I say nightmare because guess where I am?

NOT on the Gulf Coast!

I am still in my house. Actually, a better way to word that is that I am BACK in my house, after moving out, and then having to move back into it, 10 days later.

Sigh. (<— that’s a sigh of exhaustion, frustration, and disappointment.)

The sordid details…

A couple of weeks ago, a few days before I was supposed to close on the sale of my house, we started packing our moving truck. By the day before closing, everything we owned was packed into it like a puzzle, and I was busy sparkling and shining the house for its new owners-to-be.

And, that afternoon, our buyers asked for an extension. (If only they’d said something just a few days sooner!) Of course we agreed, because really, what else could we do? We know things happen. We were assured that this was only a minor hiccup with their loan process, and not to worry….everything would definitely be ready for a new closing date of 1 week later.

Since I had already withdrawn my kids from school, and since spending a week sleeping on the floor didn’t seem that enticing, we decided to go ahead and drive over to the town we are moving to and live in a vacation rental for the 10 days that we had before closing on our new house. That way, we could at least get the kids started in their new schools.

So with 2 kids, 2 cats, a dog, and everything we owned in a 28 foot U-haul, we lived in a vacation rental for the next week. And that’s when things got really ugly.

The day before the new closing, we were told the buyer’s loan had fallen through. The day before closing. Again!

So, we had to drive back, put everything back into our house, and get my kids back into their old schools.

But, even after all of that, we did get really lucky on a couple of fronts.

First, I immediately put my house back up for sale, and within 2 days, I had 3 offers. I accepted the best (and quickest-to-close) one, and we now have a new closing date for about 3 and a half weeks from now.

And second, the sellers of the house we are buying have been supremely gracious to us throughout all of this, even though they have been just as inconvenienced as we have, and should probably just plain hate us a lot right now. Instead, they’ve agreed to wait this extra month for me to close with my new buyer.

And, the rental house we stayed in really DID give us a little vacation that we hadn’t planned on. Although we were feeling completely stressed out the entire time about everything, it’s really hard not to relax at least a little when you’re right next to water, and I sat out on the dock pretty much every day. I even made lots of ornaments. As my good friend Shannan just told me recently about making them, “It really is therapeutic!” :)

Quilted Ornaments by the Sea

The timing for our new move will be pretty horrible. From now until Christmas, things here at The Ornament Girl HQ get busy, busy, busy, and now we’ll be throwing a move right smack into the middle of it (November 17th). But, I’ve started working on new ornaments and kits anyway, because I am planning a big sale on December 1st. (Make sure you’re on my email list so you get the details, and the discount.)

At least, I’m doing my best, since my workspace looks like this (haha):

Living out of boxes

By the way, if you have a moving nightmare story, please be sure to share and help me feel a little better about mine. ;)

11 Comments

  1. Ruth Stark on October 17, 2014 at 4:06 am

    It seems that the last minute changes & wait game is beginning to become the norm for closing now. The financial peeps seem to have everyone on a “puppet” string anymore!

  2. Peggy on October 17, 2014 at 4:59 am

    That is a bummer. But I always heard ‘a rough start makes a great ending.’ Hope you
    and yours will have an easy time the rest of the move, and have a wonderful life in your new place!

  3. Janice Toguchi on October 17, 2014 at 5:07 am

    My 1st home buying experience in 1973 was a nightmare. We were young, newly married, & I was pregnant with our first child. The sale was a private sale, no brokers, we knew the family. When our moving van pulled up to the house, the renters were still in the home. We ended up stashing our belongings in a warehouse, staying with family for another 6 weeks while the owners went through eviction proceedings, until the house was empty. Family & friends had to clean it because the renters had been breeding ferrets in the basement & had other pets too, dogs by the look of things. For the 2 years we lived there, we got multiple calls & visits from bill collectors & people who had been gypped by the renters.

  4. Cyndi on October 17, 2014 at 5:09 am

    My sister and I shared ownership in my mother’s home after she passed away. After discussion with all involved, my husband and I moved into it. My sister came to visit the next day. During conversation, it became clear she had a completely different understanding of our agreement than I did. My husband and I moved back to our old home the next day, thanking our lucky stars we had not put it on the market yet. Moral of the story? Family or not, get important agreements in writing and get them notarized.

  5. Dixie on October 17, 2014 at 10:30 am

    We moved in Feb 2012 from NC to WV. Our house was on the market for over a year. The first family that wanted the house wanted to rent to buy. I was against it but my husband said that would be best at this time. We were to close in June and one week before closing there was a problem with their credit. So we extended for 60 days. One week before closing the loan company said they need 3 more points to get the load. They love the house and want to buy so we extended another 6 months until March 2015. My husband does not want the house empty over the winter since we are 6 hours away. So I know what you are going though.

  6. Jackie on October 17, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    I don’t have any horror stories, or wise advise. but i want you to know I have anxiety and depression, and I have found making the ornament VERY therapeutic!! I am grateful that i bought your tutorials, and found your site! And tho I struggled to get the hang of centering for “snow globe” type ornaments, and making the bows on top I think I finally got it!! I would love to show you what I have made so far… and next I want to try the ones with crystals! LOL

  7. Lisa on October 18, 2014 at 11:20 am

    Having moved from NC to this lovely land called Florida, we had to wait for what was supposed to be only 6 months. Hahaha, nope it was a year later. Insert sad face:( And then we did get a closing date. Yay!!!! But then that date changed. Even though it was only by a few days, when you’ve been waiting already for so long it seems like years are added. But now it has been 8 years and I’m getting used to this hot weather, finally!! Lol
    But it will soon be nothing but a distance memory. Hang in there!! Lisa

  8. RL on November 3, 2014 at 8:41 am

    oh honey! what a Ride. but hopefully all will truly be better.. you wanted a bigger moving horror story to feel better? i got one ;)
    now understand we had been living in a family property trying our best to keep it from falling down around our ears for quite sometime. couldnt buy it because of an entailment but was ?rent free. (free if you dont count all the repair/patching costs & the fact my two teenagers are now bonafide roof repair people!)
    a neighbor hood group had gotten a feather up their behinds that all the people in the neighbor hood who had carport covers were dragging property values down so they made an official complaint to the city – said city then decided ALL of them had to be taken down (we are in the desert so ave temps hit 105F) – when they came to tell us they saw the side of the house.. now mind you it was only Litterally the day before they came that we realized the plaster on the sides of the house had just started sluffing off – in mass quantities.. & we were waiting to hear from family about what to do as we certainly were not going to PAY for the entire house re-do! (mucho$$$) — anyway the inspector saw this ‘problem’ and immeadiately said they had to Inspect the rest of the property.. within a day we were told that either we vacate within the week or they would condemn the property. ONE week.
    we were very very lucky in friends that week. one had a house that had just become available & waived the deposits so we could move in. others got friends together to help us move stuff. – so my husband daughter mother and myself moved over 20plus years of ‘Stuff” in that week.. you do NOT want to know how long & dreadful that week was… especially when i took out the small persian rugs we had brought back from overseas that had been stored in the ONLY dry closet in the house, only to find we were wrong on the ‘dry’ part & they were all ruined.. at one point i was sitting on the floor crying & my future son in law was helping me throw away water damaged ruined things.. while trying to convince me things would be ok…
    not one of our better moves in the beginning – turned out to be a very good thing in the long run tho…
    take care & i hope your “real’ move is way way better

    • Staci Ann Lowry on January 24, 2015 at 10:06 pm

      Oh wow…. that sounds like an awful nightmare! Yes, that definitely makes my story sound not so bad at all, but so sorry you had to go through all of that!

  9. Alice on January 24, 2015 at 3:03 am

    Mine’s not a buy story – it’s a rent story! I was 18 (weighed all of 90 lbs. soaking wet), newly married to my 20 year old husband! He was stationed at Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo, Texas. This was in 1978, so quite a long time ago! We moved into a rent house way out on the edge of the Lakeview area of town, which at the time still had cows in pastures, instead of backyards (for the most part). He had to work nights quite often, while he was in training and that left me out in the sticks. I started hearing noises on the front porch some evenings, but figured it was cats or critters…or something and started sleeping with all the lights on! Finally had some drunk man show up at the door one evening asking for Maybelle or Norine or something country sounding like that. I kept telling him (through the door, of course), to go away! He said that “she” had told him to come on over whenever he was in town and she’d make it worth his time and money, blah blah blah. He finally gave up and went away and I called the Sheriff’s Dept. The Sheriff that came out, thought it was funny – said that this house had been a known hangout for truck drivers to meet with the hookers that lived there off and on and that there had been lots of drunks, fights and arrests there…”but don’t you worry about it little girl, they won’t bother you – just tell ’em to go away when they show up”! We decided to buy a house not too long after that, in a little more well located neighborhood!

    • Staci Ann Lowry on January 24, 2015 at 10:03 pm

      Oh my goodness! That would definitely freak me out a little bit!!!

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