Here's a long over-due update post on the crazy life of the Ellsworth family. As most of you know, we started to get the itch to move last April. We looked at building another house in our neighborhood with a little more room and decided to put our house up for sale. When we put it up for sale we weren't really feeling a rush to sell it. We thought we'd put it up, see how things went, and if it sold - great! if not - oh well.
As time went by and the house didn't sell, I braced myself for the possibility that we weren't going to move. I was happy in our house, we have super great friends, a great ward... Well... on August 21st we got an offer on our house. It was the first one we had gotten, so we were anxious to move on it. The only problem... we had to be out by the 30th. That gave us just over a week to figure out what we were going to do, where we were going to go, were we going to build? buy an existing home? In my mind it was all going to work out perfectly. We were going to go sign the paperwork and start building our new house a few blocks over. We were going to move into the apartment complex that was in our ward, we could stay close to friends, the girls could stay at their school, it would be a smooth transition.
Well... as we all know, life loves to throw us a curve ball or two. We went back to the builder only to find out that they had raised their prices since we talked to them in April. Seriously? In this market? Even if they honored the original prices they had quoted us, it still didn't make sense to pay that much for that house. The market has dropped too much since April.
I was actually OK with that at first. I tried to convince Ryan. We loved our neighborhood, we love the area, we love the school, we have really great friends... why not pay top dollar for this house? After all, we were planning on living there until the girls graduate from high school. Ryan wasn't so easy to convince. He asked me to please at least look around and see what we could get for the same price. I was super sad to admit that he was right. We really could get a nice house for that price. Especially if we were willing to try to work a deal on a short sale.
This led to the next part of my perfect plan. Moving into the apartments in our ward. I knew buying a short sale could take some time, so I had prepared myself for apartment life. I called the complex expecting wonderful things to happen. Negative! The apartment complex was completely full? Seriously? I didn't know that could happen. No problem, I'll just call the one up the street - strike out! Maybe the one a mile away - NOPE! Wow! Starting to panic. How about the next town over? No, no, no, no, no, no! Every place I called required you rent a 3-bedroom house if you have have 5 people. Every place I called was completely booked on 3-bedroom apartments.
It was getting tight! We had ordered the moving truck, put most of our stuff in storage, but still we didn't have any place to live. Thank goodness for friends of friends. A guy Ryan works with was married to a woman who managed a place in South Jordan. After making over 50 phone calls, and at least 10 drop-bys at various complexes, it was the first place that would take us. They didn't have any 3-bedrooms, but they were OK if we rented a 2-bedroom. The gal was super great and worked with, gave us a good rate, and even let us go month-to-month since we have no idea how long we'd be here. I really really struggled with the idea of moving so far away. I had to pull the kids out of school (after only having gone 1 day to their old school) and transfer them to a new year-round school. We were lucky to get D track so the girls only missed about 3 weeks.
So... all of my original plans went out the window. We weren't building my dream house, we weren't staying in the area, we had to yank the girls out of their home and away from their friends. I had a few days where I was stuck in my own little pity party asking myself what the heck we had done by selling our house. Then it was time to go start hunting for a new home.
This snapped me out of my woe-is-me moment. There are so many beautiful houses in our price range. We have looked everywhere from Kaysville to Herriman. Apparently we'll live anywhere as long as we love the house. Knowing we'll be there for a really long time (and having this be our 4th house) has really helped us know exactly what we were looking for and to screen out anything that wasn't quite up to snuff.
It has been a long couple of weeks, and I swear if I have to go see another house it might just do me in. But... here's where we're at. We decided it was definitely worth it to try and go the short-sale route. We can get a 4K - 5K sq. ft. house for the same price as a 3K sq. ft. non short sale. We've put in 4 offers so far and we're just waiting on the bank to do their thing and let us know if they'd like to let us live there. We have one in on a short sale in Kaysville, one on a short sale in Farmington, one on a short sale in Herriman, and one in on a bank-owned home in Fruit Heights.
Now the trick will be to learn a little patience. Not something that comes naturally to me! I really don't know exactly what possessed me (the most spontaneous and impatient person I know) to think I could handle waiting. The other hard part is not getting too attached to any one house. At any given moment we could hear back that we've been approved for one house and then that's it. We're locked in. I definitely have them ranked in my mind, but I am trying super hard not to get my hopes up.
But let's be honest. We're talking about me! I want the Fruit Heights house so bad I could die! Since it's bank-owned we have no idea what will happen. We got the first offer in on the house, but the bank may choose to wait for other offers to come in. I just hope we don't get outbid. :(
So as far as our mental state - our sanity is teetering on the edge. Apartment life is hard. The space is cramped and I'm not loving shushing my kids every time they act like kids. The girls seem to be adjusting pretty well. They like their new school a lot and have already made new friends. Poor Audrey is probably having the hardest time. She was really looking forward to going to the neighborhood preschool and now she's just home with mom all day. I really do want to get her in someplace so that she'll be prepared for Kindergarten. It's just one of those things where I wonder if we'll even be here long enough to make it work enrolling her somewhere. But then again, if I don't, what if we're here until next Spring?
So many things going on, but we're slowing down and finding a new routine. Wish us well and keep your fingers crossed for that house in Fruit Heights! :)
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