The Kroekers bought a house!

So we've had an eventful May! To finish what I started in the last blog post, we all survived Brian's trip just fine - Adam continued to be as mellow as ever! Praise the Lord! Brian had a great time out there, he can do his own blog post with his pictures and experiences if he so desires (I challenge you, dear!:)). After he got back, our feet hit the pavement and an aggressive house hunt began. We had found out that our landlord was not willing to sell us the house we are now in, and we just felt more sure than ever that we wanted to stay relatively long term (more than only one or two more years anyway) and just didn't want to deal with the headache of renting any longer. Also, there haven't been any signs that the housing market is letting up at all so now is as good a time as any to dive in! I had found a house that I liked while Brian was away, so the same day Brian came back from London, we had to go look at this house. Brian was tired, jet-lagged, and not very enthused about the location of the house (it was in the Education Hill neighborhood which was a bit further north than we ideally wanted to go, and Lynsey would have had to go to a new school). It was an older house that had been remodeled, and of course they didn't do everything we would have done (why doesn't everyone think the way we do when they refinish their houses! Very annoying!:-S). I thought it was a fine house, not perfect, but would work very well for us. So we tried to buy it (even though Brian definitely had some misgivings). We waited around on the day they were reviewing offers wondering what was going on (seriously, how long can it take to look at 5 or 6 offers and pick the best one? I would think this would be a fairly straight-forward process in most cases!). Well, apparently this Realtor was at a lacrosse game and not actually in direct contact with his clients, so we had the joy of wasting an entire evening wondering if we had actually got the house. The Realtor did at one point reach out to our Realtor and ask if we wanted to up our offer a bit to match a different offer that had no contingencies, so we did plus a bit more (wish we hadn't bothered, we probably just bid up the other buyer that they were always intending to go with anyway!!). A few hours after that call, we finally got the final word that they had gone with the other offer. I was so upset by the time they called that I was ready to pull our offer anyway. Just because it's a seller's market does not mean you have to be inconsiderate jerks to buyers. We have wasted so much time (and money on pre-inspections) on houses that we haven't been able to buy that at that point, I wasn't sure if my emotions could handle another house! We did regroup and carry on, thankfully:). Just wasn't the right house, I guess!

We kept an eye on listings popping up that week, and lo and behold, a house just down the street from us came up last Thursday! Could this be the reason that we have been getting stymied at every turn?? Perhaps we were meant to stay in our neighborhood after all! We went to look at it, and even though it only had 3 bedrooms up (it did have a den on the main floor, but only a half bath down there), we decided we could make it work. It was very nicely finished, our lives could stay the same, we would just be a few blocks down the road. We were going to Victoria for the weekend, which was actually a really nice distraction from obsessing about the house, so we planned to do the pre-inspection on Monday morning and away we went to Victoria!

We had a great time in Victoria! We took the Bainbridge ferry and then then Blackball ferry from Port Angeles on the way there, so that was really nice! Brian's parents came to our room Friday evening and we hung out with them, took the kids swimming. The next day, we went to James and Sarah's house for the morning and early afternoon - great to see them again! We took the kids swimming again in the afternoon and the kids had a great time! Brian's parents came over around dinner time and Brian and I got to go downtown to Il Terrazzo for dinner, most delicious restaurant ever! We love that place! We had a nice leisurely walk by the harbor on the way back to the hotel, it was a lovely evening! The next morning, James and Sarah joined us at the hotel for some swimming in the morning. Something super cool happened while we were in the pool! Adam had been getting more and more comfortable with jumping into the shallow end of the pool as the weekend went on, and on Sunday, he decided he didn't want Brian to catch him in the deep end! He jumped in, doggy paddled to the end, hoisted himself out, and went again! He did this over and over again until he got tired- amazing! We are so proud of him for going out of his comfort zone! I can't believe he knows how to doggy paddle - hopefully his swimming will really accelerate now that he knows he can stay afloat and propel himself:). Such a cool surprise! After swimming, we checked out and had a nice lunch with Brian's parents before heading out to Shwartz Bay to catch the ferry to Tswassen. The trip home went really well, loving those Nexus passes! Blew by a 30 minute wait at the border, and all the guy asked was if we had 5 people (we had scanned our cards so he knew how many of us there should be), we said yes, and he told us to have a nice day! That was it! Best border crossing ever, why didn't we do it sooner?? A very nice weekend over all!

Back to the house hunt! We submitted our offer Monday evening and waited . . . and waited . . . to hear if we got the house. An hour doesn't sound very long, but if you are imagining people sitting down with a handful of offers and you aren't hearing anything for over an hour, you are definitely imagining at this point that they have definitely called someone else and are negotiating with them. This was so painful, as we had gone all out on this offer - waiving everything (should have really done that from the start of this house hunt, enough people are doing it that you won't get a house unless you do, too), high earnest money, really high top bid (like we were stretching as far as we possibly could, this was our very best shot!). Finally our Realtor called and said they weren't actually reviewing offers until the NEXT DAY! Ugh! Oh well, at least we didn't have to agonize anymore about why they weren't calling us! At that time their Realtor told our Realtor that there were 7 offers, 3 that were contenders, and ours was one of the top three - it was "phenomenal" he said. We were definitely hopeful, although a bit depressed that we weren't a clear winner because we didn't really know what that meant, but we had a great chance we thought! The next morning, they were supposed to decide by noon. I went to the gym in the morning, hoping to distract myself, but I was so tense, checking my phone after every song. By noon we had not heard anything. I got our Realtor to check with them to see how things were coming along, and finally just after 1, we heard the devastating news that they had gone with another offer:-(. Someone had offered almost the same amount as us ($5000 less actually) but all cash. What?? We were heart broken. We can't compete with cash offers! It was such a hard knock, we were both pretty sure this was the one.

Time to regroup again! I did this a bit faster than Brian, I am so task-oriented with my eye on the prize that I only allowed myself about 15 minutes of grieving before moving on! On Monday afternoon, we had gone to look at a great house in Education Hill with a huge yard on a really quiet street. There were tenants in there, so there were boxes everywhere (it was awkward going to look at it, as she was there and told us they didn't want to leave but they had to - I was like, "sorry!" Super awkward!). Anyway, at the time that we looked at it on Monday, I liked it, but I was pretty sure we were going to get this other house on our street so I didn't look too closely or imagine ourselves in this house too much. So Tuesday, after getting this news that we didn't get the house on our street, I asked to go see this Ed Hill house again. Thankfully we were able to get in to see it on really short notice, and I really liked it this time. Not perfect of course, but I saw a lot of potential and really thought it could work well for us. They were reviewing offers the next day so not a lot of time to think it through. They also weren't allowing showings in the evening, so Brian couldn't go see it that night. It was on me to decide if we wanted to book the pre-inspection for the next morning, at which time Brian could look at it again. So I made the executive decision to go for it. Brian wasn't completely enthused because he was still so disappointed about giving up on the house in the location that we really wanted, but he was able to put those emotions aside and we put a strong offer on this house. They were reviewing offers at 6 that same evening. Again, 7pm rolls around and we were like, "here we go again!". Our Realtor called their Realtor at one point and got a very strange response, that they hadn't decided and she had to go. At this point, we are thinking that they are probably talking to another Realtor trying to get their client to up their offer to match ours. We have been competing against so many people that have either all cash or 50% down, it was just the first thing that popped into our mind. At this point we are talking about pulling our offer because we are not interested in helping inflate housing prices while never actually getting a house ourselves. I was literally ready to crack - if we didn't get this house, we were just going to rent. We had spent over $1200 this spring on pre-inspections, Brian had taken many hours off work to go to these pre-inspections, never mind the incredible amount of time and emotional energy that we had invested falling in love with houses for days only to have them ripped away. Yep, renting was just fine!

At 8pm, my phone rings, and it's our Realtor - we got the house!! There were six other offers that were pretty similarly priced, but ours was the best! And it didn't go as high as we thought it might (still higher than we want obviously, but we had resigned ourselves long ago to the fact that if we wanted a house, we were going to have to make ourselves sick trying to get it!). Hallelujah! We are now in the process of getting the loan started, and all being well, we should take possession on June 24th. Here is the link to the house if anyone is interested - there are a few different sets of pictures taken from different listings on this site:

http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/17609-NE-101-ST-Crt-Redmond-WA-98052_rb/?fromHomePage=true&shouldFireSellPageImplicitClaimGA=false&fromHomePageTab=buy

What an ordeal! So thankful it is over! We will probably do some painting before we move in, and won't move in until mid-July or so. We have a trip to Alberta planned for the end of June, and moving in before just sounded like it was going to be too stressful. I can't believe I'm moving again. This better be the last time in a long time! I do know enough to never say never though, and God has a way of interrupting your best laid plans, so I guess we will see! A good excuse to do some more purging:).

Wish us luck!

2 days down, 8 to go!

What is this countdown about you ask? Brian is in London and will be back in 8 days (but who's counting!). So far, things have gone very well. We have down our best to prepare the kids (especially Adam) for how long he will be gone, and I THINK it's working! I know it's only been a few days and he might get tired of waiting for Dad to come home, but there is a trip to Victoria coming up that he is talking a lot about (Victoria Day weekend) and I think having that to look forward to is helping! Bedtime has been going smoothly, he sees the car at home and talks about it, and I keep reminding him that even though the car is home, Dad is still on his work trip, and for now he is accepting that. It's too much to hope for maybe that this will continue, but I have to say that it's been pretty easy so far! I got the neighbor girl to babysit this morning and went to the Free Them 5K in Shoreline this morning which was fun, and it all went off without a hitch! I made up a calendar with all the events in May so I keep showing it to all the kids so they can have a visual, really seems to be helping. We'll see how optimistic I am sounding in a week! Wish me luck:).

I joined a different gym this week, so that's new for me. This gym has way more classes, so I can be a lot more flexible about when I go. The 24 Hour Fitness was not adding any classes, and in fact were dropping existing classes and changing them so much that it was just becoming really frustrating. This new gym even has Hot Yoga included in the membership which is really cool! I just have to convince my friends from 24 Hour to move over, too, I will miss the socializing after working out.

What else is new . . . not a whole lot! Oh, I guess I could report that we tried to buy a house a week and a half ago (try being the operative word). It's such a difficult process, because even though you KNOW there is a strong chance you won't get a house, it's impossible to go through the process of getting it pre-inspected and then writing an offer without investing yourself in it. Brian was thinking about all the things he would do to fix it up (not that it needed much fixing up, it was very nicely redone) and I was imagining where the furniture would go, what we do in the yard . . . you just can't put an offer on a house without getting invested in it. To top it all off, we were putting in what we thought was a very strong offer - we were offering 10% over asking price with few contingencies! All the comparable solds in the area seem to indicate that this was going to be more than enough to get the house, I have to admit I really thought we would get it. I had even connected with the owner on Facebook because she shared the listing on one of my groups! She was very sweet and I know that both her and the Realtor were rooting for us to get it! Well, I guess even when everything seems to fall in place, there can always be a hitch. Someone went crazy and bid 15% over asking. As much as these people wanted to sell us the house, money talks as we all know. I couldn't believe it, it was really hard. Both Brian and I were pretty down about it for a few reasons, not the least of which was if THAT house was going for THAT much, it would seem that we are rapidly being priced out of our first choice area to buy:(. I have to say that I haven't really felt like a little fish in a big pond until this experience. Nobody made me feel this way, but I couldn't help but feel like the world is looking at us like, "How cute, they were trying to buy a house! Awww, nice try guys!" I know it's not just us that is experiencing this madness, and this isn't a logical feeling, but it was definitely how I felt for a few days, very inferior and small. We have recovered now and are soldiering on, but the market conditions for buyers are just ridiculous. I feel like the door has been continually closing on us buying a house here, and while I don't understand why at this point in time, I know that we just need to keep trusting that God knows what's up and we'll figure this out! We are just going to keep looking and if we don't find something, we keep renting this house and see how we feel next Spring about trying to buy again! Not time to give up yet, our landlord has told us we basically have until the end of August and then we need to either sign another lease or be gone. We'll see how it goes from here on in!

Summer in April!

We had a little taste of summer this week! Temps hit the high-20's, which is very unusual for the Seattle area in April. It was kind of nice to break out the shorts and tank tops already, although it's cooled off now and I'm wearing jeans again:-/. It was a nice hint of what's to come anyway!

What have we been up to . . . Lynsey had her piano recital on Sunday, and she did a great job on "Let it Go"! I really am impressed with how far she's come in her piano lessons. I'm glad she is still enthused about it and wants to keep going, now she is learning "In Summer" so we'll see how that goes:). Her swimming is also improving a lot, perhaps she will be ready for a competitive swim team in the fall (if she wants, I will not push it). I do think she might do well on a competitive team, she is always jostling to be first in her lane and I think she gets really motivated by someone swimming beside her, pushing her to go faster. We'll see what happens:).

We have been going to a behavior specialist at the Seattle Children's Autism Center for the last several weeks, and she is going to help us come up with a plan to deal with some of Adam's ranting. We are going to focus in on him overhearing conversations and fixating on the fact that he thinks we are going somewhere, so frustrating. I really hope they can help us get to the root of what he is so concerned about and find a consistent strategy to help him calm down. This isn't the only thing we are hoping to combat, Brian was gone to Menlo Park for the day yesterday and Adam was NOT a happy camper when he learned that Dad would not be home until after bedtime. We really need to be better about pre-warning him when this will happen (Brian forgot to prepare him the day before), but even when we do it's not a guarantee that I won't have a heck of a time dealing with him when the day arrives and Dad doesn't come home. Brian is going away for 11 days to London in less than two weeks, and I am already praying that I will not lose my mind. Please join me! It could be a very rough time for me! It might also be just fine, it's hard to know how he will react until the time comes. We will do our best to prepare him, but I don't think he has any concept for how long 11 days is - and it will feel like an eternity for him, I know. Fingers crossed that it will all go okay!

Not much else to report! Nathan is doing really well, just growing up and becoming more interesting every day:). I did a lot of planning the last week or so for the summer, and I think we have it all figured out finally! Brian and I are even going on a little trip by ourselves this summer! We will take off to Montreal for 3 nights and leave the kids in Edmonton with his parents, should be a really fun trip! We already know we are going to eat poutine and go to a jazz club, and that's all we know for sure:).

Easter fun, Spring Break

Okay my blogging every 10 days has turned into every 3 weeks lately! Must be better! What have we been up to . . . Brian's parents came to visit on Easter weekend! It was kind of a weird weekend because we were on the brink of buying a new construction house (as in, we had written up an offer and were considering the tiny tweaks they put in the counter offer). Brian just wasn't sure about it, then I wasn't sure about it . . . it was quite overwhelming! In the end, we did not buy the house and that is totally okay with us at this point. We will keep looking and if just the right house comes along in our price range then we will try for it (along with 50 other people I'm sure). Being a buyer in this market literally makes you sick to your stomach:-S.

Anyway! It was really nice to have them here! We did an egg hunt of course, made a delicious Easter dinner, hung around the house a lot. Next time they come we will hopefully be in a better frame of mind (and the weather will hopefully be better as well) and we can do more stuff:). I did my 10K 520 bridge run last Saturday! It was a pretty cool experience, only 13,000 other people doing it:-/. It was a bit crowded but still a fun experience. Lynsey had her Spring Break this past week. She spent a lot of time at the neighbor girl's house. We did take a trip up to Whidbey Island on Thursday afternoon! I met up with my friend Courtney who I did Y-1 with 15 years ago! She is from Whidbey and has been gone to Australia most of the time that we've been living here, but now she is finally back and we were able to connect:). So cool to chat with her again! Took me back to another lifetime! Adam had some trouble with some of the transitions, but once we got to Double Bluff beach, he recovered fairly quickly and we ended up having a great afternoon there.

Lynsey has become a BOOKWORM! So neat to see! I went to some second hand stores this week and bought her a pile of books, a lot of classics from when I was growing up (I am shamelessly reliving my childhood, so what!). She has been reading non-stop! She read an adapted version of Anne of Green Gables, prompting me of course to buy the movies on Amazon! We will be watching the first one later today:-D. She basically has been going through one chapter book a day. I was suspicious at the beginning whether or not she was properly reading all the pages, but she could answer all kinds of questions about the plot so I think she is. She has become quite a great little reader! It has helped make this Spring Break a lot less painful. That and all the time she has spent playing at her friends house as well haha!

Adam had his first of 10 appointments at the Childrens Autism Center a few weeks ago. We are meeting with a behavior expert that will hopefully help us deal with his anxiety, and specifically right now we need help figuring out how to deal with him interrupting us every time we talk, needing reassurance that we aren't going somewhere. He picks out random phrases that he hears us say and is convinced that we are now taking him somewhere very undesirable. It can be very frustrating. On Thursday, when Courtney and I were trying to catch up on 15 years of not seeing each other, he was interrupting me every 5 seconds. It got very old, very quickly. He isn't usually quite that bad, but when he is already agitated it does get to be quite incessant. The woman we talked to suggested we use more schedules, with the theory being that if he definitely knows what is going to happen, he will not live in fear about us taking him somewhere, but I am not 100% convinced that this will work for Adam. We did get a schedule app on the iPad which he is mildly interested in, but the other kids have taken to it more than he has. One of my issues with these set-in-stone visual schedules is that sometimes I don't know exactly what we are doing all day, and I really hesitate to enslave him to a schedule which will only make him less flexible than he already is. Hopefully after spending some more time with us, and me being able to give her some more examples of what is happening, she will be able to give us some more insights as to how we can try and minimize this behavior.

Tomorrow is our 12 year anniversary! We have absolutely no plans to do anything, maybe we'll go out to eat as a family. We had a nice date night while Brian's parents were here so I guess that was our anniversary date:).