Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Confession #1: Buying a house AKA an expensive way to get our bed back

Here’s a little back story on the Amanda & Eric Saga…
Eric and I met in January of 2013 while we were both living in Atlanta. In July, Eric learned that he had been accepted into a program at Norfolk Southern that would have him moving every 9 months for the next 27 months.  It was terrible. We obviously made it through, but it wasn’t easy. There were ups and definitely downs. Despite all of the odds, we got married in April 2015. Eric was supposed to be done with his program in September, but didn’t end up getting a job in Roanoke, VA until December. Soooo after 9 months of marriage we were pretty stoked to be FINALLY moving in together! We didn’t know that there were many more obstacles, far more challenging than long distance relationships and marriages that awaited us….
Norfolk Southern came on December 15 to pack up all of our stuff and move it into storage. They hold onto it until we have found a house and are ready for it back, pretty nice of them. If you don’t know me, I HATE, LOATHE, and DESPISE packing. I can’t even pack to go on vacation, I need all kinds of rewards (wine) and incentives (more wine). So to say I was pumped that NFS was going to come and pack my stuff for me and move it would be the understatement of the century. I said sayonara to our stuff and a tearful goodbye to Atlanta and met Eric in Roanoke in January (it didn’t take me that long to get there, but I skipped over the boring bits in there about Christmas and working and blah blah blah, you’re welcome).
Now I know what you’re thinking and no, Eric and I didn’t live on the mean streets of Roanoke until we found our house. A guy at Eric’s work had a house that he was trying to sell and was willing to let us rent the place for as long as we needed (or until he sold it). There was a bed, couch, TV, and heat so we were pretty grateful. Well we were grateful for about a week and then I realized something… I was… haha just kidding! Got ya!... what I realized was that the bed was super uncomfortable. I am talking top 5 worst beds I have ever slept in in my life. Terrible. It sloped in in the middle and squeaked every time you breathed out. Now, remember Eric and I hadn’t really lived together that much (a summer and some weekends) so we were adjusting to things and having a terrible bed was like having an annoying cat that you don’t even really like. It’s always there at the end of the day and it makes you resent each other because you don’t even like the cat so why do YOU have to scoop the poop and feed it. Every night we squeaked into bed and tried to scoot as far apart as we could only to find ourselves right next to each other in the middle of the night. A lot of our midnight conversations went like this…

A: MOVE OVER. YOU’RE ON MY SIDE
E: Huh? What? I’m on the edge.
A: You clearly aren’t! My arm is hanging off the bed *dramatization*
E: I can’t move over anymore. I promise.
A: Doubt it! *leans over to see how close to the edge he really is and realizes he is in fact on the edge of the bed and can’t move over anymore unless he wants to be on the floor, which might be more comfortable*
A: FINE. But, stay on your side from now on and stop breathing so heavily *definitely not what woke me up anyway, but at midnight I can’t be reasoned with*

Eric and I weren’t having problems, but had we slept on that bed for another month, I think things would have gone downhill quickly. If you’re having problems in your relationship I would suggest buying a new mattress, it might just do the trick.
After a few weeks and what felt like several hundred houses later and several thousand uncomfortable nights on the mattress from hell, we found the perfect house! We were excited and thrilled when we got the house and I was on pins and needles until we signed and the house was ours! From what I know about house buying, it was a pretty easy process and we were lucky to be in the house quickly.
Our stuff came a few days after we signed. I was at work (got a job the day we signed, of course!) and when I came home I ran up to our bedroom and flung myself onto our bed and wept the happiest tears anyone has ever wept to see their bed. OK, so I didn’t cry, but I did fling myself onto it and promise to never let it go anywhere without me ever again.
We love our house and I’m sure as we get settled our love will grow. We can’t wait to really make it our own and start a family that can also grow there. Right now though, we are thrilled to have our bed back. I’m sleeping a bajillion times better and I don’t resent my husband for being on my side of the bed in the middle of the night. We are back in newly wed bliss!

Confession: It was probably the most expensive way to get a mattress back/a better night’s sleep, but I’d say it was pretty worth it!

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