House Saga

As is becoming my norm, I'm a little late in my posting. While I've posted things on Facebook and talked to many in person I never updated the blog. After much prayer and much patience, our house in Palatine officially does not belong to us anymore. Caterpillar's relocation company, Paragon, has acquired the house from us (as of Friday) and should the sale fall through for whatever reason at this point, it's not our problem. So for the time being, we are not homeowners and enjoying every money saving day of it. The process of selling our house is not something I want to do again for a long time. Many would say that taking 6 months to sell a house in this market is pretty good. I can't entirely disagree but it is a long time to feel like your life is somewhat on hold. And while we were incredibly grateful and excited when the offer initially came in, the month and a half following was long and filled with much anxiety as issues arose and frustrations mounted with people's inability to do their jobs correctly. A minor lawsuit between our association and a neighboring association over drainage issues almost cost us the sale. Because of our involvement with the relocation company the lawsuit was required to be disclosed to the buyer. We then only needed the buyer to say it was no big deal and Paragon could acquire us. We were first told this in January and expected the issue to be resolved in a matter of days. Instead the situation dragged on until last Friday. Our lawyer sent their lawyer two letters neither of which stated that we just needed an OK from the buyer, and both of which were filed away without ever being read. Also our association filled out a form disclosing the lawsuit, twice, because the first time they forgot to disclose the lawsuit. Seriously! So thanks to the hard work Paul put in tracking down information and the Lord watching out for us we got the news on Friday that the house was no longer ours. Praise be to God! Now we can move forward with the house we have an offer on in Morton. Things are going pretty well with that and we've gotten past the few hiccups that have come up in that process. Our inspection is done, the appraisal is done, the radon is being mitigated, we almost have our final loan approval, and hopefully the termite inspection goes off without a hitch. Paul and I are finally allowing ourselves to get really excited about the new house and are looking forward to getting settled. We have loved living with my parents. They have been so generous to us and so helpful with the kids. But we are looking forward to having our own space again and settling into what will be a more permanent way of life. We will be sad to leave but living in a temporary situation is not ideal and my parents will still be so close. (Yay!) I know they will miss us but their carpet will not!