New In Town

As of Saturday we've officially lived in our house for two very long, very short weeks. We're slowing beginning to navigate our new home, the kitchen and pantry are organized and functioning. We can't always  remember what light switches work what and it never fails we're be downstairs before we realize we left the upstairs hall light on,.... again.

The hallways seem longer and darker in the middle of the night when you're trying to get to a crying child .

We've installed a new kitchen sink faucet, we have an amazing new fridge. Within days of moving in the roofers arrived with their very loud crew and very big dump truck. This was much the amazement of two small boys and to the the dismay of neighbors everywhere, I'm sure.

We're learning to ins and outs of a new grocery store that doesn't sell cheese hot dogs or my favorite kind of salad dressing. But the cheese selection is awesome and the beer section will soon be selling wine too.

We have yet to meet the neighbors(probably something to do with the roofers) or found anyone with kids our age. I think I figured out the fastest route home during rush hour and I know when we leave in the mornings to still get to work on time.

Thanks to the new roof we now know Central PA has tree frogs and that they can end up on your bathroom floor on the middle of an other wise idle Monday evening. I now also know you can get your automatic garage doors serviced on Tuesday and then on Friday a spring will break and cause the whole kit and caboodle to fall down. (I also now know that will really, REALLY piss your husband off).

We have worked endlessly and tirelessly to move everything from our old house, our storage shed(s) and my parents house into our new house. We spent most of this weekend rearranging, unpacking, reorganizing and re-situating. While it appears to are getting no where, the box piles are less and less and the closets are getting fuller and fuller. So, something is moving in the right direction somewhere.

While we only moved across town, we still moved. New school district, new address, new zip code, new township. I lay my head down at night in my new bedroom, on my new street and while I feel at home, I still feel like I'm new in town. All at the same time.

Gratitude

Yesterday I had my annual "down there" exam. Typically, this day would be approached with a sense of dread and a let's just get it over with mentality. However, I'm a weirdo and I actually like going to my ob/gyn's office. The whole exam process, not so much. However, when you get to sit down and talk with the person that saved your life years ago, you get excited.

We made small talk during the exam process and after that, as always, I was invited to sit down in my Doctor's office and go over things and ask questions. As is typical, I always have questions.

As I sat down, he looked at me from across his desk and said "I just used you as an example yesterday."

Oh?

He explained he had met with another mom who experienced a traumatic birth experience. She was worried about conceiving again and didn't know if she should. My doctor said I was the first person to cross his mind and he told her my story and how I went on to have a second healthy pregnancy and about the most boring, text book birth, known to man kind.

How would you know? I joked, you weren't even there.

Yes, that's true, but the doctor who delivered Jacob called me and filled me in.

It wasn't totally boring, I chided. There's was a bleeding issue, again.

True, but in comparison to last time? Child's play.


It's funny how we can joke about it now. But the truth is, Ryan almost didn't get a mom. My resilient little boy, survived a traumatic birth without a single issue. Meanwhile, his mom nearly died. I don't remember every detail of that day, I can't explain every thing that went wrong or explain why what happened to me happened. I doubt anyone can. Things had the potential to go very badly that day and while a lot of shit in the fan, we all came out the other side.

While my birth story is never very out of my mind, I don't spend much time dwelling on it these days. Sure, certain things remind me of it, like the nose sucker I still use on Jacob, on a pair of hospital socks I pull from the drawer when my feet get cold.

Yesterday, I took a few moments and thought about how far we've come from those wee morning hours of July 17th, 2012. I was barely hours into being a mom and there I was fighting for my life, confused, overwhelmed and not yet realizing the rug had been completely pulled out from underneath me.

We've all come along way from that scary night. We're all so incredibly lucky.

I remain forever grateful.

A House Called Boomarang

This past Friday afternoon, I was getting ready to leave work when I felt the need to check the MLS.

Since walking away from our "bigger house on the hill" several weeks ago, I've been checking the MLS listings twice a day in hopes of finding the something better that everyone has been telling us would come along.

It wasn't surprising to me that once again, something better, wasn't listed. What did surprise me? "The House" wasn't there either.

Wasn't it just there this morning?

Wait a minute......

I dug a little deeper and all I could find was website after website that said "off the market." 

I fired off a quick text to Mr. Berg as my heart sank. The house had sold. The last little shred of hope we had for it was quickly fading.

Despite the fact it was date night, and our first night without kids in a few months, I cried the whole way home. We knew this was a total possibility, but we were hoping our patience and strong offer would eventually pay off. 

Mr. Berg called me on his way home with an update. Our realtor had called their realtor and was waiting for a call back.

After a pep talk, a shower and a fresh face of make up I decided there was nothing that could be done now. It was up to me to make the best of it.

45 minutes later, over drinks at our favorite restaurant Mr. Berg smiled and said he had an update on the house.....

As it turns out, the sellers of the house fired their realtor earlier in the day and had brought in a new realtor. Their new realtor then contact our realtor to see if our offer was still good. Our realtor then called Dave, who in turn said, yes.

So, Sunday night Dave and I found ourselves sitting around our kitchen table with our realtor and 300 pages of documents to initial and sign.

Home inspection is next Tuesday.

Settlement is set for the end of July.

And our house goes on the market next week......... (excuse me while I vomit). 

Third Times A ...... Wait a minute......

Isn't this like the 9th time?


Friday afternoon I found myself beating the dreaded 3pm slump by perusing the local MSL listings. Party because I'm nosey and partly because I've finally geared myself up to move and we aren't freaking going anywhere.

I feel like the family dog when someone accidentally says "walk." I'm ready to go, pacing back in forth with my moving boxes and no where to go.

It's the pits, really.

I clicked on the pictures of the house we loved and wished that somehow, someway, that the house would find it's way back to us.

Fast forward to a few hours later. Mr. Berg comes home from work and says "Oh hey, our realtor called. "

Could this be a sign I wondered?


"The sellers of the house want to know what number it will take to get the deal done."

Seriously?

Didn't we just give them our number and tell them it was final? Didn't they counter back with a ridiculous offer and we said no... final offer means final offer?

After a few beers, a couple of eye rolls and a long discussion with our realtor we decided fine, you wanna play the stupid game, we're all ready for you.

So on Sunday afternoon our realtor called their realtor with our new number. A number that was only a smidgen higher then our last number with the words "FINAL OFFER" stamped all over it it imaginary red letters. We even stood there as our realtor said "This is our final offer, we are not willing to accept a counter. We are done. It's this number or no deal."

Two hours later they countered back.

Exactly what part of final offer does this group of knuckle heads not understand?

So once again...... we shook our heads, walked away and felt the slightly less hurtful sting of disappointment.


Seriously people, what the heck?


(PS- While I'm still really sad. I have to keep in mind the following: 1. We have all the time in the world 2. Seller Man and his family- not so much 3. At some point the selling price will be out of the sellers hands. We already know the relocation company likes our number 4. We are very, very patient people...... (or at least Mr. Berg is, I'm good at faking patience.)

We Walked....

Our sellers finally countered last night.

Countered with the most bull shit counter offer that was ever presented in the history of bullshit counter offers. I'm pretty sure even their realtor was embarrassed.

As we said before, we weren't planning to continue negotiations. We decided to hold our ground and have essentially walked.

I thought I would be devastated. While I am very, very sad, devastation isn't the word I would use. I haven't shed any tears. I haven't asked God why. Instead, I find myself being very quiet, while trying to process this whole situation.

The sellers could come around. Maybe in a few weeks we will find ourselves in a very different situation.

But for now, it's back to the drawing board.



PS- That other house we went to look at. SCARY! Sex dungeon in the basement, no lie! 

And So the Adventure Begins.....

There is a huge part of me that would love to throw in the towel on life right now. I'd love to run to my bed, pull up the covers, put on Bravo and hide until all this house stuff has blown over.

Right now, the situation regarding our bigger house on the hill is out of our hands. We revised our offer on Friday afternoon and our real estate agent consulted with their agent.

Since then it's been radio silence on the sellers front. Given the situation, it's not surprising. 

Prior to our revised offer: 

We had separate inspections of the roof and the decks. We consulted with our attorney, an engineer, a roofing company, a builder and our real estate agent. We've had a lot of conversations, done a lot of praying, conducted a ton of research and had 3 near nervous breakdowns.

We still love the house, but we aren't prepared to pay full market value for a house with "issues." Granted, all of these "issues" are repairable. However, we don't feel that we should be on the hook for the current owner's lack of maintenance. Plus, none of the "issues" we disclosed prior to our original offer.

A huge part of me is wondering exactly how the seller's agent is navigating this situation, seeing as it was her error. I'd imagine so major back peddling is being done.

To make it even more interesting, her granddaughter goes to school with Ryan. They are total BFFs. It made for an awkward exchange on Friday when we ran into each other. She has no idea how we are, I on the other hand, know a thing or two about her. #notherbiggestfanpresently

In the meantime a house on the side of town we live on just came on the market. It's nice. It's spacious and has a few amenities the "bigger house on the hill" does not. It's also not on a hill, surprisingly. 

We've made an appointment to look at it tomorrow. Right now, I'm not sold. But I realize I can be stubborn. This afternoon I'll drive by it and will probably be stewing about it until I walk through it tomorrow.

Then I'll either be entirely in love with it or I'll be creating a list of cons in my head so long Mr. Berg will never get to the bottom of it.

Fun, right?


House shopping, what fun, what fun!


Best Case Situation- We hear back from our seller's agent today with news- either way. 
We've already decided our revised offer is our final offer. No countering for this girl.

I will be devastated if we have to walk away. But I know that means something better will come along.

 Worst Case Situation- 
I'm just not going there. I want to close one book before opening the next. 

Slightly Lost

I'm finding myself in a sad place lately.

For the past six weeks it seems that my little family hasn't been able to catch a break. From two ear infections, chicken pox, lost time at work, lost time spent as a family and the daily shuffle, things just haven't been easy for us Berg's lately.

A week ago today we thought things were looking up. We negotiated an offer on the "bigger house on the hill" and we making plans to move out of our little house on a hill.  (Before you ask if we have a thing for hills, the answer is no. We live in Central PA, it's harder to not live on a hill then live on one) Hills, aside, all seemed to be falling into to place.

FAST FORWARD to Monday.

A 153 page disclosure agreement found it's way to our emails.

For those of you not up on real estate formalities, any and all disclosure documents are supposed to be presented to you BEFORE you make an offer. Not three days after. And certainly not with inspection reports from roofers and engineers declaring the roof in need or repair/replacement and the deck structurally unsound.  And no, we weren't trying to buy a shed down by the river either....


It was a devastating blow to say the least. Suddenly the rug was pulled out from under us and we felt blind sided.

Even our realtor was shocked.


Now we are find ourselves scheduling separate inspections, reviewing quotes and trying to find a way to come to an agreement on what the next steps should be.

We're sad, we're down trodden and we're preparing to walk away from a home we really, really saw a future in. It's shitty, it's just plan shitty.