Groundbreaking!

I drove by the lot again today hoping that something would be happening. Lo and behold! We had heavy machines and a growing pile of dirt. Yay!!!

Also, Mom has a preview tomorrow. I told Mark and our realtor, Melissa, that I expect this to be our sale. I have surgery tomorrow and the potential buyers will want in yesterday. Or at least I am hoping!

New Home Lot

Well, we have a plan now. This is the lot where our new home will sit in Autumn Run. I hope! I will admit to owning a plethora of fears! I am excited but every step forward brings a new terror of something going wrong. If Mom's house were to sell I think I would feel less scared.

Mom's house

After our house sold, we moved into Mom's house. We are all learning to live together. We thought we had a bite on Mom's house but no luck. In fact, in the week after we sold our home, we had three lookers and two were strong possibilities. Not really sure what happened. Selling a home is not for wimps! Keep praying for us! Not sure how long I will survive without Internet.

Closing

This is the law firm that we sat at for an hour and a half waiting to close. The closing was supposed to be at 3:00 PM and we didn't leave until 4:30. Part of the hold up was that Wells Fargo was a pain in sending payoff info from our mortgage; but also the buyer's realtor decided to go to lunch at 2:50.

Rejuvenated

With all that has been happening, I will admit that I am flat tuckered out!  I am so tired that I can't see straight which is why I almost declined to attend a school awards assembly last night at my division's high school.  However I am so glad I went!

As the Association president for Amherst Education Association, I was honored to be the one to award two 5oo dollar scholarships to future colleagues, high school students who are headed into education.  Both of these students were deserving of these scholarships but I will say that one will forever remain in my memory,  One of the scholarships was awarded to a student I had in 3rd grade.  He and his twin brother were two of my favorite students! (Of course, every student was a favorite of mine.)  I am thrilled I got the privilege to give him the scholarship.  Young beginning professionals like this young man make the fight for education worthwhile!

Storage Pod

Here is my husband in front of the pod we rented to store our things.  It is hard to see from this photo but the pod is 20 feet long.  As you can see from the picture, it was packed! Mid day my sister, sister-in-law, and I drove out to AAAA Storage on Forest Road to rent a second unit.  It was smaller but it was needed!

You can also see how tall the grass was.  I did feel bad that we left the buyers with a yard to mow but it rained the entire week and we only had  from Wednesday to Saturday to pack and load up.

To the left of the pod is my butterfly bush.  We just planted that last summer.  It was a tiny thing when we planted it and we didn't have a lot of rain last summer.  I was afraid that it was going to die but this year it was back and much taller.  *sigh*  I am sad to leave it behind.  My forsythia bushes seen in front of the car had just gone from yellow to green.  I will miss them!  My mom did go to the backyard and dig up a small rose of sharon bush for me.  The entire back yard was bordered in the back with these.  My bushes had come from my grandmother's yard so I wanted to make sure I took one to the new place.

A New Journey

I am not very good at blogging.  I start off nicely and then after a short time, I get busy with life and blogging goes the way of the dinosaur.  Well, I will try again.  This time I want to share the process that we will move through as we leave the home we lived in for 26 years and build our first house.

This is my family.  My daughter, son, husband and myself lived in a modest split foyer, as I said, for 26 years.  My husband's grandmother gave us the money to buy the home when my husband and I moved from Fort Lauderdale. FL back to Lynchburg VA.  The home was not perfect but I have many fond memories of raising my family in this place.  I never thought I would move from this place.

However, three years ago my father-in-law died leaving my mother-in-law behind.  My mother-in-law is a VERY sweet lady!  I feel sorry for anyone that has mother-in-law issues.  I got the best out of the bunch!  My mother-in-law does fine on her own although she did have a rocky start.  Who wouldn't!  She had been married for over 50 years!  Even though she seems to do well right now she is very lonely.  And her mobility is becoming limited.  We all discussed it for over a year and then last January decided to put both homes on the market and build one to live in together.  It has taken a very LOOOONG time to get started.  My mother-in-law's house has had many previews in the past year but has not had an offer yet.  My home was not getting much traffic.  My realtor said it was because my home was a split foyer and not many folks wanted a split foyer.  Two weeks ago we had a preview on our home while my husband and I were away at a conference.  It was the first preview we had in about 4 months.  While we were gone, the realtor called us to say the persons previewing wanted to put an offer in.  The initial offer was stinky and we went back and forth with negotiations.  We finally settled but the buyer wanted us out in one week's time.  It was horrendous but we did it!                                                                                                   
I had friends come over and help pack up the house.  I don't even know what boxes contain what items.  We just sort of shoveled it all in.  I hope I can find my things when we get to the new place. 

We ordered one of those pods that the storage facility brings to your house but mid way through Saturday we realized that we would need a second storage unit.  It was crazy!  Packing did get done (don't get me started on my son's room!)  and we were out by Sunday.  Closing was on Monday.  Whew!  Talk about cutting it close!

We have moved into Mom's house.  My son is staying with my daughter and her husband.  Poor Lacon!  I hope he doesn't have to call the cops on his wife and brother-in-law!