reboot and restart

I was so excited when I woke up this morning – today was the day I was showing off the house to hubby!!

Until we got there.

You see – just like when you take the guy (or girl) you like to your friends, and are expectantly waiting to hear what they think, you never want to hear anything bad because it totally FUBARs up your own image of them and you’ll never, EVER see that person the same way again.

And such was this house. Hubby liked the space, and agreed that it certainly had a TON of potential…but it also needed work. Not hire-out-contractors type of work, but this-is-taking-a-lot-of-time-and-effort type of work. If we were single, or if we had jobs that weren’t 10+ hour days, or if he had a job where he could be home for more than 72 hours in a row, then the house might have worked. But as we aren’t, we don’t, and he isn’t – this won’t work for what we need.

Which gives me complete sadsies because OH THE ROOM AND SPACE!! OOOH AAAAH!!

So, on a whim, we decided to drive by house #2 (which I had seen Thursday) so we could show my in-laws where it was.

And they were having an open house.

So we went in.

And the in-laws LOVED it. And hubby liked it. And my daughter just spun around in the backyard like a goof.

It is pretty, and the neighborhood is nice and I do think it could/would work. I mean, they JUST redid the kitchen and the floors…and they’re GORGE. Like, beautiful hardwood floors and new granite countertops redone.

But – and my only but – it’s not as spacious as the other house is/was and that concerns me. You can’t just BUY new space, you know? It works for us as a family now…but for years from now?? I just don’t know.

Three things

Bulleted list today, folks

• Houses: After a nail-biting 48 hours, we’ve finally been pre-approved for our loan amount (seriously nail-biting – our initial approval was about $15K less than what we want/need for the house). While the full amount of our pre-approval does not cover the current asking price of the house, both we (and our realtor) think we’ll be able to get the home for less. On the same topic, I take hubby to see the house I LOVE tomorrow – I’m hoping that he loves it too and that we’ll make an offer sometime this week.
• Running: As I was running today I realized that I have been training/maintaining fitness for a long time, and yet my weight remains about 15lb higher than it was last year. Despite all my work on speed and tempo runs and long runs, it’s still higher than I want…so that means two things:
  1. I accept this weight and move forward.
  2. I go on a super strict diet plan and see if I can drop the weight.

  While I would love to do #2, reality is that I am incapable of dieting. Dieting requires planning, dieting requires focus, dieting requires energy – I have precious little of all three of those. So for now….[sigh] For now, I am just going to accept that I am at where I’m at.

• Vacation: With hubby travelling every single week Monday through Friday (God, does single parenting SUCK!), and with the house hunting/moving, and with work ramping up, and with the whole weight thing I mentioned above, I am in serious need for a vacation…or at least a day off. (I think even if I *did* have a day off, I wouldn’t know what to do with it!!) It turns out that hubby’s work – because of his crazy and consistent travel schedule – is paying for me to fly down to visit hubby during Labor Day weekend. Where are we going, you may ask?

  ORLANDO!!!!!

  I am so excited to have a short vacation and break. We have no plans, other than visiting Universal Studios in Orlando — we’ve been together for almost 10 years and never been to an amusement park together (and we both love them). But I feel like we need at least ONE day to just hang out at the hotel and use the pool and just RELAX. It sounds scrumptious, doesn’t it??

where to live versus where to live

So, last we left off…

Hubs and I rented out our condo to an amazing couple. We moved out mid-July (after I packed up the ENTIRE place) into a small 2-bedroom apartment with a 3-month lease. We have the majority of our items in a POD and took basically late summer/early fall clothes with us and just a few pieces of furniture (our “guest” room bed – a queen). My husband, at the start of June, started a new job and has been travelling across the nation Monday through Friday…which leaves me to do the majority of the house shopping.

So we originally thought we would purchase a house “on the south side” which is near my in-laws (with hubs’ travel schedule, they help us a lot with picking up my daughter so I can work). We found one that we really like; it’s primarily “finished” (read: paint, some wallpaper removal) and is really pretty. The two bonus factor? It has a hot tub and a fully fenced in yard. It’s got 3BR, 2.5BA, around 2000sq feet total.

But then someone (read: me) got the big idea to look on the north side of town, which is not only where I work 75% of the time but is an area I’ve always wanted to live in (but usually cannot afford)…and I found a house. Boy, did I find a house. It’s a ranch style home with a Colonial exterior (LOVE), about 1/4 acre bigger than house #1, 4Br 2BA, and 2500 sq feet. It also has an unfinished basement (well, partially finished, but it has carpet from the 1970s – suuuuuuper sexy, let me tell you!) which adds to the square footage.  The catch(es)? Farther from my in-laws, about $20K more, bedroom floors and hallway needs to be re-carpeted or finished, and it needs all new appliances. BUT it will come with built-in equity and has a much higher resale value than house #1.

Now, the price of house #2 isn’t really an issue — even if we can’t negotiate the price down any further, it’s definitely doable. My mother has generously offered to gift us 1/2 of the new appliances as a “housewarming” gift (I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s a super nice offer…). I’m just worried that with the work that needs to be done (flooring, painting), and hubby’s travel schedule, that it’s *too much* for us at this point in time.

(Yes, I am easily distracted by bright shiny objects.)

So this weekend we’re off to look at both homes. I’ll be seeing them both again, for hubs he’ll be seeing house #2 for the first time. I’m hoping that we’ll be ready to make a tentative offer within the next week or so, just because I need to be done with this stress load.

Who knew choosing a house would be so difficult? (OK, I did, but still.)

Anyone have a giant stress ball?

Yup, I suck at updating this thing.

Time has not been plentiful around here – hubby is now travelling for his job Monday through Friday. That means that I am single-parenting for that time, in addition to tip-toeing around my in-laws, trying to fit my runs and workouts in, finding a house for us to purchase, trying to maintain the status quo on the financial aspect, and preparing my daughter for “real school” this fall. AAAAAGH.

However, I’m making it a priority to try writing a little more often. Even if no one reads this, it helps me to organize my thoughts and figure some things out.

Tomorrow I’ll explain our current housing dilemma, and why dealing with a forgetful banker is not good for one’s stress level.

Whee.

Return of North Face!

Last year I had the opportunity to run The North Face Endurance Challenge 10K race with my girl Kim. It was PURE AWESOME – I can’t believe I never did a full recap of it, but I *did* do a podcast (episode 22 – found here)…

Anyway, SOMEHOW I got invited back to do it again, so do it again I shall!

Except this time I’ll be doing the half-marathon.

God help me.

I loved it tremendously last year, and this year proves to be more challenging, more crazy, more hysterical than last. (And hopefully, this year, Kim won’t have to jump start her car at the end of the race for us to go home….)

Join me?

crazy comes in threes…?

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED over the past few days, I’m not even sure where to begin.

(Let’s start at the very beginning//a very good place to start…)

So at the beginning of May, hubby was laid off from his job. A job he had been at for not-quite-a-year, that he had been recruited for, that he had been hired and promised and told he was there to “forward the brand.” Riiiiight. He was given two weeks of severance in lieu of two weeks’ notice (ACK!) and has been off work since that time. Well, the tide has turned – he was hired by a new company (YAY!), started July 2nd (DOUBLE YAY!), and leaves tomorrow for his first work trip (YAY….?). I’m not sure how I’m going to react to having the place to myself and have him out of town again…

As many previous readers might know – hubby, B, and I have been in a condo since just prior to her birth in 2007. We’ve tried selling for almost two years, without much ado. However, thanks to the power of <a href=”http://www.twitter.com”>”the twitters”</a> – we found someone to rent it out!! And not only someone, but quite possibly one of the nicest, sweetest, CUTEST couples ever! However, the catch? We have to be out by end of the month.

Now, thankfully, we’ve found a short-term apartment to live in/move into – but that still means I need to have this entire place (that we’ve lived in for FIVE years, with a growing child) packed up and moved out of by end of the month, and now that hubby has his new job, and he’ll be travelling…

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!

Butbutbutbutbutbutbut!!! This also means in a few months, we’ll have enough money saved up to buy a house. A real house with a yard that needs to be mowed and room to shove more stuff into.

So bright times are up ahead – as I say with running – every step counts, no matter the speed!

Wogging Galore

So remember this post here where I listed out my runs for the rest of the year?

Yea….I kinda forgot a few (which I completely blame Kim for):

• Madison Half-Marathon with Kim, a totally last minute race – May 27th done
• Ragnar Chicago (June 8-9th) done
• Rock n’ Sole Quarter Marathon (June 23rd) done
• Super Run 5K (June 27th) done
• Firecracker Four Mile (July 4)
• possible Bastille Days 5K (July 12th)
• Cudahy Classic 5 Miler (July 29th)
• working Ragnar Great River (August 17-18th)
• Strider Half Marathon (August 25th)
• Brewers Half Marathon (Septmber 22nd)
• Fox Cities Half Marathon (September 23rd)
• Nike Women’s Half Marathon (October 14th)
• Lakefront Discovery Run (October 27)
• Elf Run 5/10K (November 25th)
• GOOFY CHALLENGE – DISNEY MARATHON WEEKEND (January 10-13)

YES, I AM RUNNING THE DISNEY MARATHON AGAIN.

Except this time, I’m doing Goofy – a half-marathon on Saturday, a full-marathon on Sunday. (Of which, you may remember, I swore I would never run a marathon again.) I’m not sure where I got the idea from – every time I run past 10 miles I pretty much think running is the worst idea I’ve ever had in my entire existence – but somehow I got the idea to do this crazy endurance challenge, I’ve been obsessed with attempting it, and I finally convinced myself to try it.

Luckily I have my partner-in-crime with me (yup, Kim) and we’re going to TOTALLY wog that race on up! It will not be fast, it will not break any land speed records – but we’re going to have a blast! (For those who know who I’m talking about – we’ve referenced this trip as “our attempt to Mari Disney.”)

I can’t believe I’m going to do this again…but more importantly, I can’t believe I’m going to do 39.3 miles in two days.

I think I need some new running shoes.