For Sale

Things have been very busy around our household. Eric and I had been discussing for a while and have decided to put our house on the market. It's a scary step but we believe it is a commitment to what we are working for in our future.

We've decided that we will go back to apartment living for the foreseable future (think until I've completed my residency after med school). For the next 2-3 years, the advantage will be that we can hopefully save between $300-$400 more a month by renting. We'll use that extra money to work on our debt. Right now we expect to be completely debt free by May 2010 and I expect to start med school in August 2010. However, hopefully we can move the debt free date up a bit if we free up some money in the budget. However, there are a couple other factors that may effect that. First of all, I may have mentioned that I got a promotion at work, however, last week I finally discussed the details and was told that even though they moved me up a level in title, my company doesn't do salary increases mid-term. I don't agree, but what can I do? And no, I can't turn down the promotion. It's already been processed. As a result, I no longer receive overtime and my first check on straight pay only was $120 less than what I usually budget. Meaning I have to find an extra $240 per month in my budget. Add to this that hopefully in about a year, I'll have 2 kids in daycare. Not sure what that does to the budget, so basically we're looking for any opportunity now to work on paying off the bills. So far since, February we've decreased the debt by just over $10,000 so we are on the right track!

Anyway, we put the house up for sale 2 weeks ago. We met with the realtor on a Thursday night, had a sign in the yard on Friday and on Saturdy got a call for a showing on Sunday. I spent all evening Saturday and morning Sunday until the showing cleaning! Since then, we've had 3 more showings, so 4 in 2 weeks seems pretty good. No offers yet, but I'm hoping traffic will eventually mean an offer. My house is cleaner than it's ever been as I've been obsessively cleaning. We've also been spending alot of time the last two weeks looking for apartments and I've started making lists of stuff to sell. I'm organizing a multi-family/community yard sale to help us downsize.

We're not sure where we're going to live yet. Right now we're between 2 townhomes. One has an attached garage, pool, and fitness center. The other has a partially finished basement with large utility room. We are having trouble deciding if the extra room is more important than the community amenities and an apartment that we just like better.

I also started school again last week. I'd like to say I've been studying, but not so much. I promise next week, I'll buckle down!

Can't think of much else going on. GWO was great as always and I'll see them again in later July. The family is good. Grace is still adorable and growing up so quickly. Eric is doing good too. In just 2 months we get to go to Hawaii and I can't wait.

Ok, stuff to do. More later!