We had been talking for the last couple of years about the possibility of moving. Both AudioDad and I had hour-long commutes from our home in an affordable part of the SF Bay Area to our jobs in the most expensive county, also the place where we grew up. The commute wasn't so much of a burden until Munch came along. Spending hours in the car every day, we didn't have much time for family life.
Still, I was surprised when early in May, AudioDad made the decision to meet with listing agents. Our house was on the MLS by that afternoon. Two weeks and an Open House later, we had a buyer and a move-out date in mid-June. The problem was, we didn't have a closing date on a new place yet!
Luckily it was summer, and between vacations, house sitting, and rotating between various family members' homes, Munch and I found ourselves enjoying our nomadic life. We stored all our belongings and AudioDad settled in with our dogs with other family for what we anticipated would be a couple of weeks. But as problem after problem surfaced with the house we were negotiating on, weeks stretched into months. When the deal finally fell through, we were within days of Munch starting kindergarten.
We quickly looked through a handful of homes for sale, put a new offer in, unearthed some school and work clothes from storage, moved more permanently into a corner of my 10-year old niece's room, and crossed our fingers. School started. Munch and I hardly saw AudioDad as our family was now split between two homes so as not to burden our accommodating families too much. We learned that buying a home in today's market was a significantly different and more complicated process than when we were first time buyers ten years ago.
At last, we received keys for our new home at the end of September. We could finally live together as a family again. But now, we were facing a significant amount of work on our new, old house.
Munch's empty room
Last day in the old house
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