Just so you know that I'm not completely abandoning this blog, I wanted to give everyone a quick update on what's going on. I first shared some of the troubles we were facing in this move on Monday. And as much as I will it to be, I just don't really have anything positive to say.
When we were on vacation, we took some time to go house hunting. We actually found 2 houses that my parents put an offer on. Except one house wasn't available - it was a foreclosure and one bank had approved it for sale but not the other. What it was doing on the market I don't know. We put an offer on another house following this, and my parents made the decision to put the offer down in cash and for 20K higher than the asking price.
Then the agent calls us 2 days ago and asks us to up the offer to 50K higher than the asking price. Unless we complied, there's a 90% chance that our offer was going to be declined. Now, it's a lovely home -it has the potential to be absolutely gorgeous. However, that's just a bit more than we were planning to spend, not to mention 50K above an asking price is a tad bit far-fetched.
So, where does this leave us? In 22 days, hubby needs to show up for work. We currently have no address to go to, but obviously this doesn't excuse us from going. Our best options right now is to move into a furnished apartment or crash with relatives, and find an agent who will house-hunt with us 24/7 until we find a home. Our stuff will have to be put into storage, because frankly there is no way I can handle doing this again anytime soon.
Obviously, being practically homeless for a couple months is not something that I want to subject my family to. But really, there is no choice. And it gets even better. We are still trying to tackle the housing issue, and hubby is getting some limited form of help from his command, but if it doesn't work out we will be paying about $600 in rent for a house we're not living in. Oh, did I mention the $500 cleaning fees? Technically, it's not a requirement - we can choose to clean the house ourselves and hire our own professional carpet cleaners. But when you have an 8 month old child that you need to feed every second and you need to be packed up and on the road in less than 2 weeks...the actual possibility of doing that stuff by ourselves is extremely low.
Combine that cleaning fee with gas and lodging to get there, we're looking at a $900 tab. Include the $600 rent for a house we're not living in, and it's $1500. And of course, this isn't including the actual moving of our stuff, and definitely doesn't include the rent for any type of temporary housing situation we enter into. It's true that we will be re-compensated by the government for this, but that takes time. Mind you, if we're renting some month-to-month place, there will be a deposit to handle too. It took 9 weeks for us to get our money when we moved here in July. We just don't have that kind of money to pay off credit cards while we're waiting for them to reimburse us. The Navy can tell you to wait, but you can't tell the credit card companies to wait. Yes, we can take out a loan, but that puts us into debt. And I'll be damned if we're going into debt through no fault of our own.
And that pesky thing of needing a place to live once we get out there. They will pay for 10 days of temporary housing, but I somehow doubt we'll find, buy, and close on a house in 10 days. And speaking of, we will need to find temporary housing that's furnished (because remember our stuff will be in storage somewhere), is close enough to his work, and will fit 2 adults, a baby, and 2 dogs.
Some people have asked me why I bother with the dogs. Our lives are so unstable, and everyone these days are so pet unfriendly. Why bother? Because they are family. It's true that when we took responsibility for their lives we had no idea how crazy things would get. I never imagined taking them on a plane. But just because my life got a little bit out of hand it doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my family. If you go by that logic, why not abandon the baby? She needs SO much stuff (box of diapers, pack and play, mountain of food, feeding chair, mountain of clothes...etc.), and she's less portable than a dog. At least the dog walks itself. And she's a lot more expensive too. By that logic, I guess I should drop my kid off at the local shelter too. She's cute, she'll be adopted by a loving family soon enough. She won't know the difference, right?
I really don't know where we're going to end. It is my belief that families need to stick together, especially in trying times like these. A simple solution would be for him to stay on-base (they obviously have housing for him. It's us that don't matter, remember?), the baby and I to stay with relatives, and the dogs to stay at a kennel. But honestly, how happy would we be in that situation? So unless the only remaining alternative is to sleep in our car, that solution is one that we will not even entertain. And call me crazy, but I would rather sleep in a car with my family than sleep in a king-size bed without them.
I guess there is a silver lining to this quickly darkening cloud. I've been on the phone nonstop with various people and organizations, and from what I can tell so far the folks at our destination are a whole lot nicer than the folks here. They're a lot more put together, a lot more efficient, and just a lot more willing to help. They're also very considerate and comforting. Not once has someone told me "get used to it". It's not exactly comforting to know that this is going to happen again, or that it's going to get worse.
We also found out that hubby probably won't be leaving "home" (where that is...mom's, hotel, back of the car...etc.) for any concern-provoking amount of time for at least a couple of months. After all, it's kind of hard to choose a house you're living in for at least the next decade without your husband. He might even be able to take time off to look for a place to live, which in my book makes a lot of sense. I'm working hard to keep my excitement in check on that though, because it's always better to be pleasantly surprised than to be let down.
So, it looks like I'll be away for a bit longer than I originally anticipated. But by no stretch of the imagination will I be abandoning this blog. This is the one thing that I am determined to keep for myself through everything. You always need to have a little something to keep you sane - and after my family, blogging keeps me sane. So bear with me, be super extra nice to the wonderful blog sitters, and if you catch a falling star...whisper a much-appreciated wish on our behalf.
When we were on vacation, we took some time to go house hunting. We actually found 2 houses that my parents put an offer on. Except one house wasn't available - it was a foreclosure and one bank had approved it for sale but not the other. What it was doing on the market I don't know. We put an offer on another house following this, and my parents made the decision to put the offer down in cash and for 20K higher than the asking price.
Then the agent calls us 2 days ago and asks us to up the offer to 50K higher than the asking price. Unless we complied, there's a 90% chance that our offer was going to be declined. Now, it's a lovely home -it has the potential to be absolutely gorgeous. However, that's just a bit more than we were planning to spend, not to mention 50K above an asking price is a tad bit far-fetched.
So, where does this leave us? In 22 days, hubby needs to show up for work. We currently have no address to go to, but obviously this doesn't excuse us from going. Our best options right now is to move into a furnished apartment or crash with relatives, and find an agent who will house-hunt with us 24/7 until we find a home. Our stuff will have to be put into storage, because frankly there is no way I can handle doing this again anytime soon.
Obviously, being practically homeless for a couple months is not something that I want to subject my family to. But really, there is no choice. And it gets even better. We are still trying to tackle the housing issue, and hubby is getting some limited form of help from his command, but if it doesn't work out we will be paying about $600 in rent for a house we're not living in. Oh, did I mention the $500 cleaning fees? Technically, it's not a requirement - we can choose to clean the house ourselves and hire our own professional carpet cleaners. But when you have an 8 month old child that you need to feed every second and you need to be packed up and on the road in less than 2 weeks...the actual possibility of doing that stuff by ourselves is extremely low.
Combine that cleaning fee with gas and lodging to get there, we're looking at a $900 tab. Include the $600 rent for a house we're not living in, and it's $1500. And of course, this isn't including the actual moving of our stuff, and definitely doesn't include the rent for any type of temporary housing situation we enter into. It's true that we will be re-compensated by the government for this, but that takes time. Mind you, if we're renting some month-to-month place, there will be a deposit to handle too. It took 9 weeks for us to get our money when we moved here in July. We just don't have that kind of money to pay off credit cards while we're waiting for them to reimburse us. The Navy can tell you to wait, but you can't tell the credit card companies to wait. Yes, we can take out a loan, but that puts us into debt. And I'll be damned if we're going into debt through no fault of our own.
And that pesky thing of needing a place to live once we get out there. They will pay for 10 days of temporary housing, but I somehow doubt we'll find, buy, and close on a house in 10 days. And speaking of, we will need to find temporary housing that's furnished (because remember our stuff will be in storage somewhere), is close enough to his work, and will fit 2 adults, a baby, and 2 dogs.
Some people have asked me why I bother with the dogs. Our lives are so unstable, and everyone these days are so pet unfriendly. Why bother? Because they are family. It's true that when we took responsibility for their lives we had no idea how crazy things would get. I never imagined taking them on a plane. But just because my life got a little bit out of hand it doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my family. If you go by that logic, why not abandon the baby? She needs SO much stuff (box of diapers, pack and play, mountain of food, feeding chair, mountain of clothes...etc.), and she's less portable than a dog. At least the dog walks itself. And she's a lot more expensive too. By that logic, I guess I should drop my kid off at the local shelter too. She's cute, she'll be adopted by a loving family soon enough. She won't know the difference, right?
I really don't know where we're going to end. It is my belief that families need to stick together, especially in trying times like these. A simple solution would be for him to stay on-base (they obviously have housing for him. It's us that don't matter, remember?), the baby and I to stay with relatives, and the dogs to stay at a kennel. But honestly, how happy would we be in that situation? So unless the only remaining alternative is to sleep in our car, that solution is one that we will not even entertain. And call me crazy, but I would rather sleep in a car with my family than sleep in a king-size bed without them.
I guess there is a silver lining to this quickly darkening cloud. I've been on the phone nonstop with various people and organizations, and from what I can tell so far the folks at our destination are a whole lot nicer than the folks here. They're a lot more put together, a lot more efficient, and just a lot more willing to help. They're also very considerate and comforting. Not once has someone told me "get used to it". It's not exactly comforting to know that this is going to happen again, or that it's going to get worse.
We also found out that hubby probably won't be leaving "home" (where that is...mom's, hotel, back of the car...etc.) for any concern-provoking amount of time for at least a couple of months. After all, it's kind of hard to choose a house you're living in for at least the next decade without your husband. He might even be able to take time off to look for a place to live, which in my book makes a lot of sense. I'm working hard to keep my excitement in check on that though, because it's always better to be pleasantly surprised than to be let down.
So, it looks like I'll be away for a bit longer than I originally anticipated. But by no stretch of the imagination will I be abandoning this blog. This is the one thing that I am determined to keep for myself through everything. You always need to have a little something to keep you sane - and after my family, blogging keeps me sane. So bear with me, be super extra nice to the wonderful blog sitters, and if you catch a falling star...whisper a much-appreciated wish on our behalf.
2 comments:
I'm sorry y'all are having such a hard time. I hope everything will work out!
Take a deep breath, life is hectic now, but I am sure that everything will work out for you in the end. I think it is good to continue with the blog because sometimes just "letting things out" in writing helps organize ourselves and come up with a plan. I will definitely continue to read your blog: I love that you talk not only about frugal matters but your life also. Take care and make sure to take some time for yourself too... no matter how daunting that may seem right now.
Elaina
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