Sorry for all the confusion today. I am not pregnant and we are moving, our house is sold, we are renting for a few months while the house we’re REALLY moving into is being built.

We are building.

This has been a roller coaster, no?

There are times I think I should just not talk about certain things because I know we change our minds or other/different opportunities present themselves which helps us make a better decision for our future.

Insert Build A House.

Here’s the skinny:

We sold our house for less than what we still owe on it and we are not doing a short sale – a short sale is when the you sell your house for less than you owe on it and the bank “forgives” the rest of the mortgage. You have to prove that you cannot pay it back and it also ruins your credit for a couple years and you cannot obtain a mortgage for 3 years following a short sale.

So, that’s not an option for us because we can pay it back, over time.

However, we can’t just keep paying on the existing mortgage – we have to close that when the house sells, it all makes sense … kind of. We would have to obtain ANOTHER loan for the amount in which we still owe and the bank wasn’t willing to loan us that.

Here’s where I might start swearing, because here’s where our plan went out the window.

Also, I am not pregnant.

Our hopeful plan for getting real with the market and wanting to move was to sell the house knowing we were going to take a loss on it – but then just be able to move forward. Not buy anything, we wanted to build … DOWN THE ROAD. We wanted to rent for a year, maybe more, just paying off the debt, trying out new places in the world and in life and not being so grown up for once.

We wanted some freedom.

However, with that loan we were going to need to pay back the loss on the house we wouldn’t be saving a darn penny by renting and it would take us at least 3 years to get out of the hole we were willing to dive right into.

Fuck.

Shit.

Cock.

Balls.

And, I’m not pregnant.

It was always an option for us to build right away – our realtor presented that little token before our house was even sold knowing that we’d end up taking a loss on the house if we did sell. We’ve been aware of the opportunity for months, have driven out to the lot and talked at length about it, prayed about it.

But we still wanted to exhaust all other options before saying yes.

Which we did. And last night, officially this morning – we said yes. Officially. We’ve been saying “Let’s talk” and “How about this?” and “I think that could work” for the last week.

We’re building a ranch 3 bed room home with a basement in a nice subdivision and in a few years if we decide we want to try being “free” all over again, we won’t have to owe. We might even turn a profit.

Once again, there is not a bun in the oven.

So here’s the thinking: 3 years renting, not saving anything and in the same place (location and financially) in the 3 years that we are now or 5 months of “freedom”, a new house that actually costs less and in 3 years if we wanted to move or do it all over again … we’ll be ahead. Not behind. Not in the same place. Not stuck.

The Lord willing, of course.

We’re doing a lot of trusting through this process. It’s brand new to Aaron and I. My parents built homes when I was younger but being on this side of it is EXCITING. I’m having a blast.

Any questions?

I’ll pin down our Realtor for a video chat on this one – so bring your questions, all of them! We’ll answer via video soon.

And we’re not pregnant.

This past January I talked about having a Real Estate Reality Check.

Now we’re checking in, finally.

We wavered on the decision of what to do – crunching numbers, talking through expectations and worrying about the next step.

I did some soul searching and then some confessing and then some major freaking out because everything was possibly happening, and happening at lightening speed.

It was frustrating for me, for us. The first offer on the house went stale – nothing came of it. And then we had a couple more showings, and then none at all. All the while I was planning Gleek Retreat and then attending – so the quietness of the house and possibilities was such a blessing at the time.

A couple weeks of detoxing emotions and cleaning my house- relearning how to menu plan and take control of my schedule and we get another call … another showing.

We had previously talked with our Realtor about the reality of our situation, a price reduction was going to happen – we were ready to say good bye to this house, to figure it out. To move on.

Only … we never got that far. Another offer came in, low, but with the price reduction in mind – and back to crunching numbers – the offer was essentially pennies from our rock bottom – a few minor adjustments and a counter offer later …

I tell you, with increasingly great pleasure that we ARE MOVING, God willing everything goes well with inspections and a few contingencies are worked out on our end. Oh, and that we find a place to live in the next 30 days.

We’ve been through all kinds of emotions the past 5 days, wondering what if’s and where’s and FINALLY’S! It’s exhilarating and exhausting and oh my god, I haven’t packed a box in 6 years … and why do we have SO MUCH CRAP!?

A garage sale is in the works, as is a craigslist bombardment of things we don’t want to carry around with us for the next year … or that we just don’t know if we’ll have room for.

Good thing we ordered a new couch for our living room last week.

Now … what exactly are we doing? Why are we moving again?

And … are we MOVING MOVING? Like, away? Forever?

Oh friends. I just don’t know. We don’t know! Isn’t that WONDERFUL!??? It’s so freeing. So amazingly wonderful to sit here and not KNOW anything. Because when it comes right down to it, we don’t any way. We don’t know if we’ll be in California for a couple months, Oklahoma for the summer, Michigan for the next year or, heck, Spain!? Maybe we’ll stay in someone’s house while they’re traveling for a year, or we’ll rent – we won’t buy.

Our options have just increased from “Sit in the back yard for the next 15 years cursing the lack of underground sprinkling” to “EXPLORE THE WORLD AROUND US”.

This decision makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to most people. On paper is doesn’t make a whole lot of sense financially … only … it really does. But this decision wasn’t up to most people, it was up to us.

This is what we’re doing for our family. We’re not even 30 yet – and I’m not ready to commit the rest of my life to one house. To one city. I’ve been committing myself to things and people for so long, and un-regrettably so, but there’s still room for some exploration. There’s room for the unknown. There has to be.

It’s time for a new pair of shoes. My soul needs a little help learning how to walk again. We’ll start with a new sidewalk.