Took a little while to post, but we finally closed,ON TIME!!! The posting delay was due to my not contacting the cable company early enough to connect us at our new place. Actually, we were set for connection on time and then got info that cable phone was not a good thing to have with an alarm system so I cancelled cable, tried to get back to AT&T (we have been with them for over 35 years) and was told, sorry, you cancelled our service without callling us to cancell, so now you have to wait 15+ days to get new service. This was all because we did not want to lose our phone number of 30 years and chose to "port" it to one of our cell phones. So after much research, we then decided to continue with cable phone (our alarm co. assured us that it would be fine) and had to get a new date - 15 days out!!!! - for cable connection!! What can I say!!!!! Also, did not change our address with the PO until just a few days before closing, so we are now just getting our forwarding mail. After 6 moves you would think I would know better!!!!

The reason for all of my stalling was because we had the fear that our buyers were not all together with the closing. Much of this was because of a nasty REA of theirs and and not all together attorney on their end. The lack of communication on their end was awful!! Every other day we were honestly thinking, forget this, let's just go back on the market, hence the many things (everyday dishes, flatware, glasses, etc, that were not packed for fear that if we did go back on the market, we would have tons of boxes all over, empty cabinets, etc. and buyers would think we were desperate! It was a stressful time for 6 weeks!

As I mentioned in a previous posting, we did get an offer after 12 weeks on the market and two agressive price drops to keep up with the market (actually to be under it with the last drop), gave them a few things they asked for to get the deal together, only to end up giving them $$$$ towards a new furnace, even though the one we had was working, albeit 30 years old. They would take nothing but cash for a brand new furnace. Their estimate came up way high so we got three of our own from reputable, local companies and told them take our lowest or walk!!! They took it but then brought up other small issues not brought up at the time of inspection, every few days. We did fix them all, but it was begining to get crazy!!! They really were running the show and we at times kept on thinking we should just tell them to take a hike and get another buyer.

It took us two days to move (one day loading with 6 men and two trucks and the next unloading with the same crew). We also had the largest and 4th home in the whole selling domino scenerio. When the movers left the first day we packed up the left overs and began to clean. We also were getting some of our very fragile items moved up to our new place since we had a hold harmless. SURPRISE! - The new development we were moving into decided to pave our road that day!!!This caused us to lose several hours, but we did get those boxes dropped of finally!! The next morning our end of the closing went great and I headed back to our old home to finish up and clean and my dh headed to our new home to drop off more things. On my way to our old home I get a call from our new place. The POD we were having delivered to be unloaded by our movers was stopped and not allowed to be brought to our new driveway due to the new road!!! And because of our newley ported number my dh could not receive my call because the cell phone had to be reprogramed - something we were not aware of!

Back at the old home I continued packing and cleaning. The walk through was scheduled for around 1pm but the buyers agent came early. Everyone was informed that I would be there and several rooms would have items in them and the buyers and their lawyer had no issues with that, but that was not acceptable for their agent. I let her in and she looked at the stacked boxes and packing material in the dining room, looked me up and down and said, "Oh, when are your moving men coming?". The buyers were dropping off some of their items at what is still our home, complaining that we did not patch picture holes and paint over them, I'm working like a dog and realizing I've run out of boxes, and I am about to have a melt down while still smiling! Our lawyer calls after they leave and asked if everything is right as He just got a call from the buyers lawyer saying that we are not even close to moving out! I just about fell apart. After 6 weeks of bending over backwards for these buyers and trying to make the home perfect for them, I had about had it.

I finally call back our lawyer and tell him that I have run out of boxes for the last few items, my husband is heading back to pick up and move out what we have ready, the movers are at our new home moving in our funiture and boxes heaven knows where, and I haven't washed the kitchen floor - I was becoming crazy woman!!! I asked our lawyer if we could please move what we had left to pack in the garage since we accomodated our buyers before they closed. He agreed and said that if their lawyer had any issues with it we would just delay the closing!!! I felt so much better!

I got to our new home three hours after my movers, my guys were great, smiled and said, "you made it! We knew were you had all of your stuff when we moved you out and we think we got it right! Take a walk around and we'll be more than happy to move anything to were you want it to go." What a fantastic group of guys, they got almost everything right, and I almost cried! (We treated them as we would want to have been treated, fed them well, had water, soda, juice, etc on ice for them and they were the best. It was also reflected in their tips and we had them back again!)

Got a call from our lawyer later that evening. Two hours into our buyers closing of our home their lawyer informs ours that the bank check for our home was sent to the WRONG STATE!!! and he didn't have it! After a whole bunch of phone call to the bank and FEDEX our lawyer drove 1/2 hour to a commuter lot off of the interstate to meet our buyers' atty., who ended up driving to pick up the ckeck, hand it off to our atty, and complete the deal on the hood of the car hours later! Thank goodness we didn't know about all of this till it was all over!!

We love our new place! It's brand new in a wonderful community. I feel like I live in a resort and we are so very happy!! We are still trying to resolve the whole POD issue. How can a community deny entry of our POD but 1/2 hour later allow two huge moving vans up our street - and we had the stupid wood planks they wanted the POD to be placed on waiting for it!!!! I'm not giving up on this!!! Ended up costing us almost $1200 to have the POD redelivered, paid for a whole extra month of storage since we went over by one day, and paid our great crew the 4 hour min. to come back and unload the POD in 45 minutes! I want this to be the last move we ever make! WE ARE DONE!!! ;) ~L