Two homes

So we are now the proud owners of 2 homes... ack!
Or more precisely we are the proud lendees (is that a word?) of two mortgages.

So I am panicking a bit about what to do about the old house while panicking a bit more about the big move to the new house and how much work is involved given I have 4 kids, a job, a husband with a full time job, and not enough free time to do all the little things I want to do (like paint bedrooms!)

But currently I am at my oasis called work so I can clear my head and just be a bit... (BTW work is not always like this - last weekend was mad crazy, but it is still nice to be with friends/co-workers and be away from fussing kids, messy houses and a darling baby who doesn't let me get a darn thing done these days).

So we have had two showings on the house in about a month. No real interest from either. I have not yet listed it as a possible rental because I am trying to wrap my head around what becoming a landlord actually entails and I don't want to take the idea too lightly. On the one hand, it makes sense in this market to just rent it out and wait for the housing stuff to adjust a bit and then try to sell. But apparently, I have to sell it within 3 years to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the proceeds from the house -- so a clock is started once we move out and I just have no idea when the market will really recover from all this.

There is also the very real worry of having renters who either don't pay on time, trash the house, or cause other legal problems for us. And of course, we have to make time to be available for maintenance problems/house calls /etc. like good landlords.

So there is lots to think about. We are also in the midst of shopping for things for the new house which is stressful when I am not sure how much money we will need to set aside for upcoming double mortgages. We need a new refrigerator for the new house (our current one won't fit in the spot even if we wanted to move it with us -- which we don't because it really won't match!) and we sort of need something to put the TV on as it sits in a built in space in our current house and there is no such space at the new house. Beyond that -- I would LIKE to have a new couch, new bedroom furniture, new bookshelves for the family room... but I need to pace myself.

Anyway, hopefully in a post in the near future, I will have a plan!

Oh and today is our 11th wedding anniversary... which makes 13 years together - wow! Sometimes it feels like no time at all and sometimes it feels like I can't remember what life was even like before Joe. We bought a new mattress Friday, to be delivered today (one of those "I want" items I could have waited on) so I am going to call that an anniversary present to us both. Can't wait to try it out but it is going to the new house that we aren't yet moved into and I have no King size bedding yet either.

Busy Summer

So the part of my last post that got eaten was the part about what we are all up to this summer. Yesterday was the first evening of swim lessons. The 3 older boys are going twice a week for 4 weeks. I picked evening times so they could still fit in day camps here and there.

This week Andrew is doing a soccer camp in the mornings. He agreed to it all in the first place but was grumbling today about it. It is a lot more physical activity than he has had to do in awhile. I think it is good for him :) If Quinn were old enough to attend he would be loving it.

Next week we have no camps scheduled but will attend the Ridgefield parade and park festivities for the July 4th weekend.

The following week we are expecting a visit from Thomas, my best friend's 9 year old son. He is flying out here with his Dad from St. Louis and the plan is to have him here for a couple of days so he and Andrew can visit. I only wish Ashlea was coming along as well but she is staying back with her younger two kiddos.

The week after that all three boys have all day camp for the week. That may coincide with us closing on the new house and moving... we'll see. If not, it will be the week of July 21st for sure as that is the latest date option for closing per our sales offer agreement. I just was hoping to get moving soon as we leave for the coast July 25th.

After the trip to the coast the boys have another 1/2 day camp and then a week off and another full day camp... I think that is how it goes. By then soccer practices will be starting and school will start at the end of August.

I will wait until fall to sign up for a mom and tot swimming class for Teagan and I. I have a feeling I will be busy enough this summer dealing with running everyone around and moving into the new house. We really hope this house well get sold somewhere in there as well, but if not we will look into getting renters some time in the fall.

We have a house!

So I promised pics of the bamboo floors - so here they are:


And we have a new house picked out! The offer was accepted, we are in the process of getting all the stuff done that we need to for closing. Our house is now on the market.

So the link to our new house is here (it is new contruction from 2006 that has been sitting empty... the price of the house has dropped about $135,000 for the original listing price.... good for us, bad for the builder/seller). On the other hand, we are listing our house for about $35,000 less than the assessed value as well. Weird housing market.

So here is the link to the new house:

http://www.tavernerridge.com/1712.html

Here is the link to our current house for sale:


http://www.equitygroup.com/listings/detail.php?lid=26653662&limit=0&offset=0&aid=004602114&oid=004600011&temp=1197&aname=CHRISSY+DEFIBAUGH&aimg=1&agent_hasfeat=6&&posc=6&post=6&cfq=feat%3D1%26aid%3D004602114%26oid%3D004600011%26temp%3D1197%26aname%3DCHRISSY%2BDEFIBAUGH%26aimg%3D1%26agent_hasfeat%3D6%26SRSearchDate%3D1214349402%26SRRecordCount%3D6%26SRPage%3D1%26SRPageCount%3D1%26SRPageLinks%3D6


If that doesn't work, the MLS number is: 8062411

I lost the rest of this post and Teagan is protesting... so I will have to get back to it later and hope blogger doesn't eat it again!

June!

OK... so somehow it is now June and in fact almost 1/2 thru the month at that! Andrew is done with 3rd grade. The twins had kindergarten assessments done today that will help determine their class placement for the fall... unfortunately they both cried about being pulled out for the testing (they were in a classroom setting with other kids doing projects and then a few kids at a time were pulled out for one on one assessments). They are at such a tough age in some ways -- really wanting to be big but still having trouble always adjusting well. If things go like they did for Andrew, next year will be great for them. The whole process of meeting friends and learning to read, write letters and numbers, create, etc. and getting used to the school routine and such is good for them.

Teagan was in such a good mood this evening... chuckling and chasing everyone around. He can crawl FAST. He is also very competent at cruising the furniture.

We have new bamboo floors in the family room. My brother and SIL's brother installed them for us. They look great. I need to get after pics (we got some pics of the room with the carpet all pulled up too).

The house hunt continues. We still haven't put ours on the market. I am seriously considering renting it out so we can hang on to the property until this housing slump readjusts a bit. We don't seem to need the equity in this house to qualify for a new loan and I think we can swing the new heftier mortgage just fine. The only problem is finding the right house! We found one we both loved but in the end that RR tracks behind it were too much for me to deal with. I just kept imagining the boys going down to play around there and it scared me too much.

Anyway -- enough of an update for now. Next up I will reveal our crazy summer schedule... for now we have all next week with nothing really planned -- just me and the boys home everyday. I figure we will go on a few outings but haven't decided where and when yet.

Nothing much to report

Feels like it has been a lot of days since I posted, so I thought I would sign in and say something. Teagan is going to be 7 months old tomorrow. He is still determined to stand and is crawling very fast now. He is fun to watch and is getting better at not falling or bonking his head quite so much.

The twins are done with daycare and I am about to start working weekends all the time -- which I have been practically doing anyhow, but now it is more official. So that makes me the stay at home parent during the week... I feel like I need to get more organized and creative in order to make that work well -- especially when I have all FOUR boys home every day all summer. We will indeed be signing up for summer camps, but not for everyone every week -- there will be a lot of down time. Generally I am a big fan of not over scheduling the kids and letting them just play, but at the same time there is only so much "I'm bored..." whining that I can take.

We are still house hunting. We have found a few options that would work OK -- but nothing where we feel like "yes this is it, we should make an offer." The up side to looking at houses in this market is that nothing is moving very quickly, so we don't really have to worry about something we like getting sold before we make a move. It is hard to pick out a house which we hope is our 'forever' house (meaning we would like to stay put for the next 15-20 years or so) because it is really hard not to be picky about it. I keep thinking maybe we just need to find something for the next 5 years or so and then possibly trade up again at that time. The problem is, the boys are at an age NOW where we want land and space to roam and they need a play room and all that -- whereas 5 years from now we are likely to need less room as they will be busier with school activities and sports and such that doesn't require as much play space at home. So I feel like we need the big house and big yard now... sigh.

Anyway... that is about it for now. I work the next 2 nights and then we are having a little BBQ at my parents' on Memorial day.

Growing up TOO FAST!

So Teagan went from crawling, to getting to sit up on his own all in one day! He was very proud of himself and now has moved on to pulling up to stand and trying to cruise. I have tried explaining to him that he is my baby, my last child, my joy and delight (because he is not my first and not a twin and life has been grand with him! -- boy, I did NOT mean for that to rhyme...) Anyway, these first 6 months with him have just gone by in a whirlwind and I am sad to see babyhood going so fast.

I am also concerned that a 6 month old who thinks he can walk could be big trouble down the line. I mean he is clearly a bright boy (of course ;)) but even bright 6 month olds have still only been on the planet for 6 MONTHS! What do they know about gravity and sharp, hard table edges and tippy chairs and boxes that aren't meant for standing against. He just has no caution and no sense of what is safe to climb up on. He is also rather top heavy still -- I mean I think about 25% of his weight is in his head, can you imagine trying to walk if that were the case for you?!

He is so determined also. It is like he has this internal voice urging him on: "YOU MUST STAND, TRY TO WALK, CATCH UP WITH THOSE BIG BROTHERS!" It is kinds cute to see him excitedly crawl at warp speed over to the open door (main door open, storm door closed) and pull up to stand against the storm door and watch all the big kids go running back and forth out in the front yard. He so wants to be in on all of that.

So we are loving this stage but mourning the fact that it is passing quickly. The older kids, esp Andrew, are at a particularly challenging age, so I am happy to have the entertainment factor from Teagan to make me smile on tough days with Andrew. I am learning lots about myself from these kids... parenting truly must be the toughest most wonderful job out there.

Here are some pics of the crew and the wonder baby too :)

More milestones!

So the little guy is crawling in his own way. He gets up on his hands and knees and moves his hands and moves his legs and gets going forward -- but it isn't very coordinated yet and he often lunges forward to get something and then gets back up on his knees again later. Nothing is safe from him now though -- he gets all around the downstairs now. He seems to like getting caught up under the baby swing, something I seem to recall one of the other boys doing too.

I rearranged the living room and plan to donate the baby swing away. I need to go find our box of childproofing stuff as I need more outlet covers and such. He hasn't discovered the stairs yet, but I assume it won't be long, so we need to think about a gate as well.

The other really cool new trick he learned today (and he is just pleased as punch with himself about it) is he can get himself back into the sitting position. So if he is lying on the ground in any format he can roll over, get on his hand and knees and then push back into a sit. Pretty cool. He was just grinning at me today about it and it took me a moment to realize what he did because I didn't see it the first time and though one of the boys had helped him up.

Anyway, it is only 7pm and he just zonked out. I will assume it is a power nap because I put him in his crib with just the diaper on. But he has been busy today, so we'll see. May have to go sneak some PJs on him. I need to get better about real nap times -- but we run around so much of the day, it is hard to fit them in between snoozes in the car and such.

Ta ta for now. :)