Thank You St. Joseph

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

I haven’t posted about Operation Dream Home in a while because, well, there wasn’t much to say. We’ve had a few showings here or there, all with good reviews. Everyone who has looked at our house has liked it, yet none were willing to go so far as to make an offer. Frustrating.

A month or 2 ago, out of desperation, I went to a local religious store and bought a St. Joseph statue, who is supposed to help you sell your home. The directions say that there are no real guidelines for where to put him (i.e. front yard, back yard, by the FOR SALE sign, buried upside down, etc) so long as you believe and pray faithfully.

I guess we weren’t praying enough because it didn’t do jack.

Then, 2 weeks ago I moved him. I went with superstition, and recommendations of a few friends, and buried him upside down right beneath the FOR SALE sign.

That night we got 2 showings, followed by 2 more the next day. One of those showings yielded someone who was interested in making an offer, she just needed to get pre-approval first. Well, that ended up not panning out.

But the steady stream of showings continued. Things were looking up!

Last Thursday we had one such showing. I was still sick from that pesky sinus infection so instead of playing volleyball, as I normally would be doing on a Thursday night, I vacated the house and took Isabella out to dinner. When we returned, they were still there so I circled the block, than casually parked 4 houses away – far enough to not be noticed by them but close enough for me to see when they left. I’m totally stealth like that. A few minutes later they walked out, smiles on theirs faces and left. I waited a few more minutes and then pulled in the driveway, wondering if I had seen the future owners of our house.

Turns out, I had.

They made us an offer yesterday. As offers go in this market, it was a decent one. However, it was almost 5k less than our asking price AND they wanted us to pay closing costs. The kicker was that they asked us to be out of the house on 8/29. Yes, you read that right – a mere 4 weeks away!

GACK!

We met with our realtor, who is totally awesome by the way, and decided to counter. We agreed to pay the closing costs but only if they would pay the asking price and move the date of possession out to 9/30, thereby giving us an extra month to find a new house and move.

Our agent left us at about 9 p.m. with promises to call their realtor and tell him our offer. 30 minutes later he called back to tell us they had accepted.

And just like that, our house was sold, and for all the terms we wanted.

I kid you not, as soon as we hung up the phone, CJ grabbed my hands and we started jumping up and down in the middle of the hallway. Samson ran up to join in so we grabbed his paws and all 3 of us did our happy dance!

(Source)

What an amazing feeling to not only have sold our house but under conditions that we were comfortable with and no hassle what-so-ever. They could have come back and tried to haggle down the price, but they didn’t. They must really have fallen in love with our house, which makes this all the more sweet. We found out they are an engaged couple, getting married in a few weeks. Ours will be their first home as husband and wife and I am honored by that. After all, this was CJ and my first home together and it’s only fitting it should be handed off to someone in the same boat.

And I don’t have to make the bed ever again!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Staging

Showing It All

Officially Official and Other Stuff

18Apr2011

Op Dream Home Updates

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

We have been hard at work getting our house ready to be put on the market. Seriously, there is not a day that goes by which we don’t do something to further our progress, whether it be packing, cleaning, or whatever. I feel like we’re over the hump but there is still a lot left to go!

My Project Manager-Type A Personality-OCD-control freak mode is on high too. Yesterday I was grilling CJ about something and when I was done he said, “Ok, can you go back to normal Sarah now?” Ha ha…oops. 😐

Both of the last 2 Saturdays we’ve found someone to watch Isabella so that we could churn out a bunch of work. That was a huge help as it’s hard to make a ton of progress when you’re also trying to play with and watch an 18 month old! We don’t have any more sitters lined up so we’ll have to work in the rest of the list around Munchkin’s schedule. I’m sure we’ll manage just fine. If we can get Samson to help out instead of just lying around all day, that would be awesome. He’s supposed to be a working dog for crying out loud…

Here is what we have accomplished so far:

Get a storage unit rented
Clean every room from top to bottom with a fine-tooth comb, including decluttering and organizing

~~Master Bedroom~~ and bath
Isabella’s room (decluttered and packed but haven’t cleaned yet)
Samson’s room (decluttered and packed but haven’t cleaned yet)
Main Bathroom
Kitchen (1/3 of the way done)
~~Dining Room~~
~~Living Room~~
Entryway (1/2 way done)
Basement (1/4 of the way done)
Utility Room
Garage

~~Pack up all knick knacks and “personal” family type items (photos, etc)~~
Re-arrange furniture in a few of the rooms

Samson’s Room
~~Dining room~~
~~Living Room~~
Basement

Replace a sink or 2 and possibly a bathroom countertop
~~Clean up the yard~~ and plant flowers, lay down mulch, etc
~~Put away all of Isabella’s toys and only keep out those that can fit in to a rubbermaid container~~
Paint or restain all baseboards and woodwork (about 1/3 of the way done)
Meet with a mortgage lender to see how much we can afford and how much of a loan we’ll get approved for
~~Start looking for~~ and buy a new house

See, we’ve made a lot of progess! I have to keep telling myself that so I don’t go crazy thinking about all that is left to be done, because you know I totally will.

One thing I do every day is make a trip to the storage unit. Even if it’s just a few items, every little bit that I can pull out of the house will get us that much closer. One of my big irrational fears is that I will fall through the slats in the palettes we have covering the floor of the unit. We put those down in case of heavy rain or something. Since I make trips there before coming in to work, there are days when I’m wearing sandals or heels. So I had this fear that I would mis-step and fall through a slot or fall off a palette, breaking or twisting my ankle and being stranded there. I picture myself laying on the floor, in pain, yelling until my voice in gone, desperately waiting for someone to come find me.

I know, totally crazy and silly of me.

That is until it happened.

Last weekend, CJ and I made a trip to storage together, as we had some big furniture items. I was wearing tennis shoes and felt very stable and secure. When we opened the door to the unit, we found that some stuff had shifted and a few items fell over. We went in to assess the damage and then figure out how to rearrange so that it wouldn’t happen again. I was standing on one of the palettes and went to take a step back. Only I stepped back onto an opening between the slats rather than onto the board itself and my foot promptly fell through. I fell backwards and to the right, toward another box but managed to catch myself before actually landing on it. I think I let out a yell too which sounded something like this, “yeo-ow-oh!” That banshee scream caused CJ to turn around and find me on the ground in what looked like a position you’d only find someone in during a game of Twister (which I totally rule at by the way. CJ and I once had a “Twist Off” and I won but only after a really, really long time. But still, I won.). Left foot green, right foot red, left hand yellow, right hand red.

He started to laugh until he realized my right foot was actually stuck. I couldn’t pull it out from the angle in which I was sprawled out so CJ helped me up. I tried to pull my foot out but it was still stuck because I was wearing sneakers that were wider than the opening. You’d think that would have prevented me from falling in the first place but nooooo, not in Sarah’s world! CJ had to untie my shoe and help me slip my foot out. Then he yanked and yanked until the shoe itself came out. I was a little shaken up but otherwise unharmed. I have those crazy “what if” scenarios in my head all the time and never once have they come true. Until now! Good thing Ceige was with me to help.

Then a few minutes later he almost did the exact same thing. Those palettes are a death trap I tell you!

Anywho, now I’m extra careful. I probably look like a little old lady as I gingerly step on those palettes. Whatever. At least I’ll be an old lady with 2 working ankles!

Tomorrow we head out to walk through 4 potential houses. I’m going to be very picky as this will (hopefully) be our forever home and I want it to be just right. When we bought this house, it was our first one and I didn’t really know what to look for. I just knew what I liked. Now I’ve learned some lessons and will have a better eye when doing the walk throughts. There are some nice ones on the list though so fingers crossed that one of them works out.

I’ve been really bad about taking before/after pics of the house as we work on it but I’ll try to be better. I’ll definitely have after pics of all the rooms to show.

More to come!!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Weekend Wrap Up

Resolutions Update 3

Resolutions Update 2

31Mar2011

Pack ’em up, Move ’em out!

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

Well we did it. We took a deep breath, closed our eyes and stepped off the cliff.

And thank God our realtors were there to catch us.

I’ve been talking for months about needing to call our real estate agents to begin talks of selling our house. We finally called them and set an appointment for last night. I have never sold a house before and had all kinds of questions about how it would work, what we need to do to get the house prepared and when we should aim to have it ready. I feel very dumb when it comes to this kind of thing.

Our realtors, Michael and Kristin, are the ones who sold us our current house. That was a little over 5 years ago. We were so impressed with how they treated us and handled the process that we knew we wouldn’t want anyone else but them helping this time around.

They came over and walked through each room of the house and told us what needed to be done to get it ready. Mostly it’s just cleaning, decluttering and staging.

It’s a very personal thing to have someone analyze your home and tell you what makes it “unappealing” (which, they totally did NOT say, it’s just how I felt. They were super nice about it and had great suggestions). I understand they were looking at it with a critical eye, and from the perspective of a potential buyer, and that it wasn’t a personal reflection on us. But it’s hard not to feel that way. The knick-knacks I think are cute have to go. The photos that I love to look at every day must be taken down. We have to re-arrange some furniture so that it looks more inviting.

All of that to say that we really don’t have to do too much to the house.

We don’t have to repaint or fix anything broken or redo entire rooms. I guess that means we’ve done a pretty good job of maintaining it over the years. And they said our style is tasteful and will go a long ways. All good things.

You wanna know the best part? They suggested we get cracking and have it ready to go by the end of April.

I’ll give you a minute to look at the calendar. Ready? Ok. Yeah. That gives us 4 weeks to do the following:

Get a storage unit rented
Clean every room from top to bottom with a fine-tooth comb
Clean out all closets, drawers, cabinets to just the essentials
Pack up all knick knacks and “personal” family type items (photos, etc)
Re-arrange furniture in a few of the rooms
Take all boxes and various extra furniture to storage
Replace a sink or 2 and possibly a bathroom countertop
Clean up the yard and plant flowers, lay down mulch, etc
Put away all of Isabella’s toys and only keep out those that can fit in to a rubbermaid container
Paint or restain all baseboards and woodwork
Meet with a mortgage lender to see how much we can afford and how much of a loan we’ll get approved for
Start looking for a new house

4 weeks for all that? Pffftt…no problem!

I tell you this – I’m SO glad CJ painted the outside of the house last fall so we don’t have to worry about any of that now. Phew!

Now the new adventure begins! Op Dream Home just got kicked up to high gear!

Ready, set go!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Op Dream Home Update

Samson’s Room

Master Bedroom

8Mar2011

Samson’s Room

Posted in House and Home by teamtradermom

As mentioned in previous posts, we are planning to sell our home this summer and move to a bigger place. In order to get our current house ready, we need to go through and really clean out the rooms/closets and also do some small maintenance work. I have slacked lately but with spring approaching, it has reminded me that we need to get crackin’! Summer will be here before we know it!

So, I’ve decided to tackle one room/closet each weekend until we’re done. I’m going to start at the back of the house and move my way up, which meant that this last weekend I knocked out Samson’s room.

Yes, Samson, our dog, has his own room. I thought all dogs got their own rooms, just like all chocolate is good for you. No? Huh.

Ok, so he only has his own room because his kennel is so massive, it practically takes up a whole room. ~~When~~ If he gets to the point that he can be trusted without a kennel and/or we have another child, he will lose his prime real estate. But for now, we let him live under the illusion that he’s high enough in the pack to earn a room of his own.

This was a good place to start because there is not that much in his room and so I knew it would be a quick job (and thus instant gratification). Saturday I tackled the visible surfaces (shelves, top of his kennel which we totally use as a giant table) and storage cabinet. Sunday I cleaned out the closet.

I started with the storage cabinet. It’s basically divided in half with the left side open from top to bottom, with a shelf on top and a rod for hanging stuff. The right side is split into a cabinet on top (with 3 shelves) and 2 drawers down below. The shelves I use to store all my cameras (I have 5), miscellaneous scrapbook stuff, and board games. The drawers contain candles and candle accessories and the left open side is for gift wrapping.

(NOTE: I am totally OCD when it comes to how I organize my gift wrapping stuff. I have gift bags grouped from largest to smallest and split out between Christmas and all other occasions. I have a container for rolls of wrapping paper, boxes to house ribbons and bows, and then keep extra boxes on the top shelf for wrapping the gifts in. Finally, and this is the piece de resistance, I have all tissue paper neatly folded and hung on hangers, organized by color and pattern. What’s that noise? Was that the sound of my readers mouths hitting the floor in total awe of my mad organizational skills? Oh, wait, no, it was the sound of everyone laughing at my crazy nerdiness. Eh, same same.)

When cleaning out the cabinet, I pretty much just tossed extra boxes, bags and papers that aren’t needed anymore and then shuffled other things around to look neater. I also went through the candles and accessories, getting rid of a lot of them (do I really need 8 votive holders and 5 blue candles? I think not). This freed up one of the drawers completely and left the other one looking much better.

Here’s the result:

Nice, huh?

Next I tacked the top of Samson’s kennel. Most of this was just stuff that got thrown there at one time or other because we were too ~~lazy~~ busy to put it in the right spot. So it was just a matter of taking the items and putting them in their rightful home. Done and done.

From there I tackled the CDs. We have one whole bookcase full of CDs. We also have one full of DVDs but I culled through those last fall so I didn’t spend any time there. Some of the CDs were duplicates, some were just old or ones we didn’t want anymore. I put all those in a shoebox and plan to take them to Half Price Books or CD Warehouse and sell them. I don’t think I’ll get all that much money but hey, a couple bucks is better than nothing!

With that, I was done on Saturday.

Sunday came and it was time to dig in to the closet. Here’s the deal – this closet is CJ’s. He keeps all his clothes in here and I keep all mine in the 2 closets we have in the master bedroom. So what that he has one closet and I have 2? I mean, one of mine is only a half closet so really we’re practically equal. Anyway so most of this closet was going to be CJ’s job to go through. I was not about to decide which of his clothes to keep and which ones he should toss. .

However, in the back of the closet was a whole bunch of my old artwork that I totally forgot I had. It was stuff going all the way back to Jr. High and High School. I spent a lot of time just looking through the pieces and remembering when I created them. It really brought a lot of memories and emotions flooding back. But, I can’t keep it all so I set up 3 piles: Keep, Toss and Sell. I figure, while I may not want to keep them all, some are too good to throw away so I might as well try to sell them. If no one buys, fine, at least I tried.

To be honest, it was hard to decide. For any of you who are artists, you know how personal your work can be. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went in to making these. To throw them away seems heartless and to put them out there for sale really makes me feel vulnerable. But it was a step that was time to take. So I filled one bag with paper for recycling and my portfolio file got filled with items for the trash. Most of those were paintings I’d created during a really dark time about 10 years ago. They are VERY depressing images and it was actually kind of healing to throw those away. It was like closing a chapter on that part of my life.

Now I’m left with items to keep and items to sell. The keepers are few and they will tuck back in the closet nicely without taking up much room. The items to sell create a bit more work for me. Now I have to take pics of each one and post them on this blog (which will come when I have time!). Again, this really makes me nervous but in a good way. I just hope people like them and I can sell at least a couple.

The only other items in this closet were some extra pillows and comforters, which we put in space saver bags (you know, the ones that you use a vacuum to suck the air out of. It’s so fun to do that and watch them shrink down to a fraction of their size. Love it!). Now the 2 comforters and 3 pillows we had, which took up a massive amount of space, are flat and easily slide under the bed or on a top shelf. Woot!

That’s it for Samson’s room. It’s all done and organized (except for the stack of artwork I have to shoot). Feels good to cross one room off the list. Next weekend will be the master bedroom!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Resolutions Update 1

Resolutions Update 2

Op Dream Home Update

28Feb2011

Resolutions Update 2

Posted in Goals by teamtradermom

Is it just me or did February fly by in a wink? Seems like just yesterday I was writing about how we did on our resolutions for January and now I’m checking in again.

To be honest, I don’t have that much to report. Spare time seems to be harder to come by as the days go on. I hardly have time to write blog posts much less do projects around the house. Add to that the fact that I’m exhausted by the time I get home from work each day and you can see why I haven’t made much progress.

Excuses? Yes they are. The fact of the matter is that I haven’t been very motivated. I think I have a mild case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in the sense that the cold, dark days make me want to curl up on the couch and hide until Summer rather than clean out a closet or do a workout. I am hoping that as we get in to March and Spring starts to make itself known, I will feel more inclined to take on some projects.

I talked several times this month about my struggles with food and healthy eating. I continue to try and make improvements in that area not so much to lose weight but to feel better. It’s still a struggle every day. I think I’m doing pretty good however we just got several boxes of Girl Scout cookies delivered to our house yesterday! Doh! God is testing me…

We did well with our budget in January. February was pretty good too. While we went over budget in some categories (eating out) we went under in others (groceries) so in total, we were under budget by $48. I’ll take it! Also, I have continued to make regular payments to us (in terms of savings) and extra payments to our credit card. I’m also paying over on the principle of our house payment each month. All of those things are progress and I feel good about that.

One money test will be our summer vacation. We are heading up to Michigan for our niece’s graduation from high school. We are very excited to see that side of the family and help celebrate her accomplishments. However, it’s not going to be cheap. So we are starting to plan and save now so that we don’t have to add on a bunch of charges to the credit card that we’re working so hard to pay off.

As for the house stuff…well I can’t say we’ve done anything there other than maintain status quo. I am, however, going to make it a priority to get 2 closets cleaned out this month and call our real estate agent. Those are relatively small goals and totally doable. I just have to get off my lazy butt!

How are you doing on your resolutions? This is the time of year when people start to fall off the wagon and give up on their goals – so we need to dig deep! Find that resolve and motivation to keep yourself going and let’s help each other!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Magic Behind Couponing

Resolutions Update 1

Obligatory Resolutions Post