Our last move was such a hassle with broken and damaged furniture and I know there are horror stories, as well as glowing reports, about every moving company out there but I was holding my breath til we got our official “HHG Letter”.  It came today and we got the movers I was hoping to get.  Let’s just hope that I’m still happy with them after the move.

Every aspect of the move is kinda bittersweet.  Even though I moan and complain about not finding a house, it’s so fun to look at them all online and try to figure out which one will work and which ones won’t and what we can do to each to make it work for us.  Leaving Chad . . well, that’s definitely not going to be fun or easy for me.

So, the letter came today and I was so happy to see that we had United (don’t tell me any horror stories!) and then I saw that our “transfer date” which is the date they drive off with all my fabric, sewing machines, food, etc. is my birthday and then I was trying to be brave but the tears began to fall.  Who wants to move away from a house you love, your son and your chickens on your birthday?  Slim chance that will end up being the actual day it really happens but that leaves me 54 days in Missouri.   Those 54 days will pass way too quickly – too quickly to get everything done but it could mean that if my potatoes hurry, I might be able to dig some fresh potatoes before I have to leave.

Speaking of houses, on Sunday a new house was listed and on Tuesday a new house was listed, and either of those could work for us.  Want to help me pick a house?    Both are older than I prefer to buy but we’re just not going to find everything we want.  Remember, we haven’t seen either in real life so once we see them, we may not like either of them.

This is the one I’m leaning towards.  I’m not crazy about the wood on the outside.  It looks like it could use some TLC . . maybe new wood or vinyl siding but I’d probably go with wood just to keep it looking a bit rustic.  I’ve written to our realtor to see if a portion of that roof is flat or if there’s any pitch on it at all.  They don’t get nearly as much rain there as we do in MO or in LA so it won’t be as big of an issue there but if it’s truly flat, that may be a deal breaker.  I love the kitchen and laundry room.  Look at all the cabinets in the laundry room and the countertop in the kitchen.  There’s more to the kitchen because we don’t see a fridge in the pictures.  I wish it had a closed in garage but that’s something we could do maybe.  I love that it’s secluded, has the out buildings and has 99 additional acres available.  This one is closer to Vince’s job and real close to town.  I’m real excited about seeing it.

This is the other one.  It has a few more square feet, has had some recent maintenance done so probably needs little to nothing done to it but it’s on a fairly large lot (no acreage) and there’s no acreage available around it that we could buy and it’s in a restricted subdivision.  The neighbors aren’t terribly close so we could probably survive here.  The garage is on the ground level and the kitchen is on the upper level.  I’m not crazy about hauling groceries upstairs but if we drive up to the front door, we could go through that door and be on the main level.  That won’t be a deal breaker.  The restricted subdivision might be what causes us to vote against this house, but as of now, these two are definite possibilities.  Both have great views and I could see us being happy at either house.

We’ll keep looking . . .