Home, home on the market!

Well, where to begin? As Maria van Trapp would say, "Let's start at the very beginning... a very good place to start!"

Joe has been an all-star at work and about a 9 months ago was sent to Target HQ to begin training to become an SGL, or  Senior Group Leader (he is currently the Group Leader of Engineering and Facilities, or the E&F GL for short). His training through the months has continued to go swimmingly and we began considering places we might relocate, as the Pueblo Distribution Center did not have available SGL positions. About 2 months ago the DC in Lacey, Washington contacted Joe's DC to say they were looking to fill an SGL position for E&F, and would we consider a relocation there? Well YES WE WOULD! (And were you able to follow all those acronyms? Yeah, it gets confusing for me, too!). Joe did a few meet-and-greet interviews, and the General Manager felt that Joe would be a really good fit, so he did a formal interview (actually over the weekend of Patrick's baptism!) and it became official - Joe is being promoted to a Senior Group Leader in the Lacey, Washington Distribution Center! His official last day in Pueblo is March 25th, his first day in WA is April 4th!

So the process has begun. SELLING. As soon as Joe went to that training last summer we started preparing ourselves - wrapping up home renovation projects, clearing out and cleaning up the far reaches of our home (like the attic), and mentally preparing ourselves to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. When his official offer of a position and salary came through we called our realtor, who helped us buy our home 4 years ago, to put our place back on the market. This happened in a flash - we called her Friday, she took pictures and measurements Monday, it was officially on the market Monday night, we had showings starting on Tuesday, we continued showings on Wednesday, received three offers on Wednesday night, accepted one of those offers Thursday afternoon, had a few more stragglers come for showings Thursday afternoon, and by Thursday night we had the place back to ourselves while we could kick up our feet in the comfort of "under contract!"

The great part of that timing was that there wasn't any panic - we'd been working on putting things together for so long that when it was time to put it on the market it was a cinch, we just had to make sure things were wiped down and laundry put away. The terrible part of that timing was ETHAN'S timing in breaking his arm. Tuesday morning we had Ethan's surgery and the realtors had a group tour; while we were in recovery we had our first showing; starting at 5 p.m. we had a slew of showings. We could normally go out to dinner, but not with Ethan in his state! Our friends the Steels had already graciously provided dinner that night after the surgery, so we took even greater advantage of their hospitality and took up that dinner offer at THEIR house. During our stay we got call after call, and by the time dinner was done we'd had five showings on the house all in 2 hours, and 7 more scheduled for the next day. Whaaaat?! We kept the house to ourselves Thursday morning and then showings started at noon - I loaded up our wagon with pillows and blankets to keep Ethan warm and comfortable, and we went to the zoo for a few hours. Our neighbor Doris had offered to let us crash at her house during any showings, so after the zoo we watched cartoons from her couch. Thankfully we already had dinner plans, with the Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner at church from 6-7:30. When we got home our realtor updated us on offers coming in, and we agreed to meet up in the morning to discuss with Joe at work. Thursday morning we took a look at the offers, which were all wonderful - I suppose that's typical for a multiple-offer situation? Everyone brought their "highest and best" and we had to pick, which was really hard! A good problem to have, but still a problem. In the end we decided to accept the offer from a young family who wrote us a letter and gushed about the house and seemed to be a perfect fit (or maybe they just really reminded us of us when we bought the house, and we happen to really like "us").

The deal is far from done, as we still have appraisals and inspections to go through, but at least on this end we are perfectly happy with the way things have gone so far.

On the other end, the Washington end, Joe will be taking a trip to the rainy state and finding a place for us to rent for a few months! Soon we will be on the flip side of the coin, being shown houses while someone possibly sits with their kid in the hospital, takes in dinner with a friend, or crashes on their neighbor's couch to watch some cartoons.  The end of one adventure here is the beginning of another one there...