Writer's Block

Writer's Block. Ugh. Or maybe that isn't the best term... blogger's block? You do all know I am a sucker for alliteration.

I think it is just because not a lot is happening, but at the same time the wings are so crowded it will all eventually pile on at once. Most of my days are just spent working, talking long walks with the pup pup, talking to my husband on the phone and hanging out with my friends when I can.


Rylie and I walk two miles or more a night and she is making lots of friends, like Moose, the Great Dane. She loves him!


Carrie and I spent Saint Patrick's Day at Murphy's in Old Town and may have gotten drunker than we planned trying to fend off preppy law students.


We celebrated Pi day at work on 3.14 and I wore these earrings as we ate pie. My clients enjoyed that.


I am also floored by how big Rylie has gotten!! My pup pup is huge, tipping the scales at nearly forty pounds!

As for our house it is just playing the waiting game at this point. Our offer was accepted, we had the inspection, submitted our mortgage paperwork and got the seller to agree on some repairs. Apparently the bank was sending someone for the mandatory appraisal (which was supposed to be five to ten business days after I got the paperwork in) and it has taken literally forever. I am getting frustrated as we are moving in less than a month, but that won't happen if there is nowhere to move to!

Then Ryan calls the bank today and they send us this email, "Oh, by the way, we need these seven things from you to proceed."

What??

So if we didn't call to bug you, would we have just been waiting around?

First of all, the first item in the list was in our mortgage paperwork. There is nowhere to sign it, it was a view only document, but they have it. Ryan now has his orders so he can send those. But they want bank statements and pay stubs... things we could have sent them over a month ago without a problem! It still isn't a problem, but I am pretty annoyed at this "Oh yea!" sort of moment. More than annoyed actually.

Ugh.

Anyway.

I've officially become a writer on spouseBUZZ.com, that's some of the good. My third article went up today! Plus there is more good news to follow on that very soon!


Ok, I guess I wasn't as blocked as I thought. Maybe just disorganized. And stressed.

And addicted to the Draw Something app - Play me! Imyewneek

Real Real Estate

My mom told me buying a house is one of the most exciting times in your life. You spend hours searching for your dream home (or semi dream home on a budget) by pouring over real estate sections of the paper, looking online and meeting with realtors. Of course, my mother is not a military spouse and did this twice. Once for the house I grew up in and once for the house they now retired to. Something tells me my experience may be a little different...

Most people know military families move around a lot. Every three to five years you can expect to be sent to a different base, possibly even a different state, time zone or country. Depending where you are headed, living off base may be more financially practical (or if you're stubborn like my husband the ONLY way to go) but it is a whole different can of worms.

Since finding out last month we received orders to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina my husband and I have been in a frenzy trying to find a place to live. House hunting under normal circumstances can be stressful. I have friends already stationed down there who are looking for houses during all of their spare time and not having a lot of luck. Meeting with their realtors they are going from house to house and crossing their fingers hoping for THE ONE.

I'm kind of jealous.

At this point, I have never met my realtor. My dad has though! My mother in law found him through the network of lawyers she knows down in the area. Ryan has spoken on the phone with him multiple times and I have emailed back and forth with them as well. I had my first phone call with them this week when we were placing an offer.

My husband is in California. I am in Virginia. We placed an offer on a house we have never laid eyes on based on what we were looking for, pictures online and pictures and word of mouth from my dad.

Is that crazy?

Ryan and I both spent hours and hours looking at houses online. Whether on the laptop or on our iphones using the realtor.com app and zillow we compiled a list of twenty plus houses. My dad eventually went last week and looked at about seven of the ones we narrowed it down to. Two were under contract before he got there. One had foundation problems. Three were in not the nicest of neighborhoods. One was a short sale that would ba amazing but had 8 other offers on it and would probably dry up our savings account trying to heat and cool! So what now? Desperately we searched again and emailed more listings to my dad.

Two passed the test.

Looking at the pictures he sent, one stood out.

We put in an offer.

Ryan called from California to North Carolina with the offer. I signed and used my power of attorney to fill out paperwork and scanned it from Virginia to North Carolina. They counter offered. We offered again. They said no. We tried one more time and they accepted. This involved a series of phone calls from North Carolina to Virginia to California to get everyone on the same page... and it happened somehow.

Now the inspection needs to happen and the appraisal. We have to apply officially for the mortgage we were preapproved for. We know the roof needs to be patched/possibly replaced. Carpets need to be replaced. Painting needs to happen. Ryan has to graduate, come back to the East Coast and we have to pack up our lives (with help from the military) and move to North Carolina and hopefully settle in the house that sold us by pictures alone.

I hope it passes inspection. I hope we can get the repairs done in time. I hope it all can be ready for mid April when we want to move in.

I hope we like it and will be happy there.


For at least three to five years.

Unlike other couples who buy that dream house, we know this one is temporary. In a few years time we will rent it out to other Marines or sell it and go through it all again.

Hopefully next time we will all at least be in the same time zone.

Fingers crossed!

Where we are going...

For those of you who are friends with me on facebook this is old news, but we finally have received orders. Well... not "official" orders, but Ryan's monitor submitted orders to HQ which basically never changes them so it is 99.98% sure at this point, we are just waiting for them to stamp them and hand them over. So, where are we going?

Camp Lejeune North Carolina


People keep asking me if I am excited/bummed/happy/disappointed... truth be told I haven't really felt anything yet. It is closer to Ryan's family (about 4.5 hours) and a hair closer to mine (7 hours versus the current 8) and it will definitely be an easier move. It is what it is regardless and we have a LOT to do. Ryan graduates in mid-April and gets 8 days off to PCS and then the option to take more leave. We have to find a house, I have to find a job, move from Virginia, settle and hopefully go on the trip we have been talking about for ages. Not a lot of time and a whole lot to do! I am nervous... I have lived in DC/Alexandria for five years, moving to North Carolina is a bit intimidating. As is looking at real estate online.

Our budget is not huge. We know this is a starter home and we will most likely be moving in 3-5 years... too long to rent but too short to really invest in a 'dream house'. Our plan is to buy something close to base so we can rent it out/sell it to another couple or some Marines who want to live off base. This has been Ryan's major plan for a long time. My inner Negative Nancy cannot help but find a lot of areas where this plan can go wrong, but I have to trust him on this.

Our budget is probably better for a town home or a condo, but we are finding some cute things that are single family homes. We really need a realtor to sit down with (on the phone...) to help us out. Any recommondations are appreciated!

It is hard not knowing the neighborhoods... not knowing what areas of town to avoid or how the traffic might be or anything at all really! I know some of you lovely bloggers live there and if you have any insider information please feel free to send it my way.

I am also worried about a job. My company doesn't have a branch there (one perk California had) and it is still too far from Disney (also California perk!) for me to commute! I miss theatre and I know moving there is going to make that dream sail just a hair further out of reach. Ok, not going to get to down on you all, sorry!

But I wanted to share the news! I would have done so sooner but my internet is fried at the apartment (Comcast is coming Thursday) and work has been swamped! By the way, men cannot be responsible for sharing big information...

We were on the phone last week doing some small talk when Ryan starts talking about our budget.

Ryan - "Well in North Carolina I'd make X amount of money and rent in North Carolina would be X so we'd be pretty good. I think also the groceries in North Carolina..."
Me - "You sound pretty sure of North Carolina. What about budgets in California? Or Hawaii? Or Japan?"
Ryan - "Oh. Didn't I tell you? ... we're going to Camp Lejeune."

*Crickets*


Word for word people. And he planned to tell me in this manner. He thought it was hysterical. He saw on MOL two hours before that the orders were going through and waited to tell me while he did budget figurations. Regardless of the fact he PROMISED me that he would tell me instantly and text me or call me.... men. Ryan did manage to tell me that it was a planned move on his part and he hadn't known long, two hours I guess is ok, and wanted to mess with me a bit. Luckily he told me before I started really yelling at him :P



EDIT: We are set to move after Ryan graduates which is in mid-April sometime... just a sidenote!