The Rickards Family: Our Summer Fling

So here's an update on what's been going on behind the "events" in our lives. In September, we made the tough decision to move back home. I just looked back and realized that I never posted about our move in the first place other than just that we moved. So, here's the story:

Last May, we were helping some friends sell their home. In the beginning when things were a little slow, they wondered what the rental market would be like, if they decided to rent out their house instead of selling it. So, we looked into it while we were over at their house one evening.

Jason came across this house that looked really cool. (2 acres, a movie theater, work out room, pool, hot tub, park- all the goodies.) We thought it would be fun to go see it- just for fun. We left the big kids in charge and went to check it out with our friends.

When we pulled up, Jason and I recognized it right away. We had driven by it several years before when it was for sale. I remember sitting outside the gate and us talking about how fun it would be to live in a place like that someday. (This picture doesn't do it justice, but I never took a good picture of the front of the house. I pulled this off of the MLS)

We met the owner and really liked him. He was our age and a super nice guy. The home was older but, it had been remodeled a few years ago. Unfortunately, the owner had to move for his job and had been renting the house out and waiting for the market to turn around so he could sell it.

He said he would be willing to rent it to us for a little less than our current mortgage if we would sign a three year lease. We thought about it, brought the kids back, etc and decided to go for it. He was having some construction done on the garage and the other "out buildings" that was supposed to be done "in a few weeks", so we wouldn't have access to the garage until it was done.
We decided to see if we could qualify for any of the mortgage modifications so it would be easier to rent out our home. (not the right time to sell our home either.) We kept our garage stuff in the garage at our home and moved out to the new house a few weeks later.

We spent weeks painting and getting the new house set up so it felt like home. The previous renters left a lot to be repaired and kept up. We trimmed trees, replaced sprinklers, ordered an oven door (that took over a month to come in) and replaced countless light bulbs, but it started to feel like home.

It wasn't long before we learned that if something seems to good to be true, it usually is. The construction kept getting pushed out and nothing was built up to code and kept having to be redone to pass inspections. I didn't like the girls out in the pool during the day while we had a small army of construction workers out there. I kept hoping that each week would be the last week I would feel like I needed to keep my blinds closed or put on a bra to take out the garbage in the morning. I wasn't unusual for me to walk out to my car to leave to run errands and pass a couple of men eating their lunch or taking a nap under my willow tree.

A couple of weeks, turned into months and we kept finding more things wrong with the house. Mostly leaks, but I new that would mean the workers would be there even longer and would be moving to right outside my bedroom window and inside my living room!

The thought drove me bonkers! I really wanted my own space and was ready for everything to be fixed and working and be totally moved in.

We had the bee issue, had it taken care of only to have them return a few weeks later like something out of a horror movie!

So, we had it taken care of again, but were told it would be an issue every year until someone came out and took the chimney totally apart, cleaned it out and rebuilt it. Grrr. More construction.

Before school started, I found out that the house wasn't in the school zones that we thought and that Austin would actually be going to a different junior high. I looked into transfers and the bus system and found out that if I wanted to keep them in their schools (which are way better than the schools in the new zone), I would have to drive them in everyday. It's only about a 15-18 minute drive, but with the staggering schedules, I would be in the car all day. One of my kids is out of school at 2:45, one at 3:00, one at 3:15 and one with after school sports until 4:20. I might as well paint my car yellow and stencil TAXI on the side.

We had been in the new house for almost 2 months when we got our first utility bill. $4000. No joke. It was for 2 months, but still!!!!!! Jason started looking into ways to reduce our monthly bill, but I was over the house by then. I was newly pregnant and school would be starting soon and I missed our old ward at church. The house was driving me crazy and not worth the extra expense. Jason loved the idea of the garage that was finally, almost done and all the fun stuff about the house.

We spent some time thinking about our options. We loved the property, but ultimately decided that the best thing for our family would be to move back home. The owner of the home graciously let us out of our lease. He offered us a reduced rate while the rest of the construction was being done and offered to split the utility meters to offset our PG&E bill. It made us stop and think, but we felt like going home was the right thing for our family. We just weren't sure what to expect with this pregnancy and thought it would be best to be close to school and to our family. We stopped by the old house just to see if we still felt the same way being there. On the front porch was a letter of acceptance for a loan modification!

So, we packed up once again and said goodbye to our Summer Fling. Goodbye, to our fun house with the gated entrance and security cameras. Goodbye to the movie theater and popcorn machine. Goodbye to the park and the pool and the hot tub (that never quite worked). Goodbye to the fire pit and the playroom over the garage. Goodbye. We had so many fun memories, but it was time to go home.

We moved the second week of September. If you look back at our September, you will see how crazy was. It's November now and I just barely feel moved back in. The kids had gotten used to having their own rooms and we had gotten rid of and gained some furniture in the move, so we had to figure out where things go again. With a new baby on the way, we had to figure out where we were going to put the baby. We decided the best option was to build a new room, so we did.

At the top of the stairs to the left of the room, we put in another one. It was part of the master bedroom (the retreat) but we never used it except to collect junk.

I didn't take any pictures of the construction, but this is what the top of my stairs looks like now. Jason asked if I thought it would be too crazy to have construction while we were moving. I told him we should do it while I was still used to it or it might not happen. I actually didn't mind having Vicente (the guy who built the room) around. He is a nice guy and did a great job.