Stress?

Haven't posted in awhile so I figured I'd better get something out there. You can pretty well keep up with my life through Jenn's posts anyway. The last couple of weeks have been spent with house buying and selling stuff. Unbelievable how much it takes to sell a house. Our house is in pretty good shape but we still had many hours of minor things to clean up and fix. It looks awesome though, and Jenn deserves the bulk of the credit. It's really weird for me to live in a state of pristineness though. Stark contrast to the days of mounds of clothes in college.

Other than that, not much new. I do have to admit that this is about as stressed as I have ever been. We close on our new house on the 12th and so at that point I will own 2 1/3 houses (the rental, the current and the future) within a quarter mile of each other.

Had an offer on the rental that didn't go through. Would have been nice to have been done with that process but the person wasn't quite giving enough. Unfortunately, showings have slowed down there, and they are non-existent on our house. That's what has me freaked a little. It's a constant second-guessing myself... "Have we priced our houses right?" "Should I have made the purchase contingent on the sell of my house?" "What if we sit on these houses for 6 months or even a year?"

I think the real thing that freaks me out is that we can handle the money but there is no hiding the fact that the reason we bought the new place was to pave the road for kids and the money that will go to the holding costs is just borrowing from the kid adoption fund. I know God will get it all worked out, just have to be faithful.

Strange for me to be stressed though. Particularly on something like this. It's my guideline to never be stressed about something I can't control and this stuff is definitely out of my control. I guess I'm just worried I made the wrong decisions and my wife and family are going to pay the price for it.

What are we doing?!?!?

I didn't really want to communicate news like this over a blog but life is a little ridiculous right now so I don't have a better way to dissiminate.... sorry mom.

Jenn and I are under contract on a house. It's only about 2 blocks from our current house. Although it seems a little sudden, we (or at least I) have been looking into our next options for awhile.... adding on, moving to the burbs, etc. Wasn't really serious until I knew that an overseas assignment was out of the picture for me. Which it is out for the time-being.

Anyway, after some pretty heavy haggling with the owner/agent we got what I think is a pretty good deal. It needs a lot of work. Mainly a replacement of the asbestos roof, a new HVAC system, and a complete kitchen remodel. Any recos for contractors would be appreciated.

Here's the link if you want to see more pics.

http://www.sibcycline.com/viewlisting.asp?mls=980021&b=CIN&p=RESI&s=SFRD&m=1

Word

Not much interesting going on with me.... haven't blogged much lately since my mom got me a computer game for my birthday, Civilization III, so I have been playing that. Plus, the rental house that I partially own we are selling so we have been cleaning/painting in order to get it ready to sell. If you know anyone that is interested in a good house in P Ridge... send them our way.

I'm stuck in a meeting right now but thankfully we learned at the beginning of the meeting that my services are actually not required for this project because one of the companies we outsource to handles this work. Who says that outsourcing is bad??? Just saved me a ton of heartache.

Hopefully I can get out of here soon so I can get to the gym and/or a Sierra Club meeting that I am thinking about attending.

By the way, I am graduating from Xavier in about a month, which by the way was just rated 24th for part time programs, First time it's hit the US News Rankings. It's a non-ticketed event so anyone is welcome to come to the Cintas Center at 2pm on May 13. We will be having a grill-out at my house afterward. Probably will be some beer and fire. Let us know if you think you will come so we can plan food accordingly.