My soul is redlining these days but I’ve discovered a few breaths and a few minutes to write. Thank you as always for reading and affording me an opportunity to be better understood.
My House
Life’s been moving fast since I last wrote. This whole moving-on scheme took off really quickly. Erik closed on his house while we met with a local realtor and got our house on the market and looking fine. My brother came down for a fun garage sale the day it was listed. We quickly got a bunch of showings and a couple good offers. While on vacation in middle America, we eventually signed a contract on our house for a cash buyer (that was a pain to negotiate with). They dropped ten grand into escrow and had their inspection on August 15th, which was uneventful. Their realtor assured us everything was fine and they were planning to move forward.
With an inspection period ending on August 22nd and a closing date of August 26th, we had to plan to move before we knew for sure. We had already moved a truckload of non-essential furniture the weekend prior. Torn between options, we skipped Megaplex to spend a 2nd weekend moving, unloading and working on the new house. We scheduled a final U-Haul for the Sunday prior to closing, the 25th, and even threw together a get-together on the 24th for one last gaming night.
The week before closing, every night was an exciting “last” weekday. Monday night, we came home and relaxed, doing absolutely nothing. Tuesday night, we huddled over freshly-constructed Pokémon TCG decks. Wednesday night, we reclined in some lawn chairs and (finally) watched Heat on the projector before disassembling and packing the setup.
We also got a strange demand from the buyers on Wednesday: a demand to pressure-wash the driveway and professionally clean the carpet. These are the same buyers that negotiated our price down because they wanted to replace the carpet. We asked for clarification (could we rent a Rug Doctor? That sounded kind of fun) and never got a response. We went to bed with cars packed for a Thursday after-work delivery and celebration dinner.
Thursday I finally decided to start the change-of-address process with a pep in my step. After work, we unpacked the cars, met up with a friend, and headed to a Cajun place in Deltona, excited to start exploring our new digs. Not five minutes into dinner, our realtor called and informed us the buyers had pulled out at the last minute, no reason given. Rob walked back in nearly in tears. It destroyed us.
Despite many follow-ups, the buyers refused to provide any justification for withdrawing during the inspection period (suffering no penalties) and refused to provide us with the now-useless-to-them inspection report. We got nothing. Rewind the clock to the end of July. Put the house back on the market. Wait for showings, keep it clean and nice and presentable, now without any staging. Wait for an offer, negotiate again, hopefully get a comparable price. Then wait another 30 days and hope it doesn’t fall through, again. But now it’s basically September: school’s started, less people are shopping for houses, prices are withering, and the economy is teetering atop an unreliable blabbering tariff-wielding toddler. I didn’t think there were many ways left to lower my opinion of the general public and selfish attitudes, but playing games with people’s lives for profit: I shouldn’t be surprised.
The hardest part was inventorying my brain for closed threads and completed tasks that now had to be un-done. Take the lawnmower back to the old house. Find the security camera and set that up again. Don’t cancel the utilities. Turn direct deposit for the mortgage back on. Pack some clothes and bring those back. This was one of those rare moments where I hadn’t guarded my feelings, mitigated every risk, and had actually tried to embrace a positive future, and boy did I get burned for it.
We had our fucking party and moved Sunday anyway. We are failing forward. The house is back on the market and has had some showings.
I continue to realize I am very privileged being in this position in the first place and continue to feel bad feeling bad about all of this. Here’s hoping this doesn’t last too long. In the meantime, I moved our remaining mattress into the master closet and strung up Christmas lights on the shelves, trying to find space for silliness in all of this.
My Job
The position I applied for closed on July 4th. I was phone interviewed on July 18th, was in-person interviewed on August 7th, and was “the selected candidate” on August 16th. I am told an offer should be coming early next week, which means it will have taken over two months for the organization to process an internal candidate that had already held the position and delivered results. Great job organization! I am likely going to have to counter, so I’ll drag this on a little longer and see what comes of it.
Meanwhile, the new academic year just kicked off, we’re past the point-of-no-return on an enormous data center relocation and multiple projects for app and database migrations (both of which I am heading for our team) and we’ll be moving off campus to a renovated office by October. And I’ve just been tapped to help make videos with our CIO. No pressure!
My Life
The new house is a mess and it’s so stressful but it’s improving every day. My weight survived a long vacation (which was fantastic). Despite my frustration I’m killing it at work. We’ve discovered an awesome Italian place in Deland. Rob and I finished Outer Wilds (Game of the Year material, play it) and are grinding through Gears 4 (fun so far!). I’m knee-deep in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and I just snagged Control for a dedicated gaming escape tonight. I built a sleeping cave in the old master closet with colorful lights and a booming HomePod. And we’re heading to the mountains with an entourage in October. Worth it!
My Problems
I see them down there somewhere, circling, but I’m so busy climbing this mountain of changes I don’t have much time to think about them. I know they’ll be waiting for me to come back down. I’ll be ready. 🐾
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