Written on Thursday, 5/19/22
This obviously won’t get posted tonight. I’m just starting it at 9:30 p.m. I am already sleep deprived because apparently my concussion broke my sleep, and I am emotionally exhausted from a roller coaster of a day. So editing is too much for my brain.
My next post here was supposed to be the big reveal of our house in Vermont. I was so excited about this big, beautiful, Victorian, doll house overlooking a field, and forest, and river. I couldn’t wait to tell you all about it and how the room I had claimed as my “office” had white shelves, and a white built-in bench, and pink flowered wallpaper, and a door to a balcony. I’ve already shown the picture of the house to anyone who doesn’t run away from me and my phone fast enough.
This morning we got a call from our realtor in Vermont. My son- and daughter-in-law were planning to do the walk through for us this coming weekend. So our realtor, stopped by the house today just to check on the condition before we closed. But she didn’t find the house in the condition we all expected. After seeing a visible hole in the plumbing on the third floor, she started checking around. It turns out the pipes had frozen at some point and, while the first floor had been fixed, the top two floors, including four out of the five bathrooms, had not been repaired at all and did not have working plumbing.
That’s kind of a problem.
We already knew the house needed a new paint job. Not just a regular painting would do—it would have be fully sandblasted and repainted. And it needed a new roof. The total of those two items alone could run us close to $100,000. So we were prepared to jump into this property with some work to do.
But nowhere in any of the disclosures or visual inspections was anything said about not having functional plumbing.
I mean, I know we are moving to a small town, but we aren’t moving to the 18th century.
So we talked to our realtor, we talked to the plumber who had worked on that house in the past, and we talked to our lawyer. In the end, we came to the conclusion that this house officially had “Money Pit” written all over and we need to find another one.
Thankfully, there is another for sale that may fit the bill, and we are touring it by video tomorrow morning.
In the meantime, I am mentally packing up all the belongings I had placed so carefully in my mind’s picture of this dream house, and trying not to hold my breath for tomorrow.
I’m sharing this part, this whole “oops, better find a different house” part, because I always try to hide all the crazy drama that can unfold in our lives, and I told you I would take you along for the ride. Although I thought it would be more about kids fighting in the car and other adventures.
Today is Thursday, and we load the moving truck next Tuesday, then leave town on Friday. And there is not a lot of leeway to change dates because we are living in an already-sold house, with a deadline for getting out. All the hotel reservations are made and my son is taking off work to fly in to help us drive back.
I tried to get some packing done today, but all I managed to do was drag things out of closets and make a mess. We’re at that weird point when any further packing will change our day-to-day lives and we’ll start to miss stuff. And with a shock like we had today, I just couldn’t cross that threshold. We haven’t told the kids we aren’t moving to the blue house yet. Today was their second to the last day of school, and they were already wired and emotional. (That is another reason I am delaying this post by 24 hours. They deserve to hear the news first.)
Another reason that I shy away from sharing this kind of stuff is because there are always people who point out that we don’t have to be going through all this mess. We could just stay here. If this is so hard, why do it? Why bring this trouble on ourselves? But the difficulties aren’t unexpected in anything but their specific details, and we have had this dream for a long time. It’s worth fighting for.
I look at it like being in labor. By the end of pregnancy, I’m always so eager for the baby to just GET OUT that starting labor is a relief. But there comes a point when each breath is harder than the last and it seems like it will never end.
I knew this last week or so in Phoenix would be really hard. And I knew I couldn’t predict HOW it would be hard.
I just hope I can sleep tonight. But the coffee is ready to brew in the morning and a different house awaits.
It will work out in the end. You get a house and in a couple years you find one you really love again. Maybe you will fall in love with the mystery house you are going to be seeing. Life keeps moving forward and every year you fulfill a little more of your dreams. I thought the house I have right now was my dream home. But around me Arizona is falling apart and I don’t know that I want to stay here anymore. While my parents are here I will be taking care of them. After that I am thinking maybe Utah because it is good for property cost, property taxes, wealthy state so less homeless and drug addicts, good for people with allergies and asthma. Gonna pick a town good for non Mormons lol. Anyway, life is full of surprises and the bigger the family the more surprises lol. I hope nothing else too big happens for now on your adventure. Safe travels! I am happy you are doing what you guys want. I wish I could now but I am the only child my parents can count on.