After months of bitching to myself about my mortgage, we successfully sold our house yesterday, which meant we had to find a rental home last week and move in over the weekend to accommodate the closing. We could have rented from the new owners, but I don't like doing that and prefer clean breaks when selling houses (this being my third go-around).
As such, I am awash in boxes that need unpacking, so this will be a very light week on the blog, especially since I leave for Prague tomorrow and don't get back til Saturday.
We are very happy with the new house, where the rent is about 1/4 what I was paying on the old mortgage. That was my fault, because we tricked up the old house (new build) considerably, moving in at the height of the bubble. But that tricked-up nature also meant we could still move it in a bad market when we found the right buyer.
So we feel very lucky to have gotten out of the old big house and into this slightly smaller but simpler home that hasn't sold because the owner is more stubborn on the price than we were with ours. Our decision to cut and run from the old house is predicated on our desire to move back East in 2014, after several family members finish at various levels of school, and this way we can sked our departure with a lot more confidence as renters than as owners. The recent market just scared me too much to wait and try and sell it when we really wanted to go, so we just kept dangling the home in the market now and then and eventually found the right buyer at an acceptable price.
What I already adore about this new home (other than the great room (which will soon feature an even bigger home theater screen!): my allergies here seem non-existent compared to the old house. I think it's because we're not in the country anymore, surrounded by fields. Or maybe it was something in the house. Because it's stunning: in the old house, I woke up EVERY morning feeling like I drunk a fifth of vodka, and I'd be so drowsy and feeling so bad that I'd just want to shoot myself. I'd have to sleep about 9 hours to feel coherent, when before we moved in, I typically slept about 6-7 and would just wake up feeling fine - not able or wanting to sleep further.
Well, two nights at the new house and it's like my life is back. I go to sleep around midnight and pop up awake and refreshed at around 6:30, and it's like my day is suddenly enlarged - plus I don't want to run screaming from the state every time I have to pop a pill, which I haven't bothered doing since we started sleeping here three nights ago.
Absolutely amazing and the best news (along with the significant reduction in housing cost) I've had in a long time.
So, change is good, I typically find.
Plus, the neighborhood here is about 10 times friendlier. More middle class and less upscale. Already, our kids have more friends in three days then they did in 5 years in the old development.
All makes me wonder why I didn't do this earlier.