My house is being listed today.Together with my amazing family and friends, the hubs and I have spent the last week working non-stop, chopping down trees and trimming bushes, weeding, painting exterior trim and interior walls, and cleaning the attic and the basement of misc. crap we've been collecting for years. We have also moved cabinets, tables, my beloved chair-and-a-half, and 90% of the kid crap to my friend's house and my aunt's house in order to make a 1500 sq. ft. house look like a palatial estate. All this, in addition to washing windows, cleaning floors, and other general housekeeping tasks that we've sorely neglected since the twins were born.
My house now looks the best it's ever looked. Most of Isabella's and the twins' toys are packed away, and the rest are in huge Rubbermaid containers, which we have to take with us in the car anytime anyone wants to see the house. Isabella has been oddly unaffected by the entire process. Granted, she spends most of her time outdoors and not inside playing with her toys, but her toy bins are gone, her kitchen is gone, her bookshelf is gone, and she's only been mildly curious about their whereabouts. We haven't told her we're moving, since it's not a done deal yet. Instead, we've told her we're "making room for her new birthday toys." She's accepted that lame reason without question.
Potential buyers could see our house as early as today. The thought of having to pack up the kids and leave a spotless and clutter-free house with just a few hours notice (or less) has me a bit stressed out, as does the idea of living in a pristine environment until it sells, but it must be done. The sooner we sell this house, the sooner we can remove our contingencies from the other house. I'm willing to do whatever I have to do, as difficult as it's going to be.
But as much as I really want this other house, and as much as I know we need a bigger one for our family, the cleaning and rearranging and de-cluttering of my current house has me loving it again. We moved into this house when we were kids, really. We've lived here for nine years. With all the toys and baby paraphernalia gone, I'm now looking at it as I did then. And there's a part of me that doesn't want to turn it over to someone else, who may not love it as much as I do.
Thank you SO much for all your support, prayers, good vibes, and wishes of luck. The house on which we have an accepted offer had an open house yesterday. I am crossing my fingers that there are no other offers as a result.
Great job! Now, the hard part begins--waiting. Good luck. I wish you all the best.
It's awesome how you guys pulled that together. Is that what I need to do to get a clean house? Fingers crossed for you!
(What are they doing having another open house if they've accepted your offer?!)
TOTALLY understand. I remember when we prepped our first house for sale... It looked so AWESOME. I was like "Are we sure we want to move? Look at all of the SPACE!" And then I remembered: Our stuff wasn't THERE.
Good luck! Speedy house sale vibes!
Woohoo!
That's awesome! I'm sending you lots of "selling" vibes so someone will fall in love with it.
It's a great house. I love it too.
I so admire what you've accomplished. Just the thought of getting our house ready to sell makes me wanna vomit. Terrible. Hope it goes quickly and perfectly.
I think the biggest reason I don't ever want to move is because that means I'll have to REALLY clean my house. LOL!
As much as I know leaving behind your first house saddens you, just remember that you're moving on to bigger and better things. Ian's dad painted us a picture of our first house in North Carolina for Christmas one year, and we both cried like babies when we opened it. That's where we started our family, after all. I think we can all understand your conflicted feelings. :-)
Moving is tough. From the beginning to the end -- and we're still stuck in the middle.
Congrats on all of your hard work to get your house show ready. I can't imagine how difficult it will be to maintain with all of your little ones at home. But hopefully in the long-run it will be worth it! :)
Good luck with the sale. This is the hard part...waiting to hear offers, etc.
I'm with Jesser. The thought of getting our house ready to sell is enough to make me run for the bathroom. But, it will have to be done one day in the not-so-distant future.
Yikes, I'd forgotten about the "keep t clean and tidy" drill when selling a house. A friend who had only one kid at the time gave up trying to sell her house because of the people coming by at a moment's notice, interrupting naptime and everything else. Bonus points for you for taking the toys with you! I hope this stage doesn't last long.
Moving can be such an emotional time. It's completely understandable that you would think about missing your first place together. Good luck with the sale though. It seems like the market is picking up.
Good luck with it all , i really hope it sells quickly and you find the perfect new home.
Our home is going up for sale to any day now (just meeting with agents and deciding who to go with) . We have a tiny (around 750 sqft) 2 bed apartment (so no gardens or anything) and with 5 of us...its rather crowded. Cannot wait to move