We're outta here.

And not by choice. Now that we've told the kids, I'll post it here: we're moving. A little bit of background: we have rented this house for 13 years and 7 months. It was owned by an elderly couple who were no longer able to live in the house on their own. We've told them from the get-go that when they were ready to sell it, we wanted to buy it. But over the years the real estate prices around here went nuts and priced it out of our range. We have been aware that they have had offers from developers who want it for the lot. The wife got teary talking to us about it, not wanting the home of so many years to be torn down.

Well, the husband passed away several years ago. The wife, just this spring. We got a call last week from one of their adult daughters (the one that we've always dealt with on house matters) saying that she needed to meet with us asap. Not good. We met on Saturday and to make a long story as short as possible, she will no longer be renting the house. She is trying to convince her older sister (who has had some very unfortunate events in her life over the past 18 mos) come live here. She told us she appreciates the way we've taken care of the house and basically treated it as our own, but we have until June 30. I cried while she was here and when she left I was just sobbing. While we're ready to think about moving, we are not ready to buy anything quite yet.

Fortunately, both of my parents have offered to have us live with them as long as we need to. Right now the plan is to stay with my father and stepmother for the summer and then my mom in the fall, so that the kids can go to the same schools. Hopefully by mid-fall we will be ready to buy. But maybe I'll win the lottery before then....