Some Big News

It's been a long time coming.

Last May, J's father-- Grampie-- announced he wanted to sell his house, quit his job, and move to Delaware.

So last May, Grammie and Grampie put their house up for sale.

They started looking almost immediately, just to get an idea of what the market was like here in Delaware and find an area they'd want to live in.

Much to Grampie's disappointment, their house didn't sell right away.

The summer passed. Their house had had barely a nibble.

They lowered the price as summer turned into fall.

By winter, they'd lowered the price pretty dramatically and had a few bites.

Finally, in December, they accepted an offer and had settled on a closing date in early January.

However, they still hadn't found a house in Delaware that they liked in their price range.

They kept looking. Many weekend trips down to Delaware, days spent viewing house after house. Debates over what kind of house they wanted, a few hare-brained ideas from Grampie, and spirited discussions about all sorts of things--location, location, location, and taxes--ensued.

They closed on their house and Grampie moved 75% of their things into a storage shed, and the other 25% were divided between our garage, our basement, and GiGi and PopPop's house in Connecticut. Grammie and Grampie moved to GiGi and PopPop's house and continued to look for a house in Delaware.

Nothing really opened up until spring. Finally, in April, they made a bid on a house but got overbid and lost the house. Then they found another house-- in terrible condition but a short sale on a parcel of land Grampie loved -- and considered making a bid. THEN they found another house. Made a bid. A few counteroffers later, they had a deal.

Closing was set for Monday, May 3, which, coincidentally, was also the date GiGi and PopPop were going to be returning home from Florida.

Immediately after the closing, Grammie, Grampie, J, GiGi, PopPop, and Grammie and Grampie's realtor, her husband, and her stepson rented a truck and moved all of their stuff into the new house.

A week later, they're almost completely settled--Grammie estimated maybe 70% settled.

Only a year after starting the whole process.

And it is awesome. I absolutely love having family so close. They are only a 20-minute drive away, and we've been able to see them almost every day this week. I don't know that that frequency will keep up but I'm definitely loving it!