No Fair!!

I'm pissy today. And frankly, I'm mostly mad at God. Does that shock anyone? Well sorry, it's the truth. Good thing God is big enough to take it!

I'm upset because we finally sold the house we remodeled last summer. Sold, you say?! Yeah, sold...for a $20,000 loss...yes...twenty thousand dollars.

We've flipped a number of houses, all of them with some level of success. It's no way to get rich (at least in this market), but we enjoy remodeling houses so it seems like a good way for us to make a little money. With one income and 4 little ones...well, who couldn't use a little extra, eh?

This last one though, was our baby. I felt sure that God had blessings in store for us because it seemed that He absolutely dumped it on our lap. It was a good deal and we made an offer on it the very first time we looked at it. It was accepted, and we were off to the races.

We poured our heart and soul into that place. My amazing husband - he didn't get much sleep for those few months! He'd get up early to go work on the house before heading off to his "real" job, then he'd come home to spend time with his family (which included thoroughly spoiling his then pregnant wife!), and then he'd be off to the house again after the kids were tucked in bed.

And we did a good...no...GREAT job on that place. It has hardwood floors, granite, landscaping, paint, custom bathroom, new room...I could go on. It's a beautiful house.

I feel terribly guilty, to be honest. We had an offer that first open house we had, but it wasn't what we were hoping for so let it fall through. If we had taken it, we would have make a little bit instead of losing a lot. But we...I...was SO sure that we could get more. Pride and greed...not exactly healthy emotions to listen to! I know it was not all my decision, but still...

Hell, we didn't even celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary because we were busy with that darn house!

So here we sit. We finally got a really low offer on the house, and we negotiated with them until they just wouldn't anymore. It was a tough decision...do we take the low offer or take our chances with the future? We were paying the mortgage, utilities, taxes and insurance on the place...we needed to make more on it with every passing day. And the news talks of recession in 2008, and how the housing market is going to take years to recover, and foreclosures right and left.

We decided we'd better choose to lose a lot of money now instead of losing even more down the road.

We had such high hopes and big dreams for that place.

My husband tells me I have to let it go. He tells me I should make a list of all the lessons we learned with this project. Why does he have to be so stinkin' wise?!

So there it is - my gripe for the day. I thought it might make me feel better to talk about it. I wish.