63 days left in my dream home. Or less, depending on when we decide to vacate.  But, no more than 63 days including today.

I think about things differently these days.  For example, today I opened a drawer in our bathroom and I thought “ugh! I need to clean this out. I walk into closets and think, geez, I need to go through all of this.  My husbands response is that we will get a dumpster…  No, we need to donate, reuse, recycle.  I cannot just put everything in a dumpster.

We need to start going through everything.  Even though we will have movers pack and unpack, there is still a lot we have to do.  There is no payment for our time for this as there is no payment for any of our time that we have put into looking for a home, researching Eminent Domain and putting our story together for appraisers and other appointments.

Moving will take at least a week.  Two to three days for the movers to pack us and then two days to unpack.  Someone needs to be here and there to organize and assist.  That is a week off work.  How fair is that? Everyone else working on this project gets paid, but we have to take time off from work to move and get nothing.

I am going to start adding up the hours spent on trying to save our home, eight years of hours.  Just for the principle of it.  This is crazy.  We live in America, how can this be?

And when should we stop mowing the lawn?  These are things I have been thinking about.

~Susan

I need to try to relax and calm down.  I know everything will work out.  I have been pretty stressed with this process and getting ready to move that I haven’t been able to write.

I decided to write a little bit each day on how I feel and what is going on.  Basically, keeping the blog in “present” time and then getting to the background story after we move and get settled.

Last Friday we had two moving companies come to the house so we can get bids for relocating.  I broke down at the end of the first appointment.  I just became so upset showing our house and looking at everything we did.  My husband had to show our property to the second appointment.

I realized that it will be best to get out sooner than later.  Even though we are pretty sure we are the last homeowners on the road project still living in our home.  Our drop dead or the sheriff is coming date is November 15th.  So, we have stayed as long as we can.

Because we did not accept the County’s offer we will not receive any money until we do settle.  Except that to actually take possession of our property, they will have to pay the mortgage first.  We have no idea when they are going to pay it, by Novemeber 15th I woud think.

What that means is we are still paying our mortgage which is crazy.  We also had to put a downpayment on our rental home and will be paying both next month. I don’t see where Eminent Domain is a good process and laws protect the people.

This is our third home.  It was going to be our last home.  We have updated everyroom.  Including painting closets — on the inside, who does that?  Every piece of furniture is for the room it is in. Every thing has a place and a purpose in this house.  We have been here fifteen years.  Fifteen years.  I know now that it would not have mattered if we had been here fifty years.  If the government wants your property, they are going to take it.

But, really, just be fair and pay for us to get a comparable home or build.  I don’t want to go into details or numbers.  In a nut shell, the offer was less than what we have our home is insured for.  Our insurance number does not include the land.  We know a little bit about insurance and rebuilding cost.  I am an insurance agent and have been in the insurance industry over 20 years and my husband works with me.

This really does suck and I feel sick from the inside out.  The gentleman from the moving company last Friday was very empathetic and had worked with other homeowners on this project.  He told me to make sure I was okay “on the inside”, that is when I broke down.  Because I am not okay on the inside. That is why I know we need to move sooner than later.

~Susan

My IT friend Chris just left.  Thank you!  We finally figured out a few more details of how to do this and got some photos on the site.  We are so lucky to have so many good people in our life helping us.

We have had a lot of company lately, first family for a week and then we hosted over 40 people from school for dinner a week ago Saturday and then friends Friday and Saturday.

Today was hopefully our last appraisal.  What happens is that the County hires an appraisal to do a market value of your home and if you don’t agree, you can get your own and they will reimburse you up to $1500.00.  I will explain more of the details as we go through the process and I get more familiar on “blogging”.

I can breathe now.  We found a home to rent.  That is a whole other story.

My plan is to write our story on the past eight years under “Background Story” and to write about what we are currently going through and feel under “Blog”.

I do not wish this upon anyone.  If you are going through Eminent Domain, I hope I can help.  We have learned a lot and continue to learn.  Again, I am so thankful for everyone who is helping us in one way or another.

One more thing, our oldest started school today and our youngest starts tomorrow.  How we have pulled everything together to make life as normal as possible for them, I dont know.

~Susan

Okay, I am having serious technical difficulties trying to figure out the administrative part of word press.  Regarding our “situation” our oldest, who is 12, just got back from camp.  He was gone four weeks.  He was so emotional when he came home he cried. He wants us to move the house.  “They” could never pay us enough for the emotions we have and are going though.  But, that isn’t covered anyway.  I would really like the people who are involved and have been involved to come over and see my home and meet my children. The offer is an invitation.

We got our certified letter yesterday.  We knew it was coming, we understand that there is nothing we can do.  But, somehow, getting that letter was gut renching.  Seriously, I cannot tell you how this feels.  I really do feel like throwing up and I have a lump in my throat that I can barely talk right now.  November, we need to move by November.

November as in three months.

I am dreading getting the mail.  Nothing so far, but letter will be coming any day.  County filed condemnation on or about July 19th…