Here's what I'm currently in for a situation. Realize, I may be the exception not the standard. We went under contract for full asking price shortly after putting our house on the market in Feb/march. closing was to be 4/25/2008. Our realtor urged us to sell first, get the $$ then buy. Well, as luck would have it, the closing was 'postponed'. Then again, and again over the past 13 days or so. We moved into my in-laws a few towns over by 4/25 and have been there since. We still have not closed. As of today, 5/9 we still have not closed but have given our buyer until Monday a.m. to have everything ready to go and until Wednesday to have the closing. On that day the house will go back on the market and damages will be collected for failure to secure financing. They are on 'round 3 of obtaining a mortage'. Husband and I work opposite shifts, we live at his parents and we drive to pre-school 3 days a week and soccer one day on the weekend in the town we are selling our home in. Last week my husband kept telling me it looked like my head was about to explode! It is so frustrating. But trying to see the glass as half full - I am THANKFUL I did not have a closing on a house I wanted to buy the same day as the one I need to sell b/c then I'd be in a pickle and have 2 mortages - then we would have really seen some head explosion! It's all a pain in the you know what, but we could be in a much, much worse situation.

Well the house went under contract in early May, but we got the word on Wednesday, August 17th, that the buyers were pulling out due to "personal issues". I certainly don't blame them & am surprised they hung on as long as they did. We kept waiting & waiting on the bank. They kept asking for more paperwork, all of which we sent to them immediately as they requested it. We often had to re-submit paperwork that they already had and/or update it because of their delays. I truly believe there's no reason that the bank wouldn't have accepted this offer, as we had a cash buyers, and a decent price, but IMO the back screwed this one up. Even the attorneys were frustrated, but I guess this is just the nature of a short sale. Our RE listing contract ends August 31st & the bank thought we would have our answer by September 1st. I just wish we would have found out what the "golden" pricing number was to see if it would have gone thru as expected. As they say Everything happens for a reason. We are going to try some other options, so we won't be re-listing, at least not at this time of the year. Might have to start the process over again in January if the other options don't work out. So, this one falls in the "Never happening" category.

Dh and I have lived in our current house for our entire marriage, 17 years. Truthfully, it was being built when we got married, so we lived in an apt for 2 months, then my parents for a month then it was ready. We live on the outskirts of a waterfront tourist town. We were supposed to be here for 3 years. Dh was in the Navy and this was not supposed to be our forever home as we anticipated being transferred by the Navy. However, dh realized the Navy was not meant to be his career as he didn't want to constantly move once we had kids. We wanted to live close to one of our families, but unfortunately, they live on opposite coasts. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area, and I am from the Wash DC area. Since it was the height of the tech boom at the time dh was getting out of the Navy, and we simply could not afford a home in the Silicon Valley, he got a job here, which fortunately is only 25 minutes from my parents. And here we've stayed. It is NOT my dream home. I don't even really like it. It was small when we moved in, and even smaller after having four kids! We looked around at moving to a different home, but absolutely love our neighbors and our community so finding a home that fit our needs was very difficult. We live in a high COL so home prices made it hard to find something that fit our desires while still being affordable. 10 years ago, we added on and while the space has helped, it hasn't changed the fact that our floorplan isn't desirable to us. We live in a waterfront community with very strict building codes, so we worked within that and have maxed out what we can do w/o completely gutting the house and starting over. With four kids in private school and one off to college in four years, I've pretty much resigned myself that we won't be moving anytime soon, nor can we really afford at this point to do any major changes that would help. I am constantly looking at houses for sale in the area, but the only affordable ones are in tract home subdivisions and that's not type of community we desire. So we make do with what we have. And it's not that my house is bad, but it's not set up well for entertaining, something I'd love to do more often, we had to give up our fabulous screened porch when we added on and cannot add another due to space constraints. I miss that terribly. On the bright side, we have wonderful neighbors, live in a waterfront neighborhood so the kids can fish, swim, kayak, ride their bikes freely (community is a peninsula w/no through traffic), etc. My dream is to move into the historic district in our tourist town where we can walk and bike everywhere. We live 5 miles from there now, but not on bike-friendly roads (though dh is an avid biker and rides them, no way my kids can). There are some really fabulous Arts & Crafts cottages, as well as many other architecturally interesting homes that date back to the 1700s. My hope is to move into one of them some day and have that be our forever home, with a second home in another climate. I wish I could love this home and think of it as my forever home, but it is not ideal for aging. We have three floors, with bedrooms all on the third floor as the garage/rec room are "under" the main living level. My parents still live in the house I grew up - they are going on 50 years there. They will stay until it's too much for them as it's perfect for aging, a rancher. All that said, as much as I want to move, the idea of moving is dreadful to me, which is probably one of the reasons I haven't really pushed for it. The thought of trying to keep my home in "show" condition with four kids, a huge dog that sheds, well, not fun. So perhaps a small part of me continues to find something undesirable about any of the houses I'm always looking at. I figure if I'm going to go through the hassle, the house has to be pretty close to what I want! Love all the interesting stories!

1. How long do you hold on to furniture or window treatments or other household items after they no longer please you? The question made me laugh. The portieres here are 120 years old heh heh I would imagine well keep them until were long gone from this home, at least another 20 plus years so I suppose you could say I hold onto draperies for 140 years plus :oP As to other window treatments or furniture, it depends. If I dont like a piece but it will work until I find the right replacement, I hang on to it. If I really dont like it I let it go right away but I dont like to use temporary fillers because theyre always cheap and never quite work (hence the temporary). As to window treatments, I have pretty classic style so mine tend to last until I make new ones. I rarely tire of them and only change when I change a room color or find a fabric that inspires me to make new ones. 2. Do you find yourself frozen in place more by financial contraints, (which has been MY big issue when something is no longer pretty to me, but I really don't have the money to waste on new) or by 'Decision Freeze', where you Want to get a new bed or carpet or dining set, but you just don't want to make a big mistake? Finances the decision part is normally pretty easy. Im not afraid of mistakes... Im a pro at them! 3. Do you find yourself more dissatisfied when you read House Beautiful and see a pretty new dining room, or do you start taking a long hard look at your set when someone on Garden Web makes a great purchase and redoes their dining room? Or are you more settled in your choices and feel that you will change yours when you are good and ready? I find them inspirational and enjoyable to read, but not dissatisfied at all. I enjoy my space, even if its not magazine ready (looking around dining room and the 4 thomas the train sets that seem to have invaded it this morning). 4. What is your biggest weakness when it comes to not wanting to hold on to something that you feel was a mistake/a tribute to the 1980's/or an impulse buy? I love to throw stuff away/on the curb, whatever. It gives me great satisfaction to get rid of stuff for some reason. DH was a bit worried when he saw me packing and labeling stuff "free" yesterday heh heh 5. Are you entranced by the idea of Craigslist or Ebay to find cool new stuff and recycle what now bugs you? I prefer (furniture wise) to touch stuff in person and dont like to go to peoples homes I dont know normally. I love ebay, but not for larger pieces. Im more the antique store type or the thrift store type than the craigslist type. 6. has the on vent of Garage Sale Chic and Craigslist given you a new lease on life? You now feel empowered to just start scanning the ads because you know you might score a new set for a reasonable amount of money? I have not been able to get onto the garage sale chic craze. I dont like junk and find it depressing to have surrounding me. I might trip over one with something worthwhile, but would never go out of my way to go to one. 7. And here's one for mulling over...in my "Old" marriage, my X saw a yard sale purchase or a classified ad buy as something only poor, uneducated people do. Antiques were just old furniture. I remember a guy walking into my home filled with antiques and he asked "Why do you have all this old junk when you can afford new". Mind you, he had the ugliest freaking home full of "new" that Id ever seen. I love furniture with history. Does buying used feel like being 'Green' and helping to Recycle? As we disappear into a cloud of Smug... *snicker* (Im leaving jonmaris answer here because its so good) Or does it feel more like possibly inheriting someone else's problem? If its a problem I dont buy it. If its an antique worth purchasing, Id always prefer it to new, always.