Holiday Hugs

Well it's official, Jason and I will have to take an easy on spending too much for the holidays. The biggest reason is that the rental offer we had on the house has been cancelled, we found out this afternoon, 30 minutes before Jason was suppose to meet the renters to sign the lease and get the first rental payment. It's really ridiculous how little notice they gave us. We will now have little to no extra $ till the house gets another offer. I know none of this is very positive, but what I'm getting at is even though gifts will be non-existent this season I still can't wait to spend quality time with Jason's family and my family this holiday season. The true meaning of the holidays is to be with the ones you love. The people that love you unconditionally no matter your financial situation. I really love you all and can't wait for the holidays to start. Jason and I have had pretty tough times this year with my unemployment and our many house issues, all I really want are hugs from the ones I love.

Breathing a Sigh of Relief

It's official. I can breath again. I'm meeting this Saturday with the new tenants of Stevenson Ln. to sign the lease and finalize. Then I'm going to register with the county and the whole shebang will be legit, legal and puncture-proof. And it won't be a negative to my balance sheet, which is a strong positive to my life.

Here's to neat freak tenants who can't help themselves but treat your house with love and only call you when there's actually a problem, which almost never happens. Stack that one with the positives.

Light is Approaching

The Stevenson House is not done yet. We've over shot two of our previous deadlines. But we're trying to keep positive the best we can. I can honestly finally say that I see a light at the end of this dark and stormy tunnel (especially stormy since it has practically been raining since we started this project). We only have cleaning and some painting to do and the house will be viewable. We have a new goal of having a perfect home by this Friday and I do see us finally making the set deadline. It's been a tough road, but Jason and I kept our heads up and soon our lives will go back to some form of normalcy.

That's What Family is For

Most of you are probably aware that, due to an unfortunate run-in with the bureaucratic machine that is Baltimore County, our tenants at our old house are being forced to move out, which is therefore forcing us to put it on the market. Not the greatest time to be entering the fray, but when you're faced with limited options, you still have to choose.

Anyway, the point is we were crushing to get the house ready for an open house this Sunday. And my Dad came up today and spent the entire day, in the nasty cold rain, helping try and make our deadline. We didn't make it, but only because rain slowed us down, and ruined our tenants plans to be out of the house all day for Towson's Homecoming. So next Sunday will now be our first open house, and Kate and I will head back a few evenings this week coming up to try and finish the last few things. But deadline or not, it was really nice getting to spend the day with my Dad.

I'm really happy that my family is local, and that we're all close enough to help each other out in a pinch. My cousin James offered his help, too, completely out of the blue (thanks, James...even though we didn't take you up on it, I appreciate it). It's all a testament to family and connectedness, and miserable drenching power of cold, constant rain.