Finally, after spending one year on the market, my house will now have a new owner. A bad mix of terrible timing (I listed it just as the bottom fell out of the market) and a real estate agent who talked a good story, but was not astute enough to really understand the market and was not a "closer," contributed to this year-long headache. Of course, this past year I have seen thousands of dollars fly out the window, never to be recovered. However, I am thankful that, barring any unforseen problems, this will all be over by the end of August.

The toll this has taken on me has been unbelievable. Having grown up in a middle class household in suburban Chicago, I never had a lot of money while young. Then, tack on four years of college, two years of grad school, working in the social services field, and beginning my professional career at a small, financially strapped college, I never really saw any kind of decent money until I turned 30.

Getting married was a good financial blessing, adding another paycheck to the financial coffers. However, as children numbers one, two, and three were born and got older, expenses increased dramatically.

I actually have it pretty good right now. I have job security and a good salary, and my wife is professionally employed and is making decent money. It killed me, though, to see all this money floating away this past year when I had spent most of my life being somewhat frugal and always making careful, well-researched financial decisions. Yep -- I was one of those guys who bought many items based on the recommendations of Consumer Report.

The funny thing is, I actually sold the house before resolving my roof problem. I did get someone to check out my roof again, and he is supposed to repair it on Tuesday, a good three days before my scheduled housing inspection. So ... barring any major problems, the house will be sold by the end of the month, and I will then have to settle up with my bank. Since the house took so long to sell and sold for much less than I originally imagined, I will probably have to take out a second mortgage to make up the difference. But ... at least my life will be back to normal.

Although I was under tremendous stress this past year, I kept a good attitude since I was able to see first-hand someone who had it much worse than me. A young, bright, attractive woman with whom I work is recovering from breast cancer, had her husband lose his job when his business was sold, and had a mother-in-law with serious medical concerns. Yet, this woman, Jennifer, is tough as nails, and certainly showed me that I had no room to feel sorry for myself. As I came to accept, my situation, when you came right down to it, was really only about money.

So ... going on the assumption that nothing gets screwed up with this sale, things will be back to normal just in time for my next trip to Las Vegas at the beginning of September. Thanks to all my poker buddies who empathized with me, and a special shout out to PokahDave, who had gone through this same type of nasty situation, and encouraged me several times over the past year.