Going. Going. Gone!

I spoke with our Real Estate Agent, Vivian yesterday just as we were leaving for Monterey with 2 cars full of Sullivan's a Ulloa and a Leon (and their requisite luggage, nibbles and David Tennant crushes). She indicated that there was a chance we would get a couple of offers over the next couple of days and wanted to make sure she could reach us if and when that happened. Apparently her grand-daugher and her husband were extremely interested but had to sell their house first, and that another couple who had seen it only on Saturday and who didn't have an existing home to sell were also very keen. Of course, we didn't want to count our chickens before they had hatched and rather than get excited, M and I had a discussion about what we would be prepared to accept should they want to negotiate around our asking price. It turns out that we are really quite proud of our home and the improvements we've made over the past 8 years and weren't feeling particularly charitable towards anyone who wanted to quibble on the price we had set.

Anyway, after a pleasant afternoon of cross-country driving and a visit to Monterey Bay Aquarium - where Toby enjoyed watching the Otters, the Seahorses, touching some Starfish and seaweed and being resolutely ignored by the Penguins (they'd already been fed, why did they need to put on a show for us?) we got a call from Vivian. It turns out that she had been working hard all day on our behalf and had negotiated a sale at the full asking price with no contingencies (other than that we have a place to move to ourselves) and where the buyers were flexible on escrow timing. It really couldn't get much better than that. And that it happened on my birthday makes it even sweeter.

So here I am, currently sitting outside at the motel in Santa Cruz on June 23rd - my first full day as a 38 year old - doing a bit of work while my travelling companions get some more beauty sleep and contemplating the fact that we will be moving house in the 6 to 8 weeks. And in the meantime, we're heading over to Europe on vacation for 10 days, off to Sydney a little over a week after we get back from that and then hosting Neil and Tracey a week after we get back from that.

It's all very exciting.