Buying a new home!

Well, I don't want to quite jinx it yet but we are closing on a house tomorrow!  Fingers crossed that all our i's are dotted and t's are crossed - we will be new home owners in Rancho Palos Verdes (RPV)!  Bobby and I are really excited about this new adventure and I think the boys are really excited about the trampoline that came with the home purchase :-)

In the meantime, we are also selling our home in Phoenix.  There were actually 2 offers within the week of putting it up for sale!  We didn't go too much into a bidding war and hopefully we picked the right people for the house.  So far so good with negotiations and if all goes well, the "Phoenix" house will all be cleared out by this Saturday and closed on Sunday.  I will be driving out there on Thursday to manage the movers - I can't believe we are moving stuff just within 1 year of being back from Abu Dhabi!  We still have things in boxes here, which I have been hiding away (out of sight, out of mind :-) So definitely will be so glad to have everything in one place.  Phew!!!

Probably got about 85% of the house packed up during this last trip:

Graham and Charlie were a bit busy helping me out with some boxes.  Okay, to be fair - Graham did start out legitimately helping me:

And then, it was this...

And this... not technically "helping"!!!

Anyhow, one last drive to Phoenix and funny enough, we made the best time going and coming back this past weekend. The traffic in and out of LA was actually manageable! We'll see how it is with just me in the car - will probably be so bored without the kids!

There was a major down pour last Sunday morning in Gilbert - with lightning and thunder so loud and cats and dogs for rain.  And my first thought when I heard the storm was "The outdoor cushions!!!"  But thankfully they did not get wet! Here is perhaps remnants of another storm when we finally hit the road:

Can't believe we have made probably at least 10 road trips to Phoenix this past year to check on the house.  That's about 430 miles one way, which makes it 860 miles both ways... which would be 8,600 miles in total for 10 round trips.  That's basically a flight from Sydney, Australia to Dallas - one of the longest nonstops by distance!  And that flight only takes 15 1/2 hours. Ha ha!

One last dust storm to deal with perhaps??!

Anyhow... back to our soon-to-be new house in RPV!  It was a house that I had spotted online from a database that was set up by a real estate agent, whom we met at one of many random Open Houses. I put the house as my "Favorite" and a few days later, she emailed me and mentioned how she liked the area as it was close to where she had lived for 10 years. So Bobby and I went to see it on August 19 and boom, almost 2 months later, we are going to close on it!  I guess I will reveal the house once we all get in it.  The Seller have 3 days to move out after closing so we will be there this Sunday. InsyaAllah as they would say in Abu Dhabi! Somehow I still say that in my head even despite being away from the U.A.E now for a whole year!

But in the meantime, I can ponder about how much of a house I will get in Morristown, NJ for the same amount of money...

Or in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma:

It almost makes me cringe thinking about the money we are putting into this "humble and little" house.  YIKES!!!  But we are SOOOOOOO needing the space.  Graham and Charlie are literally on top of each other at times and we can't wait to have a backyard again... and a garage... and no neighbors upstairs!  Actually, the neighbor upstairs has just moved out and a new gal is moving in next weekend. Hopefully she's not noisy but at least we will only have to deal with her until the end of the month.  And it's funny how things have worked out as our apartment lease actually ends early next month. So we are not having to pay a month-to-month lease. Yay!!!

I have been so excited about moving in that I had even picked out paint colors last week!!!

And we have brought "Bob the Cactus" back with us on this road trip to be put in his new home soon.  Hope he likes the SoCal weather! (But seriously, who doesn't!!!)

We have already mentioned to Graham and Charlie about trick-or-treating in the new neighborhood.  Although I will miss this view - it's so calm and pretty by the coastline here and having the resort next door was also a bonus.  You just can't beat this view!

Everything will be happening next week (fingers crossed!) with cleaning, and painting, and the electrician... to start.  It's going to take a while to get through that Home Inspection list.  Wish us luck!!!