Thursday, October 17, 2019

2019 - The Year of Change Part B


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Part Deuce

  To catch anyone up from last time, here are the Cliffs notes
            D got a new Job
            D’s new job was a long way from the mound
            We were planning to move anyway once M graduated.
            We bought a new house close to D’s job (Homestead)
            M and I were still living in the mound
            We sold the Hanger
            Moved everything from the hanger to the homestead.

Now as I left off the last one, you would think we were good now.  Hanger was empty and sold.  D was glamping at the homestead.  We can kick back and have some beers and be good!

Nope

Now we had to get our house ready to sell, no time to rest. 

First – de clutter.  Did I mention I have a lot of crap?  

you see, my beloved is an angel and minimalist, keeps nothing that isnt needed,  has a place for everything, etc.

me on the other hand……..I am a different story  (I don’t know why she puts up with me J )

  Now we were moving stuff from the Mound to the Homestead.  Because you know, loading up vehicles with stuff and driving across the Metro area was something we hadn’t been doing a lot of.  (please read the last line with a sarcastic tone, because otherwise it makes no sense)

D was coming to the mound on the weekends to spend time with us little folk, and every time she headed back her truck was piled with stuff.  We did many trips on the weekends,  I would do trips during the week.  Needless to say at this point I could drive from one to the other with my eyes closed with no problem  (and with the time some of those trips were made, I am pretty sure my eyes were closed because that was the only sleep I was getting)

The nice thing was we had time to move and didnt have to do it all at once

the bad thing was we had time to move and didnt have to do it all at once.

(see what I did there.....)


We also had a few things we had to deal with on the house before we put it on the market.
Every day was either working on the house, making arrangements to work on the house, or moving stuff to the homestead.  (and somewhere in there we have jobs, which I travel a lot for mine, and M is a Senior in High School and trying to decide on a college)   To say we were busy, stressed, not getting any sleep, and always behind on something, well that would be very accurate....

We also had some things to deal with at the Homestead.  Everything from being able to mow and take care of the property  (nice green zero turn mower joined the family) to getting the cats shifted over and setup with their needs (cats are very needy,  anyone want a cat?  its a buy one get two free kind of thing from us.....)    to the puppies.  Yes, the puppies.  Did I mention we have 2 labs?  

Both big dogs with lots of energy.  They were crate trained but with people being gone more it was difficult for them to be locked up more than they should be.  They needed their space at the homestead. One of the first projects we took on at the homestead was to shift some fencing, add some fencing, and turn the single car garage into the Puppy Zone.  Now when we are not there, they can be in the single car garage, they have food, water, shelter, etc.  They have a doggy door to go outside and have a section of the yard they can run around in.  We also have some kiddie pools outside under a magnolia tree they can play in during the day since they cant get to the pond when we arent there.  (yes, we have a pond)  

This was a huge deal and made the puppies much happier.  They do love the homestead, the space to run around, The cows, the bunny rabbits, the birds, they are very happy.  They love getting a ride in the mule with mama to get the mail each day.  They also love their early morning walks with mama through the countryside. 


Along the way we arranged for a pool company to start taking care of the pool every week in the mound (because we had no time) and we arranged for a lawn company to do the lawn in the mound since we had no time.  (because you know, we had the lawn at the homestead to take care of)

Along the way M did decide on a college and signed with them, getting scholarship money (very proud of him) and then M graduated High School.  People were there, he graduated, it was thrilling.  (about as thrilling as any other graduation)  

Of course through all of this I am amazed that M didnt cut my head off in the middle of the night.  We had turned his world so far upside down, but let me tell you he was so cool about this.  We were always running after something, and sold the only home he knew.  I am sure one day he will tell us stories about what he thought of us during this time, but for now he has been nice. 

Finally we had things ready at the house to get it on the market and we list it.  This is one of those things where you realize how wrong you were.   A – we thought the hanger would sit on the market for months finding the right buyer and it sold so fast it spun my head.   B – we thought the house would sell quickly………

In the beginning we had quite a few people looking, no one would make an offer.  We heard some feedback but nothing we thought was serious.  We of course talked about it daily.  But us talking about it didn’t make someone want to buy the house.  Then we started getting the comments from our realtors about things that we should change in the house.  Not faulting them, they were doing their job, but we had already put a decent amount of money into the house to get it ready to sell and we just weren’t comfortable putting more money into it when there just wasn’t any interest.

So we waited.  And we waited.   M moved into his dorm room at college, so I moved out of flo mo and down to the homestead.  Left the house to be shown at anytime without affecting anyone.   After a period of time we dropped the price to see if that would help.  Still a lot of showings, no real interest.  And we waited.   Finally we were getting pretty close to the end of summer, and with M playing college football and us wanting to go to the games, we weren’t going to have a lot of time left to move, so we finally picked a date and decided we would empty the house out no matter what.
We had continued to move stuff every weekend basically, and then we scheduled movers to move the last of the furniture we wanted.  

Everything left we would find a way to get rid of.  (BTW, facebook marketplace was awesome at finding new homes for furniture we did not want)

At this same time we had told our realtors to drop the price again, and they suggested we offer the buyer help with closing costs, which we agreed to.  Right as we were getting up to the move date, we got an offer.  We accepted, but still went ahead with the move. 

  During the week we got the movers to show up and get it all done, and of course while I was there dealing with that, I realized one of the HVAC units wasn’t working.  There go two more days of time and a lot more money to replace the motor in the air handler for the downstairs unit.  We did manage to get the repair completed before the inspection, we thought we were good.  

The inspection found some of the usual things, but also found things like “you need a new roof”
Needless to say that was a gut punch that was confirmed by our insurance company.  We now had a few small things to deal with and had to arrange to have a roof to put on in a couple week time period.  

Through a number of small miracles the LOML managed to make sure all of these things got taken care of, handed off all the paperwork and were ready to go with time to spare before the closing date. 

  Since I travel for work I of course had a crazy schedule to work around, including a 8 day trip out of the country.  We worked out that we would close the same day I came back into the country because D was leaving town the next day for a work trip for her.  

That day came and nope, we weren’t closing that day, issues on the buyer end.  It was pushed to the end of the week.  

We got to that date, nope still issues on the buyer end, cant close that day.  

To say that the LOML was livid would be an understatement.  Another week went by before we finally closed, but yes, we finally did sell the flo mo house.  To say we were relieved is a huge understatement.

The great part is, we are now in the homestead, we are both very happy, we have a lot of plans and dreams that we can now get started on

 Expect to see stories of the homestead and the goings on.  Maybe I can start writing them about the time we are unpacked which should be around 2026.....


DD





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