Right around the Corner

​closing on our new house is right around the corner.  Yes…literally right around the corner.   Wow…this move just got real….

Yes, I got the notice yesterday that we are cleared for settlement.  I got our final figure on exactly how much money we need for closing….and the loan company has given me the final figured so we now know exactly how much our mortgage payment will be and all that stuff.   I got the “thanks for using us…you will get your first mortgage bill right around this date…if you don’t get it by then just give us a call….been nice doing business…goodbye.”    It’s all on the hands of the settlement company right now.   So it’s Thursday and our settlement is set for Monday.  I told you…this just got real.

Today is my last day of work for this week.  I had previously (like 4-5 months ago) randomly asked for tomorrow (Friday) off.  (I have use it or lose it time and I get more than Jason so I just randomly take days off….and spend them with mom usually.)   I toyed with canceling the day…since settlement isn’t until Monday.  But I have ultimately decided to keep it off.  I can take care of some banking business….instead of waiting until the last minute.  I can also continue packing…. Oh who am I kidding, I’ll probably spend the day with mom…although I haven’t told her that I will be arriving on her doorstep yet!

Packing has gone well.   We are nowhere near fully packed.  Part of the lackadaisical attitude is the fact that we actually have possession of our apartment until june 30th.   So while we are excited and anxious to get moved, it’s not imperative that we do it in a crazy day long move to vacate one place by the deadline and get into the next place moments after settlement.    The other thing…our apartment is small…and I have stuff stacked everywhere…we plan on making a few smaller loads…and not doing one big trick at one time.  So once I get the first load packed and moved it will be easier to navigate and move on this apartment.  This weekend the plan is that we will be reduced to eating on paper plates and using plastic silverware.  Hahahah. We will also be eating foods that are prepackaged…can we say hello frozen pizza?  (At least that is the plan….I have a sneaky feeling we will end up picking up to go!)

Weight loss…it’s still on hold.  I’m just trying to maintain.   And if I maintain, I’ll call it a victory!!!

Packing…worry…packing

​Packing and worrying.  That seems to be my life right now.  Weight loss….it’s in the back of my mind and I think about it a lot, but…..

Packing to Move

I started to pack as soon as we went under contract for the house we are buying.   My goal has been 2 boxes a day.  Some days that is all I do, but usually I get rolling and get a few extra boxes done.  I have moved through the ‘I’m so overwhelmed’ phase of moving and now I’m starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel..maybe.    It has been somewhat easy as we have known for a while that we would be moving..so I have saved boxes.  So it was a thing of buying packing tape and putting the boxes back together before I fill them.  I also spent the last year and a half purging.  For a while I was challenging myself to purge at least one item a day.  With that done I didn’t have to sort and make decisions while packing, the devotions were mostly already made.  

 I know as the days tick closer to our settlement and move that I’ll begin to feel overwhelmed again.  But, the packing is going well at the moment.

I am overwhelmed with worry about the actual move.  I’ve been having foot issues recently.  I’m not in pristine shape right now either.   I’m very worried.  But, we are planning on doing it on our own.  (Honestly, we don’t have many friends in our area to even ask for help.)  

The actual house purchase

We are still signing papers and working on getting the paperwork for the lender done.  The paperwork has died down though, so it’s not as fast and furious as it was at the beginning.   Everything is looking to be ready for our projected settlement date.   I am still holding my breath though.   We both have had some issues in our financial history (that’s what happens sometimes in bad relationships…which we both previously had).   We have spent time cleaning up our financial history and we are currently good…but it is still there on our records (close to being old enough to fall off our credit reports) so it’s hard to be calm and not worry.   

Before we went under contract I had laughed and said that I would be nervous until settlement was done and we had keys in our hand.  Little did I know how true that would be.   Actually I also said that I would be on edge until we were settled in the house and the first few months of all the new payments and bills was behind us and we were totally settled in all aspects….I sure hope that’s not the case and as soon as settlement is done that I go back to being less stressed out.

Weight Loss

Losing weight has been in the back of my mind every day.  I’m serious.  Every. Day.     I am just trying to hold on right now though.  I honestly don’t think I have it in me right now to dive into weight loss full steam.  Weight loss for me is all encompassing when I am doing it with any success.  It turns into my full focus.  And right now my focus is elsewhere (packing and moving).   The good thing is that I’m not eating crazy.  I’m holding steady with my weight.  Not gaining…but not exactly losing.  Not optimal, but it is what it is right now. 

I have been seriously looking at Zumba classes to join after we move….online and in person.  I haven’t been able to do most ‘home exercises’ here at our apartment.  I’m on the third floor and while I pay my fair share to live here, I don’t want to be ‘that neighbor’ and stomp and jump above them.    I am looking forward to doing some Zumba classes…in the area we will live and with my schedule it looks like it will most likely be online classes.  I will actually probably pay for official classes…however I will be looking into YouTube videos also.   I plan on continuing riding the exercise bike daily.  (Of course I will…I have my 2022 miles to get this year!).  There will be yard work…and whatnot that will keep me active.   I also have made the conscious decision that when the stress of packing and moving is behind me, that I will switch that focus to weight loss.  I have to!!

Life is a crazy thing.  It is a balancing act of making everything work and balance out.  I’m working on it….win lose or draw I’m walking through the craziness!

I'm in a Tizzy

 ​Oh my word.  I’m in a total tizzy!   The stress level and anxiety has ratcheted up in my life by a gazillion percent. Life is out of control!!!  I have meant to write a few times this last week and just get sidetracked.   But here I am now…and I’ll catch you up and you will probably then understand why life for me is the way it is right now.  (I am in such a tizzy that I posted this in the wrong place!!!!  But hey...better late than never to get it to the right place)

Weight Loss

I had a good week last week.  I wasn’t 100% doing what I needed to do.   Honestly, I tracked less than 50% of the time.  My water consumption was dismal. I mean, those two things are the base of success for me and I messed both of them up.  However, I was a lot more cognizant of my choices.  My lunch choices were much more in line.  I tried to curb the quantity of food I put in my dinner plate in the evening.  (Seriously, I stopped at two slices of pizza last night!   And yeah, I was inordinately proud of myself for that fact.). My weight at my official weigh in was the lowest that it has been in the last few months.  So my feeble efforts in watching and being cognizant was enough…for this week.   

My goal for this week?   Why the two base facets of weight loss (at least for me)  of course.    I am aiming to track all food and to drink at least 64 ounces of water.

Exercise

I am still doing well with my 2022 miles in 2022.   I am consistently riding the bike during the day.  I am not pulling ahead though.   I am getting in about 4 miles on the bike a day….to pull ahead, I need to be getting about 8 miles a day. (Or more).  But I am holding steady on my miles.     We continue to walk every evening after work…so that gives me another mile or two.   However, I’m not sure if I’ll be walking this week.   I was walking in a yard the other day and stumbled in a hole and twisted my foot.  It is a foot that was already bothering me and since then…eiiyiiyii my foot hurts!  Time will tell if it’s well enough to hobble around the neighborhood after work this week.

We have gotten out a few times to hike (also known as mushroom hunting) in the last few weeks.  It feels good to get out into the woods and to watch things start to bud and bloom.

House Hunting

After my last crazy story about the house in my last lost we were once again discouraged but we weren’t letting it stop us.  As I had mentioned we had a few houses lined up for Easter Sunday afternoon.   The first one had a fabulously landscaped yard.  The house was very nice. (A cute cape cod) but was at the top end of our price range.  It was also literally right beside the house and in clear view (I’m saying spitting distance) was a solar farm.  Not exactly pretty.   The fact that this house was already priced at the top end of its value  (even in this crazy market) made us pause because the solar farm would reduce the value of the house.   We liked it and we drove away contemplating the house, but we had some major concerns about that field of solar panels.  (The house had a few issues…nothing major though).   The next house was absolutely disgusting!  The place reeked of mothballs and even with the oh so strong odor of mothballs, it still wasn’t enough to cover the smell of animal pee.   Yes, they had a dog or cat at one point and apparently…we’ll it was just bad.  The floor plan of the house was weird.  The lot was super narrow and long…so not exactly usable. Everything was super old and NOT well maintained.   It was a hard pass.   

From there we drove north into Pennsylvania.  We were going to look at a house a bit further north (by like 15 minutes).  This is the house that checked off the boxes for everything we wanted. Furthermore, I was able to read the disclosures…it had a brand new metal/standing seam roof (well 8 months old), new fridge, new stove, heating/ac and water heater was replaced 2017…amongst other recent repairs.   Most of the big ticket items to ‘go bad’ was already replaced and recently.  Hmmmmm.    We got there and we really liked it.  The extra distance was the only issue.  Everything else was what we wanted.    Oddly enough we ended up meeting the owner, who is a neighbor to the house.  We found out why this house was still on the market after a week.  She told us some more about the house and property, what had been replaced and some history.  We literally spent more than 2 hours there looking at the house, talking to the owner and our realtor had her inspector friend come in and do an informal inspection for us along with her informal inspection. (She also does home inspections on the side.).   We left there and knew that the home owner liked us…and that we had a leg up if we wanted the house. Seriously, the owner flat out said ‘I really really hope you like my house’.  And she later texted my realtor and said ‘they would make great neighbors’.     

So we put an offer in.  The offer was put in at 10:30 on Monday morning.   I was prepared for the couple days of waiting…that had been the norm during the last few offers we put in.  I had an answer by 11:10.  She accepted our offer.   What?????   Oh my word!  I have to say, the emotions were rolling.  I literally cried.

Sooooo… last Monday was full of contract paperwork that I signed with the realtor.  Tuesday started the paperwork with the lender.  Never ending paperwork….little bits here and there.  The appraiser has already inspected the property so the lender should have that hopefully soon.  I have two more documents to upload.  (Last paystub that we just got this weekend and a copy of a check that was written this weekend).  They will be uploaded to the lender this morning (following monday when I wrote that)  at 8AM.    At that point our loan can go to the underwriter.   I am still getting random things to sign and do....but it's all good I guess.

I am totally on pins and needles.  I have watched the houses on the market for the last year.  You see houses go onto the market…change to under contract…then go back active on the market.  I don’t see any reason for our loan to have issues…and in fact the lender that I talked to on Friday said she sees no issues either.  But, until settlement is done and the keys are in my hand I will be on pins and needles.

Settlement…5/16/2021

So I am in the throes of packing…organizing….purging…trying to prepare to vacate our apartment.  (Had to give notice that we were not renewing our lease this week.)

So that is what is happening here.   It was a crazy week. I envision some crazy weeks ahead of us. But I am determined to do it without weight gain!!!!!