Haven't Posted for a While

Told you I would be busy. I knew the house needed lots of work--but didn’t realize how much. For those who are my FB pals, you have seen the posts about all the work I’ve done to get the house ready for sale. It seems like the more I do, the more I find to be done.

The Realtor who sold us this house in March 2002 came by a week ago. She surprised us with what she thought the house would fetch on the market--much more than expected, and still she apologized that the local market would not support a higher price. But she expects us to do much more than we have done already. Taciturn thought we would put the house on the market that day. I knew better, as I worked for this Realtor as a stop gap job several years ago and knew her exacting standards. She will not list our house until it is as perfect as possible. She wants us to replace the carpet which I thought she might, but Taciturn said no. We agreed to clean it and then check the feedback from potential buyers. If the carpet is repeatedly cited as a problem, then we’ll replace it (we’ve already planned an allowance). Also, we had been afraid we would have to re-stain some of our woodwork but she told me what to use to get rid of the obvious scratches. I tried it over the weekend and it works like a charm. A handyman will be here next week to fix drywall holes and other things, and will get the carpets cleaned closer to our target list date of February 1.

Now it is de-clutter time! One of our downstairs bedrooms has morphed into the designated Taciturn junk room. The Realtor cringed when she saw it. She said, “You are moving, so you need to start boxing some of this stuff up!” Upstairs, I’d spent several hours in our walk in master closet re-installing shelving that had been taken down by our tenants when they were here, as well as boxing up excess clothing. I thought the closet looked pretty good. When the Realtor peered into it, she said, “Of course you’ll tidy this up.” T about fainted. “I thought it was tidied up!” he told me later.

Most of our furniture is really banged up from all of the military moves. We had planned to replace it over a few years once we were settled. Once we realized we would move again we stopped replacing, so much of the old ratty stuff remains. I think the Realtor is relieved that we plan to move out before the house has been on the market long; our place will not be HGTV perfect. (She said she would do a partial staging after we are gone.) Our living room set is so torn up we are not taking it with us but giving it away. It is serviceable, nothing more.

Taciturn lined up a beautiful furnished rental farmhouse in Starksboro, VT with a four month lease. That gives us time to really explore the various villages and houses in our target area before we buy, and four months also gives us time to close. But to get the great rental place, we must get to Vermont several weeks earlier than originally planned. Instead of around the end of April, as we had planned somewhat hazily, we plan to be completely out of this house February 23.

What we long have dreamed of and planned for is coming up very soon. I can’t believe it.