Robert Burton said (posted by Lani)

"It never yet happened to any man since the beginning of the world, nor ever will, to have all things according to his desire..."

He was right. We found a house outside of Boulder we love; the sellers want too much money for it, and so it isn't going to happen. We gave it our best shot, they said no ... we went over the numbers again and again, and the bottom line is that the most we're willing to pay is just not going to be the least they're willing to take. So ... I'm sad, Steve is sad, Nancy the Wonder Realtor is sad, but it is what it is.

Having said that, I realize that actually I neglected saying this (although I'm guessing you figured it out): We're definitely moving to Colorado. Steve's start date with his new company is January 7th but we're tentatively thinking we'll be doing the actual move the second or third week of January since I put my foot down and said I am NOT going to move over Christmas or New Year. Nancy has switched from find-us-a-house-to-buy mode to find-us-a-place-to-rent-for-a-while mode for now; I'm consoling myself that it'll be easier to look for a house once we actually live there, anyway.

Our house here will go on the market this week, and we're doing everything we can to make it sell quickly. Of course by that I mean that I'm trying to get every single aspect of the house ready for total strangers to come poke and pry. Our house is clean, but not stranger-ready, if you know what I mean; I'm having to make sure every cabinet, every drawer, every closet can withstand scrutiny. I'm also trying to rearrange furniture and declutter and so forth to make the place look larger and more appealing to random strangers, as opposed to what may be comfortable for us. Steve is doing his part by being Eeyore, grumbling and grousing and moaning about all of this and pointing out that people have bought and sold houses for YEARS without doing this new-fangled "staging" thing. He does come and move furniture and tote boxes of books and such to the garage as required, but he's definitely out of his comfort zone with all these changes.

Wish us luck; it's going to be crazy around here for the next few weeks!