We put an offer on a house. Not just any house, but The House Skye and I have been conjuring up in our minds for eleven years, exactly the number of years we’ve lived in this house, after we realized there wasn’t any access to the backyard from inside the house, which was minutes after the closing. That was something neither of us noticed when we were shopping. I can’t be blamed. I was six months pregnant. I had pregnancy brain.
I wasn’t exactly ready to put our house on the market when I found The House. It looked like an ordinary house when I found it online. But I made a mental note to try to make it to the open house on Sunday. Maybe I’d remember to go.
Sunday came and I remembered to go. It was love at first sight. I went to every corner of the house looking for something I couldn’t live with, something I hated, and I couldn’t find anything. NOTHING. It was in great condition. Move in ready.
Skye and I weren’t even talking about buying a new house. It was just something that popped into my head when I was weeding the backyard last week and bumming about the fact that I couldn’t get to the outside from inside the house and how that puts a damper on entertaining and limits us on having quick and easy dinners on the grill that we can’t get to very easily, not to mention what a pain in the ass it is when the dog needs to go out.
Usually when I come home from an open house I decide that I like my house better. But the day after this open house I still couldn’t get The House out of my mind. It has a three-season room off the dining room with a dog door leading out to a fenced in yard and a laundry room off the kitchen. It has a finished basement and a workshop for the men/boys. It has everything EVERYTHING we want. Even a good friend living RIGHT NEXT DOOR (unbeknownst to me when I was looking at the house).
Monday afternoon, Skye took off from work mid-day to see The House because my realtor told me there was a couple in that morning for a second showing and they wanted to put an offer on it.
Monday night at 9:00pm we found out the owners accepted our offer. Four families were interested in The House.
Monday night at 3:15 am I woke up in a panic. This was all happening so fast! We weren’t prepared! Our house isn’t even CLOSE to getting ready to put on the market! AAAAHHHH! What if it comes to having to carry two mortgages! Skye is telling me “Calm down and meditate.”
“Meditate!?? How can I meditate!!?? I want to throw up!”
I was nauseous. I was pacing. “Skye, we have to talk! We have to get out of this contract!”
So we talked about all our options and we resolved to get out of the contract. His work was done. He jumped in the shower to start his day now that this drama was behind him. The water is running and I’m in the bed alone, thinking about the house and suddenly I do a 180. Skye comes out of the shower to “Let’s get that house.”
I tell him, “Remember when I saw the two blue lines on the pregnancy test and I was elated and then freaked out and then elated and freaked and elated again??”
“Yea…” Not something he would ever forget.
“I might go up and down a couple more times on this. I just want to warn you.” I was right. I did. The dial is finally set on elated.
I get up in the morning and imagine letting the dog out the doggie door while I’m having morning coffee in the three-season room with the sky lights and the cathedral ceilings and the sun shining in and my neighbor waving over the fence, “Good morning, neighbors our age who we already know and like!”
So I’m packing like a mad woman to get our house ready to list. I’m making executive decisions in my sons’ rooms. Three piles – trash, give away, keep.
St. Patty’s day comes. Vincent says, “Have you seen my green beaded necklace?”
“Um…yea?” I can’t believe he remembers he owns that thing!
“Did you pack it in the keep box?”
“Um..no?”
“Did you pack it in the give away box?”
“Nooo?”
“Did you throw it away?”
“Ummm. I might have.”
I dug through the garbage bag in the garage, found his stupid necklace, washed it off and gave it to him.
Next day: “Who keeps throwing away my tin foil ball!!!!”???
AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Subscribe to the
RSS feed or 
Email Updates.Help us promote this article by bookmarking it to your favorite social network via an icon below:
Hey , So where is this place…..Arkville…Dunraven…..No must be in New Kingston then huh?
Congrats To you all….Enjoy the adventure in it ! ~jim
New Kingston is where my summer house will be. With a nice view of patchwork pastures divided by stone walls.
Woohoo!!!!!!!!
Congrats @ your new house!
I am supposed to sell this house and I look around me and take another sip of wine, because there is no way I am on top of any of it. Procrastination rules! Of course, I could not procrastinate like that if I did have another house lined up, so I am happily sitting here, cheering you on while not doing any work myself. I am nice like that!
House selling vibes your way!
Karen
Friends Moving: It’s a spectator sport!
When you’re in your 20’s it’s okay to ask your friends to help you. Forties? No way. Hire someone. Everyone can sip wine and watch the strapping young men doing all the lifting, as it should be.
What’s that Skye? Yes! You’re totally strapping!! That’s what I was just saying!
We found Our House when we weren’t even looking or thinking about it. We’ve been here almost 6 years and have no regrets!! Good luck with kid-packing!
*fist bumps Julie*
I knew you had a red feature wall because if I owned a house I, too, would have a red feature wall. Which fact led me to realize that the truly fabulous people all have red feature walls, ergo, you did. Yay for us
The stager said I didn’t have to paint over the red feature wall. She liked it and the New Yorker cover “wallpaper” in the hall on the way down to the mancave. Do you know how much time that will save me? She said to FINISH painting the red feature wall and the last row of the New Yorker cover wall paper! ADD girl doesn’t like to finish projects. ADD girl’s habit of not finishing projects has come back like a doberman pincher to bite her gluteus maximus and shake it between its teeth!!
New Yorker Cover Wallpaper?!?
Amy…
(sobbing) I love you.
Buy my house!!! I’ll leave you the rest of my New Yorker cover collection!!
you don’t happen to have the one of the kitten sleeping on the profile view of a bed, sort of a quilt if memory serves (and why would it)? I haven’t been able to find it on their online archives, and I happen to know my nuts factor does not involve visual hallucinations, so it does exist.
Wow, congats! That’s fantastic! May it indeed be the house of your dreams!
wicked news… congrats
Great post again Amy! I wish I didn’t own my rental home! Thinking about putting it up for sale just to get rid of it and take the loss. If you do find yourself carrying two mortgages and decide to rent it out because it’s not selling (bad market), be VERY careful about the people you rent to even paying for a credit check these days, doesn’t mean much, especially here in Michigan with the economy.
Best of luck and Congrats!
Michigan? Real estate in Michigan? Oh, Holly. I’m sorry. I heard on the news that Detroit is tearing down a lot of houses and turning it back to nature to reduce the number of vacant homes. I never thought that would ever come to an American city. It’s pretty sad for the people who live in every third or fifth house among all the vacant homes. But I am thrilled that it’s going back to nature. I wish that would happen to the over production of homes outside of Honda in a town called Marysville that was once farm land but is now fancy, vacant stack a shacks.
LOL! I hope everything will go smoothly, and that you will enjoy your new home!
Thanks, Amber! So far I’ve been enjoying it and we haven’t even moved in. Every morning and night when I let Maggie out and boss her around “stay in our yard! stay in our yard!” when really she needs to wander around a bit and think her thoughts before she drops her business card, I tell her “you’re going to love our new house, Maggie!” She said she can’t wait to do her business in private. And that it can’t be rushed. And that she can’t wait for me to get off her back about where and how fast she takes a crap.
CONGRATULATIONS AMY!!!!! Very pleased to hear the good news!!
I’ve Have been in similar situations. Had my house on the market for EIGHT months. A neighbor with 12 acres of unrestricted land decided the best place for his 60ft x 150 ft two story apartment/workshop monstrosity was 30 ft off my back property line in plain view of my house. The first words from EVERY PERSON that came to look were “What is THAT?” Finally a guy came in who owned a bobcat, ran a tree business, didn’t care. When the low-balled an offer, I gave them bottom line off the bat. Knocked 7% off and said “Take it or walk dude.” (not exact words) They were very happy, moved in, then the bottom fell out of the market (yay me!)Three years later they resold the house for about $40K less than they put in it. (sorry, wasn’t my fault)
So BE PREPARED offer it at the least you can take. (with negotiation of course)
GOOD LUCK!!
I am an HGTV addict, especially the real estate shows. I have no idea why; I will be happily living in apartments till they carry me out with my lease clutched in my cold, dead fingers. But I have learned stuff.
Here are Three Big HGTV Rules for Sellers:
1. Make the kids work with you on the room-clearing thing. Promise dire consequences tailored to their own deepest personal fears (OK, that last part was mine) to ensure compliance with the clutter removal. Clutter kills sales.
2. Stage that puppy. Take photos if you have to in order to see the buying barriers you can’t see “in person”. Forget the inconvenience of stowing the coffeemaker and the toaster for the duration, in order to make the kitchen workspace look more expansive. Paint the red feature wall beige or mushroom or something else neutral. Use Kilz and get away with one coat. Fix the fixable, finish the unfinished. Remove some furniture to make the spaces look bigger. It helps if you stop thinking of it as your house and start thinking of it as a commodity. Plant flowers outside, because curb appeal can mean the difference between a drive-by and an actual seller visit. Focus on “immaculate” 24/7.
3. Do the math in advance and know how little you can sell for, including agent commission, a cushion for repairs buyers might demand, another cushion in case the sale depends on you absorbing some of the closing costs. Check recent comparable sales in your neighborhood, because the buyers will be doing that too. Put it all together, add some negotiating money, and price accordingly.
4. Bonus Tip, not from HGTV: Stock up on adult beverages for the duration.
Hi, Carol. I’m an HGTV addict, too! Our realtor is staging it for us. I just hired people to do the yardwork/mulch/tree trimming/planting and they’re even going to finish the patio I left undone mid-project mid-heat wave last summer. How’d you know I have a red feature wall? That’s creepy.
Thanks for the awesome pointers in #3. The kids’ rooms are the easiest because we keep them chained to the hot water heater instead of letting them play in their bedrooms. So there isn’t much work to do in their rooms. I’m thoughtful like that.
Look at your headline and fire the proofreader!
Burr, bite me and thank you at the same time!
LOL, been there, Love your humor and the fact you bounce like a ping pong ball, just like me. LOL Have a great day.
Teresa