So we got a random phone call the other afternoon from Mosaic Properties saying the the owner of the home we are renting has decided to sell the house. I was in total shock. I didn't want to believe it and it was hard to believe what I was hearing from the property manager who was talking to me. Pretty sure I felt every emotion all within a few seconds while hearing the words, "you have to move". I don't blame them for wanting to sell since it is a great time to sell a house right now in Gilbert. House prices have seemed to shoot way up... and for that, so has rent prices.
We were told we have to be moved out by May 31. We REALLY wanted to stay in the same area. I called on a few homes and they were SO much pricier than what we had been paying. Like a few hundred dollars more. Yikes! We had already been worried about what the coming year would bring, even with the rent we had been paying, so adding a move to a more expensive place brought a lot of stress and panic.
After a few days of stress we talked about the idea of possibly moving to Utah. We knew that Dawson and Stacie were living in my parents guest house but were in the process of building a house. We thought that when they moved to their new house, we could possibly have the guest house as an option. I brought up the idea with my parents and they were very supportive of us moving to Utah. They offered to let us live in their home until the guest home became available. While talking about plans of moving to Utah, a few different people in our ward approached us, asking us about info on the our rental house, wanting to buy it and keep us as tenants. It sounded like a dream come true and I got my hopes up thinking we could stay in Arizona. Nothing really became of it because the property manager wasn't returning phone calls and we decided to just make the move to Utah.
I really feel like as hard as it is to leave Arizona, it is like a blessing in disguise for this to have happened- for the landlords to decide to sell at this time. We wouldn't have ever thought to move at this point in medical school if we hadn't been forced to move, which in turn, will save us so much money for interview season coming up this fall. I have heard from so many women that they have had to take out additional loans just to make it through interview season, complete with application fees, flights to and from interviews, money for hotels while you're at interviews, places to stay, food and transportation while at audition rotations/interviews, etc... the list goes on and on. Many women have said that you need around 8 to 10 thousand extra dollars just for interview season alone. Moving to Utah will really help balance the crazy cost of interview season and the money we'll save living there will hopefully help us stay afloat this fall when Rick is interviewing for residency. Ahhhh!! There is just so much to think about.
Anyway, I loaded up the kids a couple days after we found out we had to move and we went to Sam's Club and Walmart in San Tan Village to collect as many boxes as we could. We scored big time at the Garden Center at Walmart. Random, I know, but they had just got in a huge shipment of plants and flowers and an employee was flattening all the boxes they came in and putting them in a cart. The funny thing about it was that I had just pulled over to the side, by the garden center, and was actually on the phone with the Walmart bakery asking if they had any spare boxes, when all the sudden I glanced over and saw this employee wth a huge cart of boxes. I hopped out of the car and asked if I could have some of the boxes and he said "Of course! Take as many as you want!" It sounds silly because they are just boxes, but it was like a little tender mercy to me. There were SO many good and sturdy boxes. I stuffed them in the front seat, along the kids feet in the middle of the car and in the back trunk area as well. It was awesome! So now we have A LOT of packing to do!
