We're here!

Our move from Albuquerque to Tucson was anything but smooth, but we made it. I'd have posted something sooner, but we had very limited internet access for the last month plus. Here's a condensed version of our last couple of months.

• We signed a contract to sell our Abq home to someone with a pre-approved loan.
• We signed a contract to purchase a Tucson home contingent on the sale of our Abq home.
• We decided to make a fresh start in Tucson, so we sold all our furniture and my car just in time for our scheduled Abq closing.
• We forwarded mail, notified utilities, rented a truck to move what we still owned, made insurance adjustments, etc.
• The night before closing, we learned our buyer's pre-approved loan wasn't approved.
• We scrambled to undo all the transfers and forwarding we'd put in place and to extend our contract for the home in Tucson.
• We found a place to live with our dogs (remember, our house was empty).
• Then there were at least 4 more scheduled closings that were canceled - always at the last minute - when the bank wouldn't approve our buyer's pre-approved loan. There were a variety of reasons given, all very frustrating.
• We had to give up the home in Tucson after the 3rd contract extension expired.
• We faced the entire Abq deal collapsing several times.
• Then it happened. We closed on the Abq home!
• We picked up the Tucson home where we left off, set a new closing date, and closed on it!
• Since then, all things have gone smoothly. I think we deserve the luck.

The nice part of all this is who we could count on. We immediately established mutual trust and respect with our buyer, and it paid off. He could have backed out of the deal many times, and there was a time or two we almost expected him to. Instead, he jumped through hoop after hoop for the bank and finally got his approved loan. It was very frustrating for him, because the problem was largely because his job isn't a typical kind of job. He's a very successful ultimate fighter. Through it all, our buyer kept faith in us, we kept faith in him, and that mutual respect kept us all going until the deal was complete. We're so grateful he hung in there.

Huge thanks to our friend for letting us stay in his house with our dogs. What was supposed to be a two night stay turned into a month residence. If it's true house guests are like fish and get stinky after 3 days, you can imagine how rank we got as the weeks rolled on.

But now we're here. We're thankful we made it, and we feel incredibly lucky to have the friend and buyer we had to help us through it all. We love our new home, our new community, and Tucson. The frustration of the helpless, extended wait, always with the risk of everything falling through, is already fading into the place were bad memories go. There are way too many positive things to concentrate on to let past frustrations get us down.

After all, we're here, posting live from Tucson.