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Night 1

Captain's Log - 11:42 pm:
All is quiet in James Landing. Like, wow. No jammin' rap music thundering from an SUV across the street? No couples arguing at volumes well above normal level outside our window or strange popping noises that may or may not originate from a firearm??? Definitely no rhythmic shuddering of the door near the AC unit. Dogs are still - for the moment. I'm not sure I can sleep with all this quiet.   ;)  Sweet...

7:28 am: 

Woke up to a strange ticking sound, dogs barking spastically and Jon's frantic cry: (quote) MCKENZIE GET OUT OF THE HOUSE, NOW. GET OUT. Holy crap. As I can see all heck has broken loose (it was only a matter of time really), I grab my purse, throw on a sweatshirt and wrangle Hannah into a leash before stumbling outside to have a panic attack for 20 minutes. 

So I'm standing on our neighbors' wet grass in a fog thinking 'What the heck happened? Did our check bounce and they're taking the house back or something?' when Jon abruptly shouts an all-clear and ushers me back inside, where he proceeds to tell me that he had in fact woken up to that strange ticking noise, gone downstairs and found a water jug leaking onto one of the burners on our gas stove, causing it to flip out. Since the whole natural gas thing is new to us, he (justifiably) panicked that the gas was leaking and thought only of my safety. This is good because it means I can forgive the stern tone and angry-Jon voice he used to get me out of the house. 

While I contemplate the early hour and recover from the near-heart-attack I've just had, Hannah notices the open garage door and promptly bolts through it. Oops. Apparently, Jon had wisely seen the need for ventilation and opened all doors and windows during the commotion (which I didn't realize when unleashing the monster). 20 minutes later, Jon has managed to capture our escapee and we breathe a collective sigh of relief ...

... until I watch in slow-motion horror as Hannah looks out through our open dining room window, props her front feet up, turns back to me just long enough to smile mockingly and jumps through. 

Awesome. 

Surprise! It's a House

Um, yeah. I realize this actually was completely new information to anyone not in our immediate family (or rather, anyone that the immediate family didn't tell), but ok, here's how it all went down, which I'm sure is more than you ever wanted to know:

We'd discovered some time ago that 2 1/2 people and 2 beasts in just under 1300 square feet does not work well (nor does it a happy family make). Jon is constantly on MLS anyway looking for investment opportunities, so he would often scope out possible future homes (yet still investment-worthy, of course ;) in which to raise our "brood" of children, dogs, etc. We'd come upon several in the past 6 or so months that seemed like they'd work, and placed offers on 3 at different times, but things fell through with each. And Jon was starting to reevaluate what we might be able to afford with impending day and childcare expenses. 

Then it appeared. Well actually, it had been on the market for a while I guess, but Jon suddenly found it and on a random weekday asked me to take a look. We did the tour in less than 30 minutes, and despite the blue carpet and brass fixtures, we both had the feeling that it was "the one." Of all the homes we'd seen, it was the only floor plan I walked into and said "Yes. I could live here as it stands." They'd reduced the price considerably a month or so earlier, but if you know Jon, you know he's always looking to make the most out of our money, and the reduced list price was even quite a bit higher than we wanted to spend. Adding to my anxiety, the agent told us that another offer was on the table. But Jon kept me calm and assured me that a) sometimes they just tell you that, and b) sometimes even when people outbid you, the financing falls through, so even that wouldn't necessarily end it. We decided on a price we couldn't go above and offered 10% less than that. They countered as expected, and though they came down, it wasn't where we needed to be. Jon (and perhaps more reluctantly, I) decided that we'd go up to our magic number and tell them final offer, and if they didn't take it, it wasn't meant to be. I think it was Adam who explained it best: he said just think to yourself, would you rather not go above what you want to spend and maybe lose the house, or offer more and then wonder if you paid too much? I was so nervous I don't know if I slept the whole weekend we waited on the response.

Monday was the beginning of a series of events I can only describe as divine intervention. The offer was verbally accepted. We were still on a high from learning that there was a fully-forming, seemingly healthy little girl in my tummy, but of course I was a bundle of nerves at the fact that we had no written acceptance, no solid plan for our current home, and had yet to obtain financing. A week later, they returned the signed contract. Jon put a for-rent sign in our yard on Eagle. And though he'd planned to place an ad in the paper and on Craig's List as well, we got 6 calls that day. After a mad dash to tidy and de-dogify the house, we showed it to a nice lady who signed the lease contract by the end of that week. 

At this point, it still didn't sink in for me. Yes, my subconscious was aware that the closing was set for the end of the month (less than 2 weeks away at that point), but I was in the midst of planning Jenna's bachelorette celebration at the beach. And, being my neurotic self, was so uncertain about the qualification process, I just didn't believe things would happen along that timeline - if at all. We decided to wait until the house was ours before really telling everyone we were moving (mostly because of my nerves). When I returned from the beach on the 27th, however, our house was 2/3 of the way packed and stacks of boxes populated the living room. Jon had worked tirelessly all weekend and our closing was set for three days later. Somehow, everything fell into place and we (i.e. Jon) started moving boxes that day. 

So if it seemed abrupt and shocking, it kinda was. I still can't believe it's our real home!