The decision has been made:

DH is taking the job in Edmonton.

What does this mean? Well, the hopes of earning more by staying with Dometic here in Calgary and/or DH running the contract by himself is off the table. I think the trade-off for us is that the kids will be closer to their grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc here in Canada. We also won't be taking the long trips there for Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc which will save us a lot of money.

But after examining the costs that we'll end up absorbing to make this move, I'm sort of a little nauseous.

It wasn't so bad when we moved from NY to Calgary. We had a trunk full of stuff and that was it. I had $2800 in my bank account. This time, we'll have a U-Haul full of stuff with money in both accounts. I think what does it for me is that we own the place we're moving from and will be owning the place we're moving to. We'll be spending a lot of money (debt, of course - but only temporary) at one time and we're unsure of what down payment we will have. I have been doing my best to scour for good prices on fixtures, prepare well in advance and look for houses that are in our budget. I'm looking at houses that are more obtainable than not and taking things into consideration like property tax, location, nearby amenities, etc. I have taken into consideration that we may not get a house that's so close to everything that we have now, and that our lifestyles may end up changing once again to accomodate that.

I think it's the cost more than anything that has been hard to swallow. We've already been figuring that we need a new roof, which is about $3,000. We'll need paint, which will be a lot. We'll need baseboards on the first level, which will be a lot. We'll need a new tub, toilets, faucets, vanities, etc which will be a lot. It's just A LOT.

I'm calling the realtor this week. I'm trusting that he'll be able to give us the realistic list of items to fix based on what comparables are around here. We want this place to stand out, but not at the cost of two arms and two legs. We want to do our best to get full asking price but not overdoing it for the neighborhood that we live in. We decided that basic is good for some things, while upgraded is good for other things.

Once we do sell the house, we'll be paying off the HELOC and the CCs and the inlaws. The kitchen will cost us at least $1800, not including the cost for the new countertop. The bathrooms will cost at least $5k. The roof is $3k. New baseboards will be about $1000. The painting of the ceiling and fixing of the water damage will cost us a lot too. I haven't even gotten a price yet for tiles, either. Oy!

Now, I'm more than happy to do it to get the house sold. I have bought things before that cost me this much, including this house. But for some reason, the costs are affecting me way more than before.

So I'm trying to cope. It's a lot of numbers flying around and figures that are staring at me. It's hard to handle. But I think we'll get the hang of it.