Randomness…

Daughter’s third birthday party was successfully pulled off yesterday. We just had family and one family of friends here for sloppy joes, etc. and a “pink Charlie Brown” cake (request spawned by watching too much “Charlie Brown Christmas” this year). I was particularly happy that my parents made it up…my dad felt good enough to drive here and back (about an hour each way). I heard him comment to someone that “I just get to feeling good and it’s time to get poked again” (welcome weird search terms). Oh well. Anyway, M had a blast and was unbelievably wound up last night. Now we need to get used to being parents again after a week off.

I’m stressed. The pressure noose of our old house is tightening. Just got our last reimbursement check from the builder, and I’m worried now about what to do. The market in our old city is particularly bleak, and there are a lot of houses similar to ours that are selling for a lot less, to either foreclosure or b/c they were owned by older people who no longer had mortgages. So now we’re looking into several options: renting (not my favorite); short sale; and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The short sale won’t be an option unless we stop paying the old mortgage–after 90 days, they will consider it. Seems ridiculous, huh? If we get rid of the home equity on it, then we might be able to do the deed-in-lieu. So tomorrow, I will be calling a local bank to see if we can get a home equity on the new house (with the stipulation that we will be paying off the old one), then probably trying to locate a real estate lawyer who can help us with the options. I just don’t think we can afford to keep paying the old mortgage, plus the $3100/year vacant home insurance. It’s not going to work. I guess I’d rather bruise our credit first, b/c I think we can repair it relatively quickly. And we’re not anticipating really needing to do any major purchases in the next several years, anyway.  More later on that.