We Sold Our House!

On a Thursday morning in May, we put the house on the market.   It went under full-price contract by Sunday night and about 5 weeks later we closed on it and moved out.  

We spent several months decluttering, packing items up, and fixing up issues with the house.  

In the end, it looked great and it was sad to leave.  I am grateful that selling it wasn't a long, drawn-out process.  We tried hard to take care of the things that might be issues and priced it at what we thought was fair.    We were very pleased that not only did  it sell quickly, but the buyers (a young couple) also waived the inspection clause, which meant that we didn't have to fix anything else.  

Here's a glimpse of how it looked when we put it on the market: 

We had to do some good sprucing up in the yard before selling...

Ahhhh, the kitchen I designed myself.   I miss it.  Especially the 48-inch wide fridge. I hope to have that again someday.

The kitchen got a fresh coat of paint, decluttering, and some simple decor.

Another view at one of my favorite places in the house...

We FINALLY got a cushion for the window seat in the dining room and decluttered.

We also got a new light fixture.

I LOVE how our dining room looked...

Adam's room was decluttered, the wood floors refinished, and brightened up with new bedding.

 

The master bedroom was decluttered, wood floors refinished, and spruced with new bedding and decor.  I love the Pottery Barn bedding! 

Ellie's room just got a fresh coat of paint, a refinish of the wood floors, and a major decluttering (since it had been the room for at least two kids for most of the time we lived here).

Emma's room got a fresh coat of paint, some new bedding, and new carpet.

Our master bath got a new vanity, coat of paint, new mirror, some vinyl flooring, and a refinishing of the shower. 

The basement bathroom looked great with a new vanity and mirror!

The rec room just got a fresh coat of paint and new carpet.

Another angle of the rec room...

The back of the rec room just got a major decluttering and the new carpet and paint.

We replaced the wrought iron railings with new wooden ones and got a new light fixture in the entry way.

The hall bath got a new mirror, vanity, paint, and light fixture.

The laundry room got new vinyl flooring and some beadboard walls.  It was previously unfinished, so this looks remarkably different.

One of my favorite spaces...the living room.  

Adam and I redid the fireplace ourselves, then hired an interior decorator to update the decor.  I LOVED how it turned out. 

The back deck...

The backyard never did grow grass well, so mostly we just removed the trampoline and did some good weeding.

Not pictured:  The new roof and the major painting of the garage.

We have no regrets about moving, because we felt strongly that it was the right thing for our family, however we do miss a lot.   Mostly the people, but also the house.  I hope to someday feel that settled again.  At this point, it's way too soon to know where that might be, but someday, somewhere...

LDSHE / Emma's Graduation Day

 I keep thinking that I'm done with blogging, then I have some interaction with my family that reminds me that I really really like having a family record of our events and happenings. 

 This is from 6 months ago--May 2019.  

We had spent the previous several months working our tails off to get our house ready to sell.  The morning our house officially went on the market we sat 150 miles away at LDSHE (an LDS homeschooling conference in Williamsburg, VA). 

It was hard not to be distracted by all the texts seeking permission to tour our house and watching the views and favorites go up on Redfin and Zillow, but it was certainly refreshing to be away from it all.  At that point, all we could do is sit back and see what happened.  

We enjoyed the opportunity to get to know new people and be inspired by enthusiastic and faithful people following a similar path less traveled with their families....

Cooking had really gone on the back burner while we were getting the house ready to sell and I'm a little embarrassed to admit how often we used UberEats to order take-out, so I enjoyed being away from home and eating good food and not worrying one bit about the mess we were making. 

Our favorite part of all was the opportunity it gave us to  officially celebrate Emma's graduation from our homeschool.

It was a refreshing few days and so fun to share in the joy of Emma's accomplishment. 

These two cute homeschool graduates are now roommates together at BYU.

I'm so grateful for the wonderful friendships we've made in this journey of homeschooling. 

And grateful for the opportunity to be inspired each year. 

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Cheap and Semi-Spontaneous Trip to Utah (April 2019)

One fine day I found super cheap tickets to Utah. 

They weren't the greatest tickets (meaning that they had a couple of stopovers and inconvenient timing), but they were cheap enough that it was worth those inconveniences!

 Plus, airports make great places to do your contortions....

We loved being able to spend Spencer's 24th birthday with him...

And just loved being there with him in general...

We even flew Cami there from Texas, so that we could have all the kids together (a rare happening these days).  We were only missing Glen, who couldn't take time off of work. 

Ellie found that contortioning in Utah is just as fun as contortioning at home. 

A big part of the reason we came was to help my parents get their house ready to rent out while they were on their mission.  We did find plenty of time to play too. 

I enjoyed hanging out with Heather....

And running into old friends (which seems to always happen in Utah)!

We ate lots of good food together (getting ice cream is a family tradition when we are away from home)...

And the kids just really enjoyed being together. 

Cami had to leave before Spencer's birthday, so we did the best we could on making his cake in her absence.

And we took him out for a good birthday dinner!

There was a whole lot of cat cuddling going on with certain members of our family...

And there may have been a bunch of silliness too...

Also, it snowed...in May.   It made me glad that we live somewhere that snow in May is highly unlikely.

We loved spending time with my parents (although I don't think they liked how ruthless I was with decluttering their house)...

We also loved spending time with my Nana...

It was a great trip and the perfect way to get away from house selling stress, even if I was pretty much doing the same thing at my parents' house as I'd been doing at home!  haha!