Summer fun, mixed with a bit of stress:-/

And just like that, June is half over! What! We had a little bit of calm time after we got the house. I got caught up on some much needed sleep, life just calmed down a bit. Nathan and I went to Lynsey's field day at school which was really fun! I mentally prepared myself to start packing . . . and then delayed starting . . . I did eventually start, but not before some stress started! So our landlord listed the house for rental, and she had a few people come through last Saturday. While she was doing this, we were at the Pacific Science Center having a lovely morning! We saw the exhibits and went to see the special Lego art exhibit, The Art of the Brick. It was very cool! Unfortunately Adam was done by this point and didn't want to see it, so Brian and I had to split up a bit so we could both see the exhibit. Before we left the house in the morning, I had been running around picking up toys and clothes, just trying to make the house not look messy for the landlord to show it. Later that day, she texted and asked us to show the house to someone on Monday. I actually ended up showing it myself on Sunday night, not so much as a thank you from her. On Monday morning, we woke up to a nasty email from her about how the house was the messiest and dirtiest she has ever seen it. She was "shocked" by it. Ugh, I hate confrontation. Brian responded in a mature way, she slightly lightened up in her response, but she continued to be condescending and insulting. I'm sorry that the house isn't spotless, but I am starting to pack now and it isn't going to get any better! I couldn't believe her nerve! I would never talk to my tenants that way, how do you know that they won't retaliate by leaving the house in much WORSE shape for the next showing?? Believe me, I am tempted! I won't though, because I have nothing to gain by escalating this fight with her. Thankfully, her ad is terrible and not even searchable on Craigs List, so we have had no more showings since then. I would tell her, but she doesn't seem to welcome or be grateful for our help, and my motivation to go out of our way to help her has dwindled down to zilch. We have told her on several occasions that we will clean the house back to original condition when we move out, but that doesn't seem to be good enough for her. She has no leverage to force us to live a certain way while we are still renting it. She is just being a bully, and it took me a few days to stop being bothered by it. Thankfully (or not!) we had some bigger issues come up on Tuesday so the landlord problem became small potatoes!

When we bought the house, we had to waive all conditions in order for the seller to accept our offer, including the appraisal condition. What that means is that when the bank sent an appraiser, we had to hope to high heaven that he appraised the house for close to the amount that we paid for it, because the bank will only loan us the amount of the appraisal. Our realtors told us that in this market there was a time earlier on in the year where low appraisals were a problem because they just hadn't caught up to how fast the market was moving, but that it hadn't been such a big problem recently. Well, if something can go wrong, it will! The appraisal came in low. Really low. Yikes! That meant that we had to scramble to come up with the extra money, while still appealing the appraisal and hoping they would see sense. What a frustrating experience. We pleaded our case for why our house was worth what we paid, and gave some really good evidence, but it was kind of too late at that point. Appraisers are not going to drastically change their decision, that makes it look like they did a shoddy job the first time (which this guy definitely did! He didn't even give our house "points" for being on a dead end street, and we are on a private drive shared with a few other houses! That is BETTER than a dead end street!). They did raise it up $5K which helped us out a bit, and the sellers actually came down in price $4500 which they really didn't have to do - it was a really nice gesture on their part. We had no leverage at all to make them feel like they had to do it. I guess some sellers out there do have a heart! This stress on top of a misunderstanding about the mortgage rate that we got has made for an extremely stressful week. Thankfully, we were able to get most of it squared away yesterday and it's looking like things will work out okay for closing on Friday. I just don't remember worrying about any of this stuff when we bought our houses in Calgary - miss the simplicity of the Canadian house buying process! It will all be over soon, and then we get to fight with our crazy landlord to get our damage deposit back. Good times! Soooo thankful to be done with renting, it is definitely not for me!!

Our kids have been doing pretty well! Adam has been really mellow lately with only a few exceptions - I hope he handles the move well! Lynsey is a bit sad sometimes when we talk about the move, but overall I think she is handling the impending change really well. I am proud of her for looking at the positives and seeing that there is hope:). I know she will love it, it will just take some time. Lynsey finished school on Wednesday and we are gearing up for not only our big move, but also our trip to Alberta coming up in a week and a half. Hopefully we can be organized for both! I am trying not to feel overwhelmed, and just taking the packing one day at a time. Today my goal is to pack 10 boxes - I have already done 2, so just 8 more to go! Maybe I'll lower my goal to 8 . . . it depends on how we do in the office today:-/. Wish us luck in this crazy time!