Making the Move

You know what is both exciting and overwhelming?  Preparing to sell the house you have lived in for over 10 years.  To add to it I am simultaneously taking a real estate class and the current topic is about convincing homeowners not to over value their property or see updates they did 10 years ago as recent improvements...By the time I am done with this chapter I might just give the house away!

Everywhere I turn I see a new flaw that had just become part of the landscape of my life.  Initially I told John it was a sellers market and I did not want to try to repaint the entire house.  Then as I started preparing rooms I realized there is not a wall in our house that doesn't need to be at least touched up if not totally re painted.  Yikes!  How can we live like this?  And as I was moving some furniture in the basement I actually looked at the carpet.  I think someone has been spilling and not telling us...it is pretty bad.  Hoping a good carpet cleaning will take care of most of it.

Still, it is exciting.  I love our house and I love to show it off.  And I believe it is a great house.  And this is a great neighborhood in a great community.  And, there are only about 5 houses for sale in our city in our price range.  So there won't be much competition.  And I am excited for our future, the purpose of our move and the adventure we are taking.

It is also fun to purge and clean your house.  Well I think that is fun.

I have turned Jake's room into a pre garage sale holding space.  I started this in January.  Initially it was where I would move things as I went through the house cleaning.  I figured I would go in his room to "shop" as I went through the house cleaning, organizing and re-arranging.  Now that I know we are moving and downsizing I am filling that room up quickly. I have kept his bed clear so if he can navigate through the room he will have a place to sleep next weekend when he comes home for Easter.  But once he leaves all bets are off.

Last weekend I did the big toy organization.  It makes me ridiculously happy to have all the Barbie stuff together, all the pet shop stuff together, all the Polly Pockets together.  Not spread all over the house or mixed together.  The question as I purge toys is, what to keep for my future grandchildren, I really believe in doing this, vs what to get rid of.  I did move the entire kitchen set into Jake's room,Oh happy day to be rid of that.  I know what from Jake's childhood we will keep, books, Legos and train set, but unsure what we need from Isabelle's childhood.  Maybe she just isn't done playing with what we will keep.  I am not too worried about over purging her toys, she still has LOTS left for me to keep in the future.

Yesterday I did in a few hours what I was going to spend the entire month of April doing, my office.  Once I get some moving boxes I will go through again but for now I managed to fill one trash can, find the top of both my desk and Isabelle's desk, empty out an old desk so it can be moved to Jake's room and straighten the shelves in the closet.  It makes me happy to sit in a clean office.

The goal is to be ready to put it on the market when I get my license, hopefully early-mid April.  However, God is in control and I have had 2 people tell me they know someone who might be interested in our house! No calls from buyers at this point and maybe we won't get one but it certainly felt reassuring to get an email saying a friend knows someone interested in our neighborhood and do we know anyone thinking of selling.  Remember, this is my year to Watch.  And as I practice sitting back and watching what God is doing I am seeing some amazing things happen.

Should be a fun next few months.