Our First Move

The Accidental Nomad Life blog was born from the beauty coming from all of my pain. I have observed a pattern of moving and nomadicy (if that's a word) through our whole marriage and I wanted to share my stories with you, my reader in order to encourage you and perhaps connect with you on a level that your friends and family may not be able to understand due to your circumstances.



Andrew and I purchased our first house in 2009, the spring before we got married. He wanted to get out of his parents's home so that he could prepare for our life as a married couple. I stayed with my parents until our wedding night, slowly moving things into the house that we purchased. (You can read about our house buying adventure over on YouMe + ChewyMakes Three.)

When we purchased the house, we really anticipated pouring work into it. Leveling out the slanted floor, finishing the basement as best we could to make nice storage space and maybe add a bathroom down there, fixing the bedrooms upstairs to be more spacious and have closets in them...You get the picture.

We were going to revamp it. That's what I was supposed to do. My parents always did it, I always helped my dad with all of the work, it was going to be no big deal to do it because all men (especially the one that I married) would be exactly like my dad - capable, knowledgeable and driven.

As you can imagine, and I'm sure you know firsthand, all men are not like MY dad. ESPECIALLY not my husband.

While there are some similarities, my husband is TOTALLY different from my dad. He didn't know how to do the things that I anticipated doing and he didn't care to do them.

Purchasing that house was a big mistake right off the bat.

But, we were determined to buy rather than rent, which was also a huge mistake.

Hindsight, had we rented, Andrew would have been able to build up credit and have the mortgage under his name rather than having it all under my maiden name. In the end, it saved him a little bit that he wasn't on the mortgage but it put so much added pressure on me throughout the whole ordeal.

Why? What in the world kind of pressure could a house have on us? Well I know there are a lot of things that everyone struggles with when you are newly married, newly moved in and newly adjusting to making decisions together all of the sudden.

Our problem came in the form of foreclosure.

That's right, we were being foreclosed on. We were never properly notified and the mortgage company never tried contacting us or working with us in the beginning.

Looking back, it looks pretty obvious that we were doomed right off the bat.

We had been living there for a year and a half. It was January 2011 and I was going in to upgrade my ring with my Kay Jeweler's credit card. The card was denied, the cashier told me that it was due to the card being canceled because of outstanding debt due to foreclosure.

I was completely embarrassed, humiliated and flabbergasted...Foreclosure?! What?!

I let it kind of slip my mind for a while and shortly after, we sent our regular house payment in.

It was returned a couple of weeks later with a letter saying that they were not accepting payment from us.

We looked at each other, unsure of what to do now.



I began calling the mortgage company who put me on the fast-track to repayment. It seemed simple enough, but with a low-income job, a brand new baby and me at home, not making anything, how were we going to pay double + what our regular payment was for six months?!

We made it somehow. It was September 2011 and I had to call the mortgage company to say that there was absolutely no way that we would be able to pay the next payment on time and I asked if we could split them up for a couple of more months. We had September and October left.

Nope. Just wait until we had the money and then pay.

So, we did. And guess what the mortgage company did...