Closing Day

(Let's pretend I wrote this on April 11, the day after it all happened.  Instead I was meeting contractors, loading and unloading boxes, welcoming grandparents and accompanying Chris on a 36 hour work trip to Galveston.)

April 10, 2013: The day we bought our second house.  I arrived with my check in hand and we signed our lives away for the second time.  To be honest, it doesn't feel scary to buy a house when the real estate market is so hot - no fears of being stuck with anything.  Whether that's true or not doesn't really matter - I was excited to buy the house.

We never met our sellers.  It was weird, to be honest.  They didn't even plan to show up to closing until 2 hours after we did, and we finished in an hour and a half, so the realtor had to bring over a set of keys for us.  I even took the contractor to the house one day and only met their son.  It was really weird to buy something from someone with absolutely zero communication.  I had all of these strange ideas swimming in my head about them.  Turns out we did meet him eventually - he came to pick up some mail - and the neighbors tell us they were good people.

I called the contractor on the way to the house and he met me there a few minutes later.  He was prepping my kitchen to remove wallpaper and strip cabinets within 90 minutes of my last signature.  Unfortunately, the carpet was still wet as the sellers chose to have it cleaned on closing day.  REALLY glad we weren't planning on moving in that day!  (That would be something you communicate between buyer and seller if they were to ever talk before the sale, right?)

I had visions of a really cute, special family evening at the new, empty house.  We were going to have a pizza pool party to celebrate our next adventure.  I knew the kids would think the empty house was fun, and I was trying to build as much excitement around the move as I could for Sam's benefit (and maybe for mine).  Sam was PUMPED for our little party.

And then the day arrived.  Chris had to go to Galveston right after closing, so our party was down to three.  A cold front came through mid-afternoon and the temperatures were, at most, in the low 50's with a light drizzle.  The kitchen was torn up and the carpet was wet.  Still - a pizza pool party had been promised to a 4 year old boy, and it was going to happen.

I put Sam in his suit, handed him his new squirt gun, and he was ready.  The workers laughed as the pulled their hooded sweatshirts tighter around their faces.  The contractor asked, I asked 4 times - Are you sure you want to do this?!  YES.  Ok then.  We open the door, he shivers.  He presses on.  One toe in the water and..."Its too cold!"

Back in we went, back in to real clothes.  We ordered a pizza and drove around a bit in the warm car waiting for it to be ready to pick up.  The family part was out, the pool part was out, but I could still make pizza happen!

And we did.  The three of us ate yummy, warm pizza in the front hall of our new house while the workers stripped the cabinets and Daddy was at a conference.  It wasn't the celebration I had in mind, but a memorable day nonetheless.