It started with Saint Joseph.
An old friend sent me a text wishing us well during this period of separation. Then she asked if I had buried a St. Joseph statue in the yard. I'd heard of the tradition of burying a St. Joseph statue when trying to sell a home, but it hadn't occurred to me to get one. A day later when it was brought up again (my Nana had inquired via my Mom) it became clear that I should not ignore these signs. It was certainly worth a try anyway. So I ordered a statue, recruited a helper and buried St. Joseph - or St. Jofus as Jackson calls him.
It was Tuesday, March 5.
The very next day we had 3 showings. Followed by 1 Friday, 1 Saturday and 1 Sunday. St. Jofus didn't waste any time.
8 days post burial on Wednesday, March 13 we had another showing. It was mid-day which meant I had to leave work to get Ruby out of the house. I stayed in the neighborhood and watched the house so that I could drop Ruby off the minute they were done and get back to work. Typically, it only takes about 10 minutes for a realtor to show the house; however, these folks were in the house for over a half an hour. I was sure they were the ones. After work our realtor called - they loved the house, had a few questions and she expected an offer to come. Thursday evening it came. The next 12-hours included lots of negotiating and even more number crunching. We weren't going to get what we wanted out of the house. In fact, we were going to end up upside down. But the positives outweighed the negatives and we accepted a counter-offer Friday morning.
9 days after burying St. Joseph the house was sold. Oh, and they needed in quickly. April 2 to be exact. 17 days later.
Drew just happened to be in Lawrence that weekend so once we got the papers signed on Saturday morning we spent the rest of the weekend buying supplies, getting organized and packing.
But the story doesn't end there.
Earlier in the week I received an offer from work that I wasn't expecting. Rather than parting ways when it came time to move to Colorado, they asked if I would stay on part-time as a temporary remote worker. I will continue to manage the golf tournament, from Colorado, through the 2014 event in February. At the same time, I will be training a colleague to take over at the end of my 1-year agreement. A win-win for all parties involved.
Call me crazy, but it sure felt like divine intervention to me. In just over a week I got a job (well, got to keep my job), we sold our house and by the end of the month will all be together again.
The 5 days since we signed the acceptance paperwork have been insane to say the least. While the quick closing date is great in a lot of ways, it's an awful lot of work. In addition to having less than 2 weeks to pack our entire house (by myself) I also have less than 2 weeks to clean out my office (after a 13-year tenure), prepare to set up a home office and bring my colleagues up to speed on the parts of my job I will not be keeping. All while setting up dinners with my girlfriends and play dates for Jack and going away treats for the Princeton classroom. So yeah. It's nuts around here.
The inspection is tomorrow and due to the quick closing (and the reduced sale price) we agreed that any repairs that are brought to light will be the buyers responsibility. There just isn't time. So barring any major mechanical issues (which we don't think is a concern) by this time next week we will be loading the moving truck and preparing to head west for good. All of us.
I think we'll bring St. Joseph too.
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