How our home got sold

As soon as we decided to move to Baltimore, we started prepping our home to sell. Though we aren't moving until January, the timing was best to do the renos in August and we wanted to get it on the market before the dead period in the winter.

Our dads both came for a few days to put in laminate floors, moldings, paint, update the fireplace, and give Peanut-lover some basic education in electricity (heh heh). Me and the kids took off for a few days to visit my brother and his family and came back to a nearly finished home.

I expected to be excited when I walked in.

Instead I found myself in tears. For some reason, the grieving process of this move sneaks up on me and gets me when I least expect it.

We spent a few more weekends packing anything that could be deemed extra and putting it in storage, as well as updating the paint throughout. We were fortunate to have family to help us get stuff done and to watch the kids. Finally we were ready to stage.

And then it rained sideways.

And we came home to a leak in our ceiling.

Not cool.

So, the caretaker had someone make the repairs to the chimney and we hired a painter for the ceiling. And then we were ready to stage.

Now, if you don't have a realtor extraordinaire who is also your sis-in-law and can paint like nobody's business, then you really should get one. And if you're in the Fraser Valley, and seriously looking for a realtor (who incidentally could still wind up your sis-in-law if you married one of the younger siblings, and for that, you'd be really lucky because then she probably would help you paint), let me know and I'll shoot out her info to ya.

Well, our expert realtor is also gifted in home staging (so much so that I may just fly her out to decorate my home in Baltimore, because Lord knows, now that I have seen the light, I can't go back to living with my pitiful decorating skills - can I get an Amen?) She went around the family and collected stuff from everyone's homes, brought it all out and made our home look fabulous!

And then, we put that baby on the market.

We did a few showings and an open house. Lots of interest. No offers. But that was only the first week. Then we heard we were doing a showing on the following Tuesday.

Peanut-lover told me that he was pretty sure the people coming on Tuesday were the ones. I said, "Me too!"

Tuesdays are not really my favourite day. Peanut-lover works an hour's drive away, so we have to take the bus to get KK to her singing class and then to school and back. It's a long day to begin with. This particular Tuesday, I forgot my cell phone. Awesome.

Our showing was set for 5 pm, so I planned out our day to be home for 4 pm to get the place just right. Then we missed our bus. Then the next bus was delayed. Then I got home to a message that the people were going to be arriving at 4:30 instead. It was 4:13. I started crying. (Yes, tears are the answer to anything for me. But, they don't get my house clean. Can someone work on that for me?)

On the verge of panic, I kept hearing in my heart that it would be ok. That this showing wasn't in my hands. That I didn't have to make this perfect. I went back and forth between knowing that it would all be ok and freaking out at the kids for getting in my way while I whirlwind-cleaned. Oh, did I mention that JJ had accidentally drawn all over the table with permanent marker? The thing is, I was being really convicted about my need to have everything perfect, so I did my best to resist the temptation and focus on what really mattered.

I got the place to tidy, though not "wow!" and left it up to God. He's so much better at this stuff than I am anyways. I let the people in and headed down the hall. I heard their, "wow" when they opened the door. I saw their faces when they came out.

Five minutes after they departed, we got the call - they were writing up an offer.

Peanut-lover had a number in his head and we held tight to that number. After some back and forth, they came all the way up from an initial low-ball offer AND gave us the late closing-dates we wanted.

Our home is sold. There's no going back now!