More like: Closing time, You don’t have a home and you can’t stay here.
It’s really real now that we’re gearing up for our house closing! It has been a very fast whirlwind and we’ve been able to do a few surprising things with selling our house. We went from trying to rent the house Monday, to listing it as for sale by owner on Zillow and facebook on Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning), to frantic cleaning and showings on Thursday and Friday to holding an open house Saturday and Sunday. But before we even held an open house we received an offer Saturday morning. The offer came from one of the first people to see the house but we decided to go with the weekend and see what happened. After the open house, and with some negotiations, the updated offer was the best one so we went for it!
We had some requests after the inspection and we were able to do those without too much trouble, work or money. We had to water seal a wall in the basement and fix some wood paneling cracks, service the AC, bring some shoddy contractor work in the attic up to code and replace some questionable support beams in the basement. We are now preparing to be out of the house this week!
All in all, the process has been exactly one month from posting the house to moving out and closing! It’s been a wild ride and super busy, the month has gone so fast and we have had so much help from family and friends. I honestly don’t know how we’ve sold our house and finished liquidating our possessions and continued our preparations for world domination… er world travel. It’s been a busy month with posting the house for sale, showing the house, discussing with potential buyers and their realtors, selling our things via facebook sales, holding a big yard sale, lemonade stand, picking out and organizing anything we wanted to keep but not bring with us, donating van loads of stuff at thrift stores, neighborhood sending off parties, passport appointments, contractors in the house, had two birthdays in the family, doctor appointments, dentist appointments, eye doctor appointments, mechanic visits, trying to keep up with homeschooling, ending our soccer season with our last games and throwing team parties as team mom and coach, end of year ballet recital, buying plane tickets, selling cars, visiting with friends and family before we leave, and a full-time job (at least I don’t have a commute), etc, etc… We even had to feed all four kids every day, right!?
Closing on a house is stressful at any time, I’m sure, I don’t know first-hand because this is my first time selling a house. But I can imagine it stressing me out. I feel like we’re approaching the tipping point though. We’ve so far been working hard to reach our end goal – nomad life. The benefits to that life and rewards are what draw us to it, but we have yet to realize any of them. They are still just dreams, even though we’re working hard to make them happen, we’re not experiencing them just yet. We have had all the stress and doubts and work involved in getting to them, liquidating our belongings, selling the house, prepping for the lifestyle change and more, all the stressful parts. In all that, we’re doing our best to take a minute and say a proper goodbye to the house we’ve called home for so long. We’ve lived here for exactly 10 years. All our kids have grown up here and learned to walk and talk within these walls. We’ve grown as a family and grown closer, we really believe that this adventure will continue to grow us even closer. It is really hard say goodbye sometimes, but we will have to remember our new family mantra: “Home is where your pillow is”. We’re taking the home with us, but leaving the house. We’re anxious to turn the page on the stress and take a little breath, but not until the weekend!
