3 little "s" words

No, not that "s" word, silly! The 3 words I'm referring to are shock, stress, and sick.

Shock-=I am still in shock about selling the house.  And getting a little panicky about everything this involves.   

Stress=um, have I mentioned it's the last week of the school year? And you all know I'm a teacher? Report cards, packing up the classroom, prepping for our end-of-the-year poetry program, getting together summer work, and wrapping up about a zillion loose ends are all taking up tons of my time. Not to mention having to choose a builder, a floor plan, checking references, and on and on for the house side of things.   

Sick=I've got a cold. I'm not whining--it's just wiping me out. I went to bed at 9 last night.

So, all those little "s" words are preventing me from blogging much now.  I'll be back with more updates once at least one of those factors improves a bit.  Until then, I've got plenty to do to keep me busy! Oh, and feel free to leave comments here--I forgot to mention that when I first sent out the blog link:) Catch up with you soon!

SOLD!!!!!!!

Yes, you read that right.  The house is sold!!!

After not hearing anything for 2 days, Eric and I were thinking it wasn't going to happen.  We thought perhaps they had even placed an offer on another home they'd expressed interest in. Just this morning while we were getting ready for the day, we were discussing our options, assuming the buyers had moved on.

Then, bam! I get a text from Eric over my lunch (and those of you who know me know how amazing it is that I even checked my phone for texts.  That pretty much never happens!).  Check it out:

Did you spot the SOLD in there? I called Eric immediately and he filled me. I was in shock! I think the conversation between Eric and I went something like this:
E: Hello?
Me: Hi. So it sold?
E:Yes! I just heard from our realtor.  He was checking in with the buyers' realtor to see where things stood.
Me: I can't believe it!
E: Me neither!
Me: I really can't believe it!
E: I know.  I thought the buyers had moved on.
Me: I can't believe it!

There was more to the conversation, but I can't really remember it.  I'm not sure how many times I said "I can't believe it", but it was entirely too many.  Like I said, I was in shock.  The next thing I did was email my mom and text/email a couple of other people (again with the texting! revolutionary day for me!).  Marea happened to be passing by in the hallway outside my classroom, so I popped out to tell her.  Her eyes got big and she danced around and hugged me.

Then I broke the news to our current neighbor and let him know he'd likely see a sold sign in our yard today.  I wanted the neighbors to hear it from us instead of finding out the news from a sign. 

I grabbed a quick bite to eat (teachers only get 25 minutes of lunch on a good day, but with all the excitement I had about 5 minutes to scarf down my food), told a couple more people, then had to go supervise a whole slew of first graders at lunch:)

I wanted to tell Evan as soon as possible and knew he wouldn't want to wait until I picked him up from daycare at 3:45.  Thinking quickly while supervising students, I decided to have Evan come to my classroom so I could tell him the news in person.  I jotted down a quick note on typing paper for him to read when he came to my classroom.

Nothing fancy--I didn't have time, but it did the trick.  Evan is probably the most excited out of all of us because he'll get to live close to several of his friends.  When he read this, he told me he knew all along it would happen.  I asked him how he knew and he said "I just assumed it." So cool and casual, which is so unlike him.

The rest of the day passed very quickly with teaching, getting the kids from daycare/after school activities to making dinner, doing homework, and getting them both to separate soccer practices. At this point (9pm) I've actually only seen Eric for about 3 minutes today.  We have so much to talk about and now our dream of our home on the Lane is about to become a reality!

Still waiting....

And here we are at the end of the day with no news. We wonder if the buyers know that we are in a very good situation in that we don't have to move, so we won't accept any offers that don't give us the cash to make that happen. Now we're wondering if the old saying holds true--no news is good news.  We'll see!

The Offer/Counter Offer Game

When we last left off in this minor drama of ours, the buyers had countered our counter.  Does that make sense?  This gets confusing!  We were not pleased with their counter, but we listened to what our realtor had to say, and talked to our own personal consultant, Eric's brother, Todd, who happens to be a realtor in another state.  By the way--a huge shout out to Todd for all the help and advice he's given us so far on this journey.  Todd, you're awesome!

Eric and I talked and talked until late in the night on Saturday, trying to decide what to do.  One the one hand, we knew we couldn't accept the counter the buyers had proposed.  It just wouldn't give us enough cash to make building our home on the Lane possible.  On the other hand, we also knew they were firm on their price.

In the end, we decided to point out to the buyers (via our realtors) all the concessions we'd already agreed to, as well as come down in our asking price a bit more, but not to the point that they wanted.  Eric whisked the new counter offer (so this was the counter to their counter to our counter to their original offer.  See? Confusing!) over to our realtor about noon yesterday (Sunday).  We still haven't heard back yet from the buyers.

At this point, we really don't know what to expect.  Remember, they were pretty firm on their price, but since we didn't hear back a rejection right away, we're hoping that's good news. 

So now we continue to wait, playing this little game that's all part of this process. Fingers are crossed this game ends soon with good news!  Stay tuned for the latest update!

Drama, Drama, Drama

I started this blog as a record of this process of selling our current home and building our dream home.  We are well aware that this process could end with us not selling and not building.  Maybe not now and maybe not ever.  But no matter what happens, we want to document it and remember this time.  We hope we get to do this again, but know it may not happen:

This is our current home during construction 10 years ago.

Remember Friday when we got an offer?  The offer wasn't great, so last night (Friday) we countered. Today (Saturday) has brought a whole bunch of action, anticipation, and ups and downs.  Here's a run through of the drama of the day:

5:30am--I wake up.  I'm frustrated that I can't sleep when that's all I really want to do, but my mind is racing with everything going on (open house today, waiting to hear about our counter offer, meeting with a builder about floor plans). I lay in bed, pretending to sleep and not wanting to wake anyone else by starting the clean up for the open house.

7:30am--The kids wake up so we all get ready and the cleaning commences for the open house.  We can't wait to hear back from the buyers!

10:00am--Yeah, we spend a little time lounging around but not much.  By this time, we are well into the cleaning spree that happens before an open house or showing. Hoping we hear from our buyer soon!

1:00pm--We are pretty much ready to leave to meet with the builder after cleaning all morning. We hear from our realtor right before we leave.  The buyers are getting cold feet.  Wait--no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2:00pm--We meet with one of the builders we're considering.  I've pretty much fallen in love with the floor plan they've drawn up for us.  It's totally custom and has nearly everything we've ever wanted in a house.  However, we have to change a few things around, which is going to cost extra money. We hope that their counter offer gives us enough cash to cover these things.

2:45pm--Off to the mall we go while the open house is happening at our house.  The kids need summer clothes, so it's a perfect errand to do at this time. They're looking pretty cool and aloof with their new shades!  Hoping to hear good news about the buyers soon!

4:30pm--We leave the mall, ready to go home and see how the open house went.  Maybe another interested party will have shown up to put some pressure on our buyer.

4:40pm--Our realtor calls.  The buyers have not accepted our counter, but at least they gave us a counter.  What is it? Sucky.  They only raised their price by 1K.  Eric and I are seriously offended by their offer.  We also hear they are firm on their price.  We can't accept this offer.  We need to pretty much get our asking price to make building our home on the Lane happen. Our realtor asks us to stop in on our way back to town.

5:10pm---We arrive at our realtor's office.  He goes over the buyers rationale and the pros and cons of the offer.   We tell him we can't take their offer, but  we won't just reject it and walk away, either.  Now we need to decide what to counter with. Oh, and we find out the open house was a no-show.  More bad news is that the housing market has slowed down.  We missed the peak. I literally almost start crying right then and there.

The rest of the night until about 11:00pm--decisions, decisions.  We run numbers, we look at every piece of financial information we've collected so far.  This is not working out the way we had hoped.  We're not sure we can make building happen even if they agree to a little bit higher price.  We go to bed at 11:30pm and decide we'll see how we feel about it in the morning. We have until Tuesday to decide. 

See? Lots of drama today.  I don't know what will happen, but whatever does, we'll keep you updated here!

An Offer and all it brings with it

Last night, Eric and I were lamenting that we haven't had many buyers look at the house (2 to be exact and one really didn't care for the layout, the other really loved the house).  We spoke to our realtor, who said the market may have peaked and we were feeling we might have missed our chance.  And over all these months of debating and deciding, we've always said we're fine staying where we are.  We love where we live. And we do. So although we'd be disappointed, we'd be fine.  I mean, look at the pretty view we have! We'd be fine!

Then, bam! Late this morning we got an offer.  Not a great offer, but not a bad one, either.  We counter offered tonight and are waiting to hear back.  We were pretty surprised since we'd just been feeling like this might not happen.  In the meantime, tomorrow we have another open house, so we'll see what transpires between that and this counter offer.

Another surprise is how very mixed my emotions are about all of this.  While we did our daily highs and lows at dinner tonight, the whole family, including myself, said the offer on the house was a high.  But I also said it was my low.  I've already mentioned how bittersweet this journey feels, and this offer just amplified that emotion for me.  This is where my babies grew up.  Where I walked with them during long, dark nights.  Where they took their first steps.  Where they moved from a crib to a big bed.  Where they learned to talk and color and read.  Where birthdays were celebrated, where Santa's gifts were discovered, where they learned to discover the world. It's where their childhoods are rooted. 

And I know, I know we will have so many memories in our new home on the Lane, but it's still hard to say goodbye to this piece of my life, this piece of my motherhood. 

That's where this journey has brought me to today.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Good ol' Murphy

You know Murphy. As in Murphy's Law.  Yeah, that Murphy.  I think he might be trying to kill my dream of a House on the Lane.  We made the decision to list the current house almost exactly 2 weeks ago.  We knew the water softener needed some repair--there was a salt bridge (kind of like a large clump of salt that hardened together), which took quite a lot of time and energy to fix.  So, Eric took on that monster task.

A couple of days after we listed, the water heater stopped working.  Called the plumber and he couldn't find anything wrong with it and said the water softener had fixed itself.  Out $100 for really nothing.

About the same time, I noticed a leak under the sink in the kids' bathroom.  Called the plumber again.  This time he had to replace a drain trap.  Out more than $100, but at least we had a good reason.

The night before (about 9pm) our open house last weekend, I discovered the basement toilet was leaking and had created a very large puddle on the bathroom floor.  This was at the same time Eric was laid up with food poisoning, and I'd gotten the whole house ready by myself for the open house (including pulling over 1,000 dandelion weeds.  No, really!) the following day.  I'd also watched not only my 2 kids, but also 2 of their friends all day.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper when I discovered the toilet issue.  At least this one we could tackle on our own so no need to call a plumber. 

And finally, one evening earlier this week, after coming back from a meeting with one of the builders we're considering, I noticed a wet spot on the ceiling of the family room on the main level.  Seriously?!?!

 I investigated while Eric swore up and down and back and forth. I think it was his turn to not be a happy camper.  Another phone call to the plumber ensued with another empty result.  He couldn't find anything wrong and thinks it was somehow related to the earlier leak under the kids' bathroom sink. Cha-ching! Out another $100+.  I am seriously beginning to wonder if Murphy doesn't want us to move for some reason.

Tonight, I am tackling the stain left on the ceiling so we can be ready for our next open house this weekend.  After a super quick internet search to point me in the right direction, my littlest helper and I went to Menards and got this stuff:

After I tucked her in, I got to work.  Actually, it went pretty quickly.  And now the stain looks more like this (it's still a little wet and I've got one more coat to do, but already a huge improvement):

I'm happy with the result, but I'll be even happier if Murphy moves on to another house in another town far, far from here.

The Back and Forth of it All

The selling update for today is that we have one very interested buyer.  I have such mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I cannot believe we might be saying goodbye to the house where we choose everything little thing--every outlet placement, every paint color.  Where we know how each little ding and mark on the walls and floors came to be.  Notice the half-walls.  We choose those to be half-walls, with no columns and with a wood cap.  We choose to have the lighting in that room be only by lamps and we choose every outlet that the lamps would plug into. See what I mean?  I just hope the new owners love this little lady as much as we have and take good care of her.

On the other hand, I am so excited to maybe be a bit closer to our Home on the Lane!

We are considering 2 builders at this point.  They are similar in lots of ways, one is local and the other is almost local, but located in the next town north of us. They are both custom builders and can give us nearly everything we want.  Tonight, we saw the most updated floor plans from both of them and I definitely have a favorite! Of course, Eric prefers the other floor plan better.  Aside from the decision to actually put our current house up for sale, this has been the hardest decision in this process.

So, we have lots to discuss tonight and we're hoping to make a decision on the builder in the near future.  And in the meantime, let's hope that the house sells (at least I think that's what I'm hoping!).

The Lot on the Lane and How We Got Here

First, an update. We took a drive today to peek at the lot we have on hold on the Lane.  A realtor was showing our current house to potential buyers so we needed something to do while that was going on.  Here it is, the spot where our home on the Lane will hopefully be.

And forgive the weird photo.  My camera's been doing this to all the pics I take lately and I can't figure it out! 

See all those pine trees at the back of the lot?  They need some TLC (hello, Robert! use your magic touch on those guys!), but they'll provide a great buffer between the dead-end street behind them (it's extremely low traffic so we have no worries about it being at the back of our lot) and our home.

Our lot is narrow at the back, so it's only a few trees wide--that's not all our land. You can also see the house to the side of our lot and the house that would be across the street from ours.  The lots are long and narrow so we'll be cozy with our neighbors, but have an amazing backyard. Here's a view standing at the back of the lot by the pine trees and looking to the front of the lot.  See that dip and rise in the background? That's about where the house would end and we'd have the rest of this space as our yard. 

And here's the golf course, which is what the front of the house will face.  There's a road between the lot and the course.  See Eric standing there?

Second, a little more background of why we're at this point. As I mentioned in the last post, we have gone back and forth on this decision a whole awful lot.  Here's some of our thinking:

Pros for selling and building a new home                

-Eric's life-long dream of living on the course could become reality                                       
-We could get our dream house (plan and most of the features we want)             
-In the long run, this is a better fit for our family (at least we think so--we're not certain)
-In this area, homes hold their value better and actually increase in value more than our current location (this is based on our own research and after speaking with our realtor)  
-Selling is the best it's been in 10 years while interest rates are still low as are building costs, so it's a win-win and we feel like all the right ingredients are in place
-There are parts of our house that are not working for us (teeny, tiny master bath; closed off kitchen; small bedrooms; unused space)

  Cons for selling and building a new home

  -It's a whole lotta work! This was one of my initial reasons for not moving, which I have now overcome
 -We'd be leaving a home we like in an area we like with neighbors we adore (this one I'm still struggling with)
 -I'm scared.  Scared of not liking the new lot, the new house, the new neighbors
 -This home is the only one my children know and we have so many memories here

And that's basically how we ended up where we are.  I still question this decision every day.  Even while I was feeling excited being at the new lot, I felt a lot of trepidation.  Are we doing the right thing?  Will we be as happy in the new house as we are in the current one?  Time will tell and I sure hope it's good news.

The Very Beginning (well, almost)

Here we go, into this journey we've decided to undertake, into hopefully creating our dream home.  I want this blog to be a record of how this process goes for us and am hoping it will serve as both a journal for myself to remember this time and a tool to keep our friends and family updated.  So, let's rewind a bit and start at the beginning, shall we?

Back in late December, once the craziness of the holidays had passed, Eric casually mentioned how he'd love to live near the golf course in town.  Now, this wasn't the first time he'd said something like this to me, and I'd always dismissed it since we both didn't think it was possible financially nor did we truly want to move.  After all, we have a beautiful home in an area we really like.  We frequently comment to each other about how blessed and lucky we are to have such a wonderful home.

But for some reason that snowy December day, I didn't dismiss him. I don't know what made me change my mind, but I told him I'd consider it.  And consider we did.  Again and again and again.  Living by the golf course has been a life-long dream of Eric's.  He's a golf coach, lives for golf and would make golf his main profession (he has another job in addition to coaching) if he could.  If we lived near the course, he would golf every day that he could.  So would our son, Evan, who feels the same way about golf that Eric does.

Okay, so they're playing a different sport in this photo, but you get the idea about golf.  I don't golf and have no desire to (and yes, I've tried, but really didn't care for it), but for me the motivation to leave our current home is that I would end up getting the home of my dreams.  So, after lots and lots and lots of considering and back and forthing, one day in early May I told Eric "Let's do it! Let's put our house up for sale!"

By that point, we had already looked into buying an existing home vs. building and had settled on building for a variety of reasons.  We have a lot picked out on a lane by the golf course.

So that was the beginning of this little tale of our new home on the Lane. At least we hope it will be the beginning. First, we have to sell our current home. Fingers are crossed!