It’s been a hot second since I posted, and even longer since I opened up about life, so, here goes.
House hunting is not for the faint of heart – especially in Utah. When Dustin and I decided that we were ready to buy a house, I spent an entire weekend with House Hunters playing on the TV to prep for our adventure. I pictured our agent taking us to homes that fit 80% of what we were looking for, debating for a couple days, putting in offers and negotiating for a fair middle price, and having everything moving forward smoothly.
Turns out, buying a house in Utah is NOTHING like buying a house on HGTV. The Salt Lake Valley is growing at such an exponential rate that choices are far and few between and are snatched up within days. Dustin and I have gone and physically looked at 17 houses over the last three weeks (all that had been on the market for 2-3 days) and have put offers in on 12 houses (5 of them were blind offers.) NONE of our offers (which were over asking price) were accepted or even countered and all the houses were under contracts within a week. It was so frustrating. Every time we found a house that we liked (or loved) we thought “this will be it!” and were met with disappointment and discouragement.
We were just about to throw in the towel this last weekend and try to find an apartment to live in for another year when we found out the last two offers we put in on houses were accepted! Once again, our plans changed again as we hustled to go tour the properties again and start the final process of getting everything with our lender finalized before choosing the house we want to go through with. We have exactly 21 days to get the house inspected, papers signed, appliances bought, and the house closed on before we are officially out of our apartment. We put down our deposit on our number one choice last night and are moving forward with the appraisal now. There’s a pretty high chance we will be homeless for about a week and get the keys to our house a few days before we fly out to Boston for my sister’s wedding.
On top of the house hunting, I’ve been working full-time for the last 2.5 weeks to cover for one of my co-workers who is out. I really enjoy my job and the people I work with, but working full time and commuting to a location that’s a lot further away than my usual office AND house hunting has really wiped me out. I struggle with stamina and endurance all of the time (#chemoprobs) but it’s been over the top over the last couple weeks. I get home, take Rosie out for a quick potty break, and promptly crawl into bed and crash for hours, getting up long enough to eat some dinner and take my makeup off before going back to sleep. And, one of the most important things to me (my blog) has suffered during the last few week because I just can’t handle anything else on my plate right now.
It’s been frustrating to see my passion project suffer. There have been days where I just cry because I want to work on my blog and I just cannot muster the energy to get up and open my computer up. I didn’t realize how much energy the creative process takes, but now that my energy reserves have been zapped up, the idea of sitting down and going through the process is enough to make me want to take a nap. I’m trying my hardest to extend myself some grace and be kind to myself, but it’s hard to give myself a break when I have so many projects I’ve had to put to the side that I was so excited about.
HTC is all about my pursuit in living a vibrant life and sharing encouragement for you to do the same. And, 2017 is about my intent to thrive. But, I’ll be 100% honest – I’m in survive mode right now, and I barely feel like I’m surviving. And with it being March and my birthday coming up, well…that just adds more complications onto an already complex season of life.
Related: How Cancer Complicates Birthdays
I’m hoping, hoping, hoping, that once we get this house buying process moving forward a little bit, things will be a little better. And I’ll be back to part time at my job here in the next couple of days, which will free up some time. And I do have some projects that WILL get pushed out in the next week or two that I am so excited about. I know that this is just a season and it will pass, so I’m clinging on to that knowledge and will continue to just do the best I can, and try to thrive in the smaller, simpler parts of my life in the meantime.
And even though these last few weeks have been chaotic, and busy, and exhausting, and an emotional rollercoaster, I am still so grateful that we’re in the position to be buying a house. And I’m grateful for a job that I enjoy. And I’m grateful for the community I have here, at HTC, who still reads this space from time to time, and encourages me to pull up my bootstraps and thrive during times when I don’t think I can. So thank you, for being a constant in this crazy journey of life and for setting the example to pursue a vibrant life on days that I lose sight of it.
Have you bought a house before? Give me your best house-buying advice!
