Good luck with the house purchase! Hopefully they will be able to go through with it even if it is a short sale. Foreclosures cost them more than they will probably lose doing it this way, so if it's not a huge difference, then that's probably a good sign for you.

Also, good luck with your seedlings. Keeping cats out of them is such a challenge. You'll probably be best off starting the peas and carrots in the ground. Peas grow fast in cooler weather. Planting them in late April or in May will have you tons of peas in June/July. Then you can replant them as they die off in July and get a late summer/fall crop. I haven't had luck with transplanting carrots, but they seem to do ok sown directly in the ground. Just make sure the soil is well tilled and you thin the seedlings well so they aren't competing for root space.