Busy, Busy, Busy

I think that is going to be the reoccurring theme of our lives for the next month and a half.  We are finishing the final projects before putting our house on the market.  It's crunch time!  For those of you who do not know the history of our house, let me give you a brief run-down.

My senior year of nursing school James and I bought our first home.  It was an old, two-story bungalow in a nice neighborhood.  It had been on the market for 2 years because it needed drastic remodeling. Your first impression when walking into the house was an old, rusted claw foot tub in the foyer. The crawl space needed to be jacked back up.  The upstairs bathroom needed to be completely gutted. One of the dining room walls was missing because of a leaking pipe behind it. The paint and carpet had not been updated since the 60's so we had the olive green and mustard colors going on. And don't get me started on all of the naughty-pine paneling!

There was so much hidden beauty in the home, though.  And that is what was calling out to James and I.  We wanted to restore that beauty.  The front foyer had a gorgeous chandelier and an open staircase leading upstairs.  There were big windows in the spacious rooms.  All of the closets, including the coat closet were walk-ins with windows inside.  There was a window seat under the window on the way upstairs.  So many nook and cranny places that we would envision little ones hiding in.  Yes, this was home.

We bought the house at a bargain price.  Immediately, we set out to conquer the world of projects.  James started to jack up the side of the house that needed it.  I painted rooms and dreamed of what the house would look like once it was finished.  Going into it, I thought it would take a few months or even up to a year to complete the work.  But alas, it has been over 6 years and we are finally on the home stretch.  Of course, having 3 kiddos back to back to back left little time or energy to work on the house for quite awhile.

Being the nerd that I am, I have regularly looked at Realtor websites wanting to view similar homes so I could compare ours to them.  By doing that, I was able to come up with a price I deemed reasonable to sell it.  I have also watched countless HGTV shows dealing with staging and what buyers are wanting.  My mom is gifted in interior design; she has a natural eye for it!  This past weekend I rented a 5'X8' trailer and my parents loaded it and our SUV with lots of furniture/decorations that will look amazing for our staging process.

Monday morning I gathered all of the needed items to put the foyer together.  We all immediately loved the transformation that a few, new (borrowed) pieces achieved.  Here is the final product:

But my joy was short-lived.  We had a lady from the carpet company we had used for all of the other rooms come out to measure new carpet for the stairs.  Years ago I had ripped out the ugly shag carpet and painted the stairs white until it was time for carpet to be installed.  Painted stairs in a high traffic area is not a great solution, but it was better than that horrendous carpet.  The lady was also a Realtor.

She and I began to talk about putting the house on the market and she explained that she was a new Realtor, but had been around real estate for a long time so she knew her stuff.  She asked if she could walk through the home to get an idea about it.  Since we hadn't signed with a Realtor yet, I thought there was nothing wrong with getting her opinion.  I wasn't prepared for what she was about to tell me.

She noticed the cracks in the walls (the ones we had not yet fixed) and immediately started going on and on about how we had major foundation issues. Right away she said that we just needed to sell it for a give-away price and walk away from it.  (Her price she would list it at was actually pretty much what we paid for it!)  In her defense, she said that she was no structural engineer, but she knew that we had big issues.  Her advice was to not put any more money into the home and get out while we could.

I was trying to take it with a grain of salt because she wasn't an expert and was new to real estate.  During the home inspection prior to buying the house, the inspector said that yes the foundation had shifted a long time ago, but it was structurally sound now.  Also, I remembered looking at homes that had worse basements than ours.  I called James almost in tears.  Could all of our blood, sweat, tears, time, and money be completely wasted?

Being the logical man James is, he called another Realtor (actually, the boss of the lady I spoke to).  He requested that she tour our home and give us feedback/advice.  She came at 8:00am on Wednesday.  I was busy making pancakes with the kiddos so James gave her the tour and discussed everything with her.  First, she had nothing negative to say about the foundation.  Just like us, she thinks that old homes foundations are expected to not be in perfect condition, but should be structurally sound.  She showed James the comparables to our home and what they are listed for.  She said that once our projects are completed our house will show better than any of them.  The price she wants to list it for is actually a little more than what we dreamed about getting for the house and double the price the first Realtor wanted to list it for.  She said that she sees no problem in us being able to sell the house within 2 months.

She encouraged us to push back our listing date to the end of April so we will have plenty of time to finish up on all of the small details that will make our house shine.  With the question regarding the condition of the foundation, she suggested we have a foundation repair expert come out and evaluate it.  Since James jacked up the house himself (and the help of his dad and brother), I was nervous that maybe something wasn't done correctly or the expert would find a problem with it.

The foundation repair guy came out today and said the interior foundation is structurally sound and he wouldn't recommend us doing anything to it.  (We could hire him to put steel beams up in the basement to assure buyers that the foundation will not move, but it would be at least $1200 for just 2 beams).  The work James did was done perfectly.  He said that James did a great job...what a relief!

Now that we have peace about the possibility that our house could definitely sell and sell for more than what we dreamed about, this journey has been totally worth it.  Here are some of the life lessons I have learned from going through this. I need to be realistic with my goals that I have towards projects.  Triple the amount of time you think something should take to get done and you are close to the right time frame.  There is such a sense of pride paying cash for everything.  We did not go into debt for any part of our remodel.  If we didn't have the funds, then we saved.  I was NOT the easiest to get along with in this regard because I wanted things to get done right then, but James was steadfast in this principle and kept me in check. Nagging your husband will not result in things getting done at a faster pace. Even though the house may be a total disaster with tools and supplies laying around, I need to be grateful for what God has given me and not spend lots of time wishing for what I don't have.
 
So with all of that being said, the next month and a half will be busy, rewarding, and probably a little emotional as we finish it all up and then immediately put it on the market.  But until then, I will relish in the little victories like the foyer and admire the beauty of the house we fell in love with.