The Chatty Homemaker

Part of preparing to move is waiting

Preparing to move is exciting, and we have learned some other things during the process. One of the things I have learned in the last couple of weeks that a big part of preparing to move, when you are in the middle of a home purchase, is waiting. I am normally a pretty patient person, but for some reason I have been finding myself becoming anxious. Reminding myself to stop, pray, and ask God to forgive me for not trusting his timing has been key in keeping my relationship with him strong. After all he knows better than I do. If not for him we would not even have the ability to buy a home. I need to exercise perfect trust in him.

It can be hard in our flesh to fully trust God’s plan sometimes. That is why prayer and meditation on God’s word are so important. Not only when we are lacking, but also when we feel the closest to him. We need to be strengthened when we are weak. When we are strong, and standing firm, we still need his strength. If we do not remain in constant growth and conditioning, we will become weak. We all have times in our lives when we are shown things we did not know about ourselves. For me it has been that I am not quite as patient as I thought I was. At least not when it comes to a big purchase like this.

Another part of preparing to move is communication

Another part of preparing to move is communication. Of course we have to communicate with our spouse and children. We need to know what they are thinking. If they are scared about anything. What they want to bring with them, and what can stay, or be donated? Is there anything would be worth the hassle of selling instead of donating? Some of my kids are scared, some are planning color schemes. Others of them are coming up with themes, and how they are going to decorate their room. All of them are talking to me about all of the things they want to do now that they will have their own room. To say they are all excited would be an understatement, even the scared ones.

My husband and I are talking about the renovations that need to happen first. We are also talking about updates that we want to do. Of course with all of that comes the budget plan for each project. We are estimating that it will take about 5 years to get it how we want it. That is if our financial situation stays exactly what it is right now. I am trying to do what I can to make it better, but am limited on what I can do and keep our way of life.

There is also the loan officer, underwriters, and of course the realtor to keep in contact with. And the paperwork. All the paperwork. Some of it makes perfect sense, and some of it just seems like nonsense. You have to fill it all out though. We even had to go buy a new printer to get it all done. I used it last Friday and it worked great, but Monday came around and it went kapooey. I thought it might have just been a fluke, so I turned it off and tried again today. It actually acted like it was going to print today, but didn’t.

Packing is another way we prepare to move

Obviously we must pack when we are preparing to move. No one likes trying to pack as you move. I have had to do that before. It was not any fun at all. Packing can be fun. Especially when we all work together. Weeding out things that we no longer use or want is much easier when we work as a team. Thankfully we have a full basement here, so as we pack the boys carry the boxes down, and stack them up. It defiantly helps the little ones to not be curious about them, and try to break into them if they can’t see them.

We are very fortunate to have a hook up on medium sized, uniform boxes. My sister-in-law, works at a factory, and as they empty the boxes from the assembly line, she grabs them up for us. They have handle cut outs and all. It will make loading the truck much easier since all of the boxes are the same.

We are being very kind to our future selves as well by labeling all of the boxes with a list of items contained therein. This will make it easier to know where to take the boxes as they go into the house. It will also help us easily locate the things we need in the first few days after moving in. As you can imagine we have a lot of books. Those are being packed with things like, winter coats, blankets, and fabric.

When preparing to move you must find out who your utility providers are

The final thing I want to chat about tonight is finding your utility companies and closing. I am sure I have missed something, but these are the things we have been dealing with for the past two weeks, and are the most relevant to me right now. When you are preparing to move to a different city/town, you must figure out who your utility providers are. Don’t just assume there is only one either. Some places have options, although this is not the norm, make sure you are well informed. We have the names and phone numbers to our new utility companies, but are waiting on a solid closing date before we call them. We don’t want to pay for utilities if we do not possess the home.

Closing is another thing that has to happen before you can move into your newly purchased home. You have to close on the loan first, obviously. This is something that I know very little about still. I know that it is kind of up in the air until the appraisal is done. The appraiser that our lender has chosen has not been very quick about things. I am not sure if that is going to cause our closing date to be extended or not, but I have decided to just go with the flow. Another thing that seems to keep changing about closing is the amount of money we need to bring with us. It would be cool if it were going down of course, but it’s going up.

Once we get our closing date set in stone we will rent a moving truck, and set up utilities. We will also be making a trip to Home Depot to buy new locks for all of the exterior doors. This house is not lacking in them either. We have plans to remove at least two of them, eventually. For now, though, new locks will do. I am still super excited for the blessing of having a new home to call our own. I am looking forward to what God has in store.