Tuesday 29 April 2014

Sold! And now the panic sets in


Well that was interesting. 

I guess I shouldn't have worried about how long I was going to have to keep the house clean for agent showings.

Our house sold in 10 days. 8 showings, 1 realtor/agent tour and that was that. We got an offer Friday night and by Saturday afternoon sold sign on the front lawn.

What was so hard about that?

The house looks like a bomb went off in it now. Partly because we are so relieved not to have to vacuum at 7 in the morning anymore and partly because we're frantically packing.

Our closing date on the house is just over 3 weeks away, and guess what? We don't have anywhere to live.

The sellers of the place that we want to buy said that 30 days would be enough time, which takes us to the end of May, we would have even given them June 1st.

Now, going back on their word they say they can't be out until the end of June.

Bullshit, I say. They have another place to go, but they don't want to.

I think they were surprised that we sold so fast and were not prepared for us to request a closing so quickly.

Apparently they have a family wedding mid June that they want the house for, so many memories, it's where the kids grew up, yada, yada, yada.

OK, I get it, from a sentimental standpoint I really do get it. But they could have said that up front. Let us know the earliest they could close was late June, but no, they like to drop these little bombs on us.

It's funny the more we hear about the seller the more we hear he's a first class a-hole, but what can you do? We're officially homeless in 3 weeks or so…not fun.

So now the panic to pack, find a mover that isn't outrageously expensive to store our stuff for a month and find somewhere to live.

There's a lot of reluctance to rent to anyone short term and I get that, I fear we're going to be camping somewhere in a trailer for 5 weeks.

Oh well, Miss K will probably like it, and as long as we can keep everyone together, including the dog, well then it will probably be ok.

Til next time…I hope we're not going to be living in the boxes that we're using for packing

Thursday 24 April 2014

Is it every really clean enough?


So I ask myself every day now, is it clean enough?

We put our house on the market a week ago and the need to keep it clean is nearly driving us crazy.

How clean is too clean and how clean do you need to be?

We decluttered and stored, and threw away and donated. We fixed, we glued, we trimmed we did all the things you need to do to stage your home for sale.

We vacuum almost hourly it seems. Dusting while folding laundry, not with the clean laundry just yet, but I've been known to use already in the laundry items to tidy up the dust factor on something else.

It's almost impossible to live like this for long.

I do confess I kind of like the lack of clutter, the absence of extra stuff. It's nice being able to put my feet up on the coffee table without having to shove aside 4 lbs of Miss K's crap. 

The dishes are always done, the floors swept, the bathrooms tidy. Laundry folded promptly and put away, it's kind of refreshing in a way, but also exhausting.

Yesterday it was the mad scramble in the morning because someone had decided the evening before they needed to see our house the next day. What?? 11 am?? Do you not have a job, do you not sleep at night? Why are you giving us less than 24 hours notice? Is this a test?

Funny to watch Big C dust at 6:30 in the morning though. 

I think Miss K is tired of it already, she wants to keep stuff out to play with and we're hurriedly running after her to put it all away again lest the piles get too big and we can't control the clutter.

We're keeping our fingers crossed for a quick resolution to our neat nightmare. Maybe someone will love our clean house enough to want to buy it and then maybe just maybe we can let the dust fall where it may for a little while

Til next time…let me know where you can buy Swiffers and Mr. Clean at a discount

Monday 7 April 2014

Maybe just maybe


Maybe just maybe a change is coming. Not a huge life altering change, but living somewhere different is big enough.

We're going back to a house we saw a week and a half ago, to have another look. We think it might fit the bill. A little more space a ton more storage. 

It's not a huge house, but offers that little bit of extra room so that we aren't feeling quite so cramped. A big barn that can house the boat and the decoys and the camping/fishing/outdoor gear. Room to expand and add another garage so that we can put vehicles inside. Room for Miss K to play and still have an adult space away from the "toy room" 

There's renovations needed. That's why we're going back for another look. A check to make sure that we're not delusional and we're missing some big roadblocks. 

A check to make sure that we're not crazy after all these years of looking and this might actually work for us. 

I'm both scared and excited. That unique combo of both emotions. Hanging on that edge of a cliff or railing wondering if you're going to jump off into the great unknown and something new, or if some cruel hand of fate is going to push you back on your ass and reality will come crashing down.

So many what ifs and how are we's to think about. 

We're trying not to stress, trying to take each day as it comes, trying to keep realistic and not rush or hurry anything along the way.

If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. My one hope is that it will happen and be done or not done before school starts for Miss K.

Poor kid doesn't need too much change in her life, all in one fell swoop

Til next time, keep some extra boxes handy for us