Popping Corn In The Bedroom

Saturday begins day one of our big move. We close on Monday morning, so we plan to have everything out by Sunday evening. I want to stay here as long as we can and starting tomorrow will give us 2 days to "leisurely" move. I'll bring the kids down to my parent's house after breakfast,and then they will stay over night there. That will give us a chance to get things moved and set up on the 'receiving' end.

We knew when we decided to sell that we weren't going to come out making money on our house. The housing market was a lot different when we bought our house just over 8 years ago. We were hoping to possibly break even. Had the appraisal come back differently, we could have actually come out a tiny bit ahead. But, the appraisal wasn't based on what the house is actually worth (in our eyes), it was based on comparable sales for our area. An appraisal that takes less than 10 minutes, isn't a true reflection of the condition of the house. I feel we have a beautiful home, and when compared to other listings in the area in a similar price range...it shines - but it was not based on houses for sale, just houses sold. Well, I guess I've already written about this, so I'll carry on :-)

In the end, we are able to make the sale happen (thanks to living like we were poor saving money over the years...not really knowing what we were saving for), but we are financially unable to jump into another house right away. Thankfully our families have been able to help us out immensely. My parent's have extra storage space in their basement for us to 'house' most of our belongings (many of which will be put in a big garage sale next year), and my husband's parent's have extra room for our family to live. I am lucky to have in-laws that I get along with and enjoy spending time with, although it will still be a big adjustment for our whole family. I'm sure we'll come up with many rules and agreements on things (mostly relating to the kids/shared space), but after some time we'll get into a routine.

We are fortunate that they can offer us their lower level (walk out basement). The kids will each have their own bedroom, and they have another level below ground with an additional room/office - which will be our bedroom. There is a living room and bathroom as well, and a door at the bottom of the stairs so we can close it off. We'll share the main level kitchen (although I've warned my mother-in-law that I'll be taking over her kitchen...she was ok with that). We've set-up some extra cabinet space (inexpensive put-together cabinets that we had used for arts/crafts/games/toys/etc) in their rarely used formal dining room so I'll be able to bring a majority of my kitchen stuff with, as well as have my own 'pantry' space. Have I ever mentioned how much I love our current kitchen? Geez, I am sure going to miss it.  I plan to do most of the cooking, cleaning of our areas, laundry, etc, and I plan to buy our own groceries, as well as any other necessities (bathroom/cleaning supplies, etc...). We're adults raising our family, and even though the roof over our heads is no longer our own, we intend to continue being adults raising our family.

Our stay is only temporary, as we save to move onto our next adventure. We are looking at 6-12 months, unless something comes up sooner and we are able to act on it. I feel kind of like we are just floating right now, but it's where He intends for us to be at this time. My husband has a steady job, and I plan to seek out part-time work after the kids are settled into school and in a routine (possibly with the school district) so it shouldn't take us very long to recover.

Oh, and even though I am saddened by the loss of my current kitchen, at least I will no longer have to air pop popcorn in our bedroom :-)  Yes, I am addicted to it (...our kids may be as well (we may or may not have had popcorn for dinner tonight...with smoothies...)) and here the kids bedrooms are on the same level as the kitchen, so if I want to enjoy some post-kid-bedtime popcorn I grab a tray with all the necessary popcorn making things and retreat to our bedroom in the lower level-opposite side from the kids rooms. I've also made smoothies in our bedroom several times. Please tell me there are others out there that have done the same? We enjoy smoothies and popcorn as a family quite often, but sometimes momma needs her own at night but waking the kids is not an option ;-)

I've got some more packing to do, so it's time to ditch the desk and get to it. More to come on our new adventures...maybe even a short tour of my beloved soon-to-be-someone-else's kitchen...and a monthly or bi-monthly post titled "Immil's Kitchen" (yea, more on that later for sure!).