Bad Omens

As predicted, our government failed to pass a budget, so we're getting hit with sequestration. Now we can kiss any hope of getting that relocation assistance goodbye, and cross our fingers that  my hubby isn't furloughed, which could mean a loss of up to 25%  of his income.  Gee, that won't hurt our buying power for a new house at all (she says, rolling her eyes).  Hopefully, the Great Congressional Pissing Contest won't come to that.  Of course, I'm still not holding my breath. 

At any rate, we dropped the price on our house a week ago, but haven't seen any difference in traffic.  Our selling realtor said that we are just now coming into the heavy buying season, so we'll give it a few more weeks before dropping it again.  I've just about given up hope of being able to move before school is out this year.  The kids are happier with that, but that also means it'll be tougher for them to meet new kids during the summer.  They also won't have time to make friends with which to celebrate their birthdays (which are in early September and October).  Oh well, they'll adjust. 

In an attempt to be helpful, my mother-in-law gave us a statue of St. Joseph to be buried in the yard (upside down) to bring us luck selling the house.  I think it's an old wives' tale, and don't belie1ve it'll do a lick of good.  But we're in dire need of good luck, so I'm not opposed to letting Husband Fixture put it to work.  At least, I had no objections until he dropped it and broke the head off less than ten minutes after bringing it into our house.  While I don't think it'll bring us good luck, I cannot see how that can be anything but a bad omen.  I posted a query to our friends on Facebook, to see what they thought we should do.  The majority of them said we should glue the head back on and bury it anyway, as Hubby wanted to do.  We'll see. 

On the buying side of things, we did submit an offer for the house we want in Maryland.  The owners have been out of the country, so it's taken awhile to get an answer.  Essentially, they agreed to a contingency sale and to helping with the closing costs, but they want almost the listed price.  Husband Fixture wanted to try and nudge them down by a little bit (we initially offered $14K less), but we agreed that we'll accept their counter offer if they won't budge.  We don't want to lose this house, as it's by far the best we've seen at this price point.  I'm just hoping we don't nudge them into thinking they should hold out for other buyers.  

The Other Shoe

has dropped.  Thanks to the doucheasauruses that reside in D.C. being unable to pull their heads out of their posteriors and fix the sequestration issues, it looks like Husband's Fixture's job transfer will be denied as written.  Now if we're willing to give up relocation assistance portion of the offer, they'll process it right away.  Unfortunately, in the current housing market, I don't have a whole lot of confidence that we'll be able to sell our current house anytime soon. 

Our current plan is to drop the price of the house by $5K, and see if we get any interest.  We're also checking with our realtor in Maryland, to see if the owners of the home we wanted would accept a contingency offer.  If so, we're in business.  Should, by some miracle, the relocation assistance come through, we can always drop the contingency and speed things up.  Either way, if we don't have the full hiring package Hubby was originally offered, or if we don't have our current home under contract by March 15, we will be stuck here for the remainder of the school year.  I refuse to move the kids so late in the school year, especially since both of them will be moving up a level next year.  I don't even want to contemplate what will happen if we are unable to get our house under contract by June.  

I See the Light

 It's faintly flickering, but it seems to be the light at the end of the tunnel.  Just when I'd begun to give up hope that Husband Fixture's transfer would ever get through, we've gotten news of some progress.  It seems my earlier prediction about those tunas throwing their weight around was right on the money.  They've been making waves about their people not getting transferred, and it has been determined that the transfers that were ready to finalized before the halt in personnel office occurred will go through over the next couple weeks.  Husband Fixture's transfer was among those, so the wait will hopefully be short.

When we do get the official word, it'll be not a moment too soon.  Already I have both kids' schools wanting re-registration forms filled out, and I've been summoned for jury duty again.  It's rather hard to fill out those forms when we don't know if we'll even be here in a month.   We also just had our first showing of the house.  If they make an offer, we don't want to have to refuse it. Oh well, we'll jump off that bridge when we get there. 

The Ties That Bind

No, this post isn't about Fifty Shades of Grey, though I am fifty shades of pissed off right now.  The ties to which I'm referring are strips of sticky crimson and are often associated with the government.  It appears that the head of the personnel office has decided that he is confused about whether the transfer of an existing employee from one site to another violates a hiring freeze.  In covering his backside, he put a halt to ALL paperwork coming through his office.  It does not, and this was one of the first issues addressed when Husband Fixture began this process.  But now we have to wait for someone with enough clout to tell this mewling clay-brained clotpole that it's okay to process transfers, which could take who-knows-how-long.

The good news is, there's always a bigger fish in the sea.  Eventually, some tuna is bound to get riled up when he figures out that the transfer he's waiting on isn't happening, and throw his weight around until things in the personnel office get moving again.  And I suppose it's also good news that we did get outbid on the house we wanted, lest we be stuck under contract with no sale of our current house in sight.  And because we don't have our house under contract, we are under no pressure to wait a little longer for the personnel snafu to get straightened out.  As much as I'd like the kids to be moved before the start of the fourth quarter, it wouldn't be the end of the world if that didn't happen.  Goodness knows, Gingersnap would love to finish out the year with her friends.   The Prince of Distraction is another story.  He's at the point of wanting to move with us, but that's a tale for another time.  

Back to the Drawing Board

Yesterday, we went to drop off my great-grandmother's bed to the gentleman who will be restoring it for us.  I've seen his other work, and am excited to see the bed when it's finished. Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to stop in and visit my "twin" and her hubby at their new abode.  It was great to hang out with them, and they were sweet enough to let us borrow their computer, scanner/printer. As we were on the way to their house, I got the email from our realtor with the paperwork for submitting an offer on the house we wanted.  We got it all signed and sent in, and were crossing our fingers that Husband Fixture's job offer would be finalized so that we could make good on the offer. 

Alas, our offer was beaten to the table by someone offering cash down.  We found out this morning, and I am crushed.  I really saw us living in that house, and am beyond pissed that we never really had a chance, in part because of the asshats in personnel. 

Now we get to go back online and see if we see any more houses worth making the trip down to visit.  Here we go again . . .

Time Keeps On Slipping

 . . . slipping, into the future.  As you might have guessed, we're STILL waiting on that relocation assistance paperwork.  That makes me as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, as I cross my fingers that the house we want will still be available when we can actually make an offer.  Of course, the office that holds our fate in its hands is an entity unto itself.  That means that they can take their sweet old time, with no repercussions--and they are moving about as fast as molasses in winter. It's times like these I wish my husband had a regular job.    

Speaking of Husband Fixture, even he has started to get nervous.  He has sent the realtor an email asking whether it would be advisable to go ahead and submit an offer, contingent upon the relocation paperwork being signed.  We've been told every day this week that it should be done, "by tomorrow," and yet it still hasn't happened.  Tick tock, tick tock . . . 

Ssshhhh! Be Vewy Vewy Quiet . . .

We're hunting houses!

 Husband Fixture and I have opted to make this little trip sans offspring, as we knew there would be  a lot of down time that would render them bored, malcontent, and consequently insufferable.  Thankfully, their Grandma loves spending time with them, and they've not reached the age where it's too uncool to hang out with her, so everyone wins. 

Mind you, I'd feel much more like a winner if Husband Fixture and I weren't sick, but we'll take what we can get.  We began our weekend with a very early drive down to Maryland.  Hubby dropped me at our hotel, and I took meds and climbed into bed, while he headed over to the new office for meetings.  Later, we met his new boss and his wife for dinner.  For what it's worth, I like them, and think we'll get along fine. 

We spent Saturday riding around with the realtor looking at houses, and we did find a couple that we really like.  Unfortunately, both are at the high end of our price range.  We knew we were going to need to keep looking for a bit to see if there's anything else at there at a lower price.  We had dinner with one of Husband Fixture's friends and her hubby, and headed back to the hotel for a quiet night in (translation:  meds and a movie 'till we fell asleep). 

Today, we went back to see our two favorite houses, plus another two.  We were hoping to find something with the features we wanted at a lower price point.  We did find one, but essentially, our favorite is still the more expensive home.  That brings us to the decision of whether to spend the extra money to get what we really want or settle for something cheaper that we'll have to upgrade in a few years.  Either way, we can't make an offer until we have the relocation assistance paperwork finalized.