The photo I've been waiting to snap for the past six weeks

Like everything else in life, the story of selling our house is one that I would have gone into in exhaustive detail had I given a daily play-by-play of events... but now that it's over... I don't have any desire to do that. Suffice it to say that selling a house sucks, that I probably cleaned it more these past six weeks than I did the six years prior to that, that you really do put the kids in the car and wash the floor behind you as you work your way out the door before a showing, that the kids missed Captain terribly when he moved into Gramma and Grampa's house for the duration of the sell (and I think Gramma and Grampa are totally relieved to have him gone now), that you really do start out the first few weeks leaving the house immaculate before you run out the door in the morning and with fresh flowers on the counter every day... only to see your standards drastically lower as the weeks pass and you realize that, more often than not, you are cleaning it up for nothing because nobody comes to see it when you are most prepared for them... and you just can't keep that kind of lifestyle up long-term, anyhow.We did have your typical flurry of activity when it first hit the market, and were lucky to have an offer after only two weeks. Unfortunately, the offer fell through a couple of weeks later when the buyer's financing didn't get approved, and let me tell you - I still daydream about running into this guy on the street and giving him a piece of my mind about what he put us through.It took a bit of time to get momentum back and resume showing the house, but another offer came a week later, and that was it. Not quite as much $ as the first offer, but with this one we kept the good appliances, so it probably works out pretty evenly in the end. Anyway, it was enough to make us happy and the peace of mind at getting our closing date agreed to was enormous. It then took another couple of weeks for all the conditions to be waived - other properties to sell, etc. - and yesterday it finally became official. Meanwhile - meanwhile - we broke ground on the new house just two days after signing the listing mandate. There's no incentive to sell your house quite like starting a new one. That first day the site was fully excavated and the footings poured... they made speedy progress... it was such a shock to see the exact footprint of the house... breakfast nook and all......and now, just six weeks later, the pace has not let up any - it's really a house. It's got a roof (fully shingled) and is half bricked (which makes this shot a week out of date now - it's time to take some new ones!) The framing went up super quick and it was so cool to actually walk around inside what was once just a bunch of ideas in our heads. We didn't buy plans for this house; we drew it all out on a sheet of graph paper, adjusted it a hundred times by a few inches here and there, took it to an architect to have it approved... so it's totally us. And it's been a lot of fun watching it all come together. The kids have been completely fantastic about it. Liam has been very excited about the new house. We go over to check on progress almost every day, and although we often make it a lunch hour destination for Chad and I, if we go too many days in a row while Liam is at Cindy's, he starts to ask when he can go, too. When we get there, he likes to take a lap around his new bedroom and see what's new. Of course, he also likes to check out what the construction workers have left behind... ...and the machinery that's been on site has been to die for!