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Monday, April 29, 2013

To the New Owners of My Home

Dear Future Residents of Elder Way,

     Welcome to my little cottage on Elder Way.  I hope you fell in love with this place much like I did five years ago when I first stepped foot in it.  I can remember the first time I walked into this house and how I was captured by the openness of the living area and the space in the kitchen.  I remember how I planned for the furniture and decor I was going to place throughout the house during the time I was waiting for my closing date.  I was so excited to call this little slice of earth my own.
     You see this house was not just a house to me.  It represented so much more than just a place to live.  It was a place to start over.  Five years ago, I was newly divorced and trying to navigate the world truly on my own for the first time in my life of 30 years.  This house was my fresh start.  It was all mine.  I had done it on my own and that was huge for me.  I was doing everything that no one, especially my ex-husband, expected me to be able to do.  I was living away from home, away from Alabama.  I had a successful career and I was making a place for myself in this world without the support everyone believed I needed.  Buying the house was a way to say I had made it.
     Since that time, this house has seen a lot of laughter and some tears.  This house has seen the first kiss of newlyweds returning home from their honeymoon.  It has heard the cries of a newborn fresh from the hospital.  It was here that Chris proposed, that I found out I was pregnant, and that Jackson took his first steps.  This house is full of memories for me and for my family.  While I always knew this wouldn't be our forever home, I knew this place would be special to me for many reasons.
     So I just ask that you take care of my little cottage on Elder Way the same way it took care of me for the last five years.  Make it more than just a place to live.  Make it your home and love it the way I did.  I know I won't be back here but I will be near by and maybe our paths will cross again one day.

                                                                                               Sincerely,
                                                                                               Mavsmom

Saturday, April 20, 2013

So Here We Are

Editor's Note: So I am not doing so well with the goal of writing once a week this year.  Sorry!  I'm afraid life is just getting in the way too much right now which is frustrating since I have plenty to say just no time to say it.  Busy doesn't even describe what we have been recently but more on that to come.

We decided about 2 months ago to put our house on the market and see if we had any luck selling it so we could upgrade to a larger house.  We debated trying to sell when I found out I was pregnant but held off because the market wasn't very good at the time.  Two years later, the market is much better and we were very pleased with what we heard from our realtor.  After a month of working to get the house ready to list, we finally got it listed on the 3rd.  We have had nearly 20 showings (including 3 since our offer went through) on our house in 2 weeks with the first one coming mere hours after the house went on the market.  I'd say there is a little bit of interest.

We do have an offer on our house.  Pending the results of the inspection that happened yesterday and the buyers closing on their current home, we will close on the 10th.  So we have about 3 weeks to find a place to live and move.  This means we are putting off trying to buy another house for now and decided to rent until we can decide if we are going to buy an existing house or build a new house.  The house sold a lot faster than I expected and I am worried about making a rash decision on a house only to decide we don't like after we move in.  Building wasn't even an option a couple of weeks ago until we found a neighborhood and floor plan we really like which totally changed the path we were heading down.  Instead we have looked at about 15 rental properties this past week.  Almost as soon as we find one we like, it gets snatched up before we can put in an application.  We finally found one we like near where we currently live and in the price range we really wanted to pay so we  have an application on it which will hopefully go through next week and we will know where we are going to land in 3 weeks.

We also spent most of last week in Alabama visiting my parents and attending J-Day at Judson. It was a fun but busy weekend.  Chris finally got to see Judson and now understands me a little better because of it.  I also got to spend some time with some of my friends from my college days.  It felt like we were back in the dorm again staying up half the night talking about boys and life.  I wish I could do that more often because you really do need those times to reconnect and here from others in situations similar to your own.  It was while we were at Judson that the offer came in our house.  I was pretty excited because I had to told Chris that was what I wanted to happen so we wouldn't have to deal with keeping the house show ready for long.  We have been much more lax with picking up after ourselves this week which has been nice.  I will admit I am excited to see where we will end up next but I am sad to sell my little house.  More on that later.