The past month has been unbelievably stressful for me. George decided that we needed to look into buying a new house. He had lots of very good reasons for this, but OH MY GOSH YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?!?!?!?!
You see, I truly hate making big financial decisions. Even worse, the thought of putting our current home on the market for sale--with all the back-breaking work of cleaning, purging, and staging a home--makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb.
I'm
not exaggerating.
And then George took me here:
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| My Dream House: A Ranch with a Finished Walk-Out Basement |
While the stress remains, I certainly was hit with a full-blown case of
IWANTTHATNOW!
Let me show you a few of the highlights.
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| Three garage stalls, large concrete area for basketball |
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| Back yard |
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| Kitchen from breakfast room |
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| View from breakfast room to family room and front door |
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| View from dining room |
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| Basement walk-out |
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| Huge recreation room...ping pong table, here we come! |
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| Basement wet bar |
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| Breakfast nook |
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| Garage with cute little boy |
We signed a bunch of papers yesterday, and although the deal isn't completely done since we have to sell our house, we feel pretty good about this move. The new home is just about ten minutes from our current home and is in the same school district. I will have to transport Jack to keep him in the same elementary building for the next two school years, but that's fine with me.
I'm not sure how much I'll be able to post on my blogs until the sign is in the yard, which shouldn't take more than two weeks. Please pray for me as I am now fully into Cleaning Witch Mode to get our house ready to sell. Sometimes it's really useful being an*al-retentive, obsessive compulsive, and this is one of those times.
Perhaps I should ask you to pray for George and the kids. They'll be living with me!
Oh, Susan ... what a stunning home!! I am SO jealous. I will say a little prayer tonight asking for everything to go well for you in the next few days, weeks, and months. What an exciting time!
ReplyDeleteyou go, girl.
ReplyDeleteready to sell your house in 2 weeks! i am impressed. by wait, i am almost always impressed with what you can do!!
sending love and prayers your way.
marty
p.s. don't worry about blogging. we will be here when you return. whenever that is.
Thanks so much, Sue and Marty!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat an absolutely wonderful house! It all sounds perfect."It will be worth i: OHMMMMM. This is your mantra for the next couple of weeks as you are cleaning, packing, tossing out, etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing some pictures :) It looks wonderful! Hang in there during the clean and purge season and no worries about us. we'll all be here when you are ready to post again :) Until then (((hugs)))
ReplyDeleteLooks like a beautiful home and surroundings.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
What a beautiful home and location! It looks perfect for two boys! =) Saying prayers everything goes smoothly for you!
ReplyDeleteWow, Sue, I LOVE your new home. Whatever torture you have to go through in the coming weeks to get THERE is very likely worth it!
ReplyDeleteThe new home looks wonderful!
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow OCD/AR gal who is currently in purge and organize mode myself, can I just say how jealous I am that I'm NOT moving into a newer and bigger place! (My family has to put up with me for no good reason :)
Good luck selling your house!
Fantastic home-but you left out pics of the crafting room...!
ReplyDeleteI shall use your Cleaning witch mode to inspire the same!
Congratulations! Your new house looks beautiful! I was just like you in cleaning witch mode when we put our house on the market ~ 5 years ago. It paid off because we had 2 offers within 4 days. I hope you will be as lucky. :) Here's a little tip: bake some cookies right before you have a showing and leave them on the counter for the prospective buyers. There's nothing like walking into a home that smells like fresh baked cookies! Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see a photo of your lovely new craft room once it's all set up. Good luck with selling your existing house!
ReplyDeleteIt looks lovely! Congrats! The tip about the cookies is a good one. When we were house-hunting here in Washington, the people in one of the houses we visited had left cookies for us, and it made me feel like they were such nice people I should be polite and buy their house to thank them, LOL. We didn't buy that one, but I felt guilty about it and was so happy when it finally sold a couple months later.
ReplyDeleteMy other tip is to price the house you want to sell realistically and then just don't negotiate down. You'll get more traffic, and people will feel more pressure to buy it quickly rather than thinking it is overpriced and it will always be there for them later. Using this strategy, we were able to sell our house in Florida in one month in a VERY bad market. We had three realtors assess what they thought it should sell for, and we priced it at 5% over that price, and we got a full-price offer. People always want to price their house pretty high, thinking they can always lower the price later, but meanwhile you have the stress of always having to have the house perfect for showings, and it becomes damaged goods the longer it is on the market.
Good luck!
beautiful. love the fact that the garage doors are not in the front of the house. good luck!
ReplyDeleteLove the open plan Layout to the house, you lucky girl...hope it all works out for you :)
ReplyDeleteJenny x
What a beautiful, beautiful house! Woo hoo! I absolutely love your new breakfast nook, so light with all those windows! And the rec room (what we call a rumpus) is awesome! Fingers crossed that all goes to plan.
ReplyDeleteYour new home looks GORGEOUS and thanks for sharing. I'm a little unsure about how I'd feel buying a house that comes with a little boy in the garage though!!!!!! He IS pretty cute - I'll give you that!
ReplyDeleteBet you can't wait to move in - I know I would.
Kathyk
Oh what a stunning house and location .... love the open plan look and those floors :) Hope your sale goes through quickly and that you spend many, many happy hours in your fantastic new craft room (uhm home!!)
ReplyDeleteWe will all be here waiting on your return :)
Chris M
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ReplyDeleteSuch a spacious, flowing home! The kitchen looks nice and the breakfast room with all of those delightful windows is fantastic. From what I can see, I would love the house, too! Through the years, we had several existing homes. The one home that we built, was open and spacious like your new home. It was, however, a bit less less than 3,000 s.f. Yours appears considerably bigger. Ours was wonderful for just the two of us and my husband's children when they sometimes came to stay with us for extended visits, or for the holidays. It was a god-send to have a finished, walk-out basement. In it, I was fortunate to have a good-sized craft room, complete with a custom designed and built storage closet! My late husband had an office next to my craft room, which was nice because even when we were working independently, we were still close to each other. We had a large family room and a 3/4 bath, as well as, a storage room with shelving my husband built, that could survive an earthquake! Heehee! It's fun to reminisce, however, the building process from buying the lot to the closing, was stressful. Glad yours is already built and in the finishing stages. At that stage of completion, you won't have to deal with the mistakes you find during the construction process, which is a good thing. Mistakes such as, finding that the framers had framed-in one of the kitchen windows off-center. Yes I'm serious and yes, they fixed it the next day. Or, finding that the framer tried to cut down the size of our walk-in, marble shower in the master en suite bath. Nipped that in the bud in two seconds. Or finding, after-the-fact, that someone forgot to take the plug out of the outside basement entrance drain, therefore a slight bit of flooding occurred during the first big rain. Yes, the builder sent a plumber that same day, to fix it. Anyway ... just recalling some of the "fun" stories of building a home, that weren't so funny at the time. We did love the house and would still be living in it, had our lives not taken some unfortunate, unexpected bad-turns (illness.) I hope and pray that your experience is grand! I hope that your current home sells and closes quickly so that you can move into your lovely new home, in time to deccorate for the holidays! All GOOD wishes. :)
ReplyDeleteA beautiful looking home for your wonderful family. Praying for a speedy and stress free sale and move.
ReplyDeleteWow, look at all that light! All that open space! All that newness! I think you made a fantastic choice!!
ReplyDeleteHappy cleaning/packing/craziness -- and good luck!!
I'm going to pray for a fast sell of your current home. As I've said in previous posts - I'm excited for you and I think your new home is just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteReally like the floor plan with all the open spaces and I also like the garage doors in the back. Sure look like lots of crafting room to me. Hope your home sells soon!!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! What a beautiful home. I absolutely love that walk out basement. I can see ideas for it running through my mind and it is not even my house.
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your cleaning, getting ready to sell, financial paperwork going smoothly and the move. I just love it once I am in a new house. I think I love the organizing part of it most. Everything will have a place.
I second Joan B; love that the garage is on the side. I don't like houses where the garage is the most prominent front feature. If the rest of my house weren't so perfect I wouldn't have bought it because of that issue.
ReplyDeleteThe house looks like it sits in an absolutely gorgeous spot. How close will future neighbors be?
I wish I lived close; I would volunteer to come and help you get ready to sell. I will miss your daily blog posts; but will suffer with you during the lack of creativity time. Good luck with your next few months of "fun".
Susan, good luck to you and your family as you move into your new beautiful home. Sometimes we need a reason to get us to clean out and reorganize, but the end result will be worth it. There is nothing like being the first owners of a house and making it a home.
ReplyDeleteWhoooo HOOOOOO!!!!! What a VIEW!!! It looks just beautiful - the house and the property! What fun you and your family will have there!!! Good luck on all that packing and fixing up! We'll be praying for you!
ReplyDeleteWowza- what a gorgeous house and a beautiful lot! Can't wait to see photos, when you're settled in and all organized. You make it sound easy, my dear! We are in the middle of redoing everything in our master bedroom, and so far it's been a 2 week process with at least 2 weeks to go-we are never moving!!! LOL We decided if we have to move we will pack a suitcase and leave everything in the house-hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! So very happy for you and your family!
Your blog was recommended to me by a friend and I visit every day. I am up in Ottawa, Canada (have no idea where you are - States I believe) and want to wish you the best with this exciting adventure. Looking forward to your return. Luckie F.
ReplyDeleteThe new place looks fabulous. Just keep telling yourself, the best is yet to be
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing like a new home!! It will be the place for many happy family memories and Life's milestones! The feeling of purging is exhilarating --- and oh!...what a wonderful reward you will have at the end of all of that cleaning! (You gotta love a husband who wants a new home, too!) CONGRATS from a loyal reader in San Jose, CA - KT
ReplyDeleteUber Fab!!! Congrats!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new home...and good luck with the sale of the current house. We moved about 6 years ago after being in the same house for almost 25 years. Who knew that you could accumulate so much STUFF?! After we moved into our new home,it looked sort of empty...but we've certainly taken care of that...I've filled this place up too! LOL!
ReplyDeleteLove the windows in the garage and breakfast room! Also like the detail in the DR ceiling, but not sure what to call it.
ReplyDeleteBest Wishes for a smooth transition over the next few weeks. Don't worry about blogging--we'll be waiting.
Oh my gosh, Susan, I can see why you agreed to sell and move. Have no idea what your current house is like but I'm sure it's lovely. Your new one is gorgeous and will be even more so once you get your finishing touches in it. Thanks for sharing and good luck selling your other home!
ReplyDeleteLove the windows, love the basement! Out here in California, basements are not the norm. I hold good thoughts for you during this stressful time, and look forward to when you can blog again.
ReplyDeleteSarah (kegbo)
So happy for you and your family, Susan. Thanks for giving us pictures, so we can share your joy! Hope the cleaning and purging and staging goes smoothly. We all need to do that more often, don't we?
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to pray when you're jealous (just kidding). I'll have you in my thoughts and prayers. Enjoy your new nest! - Hugs, Audrie
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful house, Susan! I wish you all the best in selling your current home.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely home! I'll be praying for all of you, and hope that your current house sells quickly and for a fair price.
ReplyDeleteSusan - this is a wonderful home - and I can see why you just have to have it! So jealous!! :) You put all your energy into the cleaning, purging and tidying stuff - I know the feeling! Hope your current house sells quickly!
ReplyDeleteWow that's a beautiful house! I love the yard! So excited for you!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure in the excitement for the new house you wouldn't even realize how and when cleaning/packing happened :)
Congratulations, Susan - your new house looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteOMG! what an amazing house, my little bungalow will fit into your basement, not that i'm jealous or anything :)
ReplyDeleteI can see why you said "I want it NOW!", it is gorgeous, good luck with everything.
Your new home looks GORGEOUS and thanks for sharing. I'm a little unsure about how I'd feel buying a house that comes with a little boy in the garage though!!!!!! He IS pretty cute - I'll give you that! Bet you can't wait to move in - I know I would. Kathyk
ReplyDelete