We had the open house for our home over the weekend after it officially went on the market and . . . crickets. Only two people showed up. Our house is really cute, but it might sit for a few weeks because we are selling in an off market in the off season in an off area (our school district is the worst in the region so most people look a little further south). We aren't too worried; several other homes with our same floor plan in our area have gone on the market in the past few months. They have all sold, but it takes about a month. So we will keep things looking nice, and I will start packing up me and the kids to move to Utah in the next few weeks. The moving truck arrives November 1, so that is the latest we would be here. Here is the link to our home on Zillow if you want to see what our home looks like inside:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9812-Hawkins-Ave-Granite-Falls-WA-98252/440172664_zpid/
While the open house was taking place, the kids had a sleepover at Jared's parents' home and we went on a short 2-night cruise to Canada. One of our favorite memories since moving here was our Alaska cruise three years ago. We've always said we need to do another cruise before we move out of Washington, because it's so nice to be able to just drive down to the cruise terminal and hop on a boat. With Alice being young we've been on the lookout for short cruises, and we recently saw this 2-night cruise to Vancouver for really cheap. We figured this would be a nice bookend to our time in Washington, an opportunity to rest in the midst of moving chaos, a way to be out of the house for a few days while it sells, and a way for Jared and I to reconnect, because moving can be a tense time. It proved to be a great idea, and it checked all those boxes. We had a wonderful time. We did lots of resting and eating, spent a full day at sea, and finished up with a day exploring Vancouver together. I took some pictures on my nice camera, but I'm having trouble getting the memory card to connect to my computer, so for now I'll just share the pictures we took on our phones:
We are really in the trenches of packing and selling our house now. I pulled an extremely late night and then an all-nighter getting the house sparkly and beautifully staged the night before the photographer came to get pictures for listings. The selling market in Granite Falls is pretty slow right now, so anything we can do to improve our odds at attracting buyers is worth it. I think our home will show really well--hopefully well enough to get a buyer quickly even though we're in the off season for selling homes. I will share pictures of our house next week when our Zillow listing goes up.
I keep reminding myself that this is a good kind of stress. I would rather be up all night making our home beautiful to sell and move to Utah, than be up all night vomiting, or in active labor, or studying for finals, or any number of other reasons I've had to pull all-nighters in the past. It is starting to feel real that we will be in Utah soon, and we are getting SO excited! I can't wait to have lunches with my grandma, and for Jack to have regular play dates with his cousins, and to spend lots more time with my parents and siblings.
Things are starting to come together! Not only is our home photographed and mostly packed, but against all odds, we were able to sign a contract last night to move into a rental home we're really excited about. The landlord initially wanted to go with a renter who was willing to sign a 16-month contract, but the people he chose backed out at the last minute so offered it to us a few days later. And it's not just any rental home, but one that is (presumably) Jared's dream floor plan, and in my (presumably) dream neighborhood. We are excited at the opportunity to "test out" what we hope will be an ideal home and in an ideal neighborhood. If we are happy there then we will feel good about building or buying a home of our own there next year. And we'll have a better sense for what Jared's commute for work will be like, if there's any chance of him transferring to a clinic further south at some point, etc. Me and the kids will likely be moved to Utah by the end of October. We're rolling down a hill and the speed is picking up. Here are some fun pictures from our week:
We are well! At last. Well, except Alice. She's still working through the last of some GI symptoms. We are in crunch time with our move though. The photographer comes this Friday to take pictures of our home, and then next week it will go on the market. So allow me to leave you with a few pictures from our week, and hopefully I'll be back with more updates next week. Lots of packing to do in the meantime!
Oof, September is really doing its best to keep us down and derail any packing progress. Jared had plans to take Alice to his parents' home on Tuesday so I could get a lot of packing done while Jack was at school, and so his parents can get more Alice time before we move. On Sunday evening, two days earlier, Jared's mom called to tell us she had food poisoning and wouldn't be coming up for Alice's birthday the next day. Thinking, "Oh, surely she'll feel better by Tuesday, food poisoning usually only lasts a day," I encouraged Jared to still go on Tuesday because I desperately needed that time to pack; this move is already on a fast timeline to begin with, and with two young kids at home it is tough to push the needle on the packing in a meaningful way.
Well. Karma had the last laugh--I probably should've let my sweet mother-in-law recover in peace. Alas, it was not food poisoning. It turned out to be a horrendous stomach flu. And you can probably guess the end of the story from there. Nearly a week later, we are all still home having family sick days together. Alice was the first to get it, then me, then Jared, and Jack was the last one to fall last night. We are two weeks out from our house being listed and it is not looking good on the packing front. And someone's always up all night vomiting so no one's getting the sleep they need. The cherry on top is that the stress is giving me cystitis flares, which puts me out for hours at a time. And then the next day I feel more stressed because we're even further behind on packing, and then the cystitis flares up agin. It's a bad cycle and unfortunately the only way out is through. We might have a rough month ahead of us. In the end though, it's all in the name of getting our family moved to Utah, which is ultimately what we've been dreaming of for years. So, trying to look at this intense month as a blessing instead of a problem.
I don't want to overshadow Alice's second birthday though! We had a lowkey, sweet birthday celebration. Jack was at school and Jared had the day off. We took our little girl on a day trip adventure to Camano Island. We started out at a cool playground with a sculpture park. Then we got pastries and a burger at the Camano Commons. We finished off collecting seashells at a quiet beach, then back home for a nap. It was the perfect day, and Alice loved all the attention! At two, Alice is sweet and spunky. She want mama in sight at ALL times, but isn't often interested in snuggling (but sometimes!). She likes to "help" and will clean up her own spills and take the dishes over to daddy at the dishwasher. She loves makeup and watching "Baby," aka any video from my phone of "Baby" Alice and Jack. She loves music and singing, and she can communicate quite a bit, with an ever-growing vocabulary. We love our Allie Baby Sweetie and are so excited for her to be TWO (it's the only number she knows how to say, so whenever she counts she says, "Two, two, two, go!").
Well, I need to get back to packing. The next few weeks my blog posts will probably be light on words to maximize packing time. Here are some pictures from our week:
