Yes, our house is now on the market. Yes, we are a bag of mixed emotions about it. Yes, I know the magnitude of selling the house we have poured our heart and soul into fixing up. The house we have fine-tuned down to the last window treatment. The house where we brought home both of our children. The house that holds enough memories to fill every square inch of our 1100 square feet of high ceilings and light-filled rooms. The house where we realized the emotionally devastating blow of a burglary, juxtaposed against the generous humanity of neighbors who offered to help us pay to have a security system installed. Neighbors we hardly knew. Yes, I have complained endlessly about this house. Yes, I will miss it more than words can say.

On Wednesday we went to look at a house that Steve began affectionately referring to as “the one”. By Thursday we began getting calls requesting that strangers could begin touring our home. And, as Thursday, the 12th, became Friday, the 13th, life as we knew, it started to change.

As of Friday morning, we had one showing scheduled for 6:30 in the evening. As the day wore on, more calls; more showings. I had scheduled to work a full day, and so it was Steve who had to wrangle both kids in and out of the house – on 4 separate occasions. It finally got to the point where I called Dore to ask if, after I got off of work, we could all just park it at her house for the remainder of the evening.

One other small item from Friday: we made an offer. This is the part where I have to qualify that “the one” is not perfect. In fact, it is far from it. But this is where the trade-off game has begun in full earnest. We don’t have the financial resources to afford what we want, in totality. Instead, we are going to have to make accommodations. And when it comes to weighing in on location, lot size and structure, the only real thing we have control over to change is the structure…which leads us to this house. It straddles between two desirable school districts, pushes us further Northward, is tucked away enough to feel a bit remote – while also not being more than 2 minutes from 101. The lot is a healthy, but manageable 1/3 acre with good South-West exposure and mature fruit trees. Then there is the house. Ah, the house. I won’t go into a long litany of the details, but will point out that it is a bit bigger (roughly 1500 sq feet), two – yes TWO bathrooms and three bedrooms. And as for it’s aesthetic features, well – we have some work to do.

By Friday evening we already had a counter-offer from our offer. And two offers had come in on our house. By mid-day on Saturday I met with our agent to do paperwork on three counter-offers. We countered both offers on 2323 B Street and countered the counter offer on the house at 111 Hidden Valley Drive. And now we wait.

I guess I’m a bit superstitious, but I feel like I am jinxing all of this by writing about it – like every offer, both incoming and outgoing are going to fall apart if I start speaking this out loud and in writing. But after the dozen or so emails and phone calls, plus the handful of comments on these pages, I feel that I owe it to you to let you know the full story. So stay tuned. One way or the other, there will be more to come.