Monday, June 28, 2010

Bad Medicine

My husband's last day at work in California is this Friday. For the past 2 weeks, his patients have been spoiling him with gifts. Gift certificates for fancy dinners at the beach. Steakhouse gift certificates. Heart-felt cards, a few tears.

Tonight, when he came home, he popped his trunk and unloaded a huge, gold box.

4lbs of Sees candy.

You could hear the squeals of delight down the block. And this was only me- I haven't shown it to the kids yet.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Good Times

I'm here. I just didn't want to write.

Our house in California, on day 40 of a 45 day escrow, fell through. The buyer "felt like he couldn't focus" so he cancelled. Um, thanks? Thanks for pulling our house off the market a week and half after we listed it. Thanks for wasting our time. Thanks for the two wasted trips to Houston, spent trying to buy a house. Thanks for the stress. The arguments. The sleepless nights. And lastly, thanks for your deposit. We'll enjoy that.

In other news, we are somehow incapable of renting a house in Texas. Not to sound like Goldilocks, but they are either too small, too expensive, too strict (we do have a dog), or in too sketchy an area.

We've had other stuff too, that I can't or won't write about. Other incidents that left me shaking me head in embarrassment and disbelief. I'm not good at asking for help. I don't like to. And after recent events, I'm reminded why. Good times, folks. Good, good times.

But looking at the bright side- because there always is one, and that's what I'm going to do..... we are excited about Texas. It will be GREAT to have my husband excited about work. We are thrilled to see our friends again. My kids are going to great schools.

But we've just pushed the move another ten days so we can find somewhere to hang our hat.

Monday, June 7, 2010

A House Is Not A Home

Last week, I flew to Texas for 48 hours to try and find a house. I felt like my own reality tv show. The pressure was ridiculous.

I've bought 2 houses in my life. Both very different. Atypical. Not your run of the mill tract house. I loved them both. My current house in California was built in 1964. Originally, it was supposed to be the first house of a nudist colony, but instead- real estate developers from Palm Springs took it over and imported tile from the Old Desert Inn in Palm Springs to outfit my roof. It's kooky. Unique. Different.

Our move to Texas is an investment in our future. I get this. But trying to buy a house there may just put me in the loony bin.

California is still in a depressed market. Apparently, Houston is not. One house we were considering, was on the market for one day. 24 hours. Before we could even get an appointment in to see it, they had 4 offers above the asking price.

There was another house my agent emailed to me before the trip. It looked lovely. It had all the right working parts, was in a pretty good area- right school district. I finally got inside, and got that feeling- that "Hey! I could see us living here!" My husband went outside to walk up and down the street, and I went upstairs to call the kids. While I was on the phone, someone faxed an offer and it was accepted.

We did find a house. It also had all of the right parts, but I didn't love it. We put a bid in. They countered. We countered. They kept pushing the closing date. Pushing on the price. Yesterday, we pulled our offer.

I give up. I'm going to rent. And find out where the nudists live, because I really like their way with houses.