Home Sweet Home

I know, I know. I sort of fell off the face of the earth, well, the bloggy earth anyway. I just haven't been in much of a bloggy place. I haven't been posting or reading. It's not like there hasn't been anything going on around here. A LOT has happened and I have so much to share and I really want to get back to regular posting. Maybe today can be the start?

Let's catch up! What have I been doing for the last month and a half?

We packed the house over a period of months. My sister was amazingly helpful, coming over weekly to help. She totally rocks! The Lizard King came home on leave on Thursday, June 24th and the whirlwind began. He got to see the house for the first time, which was so exciting! The next day, play structure construction began.

Here is the house, well, some of it anyway.

You will have to wait to see the rest of the house another time. There is still so much more to do! We moved on the 26th of June and spent every day LK was home working on the house. Before we knew it, it was time for him to head back to Afghanistan. That was an adventure as well! LK was on the KLM flight that turned around over the Atlantic. He did make it safely back to Afghanistan...eventually.

Now I need to rewind just a bit. Before LK came home, before we even closed on the house, we hired an attorney. We tried to handle things on our own with Needy Evie, the evil ex-wife. I told you about her here and here. I did all the work and gathered all the information, copied it and mailed it to the attorney. Needy Evie was served. She had until June 29th to respond. On June 28th she called the attorney's office and said that she wanted to come in and sign the papers stating that we were done paying her alimony. We were stunned. Could it really be that simple? After all these years and all the grief she has given us, would she really go down without a fight. We had a hard time believing it, but it was true. She signed!! The attorney overnighted the papers for LK to sign. This week the judge signed the papers, too. It is done. It is over. After 10 long years, Needy Evie is out of our lives for good.

Now I am working on unpacking and making a home for us. The Lizard King will be home on September 18th, Princess' birthday. We have so much to look forward to, but more than anything we are looking forward to being together as a family.

So, what's up with all of you?

Going Home

A while back I was bitching whining blogging about wanting to go home again, to stop moving from rental to rental, to own our very own home...a place for Princess to grow up, a place to make memories, a place to live for ever and ever and never stop.

Well guess what?! =)

Yup! It's pick your own stuff new. They break ground in March.

A New Year...

...with so many things to look forward to. Each new day, with so many things to be grateful for, to appreciate. I am focusing on that today.

The Lizard King is in Afghanistan and we will be celebrating this day apart. Rather than focus on that, I will focus on how his being there short term will benefit us long term. I am grateful that he has a job. I am grateful for what that job is doing for us.

All the debt that has been hanging over our heads for years and years, as a result of his divorce, is on a downward spiral. We will be essentially debt free by June. Yes it is hard to be apart, but once LK is home we will be able to really live for ourselves. We will have time together everyday. We will have weekends together. We will have our own home. We will be working to support only ourselves. LK can stick to his computer nerd regular desk job and save the home improvement, back breaking and repair work for us in our new home.

2009 has had its challenges, but those challenges are on the way out. Here's to a beautiful 2010. Happy New Year everyone!!

and we're LIVE!

Finally! It's so good to be back. I can handle a day without connectivity, but a week and a half?!?! Are you kidding me?!?! Ridiculous! I seriously was about to begin a 12-step program.

Thanks to everyone for your emails and trying to stay connected to me. It was so exciting whenever I saw a familiar name from the blog world pop into my inbox. =)

First let me tell you that we love our house. I mean we really, really love this house. I am so glad that we were (sort of) forced into making this decision. We've been here for a week and a half now and I can see us staying here for a long time.

How do I explain how good this house feels? Well, let me try by telling you what happened when we moved into the last house. We moved in over a weekend and on Monday I called Freckle and HerbiFaery in tears. The house was horrible. The energy was terrible and there were so many things wrong with it that I just hadn't noticed before we moved in. This new house is the opposite of everything about the old house.

The energy here is fabulous. I love my yard. Yes, it's small, but it works for us. There is room for a swing set and for our garden (coming soon). The house is a good size, 1700 sf - not big, but not small either. The layout of the house is awesome. Space is definitely maximized. All the rooms are spacious. And now that we have internet and TV again it's complete.

The transition into this house has been the easiest by far for Princess. She loves it and is so happy here. We're all happy here. I didn't think I would say these words until we owned a home again...I really feel like we are home.

My back is doing really well. I'll talk more about that another time. I don't want to ramble on too long.

I know that I have questions to answer still, the biggest being about how I can be an atheist and a Jew. I will definitely address that and will go back and read all the comments again and reply where an answer is needed.

It's great to be back! I really did miss you all!

How cool is that?!

I have to say that after our experience with our current landlady I'm a little cautious about approaching our new landlord.

So far though, he has been awesome! We signed the lease on March 29th and after paying a half month rent for April, he handed us the keys. How cool is that?!

After we noticed that the dishwasher in the new house is getting rather worse for wear, our landlord offered to buy a new dishwasher. I was stunned! He called the other day to let me know that after talking with his partner, they decided to go with stainless steel and will be changing all the appliances over in time. He wanted to make sure that getting a new stainless steel (inside and out) dishwasher would be okay with me. Ummm....YEAH! How cool is that?!

We asked about putting up a play structure for Princess and about doing a few other things around the house. His response? Just treat this like it's your house and put everything back the way it was when you are done. How cool is that?!

I posted a while ago about wanting to go home and although we aren't buying this house, it's really starting to feel like home.

When the decision is made for you

Lizard King and I have been going back and forth about whether to stay in our current rental or move to a new rental. We moved here almost six months ago after signing a 6 month lease. Once we moved in we began to discover the many problems with the house. It's an old house that hasn't been upgraded.

The biggest issue is lack of insulation and old aluminum windows. These two things have led to gas bills over $250 a month. The electric bill is over $90 a month. The reasonable rent made this tolerable for a short time, but we didn't want to go through another winter here.

We were considering staying here through the summer, at which time we were hoping that the stars would align and we would be ready to buy a house. We really don't want to stay, but we don't want to commit to a long term lease and our landlady prefers her tenants go month to month afte the initial six month lease. Perfect, right?

Our landlady wanted to come over this evening and talk with us since our lease is ending April 15th. She told us that she is very happy with us. We take good care of the house and pay our rent on time. She would like us to go month to month, which we expected. However, after looking at the rental market she has decided to raise our rent nearly 15%! Yes, she wants an extra $150 a month!

After going back and forth over whether to stay or move our decision is made for us. There's no way we're paying $150 more for this house.