Friday, February 12, 2016

SOLD!

Andi and I accepted an offer on our house last Friday, eight days after it listed on the market. Wahoo! Our house is now "pending sale" as we await the final closing date of April 15.

To say I'm breathing a sigh of relief is an understatement. Eight days are a tiny blip on the calendar and yet, they were some of the most stressful ones I've experienced in a while. (What? Stay-at-home-mom life doesn't warrant many nail-biting situations.)

For me, it wasn't the actual house showings that kept me up at night; it was the constant feeling of influx. Tory, Aden and I spent countless hours in the car shuffling to and from the cabin and our various weekly activities in the Twin Cities. Chloe (+ the dog kennel) came along with us because I couldn't leave the dog at home during scheduled or potential showings. We couldn't cook meals at home because I didn't want to dirty the kitchen, and I discouraged Tory and Aden from scattering toys all over the house. Oh, did I mention we all had the stomach flu smack-dab in the middle of that?  It was... not the best of times.

The stress of the unknown was terrible on my nerves (and my poor cuticles). Would anyone like our house? How long would it take to sell? Was is priced right? My steady-handed husband gave great advice when he said, "It's out of our hands; there's no sense in worrying. Move it to the back of your mind and wait to see what happens." He was right. We'd done everything we were willing to do to show our house in the best light. Whatever will be, will be.

And, it was. Now that we have a buyer, it's easy to look back on the situation and think say how smoothly it transpired. The housing inspection took place earlier this week, and even that came back with relatively few changes. We'll move into our new place two weeks before we close on our current home, so timing should work well for everyone. 

So what's next for us? Andi and I found a new place to live in a nearby first-ring suburb of the Twin Cities. It's .7 miles away from Andi's office and he's thrilled to live so close to work. I'm excited the kids and I will see him more often during the weekdays, and happy to live in a vibrant neighborhood with shops and restaurants in walking distance of our home.

I think Andi and I surprised all of our friends and family when we announced we're moving into a condo. The reasoning is simple: We spend three days a week at our lake cabin in Wisconsin, and it doesn't make sense to own a 3,000+ sq. ft. house in the Twin Cities that we only use Monday-Thursday. If I'm being honest, Andi does little more than sleep and shower in our current home -- he's usually working! We had a too-big-for-us house that Tory, Aden and I mostly occupied.

Our new place is a hybrid of sorts; a condo that feels more like a town home. It's a brand new 3-bed, 2 bath unit with stainless steel appliances and a fabulous roof-top deck. Construction crews are still finalizing our space, so the builder/interior designer even let Andi and I select our own paint colors, flooring and granite. Best of all, the layout is perfectly functional for the way we live (at least, we hope). I'm excited!    


My goal for the next month is to purge everything we don't use/need in our current home. I've been a selling machine on the local Facebook garage sale site, and it feels awesome to de-clutter for a fresh start ahead.

12 comments:

  1. Congrats on selling your house and that's awesome that you are downsizing. If you don't need the space, why pay for it, heat it, etc. And only .7 miles away from Andi's work? He could walk or bike to/from work every day (maybe not in the winter). :-)

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    1. Thank you! And, yes -- he could totally bike/walk to work, but I have a feeling it'll be the kids and I doing that to visit HIM at work more often. :)

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  2. Congrats! whoo hoo! yay for more family time :) Enjoy!

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  3. Yay, we are so happy for you all!! We thoroughly miss our condo living lifestyle we had in Europe; it really is the best!!

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    1. Yes! We've heard the group of neighbors in this building are lots of fun. Can't wait to see for myself :)

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  4. That's kinda refreshing to hear that you're "downsizing". Most leave condos and buy that suburban house with the yard, etc.. We did that and all it did was eat up our family time doing yard work and a huge honkin' house to clean all the time! We down-sized and went back to living in a much smaller home. I didn't wanna do the condo thing as I really wanted a yard and keep my private space. You didn't say, but I assume you're just renting this place until you make some final decisions, since your house sold so fast. (btw - ours sold in FOUR days!) We had to scramble, but we had been looking all last year for a smaller, more manageable house. Our families & friends thought we were nuts! lol But, we also spend summers at the lake, and are now able to travel more in the winter without worrying about that big, empty house. I'm refreshed by this, as it use to be only the "old people" that downsized and I like to hear other younger folks like us doing what we did. It just made sense to us and I have no regrets at all. We both work (me, part time), but it seems like we literally aren't home that much to keep up such a big house & the yard was too much work too. We were on 1.5 acres and there was always something that needed maintenance. I wish you well on your new venture and hope it's a good fit for your family. If you are in fact just renting it, so much better, as if it doesn't work - you can pick up and go and not have that stress of selling yet another place! enjoy.

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  5. Congratulations!!

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  6. oh my gosh! 8 days, now that is amazing. phew...
    I think your move is a smart one. Something more manageable and something with lots of walkable offferings. I wish we had things to walk to here, we can barely scrap together a sidewalk. When we lived in Boulder that was such a nice amenity. So walkable even out of the city.

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  7. Congratulations! I live in SE WI! What a small world!

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  8. Congratulations on getting your home sold so quickly and finding a new place so close to your husband's office. Downsizing to a condo is a great idea; now you won't have to worry about taking care of a lawn or a house that is too large. Instead, you can spend your time exploring your new neighborhood with your children.

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  9. Congrats! Eight days on the housing market is super quick, and it must be great to have a little bit more security in terms of the future and your plans. I have to say, that picture of your new place looks amazing! The balconies are going to be great during the summer, and the rooftop deck is going to just make your parties.

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