I can’t believe it is all finally coming together. After months of house hunting, wondering when we can finally move in together, we get to move in a week from today!
These last few months have been stressful (to say the least) but I think the experience has really helped us figure out where we want to go from here. While we definitely still want a house someday, we have realized that for now, we want to leave our lives open for a bit more adventure.
We officially told the selling agent on the La Londe house that we want to cancel our contract. Both of us and our lawyer felt it would be better to tell them now rather than letting them complete the repairs and dropping it on them later. It ended up working out well– we used the fact that there have been a large number of layoffs at Brian’s job as a way out, stating that we didn’t feel it was responsible for us to take such a large risk with an uncertain future. Unfortunately, it is true. While we had many reasons for wanting to get out of the contract, a large factor was that neither of us are really certain about the future of our jobs.
But back to the good! Brian and I were talking last night- there is quite a bit to do before next week. Our first step is opening a joint checking account. We both agree that it will be a lot easier to figure out joint costs: rent, utilities, phone bill, groceries, etc. then split it in half. That way, we can both deposit an equal amount into the joint account each month, making bill paying a lot easier.
We are hoping to get this done Saturday or Sunday because the apartment management requires that we have accounts set up with the City of Naperville and Nicor Gas before we receive our keys on the 9th. It will be a lot easier to set up these accounts with a joint account number rather than changing everything over later. Plus, the complex requires our security deposit, pet deposit, and prorated December rent on move-in day as well– in certified funds. After everything we have been through in the last few months, we want this to be as simple as possible.
Other than setting up few things, we are pretty much ready to go. We both need to pack up our stuff at our parents house; mine shouldn’t be too hard since most of it is still in boxes. I can’t wait to actually set up my life again– living out of boxes sucks. Much to Brian’s dismay, we also have a bit of shopping to do. We have most of what we need, it will just be a few minor things here and there.
Brian actually threw me off on the phone last night– for once he was the excited one. How often can I claim to be the calm, practical one? We were talking about the next week, and how we can pick up the keys on Thursday. I mentioned that while we would pick up the keys and check out the apartment that day, we probably wouldn’t move in until Saturday, since we both work during the week.
Apparently that is not his plan. I believe his exact words were: “Are you kidding me? All I need is a bed and my computer!” So I guess we are going to move our bed and computers in on Thursday and move the rest over the weekend. It was good to see him so excited.
I think both of us are going to be pretty eager over the next week– the countdown has officially begun! As usual, Brian put it perfectly.
“Man, this is worse than waiting for a package to be delivered,” he said on the phone last night. “Come on, deliver my apartment!”
