was a mistake; to which the Husband replied, "Oh no!"  and has appeared visibly worried about my state of mind ever since...because...

...to add in to all this angst, there are BIG doings going on at work.  Doings that I dare not speak of but are going to result in HUGE changes.  HUGE.  We've known this was coming and are ready for it and it's beginning to look like those changes will occur EXACTLY when we are supposed to be closing on this house...IF we close on this house.  Maybe those changes will come sooner (hopefully) or after (also, hopefully) but as of right this second it doesn't look likely.

Just so you won't worry, all I can say about these HUGE changes is that they do not include me not having a job after it's all said and done.  For that, I am eternally grateful.  It doesn't mean I'm happy about it (yet.  Who knows what the future holds?), but I AM grateful.

Back to the house...we went to look at sheds today.  The ones at the big box stores are incredibly expensive and cheap-looking.  The only upside?  They could probably deliver on day one.  We also went to look at some Dutch Barn style sheds.  They are also incredibly expensive but are WAY better as far as quality goes.  AND?  They do a rent-to-own kind of thing.  Where, theoretically speaking, we could rent this space in our back yard and once the garage is built either have it removed or pay it off and keep it.  The downside to this option?  They can't promise that it would be delivered on day one; even if we weren't having one custom made.  The guy said, it could be five days, it could be ten, who knows?  Now, obviously, we can't order this thing now...because we have nowhere to have it delivered at the moment - and, with our luck, it would be delivered in five days...to a house we don't even own!

And THAT is the exact moment that I began to freak out.

Forgive me if I'm incoherent...there is just too much going on for my liking right about now.