Moving On

Wow, so much has happened in the past 6 months! Charles had a friend at work (at Murdock Chevrolet), Brandon who decided to get more into his real estate endeavors and so he quit his job at the dealership. He was very persistent in asking Charles if he wanted to sell our house, and I finally gave in to talking with Brandon and seeing what we could get out of it. Our basement flooded in May 2013 thanks to old sewage lines, and that was a huge factor in deciding to move. Ask anyone before that date, and I was dead-set on staying in my 1947 childhood home in Ogden! O-town 4-ever. :)


So, he came over and met with me, Charles and my mom. We wondered what homes with mother-in-law apartments would be like, and if we could find one where the apartment is to the side of the main house (instead of in the deep, dark basement). We went to look at about 5 homes and were not impressed. Some were way too big for the 3 of us, some had little kitchenettes instead of a 2nd kitchen, and some didn't have parking space for all of us. So, we scratched that idea.


Then, we decided to look for houses in Clinton for just Charles and me. Brandon was AMAZING. He took us to see 6 houses every Monday for about 5 weeks. That is at least 30 houses that we looked at (plus 5 from before), and I wasn't particularly excited about any of them. Nothing matched up to my childhood home, and the yards were nowhere big enough to let my Ginny run around freely and chase her tennis balls. Moving wasn't looking all that appealing!


Then, my mom decided she could live in a basement if there was daylight and 3 bedrooms big enough to store all of her stuff! So, off we went to look again at mother-in-law apartments again! We saw about 6 houses that time, and finally found one we liked in Syracuse. We were ready to pull the trigger and make an offer, and my mom freaked out about the money. I don't blame her one bit though; I just wish she'd told us before we got our hopes up! My mom decided we needed to sell our house first in order to get enough money to make a good down payment on a new house.


So, then began the daunting task of cleaning and fixing up our home which my mom had owned for 32 years and had stayed in the family. That meant there is stuff in our house from the 1980's that is not mine and Charles'. It is incredibly overwhelming to clean out other people's stuff! Anyway, after 10 trips to the DI, and having overfilled garbage and recycling cans, we finally were able to put it on the market December 13th. We had no calls until early January, which was just fine with us to get us through the holidays. When Brandon's secretary called to ask if the first showing could happen, I cried the whole way to work. I didn't want anyone breaking into my house and feeling so indifferent about this house that meant so much to me! Don't they know that's where I slept on the floor my first night in America because my mom didn't have a crib? Don't they know my childhood BFFs and I played for hours in my little playhouse outback? Don't they know I practiced the piano for many tearful hours in the basement? But just as we walked through houses in Clinton and didn't care for the carpet or the yard and didn't think about peoples' memories, I'm sure the same thing happened with our house.


After that first showing, we stayed super busy with showings. We had about 2-3 every week, which definitely kept us on our toes with cleaning. I liked to vacuum before each showing just so I could tell where people had walked. "The vacuum lines never lie!" Finally, we got an offer at the beginning of February. Our house was listed for $115K, and they offered $102.5K. Nope. What an insult! Insult to our huge backyard, to the nice condition we had kept the home in since it is pretty old, to our upgrades, just everything.


Then, on February 24th, we got a full price offer. Brandon called and said we needed to jump on it that very day. After more crying on my part and much excitement on Charles' part, my mom signed the contract and we started the whole process. They just did the inspection yesterday, and they didn't find too many things wrong, thank goodness. That might've put me over the edge. It's an old home, and we have given it love! It has been well cared for! They are only asking for a new water heater and for the electrical panel to be looked at by a professional. Easy enough. It also helps that I facebook stalked them and they are a cute LDS young couple. I feel better.


So, here we are, waiting for their due diligence deadline to come next Friday. We will live with my mom until we find something we like with a mother-in-law apt. But turning those keys in and knowing I'll never step foot in the home I grew up in with my mom and sister, where my nephew spent his first 4 years and my niece spent her first day of life, and where Charles and I grew together as newlyweds for the past 4 years, will be the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I've never really moved, so please forgive the instagrams and the facebook posts of me being nostalgic and sentimental. Thank goodness we can take our memories with us.