Hold My Mail, Please

This may be the craziest thing I have ever done. In just two weeks, we're moving. For the past seven years, I've enjoyed a commute of 1-mile to my school. I would even ride my bike to work in the fall before the mornings got too dark to do so. Just three years ago, we bought a house in the same neighborhood we had been renting. Now, so soon after our last home purchase, I'm trading in my 1-mile commute for a 40-mile commute. Why? Well, this is why.

This beautiful house is more than just a house. My father-in-law designed this to be his family's home. As a man who has spent his entire life working construction, he built it himself. My wife remembers helping him lay the wood flooring when she was 10 years old. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, they had to sell the house about 15 years ago. But about a month ago, we found out it was on the market. We decided to make a run at it, but we didn't think there was a good chance we would get it because our house wasn't even up for sale yet. I mean, we weren't even planning on moving. Amazingly, the sellers accepted our offer, contingency and all. The current owners haven't kept anything up, so there are a lot of repairs to do. Basically, we just bought a fixer-upper at the top of our price range that exponentially increases my driving time to work. But it's okay, because you know that house we bought three years ago? It appreciated so much in this crazy housing market that we sold it for a full $100,000 more than we bought it. That will help fund the new roof, replacements for the broken bathroom fixtures and the almost 30-year-old carpet, and a bunch of other things that need to be done.

We're now in full-on packing mode around here, and my cards have already been packed up. I turned off trading on TCDB already. I even sold off my basketball collection and most of my baseball trade boxes to lighten the load a little and help finance moving expenses. If anybody was planning to send me anything, I'd like to request that you hold them for me for a couple of weeks. Not only am I worried that I might not get them, but, as I said, everything is in boxes for the moment.

Since I'm not going to have any mail days until at least the end of the month, I want to display some of my more recent mail days. These came from various TCDB trades, some blogger free stuff giveaways, and Johnny's BFG. Thanks to all who provided these for my collection.

I'll let you know when I can resume the activity of sending and receiving cards--along with the new address--when we get settled. Oh, and did I mention? This house will have a card room for me! Ignore the paint, please. My wife and I have compromised to share it. Half of it will be a sewing room for her, the other half a card a room for me. I've never had more than a closet before.