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...

A Little Life Update

Getting ready to move after being in one place for 20-years has been an all-consuming task for me.  So all-consuming that I teeter between never wanting to own a house again, so as to at least prevent all the house stress  and wanting to buy a house ASAP, so that I can guaranteed to be in one place for a while.   Our reality will probably end up somewhere in between those two scenarios.  In the meantime, we still need to figure out where the next place for us is.   Right now, we've got 4 reasonably good options and we need to wait for some things to happen at Glen's work before we can confidently start moving forward with any of those potential plans.  For now, all I can do is get the house ready to sell and our family ready to move...somewhere and hope and pray that the somewhere will be the right place for us.  

 Just so my kids don't forget that we have had some normal life in amongst all the household distractions these past few weeks, here's a peek of what else we've been doing.  

We had one of our favorite missionaries come back to visit...

 Elder Judkins served here 4ish years ago and it was great to see him again!   We took him to see "Amazing Grace" at the National Bible Museum.  It was a powerful performance and we were grateful for the opportunity to include him in this family outing.  

Adam used Rocky to up his seminary devotional game.   He had the balloons for an activity, made this picture into a poster....

and made this picture into a little hand-out for everyone.   But, alas, he still didn't win the devotional contest. 

Ellie and Emma had a temple trip to Philadelphia.  Adam was taking the ACT and had to miss it.  Glen and I stayed home and plugged away at house stuff.  It was probably one of the few temple trips our kids have been on when at least one of us wasn't there. 

Ellie had two of her cousins stay over one night during spring break. 

They enjoyed the time together and even Adam got in on the fun when he took Lauren on a run, since sleeping over meant that she missed her track practice. 

Easter was low-key, but good.  We didn't dye eggs, we didn't hide any candy, we didn't get any new clothes.  Emma did make these cute bunny pancakes though...

And we did have a family gathering with a delicious dinner at Pete and Mika's place...

And on the other side of the country, Cami's been taking off with her baking business...

And pretty soon....we will have all five kids (and their mom) together in one place.  It's only a quick trip and we're sad that Glen can't come too, but a little time away sounds just about perfect right now.  

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Before and After Home Improvement Projects

We have decided that we need to sell the house.  Glen still doesn't know where his job may or may not take us, but it's undeniable that this is the course of action we feel we are being led to do.    After living in a house for eighteen years though, this is a big to-do.

I don't like house projects.  They stress me out.  I have anxiety when it comes to making decisions.  I dread calling and dealing with workers.   I hate feeling like our house is being invaded.   It's just not my favorite thing in the world. 

  My life has been completely immersed in house stuff lately, and  weirdly I have not felt anywhere near the stress and anxiety that I normally feel with even one project.  I can only explain it that I feel like Heavenly Father is giving me strength to do what we feel like is the right thing to do right now.    I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm enjoying the process, however I definitely am not hating / dreading / avoiding it near as much as usual...so that's a good thing. 

Do you want to see a glimpse of what we've been working on? 

I thought so!   

Here's the "before" of our HALL BATHROOM.  I had already taken down the medicine cabinet, so it wasn't a true "before", but it's close.  

Here's the after....

We put in a new vanity, a big new mirror, new light fixture, a new towel rack, painted the walls, and switched out the shower curtain for a nice neutral white.   It feels fresh and nice! 

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Here's the "before" of our BASEMENT BATHROOM: 

And the "after"...

We did a new vanity, mirror, paint, and vinyl plank flooring over the old tile.   It looks great! 

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Here's the "before" of our MASTER BATH:  

Here's phase one with a new vanity, recessed medicine cabinet, paint, and vinyl plank flooring

Here it is after we glazed over the tile with white.  The shower door is still to come.

I have mixed feelings about the white tile, however it does make our bathroom seem a little bigger, so I guess it's a good thing.   I can't wait to get the new shower door installed. 

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Here's my pride and joy project--the one I was most excited about doing, even before we decided to sell the house.  I've hated this fireplace from the moment we moved in....

And now it's finally beautiful!   And I tiled over the brick myself (with Adam as my assistant)!

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We also got new railings to replace the ugly wrought iron we had before...

BEFORE 

AFTER (before staining)

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We got new windows.

BEFORE 

AFTER

I love how much easier they are to open and close now!

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We retiled the entry way.

BEFORE

AFTER

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We got new light fixtures....

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We put vinyl plank flooring over the concrete in our laundry room and added some beadboard to the unfinished walls.  It looks soooooooo different, but I weirdly never took a before picture of that ugly part of my house.

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WE've also gotten rid of a TON of stuff and have been packing up most of the rest and moving it to this storage unit.

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We are feeling like we've accomplished a lot and that we are on a good path to get it on the market in a few weeks, but we still have a few big things to go. 

PROJECTS STILL TO COME:

new roof

painting

new carpet in basement

refinish wood floors in bedroom

take care of the yard

taking care of water drainage on one side of the house

In the meantime, don't mind me if I look a little bleary eyed and seem a bit distracted.  This hasn't been quite as painful as I expected, but let's just say that we won't be rushing to buy another house anytime soon.  

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