A little less than a year ago I stopped writing completely. A lot of things have happened in the past year, and a lot of it I couldn't write about without either compromising relationships or upsetting myself. So I just stopped talking about it.
This time last year Jesse and I had just started our house hunt. We were excited, nervous, and having a lot of fun with the process. In September and October we were outbid on two houses, and had to cancel a contract on a third due to undisclosed information. I should have seen that red flag, but we blithely continued on as if we were in for a great year.
Two weeks after Evan's first birthday Jesse lost his job. He lost his job on a day that I had met him at his work for lunch, and talked to his boss for at least twenty minutes about anything and everything. We have yet to step back inside that building.
To add insult to injury we spent the following 10 weeks fighting for unemployment benefits. In the end we won our appeal because the company's lawyers were too lazy to show up.
Jesse didn't go back to work until the end of February. Energized and ready to find a house, we got a foreclosure under contract relatively quickly, only to find out three weeks later that the basement flooded during rainstorms. Luckily for us we were under an inspection period at the time, due to repairs being made to the plumbing of the house.
Between March and April we suffered through looking at house after house. We were outbid twice, and I started to wake up every morning unable to face the day. In May we got a pre-foreclosure under contract, and spent nine weeks waiting on the seller's bank to approve the sale. After nine weeks they came back asking us for more money. We walked away.
Can you blame us for closing ranks and keeping quiet? Who wants to hear about this day after day? (Thank you to those of you who listened to my rants. I love you.)
Finally, during the last week of July, we were outbid on a house again. I looked at Jesse and started to cry. All told, in the past year we have probably walked through 60 - 75 houses. We decided to consider townhouses as an option, something our realtor did not think was right for us. He talked us into going through one more round of houses.
Thank god for him.
That last day we saw four houses. The first three were not what we were looking for, and on the way to the last house Jesse and I talked about how we could adapt to townhouse living after a year of having access to a backyard and privacy (sort of).
When we pulled into the driveway of the last house, there was a glimmer of hope. We walked in the front door ... and I know this is cheesy but Jesse and I both reacted the same way.
"Where do we sign?"
We close in fifteen days.
We have so many plans, so many things to look forward to. Financially this recession has not been terrible for us, we were lucky. Emotionally, however, this has been the worst year we have been through as a couple.
We are ready to start over, and be a family in our own house.
