Sunday, November 8, 2009

The calm before the storm

I've been a little MIA in blogger land lately. Mainly, because I don't feel like I have anything to say or write about. Life just seems to be at a stand still. The phrase "hurry up and wait" seems to be what I've been experiencing. The first reason is because of my pregnancy. Yes, I'm excited about the baby. Yes, I'm finally starting to feel a little better (thanks to some different medicine!) No, I haven't bought anything for the baby. That's the question I get asked fairly often and I honestly have no desire to buy anything baby until I know what the sex is. Plus, until we move into our house, I really don't have room to store anything anyway. Right now I feel like the pregnancy is a slow-motion process. I'm almost 17 weeks which means I've almost reached the half-way point. But it still feels like April is so far away....

The other reason is because of our soon-to-be home. We went under contract on a HUD property around the middle of September. And we still don't have a closing date. It's a little annoying. Supposedly we may close this coming Friday, but I'm not going to hold my breath or anything. My husband and I have always bought re-possessed properties. And since I sold real estate for a little over two years, I'm no stranger to this process. However, we have never bought a HUD property, which are foreclosures that are now owned by the government. To say that they don't seem to be in any hurry whatsoever to get those properties off of their paperwork would be an understatement.

I was so excited to finally be a homeowner again after living on the road for two years. And, my husband and I were also very excited to have cash to actually pay for the repairs rather than put them on a credit card and then re-finance like we always did in the past. That was, until the bank informed us that their loan program changed half-way while we were under contract and that we now had to put a down-payment down. We now have very little money to re-model the house with and I hate that we will once again be living in a construction zone rather than getting everything done before we move in. The fact that we want to avoid credit cards as much as possible means it may be several months before the house is able to meet our expectations.

I know that once the day finally does arrive when we can close on the house, things will take a downward spiral from there. Greg's dad and his girlfriend offered to come and spend a week helping us remodel, and hopefully, clean, the house. The week of Thanksgiving my sister and her family will be making the trip up to visit us and help us "work" on the house. I'm excited to have family visit and only hope they like sleeping on air-mattresses and sitting on lawn chairs since we sold our couch when I joined Greg on the road! To be quite honest, buying furniture is pretty low on my list right now!

Another new aspect in my life is that I've been job hunting. It's a little hard for me to come to terms with the fact that this college graduate may have to work at Wal-Mart or be a receptionist since there are no good job opportunities in this little town. I loved selling real estate but you couldn't pay me to sell real estate here. And I'm not blaming the so-called recession either. My Realtor did inform me that she's very busy but upon further prodding I finally got her to admit that she's busy with a lot of sellers. Well, I can work with thirty sellers and be very busy, but if there aren't any buyers I'm not going to get a paycheck. That's just reality.

I haven't had any phone calls or interviews from prospective employers. I have also seen continued ads ran in the newspaper for jobs that I've applied for that I know I'm either perfectly qualified or even over-qualified for. It's a little frustrating. I'm trying very hard to convince myself that it's part of the calm of the storm.

This is what I foresee happening: We close on the house. Carl comes to visit. I get a phone call that I've been offered a job. I can no longer help work on the house or spend time with the visiting family members. It will take me a month to unpack because I'll be so busy. Dinners may start coming out of a bag that I dump into a skillet. Get the picture?

So for now, I'm trying to enjoy the calm before the storm.....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is my first visit to your blog.Things will get better in the future.I think alot of you and Greg,you both deserve the the best.I really miss working with Greg.He is a great asset to anyone he works for.Have a Great Day!!!!

PennyCandy said...

Enjoy the calm while you can.

HeidiTri's said...

I think life might get pretty hectic, pretty soon. I'm sure that no matter what comes your way, you'll handle it with style!

Nora said...

Ah, so glad you're back on the blog! :-) Don't worry, things will get busy soon and then there is Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and April will be there faster then you can think of it. I keep my fingers crossed for the house and the job. Just don't take one you don't like. We both now where that leads you to :-P
Kisses

Cathy said...

I can certainly relate on two points. I didn't feel any desire to buy anything during the first half of my pregnancy. Until I knew if it was a boy or girl growing inside, I felt it could wait.

I looked into getting a job when we moved to Lamar. I still have a current Colorado CNA license, so I inquired about open positions at Prowers Medical Center. Well, the only CNA positions available would require that I'd have to work evenings or overnight shifts, when daycare centers aren't open. Kyle's schedule with work & school wouldn't allow him to stay at home with Kingston if I were to work shifts like that, so I've opted to just continue staying at home. I even thought about applying to WalMart, but figured the pay they'd offer would only cover the cost of childcare, leaving almost none of my income to contribute to the household, so I may as well just stay home anyway. It's frustrating any way you slice it!

Kendra said...

I definitely recommend enjoying the calm while it lasts. You have a lot of big, exciting happenings in the near future and I am so excited for you and I know you will handle it well!!