A Moving Whirlwind

My last post was about how we were putting our house on the market. Well that was one week ago.

One week ago we signed the papers to list it with a realtor.

Monday it went up online and she came by and put a sign in our yard.

Tuesday she called and said someone wanted to come and see it.

Wendesday at 9am we were called that we had an offer just $5K below our asking price (which was higher than I ever imagined we'd really get.)!!!

Wednesday night we find out included in that offer is the request that we close in 2 weeks.

WHAT THA ?!?!!?!?!

Okay, 2 weeks.... we have to move in 2 weeks!? I haven't even really processed the fact that my house would really even sell! I fully anticipated my house would be one of those that was on the market forever! I am pretty sad about it. I love it. It was our first home. It was the home I brought our baby home to. That we spent the first 4 years of marriage in. But it's time to move to the next place in life I guess.

The inspection was great. The buyer is paying cash so we do not have to get an appraisal or wait on financing. Really they are just waiting on us getting the heck out.

A few people have said this means we were not asking enough, but I have to tell you that is not true. We asked a very fair price, but prayed incredibly about it and apparently God felt like we needed to move quickly. This was just a perfect match. A lady who has been looking for over 6 months for a house in our area and price range and hasn't been happy with her choices until ours. It was just a perfect combination. Basically divine intervention :)

Okay, so the POD is coming on Wednesday.... then.... who knows!

We started our house hunt Thursday. We saw 4 houses that we didn't agree on at all. Back to realtor.com.... We have really searched through every house on realtor.com in our price range and on a decent lot that would have the ability to house a shop for Ben and all his hobbies. (This is needed... I do not want a husband without hobbies.)

We looked at another house today FSBO and I LOVED it!!!! Ben hated it. Back to square one.... we drove around for at least 4 hours looking for something... anything! I am praying and praying. I know God has a house for us and I do want the house that HE wants for us.

Funny thing... after we saw the fsbo, I was so frustrated I just closed my eyes and prayed. Then Ben stopped and said, what about this house? It was above our price range so it never came up on our list, but it is already vacant and so we peeked around and it was really nice. We are going to go see it along with 4 others Tuesday. Maybe because it is already vacant they will come down on the price. Hopefully Tuesday will go well because all these houses have already run into each other in my head.

The tough part for me right now is trying to figure out what doesn't need to go in the pod because I need it to live and what CAN go in the pod because I really can part with it for an unknown length of time... yikes!

N and I will be staying at my mom's after closing while Ben will be with us on the weekends, during the week he will stay in an apartment at his boss's house (the drive from my mom's to his work would be at least an hour and half). That I am not looking forward to so I am very much praying this search will go quickly!

Wish us luck! Lots of moving to do in a very short amount of time.

Before and After... the house is for sale!

We have officially signed with a realtor today to put our house on the market. We are looking to relocate to Tuscaloosa which is more or less where Ben and I both work. Currently we both drive somewhere between 40-50 miles one way to work. I would love to get that down to 10 miles... We want a sense of community for N. Right now our work is west of us 40+ miles and our church is 15+ miles east of us. I don't want N to grow up having school friends, church friends and sports friends.

We really have been praying about it though so I trust the Lord will take us where he wants us to go. We haven't looked for houses yet beyond pulling them up on the realtor app once or twice because I'm afraid of getting my hopes up.

As with anyone selling their house, this was the motivation we (Ben) needed to finish LOTS of home projects. First being our backyard.... omg... the backyard.....

When we moved in it was a huge slope with no plants on it that essentially was falling into our little piece of flat yard. Ben put in a french drain and started working on the retaining wall... fast forward 5 years. I think we gained one level of cross-ties a year... but in the past two weeks it really took shape.

This before was about 2 weeks ago... YUCK... (It didn't always look this bad, it had its ups and downs over the years :)

 

 After! It looks MUCH better, wouldn't you say?

Okay, here is the front of our house probably 3 or 4 months ago. (Ben was working on making us a walkway to the front door since the dirt had washed away along with our ability to get to the front door.)

After! We have a walkway!

We are officially on the market. This is the first time we've done this. I have already decluttered and packed up about 1/2 our stuff and put it in storage in my mom's attic . We are asking $139,900 which is only $5,000 higher than we bought it for 6 years ago. I doubt we'll get that, but I would be happy if we got anything above $130,000. Its a pretty median price for our area. Currently there are only 8 homes under $150K in our area... Our realtor says this is good for us.

I wish we'd had money to get those stumps out of the yard when the trees died (the year we'd moved in)... but this is the first year we've had grass so I'm not willing to have the stumps removed and give up all the grass. Oh well! Wish us luck!

PRK Recovery 3 weeks

Well, three weeks have passed and I am doing great! I did the eye test at work on Thursday and I was pretty much 20/20. I say pretty much because it was still a little fuzzy and I was semi-guessing, but I got most of them right, so that is HUGE improvement. The blurriness and fuzziness has dissipated almost completely. I only put the re-wetting drops in my eyes when I get something in them or they itch because I am still nervous about rubbing them. The after-care information said to not rub my eyes for 2 months.

Anyways, if you are reading this because you googled PRK surgery, hang in there until 3 weeks. I didn't think I'd make it here, I was very frustrated for most of the first 2 weeks, but now I'm good! I am hoping it even gets better because I have read that after I stop the steroid drops (in 1 more week) healing gets even better.

We shall see!

**7 month update:
My vision is perfect. I had to use the rewetting drops in the morning for awhile and I thought that may be for the rest of my life, but somewhere after the 2nd or 3rd month I just stopped needing them. Night vision was also one of the slowest to recover, but it did finally get to a point that I don't notice a difference. I can see great and hardly think about my eyes, which is WONDERFUL! I won't go back to the eye-doctor until one-year, but am anticipating all will be great.