Well, not me. But Mark is on the road again and Brie went with him. They left last night after dinner to drive back up to the Leesburg area to look for a house. We had to increase our price range a bit (which makes me nervous...) but we actually found more homes that look like possibilities (at least from the MLS listings the realtor sent us) than we did in Woodbridge. I find that interesting because Woodbridge is so much bigger. We came up with a list of about 10-12 homes to look at. Mark and Brie met the realtor at 11 am this morning and at 2:30 I got a text message about one that they really liked. We talked and I looked at the pictures and we decided to put in an application. Fingers crossed....
The local is really great...it's about 5 miles from Mark's job, about the same distance from the transportation lot I will be using, 3/10ths of a mile from the church -- which is right across the street from the community pool for the neighborhood, and 1.5 miles from the largest premium outlet mall in Virginia. Yea! (Mark is a little worried about that part...LOL) Mark is hoping the paperwork will go through quickly so he and Brie can head home tomorrow afternoon. I hope so!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
An Eventful Couple of Weeks
Things have been pretty eventful since my last post. We signed the listing papers for the house on Saturday, 16 June. The listing went "live" on MLS on Monday, 18 June. We had a showing that night, two showings on Tuesday, 19 June, an offer (which was insultingly low and we rejected) on Wednesday, 20 June, another showing on Wednesday, a showing on Thursday, and an offer which we accepted on Thursday. It wasn't quite as high as we wanted but it is a good offer and the timeline matches what we needed. So our home sold in about five days. Not bad! The unfortunate part -- a few days ago a full price offer came in on the house but we can't take it because we already accepted the other offer. Boo! But it's nice to know there is interest in the house and all of our hard, hard work paid off.
Friday night, June 23, Mark and I headed north to go on our househunting trip. We drove to Columbia, SC, that night and stayed at a hotel that is usually known for a high level of customer service and good customer experience. The customer service was fine....customer experience, on the other hand, was not so fine. The hotel was completely booked due to two conventions and a wedding. I had to call down to the front desk around midnight or 1 am because it sounded like there was a party, complete with a football marching band and drum line, in the hallway. We didn't get much sleep because it was so loud. We got up Saturday morning and tried to find a Chick-Fil-A to get some breakfast...no such luck. I think our GPS doesn't like downtown Columbia.
We drove to Virginia and went to stay with an online friend of mine. She lives in Maryland, just two and a half blocks away from the border with the District of Columbia. We drove by the Pentagon (wow, it's huge!), saw the Capitol and Washington Monument, and drove through downtown DC. That was an interesting experience. My friend and her family were so kind and welcoming and her son and husband made a lovely dinner for us. They live in a neat community and it is a completely urban lifestyle -- something Mark and I have never experienced before.
Sunday morning we got up and headed toward Woodbridge in Prince William County, which is where we had narrowed our housing search. We scouted out a few neighborhoods and rental properties and went to church in one of the wards there. It was a friendly, inviting ward in a lovely new chapel. The gospel doctrine class was great -- there were only about 10-12 of us in the class, but the entire class was filled with discussion from the class members, whereas in our ward we don't get as much discussion. I think part of it was the small size of the class and part was the fact that the class was in a room and not the chapel with everyone spread out. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it. After dinner we scouted a few more areas and went to dinner at the home of someone I will be working for in my new job. He and his wife and children were very kind and sweet and we enjoyed spending time with them. They were able to give us great information about the area, neighborhoods, where to shop, etc. My only regret is that it looks like we won't be living there after all (see a few paragraphs down), because I was looking forward to having them over for dinner and offering to watch their children so they could go to the temple....
On Monday we met with our realtor and visited several homes. Some of them were strange...like having the ceiling in each room painted the same color as the walls (pea green, or purple, or aqua, or yellowish peach...). Some were in neighborhoods we just didn't love. But we found one that we liked and we really liked the area. We decided to look at it again the next day. So back to the hotel we went.
On Tuesday we went and looked at the house again and decided to put in an application. Then we drove around to different schools so Mark could try to meet the principals in his job search. It was not a fruitful afternoon -- jobs that were posted as being available had already been filled. It was frustrating.
On Wednesday we spent the day driving to Stafford County to check on jobs there (same result as Tuesday), and going to more schools in Prince William County (same result as Tuesday). I ended up getting carsick and wasn't much fun at all. I had poor Mark leave me at a small strip mall so I could be out of the car while he went to visit another school. It was pretty frustrating and we decided that we would leave to go home on Thursday, with Mark continuing his job search the next week, possibly by coming back to the area.
Thursday morning the realtor called and needed supporting documentation for our lease application so we got that together and then went by the school district office so Mark could talk to someone in their HR department. Again, not very fruitful. They had no explanation for why they continued to post jobs that had already been filled and told him he needed "face time" with the principals. Except it's hard to get "face time" when you live in a different state.... We headed to the mall to get some lunch and then something interesting happened. As we were leaving the mall, my cell phone rang. It was a principal in another county calling to schedule a job interview for Mark. We weren't sure what to do so he told her he would call her back. We found a wifi connection and looked up the area on the map and decided to go ahead and drive up there and check things out. It was the first solid job lead we had had all week.
We drove to Loudoun County, about 45 minutes away. Mark called and left a message for the principal that he wanted to interview and that we would be in the area that afternoon and the next morning. We got to the area and drove through a quaint, historic downtown area and then got to the school, which is huge and new and gorgeous. Mark was very impressed with the turf on the football field. :-) Unfortunately, the principal wasn't available and my anxiety level steadily increased throughout the afternoon/evening as she didn't return Mark's call. All of my frustrations and worries over this move came to a head and I had a lovely breakdown. Not proud of it, but that's what happened. Poor Mark had to put up with a lot of that on this trip. I have learned that I DO NOT like change, uncertainty, and moving!
Friday morning Mark decided to go to the school and wait until the principal could see him. It was the right decision because when the principal arrived at the school she said she would interview him right then. The interview must have gone well because she said she wants Mark to teach at her school and she is going to forward his name to the school district office to fill the job. YEA!!! So it looks like we have a job....in a different county than the house. We still haven't heard back on whether we got the house or not. We liked the house and the planned community it was in, so that's sad. But it's just too far away. So now we need to find a house in Loudoun County (Leesburg area). Mark will go back up there this week to meet with a realtor and hopefully be able to find a house quickly. We are impressed with the schools, at least from the information on their website, and Brie is especially happy that middle school doesn't start until 8:30, unlike the 7:30 start time here. It is an expensive area to live and I'm a little apprehensive about that, but we have to go where the job is.
All in all, it was an interesting week filled with lots of growth opportunities!!!
Friday night, June 23, Mark and I headed north to go on our househunting trip. We drove to Columbia, SC, that night and stayed at a hotel that is usually known for a high level of customer service and good customer experience. The customer service was fine....customer experience, on the other hand, was not so fine. The hotel was completely booked due to two conventions and a wedding. I had to call down to the front desk around midnight or 1 am because it sounded like there was a party, complete with a football marching band and drum line, in the hallway. We didn't get much sleep because it was so loud. We got up Saturday morning and tried to find a Chick-Fil-A to get some breakfast...no such luck. I think our GPS doesn't like downtown Columbia.
We drove to Virginia and went to stay with an online friend of mine. She lives in Maryland, just two and a half blocks away from the border with the District of Columbia. We drove by the Pentagon (wow, it's huge!), saw the Capitol and Washington Monument, and drove through downtown DC. That was an interesting experience. My friend and her family were so kind and welcoming and her son and husband made a lovely dinner for us. They live in a neat community and it is a completely urban lifestyle -- something Mark and I have never experienced before.
Sunday morning we got up and headed toward Woodbridge in Prince William County, which is where we had narrowed our housing search. We scouted out a few neighborhoods and rental properties and went to church in one of the wards there. It was a friendly, inviting ward in a lovely new chapel. The gospel doctrine class was great -- there were only about 10-12 of us in the class, but the entire class was filled with discussion from the class members, whereas in our ward we don't get as much discussion. I think part of it was the small size of the class and part was the fact that the class was in a room and not the chapel with everyone spread out. Whatever it was, I enjoyed it. After dinner we scouted a few more areas and went to dinner at the home of someone I will be working for in my new job. He and his wife and children were very kind and sweet and we enjoyed spending time with them. They were able to give us great information about the area, neighborhoods, where to shop, etc. My only regret is that it looks like we won't be living there after all (see a few paragraphs down), because I was looking forward to having them over for dinner and offering to watch their children so they could go to the temple....
On Monday we met with our realtor and visited several homes. Some of them were strange...like having the ceiling in each room painted the same color as the walls (pea green, or purple, or aqua, or yellowish peach...). Some were in neighborhoods we just didn't love. But we found one that we liked and we really liked the area. We decided to look at it again the next day. So back to the hotel we went.
On Tuesday we went and looked at the house again and decided to put in an application. Then we drove around to different schools so Mark could try to meet the principals in his job search. It was not a fruitful afternoon -- jobs that were posted as being available had already been filled. It was frustrating.
On Wednesday we spent the day driving to Stafford County to check on jobs there (same result as Tuesday), and going to more schools in Prince William County (same result as Tuesday). I ended up getting carsick and wasn't much fun at all. I had poor Mark leave me at a small strip mall so I could be out of the car while he went to visit another school. It was pretty frustrating and we decided that we would leave to go home on Thursday, with Mark continuing his job search the next week, possibly by coming back to the area.
Thursday morning the realtor called and needed supporting documentation for our lease application so we got that together and then went by the school district office so Mark could talk to someone in their HR department. Again, not very fruitful. They had no explanation for why they continued to post jobs that had already been filled and told him he needed "face time" with the principals. Except it's hard to get "face time" when you live in a different state.... We headed to the mall to get some lunch and then something interesting happened. As we were leaving the mall, my cell phone rang. It was a principal in another county calling to schedule a job interview for Mark. We weren't sure what to do so he told her he would call her back. We found a wifi connection and looked up the area on the map and decided to go ahead and drive up there and check things out. It was the first solid job lead we had had all week.
We drove to Loudoun County, about 45 minutes away. Mark called and left a message for the principal that he wanted to interview and that we would be in the area that afternoon and the next morning. We got to the area and drove through a quaint, historic downtown area and then got to the school, which is huge and new and gorgeous. Mark was very impressed with the turf on the football field. :-) Unfortunately, the principal wasn't available and my anxiety level steadily increased throughout the afternoon/evening as she didn't return Mark's call. All of my frustrations and worries over this move came to a head and I had a lovely breakdown. Not proud of it, but that's what happened. Poor Mark had to put up with a lot of that on this trip. I have learned that I DO NOT like change, uncertainty, and moving!
Friday morning Mark decided to go to the school and wait until the principal could see him. It was the right decision because when the principal arrived at the school she said she would interview him right then. The interview must have gone well because she said she wants Mark to teach at her school and she is going to forward his name to the school district office to fill the job. YEA!!! So it looks like we have a job....in a different county than the house. We still haven't heard back on whether we got the house or not. We liked the house and the planned community it was in, so that's sad. But it's just too far away. So now we need to find a house in Loudoun County (Leesburg area). Mark will go back up there this week to meet with a realtor and hopefully be able to find a house quickly. We are impressed with the schools, at least from the information on their website, and Brie is especially happy that middle school doesn't start until 8:30, unlike the 7:30 start time here. It is an expensive area to live and I'm a little apprehensive about that, but we have to go where the job is.
All in all, it was an interesting week filled with lots of growth opportunities!!!
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