Jan 14-19, 2022

Mortgage pre-approval – Last week, we made a rough plan for what to do next, and a major step is to get pre-approved for a mortgage (while still keeping the mortgage on 500 Muirfield). We gathered our paperwork, contacted our lender from 2020, and got moving on getting a pre-approval letter, so that we can start shopping for a house. Luckily, they already know a lot about our finances from 15 months ago when we last did this….but we had to provide updated paystubs, bank statements, etc. It was relatively painless (the painful part comes after we make an offer) and we heard back on Saturday that we are approved and able to start making offers. So that means…

Housing Hunt begins – We want to still be close to Nick’s parents in Broomfield, and are hoping to also still be close enough to the kids’ school for us to stay there. We picked the Louisville/Lafayette area for a reason, so we’re hoping to end up not too far from where we were. We’re planning to go see the first house tomorrow or Friday, as one just popped up as “Coming Soon” today (1/19).

Covid and classrooms – Like many other parents of young kids, we are also deep in the trenches of Covid exposures and classroom closures. As mentioned in the last update, Theo’s was exposed on Tuesday 1/11 so he couldn’t go back until Tuesday 1/18 (all his Covid test have been negative). And then, as we feared (but also kind of expected), we got the email on Monday night that Avery is now quarantined because she was exposed on Monday 1/17.

It’s felt like the world’s worst relay race, where as soon as one kid can go back, the other is sent home. So, we decided to just keep them both home this week. At least that way, once Avery’s class is open again, Theo can also go back and hopefully we’ll have at least a day or two where they can both attend at the same time. What a novel experience that will be!

The school has been working really hard to try to keep as many kids at school as possible, but it’s just overwhelming. We heard today that 40 kids and 15 teachers have tested positive in the last month. So, starting next week they are reducing hours even more (staff is clearly super stretched!) which will help them avoid combining classrooms at the beginning and end of each day as they have been doing since August. They’ll be open only from 8am-5pm, and you can pick an 8 hour window for your kids to be there. (8am-4pm, 8:46am-4:46pm, etc). It’s clearly not ideal, but it’s obvious that they’re doing what they can to try to get through this.

Sifting search – The other main thing that’s happened over the last few days is that the volunteer sifting crew was able to go on a quick hunt for Kate’s wedding ring. We were pretty sure it would be impossible to find, but we know it was in the drawer in the master bathroom, and we could see most pieces of the master bathroom on the garage floor (brand new shower glass, tile floor, light fixtures, etc). We figured if someone was going to volunteer to look for it, we might as well take them up on it.

The crew called us around 2:15 on Tuesday and Kate met them at the house around 2:30. They sifted through a ~8’x8′ area where the bathroom fell. They were moving fast because they heard that the city is going to start spraying lots with a substance that keeps the ash down now that a lot of snow/ice has melted.

It came as no surprise that they didn’t find anything in their sifting, but we’re glad that we can at least check that off the list and move forward with getting Kate a better, upgraded ring. 😉

The crew of 4 volunteers sifting through the front of our garage.

Next few days – We’re hoping to spend some time with Nick’s parents this weekend (once we feel everyone is Covid clear with some more rapid tests), and get started on our housing hunt. Kate is running a 5K to support the Community Foundation Wildfire Fund on Sunday, and you can join virtually too (walk, run, juggle, whatever!). If you do participate, please tag us in your Strava activity so we can give you all the kudos!!! Thanks for all the continued love and support!