One Year Ago!

One year ago today we started our new home journey with the “we will see where the wind blows us” attitude and put my little condo up for sale.  The Sheriff and I agreed that we would not force anything to happen, we would just wait and see what would happen and go with.  The sale of my condo took longer than I had hoped but in the end it sold to the right person at the right time and went very smoothly for the most part, I am not going to lie there were a lot of tears of frustration that were shed but everything worked out. We put the Sheriff’s house on the market the end of August and I was the point of contact for both homes for several months.  At times it was insane, I had real estate agents texting and calling me several times a day every day and there were times that we would have house showings at both houses at the same time.  It was crazy, I was crazy, but the crazy worked itself out.  Fast forward a couple months and we got an offer on the Sheriff’s house, we put in an offer on a new house and moved!  All along I have been saying that we would not move into our new house until April and BAM we closed escrow on April 1^st. 

Moving in was a bit crazy and things were off to a rocky start when the Sheriff had a gout flare up, apparently it is very very very painful and he was in a lot of pain but somehow managed to power through it and get things done.  One day in and our water was turned off, thankfully it was not because we did not pay the bill like a few months ago. Even better it was because we called the Santa Margarita Water District to have our service transferred, they said “no problem” when in all actuality we are serviced by Moulton Niguel Water District, so that was fun trying to get the water turned on.  We had a gas leak in the garage and after two visits from the Gas Company and $64 later it was all fixed.  The previous owners had burglar alarm and at 5:37 am the second morning we were there it went off.  After a phone call to the alarm company, text messages to our agent, text messages to our sellers agents we finally got things settled down.

We are slowly but surely getting settled into our new digs, this past week it is really starting to feel like our home.  I was able to locate some of our decorative items that have been packed away and I recently discovered Cost Plus World Market and I am in LOVE with their stuff!  The Sheriff and I have purchased a few things for the house that need to be hung and my parents gave us new patio furniture for the backyard that will be coming in a few weeks. 

Now if Gracie would just stay out of the pool!!

The Letter...

Late last night the Sheriff and I moved our Uhaul to our new house and unloaded a few things out of his truck to make room for more stuff to haul out of my parents garage.  As we were finishing up a few of our new neighbors stopped by to say “hi”.  We made small talk with them, chatted about our dogs, kids, jobs and the new house.  As we were chatting away our new neighbors started talking about the family that we bought the house from and how they had been telling them how nice we were and how much they were going to like us.  They went on and on and then one of them said “it was the letter that made them want to sell us their house”.  I stood there shocked, I had completely forgotten about the letter I wrote to them, it was short and sweet, straight to the point (we wanted the house) and apparently sealed the deal for us (along with our agents who formed a good relationship with the listing agents) considering there were three other offers on the house and we had no idea where we stood in the offer pool. 

Here is the letter I wrote, now that I reread it, I wish I had taken more time to make it a lot better, but at the time I was in a hurry and I did not have a second to spare.  I also edited it a bit, you know, taking out names of our employers and such, so don’t think I sent it over this way!

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February 16, 2016,

To the Owners of 123 we want your house,

My family and I have been searching for the perfect house for us for the last few months, after an extensive search we found your house and fell in love with it.  You have done a beautiful job updating and decorating your entire home (we have the same rug downstairs and the same bedding in the master, lol) and the backyard pool is amazing,  we can see ourselves making great memories there with our family and friends that we already have in your neighborhood.

A quick background on us, Ken has been a Sheriff’s Deputy for the past twenty-five years and bought his first home in Mission Viejo over twenty years ago and has an eleven year old son, Mr. Pie. 

Erin has worked for the ______in their Community Services Department for the past seven years.  

Mr. Pie is a fun loving eleven year old boy who loves animals, school and playing basketball.

And our future children, we are excited to add to our family in the near future and your home is perfect for us to do so, your sweet little nursery was a great reminder of this. 

Together we are a fun loving family, we spend a lot of time at the beach paddling for the Dana Outrigger Canoe Club, riding our bikes, serving the community through work and volunteer projects and we are looking for a house to call our “forever home”.

We hope you will accept our offer, we promise to love and take care of your home for years to come!

Thank you,

The Sheriff, Erin & Mr. Pie

The most amazing part was throughout the entire 45 day escrow we got the cold shoulder from the seller’s, they wanted nothing to do with us even though we were really easy to work with so when we heard all the nice things they had to say about us we were totally surprised! 

And…..today is moving day!! The Sheriff and I both have to work today but as soon as we get home it is game on and we will be sleeping in our new house tonight!  

No Joke!

Last year I posted this and it created quite the stir both good and bad.  I had the haters who freaked out because no one should ever joke about getting engaged or being pregnant (for the record, I never did the pregnant joke, cause my parents would FREAK out about a baby considering there was no ring) and then I had the lovers who were so happy that the Sheriff and I were making it real and then I had all of the people who laughed when they called my bluff and found out it was a joke and yes, I am still waiting for the ring but whatever.  But…..I am not joking when I say SOLD!  Yep, our new house is officially ours as of 1:00pm today we closed escrow and it has been recorded with the county and we will be getting the keys in a few days!  Living with the parents has been great, the dogs did really well, the Sheriff enjoyed his accommodations in the garage  and we have not heard from Mr. Pie since he found his iPad stashed in the garage, so for all I know he is still alive.  FREE food, a FREE room (even though we really took over the entire house) and the FREE laundry room was awesome, if it were not for the daily commute in traffic both ways, I would consider staying a lot longer! Bam!!!, that was the sound of Super Mom hitting the floor after reading that last sentence. 

Thank you to all of you who wished us well in this journey and of course we could not of done it without our favorite realtors Danny & Gregory or more professionally known as Dan & Greg and my parents who have supported us throughout this loooooonnnnnnngggggg process and who we are sooo lucky to have.  Now let the fun begin, unpacking, decorating and swimming, please come visit us!!