Lows:
- Assembling this God-forsaken water table. OMG. The company that designed this did NOT consult parents or have anyone attempt to put this thing together. It was horrible to put together. You had to screw a lot of things together but they did not pre-drill the parts so it was difficult to get things properly lined up and took a lot of elbow grease to assemble. About half way through, Phil got out his drill and pre-drilled the plastic to make these easier to screw together. I pity any single parent who tries to assemble this because it definitely a two-person job.
- House hunting angst. Oh man, I will save you the long, drawn-out story about our house search but suffice it to say that after looking for a house for 22 months, Phil changed his mind about the area we are targeting. We were looking at 2 different neighborhoods but after seeing a (beautiful) house in one of those neighborhoods on Friday, he decided to just doesn't want to live there. I was prepared to convince him to make an offer as this house had so much of what we want in a house and the owners have taken such good care of it.
- Paul has a cold and was especially clingy at various points of the weekend. His naps also were not great. Being sick plus not sleeping well is a nasty combination in a toddler.
- I didn't sleep well either due to a multitude of reasons. I went downstairs to read for 20 minutes around 2 or 3 am the last 3 nights after tossing and turning for 30+ minutes. Leaving the bedroom to read helped but that's the last thing I want to be doing at that time of night.
Highs:
- On Saturday morning we went for a long family walk after having a big talk about our house hunt. Honestly, I did not want Phil to come on this walk with me and Paul because I was so frustrated with him. But the 90+ minute walk was very good for us. We walked through the neighborhood we have agreed to focus on and when we got back home, I felt much better about things. Phil felt so bad about the house hunting process and how difficult he's been. I knew he felt really bad when he said, "hey, you should take a picture of Paul and me." Phil HATES having his photo taken so he never suggests that I take a photo of him!
- He also agreed that we can hire a house cleaner. This is something I've wanted to do since having Paul but he always felt our house was small enough that we could clean it ourselves. But this weekend he conceded on this. I could not text my previous house cleaner fast enough. Ha. They are coming on Tuesday. I am ridiculously excited about having our house cleaned by someone else. We are gone 50+ hours/week between working and commuting and the weekends feel so busy with chasing a toddler around. It's going to be a game-changer to have a house cleaner again.
- Paul played with the water table on Saturday morning and he loved it. Seeing that smile made the awful assembly worth it!
- Paul and I had a play date with 2 other moms and their kiddos on Sunday morning. We went to a park that also had a little wading pool. It was so hot and humid so we spent most of our time in the pool. We were too busy wrangling our kids to take any photos!
- I also had a fun girls dinner on Sunday evening with 3 college friends. Paul was very crabby and whiny so I was not sad to head out and miss the tail end of his day. ;) But I left at 5:30 and he goes to bed at 6:30 so Phil only solo-parented for an hour, and a good chunk of that time was spent feeding him dinner.
Writing this out was helpful as there were more highs than lows. It's hard to properly convey how frustrating our house-hunting process has been but I feel like Phil and I made some progress this weekend and I'm hopeful that narrowing our search and increasing our price range will result in us finding the right house for us. I will be so glad when we find a house and can be done looking. People will often say how fun it is to house hunt. I do not agree at all, but inventory is so low and we are looking for something very specific so that makes our house search more challenging! I'm trying to trust it will all work out! Luckily our current house is just fine but once we get pregnant with a 2nd child, we'll really need to find something as our house is too small for 2 kids.
What were some of the highs and lows of your weekend?
11 comments:
I can't imagine househunting these days. Between the prices, the stress of moving, the desire to get a "forever" place (or at least a "for a very long time" one is intense and then coming to terms with another person adds to it. I wish you all the best of luck.
And sometimes I think toy designers do not have a clue!
But it sounds like things were more or less good and for that, I'm glad for you. As to our highs and lows, the high was yesterday, which was four-star gorgeous and productive. The low was Saturday where I felt about as lousy as one could feel.
I am hoping the appearance of a second child with their own set of things will help me either get a much talked about addition sooner or a new house. I know my husband loves our yard/his garden, BUT I HATE THIS GOSH DARN HOUSE and would totally move to the other side of town and have the same amount of yard and newer house tomorrow!!!!!
Ugh, the house-hunting process sounds so frustrating, and I can see why it could cause some strife. It's good that you guys were able to talk things out and come to a compromise. (And kudos for talking about it here! I love seeing the *real* side of marriage because these things happen more frequently than we know, and it demystifies the process by being open about it.) I'm glad there were more highs than lows from your weekend, though. Hooray for that!
The high of my weekend was bowling with my nephew on Saturday evening. He's so good! And it was so cute how encouraging he was when I bowled a 75 my first game. ;) And the low was having to do a work project that sucked up a lot of my weekend. Womp.
Oh, man, house hunting...it's just never fun. For anyone! I really hope something pops up for you all soon!
We got a housekeeper this year. I just don't want to spend hours on my weekend cleaning, nor do I want to live with dirt! She only comes every two weeks, so it's not a huge expense, and it allows me so much more free time.
I hope the price range change helps!! I think house hunting is much harder when you have to consider a family instead of just one person. Another friend of mine has also been searching for 2 years. I hope the right thing comes soon! And yes, a house cleaner makes 100% sense. My mom has one that comes every other week, and then she fills in on things, but its just nice to have a regularly scheduled clean for when life gets busy.
House hunting is a pain. I'm dreading it, honestly. We have 2 kids now and only 2 bedrooms. The older kids bedroom is tiny. The baby is with us, but it seems nearly impossible to imagine cramming two cribs into that one room. Not looking forward to that.
Hugs, hugs, hugs!!! I'm so sorry that this process has been so very frustrating and stressful! I also realize that seeing a house you wanted to put an offer in on and hearing that you were completely going a different direction, well that would have just made me mad! I understand not wanting him on the walk with you, been there, done that! Saturday evening I took myself to bed because I knew better than to try and address something at that point in time. Sunday we talked about it and then Michael left for a business work trip. I was about to be all self-righteous yesterday morning if he didn't text me good morning(there's more to why I was feeling this way) and he texted me good morning and I realized I was being a bit extra. Knowing what we want and usually being able to go after it I think makes it that much more difficult to have to compromise on things that are so big such as houses! I'm glad that you had good things going on too, those help balance out the frustrating things!
I think you are very smart for being patient and taking your time with the house hunting. It will pay off, and you will be glad that you didn't rush into anything. I know how stressful it is thinking that the right place will never come along ... but it will.
That's nice that you and Phil were able to talk it out, and make some adjustments in what you're looking for, and that you hired a house cleaner! That will make a big difference in your stress level I would guess.
Christopher and his two siblings, and his parents all lived his whole life, including a few years as adults in an 800ish square foot house!!! Crazy hey!? He believes it contributed to how close they all are today. Haha, I know that you want a bigger place before a second baby is on the way though, and I really hope you guys are able to find exactly what you are looking for, sooner than later.
I think house hunting is more stressful than building a house from scratch! I feel you pain!
It does appear that Phil did feel bad, but it was so hard to give up a house that was pretty near perfect! Praying that the perfect [well they are never perfect] house shows up soon!
Keeping my fingers crossed for you guys on the house hunt. It does feel like you take 3 steps forward and then 2 steps back, but hey that's still a little bit of progress each time... you are getting closer to finding the right house!!
I know Olivia would LOVE a water table but we still haven't got her one. I do regularly fill up containers and pots with water for her to play with on our deck and she loves that so I guess that will be her "water table" for now. That horrible assembly does not sound fun!!
Why did Phil change his mind about the neighborhood?
I can only imagine how "frustrating" house hunting must be. When we bought our house, I had literally looked at two other houses and we didn't have a history of being out-bid (which must be so frustrating), so everything just "fell into our laps" at the time, but if you're looking for something specific and your forever-home, I can imagine that you must be a lot more picky!
I am keeping my fingers crossed for you guys.
I am glad you got out for a walk and where able to calmly talk about everything!
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