Midsummer Moving Madness

2017 has turned out to be a year of life events and changes, and I think Jose and I are both hoping the next couple years are the opposite, and looking forward to a more settled down Autumn and Winter!

In early January, I changed jobs heading to Harvard; in March, Jose changed jobs heading to MIT; by the last week of April, we put Waterbell on the market after weeks of prep work and wondering whether we could swing it. I originally sketched up a home selling/home buying timeline with a buffer of 21 days to allow us time to pack and move after closing on our home sale with the ideal thought of closing on a new house within the same month.

Although it might have been possible, looking back, that first sketch of a timeline was blessedly optimistic! It's more common for home buyers to be looking for three or four months, if not more, here in Boston. Well, we were right on time with our home sale June 15th. We arranged to stay in Waterbell for one month for a little relief and will move by August 1. But even with an offer in June, we close on our place August 15th, and plan to move in September 16th, based on the sellers' own timeline. In between the two houses, we have 8 weeks of roaming homes with essential stuff piled up in the car, like a family of hermit crabs.

I originally looked on CraigsList and Harvard Housing forums, hoping to find a sublet for 8 weeks, but I couldn't find anything that was willing to have our two rowdy, adorable dogs. It's especially hard since we'll be crossing over into the school year.

I finally opted to book AirBnB's knowing that we were going to pay through the nose for their booking fees, but by the time I knew our dates, we had to make 8 reservations over the course of 8 weeks. We'll be moving every Sunday! Thank goodness, all the rentals we're staying in are within Cambridge which is a shorter distance to get home every day and spend more time with the dogs. In the past, Lucy and Buster have been comfortable in any rental, but Lucy gets unsettled whenever we're packing luggage or boxes. Or maybe we're imagining that, but I don't think so.

Knowing it's stressful for the dogs and for me, too, I decided several months ago that we would only move if we could afford a full pack-and-move moving service this time, so that's the plan on July 26th.

I'll share some photos of our rental summer and of the new house when we get a little closer. I feel very upside down lately, and not always sleeping soundly, but I'm counting all of our many blessings and blaring my good mood mix on the ipod to get through it.