No Longer "A Place to Call Home"

Our house in Virginia is no longer "ours!" Last week, the sale was final. This is such a humongous praise and quite a heavy burden lifted! We kept the escrow quiet because we wanted to make sure the deal was done. Several contracts came through in the seven months the house was on the market, but none led to a final sale. And in the last month or two no contracts came through at all. We had to sell the house by a certain date, and God came through just before with a full asking price offer! To Him be the glory!

Hubs made some last repairs in November. He called me in Hawaii and I asked a huge favor. Now before I even tell, I am warning you it may seem silly. But it shouldn't sound too silly if you remember the goodbye to my Hawaii house.

I asked him in a cracking voice to stand specifically in Son1's room and say goodbye for me. For emphasis, I told him to say it out loud. NO cheating and thinking a goodbye in his head. Oh that man! He loves me. He performed twice for me. Right after we hung up, he said goodbye to Son1's room, and then once again before he left the house for the very last time.

I am sentimental. I am a sap, and overly sensitive. We had a lot of special memories in that house. But what meant the very, very most to me was that room where my first born child slept. It wasn't so much that it was his room. No. It was in that place that I felt so very much, feelings I never ever felt until 2004. Watching my newborn sleep, watching his chest rise and fall, wondering whom he would become, and praying for his future all happened there. It was in that room that I cried tears of frustration, of exhaustion, and of immense love. That room was where I started to get my bearings as a mother, a new and permanent phase in my life.

I am honestly glad the house is sold. No matter where we live, those memories no longer live in that room. They live in my heart.

There's always November!

This Thanksgiving I am particularly grateful for November.

Seven Novembers ago, Hubs walked into my classroom with some stapled papers. "I found this house! I know you are going to love it...!!!" It was not a good time. My class was full of parents and students working on a Veteran's Day project commemorating those who lost their lives at the Pentagon. I shooed him away, and promised to call in ten minutes during lunch. I called, and he was already writing an offer on the house without me seeing it. He was right, though. I loved it when I saw it.

We wrote a contingent offer because we needed to sell our current home. We were sweating bullets. Two months after 9/11 the market in the metro DC area declined, a terrible time to sell a home. But that November we sold our home in four days, and purchased the other home by the end of the year!

Fast forward nearly seven years. July, 2008 we listed our home in Hawaii. Just a few weeks later, the economy started to tank. We were slow to follow the mainland because our local economy was fairly strong. Over night our gas prices soared, groceries soared, tourism declined, and homes for sale just sat.

Hubs told the Powers that Be that we needed until November to sell our home in Hawaii. Our plan was to re-evaluate on November 30 if our home was not sold. When we felt down these past months, we reminded one another we had sold and bought a home in November seven years ago. "There's always November!"

Folks, it is November. We are in escrow in Hawaii. We thank God that we have a clear answer and direction. Now, my heart feeling major loss? Well, it is Thanksgiving, and we are only talking thankfulness today. So I will save those heavy feelings for when the packers come.

Open House Days

I am about to let you in on a little secret. Come closer. I am speaking softly. I don't want our realtor to hear, but shhh, she is onto us! On our Open House days we arrive back in the neighborhood at the tail end of the Open House. We park in an obscure position and we stake out our house, checking out who is still hanging out, how many kids they have, and how many minutes they are in the house, massaging our walls. Here we are parked about 1.5 blocks up the street but we have a clear view of our culdesac, where the trees are in the middle of the photo below. This day we had been out with the kids for over 3 hours for an Open House. Then we were called for a private showing which lasted another hour! Do you wonder what my kids are doing during the stake out? They are anything but subtle. I usually pack special treats for the stake out minutes. The kids can't make much noise with food in their mouths. When I am at my limit I let them roam freely in the van. Hmmm this might have been one of those days!

How about you? Have you been on a stake out?

Unexpected Stress

To take full advantage of Hubby's relocation package, this needs to happen immediately, and not in February, as planned. Our home in VA only 11 miles south of the Pentagon is for sale.

Hit the Ground Running

We returned from California to Hawaii, and hit the ground running. The realtor arrived less than 24 hours later. We chose the hoity toity agency that insists their homes meet certain criteria. She helped us move our furniture, stage our home, and make a list of what needed to be done in the next 48 hours before the broker open house preview.

We got crazy. We sold things left and right on craigslist. We donated stuff. Then, we moved things into the garage. My kids were limited to one laundry basket of toys that could be plucked up and put into the garage at a moment's notice. I pulled out fancy shmancy linens that my kids haven't touched or ever soiled. The high chair was stashed, the trash cans disappeared, and the floors, walls, and doors were scrubbed. The mailbox's wooden pillar was repainted. We hired three people off craigslist to pull weeds and tidy our yard. They were done in an hour. But that was three hours of work time we didn't have.

Hubby power washed our vinyl fences, our brick wall, our sidewalks, and our futura stone lanais.
We stripped everything from the front of the fridge, we scrubbed the cabinet faces, sink, appliances, and chairs. The floors were swept, mopped, and swiffered. Almost everything came off the top of the cabinets, except for a few decorative pieces. Hubby used a razor and three cleaning products on our granite.
The rugs were rotated. The rug that was in the dining room was moved to the living room. All of the books were moved from the floor around the computer, and furniture was shifted.
The handrails and window ledges were unsoiled. The air vents were dusted, and Hubby shampooed the bedroom carpets. We moved 1/3 of the books off the bookshelves so they looked uncluttered. We bleached the bathrooms, and sprayed tons of air freshener everywhere.
Furniture was moved over and over until the realtor was happy. For the broker preview and our one open house so far we blasted the air conditioning at a ridiculous 63 degrees. My house smelled so beautiful. Sniff sniff! I loved the way the ten cleaning products blowing through my house melded so well!

Our backyard was stripped of anything in primary colors. (Read: all things children.) The slide structure was given to the stranger who bought the weight bench. His little girl was in his truck. Wouldn't she like a slide structure? The wagon, the toys, and children's tables were all moved to the garage. See the two sliding glass doors? One is in the corner and the the other is on the right. We can only open one because the beige couch blocks one slider.

So now the hardest work is done, and we wait. House for sale, anyone?