How About a Little Recap?

Oh my. I haven't blogged in so long I don't even know where to begin. So much has happened since last June, I'll try to briefly recap...

Spring 2013: After half a year of wishy-washing back and forth on what the heck we wanted to do with our lives, we finally decided to move to Jackson and give it a shot for a few years. We started looking at houses in Jackson and fell in love with one that we thought was perfect for us. We put a low offer on it, then a higher offer and a higher offer, but the sellers wouldn't budge. We were devastated and continued to look. 

July 2013: Paul showed me pictures of a house that had been listed that morning. We were both really interested in it right away and set up a time the next day to go look at it. The next day we went and looked at 903 W. Forest Avenue and we knew immediately why the other house had not worked out. This house was far cooler and far more perfect for us -- we put an offer on it that afternoon. The sellers accepted our offer the next day and we were completely ecstatic.

August-October 2013: A few weeks later, Paul's sister, Audra, and her husband had just left a job in Halls, TN, and were looking for a fresh start somewhere else. We thought we would be moving out of the golf house within a week or two so we suggested they move in there and live there after we moved out. They moved in, we started packing, and then the day before we were to close we found out that some work needed to be done on the house before we could move in. Everything was put on halt for almost three months during which time we went back and forth with the sellers trying to get them to pay for the work, they finally agreed, the work was contracted out to a guy in high demand, we waited five weeks for him to do it, tests were run, and results were waited for. 

All this time we were living in the golf house with my sister-in-law and her husband. Most of the time, I think living with family is not the best situation, but we actually had a great time living with Audra and Michael. Wilder loved having extra people around, even though he got into trouble often showing out for them. It was a fun, frustrating three months.

October 29, 2013: The day FINALLY came for us to close on our house! And what a wonderful, long-awaited day it was! We had a little celebration and then got straight to work. After four months of dreaming and planning what to do with the place, we were ready to get our hands dirty. Paul and I went that night and ripped out all the carpet in the whole upstairs. 

November--mid-December 2013: We moved in with my mom and worked every night trying to get the house ready to move into. Those six weeks were totally and completely exhausting. Paul would work at his job and I would keep Wilder all day, then my mom would watch Wilder while we went over to the house to put in a few hours. Every night. We were soooo ready to just be living there already by that point!! 

Not to mention, Wilder was a little terror during this time. We went from the disruption of having other people in our house to the disruption of us being in someone else's house and he was not happy about his mama not being there most nights to make him dinner and put him to bed. He definitely got his share of spankings and time-outs and many a tear was shed on everyone's part. Whew! What a stressful time! Oh, and add on top of that the fact that all this was occurring during what is already the craziest month of our year, when Wilder's birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all fall within a few weeks of each other. Ugh. Call me Scrooge, but I was so glad when the holidays ended this year. 

December 14, 2013: Finally, after 6 months, we spent our first night in our new house. Relief, joy, and pride were the emotions that day. We knew this was something we had hoped so much for and worked so hard for and we were just so happy and proud to have a home to call our own. 

"Before and After" post coming up next :)