A sneak peek. We have a new home!
This is a continuation of the scenario of buying/selling a home. For the beginning of the process click 10 Tips for a Stress-Free Move where I give the reader (and ourselves) a few tips for keeping our sanity. For the most part, it worked.
With the help of a wonderful realtor, we continued our three-month search for the "perfect" home. She had a list of our desires and no thank-yous. We did some walk-throughs, put in a low bid on one that we were not so fond of (and didn't get), and my husband attended an Open House by himself because that realtor (not ours) got stuck in traffic on I-95 coming in from D.C. Trusting my husband, she gave him the code to get into the house and check it out. Turns out that the model left a lot to be desired.
Realty sites are all using high technology and you don't even need to be present to get a sense of the layout of the homes for sale. A quick click on your iPad and boom: up comes a full view on your big screen and you can check things out from the luxury of your recliner chair.
On June 25, our daughter (who had been faithfully checking the strange real estate market that this Covid-peppered year has wrought), sent me a text with "HOUSE ALERT!" and then, "You're gonna want to see this one". We did. By early afternoon we had made an offer, the realtors on both sides communicated, and the next morning our realtor sent an email with "congratulations".
Here 'tis:
Now it begins. The house is less than 4 miles from the house which we will be selling in the near future. The back and forth with boxes will be many, Now our goal is to get our house emptied and evaluate what needs to be done to ready a 35-yr-old home for sale. A fixer-upper? Not really. We've done upgrades and it is in pretty good shape.
What are we up to now? Well, we're not going to pay much attention to the house we have lived in since getting married in 1989. Why replace something only to find that the new owners may not like what we update? We intend to concentrate on making our new home cozy, neat, and comfortable for our senior years.
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The first thing we want to do is add ceiling fans. There are plates for, but no ceiling fans in any room and here in Virginia we see the need for one in all the main rooms: Great room, sunroom, and the three bedrooms.
Our next purchase before we move in "officially" will be area rugs. I'm excited to pick out one large rug for the Great Room.
These are some possibilities. Maybe they would suit you too?
This area will be our TV viewing area for the family. Several years ago we purchased a large 65" TV:
It sits nicely on this beautiful cabinet:
Next, we move to the kitchen. The cabinets have wonderfully deep drawers, but we are in need of a nice tableware divider.
We need to buy a dishwasher for the home we are selling. What?!?? You had no dishwasher? The "dish washer" was me. We'll be shopping to put a dishwasher back into the space from which it came. Otherwise, a potential buyer might say: "no way, without a dishwasher."
Among the MANY tasks that are on our daily lists: Looking for ways to purchase items to suit our new space, which is more minimal in design than the traditional style that is our older home environment. We're getting ideas from The Container Store.
Shop some Customer Favorites Sale:
Organization + Tidying Kitchen Storage Shoe Storage Deals Three-Tier Carts
Storage Bins & Drawer Deals Desktop Organization Hampers & Baskets
Craft & Hobby Storage Garment Storage Like-It Modular Collection
Note to reader: I am exhausted. There is a ton of stuff to think about when moving. I had no idea when I wrote the previous blog post 10 tips to a Stress-Free Move how much the process entails. So much must be done in a short period of time and it's not complete as of this writing. The trick is: that we must pace ourselves, take deep breaths, and keep a sense of humor. During our last trip over to start unpacking, my husband started to load some mugs onto an upper shelf. As he put the fourth or fifth mug onto the shelf the entire shelf gave way and landed on the granite countertop. Small shards of ceramic pieces spread across our new floor. We looked around, horrified at what had happened. Turns out one of the shelf pegs was missing. Nobody was hurt, mugs are replaceable (although some were memorable for the images), and we decided to call it a night.
Here's the real lesson of moving: try not to do it during a pandemic, be patient...everything does get done, buy the boxes from Lowe's or another source, ask people to help, make to-do lists and really check ✅ each one (feels so good).
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