Emotions

This post was originally written 12 March, but for privacy reasons it was not published until now.

Not many people know, but Danny and I decided to list our house for sale mid-February.  We have been wanting a bigger house for over a year now and finally decided to take the plunge.  Very cautiously we called the realtor, signed the documents and put the for sale sign in the front yard.  Neither of us were very optimistic as the housing market is not that great.  We signed a 6 month contract with the realtor, which would bring us to about the August time frame.  If we didn't sell the house by then, we would re-evaluate our plan.  In the back of our minds we were ready to face the fact of being in this house for a few more years until the market picked back up.

So the process began.  Our house was listed on every real estate website known to man.  Pictures of our intimate lives, our bedrooms, our dining room where we our share meals was posted for anyone to see.  We made our beds every day, kept the dishes out of the sink and toys put away.  We vacuumed and dusted and put away pictures that made our house feel like a home.

And people started to come.  They inspected our house, walked through, probably judged our color choices and tried to picture themselves calling this house their home.

Within two and a half weeks we had an offer.  Not quite what we were expecting.  A little on the low side, so we started the negotiation process.  We countered, they countered...we came to an agreement and the ball has been rolling ever since.  We've made it through the home inspection and agreed upon some things to be fixed.  We have completed the septic cleaning and inspection.  Now we have the home appraisal, termite inspection and final walk through.  We've set a closing date of April 30th, which means we will have to be out before then to hand over the keys.  We have a lot of hoops to jump through before this whole thing is final, so we are very cautiously (hence not telling many people) moving forward.

We are looking at houses and have a hundred things on our to do list.  To say that I've been losing sleep is an understatement.

I am so excited to start this new chapter of our lives but at the same time I am overwhelmed with emotions of selling our first home.  This is the home that we bought after we got married.  This is the house that we brought our babies home to for the first time.  This is the home that we've invited friends and family into, celebrated holidays, birthdays and taken my first pregnancy test.  This is the home that we've fought in and had tears.  This is the home that we've grown closer as a couple in.  The house that we made into a home with little remodeling projects and decorations, two dogs and a family.  This has been our home, our safe haven, our little piece of this earth to call our own.  It will be a bittersweet day to hand over the keys to a new owner.  I will probably cry, no...I will cry.  Happy tears, sad tears.  I hope the new owners love this home as much as we did.  We will probably drive by from time to time.  Bring the kids back in a few years to show them where we used to live.

At this point, we do not have a new home lined up.  It makes me a little sad that until we find a new house, our kids won't have a place to call home (don't worry, we won't be living on the streets).  I know they are probably too young to understand, but I just want this whole process to be over as soon as possible!

So if you are reading this, everything went through with the sale!