Light At The End Of Our Tunnel?

Written March 24th, 2011 (But in real-life time we should be arriving at our new house tonight, a 2,800 mile drive from our old home in California, and tomorrow is my birthday!)

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote about our big move, and by now you guys are probably all caught up on all of our moving stresses. At the time I’m writing this, we’re 8 days away from our moving company coming to pick up all of our stuff (yes, we decided to go with the pros, instead of doing a Uhaul ourselves, after my in laws gave us a Christmas check that basically covered the difference between the cost of professional movers and a Uhaul). We’re also 11 days away from me having to drop off my car to be shipped across the country, and 12 days from heading out on a crazy drive across the country with all of our pets in my husband's car.

Things are finally coming together this week. But I sort of feel like I did about 2 weeks out from our wedding—I’m either super calm, because I’m crossing things off my list and feeling good, or I’m super stressed, because I keep thinking of more things to add to my to do list, and there’s just not a lot of time left to get things done, and I'm not getting much sleep due to the stress.

Luckily earlier this week I found out that I get to keep my job and work remotely, which was also causing me a lot of stress. Keeping my job is the best thing for us, and I’m really looking forward to not commuting 1.5 hours day, and getting to work with a kitty on my lap in my PJs if I want. But for a while there I was almost hoping they wouldn’t let me keep my job, just so I’d have more time before the movers come to get stuff done!

In other good news, and I think I already mentioned this, but we signed a lease on the house we’re going to rent for the next year. Last week (that would actually be March 12-18) we spent 6 days vacationing with my in laws in Florida (I have so many pictures that I haven’t even looked at yet, but let me just say, manatees, gators and wild dolphins are awesome!), then flew up to North Carolina at the end of the trip (March 18-20) to try to find a house to live in, in less than two days. This had me extra stressed out because usually you aren’t approved on the spot for a rental, they have to take several days to check your references and employment history (um, I hadn’t told my company about the move until this past Monday, so that just added extra stress). So we had to find at least 2 or 3 houses we would be willing to rent in a super short amount of time, put in an application for our #1 choice, and then fly back across the country without knowing anything for sure, and do nothing but wait in anticipation. Thank god we ended up getting our first choice house, and our backups were pretty nice too, but going into that weekend I was super anxious that it wouldn’t work out.

But luckily it did, and here’s a look at our house for the next year! It’s 2600 square feet, so we will have plenty of room for our pool table in the basement, two separate home offices, and I get to continue having a bedroom to use as my walk in closet.

{Source}

The best part is that the rent is over $1,100 less per month than we were paying in California, so the savings will be a nice addition to our down payment on a house next year when our lease is up.

And there it is, the light at the end of our tunnel. I just gotta keep that in mind for the next few stressful weeks, that it will all be worth it, because in a year from now we will be home owners!

Now I’m off to continue my stressing and crazy must-get-it-all-done-because-there-is-no-other-option state of existing. It will all be over soon, and hopefully my husband and I, our pets, and all of our belongings will make it to our new home state in one piece. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the day after I’m publishing this post all of our stuff with the movers will arrive. But as I write this, we still have no idea, since the moving company only gives you a delivery window of 7-15 days from the pick up date, and we won’t know for sure when our stuff is arriving until about 48 hours out.

But wouldn’t that be the best birthday present tomorrow, to get to start unpacking? I think once we finally just get to the east coast, and get all of our stuff, all of my stress will just melt away. Or if not, there’s always wine! :)