It's not the fall, it's the sudden stop at the end ...

Guess what? We're moving!

We got a call from the property manager's secretary late Friday afternoon. At 4:45, in fact. She wanted to give us a heads-up that we were getting inspected Monday morning.

AAAHHH!!

So, we spent Saturday: cleaning, doing touch-up painting, cleaning the carpets, sitting on Michael to make him clean his room, etc. etc. All the little details that tend to pile up. No big deal, unless you've got somebody coming to INSPECT!

Naturally we speculated quite a bit about why, after a year and a half in this house, we were getting our first inspection. Had a neighbor complained about the condition of the fence? It's a white vinyl picket thing, and the glue that holds the pickets on has been wearing out this winter. We've now lost four of the things, which has made an already odd-looking fence (long story, there) look even worse.

The lease does give them the right to inspect the premises once a month. Maybe it was just a regular inspection, one that was coming a bit late? OK, really late?

The husband thought someone had complained. I thought it was just an ordinary inspection. And then the husband thought of something else.

Maybe the landlord was thinking of selling the place.

Wow. What if he was? Would we want to buy it? And what would we do if we didn't buy it?

Well, guess what? The answer lurked behind door number three! And they are going to be asking about $60,000 more than we can get pre-approved for. Maybe more, because we're currently waiting to get pre-approved and we might not get as much as we're hoping.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that the bank trusts us with enough money to actually let us buy a livable house!

The husband had the day off yesterday, so we went and looked at two houses near us. One was pretty nice. Not too pricy, even though it's big, because there are a lot of cosmetic problems (the paint job is practically down to bare wood, small children have scribbled on the walls with permanent marker, that sort of thing.) The finished area is 1300 sq. ft., but there is a full, unfinished basement that is another 1300 sq. ft. And the kids' rooms would be much bigger than the ones they're in now, which would make everyone very happy. And there is a nice flat back yard, instead of the weird-shaped, hilly yard we have now.

So, we're sitting and waiting to find out what we get pre-approved for, and then we very well might make an offer on that house, if it's still available. It's a good enough deal that it will probably go very quickly.

Wow. Do I have whiplash now? Why, yes, yes I do!