If your ever in a tornado

So here we are closing on a house Friday July 15^th. I haven’t even begun to think of how much money we will be spending in the next few weeks.  Closing cost, putting in a fence, replacing the old appliances, fixing the floors, and painting are all costs we are going to have to pay in just a week or two. No wonder so many people rent!  Gives me a panic attack just thinking about it.  Don’t get me wrong I am excited and can’t wait to get out of that horrible hotel room, but I have this feeling like the rugs going to be pulled out from under us at any minute.  Here at school we call that the imposter syndrome for all us graduate students who are secretly waiting for someone to find out that we really are not that smart and someone made a huge mistake accepting  us into a doc program (no joke we have a name for it).

So what can I tell you about the house?  Well, it’s a little smaller then our rental house but because it is just the two of us I don’t think we need as much room.  It has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  It is a galley kitchen with a breakfast area.  A formal dining area and a living room with a fireplace; it’s a ranch style home so all one level.  The back yard is huge but mostly wild with a huge hill that drops to a creek (Bobby seems to be very excited about this, not sure why).  We are replacing the flooring in the living room, hall, and dining room.  The kitchen linoleum is all cut up so we are having to replace that.  The sellers had 3 little girls and boy did they do a number on the floor and walls; not to mention the guest rooms are all colored in hot pink, pastel yellow, and lime green.  We have a lot of painting to do.  The house was built in 1991 and the appliances are original, everything is gold in the house (yuck!) and there is not a complete fence in the back for the dogs.  Lots of appointments are needed to be made.  We are thinking we can get everything started next week and hopefully be sleeping under our new roof by next Saturday July 23^rd (fingers crossed). Now to remember where everything has been stored at, looking on the bright side we are not having to move as much stuff, an advantage of a tornado, it requires you to do a lot of purging.  My sweet sweet sweet hairdresser is giving us mattresses and a washer dryer so we are not having to cut that into our shrinking budget which is fabulous! Overall if we can make it past the next 2 weeks we might actually be hitting the downward slope to recovery!  Anyone have a four piece table set they want to get rid of?  Thought I would ask.

I will be starting my new job August 1^st.  I get to work from home mostly so that will be very strange.  I am worried I will get lonely being a people person; I will have to make sure I do not become a hermit.  I already have assignments to start working on, projects to develop, events to coordinate, and research to do, so no rest for the weary.  I am super excited about the new job but very sad to be leaving my current position.  I put so much into that program it will definitely be hard to say goodbye when the time comes.  Something about a tornado and the aftermath just made both Bobby and I reexamine our life and where it was heading.  I knew I had to change things for myself and for my career.

Bobby finally read the blog, I know right, way to stay informed there hubby (lol).  He has decided to take over the FEMA argument from me.  That’s probably the best thing; I might end up in jail for harassment. Maybe he can get somewhere with them.  Overall we calculated that we are still in the hole over $10,000 and can prove it; let’s see if FEMA even attempts to help with that, I am not holding my breath. 

The cars are still in and out of the shop but are working so that’s another wonderful thing.  Bobby is still driving the old truck right now, I am trying to get the body shop to give us a loaner so he can at least have air conditioning.  I worry he is going to have a heat stroke soon.  His truck will stay in the shop until its completely fixed and then mine will go back in to fix the remaining damages.  We have lost a lot of value in the cars and our insurance apparently doesn’t cover loss of value (that’s a separate policy).  So just a little hint, if you live in the state of Alabama, the $10 or so a month for an additional policy for loss of value on your vehicle might be worth it, just saying.