Not Even Going to Try . . .

. . . to make up for lost time. It really blows my mind that I haven't yet posted THIS YEAR. I guess it's just been that kind of year thus far. I really don't feel like I can begin to do the past two months justice by trying to describe them - it's been really wild and hard and sad and exciting and most of the above all within minutes of each other.

Our house here is on the market - a dreadful thing in and of itself, because we love our little house. We are such sentimental people, we are finding, and this is the first place we bought together, the place we have brought our babies home from the hospital to, the place of many firsts and memorables. If we could pick it up and move it, we would. (It would be much cheaper than anything we've found in St. Louis, I promise.)

Isn't it cute? In case you're on the market for a new home in lovely Jackson, Mississippi, you can learn more about it here. The picture doesn't begin to do justice to how cute it is - especially when the dogwoods are in bloom and there are flowers flowing out of the window boxes.

In the midst of getting this place ready to put on the market - packing and cleaning and painting and fixing up - I've managed to make a few trips to St. Louis to look for a home there. We've had several real possibilities that either end up being out of our budget, or sell before we can even lay eyes on them, or aren't in the greatest location. The real estate market there is tough - great houses at fair prices usually sell in a matter of days, sometimes in less than 48 hours. We really can't compete with that from 500 miles away.

Then we found this . .

. . . otherwise known as the home of our dreams. It's basically everything we have wanted: an old house that is in good structural condition, not updated inside (so that we can afford it and so we can update it the way we want to over time), not too vast inside that it feels like we can't fill it (or so big they can't hear me when I yell up the stairs for them from the kitchen), but also something we have some room to grow into. This is the kind of home we could stay in until the day the girls have to move us to a one-story condo so we don't break our hips climbing stairs. I love it. It isn't without its' problems, it has acquired about 80 years worth of quirks and foibles. But I love it.

The sad news about my newfound love: it is for sale by owner, and some not-so-realistic owners, at that. Our realtor estimates it was initially listed for more than $100K over what it's worth. (Not good for the buyer.) And one of the sellers is not so reasonable to deal with - it's been quite an ordeal. (I mean, imagine making your first offer at about 25% less than their asking price!) Anyway, we finally came to an agreement on price with them (amazing, really), and this past week we had a structural and building inspection, a radon test, an asbestos inspection, a heating/cooling inspection, a roofing inspection, a termite inspection, the sewer line videocamera'd, the water stop box located, and more things I can't even recount have been looked into. Things I had never thought about, that apparently are de rigeur when you buy homes in St. Louis. It's a whole new world, I'm tellin' ya. Now we decide what we'd like for the homeowners to address and change, and start our ten day period of negotiations about that. Should be fun.

The hard part is that we are already so attached to it. We've thought about how we want to improve it, who will live in what rooms (the girls are going to share a room, which I'm so thrilled about - they less so, but I'm the mom so there), and where we'll shop for groceries. The location is half the dream about this house - it's on a beautiful, tree-lined street in University City, a block from Washington University, a mile from Forest Park, where the zoo, the art museum, and miles of bike paths are, amongst other things. It's four minutes from Lucy's school. It's 2 miles up Big Bend from Mary Catherine's house. It's a 5 minute drive to the Innerbelt that Michael will take to the hospital. And, drumrull, it's a 2 block WALK to the MetroLink station that takes me to Busch Stadium. Yep, I can walk out my front door, clad in red, and go to the game without even having to drive downtown and park. Makes me so happy, I could cry. Sometimes I do, just cry out of sheer happiness. Part of me has longed to be back in St. Louis for 15 years, and it's just unbelievable that it is actually happening...

But I have to get through the next 12 days first. At midnight on March 22, if all goes well in negotiations, the house will be ours. We'll let you know.

It's good to be back...and nice to be missed. Love to you all.