The Good and the Bad of Moving on Up
The good: We are sufficiently satisfied with the price we will be paying for The (New) House. It's kind of a relief to be under contract and not have to stress about somebody else finding it. (Of course, "will be paying" is totally and completely contingent on the inspection report coming to us rose-scented and major drama-free.)
The bad: We will forever wonder how low we could have gone. We settled at Punk-Ass Kids-with-Pants-at-Their-Crack levels, but didn't quite go to Pants-Have-Fallen-to-the-Knees-and-the-Moon-is-Out levels.
The good: The townhouse we currently live in has technically been on the market for less than 24 hours, but we've already had two people come to look at it.
The bad: OMG. There have been strangers in my house. Touching my stuff. TOUCHING MY SHOWER CURTAIN. I stand nekkid behind that shower curtain. EEEK!
The good: There was water spouting from places water is not supposed to spout over at The (New) House.
The REALLY good: We knew there was a problem and just effectively worked around that whole As-Is clause, without spending a penny.
The bad: There are more holes in the walls now. I'm thinking we'll just use them as ball returns when we make the dining room a bowling alley.
The good: Thanks to the miracle of storage sheds, there is nothing in this house that can be messed up. Keeping it clean and tidy while it's on the market has thus far been not all that hard. (She sayeth after a mere 24 hours, thereby assuring that tonight the dogs and cats will throw a rave in the living room.)
The bad: Alexis has nothing to do except to continuously take inventory of that which is already packed up and over at storage. "Where's my pink computer?" "Where's my piano?" "Where's my Pooh cards?" "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE WITH ALL MY STUFF, YOU MORON?"
The good: Alexis has actually been pretty OK with her stuff disappearing, once I started explaining that it was all headed to The (New) House. She has even helped me pack up all her crap.
The bad: Guess who takes breaks in her inventory taking to ask if she can go to The (New) House? Over and over and over and over. When I finally asked her why she wanted to go over there, she replied, "I wanna go see my stuff." Nice.
The good: We still have eight more weeks to sell the townhouse since our close date on the other place isn't until the end of July.
The bad: We still have eight more weeks of listening to Alexis beg to go to The (New) House. Repeatedly.
The good: The master bedroom looks damn good, if I do say so myself. It's the one room in this townhouse that we never really did anything to, and we spent the entire weekend painting, caulking, patching, and making it purdy. It's kinda fun seeing it all put together.
The bad: There is nothing worse for damaging the sanctity of your marriage than spending three days solid working on a room. Together. There might have been cussing involved. A lot. And maybe sporks.
The good: I kinda think we might actually end up moving into a bigger place in a few months.
The bad: I kinda think we might actually end up moving into a bigger place in a few months.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Reader Comments (26)
Well yay...and boo;)
Oh...the good: FIRST!
It's all good. And uh, fun and uh, stressful.
Have fun with it all!
I've fought with my husband only three times to raised-voice levels in our entire relationship. Two of those three times were during house projects and one involves a bachelor party.
BTW, So happy for you on the new house!
Love the picture, the purple tube thingy is an awesome background. Sounds like you're off to a great start on showings. Two in the first 24 is really good. When selling one of our houses, we had zero showings until two weeks and one price reduction later. That was just a teensy bit stressful. Hang in there and just pretend all the people are just "looking with their eyes" not their hands and you'll get through the horror of people invading your space.
Congrats on the new house. I remember when we sold our first house and didn't technically have a new house to move into. (Things happen a little bassakwards out here in the land of ridiculous housing prices.) I had horrible visions of bringing our new baby home to live in our car.
Hmm...it's either really bad, or really good quality time, when the sporks come out. ;)
I'm glad to hear things are progressing. And that all that pink stuff is hiding out at the new house. :)
That is a fabulous picture! How is that last one bad again?
The minute we put our townhouse on the market, it was prettier than I imagined it and was all, "Ohh it's so pretty!". I still miss it! The new house is bigger and stuff, but I have such happy memories at the townhouse, although there is noway it could have fit three kids!
More space = more toys. I can already tell.
Congrats!
Nothing pissed me off more when we were selling our house than putting money into doing the things I wanted to do when I lived there for someone else to enjoy. The beautiful new screen door? It was on the "someday soon" list for 3 years. The new kitchen flooring? On the list. It just burned my ass. Our situation was different so I'll stop being bitter for a minute.
But moving is exciting! I hope it all works out and goes rather smoothly. I assume you are staying on the same side of the tunnel and not having to move too far.
AAAAH! So excited for you!! How are you not just jumping out of your skin with excitement? And I love Alexis wanting to do a tour of her stuff. She is something else! :)
Awesome news on the house. Good or Bad...never ever work endlessly in a closed room with your mate. Mine is a musician (and that should say enough in itself, he's not much good for things around the house) after last summer of contractors and doing a good share of work ourselves - I was truly ready to kill him. The final project the bathroom, I ended up throwing him out of the room and doing it myself. House repairs are hell on a relationship.
Alexis will be delighted with the new house and will forget all about what she couldn't play with in short order. (Hugs)Indigo
Yay for new house!!!!
BTW- I will be at game 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs!
Very cool for all of you. Sorry you had to endure being in confined quarters with your mate, that's always stressful when you are trying to get things done.
How great that Alexis is finally cool with you taking all her stuff! Hopefully she will love her new place, and be situated soon!
Everything has it's pros and cons, right? Funny that we are moving at the same time. At least you are staying in the same town!
LOVE that photo of Alexis! That purple is so striking.
Congrats on the new house. I hate moving but a new house is always fun.
How exciting! Good luck selling... and listening to Alexis over the next few weeks!
Good luck selling your house! Somehow it all comes together in the end! Don't you love when you tell the toddler something way to early! *sigh*
The house we love, a friend of ours' abode, was on the market for 36 hours. We weren't ready as we are planning on being here another 3-3.5 years. So I am quite sad.
Best of luck with the rose-scented inspection.
Congratulations and congratulations!
This was funny and OH OH that picture is so pretty!
How exciting! We are going to put our house on the market after the holidays, and I am already worried about where to hide all our stuff. A storage shed must be the answer, eh?
Enjoy fielding all those questions about the new house and the stuff.
it is pretty gross thinking about people touching your stuff - ick. When we moved into ours last year it took about two days to figure out why they left the windows open every time we came to look at it. Turned out the downstairs bathroom wreaks of mold/urine for some unknown reason. We can't figure out or make it go away no matter what we do. I was flamin' mad. I hope your new place doesn't have any surprises!