we broke ground!

Here's our house today! How exciting!

So, amidst all the faxes, emails and pieces of paper, I have managed to get some serious packing done. Thank God.

And, I met with Mr. Beemer enthusiast. He was only like 45. Turns out he DID look like he could murder or rape someone. I kept Dave on the phone while we talked about the car. He stood close to me and I kept stepping backwards. He wanted to talk all about BMWs and I was like "Do you want this car or not?--I have stuff to do." So he's thinking about it. Whatever.

We seem to have a mini fire drill everyday about some detail of all the transactions happening right now. Today's little alarm was caused by a number of people (who's opinions I highly value) warning us that our plans are overly ambitious, and that Dave and I would each implode from the stress. And all the plans are intertwined, so tweak the machine over here and you have to rip out a bunch of stuff over there. So--consequently, and much to Dave's sadness, I was up at like 6:00 am firing up Dave on the phone in Virginia saying "are you sure of this, and what about that?"

So--to clarify--in case this is your first installment of Schleiferkin:
1. Dave got accepted to a fancy pants law school that's harder than most law schools which are all supposed to be really hard. Especially in the first year.

2. In order for us to afford Dave's law school, he has to work, because it's in Washington, D.C. and I haven't ever made the kind of salary it takes to live there.

3. In order for Dave to go to school and to work, we need me to stay home so Dave can really focus and because we're also expecting a baby (due around day 1 of school) and I also will be taking care of my mother, who's health is not great, and who has to live with us because Assisted Living facilities are prohibitively expensive in the DC area.

4. In order to have a baby, our dogs, and my mother live with us, we need a 4 bedroom house.

5. In order to afford the 4 bedroom house, we have to live far away, or live in really really tight quarters.

6. To live far away, Dave's commute will take 3 hours out of his day everyday and an hour and a half out of my day because we want to try to do this with one car to save money. (Dave figures he has a lot of reading to do because of school so this will actually work well for him. Plus, he can telecommute.)

So--our caring advisors have all said various things about various parts of the plan. Mostly sharing concern over how hard it is to have a baby, especially the first year, or how hard law school is, especially the first year, and for Dave the combined load of school, work, a new baby, and the commute potentially giving him a heart attack.

Dave HATES the phone. Hates it. I think he actually hates speaking words out loud. (How is he possibly functional at work?!) Anyway. He was like "It's OK, it's OK, we can handle it." So--we have talked about scenarios more than any person could possibly talk about them and decided: We are still going forward with our plans--despite all the warnings. Check back with us in a year to see if I've had a nervous breakdown and Dave's still alive. My machismo self thinks we can hack it. I think I've experienced worse. We'll see!

91 degrees here today. No fun!

We miss you! Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com