The waiting is the hardest part...

Well we are STILL waiting for all of our "ducks" to be in a row so that we can buy the house on Sutter Road that we love. It's killing me, actually, just sitting here, with my fate in all of these other people's hands, total strangers mind you, that I've never met. Progress in Pittsburgh is very slow apparently, and I'm not sure exactly why, unless I can just lump it as "overall laziness."

There can be no open houses during GAME WEEKEND, you know. And this weekend is NOT a game weekend, BUT they still had a "pep rally" at Heinz Field last night to celebrate the Steelers win last weekend and their upcoming trip to Dallas for the Super Bowl. So, of course, next weekend there won't be any open houses either. This is partially why house hunting in Pittsburgh takes forever. The whole world stops still during game weekend around here. It is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Florence is still waiting for the key from the deadbeat loser who took advantage of her by living in her home for 6 years without paying rent or utilities. A legal letter was sent to her, (several weeks late because the address was wrong), and she hasn't bothered to respond yet. Florence doesn't have a key to get into her own house. We've demanded the key, but so far it hasn't happened yet. So now we wait for THAT to happen, before we can take Florence up there (and keep her from begging about it all the time like she does now, "I want to go HOME.") Then we can put the damned house on the market and sell it. She can put some of that money towards the purchase of the Sutter Road house if she wants to, according to her financial advisor, so we're going to fib to her and say she's helping buy it for us---when she really won't be---but she needs to feel that she actually OWNS something. So, we'll fib.

Anyway, we're waiting for our new house, waiting to do any repairs at THIS house we're currently renting, waiting to tell the homeowners that we do NOT plan on buying this house after all, waiting to pack anything, waiting waiting waiting. I'm getting sick and tired of waiting. Our credit reports were evaluated, and cleaned up by our financial advisor, Pete's bankruptcy was paid off in full, and THAT will be removed from his credit report soon too. Once those things happen (God help us if the Steelers WIN the Super Bowl, you can kiss the whole month of February goodbye around here), then we can finally go get a mortgage and make an offer, and get a home inspection before we move there.

But, we're coming up on deadlines too. The homeowners of THIS house we're renting, signed a 2 year agreement that expires on March 15th with us, so we have to notify them 30 days BEFORE that if we are going to buy it or move elsewhere. Then they will want us to fix anything that needs fixing, touch up any paint that needs it, clean the whole place from top to bottom, etc., before we move out. Then there's the packing, which will take awhile, and then what to do with Florence while we're moving. (We might have her stay at an assisted living place for a couple weeks until we get her stuff moved and settled in). She says she's ok with that idea, she likes it there, as long as we don't LEAVE her there.

So, everything seems like it's stagnating right now, but will soon hit the fan and be chaotic if and when it does happen. I hate waiting until the last damned minute to make a huge life decision like this, ya know? I hate waiting, it's not my favorite thing, nor am I very good at it. I'm rather impatient. I mean, I've never owned a house before. I'm 42, almost 43 years old. I have been waiting for 42 YEARS here, ya know? Let's GET THIS BALL ROLLING!!!

GRRR. Well, anyway, that's where we sit right now. Just in limbo-land, not really able to do much of anything except bite my fingernails off to nubs, and look at pictures of the new house to think about decorating. I'm looking at photos of rooms on HGTV.com, like color schemes, furniture at IKEA, and other ideas in magazines that I'm going to cut out and keep in a folder.

But if somebody else BEATS US TO THIS HOUSE that we want, and buys it out from under us, I'm going to be absolutely furious. So the clock is ticking, and I'm growing more and more impatient, and it's driving me crazy. Maybe we should just forget it, and rent forever, it's much easier to just say, "well, I'm outta here," if you're renting. If you buy a house, you're stuck. I hope there's nothing major wrong with it...

So, other than that, we have nothing much else to report at this point. Snowing snowing snowing, it just keep snowing. I had snow tires put on both vehicles last week, we couldn't get up our own driveway before. Now we can.

Bye for now.

Love, Rebecca