SOLD!

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We sold our house!!! I cannot begin to explain what a relief it is! I suppose if any of you have sold a house with kids then you might have an idea. It is so ridiculous to keep a house clean when there are two people running around after you making a mess. But luckily after only 3 days of showings, we had an offer. And now a week later, all the conditions have been removed and we have officially SOLD!
I consider us so blessed to have sold our home so quickly and to get near our asking price. It is such a weight lifted. Now I can focus on all the other things that need attention in my life. Like my boys. Sadly they have been a little neglected the past few weeks!

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The ups and downs of selling

So we finally listed our home this week. I was kind of relieved when I finished all of the cleaning and touch ups but I didn’t really think about the fact that it would be just as stressful to have constant showings. Here’s a little recap of what’s been happening in the last week.

Our neighbors had a bunch of showings last Thursday and Friday and got an offer that was finalized by Sunday. And now they have a “SOLD” sticker on their sign so I’m guessing everything went well with the inspection and financing.

This is great because: their house is now off the market and therefore no longer competition; we know that there is demand for our type of home in our area at our price.

This is not so great because: they were really motivated to sell (they had an offer on another house) and we think they have accepted an offer that is a little lower than we want to go (which will probably make it harder to get the price we think we deserve); after viewing their house, I think ours shows better and probably would have had an advantage over theirs if ours were on the market at the same time.

In the end though, we can’t change anything that has happened with their house so we just have to hope we will have similar luck!

We’ve now had 3 showings and have 5 more booked for the next three days. I’m excited that there is some interest but it sure is tiring having to clean our house non-stop and having to be out of the house at nap/bed time. And just because my kids don’t think I have enough to worry about, they are doing their best to make sure I have lots of toys to pick up, food to clean up, beds to make and diaper cream to clean out of the carpet (yeah, don’t ask!).

Let’s just hope this whole thing is over with soon!

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Isn't it ironic?

I’ve been really busy the last couple weeks touching up all of the main areas of our house. It is really slow going with the little guys but I’m nearly done! Can’t wait to be finished all the actual house stuff so I can get going on cleaning and organizing.

Our original plan was to list on March 1. A few weeks ago our real estate agent mentioned that the market was pretty slow and we might want to consider listing at the end of February. We were fine with that and that has been our plan for the last couple weeks. Then today we had a little wrench thrown in our plans.

My husband got home from school today and immediately asked me if I saw what was in our front yard – a for sale sign. Not ours, but the owners of the other half of our duplex. And technically it was on their side of the front yard, but still!

So naturally we called our real estate agent in a panic perfectly calm manner to see what effect this will have on us. He’s getting back to us today on what our plan of action should be but I’m definitely a little nervous about this. One of the things we felt was on our side was that there are not many homes like ours in our area, which is actually quite desirable. And now, there isn’t just a similar house, there is one exactly like ours. Plus it may give people a bad impression if both sides of our duplex are for sale at the same time, like something is wrong with the house.

Anyways, we are just trying to make the best of it. On the good side, we are happy with their price point so hopefully we can both get what we are looking for.

Thank you, life, for the curveball!

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Sell This House: Part 1

We are planning on putting our house on the market in about 6 weeks! Which is very exciting but also means there are a lot of little things to finish up to make our house a little more presentable. We don’t plan on spending a lot of money right now. After all, we have done quite a few upgrades in the 2 1/2 years we have lived here. Our goal now is mostly just to make our home as clean and fresh as possible.

The first thing on our list was actually our floors. We took advantage of the time my husband had off school just after Christmas and shampooed the carpets. They came out so clean, which was really encouraging because before they were pretty bad!

The other problem with our floors was the squeaking! It was definitely not in our budget to rip up the carpets and screw down the subfloor. So we just sucked it up for a few years as it got worse and worse. Then last Christmas, I randomly walked into the living room at my parents and my Dad was watching “This Old House.” They featured this product that was supposed to stop squeaking in your floors. I was super excited and once we got home I searched and searched for it. I found it online and sent them an email but they replied that they didn’t sell the product in Canada. So I just sucked it up an paid the extra shipping.

Yes, those are screws sticking out of my carpet. You just screw them right down through your carpet into the floor joist to a certain height. They are pre-scored so that you can snap the top off just below the top edge of the subfloor. The most difficult part is locating the joists but they send you a couple bits to help.

The best part though? It works! I’ve eliminated all of the squeaks in our living room and the upstairs is next on the agenda. The unfortunate thing is that in the squeakiest place in the house – my son’s bedroom – we discovered the squeak was coming from where the wall is attached to the floor so we may or may not cut out the drywall to fix it.

At least the rest of our house will be squeak free!

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