the moment i've been waiting for...

MY CONDO FINALLY CLOSED!!! Yes, It's official... as of 8/15/08 I am no longer a homeowner! Yahoo! I am sooooooooooo excited. I moved out of my condo on 8/9/08 as planned and moved into my mom's townhouse until my house in SC is complete. In case you hadn't noticed, I added a count down for that on the right!

My cousin's wedding on 8/16/08 was great. It was so nice to celebrate after all the stress. She looked so beautiful. That's a picture of Sharon and her husband dancing.

Now that the closing is over I get to focus on building my house! Right now the architect is going over the blueprints and I should be getting a call next week to approve the floor plan. I really want to blog about the house but I'm using my brother's ancient laptop, which gets boiling hot after being on for like 10 minutes. grr! I'll try to stay late at work one day next week and finally write about the house.

peace,
Alli

Anxious & Excited

so it's the last day in July and my condo is still scheduled to close on August 15th. That could be pushed back a bit, but hopefully not. I'm so anxious and have alot to do. If the closing actually is August 15th, I have to move out the week/weekend before because my cousin's wedding is August 16th... even more pressure! I have to schedule movers, arrange the storage unit, transfer my mail, arrange to have utilities shut off, and PACK! When I moved back into my condo after the whole ex drama, luckily I kept alot of stuff packed and dropped it off at my mom's and dad's houses. I mostly have furniture, tons of clothes (half of which I packed last night!) and all the random kitchen/bathroom stuff. I'm so excited... that I'm kind of numb. I've waited so long for this that it almost doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like it's happening. I think that's because I won't let myself get excited until I officially close on the condo. Then it's really real! I'm surprising myself that I'm not really sad to leave my condo. I guess it's because I'm eventually ending up in my dream house in my dream area. I've lived in the condo for almost 4 years (I moved in 10/04) and ALOT happened while I lived there. Sigh.
Reasons I'm happy to move from my condo
-no more smelling curry from my next door neighbors!!!
-no more smelling the skunk that randomly sprays at least once every two weeks right around 8pm when I'm finally relaxing... blech!
-living on the second floor is extremely hot
-I hate walking up a hill, then up a flight of stairs before getting to my front door
-I'm not able to control the heat in the winter which means some days are extremely hot and others cold
-my "condo" was built 35 years ago and originally was an apartment. dealing with 35 year old plumbing/electrical etc is not very fun.
-no more hearing the pathetic motercycles zoom by revving their engines *note to people who do that... YOU ARE NOT COOL SO STOP DOING THAT!
-no more hearing my neighbor below me fight with his gf/play video games at 2am/slam the door 60 times a day
-my air conditioning unit sometimes makes the circuit breaker flip
-walking up the hill in the snow is not fun... i fell twice last winter grrrrrr

Reasons I'm a little sad to leave my condo
-Me and my dad put alot of time and effort into updating it and making it into a place I've enjoyed living in. I admit that I wish the buyer was someone who fell in love with my unit the way I did, instead of buying it just to rent it out. I don't like the idea that my former home will probably be treated badly by future renters.
-I like the view from my living room window. It feels like I'm in a tree house.
-In the summer I can watch various towns' firework displays from my couch.
-It was my first time living on my own after college and I grew up alot. Those 800 sq feet have been through alot with me.
-I have a pretty amazing closet.

So that's about it. I realllllly want to blog about my new house, but I don't feel comfortable doing that until my condo officially closes. So look for the new house blog sometime on or after August 15th.

Peace
Alli

*I'll come out on top like I always do*

Amazing News!!!

wow... so it's been three months since my last post. But fortunately I have exciting updates! I'll start at the beginning. I remained stubborn and continued to try to sell my condo on my own until the middle of May when I realized... umm crap, it's been 6 months and I still haven't sold my condo! So on May 17th I surrendered and listed with a realtor who's familiar with my complex. On June 20th I got an offer and by June 24th we came to an agreement on the price ($175,000) and a closing date (August 15th) and the contract was signed!! That price is alot lower than I expected to sell my place for, and unfortunately is lower then my original offer way back in march, but the saying is true that everything happens for a reason. If I had accepted that offer in March I would have gone on to buy that townhouse from Beazer, who I now know is a shitty builder and is having major problems. Now I'm going to be building an awesome semi-custom house that will be ready in the end of October. I'll save the rest of that news for another blog.

Considering how the market is still majorly crappy and people have no clue when it's turning around... I was just happy to bail out while I still could. I'm happy to be selling in a down market and buying in a down market, therefore making my mortgage less, rather than selling in an up market and buying in an up market. so anyways, after both attorneys had their vacations back to back around the July 4th holiday, my condo is finally under contract officially as of July 14th!!!!!! I am so ecstatic! I thought this day would never come. Turns out I just had to be really really really patient and things eventually work out the way they are supposed to! Things seem to be moving along swiftly towards our closing date. I passed my fire/safety inspection, the buyer put down their second deposit, and it looks as though they won't be doing an inspection (yes!) Now I just have to start packing... yikes!!

That's all for now... check back for the blog about the house!

*Alli

"... and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true."

Grr baby, very grr

So it's been awhile since I posted a blog... I still can't seem to get motivated to write more often. I guess that's mostly because not much has been going on. I did finally get an offer in the begining of march which was $18,000 under my asking price. I obviously said no, and they came up $8,500. I said no again because at the time I needed X amount of money to move, because I was assuming I would move to SC right after closing up here.

My dad called the builder to find out more information and we found out that I could buy preconstruction now and the townhosue would be done in Sept/Oct. At first I was annoyed because I wanted to be in SC way sooner then that, but then I realized I could sell my place for less, close quickly, and move in with my mom (therefore saving/paying off debt until sept/oct.) So I called the buyer back and unfortunately I was too late... she was already in attorney review with another place. GRR!!! I was extremely annoyed that we hadn't called the builder sooner. But, such is my life. I sucked it up and moved on and hoped for another offer. Unfortunatley another offer has not come yet. I've had lots of people come look and I still am receiving positive feedback, but I guess nobody likes it enough to want to live here. : (

This past weekend I started having open houses and running ads in the paper since it's getting nicer out. The open houses went well and I'm waiting to hear back from a realtor. My mom and I went to SC from 3/31-4/3 to meet with the builder and finally see the neighborhood in person. I was soooooo excited and it turned out to be wayyyy nicer than I imagined! Finally something good! They wouldn't pre-approve me for a mortgage until my condo sells because I can't afford 2 mortgages in the event it doesn't sell. GRR again. That made me very upset because my dad wouldn't co-sign with me. If he co-signed, I would have been approved and I could move in to building 53 in october. He said he didn't want to take another financial risk, because we are still dealing with legal drama from the townhouse me and my ex-fiance bought together, which my dad lent alot of money for since my condo wasn't selling last year. ahhhh. I totally understand his point of view and I would feel so incredibly guilty if I hurt him financially anymore, but I had my moment of acting like a balistic 3 year old and then got over it. I started to look at the positive side, which is that I can buy preconstruction in building 54 (which isn't for sale yet) and get a slightly better location and all the upgrades I want. Of course building 54 will be finished much later than october 08 considering the slab isn't even down yet. so that sucks, but I guess that saying is true.... "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." Practically every plan I've had for myself recently isn't working out. But it will work out, it's just going to take longer than I expected. I will move to Myrtle Beach and I will be happy, I just have to suffer a bit more up here for whatever reason.

I think I'll end this before I bitch some more and I'll end on a happy note. While in Party City buying balloons for my open house, I was looking at all the summer pool party decorations and found the perfect little palm tree for my desktop beach sandbox!!! I'd been on the look out for one ever since I got it for christmas. (side note: I also planned on getting some real Myrtle Beach sand for it to replace the sand it came with, but of course I wanted until the last day of our trip which was rainy and I didn't feel like carrying wet sand back to NJ.) It makes the sandbox look perfect! Here's a new pic of it:

Please pray that I get another offer!

"Lord I feel so small sometimes in this big old place. Yeah, I know there's more important things, but don't forget to remember me." -Don't Forget to Remember Me, Carrie Underwood

GRRR!!

I know I haven't posted anything lately, but unfortunately that's because there is nothing relevant to post. I still haven't received an offer and for the past two weekends no one has shown my condo. And this weekend it's supposed to snow, so it will probably be three weekends with no showings. I have received various emails from people with questions, but those never go anywhere.

I'm so tired of hearing "it will happen when the time is right." The time is right NOW! I'm getting very frustrated with God and frankly I don't give a crap what His plan for me is anymore. My plan is to move out of New Jersey and move to Myrtle Beach and I want to do that tomorrow! GRRRR... I'm not getting any younger here and I'd like to start living the live I'm meant to live. I know the market stinks and it's a bad time of the year to sell in general, but seeing the weeks just keep flying by with nothing productive happening is getting incredibly frustrating. As you can see I'm basically in a constant mood 4 these days.

Please pray for someone to buy my condo!

I'll update as soon as anything happens! (which hopefully will be soon!)

~Alli

"Lord, I feel so small sometimes in this big ol' place. Yeah, I know there's more important things, but don't forget to remember me." ~Carrie Underwood

Moody

I've noticed that I have four moods when it comes to moving down south.

Mood #1: Absolutely, completely excited, cannot wait to move and start my new life. During this mood I can't stop talking about it and I think non stop about how I'm going to decorate my townhouse, how I'll set up the furniture, etc. I'll stalk realtor.com & Beazer.com looking for townhouses. If I'm at work during this mood basically nothing gets done and my coworkers are updated hourly on the weather in Murrells Inlet.

Mood #2: Completely freaked out. This is the mood that passes the quickest, but it's annoying. All of a sudden I'll freak out in my head and think OMG.... I can't sell my condo, I can't move to a place where I don't know anyone, I can't leave my family behind, WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING? I'd say maybe every other week I get in this mood, but then I come to my senses and go over my list of reasons for why I'm doing this.

Mood #3: Normal/Whatever. The thought of moving will occasionally cross my mind, but I am able to focus on work. I think everyone likes me the most when I'm in this mood.

Mood #4: Incredibly pissed off/frustrated/dramatic. I vent to Sabeen, my dad, and my mom about how life's not fair and why aren't thinks working out the way I want them to, bla bla bla. Usually this involves crying. I basically act like a 3 year old who wants a toy and their mom says they can't have it. I growl, hiss, and sigh extensively. It's not pretty.


Unfortunately I was mood#4 all day at work today. And for no reason... nothing happened that was out of the ordinary. All freaking day long I was soooo pissed off because in order to start my chain of plans, I must get and accept an offer on my condo. Which of course hasn't happened yet. So far I've had numerous calls about my place and two people have come to look at it. The first girl said she was at the beginning of her search and wasn't really sure what she wanted yet.... Grrrreat! glad I wasted my Saturday afternoon for that. The second girl was around 22 and came with her dad and a realtor. She absolutely loved the place and even wanted my furniture if she bought it, but then she found out that the condo association doesn't allow dogs. And of course she has a dog that she can't live without, so that was a bust. sigh. last Thursday a realtor was supposed to bring people by, but then he called to cancel because of my most favorite thing in the world... SNOW! (note sarcasm) They were coming from half an hour away and the snow was pretty bad (just my luck). Then yesterday a realtor wanted to show my place between 11am and 2pm. But of course I don't have a lock box and they weren't able to come. I don't have a lock box because I don't want people coming by whenever they feel like it and also because of issues with my ex. so now I have to hope those people call to reschedule. arghhhh!!! I am so annoyed today.

It's just so frustrating to know that the only thing keeping me from living my dream is selling this GD condo... GRRRR!

Well, I'm done venting for now. blah

oh, also... if everyone could please pray (if you do that) for an acceptable offer to come my way I would really appreciate it!


"Lord I feel so small sometimes in this big old place. Yeah, I know there's more important things, but don't forget to remember me." -Don't Forget to Remember Me, Carrie Underwood

MLS

My condo is now listed on the MLS and on Realtor.com. woo hoo!!!! Hopefully that will bring some more action and I can get on with my life! I'm in a very happy mood today because I'm wearing flip flops and it's 64 degrees. Wawawewawowa!!!!!!